Welcome Crossing family. I am so excited that you've
decided to join us for this incredible weekend.
I want to welcome those of you at all of our locations.
Those of you who are part of the crossing inside, and those of
you who are joining us online for probably some beach or some
fantastic time delay. God bless you.
We wish we were you next week. We are starting something great
here at the crossing at all of our different locations that
will take us all the way through the summer.
And we believe here at the Crossing that this could be one
of the Best seasons of spiritual growth in your life and I'm
hoping that you will join us. You're going to get more
information about that at the end of the service but I really
am hoping that you will join Jennifer and I on this journey.
But today I am excited to welcome, one of our Premier
Mission Partners to the crossing Lucas R ugly started.
Love the loo a Ministry that specializes in doing physical
and spiritual work in neighborhoods to bring about Out
healing his brother. Actually, attends our Keokuk
location with his family and they are dear friends, too many
who call The Crossing home. In fact, many of you have gone
on mission trips to partner with them in St.
Louis as a part of the great work that they're doing and I am
hoping that many more of you will choose to do the same.
One of the many things that I love about Lucas is that he is
not doing Ministry in the Inner City from a house in the
suburbs. Instead he moved Get him himself
and his wonderful wife and they are raising their four kids
right on. And right Street.
He has brought with him a dear friend and partner in Ministry
from love, the loo to share with us today.
So here's what I need after this video that you're going to see
it's a short video. I would love for you to give one
of the warmest. Crossing, Welcome to our
partners and dear friends in Ministry.
At one point, I felt like we had a shooting death every weekend.
Yeah. And it was so fresh.
It was the fear was just like, I mean, you could just feel it.
well, I don't like hearing the sirens and I you know some of
the best come up with a you know when the sirens when the
ambulance comes If I hear gunshots, I can say, oh, that's
two blocks away, half the time now, I don't even go inside
because I'm like, that's a block away.
We'll be fine. You don't get your faith.
Like to me. Get yellow tape for a murderer,
some bait, but shooting with that.
It really saw somebody die. Doesn't that mean teletype mean?
Somebody's death? Yeah.
So my family has lived in North st.
Louis all the and write for 11 years now.
And I've always wanted to make a difference in God's kingdom and
so moving into the neighborhood. I felt like was just a real
tangible way to do that, but I was really surprised when the
script got flipped and I was the one who was learning all the
lessons. I guess I was just surprised at
the amount of work, he was going to do in my life.
So this is a story of a White Guy, moving into a black
neighborhood hoping to do good. But then finding out that I'm
the one who needs got, this is heavy stuff, but even in the
heaviness There's Hope. and so, today we want to share with you
not a story of loss but that story of redemption
So, what happens is, you'll hear a siren off in the distance and
you won't necessarily pay attention to it.
And then you'll hear a second one.
And it's usually coming from the opposite direction and the third
one. And then by the time you hear
the ambulance wine and the low Rumble of a fire truck, you
begin to realize that all of these Sirens are converging onto
one spot where you are and they get louder and they get louder,
and they get louder and then the sirens stop.
And when the sirens stop, you know, that distress is on the
doorstep. When the siren stop.
You know, you shouldn't watch the news that night because
you're not going to just know the story.
You're going to know the names attached to the story.
There Are Places. In America, where the sirens are
stopping every night and it's the scene of trauma where trauma
becomes just the normal reality that we live through.
Places of suffering places of grief.
My daughter told me that, as she's falling asleep, she's
learned how to time the sirens once every 10 minutes, there's a
siren going off in North st. Louis on, in Wright Avenue,
which means that, as kids are falling asleep, On in, right?
They're not counting sheep. Accounting sirens.
And guys, I could stand up here Keyshia and I could stand up
here. And we could tell you story
after Story of grit. We could tell you of the trouble
that we've seen, but that is not the story.
Actually got good news. You guys ready for it?
Okay, here's some good news. Jesus is putting North City back
together again and he's not going to stop until he's
finished. He's not quittin, he's not.
He's just getting started. And in some of the hardest
places, some of the hardest environments is where, where God
likes to do his best work and so if you've walked in these doors
and you're suffering and you're struggling and you're depressed
and you're down and out, and you're broken and you don't even
know why you're here is a really great Sunday.
Because we can relate, we know what that's like.
