Crossridge Church - September 12, 2021

well good morning you can do better than that good morning the sun is shining believe it or not it is actually out there and we are here to have a great celebration this morning i want to encourage you to stand with us i'm just going to pray and we're going to spend some time singing this morning being reminded of how good god is his faithfulness to us because that is what we are here to celebrate today we're not just here to celebrate a church's existence but the god who we worship in this place so let's pray and we'll sing together god you are great you are glorious you show your faithfulness again and again and the way you love us we at times can't understand it our love is conditional so often and yours is not yours is based on your character which is perfect and holy and awesome and the gifts that you give to us are great and we pray this morning we would be able to celebrate and be grateful and thank you for all that you have done and for all you are we just pray this in jesus name amen amen [Music] so [Music] kings and kingdoms will bow down [Music] he's roaring with power and fighting our battles and every knee will bow me for him [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] every knee will bow before [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] who can stop [Music] who can stop the lord [Music] who can stop the lord [Music] who can stop [Music] the is the gospel of jesus it's the hope of the ages burning brighter and brighter and standing forever the church he is building nothing can stop it it's a city that's shining light in the darkness and nothing can stop it [Music] though christ was dead now surely he is back again and christ will reign and triumph [Music] oh forever belongs to him yeah all praise belongs to jesus his word is the answer for all generations it will never be tainted it will never be broken this is our confession this is our conviction we believe what is written we believe what you've spoken [Music] now [Music] foreign [Music] oh [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] christ is [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] christ is and we shout hallelujah [Music] for jesus [Music] and that is the good news that we celebrate i want to invite you guys to actually take a seat just have a little bit of a video reminder of the last few years how are you supposed to start a church what would be the thing of most importance would it be finding the right place to meet it would it be gathering the right people together and making sure you've got a good number of people together would be making sure that you've got good programs in place would it be to make sure that you've done a good enough job of promotion so that the word gets out that this is starting how are you supposed to start a church well this is a question that i've been thinking about a lot over the past year i've had the chance to read a number of books about church planting i've had the chance to sit down with a number of different church planters and ask them the question how are you supposed to start a church i've read a number of accounts of churches that have been planted successfully and here's what i've learned from the past year of research on this topic there is no simple formula for how you're supposed to do this did we get it right 10 years years that have sometimes felt like one and others more like a hundred but after ten years in cloverdale did we pull it off we bought a couple of buildings we've continued to grow in numbers we've expanded our ministries and hey we are still here but is that what marks success don't get me wrong those are things that are certainly worth celebrating but did we set out just to still be a church in 10 years to just have a building to just have people inside that building from the get-go our mission has been to know jesus and make him known so we really only have one metric by which to gauge success do we know him more today than we did yesterday and have we made him known to those who didn't know him and while the answer to that question is a resounding yes we know that we haven't arrived god isn't finished with us yet his word tells us that he will carry on the good work he started in us until it is complete at the day of jesus christ and that means that our success as a church isn't dependent on us we certainly have jobs to do and roles to play but ultimately the onus falls on him psalm 127 verse 1 says unless the lord builds the house those who build it labor in vain so we're not here today to celebrate 10 years of a job well done because no matter how hard we try we can't build his church what we're here to celebrate today is the new life and joy that comes in a relationship with jesus christ death to life darkness to light we celebrate the only hope that we have in a world that is broken and hopeless we celebrate the one who through the mountaintops and valleys of life in a fallen world has proven himself faithful again and again and again and again ten years we've seen a lot it both thrills and terrifies to imagine what we might see in the next ten but regardless of what the future holds we will continue striving to be a church that is shaped by the word committed to one another centered on christ dependent on god and mission focused because it's not about today it's not about 10 years we celebrate because jesus is great we celebrate because he is faithful and he said he himself would build his church and it's our prayer that if the lord waits to return long after those of us in this room have passed from this life crossridge will remain a church that exists to know jesus and to make him known because this is his church and we are his people living for his glory [Music] let's step back up again [Music] me [Music] the universe [Music] how great thou art [Music] me [Music] [Applause] that got his son not sparing [Music] that on the cross [Music] my to savior how great thou art [Music] how creepy [Music] and when christ shall gone wish out of acclamation and take me home what joy shall fill my heart then i shall [Music] you've got [Music] my how great [Music] one last time with just our voices [Music] how great thou art how great thou art and then sings my soul my savior how great thou