Against All Odds | Unlikely Strength | Dave Dummit | Sept 19

[Music] good morning willow today is the day that the lord has made come on to stand up on your feet and let's rejoice and be glad in it as we sing this song come on clap with me [Music] when your greatness [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] thank you [Music] is [Music] do you believe it come on clap with me there is power in the name of jesus [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] is is [Applause] [Music] me [Music] something special happens [Music] [Applause] jesus [Music] is [Music] we lead into your presence [Music] this is [Music] this is how i find my battles all my worship is [Music] [Music] is covering you this is [Music] [Applause] [Music] but i'm surrounded by you it may look like i'm surrounded but i'm surrounded by you he may look like i'm surrounded [Music] but i'm surrounded [Music] i'm surrounded is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] but i'm surrounded [Music] they may look [Music] this is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the bible says [Applause] [Music] oh but the victory belongs to jesus is [Music] yes [Music] this is is [Music] jesus jesus [Music] [Music] between [Music] standing next to me [Music] is [Music] there is [Music] between me [Music] [Music] standing next to me [Music] set me free [Music] is oh [Music] [Music] with [Music] [Music] [Music] nothing stands between [Music] is [Music] [Music] good everybody [Music] [Music] shaking [Music] between [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] cause i know that's where you'll be [Music] don't be afraid to clap you know this come and sing along with of way [Music] [Music] but [Music] it was my turn [Music] is [Music] [Music] come on [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] is [Music] a [Music] [Music] [Music] uh you can remain standing and as we stand we're going to continue our worship by celebrating communion together so when you walked in today you were given a contraption that contains both the bread and the juice if you're watching us online at home you can feel free to go grab some bread and juice and really communion is an opportunity for those who consider themselves followers of jesus that we're mindful of the incredible sacrifice that jesus made on our behalf so that we get to experience the glorious day that we're singing about in this moment now sometimes when we celebrate communion we we pause we're we're very reflective it's time to reflect on our sin and god's grace but but there are certain traditions that don't use this time as a moment of reflection instead it's a moment of celebration today we're going to join those faith traditions and today as we celebrate communion we're going to do so in a way that truly is a celebration you know some 2000 years ago that jesus gathered with his closest friends in that upper room it was on that thursday night that he took some bread and he took some whining he connected it to himself in his own story he said this body that's my body that's gonna be given for you this this cup of juice this is this is my blood that will also be given to you but little do those disciples know that what would take place over those next few days was going to be the i would say the hinge of human history but what took place that particular weekend changed everything in the world in which we know because it's for the sacrifice of jesus that it has fully redeemed my past is there anybody was to celebrate that our past has been fully redeemed it's we're celebrating but not only because of jesus is my past been redeemed but my presence and my presence it has purpose that every single day i can live with with a sense of purpose and direction because of who jesus is and what jesus has done is there anybody excited we're celebrating that our present has purpose but it's not only our past that's been redeemed it's not only that our present has purpose but our future is totally secure that no matter what this life throws at us no matter how difficult no matter how challenging anything that we face we know that on that day some two thousand years ago when jesus sprung for the grave that the god declared victory over sin and death and that victory was not just a victory two thousand years ago that was an eternal victory that you and i no matter what we face in this world that we have the opportunity the privilege to anchor our lives the promise of jesus that's an eternal promise my friends your future is secure is anybody want to celebrate that your future's secure it says we hold this element we sing about this glorious day as we take a piece of bread we're mindful the sacrifice of jesus that made that glorious day possible let's take the bread together [Music] and we hold a cup of juice remember the blood of christ the sacrifice he made to make that glorious day possible let's take the cup together my friends let's continue the celebration as we sing about that glorious day [Music] is [Music] day [Music] [Music] come on [Music] by god we pause in the service and we just say thank you for what you did some 2000 years ago to the death burial and the ultimate resurrection of jesus that we celebrate that glorious day that took place in the past but god we know that that glorious day in the past it redeemed our past god it makes our presence make sense it gives us purpose and god we're so grateful that because of jesus our future is secured that there's victory when our lives are connected to you so father we celebrate you we celebrate the work of jesus and his transformative work in our own lives we pray that in the name of your son jesus amen amen you can have a seat well we are so grateful that you chose to join us this weekend here at willow whether you're here in person whether you're joining us online my name is sean and i have the opportunity to be the the campus pastor here at willow creek south barrington and we are so excited that you're here i also want to welcome our brand new guest if you're here for the first time a very special welcome to you one of the things i'd love to encourage you to consider if you're a brand new guest we have a special place for you in our lobby it's actually a room just off the lobby it's called guest central it's just right outside the center doors