All right, everyone, and welcome back.
Welcome back. If you're watching online this
morning, hello to you and grateful that you joined us.
And we invite you to come be with us in person at 115 E Main
Street, right in the old historic part of Gaylord.
And our services are at 9:00 and 10:30 on Sunday mornings.
You're invited. Would love to see you sometime
soon. All right, if you have your
Bibles or your device, please take and turn to the book of
Habakkuk, which is not an easy book to find.
I will prepare you. If you have a table of contents
in the front, maybe use it or go to the New Testament, which is
Matthew, and then kind of go a little bit a couple pages back
from there and you can find it. We're going to be in Habakkuk
chapter 2, and this may be a passage that you were familiar
with. And again, notes are available
on the back table. If you'd like notes to the
message, you can pick them up now or grab them on your way
out. All right, Habakkuk chapter 2
and I'm going to read to you from verse 2.
Habakkuk 2, verse 2. And the Lord answered me,
meaning Habakkuk. And the Lord said, write the
vision and make it plain on tablets so he may run who reads
it for still the vision awaits it's appointed time.
It hastens to the end, and it will not lie.
If it seems slow, wait for it. It will surely come and it will
not delay. This morning I want to talk to
you about why we church, which is an interesting title, why we
church and let me pray for us before we jump in.
God, thank you again for the stay and thank you for your word
and help us in these next few moments to even the more grow in
our appreciation and understanding about the vision
of our church and the mission and what is important to us.
So our hearts are open, our minds are open.
Jesus speak to us, we pray and ready us even the more God to
fulfill your callings and purposes for us as a church
family. We pray this in Jesus name and
everyone said Amen. Now each year there are certain
weeks where you know, it's kind of under, you know, it's
understood. I on Christmas Eve, I will
preach and teach about the birth of Jesus, right?
It's it's, it's, it's scheduled right on Easter Sunday.
I'm going to talk about the resurrection of Jesus on Good
Friday, about the death of Jesus, not in quite the same
way, but similar. Each year around this weekend, I
usually try to do a message that articulates the vision of our
church. And I want you hopefully at the
end, I'll prepare you. I want you to be able to do like
an elevator version of what I'm going to give it to you.
Now, what is an elevator version?
Well, let's say, let's say if you're, if you get in an
elevator and you have like 4045 seconds to explain, if you were
to tell somebody, oh, North Life Church, what, what's, Oh, let me
tell you about my church. What I'm going to tell you now,
you can tell it in about 45 seconds.
I'm going to take much longer this morning, but you could tell
it in that brief of time. And I want you to be able to
know it and carry it and be able to tell others and you yourself
resonate with, OK, This is the mission and the purpose and the
reason for our church. And according to Habakkuk, who
is a minor prophet, in the end of the Old Testament, God spoke
to him and he said, write the vision and then put it on
tablets where people can see it and that are running.
And in this way, it doesn't mean like, oh, I have the vision and
run with it. It's more like make it so clear
that just in passing, you'll be able to see the vision.
It's so clear. It's so just easy to get.
OK? So in our lobby you'll find when
you go out to your right, some of you are familiar with these,
there are three canvases like poster of sorts and they say
what I'm going to teach you this morning.
They have these 3 mission statements that we value.
And so I want you to be able to memorize it.
And while you're passing through the lobby, it just glanced at it
week by week. And so this morning, it's been a
while since I've, I've visited these ideas with you.
So you might not know them for one or may you may have
forgotten them. So this morning when the worship
team was practicing, I asked them, OK, how many of you can
say what is on the wall back there?
And a couple of them were were mostly able to say it, but I
want you to be able to clearly say it and tell others about it.
OK, so this morning's about vision is why we church and I'm
turning church into a verb, right?
Usually a church is a person, place or thing.
But this morning I want to I want to act like, Hey, when we
get together, we church. And it's kind of a Southern
saying, having grown up in Texas, you know, sometimes
people go to church and other times people have church, right?
We want to have church when we get together, we want to turn
church into a verb and it's action and it's us being the
church. OK, so then what is the vision?
What is what is the purpose of North life?
Our three statements that we have in the lobby, you can find,
and I want you to memorize are these three statements.
It's let's encounter, let's equip, and let's go.
Let's encounter, let's equip and let's go.
And I want to unpack for you what that means in detail, but
those are the three things that I'm encouraging you to memorize.