I've got one scripture to share with you guys this morning.
This is in Philippians 3:10. It's actually just one verse and
Paul writes this as he is in Chains and so if you would, I
just want you to picture Paul in prison in chains for just a
second. And he writes this.
He says, I want to know Christ. Yes, to know the power of his
resurrection and participate with him in his sufferings,
becoming like him in death. Paul isn't writing from
Starbucks, he's not journaling, he's not doing his personal
devotees, I'm with the, with a Bible study, he's in Chains and
he says, I want to know Jesus the power of his resurrection to
participate with him in suffering.
Becoming like him in death. And so, Paul equates suffering
with Jesus, To knowledge to a mental assent.
And he kind of likes it. He's looking forward to those
times where we're all of his flesh can be stripped away, and
he can know what it's like to be with Jesus, to suffer, like
Jesus, to suffer with Jesus. Like I said, there are places in
the United States. Like North st.
Louis. Our people have suffered.
It's become a reality. And the thing that I've learned
in 12 years of ministry, is that God has not left the city.
He's actually forging and forming through this refining,
fire. Some of the best faith that
you're ever going to see. And for those of you who are on
the mission field where you're at and you're in, you're serving
and you're you're with the poor, you know that it's not it's not
a Poverty of the wallet. It's a, it's a Poverty of the
mind that Jesus can can take and transform in a heartbeat, and
he's doing it. And so, because that is the case
I get too. And it is my honor to hand.
This microphone over to a dear friend, a neighbor a CO minister
in the gospel Keisha Williams. Good morning.
I always after have to come after Lucas, I like what am I
supposed to say? Oh my God, so I have had the
unique ability to live in the city of St.
Louis my entire life, right? Except for two years, why
ventured off? And I thought I was an adult and
I went out and lived in Pacific and Eureka and I have to tell
you it was nice. It was quiet like it is around
Quincy and I was like, this is nice.
This is nice. But unfortunately because As I
have been in the city, all of my life it was too quiet.
I'm used to you know the sirens I'm used to the No, that was,
that was, that was until my street so it became too quiet
for me. And I love the neighborhood, you
know, I had the ability to forget my keys in the door, and
the car was still there in the morning, and we were still there
in the morning. So that, you know, all of those
things were nice when I lived out in Pacific in Eureka.
But what I missed the most about living in the city, when I moved
out. Of it was the sense of
community. Like there is a sense of
community in the city of st. Louis.
And I'm sure you guys probably have it here, but in the city of
st. Louis, we watch out for each
other. We are concerned about each
other. Sometimes, you can even say that
we're nosy about each other, right?
I'm reminded of a story of a woman that I've come to find to
know And she reminds me of all of the reasons, why the city of
st. Louis is like Ground Zero for me
because first of all, there's a lot of gyms there, there's a lot
of Legacy there, there's a lot of generational work wealth
there, on top of death Calamity. You know all of that is true but
I promise you it's true. We do have a lot of that, but we
also have hidden gems. We also have life.
We also Have wealth inside the city of st.
Louis that the news is not talking about.
So it takes us as individuals of the Gospel to come and bring
forth what God is doing. So, the young lady that I was
speaking about, she was a product of her environment, her
mother died at the age of nine of disease.
Her father was an abusive alcoholic her older siblings
because she was the youngest of five were already, you know,
doing life. They were out in the streets.
They were Adapting to their environments.
So it left her being taught by the streets.
It left her being taught and Trauma it left her being
self-raising self-taught, which is not always a good thing
without the rearing of an adult's, right?
So she went on to high school and before she graduated, she
had three children. Her teachers and the peers kind
of told her. Hey, you know what you've done?
All you were going to do might as well drop out.
You know, just just be a baby mama.
That's what You're going to do, you're really good at it, you
know, do that. She had already became a
statistics by everybody's concept, right?
But then, she had a community of people around her, the community
made sure that they were empowering her with love.
They were empowering her, letting her know that you can do
anything, you set your mind to, not only do they Empower up
Empower her with their words, they put their words into
action, they watched her kid. They made sure that she had
enough to eat. They made sure that her children
were clothes, they made sure that she was on her way to
school. She had time to do her homework
so that she can Excel. So she does not have to be what
they called her. Tom passes on, she graduates.