it's a place that we love to meet you get to know your story there are people there that we call spiritual concierge that will love to come alongside of you and find out how we serve you as a church so we really hope to meet you out there after the service now we're going to continue our worship through something we call giving back to god it's a chance to give back to god our tithes and our offerings as i was thinking about our giving moment this week i was thinking about a story i heard not long ago a pam and her husband who felt the call to start a small group environment about six years ago and so six years ago they invited multiple couples into their homes it's a very diverse group uh age diversity ethnic diversity it's a very diverse group of people that have been meeting together in their home for really the past number of years but one of the couples that joined them in that group there's a guy named frank now when frank first rolled up to the small group he had never cracked a bible open before never studied scripture before and so this was really his first opportunity to to get to experience it and as he asked questions he was loved on by the group as he explored the faith and it kind of kicked the tires of faith it became this very warm welcoming belonging environment that he could really begin to take some initial steps in his journey and i'm just excited to share with you that frank was actually one of our friends that got baptized just a couple of weeks ago right here at willow that that whole journey started within the context of these small group environments and i love our small groups and i love what our small groups stand for what they mean providing that type of environment not just for frank but so many other people as i think about the opportunity we have to give today it's because of gifts that are given that give the opportunity for environments like this to be created where true life change and transformation can take place so if you'd like to take a next step on your giving journey and join us as we give today there's a lot of ways you can do so you can go to willowcreek.org gift give you can text the word willow creek to 40101 or if you're joining us online you can just simply click the give button but as we give today i'd love to pause and just say thanks to god and pray for these gifts that will be given god we say thanks for the opportunity you give us to create environments of belonging create um environments where people can find a sense of of asking questions but god we're just most grateful for the work of your holy spirit in those environments that really does lead to life change so god i just ask as we pause in this service and we give gifts to you god we're not just giving gifts to willow we're giving gifts through willow to your mission in this world so god would you take these gifts would you multiply these gifts god would you change lives for these gifts we pray that in jesus name amen well again we're so glad that you're here at this this weekend as we are in week two of a series called against all odds there's fear on our tvs in our newspapers and in our feeds but fear is nothing new to god when we trust in him we can take down any giant no matter the odds he's ready to fight for us are we ready to let him come on everybody at all campuses against all odds we thought it would be fun to look at some of the underdog stories in the bible who doesn't love a good underdog story that's why we love this movie right here check this out how many of you have seen this movie rocky right how many of you have seen all 38 rockies you've seen all of them yeah no there's not but yeah it's amazing i mean this thing just caught on and this is an underdog story look at the tagline his whole life was a million to one shot that's an underdog story what a great way to start a series about underdogs in the bible but here's the thing if you know the story behind this underdog story it gets even better in the 1970s sylvester stallone pictured here with his dog was a struggling actor he's trying his hand at screenwriting and he had the idea for rocky he wrote out the screenplay and he tried to offer it to people he got rejected over a thousand times he was insisting that he played the starring role he just felt it he wanted to be the star in the movie at one point someone offered him 135 000 for the script but you don't get to star in it and he passed it up at one point he is financially struggling to the point that he had to sell that very dog for forty dollars just so that he could eat some food well finally a a a a uni a studio offered him a million dollars and said we'll let you star in the movie he took that meager budget and he produced the movie uh came in under budget because he was able to use friends and family in the cast do you know that and of course the rest is history he wins an oscar and rocky franchise has gone on to earn 1.7 billion dollars making stallone one of the highest grossing actors of all time folks that is an underdog story about a guy who wrote an underdog story to introduce a series about underdog stories in the bible somebody give me a fist bump long distance or something that's preaching fire right there okay but wait after he earned his money he missed his dog so he went back to the guy that he sold his dog to for forty dollars but the guy took one look at this now famous star and said i'm not giving you your dog back unless it's for fifteen thousand dollars and stallone wrote the check right there and bought his dog back folks that is a dog story within an underdog story about a guy who wrote an underdog story to introduce a series about underdog stories in the bible thank you very much that is amazing preaching right there all right well let's get on to the bible okay uh we're going to be in the old testament today and we're going to look at a story that i would imagine most of you are very familiar with uh you've probably heard this story before in fact what i'll do is i'll tell you how we told this story in our family devotions and i'll let you guess what the story is the way we told this story way back when joey was probably five or six years old he was the smallest in the family is we let him wad up some socks into a ball and throw them at dad where he hit dad in the head right between