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Yes. Heaven. Oh, Heaven is where I belong. With Jesus. With Jesus.
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My Jesus is where I belong. With Jesus, my Jesus is where I belong. All right. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
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What can make me whole again? But the blood of Jesus. By this I'll overcome nothing but the blood glory this I sing nothing but the blood of Jesus. All my praise for this I bring nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is afloat that makes me white as of Jesus You may be seated.
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Well, good morning. We, I'm just going make a couple of announcements. Happy Mother's Day. Let me start over. Maybe it'd be better if the mic wasn't on.
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Happy Mother's Day. Glad that y'all are here. I hope y'all had a great weekend. It's gorgeous outside and beautiful yesterday too. Praise God for that.
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I want to mention just a couple of things. Monday nights at first B are happening tomorrow night because it's Monday. Monday night, 06:15, meal, music, and a message and it's just a lot of fun. So, I want to invite you out for that. Awana happens at the same time.
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It is Mondays at around six. They start kind of checking people in at 05:45 or so but if you want to, you can come bring the kids here and then come on down the hall and eat. Meal, music, and a message. Morning prayer at 07:30 on Wednesday mornings. That's something that there's a just a core group of people that get together.
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They really believe in the power of prayer and so on Wednesday mornings and I have missed it for the past three weeks and I have really missed it from not being there. So that's a lot of fun. I do wanna mention one more time the Kenya trip, the Tigone team for 2013. There are now 19 ladies that are going to Kenya in August, if you didn't already know that. And there's a website, the ourkenyatrip2013.blogspot.com, and that'll tell you more about what's going on.
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Also, they're selling crosses as a way of raising funds. They've been doing lots of things as a way of raising funds. Crosses, silver crosses, and hair ties. So if you'd like to, I think they're on sale in the back back there. That's cool.
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And Solid Rock. Carl, is that right? 05:30 tonight. Not tonight. That's what I was gonna say.
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Normally, it is right but I didn't know. Not tonight. Hang out with your mom. And then I think there's one more. And that's it.
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But thank you and I'm glad that you're here this morning. Anne, why don't you stand up and welcome one another? The band will bring us back together. It feels like we're in a hurry this morning. We got lots of music this morning.
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Transitions. Alright. We're gonna start singing again. You. Upon their knees.
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You're the one who welcomes sinners, and you open blinded eyes. You restored the brokenhearted, and you brought the dead to life. Forgetting all our sins. You remember all your promises. You are amazing.
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Are God, more than enough. You are amazing. But with authority, you've spoken and you've set the captives free. You're the king who came to serve, and you're the God who washed our feet. You're the one who took our burdens and you bled upon the cross.
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In your kindness and your mercy, you became the way for us. Enough. You are amazing. Yes. You are amazing.
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You're more than amazing. God. Forever our God. You're more than enough. You are are amazing.
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You are amazing. More than amazing. Forever, our God. You're more than enough. You are amazing.
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Before the throne of God above I have a strong and birthdays plea a great high priest whose name is love whoever lies and pleads for me my name is I am not skilled to understand what God has willed, what God has planned. I only know at his right hand Stands one who is my savior I take him at his word and my solace from the spring. That he who lives to be my king once died to be my savior. Savior loves, my savior lives, my savior always ever made. My God, was, my God, is, my God, he's always gonna be.
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Yes, living
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If I could get the offering team to come forward we're going to pray that God would bless the offering and Pray with me if you would. Lord, thank you for this beautiful, glorious day. God, may we live our lives in a way to reflect your beauty, lord. Thank you for this just gorgeous springtime. Thank you for community of worship and we ask lord that this would spread.
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God, we ask that you do that through ongoing efforts locally, globally, missions efforts, lord, that that our one mission is a blessing for all peoples. That's why Jesus came to die. So, lord, I pray that you would this morning bless this offering to the upbuilding of your church, not this church necessarily, lord but the capital C Church, the body of Christ on earth. Ask that you'd that you would put all of these offerings into that mix lord and bless and multiply. In Jesus name, amen.
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Happy Mother's Day. I'm Joe, Ryan, Ray, you guys know. So we were asked to sing something for Mother's Day, and I was scouring the Internet, scouring hymnals that I own to to find, like, a a perfect Mother's Day song. And they're all very joyful, and that's always a good thing, but it reminded me of a a small story, and I asked my wife if I could share this. For those of you who don't know, my wife is right there, Michelle.