High school with honors. All three of her children in
attendance. Comes up out of that at the age
of 25. She moved back into the same
neighborhood, one of the roughest in St.
Louis buys a house. Becomes a pillar in the
community. She drives out the drug dealers.
This is my house. This is where I live.
You guys can't do this here. She starts a neighborhood of
watch, not only for her, three children, but for the children
in the community at Large, when they were hungry, she made sure
that her doors were open when they needed somewhere to stay.
She made sure that they had a place and it became a safe haven
for the community. She walked up and down the
streets, cleaning up, the alleys cleaning up the streets.
Making sure that her community was beautiful, regardless of
what they heard about it. On the news.
Regardless of we seen someone dying on the street next door to
her, she made sure that she was taking care.
Care of her community. Not only did she engage and be
impactful on contact. She engaged the neighbors to
also do the same things. Those are the hidden gems that
are within the city of st. Louis that the news is not
talking about. Those are the people that we
stand on their shoulders saying that yes we can.
God is still working. God is still doing the thing and
he's going to do it through us. Thank you.
So, I'm from Jackson Missouri, which means that my neighbors
were cows and we didn't have streets.
Where I grew up. We had roads and you were lucky.
If yours was paved moved, my family, like it's been
mentioned. Move my family on to end right
Avenue about 12 years ago and God's just done this work in my
life and it's frustrating. Because I moved to help all
these people. And God says, you're the one
that needs help. And he keeps showing me all
these ways that I need to grow. I want to share with you just
some, some of those ways that God is has grown me.
When we moved on to Enright Avenue, I saw, I saw poverty, up
close and personal, we met kids like day one who didn't have
beds, who would roll up a sweatshirt sleep in the kitchen.
There was a partment across the street from my house where we're
neighbors would pack in, you know, 12 or so.
Into a one-bedroom apartment, I would meet kids that would steal
from the grocery store, not because they were devious and
destructive but because they didn't know what they were going
to eat that night. And and so my view pretty
quickly was man. I need to help these poor kids.
I need to help these poor kids and it and I inadvertently I
went from looking at them as like, Hey, we're all in this
together to us helping them me coming in to them.
And this was the same time that the term white savior,
industrial complex was being coined.
It was the Same year that the book when helping hurts came
out. And I was doing that,
inadvertently, not not intentionally, I love Jesus.
I want to go where the need is, but I at different points failed
to recognize that I had the same need In 2014, there was a kid
that was shot on our block. And it set off a gang war where
the neighborhood kids 15 16 year old children not thugs. but
these kids didn't know what to do with their grief and so they
formed this group that would Kind of mourn together every
evening and I would go over and I would hang out with them and I
take bottled water and and pray and ask him to come over to my
house and charge their cell phones and and so I got pretty
tight with these guys. And after a few months they
still didn't know what to do with the the inside pain.
And so one of them went and got revenge on somebody up the
street and then I was back and forth for two years of drive-by
shootings. Until every single one of those,
those kids was either dead or in jail.
We lost an entire generation to gang violence.
Just like that. And if you would ask me at that
time, like like, how are you doing?
What's going on? I don't know that I had any good
news. There's a felt like everything
was death around us and all of the neighbors, were were scared.
We were holding on for dear life.
It felt like the prayers were hitting the ceiling, and I don't
know if you've ever had those times in your life or in your
ministry but he just felt like God, where are you?
It was a weekend where we took the younger brothers and sisters
of those gang members and we started taking vacant lots and
turning them into Gardens and and I remember back then saying
to them and we can either go death or we can go life.
We can keep going this wide Road where where it's easy but
everybody's dying all around this.
Or we can try a different way and narrow road.
Every single one of those kids chose that.
Narrow road that path to life. And at the time, I thought path
to life meant, let's just get these kids some jobs.
Let's get them, different trajectory where they can make
some money and have some opportunities and have some
resources. Jesus says, you can gain the
whole world and lose your soul. And wouldn't it be a shame if if
our whole Ministry was just to get kids, a couple bucks.
So they could what, Be rich. Is that our purpose?
Is that our call? Is that what we're trying to
lead? People to know.
And I know we're trying to lead people to Jesus, but there's
been times in my life where I thought, man, we just we just
need resources. We just got to get some better
education, and that's true. We're at a point now with our
work. And I know there's more lessons
coming, but, but a few weeks ago, I sat down with 15, boys.