the eyes and dad fell down in defeat now what old testament story are we going to look at today david and goliath you've got it so i'm going to be in first samuel 17 where the story goes like this you've got king saul in the israelite people who are on one side of a valley up on a hill on the other side of the valley up on a hill are the philistines these are the bad guys and they have a giant named goliath a seasoned warrior a giant of a man and israel is scared out of their minds and along comes this little shepherd boy named david sent by his father to bring lunch basically to his brothers who were the real soldiers and long story short he ends up taking on this giant with just a sling and a stone for what becomes an incredible against all odds under dog story now we stop right there because we recognize that this is not a story that just happened thousands of years ago the truth is is that this is a story that is playing out in many of our lives day after day after day and if it's not happening to you right now it will happen to you there are people among us who are facing giant challenges are you with me there are those who are trying to get past their past they're dealing with the abuse of the past or decisions that they've made in the past and and they've got woundedness and they've got shame and it is just it is a giant of a challenge to get past that for them there are people who are watching online who are sitting here with us there are people in all of our locations who are dealing with debt that looks like an insurmountable giant of a challenge and they just have a hard time going to sleep at night because this thing is hanging over their head there are those of us who have gone to work recently and got a little pink slip of paper and you are now wondering what is next how am i going to pay the bills how is this going to happen there are some of you that almost wish you could have the relief of a pink slip of paper because you are dealing with a boss that is just demanding that is in your face all the time or you've got a project that is a multi-million dollar project everything is on the line and all the pressure is on you and it is a giant of a challenge there are those of you who come home from work and on your drive home what should be this sort of leaving the stress behind getting ready to come home to your your home your oasis your castle the place where there is no stress the truth is sometimes the office is actually the oasis because there is so much strife there is so much anger there is so much stress at home it is a giant of a challenge and so my hope today is that this wouldn't be a story that just is fun to look at thousands of years ago but this would be a story that we recognize can give us hope for the challenges that we face today the very real challenges that we face today now when we talk about dave and goliath we usually just look at one battle a little boy against a giant of a man but the truth is if you look at this story a little closer look we'll reveal that there's actually at least three battles that lead up to the big battle and honestly as i look at these three battles they're very similar to a lot of the battles that we will face in fighting the big giant challenges in our lives and the first one is the battle against fear the battle against fear the israelites everybody around david is just paralyzed because the fear of this one guy goliath look at verse four it says a champion named goliath who was from gath came out of the philistine camp his height was six cubits in a span he had a bronze helmet on his head and he wore a coat of scale armor of bronze it weighed 5 000 shekels on his legs he wore bronze greaves and a bronze javelin was slung on his back his spear shaft was like a weaver's rod in its iron point weighed 600 shekels and this detailed description goes on and on and on to the point in verse 11 it says saul and all the israelites were dismayed and terrified and to that i say of course they are because all they're doing is focusing on the problem they are transfixed on all the details of this problem it's all they can see you just you picture them sitting around the fire at night going how how tall do you think that guy is how much do you think that spear weighs you could see them putting their heads on the pillow at night wondering man if i had to go against that guy i i mean did you see how big his his his shield is and and did you see what's his helmet made of i think it was bronze and they're just focused on the big scary problem that's in front of him and the truth is that we do the same thing we spend a lot of time tempted to just focus on the problems that we have hours and days stewing ruminating watching the market trends hoping that we can you know time things just right studying our competitors hoping that we can we can grab an advantage because of what we found out about them worrying about what might happen to our kids worrying about what might happen if we fail or or what happens what people will think of us we we're transfixed and every time we do that every time we're focused only on the problem we are losing the battle against fear now david doesn't do this he's new on the scene been sent by his father father to bring some lunch to his brothers and he says in verse 26 he says who is this uncircumcised philistine and all the israelites could have leaned in and said well let me tell you about his sword and let me tell you about his shield let me tell you what he weighs and let me tell you how tall he is i can tell you everything about him and david's like who is this guy that he should defy the armies of the living god you see the the israelite people were out in the battlefield studying the problem while david had been out in the shepherd fields focused on god he'd literally been out there underneath the stars writing songs about the goodness and greatness of god you ever heard of the book of the bible called psalms and so many of those psalms are composed by this little shepherd boy david who is just transfixed and focused on the goodness and the greatness of god so that when he sees goliath his perspective is completely different and he says you come against me with sword and spear and javelin you can almost hear him go i come against you in the name of the lord