art how great he is that good you guys can go ahead and take a seat and i don't know who that young guy was at the start of that video but um wow good looking guy no glasses a little more hair all of that stuff little thinner but this is a great day for us as a church every september we launch our fall ministry year or ministry year in september each year and we always do that with a bit of a party a fall launch party uh obviously this year is special because this year does mark 10 years of existence for us as a church and it's good for us to celebrate together i mean the bible is filled with instructions about how we as god's people are supposed to gather together for uh for singing for a time of instruction for fellowship together and also for celebration sharing a meal together celebrating together is not sort of a luxury for the church this is what we do as god's people we celebrate his goodness to us in so many ways this is part of what it means to be part of a family and again this year is a special year for us to do that really a lot has happened in the past 10 years some of you joined us from the very beginning some of you came later than that some of you are brand new uh today for the first time but as i kind of surveyed the last 10 years and thought about you know what kind of message do i want to share on this day my mind immediately went to the way that paul begins most of the letters that we find in the new testament and he begins those letters with a note of thanksgiving for the church so in the book of romans he says first i thank my god through jesus christ for all of you because your faith is proclaimed in all the worlds we sometimes think of the corinthian church as a deeply troubled church and it was but listen to what paul said at the start of that letter he said i give thanks to my god always for you because of the grace of god that was given you in christ jesus or when paul wrote to the christians living in the city of ephesus he said this for this reason because i have heard of your faith in the lord jesus and your love toward all the saints i do not cease to give thanks for you remembering you in my prayers paul said something similar to the church at colossae he said we always thank god the father of our lord jesus christ when we pray for you since we heard of your faith in christ jesus and the love you have for all the saints i love the way he expressed his thanksgiving for the church in the city of thessalonica he said we give thanks to god always for all of you constantly mentioning you in our prayers remembering before our god and father your work of faith your labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our lord jesus christ but you know the introduction and the thanksgiving section in all of paul's letters that stood out to me most as i thought about the past 10 years was the one that we find in philippians chapter one and we're going to look at verses 3 to 11 of that chapter this morning as we do many weeks i'm going to invite you to stand for the reading of god's word i want to encourage you to hear god's word to us this morning it says this i thank my god in all my remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now and i am sure of this that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of jesus christ it is right for me to feel this way about you all because i hold you in my heart for you are all partakers with me of grace both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel for god is my witness how i yearn for you all with the affection of christ jesus and it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of christ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through jesus christ to the glory and praise of god you can be seated now some of you may know that when we launched our church 10 years ago we launched with the series in the book of philippians and the reason i am going back to philippians chapter 1 this morning is not because i have run out of things to say 10 years in and i'm just going to start repeating myself but because i actually have a new appreciation for what paul says in this passage i have a much better understanding of what partnership in the gospel looks like than i did 10 years ago so i try to tell my wife and my kids that i love them every day but there are special days like birthdays and anniversaries where we try to do that in a special way in the same way i hope you understand the love that i have for this church i hope that's clear on a week-to-week or a day-to-day basis and when i say that i don't mean that i love this church as an ideal i mean you who make up this church and i want to express that in as clear a fashion as i can this morning and it's really out of that heart that i want to share with you three things that come out of this passage and the first thing i want you to know about is my thankfulness for the past paul starts out by saying i thank my god in all my remembrance of you now paul planted the church in the city of philippi he's now separated from them but he looks back on them with great fondness and what he remembers in particular is their partnership in the gospel with him i thank my god in all my remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now now most scholars think that paul wrote the letter to the philippians about 10 years after he planted this church and that's part of why i was drawn to this passage as well when i think about the past 10 years of our existence as a church my mind goes to a hundred different memories of what your partnership in the gospel has looked like so i will never forget launch sunday we had no idea who or how many people would show up we rented this theater in those days it was a functioning movie theater and on the night before launch sunday it poured rain there was a drain in the back alley that drain got clogged water poured in through the back door it flooded the front of this building up to about the first or second row on this side we showed up at 7am that morning to discover that jeff unruh who was playing in the band that day was here early instead of rehearsing with the band he went home got a shop vac cleaned up the whole mess that's what partnership has looked like from day one in the early days i would come in here i would