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I have three children. And we were at my younger brother's wedding, joyful occasion as well, and they sang a beautiful song, blessing moms and and childbirth. And at that time, we had just experienced our second miscarriage in a row. And my wife was crying, I was crying and I realized that at any given time people can be celebrating the joy of motherhood, but at the exact same moment in time juxtaposed, in a dichotomous way is people experiencing the most horrible sorrow you can imagine. People who want to be mothers, people who can't be mothers, people who have lost children, people who are celebrating their first child, etcetera.
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And so I remember asking my brother why he had chosen that song, and in his ignorance, he didn't realize that we had been going through that. And I I wanted to remember at any time from then on that if I was gonna do something in public that there are people who may be suffering. There are people who may be sore in in sorrow right now. And even though it's a joyful occasion, I wanna remember those people as well because they're out there. They're in the audience.
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We're them. You could be out there as well. So we're gonna, choose a song that basically talks about how all is well with us because God is in control. And we're gonna ask you guys to sing with us on the last verse, verse four, talking about how God knows us before the foundation of the world. It'll be up on the screen and the last phrase repeats itself.
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Okay? Alright. Good luck.
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Good luck.
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Do we know an f? I know an f.
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We know an f. Go ahead.
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Be still my soul. The Lord is on thy sight. Bear patience, lead the cross of grief for pain. Leave to thy God to order and provide in every change, he faithful will remain. Be still my soul, thy best thy heavenly friend, through stormy ways leads to a joyful land.
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Be still my soul, thy God doth undertake to guide the future as he passed the past, thy hope thy comfort and lath nothing shake. All now mysterious his voice who ruled them while he dwelt below. Be still, my soul, the hour is hastening on, when we shall be forever with the Lord. Be still, my soul. When change and tears are past, all safe and blessed we shall meet at last.
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Last verse. I find I walk, I love but all the whole.
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Me.
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Thank you.
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I'm going to invite Scott to come on up after I dismiss the children to go down to Children's Church, kindergarten through fifth graders, and actually middle schoolers too are all welcome to come down for kind of a special Mother's Day project and then, this fellow actually does not need any introduction. I need more of an introduction than he does. Scott, my brother, I love you. Appreciate it. I'm glad you're here.
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So he's gonna bring us the word and
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Hello. Everybody. How's it going? Good morning. What an angelic voice.
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Fantastic.
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Hey, so I also have many children. Four, four children. We have a large family. And my wife can you I'm gonna have my wife stand up real quick. Just stand up.
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Stand up. You're going to stand up. No, get up. This lady has had four kids. I gained all the weight in the thing.
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There's no doubt about it. You know, here's the thing. When you have four kids, when you pack to go anywhere, like to a park, it's like, we going to like Florida for a week? But so when we were packing to come here, our whole family, we load stuff up. And thank God for my wife.
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She's really good at making lists. Any people who write lists? Just raise your hand if you're list people. Couple of you. Some of you are like, I hate lists.
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I'm with you. But at any rate, we had this list. My wife, specifically to my kids, she gave me a list as well. She tries to give me a list. But she gave my kids a list of things to bring.
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And one of the things on the list was each of you can pick two movies. Because they can rotate in the car a little bit here and there watching The Incredibles or whatever. So we get packed up. We're very sweaty. We've all lost five pounds packing and all the and we're angry.
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You get in the car, everyone's angry. But we get in the car, and we're driving, and we've prayed, we're excited, we're finally leaving. Well, just a little way into it, and I had permission from my son Seth on this. My son Seth goes,
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oh, jeez.
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And he gets really angry, and he's really upset. And he's yelling and almost on the verge of tears. And I'm thinking, something awful happened. He lost a finger. I don't know.
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And but what he ended up saying is, I forgot the movie I wanted to bring. He was really upset about it. And then he's like, and I forgot my bracelet. And he's almost crying. And I got a grin, and I thought, man, we get passionate about weird things.
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And it reminded me of when I was a kid. I did too. You know, I'd go bowling. I'd throw, like, a gutter ball. I was punching chairs, throwing things to throw a strike, you'd think, you know, that I was the president of The United States.
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And and I realized, though, that whether you're a kid or wherever you're at in any stage of life, there's things we get really passionate about. Right? I look around this room, for example, I know some of you are passionate about sports. Raise your hand if you are. It's some kind of sport.