almighty the god of the armies of israel and some of you some of you are so tempted to be focused on the problem and to walk around with this heavy weight all the time can't sleep at night anxiety ridden and i have good news for you today you don't have to live that way you have a god that is mighty you have a god who is able you have a god who is powerful and what's even more is he loves you he cares about you and he cares about what is stressing you out and so stop focusing so much on oh my goodness how are we going to make ends meet focus on the god who says in philippians 4 19 that i will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in christ jesus stop focusing so much about the future what will happen i'm so scared i don't know what's going to happen do we even have any hope and start focusing on the god who says in jeremiah 29 11 i know the plans i have for you declares the lord plans to prosper you and not to harm you plans to give you hope and a future focus on god not the problem so much don't focus on oh my goodness do i have what it takes do i have the skills i don't know if i can pull this off and focus on the god and who would give us philippians 4-1-3 that says i can do all things through christ who strengthens me you win the battle against fear by shifting your focus from the problem to the person of god so that your prayer is no longer oh god look how big my problem is but hey problem look how big my god is right david wins the battle against fear but there's a second battle look at this verse 28 when eliab david's older brother heard him speaking with the men he burned with anger at him and asked why have you come down here and with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness i know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is you came down only to watch the battle and david has to fight the battle against criticism you see it and for many of you as you fight the big gigantic giant challenge in your life you will have to fight the battle against critics in your life as well look what david does in verse 29 it says now what have i done can't i even cannot even speak and then this is it this is so good he then turned away to someone else that is golden that is golden right there david could have wasted all kinds of time and energy engaging with his brother eliab but there's one thing that he knew that this isn't the story of david and eliav this is the story of david and goliath he's got a big challenge to face over here and so he cannot waste time and he cannot waste energy engaging with a bunch of critics right listen i want you to understand this when someone criticizes you there's criticism comes in one of two categories it's either accurate or inaccurate right don't worry about how angry they were when they delivered it to you don't worry if they gave you a little bit accurate a whole lot of inaccurate don't worry about whether they yell don't worry about anything there's just when someone criticizes you there's only two categories and you just sit back and you go is that inaccurate or is it accurate if it's accurate then fix what needs to be fixed and move on and if it's inaccurate then do what david did and just turn away to someone else and move on because you have got bigger fish to fry you have got a big challenge ahead of you you don't need to waste time and energy on the critics you know ray johnson was here uh right before i got here he was the interim pastor here and one of my favorite stories that he tells is when he was out at a diner one night and he's kind of uh listening in of course everybody in the place is kind of listening in because this little boy was saying the prayer at another table and he was saying it really loud dear god dear god thank you for this food and thank you even more if mom gets us ice cream tonight with liberty and justice for all amen is how he ended the prayer and everybody in the place is just caught off guard with how cute this kid is and they're kind of smiling except for this woman over here who's just just kind of beside herself this is not the way you pray this is not she's like visibly upset to the point that she's just and the boy's like well did i do it wrong and the woman said well you don't you don't pray to god for ice cream you know in your prayers like that and the boy just starts like this and rey just can't handle it anymore he gets up and kind of puts himself in between the old the woman and the boy and says i know god and i happen to know that he loved your prayer and you know what ice cream somebody ought to get that her ice cream because a little ice cream is good for your soul good job buddy and he went back and he sat down and then he called the server over and he said i want you to go back and i want you to make the biggest bowl of ice cream you can back there and deliver it as soon as you can to that boy and a few minutes went by and the server came out and put this big bowl of ice cream in front of the boy and he took it and his eyes looked real big and his his mouth got real smiley and he immediately just just didn't even skip a beat and he picked up the bowl of ice cream and took it over and put it in front of the woman and he said a little ice cream is good for the soul here my soul's good already isn't that awesome do not be sidetracked by the critics you got bigger fish to fry so don't let them waste your time battle against fear the battle against criticism and then what i'm going to call the battle against conformity king saul here's what's going on and he tells david if you're going to go out against saul okay um but here's what you go ahead and take my armor you take my sword you take all my stuff because i'm the king and i got the best weapons i got the best strategy you you go out with my stuff but look what david says he says i cannot go out in these because i am not used to them so he took them off and then he took his staff in his hand and he chose five smooth stones from the stream and he put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag and with his sling in his hand he approached the philistine you know i think it would have been real easy for david to say you know saul saul knows more than me he's been doing this a lot longer than me he's got a lot more experience than me and so i should probably just