sweep up the the floor of the club there was a ton of popcorn and skittles and all manner of things i would sweep it i would mop it try to mop all the pop off the floor we would still stick to it as we kind of shifted our feet during worship but i remember on one of those sundays as i was cleaning up as the band was rehearsing a pigeon flew in the back door started kind of bombing around the theater jason simpson our drummer someone handed him a tennis ball he took one perfect shot stunned the pigeon he picked it up set him free in the back out now honestly jason i don't know uh if i've remembered that incorrectly that's the way i want to remember it one shot maybe it was two or three shots maybe everyone took a turn maybe you used your voice acting skills and did a bird call or something but what i remember is one shot things out the back door now jason has been drumming with us for 10 years i mean that's partnership you know we are between in between offices right now but you might remember if you were here in the early days we did not have an office i tried working from home but ilona was homeschooling all four of our kids at the time so that lasted about a week so every morning i would go to starbucks i would work in a starbucks for three or four hours and then i would leave that starbucks i would go to a different starbucks and work in that one for three or four hours if i was feeling sort of you know i need a break from the routine i would actually drive down to bellingham and i would spend the whole day at a starbucks in in bellingham my clothes reeked of coffee and i don't even like coffee i don't drink coffee but in the midst of that i remember chris and aaron davidson had an unfinished basement they finished a room in their unfinished basement and offered it to me for an office and i did that for a year or two that's what partnership has looked like when we did get office space and when we bought this building and the one across the street started leasing the 58 so many of you showed up to help us renovate and the buildings that we inhabit today are literally the product of our collective blood sweat and tears that's partnership on top of that is the financial partnership that we have experienced from the first day until now we've experienced the generosity of god's people you've been faithful in giving and supporting this work in the early days all of our accounting was done through our denominations office out in abbotsford and the bookkeeper there once told me she said lee i've never seen a church plant that gives like this or is financially sustainable as quickly as crossridge is and that is despite the fact that i forget to mention the offering most weeks that's partnership and there are so many other ways that we have been partners in the gospel together the countless number of hours that have been given by our volunteers you've served faithfully and sacrificially in kids ministry in youth ministry as part of our sunday serve team setting up tearing down greeting ushering security making coffee serving on the tech team leading us in worship playing in bands you've partnered in the gospel by leading or hosting community groups by opening up your home by showing hospitality by teaching others in addition to all that are the spontaneous ways that you have partnered in this work of the gospel we have an incredible meal team that makes meals for those who are dealing with illness or have welcomed a new baby or who are dealing with grief there's another group of people who faithfully make meals when we host christianity explored or alpha nights it's worth coming to those for the food alone and there are a host of other ways that you have partnered in this work in unofficial capacities just looking out for newcomers making them feel welcome inviting others to church inviting neighborhood kids to come to our kids camp and there are too many examples to mention the thing i want you to know is that i thank my god in all my remembrance of all for all of you making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now and again some of you have been here since the first day some of you came a few years in some of you are more recent than that but part of what it means for every one of us to be part of this church is that we commit ourselves individually and collectively to our mission of knowing jesus and making him known that's partnership now i have a lot of thankfulness in my heart for the past i think it's important to share that but i do also want to share with you some encouragement in the present so let's think first about the text paul says he is thankful for the philippians partnership in the gospel from the first day until now and the until now part brings us into the present paul planted the church in philippi but he's separated from them now paul was physically separated from the philippians but that didn't change his affections for them nor their affection for him now physical separation can be a bit of a test for relationships i mean you sometimes see this in romantic relationships and we have complete competing cliches to speak about this right so we will say sometimes we will say absence makes the heart grow fonder and other times we will say out of sight out of mind and in one sense that's true of all relationships physical separation is a bit of a test of the relationship's strength so which of the those cliches best describes the situation in the church well in paul's case it was that absence made the heart grow fonder that's why in verse 7 he says it is right for me to feel this way about you all because i hold you in my heart in verse 8 he goes on to say for god is my witness how i yearn for you all with the affection of christ jesus and i feel that same way about you i love you with the affection of christ jesus you know we experienced something of the physical separation this past year there was a period of nearly seven months where we were not permitted to gather as a church now we did lots to try to make connections and stay connected lots of drive-by events we did lots of zoom stuff but that separation was a bit of a test was it a separation that made that where the absence made the heart grow fonder or was it a separation where it became out of sight out of mind right that's