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It varies in here. Mike Mayer, huge Bronco fan, I know, diehard. Other people, it's like skiing or, you know, whatever it is here in Jackson. I know people here are really passionate about exercise. There's some.
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Right? I mean, really passionate. Passionate about, like, our animals or, the outdoors or some hobby. We get passionate. We get passionate about something.
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I I want to talk this morning about something Jesus is passionate about. And if Jesus is passionate about it and if we follow Jesus then we have to be passionate about it also. There's no option. Sometimes, it just we forget. For some of us, we need to be awakened.
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But we must be passionate about this because as Christians, followers of Jesus, he's passionate about it. With that in mind, let's pray. Lord, you are our God, our savior. We have nothing without you. We are completely lost without you.
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And so God, I am praying this morning that you stir us. You soften our hearts. You adjust our thinking that that we would become more and more passionate about what you are passionate about. Above anything else. Speak to us.
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Thank you for your word. In Jesus name, amen. In just a minute, we're going to open the word but let me kind of set it up before we get there. So, here here's the scene and this this is just the reality. Jesus has been mocked.
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Jesus has been whipped. He's been punched in the face. He's been spit upon. He's been made fun of. He he has been a crown of thorns has been crammed onto his head.
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He's been nailed to a cross, a a torture device. He's been nailed his hands and his feet. He he has gone through hell. Just an awful an awful death. He's cried out to God, to his father.
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He's even said, why have you forsaken me, dad? He's died He's been buried in a tomb. And it's just a dark, dark time. And then, then turn with me please to Mark chapter 16 verse one. Mark 16 verse one.
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If you're new to the Bible, so cool that you're here. It's in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark. Second book, Mark 16. You've just heard the scene. So now let let's see what happens next.
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Verse one, Saturday evening, when the Sabbath ended, Mary Magdalene and Salom and Mary, the mother of James, went out and purchased burial spices so they could anoint Jesus' body. They're just they're prepared they wanna go prepare Jesus' body because he's dead. Very early, the first day of the week, Sunday morning, just at sunrise, they went to the tomb. On the way there, on the way, they were asking each other, who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb? But as they arrived, they looked up and saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled aside.
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When they entered the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a white robe sitting on the right side. The women were shocked. But the angel said, don't be alarmed. In other words, don't pee your pants. It's okay.
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You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified. He isn't here. He is risen from the dead. Amen? Amen.
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Look, this is where they laid his body. Now, go and tell his disciples including Peter that Jesus is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there just as he told you before he died. Verse eight, the women fled from the tomb, trembling and bewildered and they said nothing to anyone because they were
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too
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frightened. Then verse nine, after Jesus rose from the dead early on Sunday morning, the first person who saw him was Mary Magdalene. The women from whom he had cast out seven demons. She went to the disciples who were grieving and weeping and told them what had happened. But when she told them that Jesus was alive and she had seen him, they didn't believe her.
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Afterward, he appeared in a different form to two of his followers who were walking from Jerusalem into the country. They rushed back to tell others but no one believed them. Still later, he appeared to the 11 disciples as they were eating together. He rebuked them for their stubborn unbelief because they refused to believe those who had seen him after he had been raised from the dead. And then verse 15.
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And then he told them, go into all the world and proclaim the gospel Preach the good news. To everyone. Can you, I mean, you may have heard, you may have read this before but don't get hard hearted to this. This is incredible. The resurrected Christ, he sees them and he says, guys, it's real.
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I'm alive. And this is a really big deal. Now, I want you to do something. Go. And proclaim this gospel, this good news.
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Go do it. Get out of here. Go and preach to everyone. Share, proclaim the gospel, the good news. Now in Luke nineteen ten, Jesus proclaimed boldly.
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Let's look this is on the screen. For the son of man came to seek and save those who are lost. Now I just want to verify. Who is lost? Thank you.
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My brother went, bam. Let's try it again. Who is lost? I am, apart from Christ. And you are, and your sons, and your daughters, your neighbors, and your coworkers and your mom and your dad and your grandson.
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Lost. All of us are lost. And if you've not heard this, let me remind you again. We have all rebelled against God. We've all sinned against God.
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We've all turned our backs on God. In Romans three twenty three, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and if you haven't heard that, that is wrong. You need to hear it. I need to hear it. We have all, we all fall short and we are broken and lost and we were born that way.