Age is 12 to 23, bunch of young uns compared to, I'm not going
to tell you that, it's getting bad.
My back is, you know, given out and and so everybody's young
compared to me. Now, I'm looking at these kids
and, and And I wasn't getting through to him.
I don't know why, you know, but it just wasn't Landon.
And finally I said, How many of you should not be alive to this
day? Like what?
Like you, none of like, like you shouldn't be here.
And every single one of those kids raised their hand from 12
to 2 about 21:15 kids, all raise their hand believing that they
should not be alive. And that's, that's the reality.
That's true. so, I followed it up and I said, What are you
alive for? Why are you here?
We got into some good stuff that night.
Because God has them alive, not just to survive. not just to get
rich, not just to get some education or have some power
here on Earth, but to have abundant thriving life in
Christ. Wow look it's a it's crazy to
me, right? Because I live in that
neighborhood and I see those same kids right into know that
that is their reality not knowing you know what, tomorrow
holds but the difference is we have the ability to Know Who
Holds Tomorrow. And so with that it's it
changes. Our perspective, it changes how
we do things. And it just it's I think God
forgot, that's all I can say. But the woman that I was
speaking about earlier I know her intimately, right?
Because she was my mother growing up.
We didn't have a lot. There are times that we may have
went to sleep with, you know, by choice.
Because there's always peanut butter and jelly to eat, right?
Like you have that no matter what we weren't raised up on
steaks and shrimp and lobsters and things like that, but we
never had an opportunity where we you missed a meal.
But what I could say is that we were able to engage our
community in such a way, that it made such an impact on us as
adults, right. And I love my mother so much
because even though we didn't have a lot, she gave out of what
she had. That's where that wealth came
from. That's where she took on the
principles of what God said, if they're hungry, I'll feed them.
If they're without clothes, I'll make sure they're fed.
If they are hurting, I'll bandage their rooms.
I think she took the heart, the parable of the Good Samaritan.
And if you don't know that, I'm going to give you the real
quick, Keisha version, it is in Luke.
You can go ahead and find it for yourself.
It's a really good read. It really helps you to
understand who your neighbor is. Sometimes we have a question
about. I don't know if those people are
my neighbors because we don't Look alike.
We don't share the same things, but I'm here to tell you that we
all go through the same things. There's different seasons of our
lives and we all come out different, depending on the
lesson that we've learned, right?
So, Jesus is talking a synagogue.
And someone asks, hey so what who do, who is my neighbor?
Like, who am I supposed to take care of God, said, I'm glad you
asked. So, he gave them a parable of a,
man, a Jewish man walking, and he was beaten he was robbed, and
they left him for dead. And as I'm telling this story, I
want you to kind of put in your mind, the things that Lucas and
I are saying that happens in the city of st.
Louis, we've been broken, we've been robbed.
We've been kind of Left 4 Dead. No one wants to bother with us.
We're sitting in despair. We're sitting in tragedy.
We're sitting income Calamity and Chaos, so then the priest
came by and he seen the man. He was like, nope, not me.
Today, I'm busy. I got to get this sermon.
I got to do this. So we just kept on walking not
only to keep walking. He removed himself from the The
situation and he left. Then came a levite.
He seen the man, the man seen him.
He said not my problem. Somebody else behind me that
somebody else is going to see him so that will let them take
care of it. Let it be someone else's
problem. So he kept moving then came a
Samaritan man. Him and his donkey their walk
in. They see the man and they took
pity on him. They seen him they'd seen him
better. They seem him near death, they
seem them bruised. They seen him without hope and
he stopped to take care of him. Not only, did he see about him,
he used his oil and back then, you know, oil was priceless.
They needed that. That was a part of their living.
He used his oil to minister to his wounds.
He didn't know this man. All he seen was someone who is
considered God's child. He didn't see that, you know,
maybe they were he didn't take no thought of what could have
happened to him. But all likewise he ministered
to the man. He did not leave him there.
He picked him up. He put him on his donkey he took
him to the end. Told the Cake, The Innkeeper.
Hey so I found this man, I need you to minister to this man.
I need you to make them. Well, I have to leave but on my
way back, I'm going to check back in to make sure that he's
okay. And he's on his way the man that
the Jewish man that was hurt was full of gratitude.