a test for a church and i'm actually encouraged with how well we weathered that season i can't tell you how many people i've talked to who who were able to stay connected or i can't tell you how many people i've talked to said you know what now that we're it's so good to be back i mean i hadn't realized how important it is for me to be gathered together with god's people but i see it now didn't know how important gathering as a church was until it was taken away but there was more than just a physical separation on paul's mind as he penned these words paul's present set of circumstances was that he was in prison and that's what he said in in verse seven he says it's right for me to feel this way about you all because i hold you in my heart for you are all partakers that is same root word partners with me of grace both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel part of what paul was saying was that the partnership he experienced with the philippians the fellowship he experienced with them extended into difficult circumstances the philippians didn't end their connection with paul when he went to prison and i think it's important to take note of this so just as physical separation reveals a lot about the nature of a relationship so too does a set of difficult circumstances and you can tell a lot about the nature of a relationship by what happens in the midst of trying times and churches always walk through difficult times together again you can tell a lot about the nature of relationship by what happens in those times i mean everybody shows up on the day of a party right but your real friends are the ones who show up on the day you have to move oh i'm so sorry i just i can't make it today i'm not going to be able to help you with that i'm busy paul says that the philippians were partakers of grace with him in his imprisonment so what did that look like well it means that they shared in his sufferings and later in this letter he will go on to say yet it was kind of you to share in my trouble now in context what paul is referring to there in chapter four is the fact that the philippians had sent a financial gift to look after some of paul's needs but that's really what it means to be part of a church isn't it to share in each other's troubles now we haven't done this perfectly but that is what we've tried to do even in the midst of all this and again i think this has gone both ways but we should notice it wasn't just the connection between paul and the philippians that didn't end when he was sitting in a roman prison it says you've been partners or partakers of grace with me both in my imprisonment and in my defense of the gospel and he wants us to know the gospel can advance even in the midst of difficult circumstances listen to what he goes on to say in verses 12 and 13 just kind of outside the reach of this passage he says i want you to know brothers that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for christ so how is that possible i mean how is it that paul is sitting in a roman prison but the gospel continues to go forward and the answer is that the advancement of the gospel is not dependent on our circumstances one thing we've tried to communicate from the very beginning of the covet situation is that the church is not closed a global pandemic is not a reason to fold up shop put the mission on hold and go hide in our basements if paul saw his imprisonment as an opportunity for mission we should view our circumstances in the same way loneliness fear depression are at all time highs does the gospel have anything to say into that i've shared this quote with you before but it's such a good description of how it was that the early church grew so quickly that i think it's worth sharing again in his book the triumph of christianity rodney stark says this he says to cities filled with the homeless and the impoverished christianity offered charity as well as hope to cities filled with newcomers and strangers christianity offered an immediate basis for attachments to cities filled with orphans and widows christianity provided a new and expanded sense of family to cities torn by violent ethnic strife christianity offered a new basis for social solidarity and to cities faced with epidemics fires and earthquakes christianity offered effective nursing services homelessness poverty newcomers epidemics fires i mean do we have any of those things today we do and we have the same gospel now i said this section was about encouragement in the present so my goal in sharing this is not to beat you down with it the truth is i've been encouraged with so much of what i've seen during this season you know for the past two years we've partnered with ally global for our christmas project ally global is a ministry that works with sex trafficking victims in nepal we set a goal last december of raising fifteen thousand dollars toward that project we raised more than thirty seven thousand dollars in the past two years we've given over sixty thousand dollars to that ministry that's partnering in the gospel in the present and there are other ways we've been involved as well kids camps in the summer have looked different these past two years or past two summers but what has happened is that we've actually started to look less inward and more outward as a result of a relationship we've built with a local co-op we had more kids attend from outside the church this summer than we've had any year of our existence this winter we also began partnering financially with praxis church a church plant in kelowna that's actually launching today this is what a church does we stay on mission regardless of what's happening around us yesterday marked the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the u.s september 11 2001. many of you remember that day you you know where you were that day one of the most memorable scenes to emerge from that day was the way that the new york fire department and other first responders were rushing in toward those buildings while everyone else was rushing away from them historically this is actually what the church has done we rush in when there's a crisis crisis not run away we do not put our mission on hold in the midst of any kind of crisis if anything our eyes ought to be open in a fresh way