Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Today we celebrate 20th anniversary.
[00:00:14] Twenty years ago, we had our first service in this room.
[00:00:20] And for those of you who are here then, hasn't it gone by quickly?
[00:00:30] I want to say that we have seen the faithfulness of God in ways that very few churches get to see.
[00:00:44] And I have a heart full of gratitude today.
[00:00:47] Our dear heavenly Father.
[00:00:52] Ah, great is your faithfulness.
[00:00:58] I give thanks to you.
[00:01:01] I worship you.
[00:01:04] I acknowledge that every good thing in my life comes from you.
[00:01:09] I'm grateful to be called your son.
[00:01:13] I'm grateful to be part of a church like this church.
[00:01:18] I'm delighted to see what you have done and filled with hope and expectation about what you're going to do.
[00:01:27] I pray that I could speak the word of Christ in a compelling way this morning.
[00:01:32] In Jesus name, amen.
[00:01:40] Moses and Aaron walked out of the glaring sunshine in Egypt into a building that was held up by rows and rows of columns.
[00:02:00] These columns were all inscribed with hieroglyphics and painted in bright colors.
[00:02:10] They walked through the corridor of the columns until they came to a gateway that went into another room.
[00:02:21] The next room was very large, but it was smaller than the first one.
[00:02:26] And at the very back of the room there was a dais or a stage.
[00:02:32] And there was only one open, ornate golden chair setting on the stage.
[00:02:40] And Moses and Aaron walked up to the stage, and from another door, Pharaoh and about a dozen of his advisors came out.
[00:02:54] Pharaoh made his way up the steps and sat down on the golden chair.
[00:03:02] And he looked at Moses and Aaron, who were dressed in plain beige homespun cloth robes, could look at them and tell that they weren't wealthy.
[00:03:26] Pharaoh was dressed in the finest linen that could be bought.
[00:03:30] He wore gold bracelets, and he had a neck piece that was made of gold and precious gems and brilliant colored enamel.
[00:03:47] And he said to Moses and Aaron, I hear that you have a message from your God.
[00:03:58] And Erwin was the spokesman.
[00:04:01] And he said, yes, this is the message of God to you.
[00:04:08] You've held my people long enough.
[00:04:11] Now let my people go.
[00:04:16] And Pharaoh in his arrogance, glared at them and sneered, who is the Lord that I should obey him?
[00:04:31] And I'm not letting anybody go.
[00:04:35] In fact, all of this proves that you're not working hard enough.
[00:04:41] So I'm going to make stiffer requirements on you.
[00:04:51] And Moses and Aaron walked out and reported to the elders of Israel.
[00:04:59] And the elders of Israel said, we told you not to do this.
[00:05:05] Now you have put a sword in Pharaoh's hand with which he can kill us.
[00:05:18] But the Lord wasn't daunted.
[00:05:23] And Moses and Aaron met Pharaoh at the Nile river for a ritual that he did that symbolized that he was in charge of the Nile River.
[00:05:38] And Aaron said to Pharaoh, let my people go.
[00:05:48] And if you don't, the Lord is going to turn the Nile river into a blood red and make it undrinkable.
[00:06:07] And Moses handed his staff to Aaron.
[00:06:14] And Aaron touched it in the Nile River.
[00:06:18] And the river progressively became blood red and unusable.
[00:06:28] But Pharaoh would still not let the people go.
[00:06:33] And so the Lord brought up frogs that covered Egypt.
[00:06:40] And Pharaoh would not let the people go.
[00:06:44] And the Lord sent gnats.
[00:06:47] I once rode my motorcycle on the northern peninsula in Michigan through miles and clouds of gnats.
[00:06:56] My beard was full of them, my nose was full of them.
[00:07:01] My motorcycle looked like it had fur on it. I've been in clouds of gnats.
[00:07:09] And Pharaoh would not let the people go.
[00:07:14] So God sent swarms of flies, flies everywhere.
[00:07:21] Swatting them off your face, in your food, in the water.
[00:07:28] And Pharaoh hardened his heart.
[00:07:34] So God sent the plague on the livestock, on the horses, the donkeys, the camels and the herds and the flocks.
[00:07:42] And Pharaoh still would not let the people go.
[00:07:49] So God made it more personal, and he caused an infectious boil to spread throughout the land of Egypt.
[00:08:01] And everywhere you looked, people were covered with oozing boils, including Pharaoh himself.
[00:08:13] And he hardened his heart and would not let the people go.
[00:08:18] So God sent hailstones and lightning, and Pharaoh still resisted.
[00:08:25] And then the sun was blocked out by clouds and clouds of locust.
[00:08:34] And Moses recorded. Then Pharaoh's servants said to him, how long shall this man be a snare to us?
[00:08:41] Let the men go that they may serve their Lord.
[00:08:46] Do you not understand that Egypt is ruined?
[00:08:50] Pharaoh's own advisors were saying, you've ruined the place.
[00:08:56] Let these people go.
[00:09:00] And Pharaoh hardened his heart.
[00:09:04] And God sent darkness.
[00:09:09] A darkness that was so dark that people sat terrified in their homes for three days.
[00:09:22] And Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron in, and he said, I'm done with you people.
[00:09:30] Don't ever come here again, because if you do, I'll kill you.
[00:09:38] And Moses said back to Pharaoh, it's true, you won't see us again.
[00:09:47] But this is not going to end the way you think.
[00:09:52] And there was one more plague.
[00:09:55] It was the most horrendous of it all.
[00:09:58] God, in his mercy, saved it to the very end.
[00:10:03] And God said to Egypt, because you have slaughtered my firstborn through brutal slavery, through the slave masters, whip, by making them Expose their male children.