What I love about this is that that is what God is calling us
to do. He's calling us to remove
ourselves from us. Like, we're so stuck in our own
way, sometimes that were not able to see the need of those
around us. I get to see the need because
his smack dab in my face, but sometimes the need is not always
present, right? Like we have so much trauma in
our lives that again, we all are suffering from the same.
Trauma, abandonment. Disapproval, shame.
Guilt. That's the city of st.
Louis, the difference is someone walked alongside you.
All walked alongside me and gave me direction.
They gave me Jesus who gives me strategy G for tomorrow.
How he teaches me, that I can use my time, my talent, and my
treasures, for my neighbors. And not keep it all to myself.
I'm like my mother. I don't have a lot of anything.
But what I do have I give freely because I know that there's a
God who sits high and looks low and he's going to take care of
my household because I'm taking care of his God is amazing.
He is putting the city of st. Louis back together again, bit
by bit, he is strategically placing individuals like myself
and Lucas and some of you who have come down and volunteered
your time your talent and your Treasures to build up.
A seemingly forgotten community. God deals in broken things.
I'm a witness. He deals in batter.
That's where he does his best work.
He said those who are well do not need a physician.
There are already. Well, I come to seek those who
are lost. that is our job as people go, ye therefore Preach
and teach to All Nations. The city of st.
Louis is a nation. Quincy is a nation.
It is our responsibility. It is our reasonable response.
To get in the trenches and to help pull someone else out.
Thank you. Want to give you some more good
news this morning. This is a weird statistic but we
haven't had a shooting death on our block in over six years.
I know that's strange but the sirens are literally stopping
you guys. This is what Jesus does when
Jesus hangs on the cross. He is saying he's proclaiming an
end to suffering when he raises from the dead.
He's saying, hey those those places those environments he has
power and dominion over any of that.
His perfect love drives out fear.
When I tell you one quick story, I think it'll be quick, we'll
see the video that you saw. There's a woman in that video.
She's older, her name is tuwana, she'll never be on this stage.
She'll never be a keynote speaker.
She doesn't want any of that when I met to wanna and she's
allowed me to share her story. When I met her, she might have
been labeled as homeless She's amazing.
And over the years, we've gotten to know her to bring her on
staff. She's that incredible of a
minister. Last year, I was sitting with
her and, and it was all of our staff at love to Lou.
And I said, twanna, what is it that keeps your heart healthy.
How do you keep going? She's been through a lot.
She's seen it and she goes, she was well, every morning I pray
and I read my Bible with my auntie.
And that's a really sweet Sunday school answer.
And so I said that's great and I was getting ready to move on and
so I was like, no, no. You guys need to hear this
story. And and she's not boasting,
she's not bragging in herself, but she told us the following
story. She said her aunt and her used
to be really close. We used to be best friends, had
a falling out because Tawanna got pregnant.
And this is, this is you know decades ago.
Towanda got pregnant and the father to her children cheated
on her, with several women but one of them including her
auntie. And her auntie got pregnant.
They're pregnant at the same time and they became very
distant. The Auntie didn't want the baby
and Towanda said, at some point, I'll take that baby.
And she did and she raised two girls on her own.
Turned out the the father of the children was was abusing the
kids and Tawana spoke out against it to the family and the
family said we should. We should just solve this in
house and Towanda said, no, we have to go to the authorities
and she turned him in. He went to prison.
And everybody turned their back on Tawana.
And for 20 years they hated her They said all kinds of terrible
things about her, the whole family was ripped apart, covid
happened, and the Auntie walked into a situation where there's a
robbery and she got shot in the face.
Towanda came to me at that point.
And and and she said, hey Lucas. I feel like I might have caused
this because I prayed for Revenge, You know, those psalms
where, like David goes off and he's just praying against his
enemies twanna. Had prayed that this is a little
prayer challenge for, I guess, I know now that she, she she had
prayed this prayer that that God would get even in.
And her enemy got shot in the face and lived.
And to want to then was guilty. And she's like, what do I do
with this? We talked about it and I guess
the only church answer I had was something about forgiveness and
so she took that and she ran with it.
And she she said I this is after about a week of praying, God Has
Lifted it off of me. I forgiven her She told me about
how she was going to go to the hospital and to tell her and she
did Tawana went to the hospital reconnected with her.