to the needs of those around us the gospel is the only true hope for humanity paul said it this way for i am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of god for everyone who believes so as a church we are committed to preaching that same gospel week in week out as we gather as we scatter and so as we celebrate this 10th birthday or this 10th anniversary of our existence as a church i wanted to say something to you about my thankfulness for the past i wanted to give you a word of encouragement in the present and i also want to share with you my optimism for the future there's a lot of uncertainty in the world right now so much has changed over the past two years so many of those things that we took for granted seem far less stable today lots of relationships have changed trust in many of our institutions has plummeted there are lots of businesses wondering will they survive maybe the only two certainties in life are death and taxes this season has been difficult for many of you as well you've walked through tough times and it can be hard to be optimistic in the midst of all that but as christians i think we ought to be i don't mean that we are optimistic about our circumstances or the trajectory of our culture i mean we ought to be optimistic because god continues to rule and reign listen to what paul says in verse 6 of this passage as he writes to this church and i am sure of this that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of jesus christ he's actually writing collectively to the church right and what he's saying is this god who began this work in you 10 years ago will bring it to completion at the day of jesus christ now paul's confidence or optimism wasn't you know what i think i'm going to be out of prison soon i'll see you again then everything will be okay now he hoped for that i mean that's his desire he says that but that wasn't the basis for his confidence the basis for his confidence was what it was that god who began a work of transformation in the hearts and the lives of the philippians would finish that work paul's confidence was that on the day of christ on the day that everyone will stand before god in judgment those he knew and ministered to and with in the city of philippi would pass that test with flying colors and that's actually the basis of my confidence for crossroads church as well the truth is nobody knows what will happen tomorrow even when it comes to individual churches i mean we say we remind ourselves regularly that jesus said upon this rock i'll build my church and even the gates of hell will not prevail against it that is not a promise to an individual church it's a promise to the church of christ all of us so individual churches do sometimes come and go some of you have been listening to the podcast the rise and fall of mars hill martial church began in 1996 in seattle something of an unlikely success story for a church in the city of seattle by the 2000 by the time the 2000s rolled around the church was going growing rapidly the church launched multiple campuses at its peak mars hill had an average weekly attendance of more than 13 000 people but a leadership scandal and a power struggle hit the church in 2014 by the end of 2015 the church was no longer in existence 13 000 people scattered because of the sort of celebrity culture involved that story played out on a large stage but that story is actually not unique lots of churches come and go lots of churches rise and fall so if that is the case then what is the basis of my confidence for crossridge church well when we set out to plant this church andy rebecca and i sat down and we determined that the metrics we wanted to use for the success of crossridge church were different than the ones commonly used in the church world the most common measurements for church success has been referred to as the abcs attendance buildings cash now you can understand why those are the things that get measured i mean those are the things that are the easiest to measure how many people are coming how big is your building what's the annual budget now there's some value in measuring those things i mean if nobody is coming and nobody's giving it probably says something about the health of the church but the call that we've actually been given is to make disciples it's not just to attract a crowd it's not just to own buildings it's not just to have a big budget it is to make disciples of all nations that's the metric we want to use now it's harder to measure it but you know it when you see it and i hope and expect that crossridge will exist for a long time but sometimes a disciple will actually outlive an individual church you know in the midst of all the upheaval over the past couple years we've actually had a large number of people move away some to the valley some to the okanagan some to the island some to other parts of canada or to the states and it's always difficult when that happens but one of the tests of an effectiveness of a church's ministry is what happens when those individuals do move away the apostle john wrote this he said i have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth in the same way i love to hear stories of what is happening in the lives of those who were once part of crossridge but who have moved away so i think of a young lady named jody whose first experience with studying the bible in any kind of depth took place in one of our women's bible studies she moved away and when she moved to her new town she could not find a study like that so she started one see that's partnership in the gospel i think of a young couple brent and jeannie who were baptized and married here they're now living in kelowna they're now active in sharing their faith from what i understand they're now part of the two church plant i mentioned earlier in the city of kelowna that's partnership i think of what happened when we helped with the planting of tri-city church we sent 10 of our people with them and not just the people we wanted to get rid of right we sent good people now i've had the opportunity to go there and preach a couple of times and i will tell you it fills my heart with joy it filled my heart with joy to park in that parking lot and the guy in the parking lot who's looking after parking used to be