use utilize his strategy i should just do it his way but david fights the battle to conform in fact like all the israelites kind of looked like saul they all had the sword in the shield and the the breastplate they all had those things and i'm sure david felt a real pressure to conform to the way everybody else was fighting the battle but david doesn't do that david says no god's given me a way to fight i've been preparing for years for this david david was a slinger and do you know do you know that slingers the benjamites were slingers and in i think his judges talks about how the benjamites could sling from both hands they were ambidextrous that amazing i'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous that's amazing thank you anyway but they would do that experts say that that they could um kill their opponent they could kill a man at 400 yards they were so good um experts say that from about 40 or 50 yards out they've done tests and they believe that a slinger could have the same stopping a sling or stone could have the same stopping power as a 44 magnum isn't that crazy this is not your backyard little slingshot this is like a three foot piece of leather and they got a little they got like a golf ball sized stone in there and they're just i mean they're just like and they let it fly and this is what david was used to and he's got to fight against the the the temptation to say i'm going to do it like everybody else and and i think that's what we have to do as well i think there are times when you're getting ready to fight the big challenge or in the process of fighting the big battle there are going to be times when you're tempted to not fight god's way but to conform to the way everybody around you is pressuring you to fight so i say hey listen you're going to have to shade the details of that report pal because we have to make this sale you feel the pressure to conform it's um the pressure that the teenagers that young people have when they come to their parents and they say well i want to do this i want to do that and the parents go no i don't think that's the right thing to do and you remember what the kids say what do they all say well everybody's doing it right and i have seen men and women who are fighting for their marriage and probably well friends come along and offer advice like hey hey you've got to live your truth to which i think god would say no no no no you ought to live my truth or somebody would come along and say hey you got to do what's right for you because that's what the world would say you got to do what's right for you and god would say no no you've got to do what's right period or somebody would say hey you know what you got to do what makes you happy and god might say no you gotta you you should do what makes you holy and don't succumb to the temptation to conform to what other people do rachel and i were at a conference uh in lake geneva yesterday and somebody handed us this um this quote and it says the opposite of courage is not cowardice it is conformity even a dead fish can go with the flow isn't that good let's fight the battles the way god is calling us to fight the battles his strategy is always going to be better than anybody else's strategy so romans 12 2 says do not conform to the pattern of this world be transformed by the renewing of your mind we're going to fight with the weapons that god would give us in ephesians 6 the god would say that the bible is actually like a sword he compares the bible to a sword so when we are fighting i think the the sword ought to be one of our greatest strategies now if you were back in david's day and you were an israelite your sword was a big deal and you would study that sword you'd know every inch of that store if there was any weak spots in that sword you would know that sword and every day you would get up and you would train with that sword so that you knew how to fight with that sword and that's what i think we ought to do i love what pastor craig groeschel says he's got daily affirmations from scripture that he gets up every day and reads through these daily affirmations because he knows that every day he walks out of his house he's walking out into a significant battle and he wants to train daily with his sword and so i thought that we could end our message today with a little training exercise if that's okay with you i would love to ask you at all of our campuses in the room as well would you stand with me it's hard to train sitting down would you stand with me and i'd ask you to just close your eyes at all of our campuses just close your eyes and i would like to ask you to prayerfully ask the lord to show you what is the greatest challenge you are facing in this season of your life some of you will have no problem identifying what it is it is what you lay awake at night thinking about it is what is causing a tear to well up in your eyes this morning others of you will take some moments to prayerfully consider what is the greatest challenge that i face what is the most significant battle that god would have me training for today and now i would ask you to lift your eyes and allow me to speak these affirmations over you you can imagine them as stones of truth being put into your sling you can imagine them as sharpening your sword but in ephesians 1 18 says i am strong and mighty i have the same power that raised christ from the dead dwelling in me for those who are in christ ephesians 1 7 says i am not my past i am not what i did i am who god says i am he says i am forgiven galatians 5 he says i am redeemed he says i am free first corinthians 2 16 says i have the mind of christ directing my thoughts i have the word of god guiding my steps john 14 worry is not my master i trust in god his peace guards my heart guards my mind and guards my soul in christ jesus second timothy says my god has not given me a spirit of fear but a spirit of power of love and of a sound mind and hebrews 13 says the lord is my helper i will not be afraid colossians 1 says i am not a slave to my habits i am not a prisoner to an addiction i have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the kingdom of god's light these are god's truths for you as you fight your battles ephesians 2 says i am empowered i am chosen i am called i am a masterpiece of god created in