OK? Now, when I became the lead
pastor 3 and some years ago, we had this idea that we find in
Exodus chapter 33. And it's a story of Moses and
the children of Israel. And it's the time for them to
move on into a new season, into a new chapter.
And God and Moses have a discussion.
They have a conversation and I, I feel like I've had this
conversation with God. And if you can also adopt what
Moses says to the Lord in verse 13 of Exodus 33, it says now,
therefore this is Moses speaking.
He says, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me
now your ways that I may know you in order to find favor in
your sight. Consider too that this nation is
your people. And he said, meaning God said,
my presence will go with you and I will give you rest.
And he said to him, if your presence will not go with me, do
not bring us up from here. This is Moses saying, God, I
need your presence. God, if your presence doesn't
go, then I don't want to go forward.
And and God says I will be with you.
And then just to be sure says God, because if you don't, then
I said, I don't want to move forward.
I don't want to go into the next season and verse 16.
For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight?
This is still Moses and I and your people, is it not in your
going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people from
every other people on the face of the earth?
And the Lord said to Moses, this very thing that you have spoken
I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know
you by name. And then Moses said, please show
me your glory. So this conversation, this is
this is our posture as a church. It's like God, we want you to
speak clearly to us about what is our purpose and what is our
mission. And we do believe as church
leaders that this idea of let's encounter, let's equip, let's
go. We feel like this is what God
has prompting on our heart as we're moving forward.
And we're like, God, this is you speaking to us.
It's your presence prompting us in this way.
And so then we cry out like Moses, we say, God, show us your
glory. Show us your glory and let your
presence be with us. OK, so that's from that posture
that we gather these ideas of let's encounter, let's equip and
let's go. I'm going to say it several
times in this message because I want you to be able to repeat it
when you go home. OK, so the first thing, what do
we value? What is our mission?
What do we want to see every time we're together as a church?
Well, we want to encounter. In other words, we want to meet
with God. And in your notes, spell check
kicked in and it says unelected. Well, that's there's theological
ideas that I won't go into, but it wasn't supposed to say
unelected. It was supposed to say
unexpected. And so when we think about
encountering or meeting with God, sometimes the meetings or
the moments that we have with God are unexpected and their
surprises. I believe that when we come to
church together that we can have unexpected beautiful moments
with the presence and Spirit of God.
And when we come with that expectation, it changes the way
that we do church coming believing that we are going to
meet with God. And so in that way, coming to
church is completely different than like going to see a movie,
right? You can go to see a movie and
maybe in the lobby see people that you know and recognize.
You can get some snacks and go in and do the show and then walk
out, maybe see someone you recognize and go to your car.
See, that's not church, is not meant to be that way.
And some people don't understand that.
So they come to church with that mentality.
It's like, OK, I'm going to go have a snack or two, see some
people watch a show and go home. No, when we gather together on
Sundays and Wednesdays, anytime that we're together as a church
family, our expectation is that we are going to together, meet
with God and encounter him. Jacob has an experience like
this in the book of Genesis and you remember Jacob was the
grandson of Abraham. So Abraham begat Isaac and Isaac
begat Jacob and Esau twins and watched in this.
The context of this Genesis 2816 through 17 is when Jacob has a
dream and he sees a stairway into heaven.
You maybe thought Led Zeppelin came up with that idea.
No, it wasn't Led Zeppelin. They got it from the Bible
interestingly enough. OK, so so Jacob sees this
stairway into heavens with with angelic beings coming back and
forth and this is what he says when he woke up verse 16.
Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, surely the Lord is in
this place and I did not know it and he was afraid and said, how
awesome is this place. This is none other than the
House of God and this is the gate of heaven.
And he renames this place where he had his, his dream, this
vision, he renamed it Bethel or Bethel, which means like God is
here. And I like the way that he says
surely the Lord is in this place.
If you look closely at our poster out in the lobby, this is
let's encounter there is a verse, not this one, it's
another verse, but it says surely the presence of the Lord
is here. But we misspelled it when we
ordered it. And so it's supposed to say
Shirley and it came out surly. OK.
So you know what surly means? Surly is like bitter, mad,
angry. So when you read that, just know
that we don't really think that, but it was, you know, it was
costly to replace it. So it's still surly, OK, But we
mean Shirley, OK. We mean Shirley, not surly.