part of crossridge so great to be led in worship by someone who used to be part of crossreach so great to see their kids ministry led by someone who used to be part of crossroach four of their staff members came from our church that's partnering in the gospel now i know that's all focused on people who aren't here any longer i get that but i want to say god is doing that same kind of work among you and that's what gives me confidence or optimism the work that god has begun to do at crossridge is not complete it's not like god was here for the pre-launch phase and the launch phase but has kind of moved on to other projects no he who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete it because god always finishes what he starts so as i think about the next 10 years of our existence as a church i have every confidence that there will be more individuals who will come to faith in christ that there will be more individuals who get baptized as a step of obedience that there will be more people who develop a deeper passion for god's word and a heart to abandon i have every reason to believe there will be some who will receive a call to church ministry or church planting or foreign missions as a church we're committed to seeing gospel-centered churches planted all across bc and i believe we'll play an even greater role in that i'm optimistic about the future i have every expectation that some of you will become so gripped by the gospel and the work of the holy spirit that the way you view your vocation and your material possessions will be transformed i believe that some of you who feel like you're just barely hanging on will experience a sense of spiritual renewal and the reason i'm so confident in that's because i know god finishes what he starts i know that he who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete it now this entire section of philippians chapter 1 is about the way paul prayed for the church in the city of philippi that's how he began i thank my god in all my remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine for you making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel he's praying for them and as i thought about how to end our time in god's word this morning i think that the the most fitting way that we can do that is to actually pray the prayer that paul prays at the end of this passage in verses 9 to 11. i want to end simply by praying this prayer over you as a church and this is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of christ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through jesus christ to the glory and praise of god lord let that be true we do want to spend time responding this morning we respond in in several ways as a church we respond with the time of communion that we're going to do in just a minute we respond with a time of worship and singing god's praises that we will do and and we also can respond with our financial gifts see i remember to mention it today you can do that at the connect desk in the lobby but i do want us to just focus for a couple of minutes on the commonality that we have and that commonality is our relationship with jesus who has made us right with god in first peter chapter 2 the apostle peter says this of jesus he says he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness by his wounds you have been healed for you were straying like sheep but now return to the shepherd and overseer of your souls and what those verses remind us is that jesus paid the penalty for our sins he bore our sins in his body as he hung on the cross and he did that so as it says so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness so we are given new life in christ because of his sacrifice our sins are taken care of and we've been given new life by the spirit to live to righteousness and so as we celebrate communion together that's really what this pictures we take the bread or in this case the little wafer that's here we say that this represents the body of jesus which was given for us as a sacrifice he bore our sins in his body and if we've accepted that sacrifice then we partake of this bread together as a church let's do that now in the same way we take the cup that represents the blood of jesus which was shed for our forgiveness and we recognize that it has washed us clean entirely blank slate it has given us new life that we can live to righteousness and so we partake of this cup together in remembrance of jesus and lord we are grateful for your gift to us your gift of salvation your gift of new life and we pray as we think about this next season for us as individuals and as a church lord we pray that we would do it all to your glory that we would in fact know you more and make you known we pray in jesus name amen let's stand [Music] [Music] without [Music] if it wasn't [Music] chased me down and i was lost [Music] hallelujah thank you jesus i was a prisoner now i'm not [Music] with your blood by my freedom hallelujah [Music] now your mercy will [Music] hallelujah thank you jesus [Music] oh [Music] [Music] of is is overcome it is [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you jesus [Music] [Applause] hallelujah [Music] thank you jesus [Music] hallelujah [Music] do [Music] good morning just a couple announcements for you guys before you go um even if you didn't sign up for the 10th anniversary party we're having over there please do wander over come check it out see what's going on have a chat i think there's a photo booth going on so that will be awesome go and get a photo with your family a couple things we are launching our fall ministries and we're launching a bunch of things we've got young adults we've got all of our ministries basically are launching but we want to bring two specifically to your attention uh this sunday and the first of those is community groups so we are launching uh all of our groups most of them are starting in the next two weeks some of them are starting in october but we have groups that meet every night of the week from monday through thursday and i just want to encourage you if you're not in a group get in a group sign up let me challenge you with that take that step this fall if you've just been coming along on sundays and you're not really involved throughout the week and