christ jesus to do good works which god prepared in advance for me to do romans 8 31 says my god is for me my god is with me no weapon formed against me shall stand will prosper romans 8 38 says nothing can separate me from god's love not death not demons not the present nor the past no power on earth will ever separate me from the love of god that is in christ jesus my lord romans 8 says i am not what i have or by my identity is not is in christ and christ alone second corinthians by god's power i can change first peter 5 i cast my cares on god because he cares for me in ephesians 3 says my confidence is in christ and christ alone because his spirit lives within me i can do everything he calls me to do david won the battle against fear and david won the battle against criticism and david won the battle against conformity and then he took a stone and he put it in his sling and the bible says that he ran to meet goliath he ran to meet goliath and he swung and he swung and he swung and he let that stone go and he hit goliath right in between the eyes and goliath fell down in defeat david defeated his giant and you can too amen [Music] [Applause] [Music] come on let's sing with in light of that reality the greater is he that is [Music] standing next to me [Music] there is [Music] should i ever be [Music] is [Music] [Music] should [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] my god we're grateful that we are never alone that god you're always always fighting the battles in our behalf so as we think about the various giants that we face in our journey god we believe that you're a giant slayer we don't do it our own we do it because we lean to the power that you make possible through jesus so father as we go from this place as we go into our various lives and weeks god i just ask as we face these giants they got you to empower us to help these giants fall we pray that name your son jesus amen amen if you could have a seat for just a moment this is a unique weekend an exciting weekend you know i i love being a part of a church like a willow creek for a lot of reasons you can be excited about that too i love being a part of a church like this there's something about a larger church that it just has a reach to it the just the the scope and scale in which we can do things really has the opportunity to bless a lot of people so there's advantages to a larger church at the same time there's advantages to a smaller church smaller churches have the opportunity to connect people very very quickly and and maybe sometimes it's a more uh intimate type of environment and so as we kind of think about that i kind of pray that god would you allow us to be both would you love to be a church that kind of has the scope and scale to bless a lot of people and at the same time create smaller environments where people can find a sense of belonging care love that we can really walk each other in in a powerful way and that is really why groups become a critical part of everything we do around here at willow we want to be a church that doesn't just have some small groups we're going to be a church of small groups that we have various groups with all of our people a part of and what we do on a weekend is all these groups just come together collectively to worship together and so today is a unique opportunity one to launch groups they've been planning to launch this week but for others of you if you've not been connected to a group we're gonna create some opportunity for you to get connected to a group today so there are some group leaders in the room and i just asked if you're a group leader and you're planning to be a part of the tailgate experience i'm gonna ask that you stand up that you exit we're gonna give you a head start out the door uh so that you're prepared for others when they come so again group leaders you can feel free to exit whenever you like to do so now for the rest of us here's what's going to happen uh outside of the doors on on exit d you're going to see this happening in the lot so there are places for impact which is our high school ministry elevate our junior high ministry will be out there there's a place for kids that the kids activity kids can get some activities and there's a whole area where this labeled tailgate and that's an area that if you're not yet connected to a group it's a chance for you to meet some people to get to know some people to find out these various groups what they're all about and you'll find one that's designed just for you and so we want to make sure that you do that others of you you know what small group you're in and your small group is going to launch as a part of this tailgate and you can be there as well so on your way out you're going to be given a card that looks like this just says groups there's a qr code that you can scan as well and if you're looking to get connected to a group that qr code will lead you to electronically how you get connected to a group if you're joining us online you can just simply go to willowcreek.org groups and we will we will hook you up in that way cool one last little note if you're parents of kids in one of our ministries i would ask that you go get your kids from those ministries those classrooms and again take your kids with you out to that tailgate experience we've got some activities for them now next weekend it's another big weekend we got sam and emmanuel acho former nfl football players here with us next weekend it is going to be an amazing amazing weekend don't show up next week without a guest alongside of you and so make sure you bring a friend a family member loved one neighbor uh co-worker we would love for uh this to be a really really special weekend for all involved well i hope you have a fantastic week just know that we love you a lot have a great week we'll see you next week [Music] you

Channel: Willow Creek Community Church

Views: 2,384

Rating: 4.8400002 out of 5

Keywords: willow creek community church, willow creek, willow, willow south barrington, mission, vision, mission and vision, love god. love people. change the world, love god, love people, change the world, willow creek mission and vision, willow creek mission, willow creek vision, dave dummitt

Id: Ki2HSv8zuA4

Length: 63min 49sec (3829 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021