OK, so so the presence of the Lord, we're come expecting it to
be with us. When we come together, we're
going to meet and counter God. And that's the expectation and
the principle of expectation is so important in the way that we
have a relationship with God and the way we do church because I
love this. Ephesians 320 through 21 says
now to him who was able to do far more abundantly than all
that we may ask or think according to the power at work
within us to him be glory where in the church, any Christ Jesus
throughout all generations forever and ever, Amen.
When we come to church and when we have the right expectations,
God can exceed our expectations and that's what faith is.
We come and it's like he's able to do exceedingly abundantly way
above all that you could ever ask or think or imagine.
One translation says so when we come to church, my encouragement
to you is come in the car while you're driving with your family.
Maybe your prayers. God, I'm expecting today to
encounter you and I'm going to encounter you.
I'm going to meet with you. Maybe it's even in a surprising
way. God, you're going to show up.
And that is my expectation. And God, I believe you're able
to exceed what I expect. So I put my faith and I put my
expectation out. And when I do, Jesus is
glorified in the church. God's able to do more in every
area of our lives. And leaning into that truth, it
makes a big difference in our relationship with God.
So we want to be a church that gathers to seek God.
And the expectation is that when we seek him, we will find him.
Jeremiah 2913, God says this to Jeremiah, You will seek me and
find me when you seek me with all your heart.
So we show up at church, the expectation is God, we're going
to meet with you. We're going to encounter you and
God. We are going to do this with all
of our heart. Several months ago, I did a
series on Kononia. You can go back and see these
messages online at our church podcast.
But I taught three weeks on this idea of Kononia is a Greek word
and it translates fellowship. And so we as a church, we have
fellowship with one another, but but fellowship isn't quite, it
kind of misses. It's kind of lost in
translation. The Kononia is this unique
experience that we as the church have when we're together, but we
also have fellowship with God and fellowship with the Holy
Spirit. That is the expectation.
So when we come together, we're going to fellowship, meet, be
with God, and that's what we're looking for, meeting together
and gathering. It's important as a church.
Hebrews 10/24 through 25 says, and let us consider how to stir
up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet
together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one
another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
So what is our first mission was the first thing that we are
we're all about. We're about encountering the
presence and the Spirit of God when we're together #2 what else
are we about as a church? When we're church, when we're
being the church, what are we about?
Well, I want you to know that we're about equipping and this
is a big part of the church. Ephesians 4 says, and he gave
meaning. God gave the apostles, the
prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip
the Saints for the work of the ministry, for building up the
body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith
and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to
the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Paul is saying on this occasion that God has given leaders in
the church. But the leader's role is not
just to do the ministry. The leader's role as your
pastor, my role is to equip you to do the ministry.
And So what I get excited about is when someone has a sense of
calling or purpose and we connect and we talk about it and
and then they go thrive in a certain ministry.
And it could be with your family, It could be being a
parent, it could be your job. It could be the way that you
love your neighbors. Or maybe it's a really unique
idea. And I love, I love this saying,
I'll say, I'll let the Lord use you.
And it's kind of said in the Southern accent when I say it to
people, they're like, man, I think our church should do this
great idea of something. And I'll say that's a great
idea. Let the Lord use you.
If God has put it on your heart, then my job is to equip and stir
and and ready you to go and do that ministry.
So I want you to know when you come to church, the expectation
is you're going to be equipped and we're going to challenge you
and equip you. And when I think about
equipping, I think about gear, right?
I'm a gear guy. How many of you are gear guys
are gear girls, right? So some of like for you, it
might be tools, it might be guns, bows.
For me, it's guitars. I like books, even books are
kind of like gear to me. So what happens is that, and I
have like my, our daughter was just with us and she was teasing
because I have, I have shoes like for everything.
I got a pair of shoes that I ride bike, that I ride a bike
in. I've got a pair of shoes that
are like my water shoes to go in the water with.
I've got like 2 pair of really nice slippers at home and for
different seasons. I have all these different like
shoes for certain events, right? Because I like they're, they're
geared to me, right. So what happens is a is a
church, we want to gear you up. You know, at home, I have a big
bin and I've got all my camping gear in it.
We're going to guys, we're going to go camping again in October.
We did this last year and had like, I don't know, 15 or 20
guys from the church go. And so I love this big bin.