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It's all hopeless. Just kidding. There is hope and that's what we're talking about. You see? Jesus said, do you see what I've done?
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I've just conquered death. I've just taken the sin of mankind upon myself and I stomped it and I'm alive and I'm telling you now to go share this gospel, this good news. In Romans five verse six, this is what it says. When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. You didn't clean, it didn't, we didn't clean up first and then God said, you're finally ready for me to come for you.
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Romans five verse eight, it says it this way, but God showed us great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. If any of you do that, I need to get better and then I God will I can come to God. That's work. No. He came for you and you were totally messed up.
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And he loves you. And he wants to take your sin and make you brand new. Now, back to Mark 16 verse 15. He told them, go into all the world and proclaim and preach the good news, the gospel to everyone. Any verse 16, anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved, but anyone who refuses to believe, we need to hear this part too, will be what?
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Condemned. We all have to be saved from something. Hell, eternal separation from God. All of us, we need to be saved from that. And and it's not something we can earn but we are saved totally by grace through faith in Jesus, in him alone, and that is a really, really big deal and it's really, really important to God.
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Now, skip down to verse 19 and and just check check this out. When the Lord Jesus had finished talking with them, he was taken up into heaven, sat down in the place of honor at God's right hand, and the disciples went everywhere and preached and the Lord worked through them confirming what they said by many miraculous signs. And if you know, if you read Acts, the Holy Spirit shows up in a powerful way, and these frightened, scared men became these bold men of God who said crazy things, who who who boldly preached this good news and Peter who was a coward and who had run was the one standing up and 3,000 came to Jesus and this this amazing thing happens and by the way, here we are today, and it's incredible. Now what's crazy to me is that we know nothing is impossible for God. In fact, Luke one thirty seven says, for nothing is impossible with God.
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Here's what's crazy to me. Nothing's impossible for God but he chose to take twelve twelve guys who are very imperfect And in his great plan, he chose these guys to be used to change the world. And here we are today, and here people are everywhere who meet in the name of Christ. And for those of us who have experienced the grace of God, we know that it is amazing. It is unbelievable.
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Now all this leads me to a question that I have to ask you. Because actually, let me ask you a couple questions. Who does God want to use today to proclaim his gospel? Who is it? Who?
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You and me. Dirty, imperfect, messed up people like you and me. That's who he wants to use today. With that said, I have to ask you, how are you contributing to the most important call to proclaim this great great news of Jesus to a lost world. How are you contributing to this important call?
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Because it is very important, so important that God gave his only son and he gave him up. That's how important this is. How are you contributing? To this call If you feel a little nervous right now, I'm so glad because all of us need to be stirred. We don't all have the gift of evangelism but we are all called as followers of Christ to contribute to this call.
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If there's anything we should be passionate about, more than skiing and more than exercise and more than coffee or whatever. More than my dog or whatever. It should be. To proclaim this good news some way. To partner with the Lord.
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Now, here, this leads to just part of what I want to share with you guys is for us, the Eichen family. We know it has become clear to us that that we know God is calling us to to a new endeavor to be a part of of planting a new church in Littleton, Colorado. Raise your hand if you ever heard of Littleton. Maybe you've heard it. Something happened there some years back.
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And then there there was a school shooting and maybe you've heard about that but I I just want to tell you in Littleton, just the 80120 zip code. There's about 30,000 people. That's just one of one of the zip codes in Littleton. Of those 30,000 people, studies clearly show that over 90% are unchurched and do not know Jesus. Let that reality sink in.
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90%. Studies also show that in that area, there's only one evangelical church for every 7,000 people. That's that's not that's that's nothing. And the bottom line is there a lot of lost people everywhere in our world. Here in Jackson, but specifically also in Littleton, there are are a lot of lost, a lot of lost people in far too few churches to effectively reach and disciple and shepherd people.
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And so a little while back, a great friend of mine named Mark Hallock, who is has been a one of my best buddies for a long time. He's a pastor. Some of you know Barbie Stanfield. He used to be here on staff. It's her son.
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Now that's the connection of how I ended up here before. But at any rate, Mark Hallock, little over three years ago, he he was called to to go to Calvary Church in Inglewood, Colorado. It was this church that was dying. Truly, it all it did almost close its doors and it but it was a sweet group of people left who were praying that God would do something and he hurt, he felt called to it and he went there and and by God's grace and just the way God does things sometimes that we can't even totally explain. God took this church and he is just done.