Her Aunty said I forgive you. It's all, it's all behind us.
They cried, they prayed. They started reading their Bible
and every morning to wanna reads her Bible and praise.
With her auntie. God is doing some really cool
stuff in the city. And he continues to do this work
and we're here to share a lot but there's really just to
prayers that I have today. The first one is that if you're
suffering. If you're struggling, if you're
in it. So is God.
And I'm praying that he would reveal himself to you today and
that the suffering can be used for his glory.
The second prayer. Is that God?
We are asking. That on each campus.
You would be raising up your people.
To be connections. To be Bridge Builders into these
pockets, in our society, that are broken, Jesus, we absolutely
need you to lead us. Give us an identity of Truth.
Tellers of bold, Proclaimers to go into places and to be with
people, where might seem crazy. God, we need you.
We pray all of this because of you and your name.
Amen. There is hope because there are
still people that want to see in our city Drive.
Because we live here. The what I see a community want
to see, he is playing us and I we always got to come together
and make it happy. That's witnessed a lot so I'm
saying like so hope you think Dom was you serve when you don't
like it you give up time and energy and effort supposing.
You don't know you feel the void.
I don't know for what that person is missing, they could be
missing my mom uncle and we helped by filling that void.
Yeah. And anyway, I saying nice things
compliments, even smiling. I think this probably the
biggest thing is just the parent for your nasal.
I'm still able to love and I'm still able to smell I believe
that st. Louis will be changed when we
just all learn to love each other and be more neighborly.
I think the biggest meet in St. Louis is love.
I know, there is hope for St, Louis, because Jesus is not done
with this city yet. There's a lot of good here.
There's a lot of talent in St.Louis, there's a lot of
smiles. There's a lot of Joy.
There was hope for st. Louis because of the people who
are in it and it starts here, it starts now And I just thank God
for his people. The good outweigh the bed
because it's not every day, it's not every hour.
Like I have a lot to be thankful for and the things that God has
helped me through, I think it's really important for people to
understand that God hasn't left the city and in fact, he's doing
really Cool stuff here. This is God's work.
He takes death and turns it into life, and we're literally seeing
that on a regular basis, the sirens stop when Jesus enters
the story, it's when the kid gets fed or learns to read where
the neighbor is helped with their house.
It's win. The vacant lot goes from being
overgrown and kind of like a jungle.
And turned into a garden like it's really tangible stuff.
It's not rocket science. This isn't something you need a
degree for like this is like very practically showing love.
It's loving actions that are going to transform our city.
And our DNA is the church. Is that love?
You want to know where the hope is right here with us?
This is a story of when the siren.
Top and it's a story of Hope and it's a story that I want to
invite you into tomorrow might be different.
But today right now we do Have you listened just a little
bit closer? You may hear some Sirens having
to this place right now. They may be heading to this.
This room, they may be heading to maybe wherever you're
watching online right now. And you have to ask yourself.
Why? Why are the sirens heading here
is because some people That people and and even myself we
love dearly. They are in need of some
immediate help, they are in need of some immediate attention,
they're needing rescued. And even though we may not be
able to right now to hear you verbally or vocally screaming
out, help help help. And your lives.
Your lives are crying it out. The situations that you are
currently in and they're crying out.
The looks on some of your faces scream, that you are needing
help and you don't know where to turn.
And their situations and in this world that we live, in this
reality that we have is this state of being separated from
God and almighty God, because of the sin that exists in our
lives. and for some of you what you've been trying to do, you've
been trying to do in your own power, you've been trying to do
in your own strength, you've been trying to rescue yourself
But there's good news. There's help available to you.
This is happens when, when you start an intimate, personal
relationship with Jesus, you no longer have to do it within your
own strength. You no longer have to do it with
your own power. You've been walking around
outside of relationship with Jesus, with this kind of this
homemade first aid kit, you've been, you've been hurt.
So you put a bandage on yourself.
You can't walk. So you get your own crutches and
you try to do things your own way.
But again, when you're doing things on your own, It doesn't
last, it's not possible. So the hope that we have and the
hope that we get to share every single time that we get the
opportunity to do it is that help is here and it's found in
the person. It's found in the name of Jesus.
He's our rescuer. He's Our Redeemer.