And when I open this thing up and get ready to go out and be
in the, you know, way out in the middle of nowhere for a couple
days, I get really excited about it.
And I've got all this gear that I have in order to go do camping
as I like. So you as a follower of Jesus
need to be equipped to fulfill whatever God has called you to,
to the stature of the fullness of Christ.
But when I wanted to be clear that we're about equipping and
we're not about educating or entertaining, then let me unpack
that idea for you. Is, is if, if teaching and
preaching and studying God's word is only for knowledge sake,
then what happens is we get puffed up and prideful.
And you probably know Christians that are puffed up and prideful.
They know a lot about the Bible, know a lot about the word of
God. And yet if they don't love and
they're not serving and they're not fulfilling the calling and
purpose for their life, then they just get mean and
judgmental. And you know, Christians like
this. And Paul addresses this in First
Corinthians chapter 8. In First Corinthians 8, he's
having a discussion about, oddly enough, eating meat that had
been offered to idols, which is a very foreign, strange idea to
us. But in Corinth, in the ancient
world, they had a lot of Pagan gods and statues and, and weird,
weird Pagan worship, right? So here's what's happening is
that these Christians are coming to Jesus and some of them are
still eating the meat that had been offered as sacrifices to
idols. And so watch what Paul says.
He's going to tell them it's not the best idea.
I'm paraphrasing, it's not the best idea, but he gives them
permission to still eat animals that have been offered up to us
false gods. OK, But watch what he says.
The most important thing now concerning food offered to
idols, he says we know that all of us possess knowledge.
This knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
He's saying, let's, let's say you get to the knowledge and say
probably the best thing to eat meat that's been offered to
idols. OK, not the best thing, but when
you get that knowledge, then if you're not careful, it could
puff you up like other knowledge.
And this goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden, right?
What was the the the tree that they were not to eat of?
It was the tree from the knowledge of good and evil.
And as our knowledge grows about what is good and what is evil,
if we're if we're not careful, if we can miss it.
So we're not just about educating you, right?
Because a lot of Christians, they learn all that's wrong to
do and that's wrong to do and that's wrong to do.
Before you know it, they've lost heart and they've lost love.
Because I got puffed up in pride about all that they know.
So we want to equip you. And when you come to church
knowing that's OK, I'm going to go to church and they're going
to challenge us and they're going to equip us and they're
going to give us the gear and the goods that we need in order
to fulfill God's purposes and plans for life.
That's the point. And hopefully you sense that and
know it. Then thirdly, the third thing
that I would say that's on our poster outside is this.
Let's go. Every week when you come to
church, my hope and prayer for you is that you sense being
commissioned to go and fulfill your purpose and whatever that
might be in your job, with your family, in your neighborhood,
whatever, wherever you are, God has again, things for you to
accomplish for His glory and honor.
So every week I want you to feel a sense of being commissioned.
It's like we're going to go out in the world, we're going to
make a difference. We're going to fulfill God's
purpose for our lives, whatever that might be.
Jesus commissioned his disciples at the end of Matthew, Matthew
28, verse 16. And maybe you know this passage.
Now the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to
which Jesus had directed them, and when they saw him, they
worshipped him, but some doubted.
Just a curious thing. Jesus is going to Commission
here and he's going to Commission his disciples that
were some worshipping but some doubted.
So he doesn't disqualify them when he senses their doubt.
No, what does he do? He commissions and sends them.
And Jesus came to them and said, all authority in heaven and on
earth has been given to me. Go, therefore go, go, therefore
go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
And this occasion again, we're being encouraged to baptize.
The day we're going to baptize, I don't know, 15 or more people
that are, they're putting on display what God has done inside
of them. They've been cleansed to the
blood of Christ. They've been resurrected in
Jesus washed clean. They were going to fulfill what
was Jesus's Commission. We're doing it to this day.
So this is this is how Jesus commissions his disciples.
He sends them and he sends them at the end of Matthew.
And I think it's so apropos that at the end of service, I hope
that you feel sent when I say the blessing at the end of our
service and I say you are salt and you are light.
Go now and be solved and light into the world.
I'm hoping that you have a sense of like, I'm commissioned, I'm
being sent to make a difference in the world for God's glory.
So we want to have a commissioning every time that we
gather together. Ephesians 2 says this, For by
grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not
your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a
result of works, so that no one may boast.