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He's just revived and it's just done God's done this amazing thing where now the church, they've seen, they're seeing people saved and baptized and discipled and they had they went from their 50 people to they don't have room anymore with two services and they're running out of room. One thing that became clear to them is God's moving and working in a unique way but we don't feel called to just keep building a massive building and be this mega church because we don't know how we can effectively disciple people if we just become this massive thing but we want to keep reaching people. So, it became clear to them that they needed to to to plant a church from Calvary Inglewood and specifically, they felt called to to go to Littleton which is right next to Inglewood. And so through prayer, through much seeking God's guidance, it became clear to them. We're doing this.
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We're stepping out in faith. We're going to plant the church, another campus, and they went, they've gone through this process. They, my friend, my another friend, Dan Frang, they brought him to be the lead pastor and he called me some months ago and said, I want you and your family to pray about Pat being my co pastor, not my whole family, me to be the co pastor and your family to come and for us together to plant this church. To which my wife and I we've wondered if God would ever have us church plant. So, we started praying and seeking and sure enough through a lot of wrestling, we went, we need to do this.
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We we need to go and we need to proclaim the gospel in a very unchurched place. And so we're going. Now, here, again, the Lord, though he doesn't need us at all, he has chosen to use his church to reach people, right? Raise your hand if you, if God has helped you grow closer to him through the church, raise your hand. If God has helped you grow closer to him through the church, raise your hand please.
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Now, for some of you, I'm not going to make you feel bad because I won't tell you. If God's used this church, raise your hand because some of you then feel bad. You're like, no, he hasn't really. No, I'm just kidding but the the likelihood is, the likelihood is God has used this church to to affect you deeply. Now, let me ask you a question.
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What if no one ever started this church? One hundred years ago Someone felt called. I can't remember his name. And you know what he would say? You don't need to know my name.
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You need to know his name. And we do. I'm here to say, we feel called to be on that starting end to start a church. The icons were excited, were scared, were nervous but mostly, I'm just going, God, you're incredible and I want to be a part of what you'll do and so, here's all I want to say. If you feel led to partner with us in some way through prayer, I I mean it when I say it.
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If you feel led to become a a prayer partner with us, that would be awesome. Come talk to me. That would mean so much. If you feel led to to financially give in some way, praise God. Come talk to us.
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But even more importantly than my church plant, I want to challenge you this morning. When Jesus says, go into all the world and proclaim the good news. He wasn't just talking to these disciples. He now talks to you. He now talks to me.
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And he says, go. And so I wanna ask you, how are you contributing to this great call? If you're just talking with coworkers about Jesus, awesome. If you're praying for the city, awesome. But if you're convicted this morning and you realize it's not on my radar.
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Then I pray you'd be convicted. Because Jesus wants us to go into all the world. And proclaim him. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. That whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
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Please pray with me. God, I pray that we would be a people who become passionate about what you're passionate about. You're passionate about reaching the lost saving the lost. And so I pray for everyone of us. That we would jump on board.
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And that some way we would be involved in going and proclaiming the gospel.
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Thank you and praise you in the name of
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Jesus. Amen.
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Thanks, for coming out and speak with us today. Alright. And let's stand again and do a more. Your The sun comes up. It's a new day dawning.
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It's time to sing your song again. Whatever may pass and whatever lies before me, let me be singing when the evening come. Bless never before. I worship your holy name. You're rich in love and you're slow to anger.
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Your name is great and your heart is kind. All your goodness, I will keep on singing. 10,000 reasons for my heart to find. I worship your holy name. And on that day when my I worship your holy name I worship your holy name lord I worship your holy name
1:01:14
Amen. Thank you, Scott. I just realized that y'all don't all know Scott. Maybe he does need an introduction but after that, praise God he's pointing us in the right direction. He's pointing towards Christ.
1:01:24
That's Scott Eichen. Angel Voice, that's Scott Eichen. There are two of you at least that don't know him. So, there you go. Scott Eichen, Angel Voice.
1:01:33
Okay. Would y'all just go and do just that? Amen. Praise God. He said in Matthew that all authority had been given to him and he sent us with that.
1:01:44
You've got the authority of Christ behind you. Go. And do your good deeds before men that they may glorify your father in heaven. Amen.
1:01:54
Happy Mother's Day. Give your mother a hug. Call her.