connecting with people outside of sunday worship this is the perfect opportunity to do that this is where we go deeper into the things that we're learning on sundays into the passage and the topic that we looked at on sunday so we follow a study guide together we get to sit around tables together deep in relationships and friendships with people in the church and it's just a really beautiful time of growth and it's where we minister to one another right that's what we're doing here we're we're getting equipped for the work of ministry and this is a huge part of where that happens where we i get to chat together open up what we're dealing with in our lives struggles joys all these things that we're dealing with we get to apply what we're learning on sundays to the nitty-gritty every day of life and pray for each other and encourage each other and build each other up so please do if you haven't been involved in that get involved there are different kinds of groups different demographics different ages i guarantee we've got something that will be a good fit for you um so if you yeah if you're not in a group come and talk to me check out the groups they're all on the website as well there are a bunch of different ones you can hop in if you're a community group leader today can i just have to stand up for a second all right oh we got a few awesome amazing well this is just to show you that our community group leaders really are uh awesome human beings because if you go to the website we don't have photos up right now and they're just blank squares and it can be a little bit impersonal so like look at eric look what a handsome man look at that who would not want to be in a group with this guy but yeah no honestly get in a group if you're not in a group it's it's awesome it's just a beautiful way to connect with people and grow together that's what we're about as a church community groups uh the other thing we want to bring to your attention is alpha so we are kicking off an alpha ministry again we ran one last year and it was awesome we ran it at my house and my wife cooked for it uh and she's like i'm never doing that again i'm like cooking for 14 people that's easy what do you do that tells you a little bit about who does the cooking in our house um so we are doing it at the square this time so just across the street where we do kids ministry if you're not familiar with alpha it is an awesome ministry that i would really encourage you to be involved with in some way shape or form basically what it is every week we do 10 weeks in a row we're kicking off on tuesday october 5th it'll go for 10 weeks in a row but what we do is we look at a different topic every week and it's foundational things about the christian faith and it's designed specifically for people who are either new to the faith if you're a new christian or if you're just seeking and searching looking for answers asking the big questions of life so we look at things like we start super basic like is there more to life than what i'm living right now and each week we look at a different topic who is jesus why did he have to die why should i read the bible why and how should i pray how do i have faith things like that just really basic foundational questions but each one is based off of dinner so we do dinner first it's free of charge we provide that so we do dinner we sit around tables have a meal but then we watch a video the videos are about 20 minutes but they're awesome they just get really concise straight to the point and talk about whatever that topic is and these people interview pastors but lay people scientists all these different people who talk about share testimonies talk about really really interesting things the videos are very engaging and then you just sit around tables and just talk about it so you just ask questions it's an open space for people who are searching just ask these big questions of life it doesn't even have to be about the topic it can be about anything and we just sit and chat and it's just a really really good low pressure like low stress fun environment for people to engage with the christian faith so if that's you if you're new to church maybe you haven't really been around the church maybe you're asking some of these big questions of life i really really encourage you to sign up for that it's an awesome fun time and the other thing is if you know somebody in your life who's starting to ask big questions who's seeking take a step of faith talk to them invite them out it'll be a really good time and bring them along it's a really great thing to do with a friend bring a friend or two we haven't capped the attendance limit so i want to pack that thing out i think it'd be awesome to have a bunch of people there um so a couple ways that you can be involved one if that's you come and attend if you know somebody invite them bring them along if you can't do that we do need 10 people to sign up to cook meals because my wife's done so we do if that's somebody if you're like hey i can't come along i can't bring a friend but i'm an awesome cook and i love to cook for 20 people do sign up we do need your help with that or we do also need some table hosts so people to just host conversation if you're good at chatting with people you love to engage in those kinds of conversations do sign up for that it's a really really great ministry you can do that on the website you can come and talk to me you can shoot me an email and all of this info and info about all the other ministries that we are launching it's all in this booklet we don't have one for every person so maybe grab one per family um but all the info that you need for everything from youth to young adults to community groups alpha all of it is in these little guys um if you are new with us if this is your first week fill out a connect card we've got them at the desk in the back thank you for being here and i hope you feel welcome here and we want to hear from you we want to connect with you that's it have an amazing week i will see you over there come grab some pancakes and let's have a good time you

Channel: Crossridge

Views: 87

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: czhZY5TNVMo

Length: 70min 3sec (4203 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021