For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good
works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk
in them, right? So in this occasion, Paul said
we're not saved through our works.
No one can boast about how great your works were, all that you
did, all that you've accomplished.
But we understand that God created us.
He we're his workmanship created for good works.
And when you know that and and we send you out with that
knowledge, it's like, OK, you walk out going OK, I am made by
God to go change the world, to change my family, to change
those that I come around. It's like I'm going to leave
with that. I'm going to leave church with
that commissioning every time I'm there.
My, my encouragement to you is expect a go.
Like Jesus says through the disciples, go.
Therefore go. You should come to church
expecting that you're going to get a go.
Go make a difference. You were commissioned each and
every week. Now in order to do these three
things, what are we going to emphasize?
Because now it's like, OK, those are great ideas, but what are we
going to focus on? Because if we focus on
everything, then we'll miss it. We can't give an explanation,
point to everything, right? Exclamation I noticed that the
young, young, younger people will use lots and lots of
explanations, but so old people, my mom, if you're watching, I've
teased her about this before, but she loves using caps and
lots and lots of like exclamation points, right?
I'm like, mom, that means you're yelling.
If you say that it means that you're yelling, you're screaming
it right? So you have to be careful if
you, if you give everything an exclamation, okay, even in the
church, if we say, oh, everything is important, we need
to do this, we do that. What do we know?
What are we going to focus on? What are we going to give
exclamation points to? Let me tell you, first of all,
we are going to focus on proclaiming God's Word.
We believe that God's Word is the authority for our lives.
We want to grow in it. We want to learn it, we want to
honor it, we want to receive it. And so we're going to focus in
this service. We're doing it.
They're doing it upstairs right now with the wildlife and the
5th and 6th grade, the younger wildlife and your kids right now
are teachers that are serving so wonderfully.
And the kids area, what are they doing?
They're teaching God's Word and when that when you know that's
the expectation you'll come to church hungry and ready to
receive it. We honor and look to God's word
and I will tell you that that's not true not to compare, but
it's not true of every church. There's some churches it's like
they treat the word of God as if it's just some good ideas and
some old fable stories of the likes myth.
But no, it's not. What does the Bible say about
itself. Hebrews 412 says, For the word
of God is living and active, sharper than any 2 edged sword,
piercing to the division of soul and the spirit of joints and of
Morrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the
heart. And then Paul writes to Timothy
in second Timothy 3 verse 16. He says all Scripture is
breathed by out by God and profitable for teaching, for
reproof, for correction, and for training and righteousness, that
the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
How do we get equipped? We get equipped by focusing and
valuing and honoring the Bible, God's word #2 what are we going
to do if we're going to fulfill God's calling and purposes for
us? We're also going to focus and
put a lot of attention towards worship.
And This is why at our church, I'm so grateful for our
musicians and our worship team and those who serve up in the
booth doing sound and and other things to serve you and your
expression of worship on a Sunday morning.
And when you come. And I love this about our
church, this is so our culture. It's not a spectator type thing.
We don't call this a stage, we call this a platform.
It's just semantics. But the point is that you're not
coming just to watch on Sunday morning, but but we won't
encourage that. You come to participate and
engage and sing and, and, and, and encounter the presence of
God. Not just watch other people
encounter God, but no, you're encountering him also.
So we're going to promote the idea of worship and we do it.
Worship is not just music, of course, but it but it is in a
service in a Sunday morning. It's a big part of us worshiping
God. But of course with every aspect
of your life, you bring honor and worship to God.
So we're going to focus on it. John 423 says, but the hour is
coming and now is here. This is Jesus speaking to the
woman at the well. He said when the true
worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for
the Father is seeking such people to worship him.
God is seeking out true worshippers and we want to be
all about that. God is spirit for those who
worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
We're going to focus and give a lot of attention to us gathering
together as a family and giving God honor in worship.
And in doing so, we are going to encounter God's presence.
And then thirdly, what are we going to emphasize?
We're going to emphasize and give a lot of attention and
effort to children and youth. And we're going to do it at the
sacrificing of some other programs that some churches do.
OK. And I'm so proud of those who in
our church who are older than I am.
OK, I'm 55 and soon I'll be soon 56.