He is the one that saves us that that pulls us from the pit.
He's the one that takes our homemade bandages and he gives
us something new. What I love about Romans Romans
10 it says this that everyone Every single person.
Anyone and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be
saved. Anyone who calls on the name of
Jesus will be saved and I'm encouraging for those of you,
you've not started that relationship with Jesus In This
Moment, call on the name of Jesus, throw away that first aid
kit. Bring him your pain, bring him
your shame, bring him, the sins that have kept you separated
from God. And you say, Jesus, I'm turning
away from those sins and I'm turning NG to you.
Put your life In His Hands today.
Let him transform you. Let them take this old heart.
Let them do surgery to it. Let him give you a new one.
I'm encourage you in this moment, start that relationship
with Jesus right now and just a little bit.
We're gonna sing some songs couple songs and just we're
going to worship, we're going to just celebrate all that he's
done for us. And and if you are in that spot
where you're just like, I've been doing this for too long on
my own and I need Jesus, I need to transform my heart and I
don't want to do it myself. I need him to do it.
There's going to be someone right by the baptistry that
would love to help you walk through what it looks like to
have. A relationship with him to take
that next step to get into the Waters of baptism and and really
declared you are made new. You are a new creation.
The old has gone. The new has has come.
You can start that relationship with Jesus today.
For the rest of us in this room. All of us who have said, yes to
Jesus. All of us who are pursuing
Jesus. We're trying to do this thing as
a Christian and it's hard. But one of the parts in that
video that I heard that stuck out to me, just the one we just
watch, you may have missed it, but it said this, it says it
starts here. And it starts with us
Christians, it starts here in this moment and it starts with
us and love the loo and credible.
Incredible things that God is doing in and through them.
There they are committed to reaching people in the greater
st. Louis area and their
neighborhoods all around them men but our call and our
commission right here is to reach as many people as possible
to tell them the good news that I just shared with you to the
whole world whether that's in Quincy Illinois, whether that's
in the surrounding area, maybe you're in Liberty, maybe you're
in Camp point, maybe you're in mended, maybe you're in
Hannibal. Maybe.
I don't know where you're at. Maybe, Um we're in Missouri,
somewhere in Iowa, maybe somewhere in Indiana.
Maybe you're about to travel to Florida.
You're going to Hawaii on vacation.
It doesn't matter where you're at.
Where ever? Your feet are hitting the
ground. The our mission doesn't change.
We Can't Stop. We won't stop as Christian
because it starts here and it starts now, we got to tell
people how they can be rescued And so my personal burden and I
know so many of you Christians, your personal burden is the
same. It's how do we reach more people
for Jesus? And a question.
I keep asking myself. the thing that breaks my heart the most
Is, what am I doing about it? Like today, what, what am I
doing about it to share with someone that they need?
Jesus, because we are called to be missionaries for him.
Everywhere we go. And so in this time of decision
for you as a Christian is a simply just come up here in a
humble way. And the way that we humble
ourselves, as we get down on our knees and we just enter into a
time of prayer and we say, God, I need I need boldness.
I need, I need you to use the words that are going to come out
of my mouth. I need you to use the actions
that happened through my fingertips.
Gotta pray that as a people that come into my path that you would
soften their hearts. I pray God that you can and that
you will use me and that he will and he can use you.
There is hurt and there is pain all over this world.
But we have the greatest news. We have the greatest hope.
So why should we keep that to ourselves?
And I don't think we should and the way we do that, is it starts
right here in this moment. So if you would stand with me,
let's go to him in prayer. Let's go to him.
As we humble ourself, let's go to him as we asked him to come
with us. In this moment to give us the
direction we need. Jesus, we are so thankful God
for this time. So, thankful for these moments,
maybe to be just re-centered to your gospel, to be re-centered
to the call that you you put on our lives.
God, the way that you call us to go out into the The world.
To reach people for you. To tell them about you to not
stop until this whole world knows about you.
God, that our personal burden. God, this is that more people
would know you. And God, I pray that because of
this moment right here, because it starts right here and it
starts with us, God, I pray that you would do something in the
parts of the people. Listen, you do something in my
heart. God, that would make your
kingdom grow. That would bring hope to someone
who doesn't have hope that lives would be turned around in this
moment. Jesus, we love you.
We pray all this your name. Amen.