But many of you who are older than I am, I'm so grateful that
you're not selfish and you're not coming to me and complaining
like, oh, we need this program and this program and this
program. Instead, our church we really
get because we can't do everything.
We're a smaller church, but what can we do?
Well, we could put as much energy as we can towards our
children and our young adults, our young young people, our
students. And why?
Because we believe that we're raising up the next generation
to honor and love Jesus. And if we get distracted with a
whole bunch of other things, well, then it could be to the
detriment of of what we do with our children.
And again, for a church our size, I'm so grateful for those
who serve in our children's area, Grateful for Taylor, she
leads that department, man, for church our size, I'm, I'm really
grateful for what we do with our children.
And I encourage you to get involved and to serve.
If you're not, if you've not found a place you have to serve,
you can serve in the children's area.
It would be really great. There's lots of opportunity
there. So I encourage you to know that
we're going to emphasize our children and our youth.
And then finally, the last thing that we're going to emphasize is
we are going to emphasize serving and outreach.
When you come to church, again, it's not just entertainment or
education or just come and hear the nice homily or a nice story
or the likes. No, we are going to focus on
getting you plugged in somewhere either inside of the church or
outside where you're sensing purpose and meaning and calling
by serving. And last week I talked on on why
we serve. The whole message was on why we
serve. And I encourage you find a place
in the church or outside of it where you can do like Jesus who
washed the feet of the disciples.
He is the ultimate servant who modeled for us serving.
We're going to challenge and encourage you to do it.
Now I mentioned the start of the message that I would, I would
hope that you get to a place where you can give this message
in an elevator ride. 45 seconds. What is North Life church about?
Oh, you're, you've got a minute with somebody like, oh, I want
to tell you about our church. At our church, we really value
encountering the presence of God.
It's an expectation. So we get together, we're going
to meet with God in surprising ways.
And then our past is really about equipping us.
He's not just the one doing ministry, but our pastor wants
to equip us to do the work of the ministry and be God's
workmanship, finding out what God has for us to accomplish.
And then at our church, we, we, we sense a commissioning.
We sense that God is sending us out to make a difference in the
world. And that's every week.
And you can tell it just like that when you're telling people
about North life, you can summarize it and that way.
And that is my hope and dream for our church.
Let me pray for us, God. I'm so grateful for this time
together and thank you that you have given us a calling and
purpose as a church. And we thank you for the other
great churches in our city and other great works in Northern
Michigan that we get to partner with.
And at the same time, God, we have a unique calling and you
have unique plans and purposes for us.
So as we raise the flag and raise the value of encountering
and meeting with you regularly, God in there the expectations,
you're going to surprise us. God, we thank you that you will.
You will exceed our expectations.
So we look for you to do it and then God equip us and then send
us to honor and glorify and exalt you always.
We thank you for it. And Jesus name and everyone
together said, Amen, Let's all stand together.
Thank you again so much for coming.
I can't wait to see you at the picnic today.
Remember, 3:00 is our start time.
We're going to eat at 3:30 so you can get there, just kind of
get settled in. It's going to be a really great
time to meet people. If you're new to our church,
this is a you don't want to miss it.
This is a time to sit around tables and to eat together.
And I, I'll try to introduce you to as many people as possible,
right? So, so that, you know, I have
this discipline that I have where I love to introduce
people. I love introducing people.
So I might introduce you to somebody else and I'll give you
something to talk about. I'll say, oh, this is so and so
and this is so and so. And you have this common
interest, right? I, I try to do this.
So if at the picnic I see you, I might say, hey, let me introduce
you to so and so I'll give you something to talk about, then
I'm out, OK. And now it's up to you to
connect. All right.
So look for me to be working that today, OK?
I can't wait to introduce as many of these, many of you as
possible. All right, before you go, I do
want to say a blessing over you, if you will prepare your heart
to receive this blessing. And now may the Lord bless you
and keep you, and may He make His face to shine upon you.
And may the joy of the Lord that is unspeakable and full of glory
made a bound to you. And may the peace of God that
passes all understanding, may it surprise you in the midst of all
of the challenges that life brings.
And then may the mercies of the Lord, in other words, the
forgiveness of God, That's new every morning, maybe especially
new to you now in your mornings to come.
And now may the Lord Jesus Christ guard your heart and your
mind. You were salt and your light.
Go, go, go now and be salt and light unto the world.
You are blessed. We'll see you again soon.