[00:10:21] Because you have killed my firstborn. If you do not let my people go, my death angel is going to pass over Egypt and, and the first born in every family, in every of people, flocks, herds, cattle, everything, they're going to die.
[00:10:47] But God said, it is not my heart to take their life.
[00:10:54] If you will sacrifice a lamb and capture some of the blood and tear off a branch from the hyssop tree and dip this branch in the blood and stain the doorpost and the lintel of your house.
[00:11:15] When my death angel comes through, he will pass over your house.
[00:11:24] Pharaoh believed he was God.
[00:11:27] But that night he had a terrible, terrible awakening that he was not God.
[00:11:37] And a great whale went up from Egypt and the firstborn of every home that did not have the sign of the blood perished.
[00:11:56] And Pharaoh actually sent a message to Aaron and Moses and said, I want you to leave.
[00:12:05] And on your way out, say a prayer for me.
[00:12:10] Moses wrote, the time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years.
[00:12:19] At the end of 430 years, on the very day all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.
[00:12:31] The Passover was an end of a 400 year era.
[00:12:38] 400 years before Moses Joseph went to Egypt and there was a great famine and he brought his family to Egypt and, and for 400 years the Israelites had lived in Egypt and the Egyptians had enslaved them and made their lives difficult.
[00:12:59] But the Passover was an end of that era and a beginning of a new era.
[00:13:09] It was a new era where Israel would not be slaves and, but they would live in a land granted to them by God.
[00:13:19] And if they obeyed the Lord and walked in his ways, God promised to bless them in their sitting down. And then they're standing up in their coming in and going out.
[00:13:31] It was a new era that saw great heroes like King David.
[00:13:37] A new era where Solomon built the temple of God in Jerusalem.
[00:13:44] A new era where prophets like Elijah and Elisha stunned the world around them.
[00:13:53] A new era in which Israel did not live up to the commitments it had made to the Lord God, their deliverer.
[00:14:06] And God sent them into Babylonian captivity for 70 years.
[00:14:12] A new era where Israel had abandoned God to the point that for 400 years there was no word of the Lord from a prophet.
[00:14:31] But from the time they Left Egypt, about 1,400 years before Christ, every single year in some way, they celebrated the Passover.
[00:14:46] In fact, the very last night of our Lord and Savior's life, he ate the Passover dinner with the 12.
[00:14:58] That was 2,000 years ago.
[00:15:01] I have been to a Passover dinner. Ah, the Jewish religion.
[00:15:08] Still, year after year, they celebrate the transition when God rescued them from slavery and made them a free nation.
[00:15:23] Church when we celebrate our past, we also have to acknowledge that in God's great plan, one era gives way to the next.
[00:15:45] For the last 20 years, we have been attracting people to the excellence of Jesus Christ in this building.
[00:15:54] Sunday after Sunday, month after month, year after year, we have been living out our mission to attract people to the excellence of Jesus Christ.
[00:16:07] Some of you are here after having a time in your life that you had not been near to God.
[00:16:17] And you came and you sense the presence of God.
[00:16:25] You felt drawn to Christ again.
[00:16:28] Ah, we have a history of trying to share Christ in the kind of way that makes it easy for people to come home.
[00:16:40] Twenty years ago, in the sermon I preached here, I quoted Spurgeon.
[00:16:46] I wanted to share with the church what the excellence of Jesus Christ really looks like.
[00:16:53] And this is what Spurgeon wrote.
[00:16:56] From Gethsemane to Gal Gotha along the blood sprinkled road, you can see the proof that having loved his own, he loved them until the end.
[00:17:12] Not all the pains of death could shake his firm affection for his own.
[00:17:20] They might bind his hands, but his heart is not restrained from love.
[00:17:26] They might scourge him, but they cannot drive out his affection for his beloved.
[00:17:34] They may slanderously revile him, but they cannot compel him to say a word against his people.
[00:17:42] They may nail him to the cursed tree.
[00:17:46] They may bid him to come down from the cross that they may believe in him, but they cannot tempt him to forsake the work of his love.
[00:17:55] He will press forward for his people sake until he can say it is finished.
[00:18:04] Church I want you to know we are what we are because Christ is who he is.
[00:18:12] We have accomplished what we have accomplished because Christ's love is what it is.
[00:18:19] I don't know how you feel this morning. I do not know what's happening in your heart.
[00:18:25] But I have a lifetime of proof that the love of Jesus Christ is unshakable.
[00:18:33] He is.
[00:18:40] He is altogether worthy of everything that everyone has done these last 20 years.
[00:18:47] He's worthy of that and much more.
[00:18:53] For 20 years we've been inviting people into the joy of ministry in this building.
[00:18:59] Every week we try to recruit you to give a part of your life to serve Jesus Christ in some meaningful way.
[00:19:08] Can you hear this?
[00:19:11] Every one of you ought to have a whisper in your heart. What is it that I'm doing to serve the Christ who has loved me so diligently and so conspicuously.
[00:19:25] Some of you, the first time you ever served Christ was in this church.
[00:19:29] Somebody recruited you and you risk it and you found that serving Christ was rich and meaningful and you look forward to doing it week after week.
[00:19:42] For 20 years this church has been challenging people to live the adventure of faith in this building.
[00:19:51] I wanted to make a list of a bunch of hard things, what we've done. But I can't preach very long today so I won't give you the list. But if you look at what we have done in 20 years, it is incredible.
[00:20:05] Let me remind you of just one thing.
[00:20:08] In the middle of COVID when prices were totally unpredictable, we built a house for a mother and her, a homeless mother and her five kids.
[00:20:30] You gave every dime to pay for it. And many of you worked many hours laboring in that house.
[00:20:39] And today that family is thriving.
[00:20:42] Those kids have an altogether view of different view of life. They have a head start in living a good American life. And that's just one of the hard things that we've done.
[00:20:56] For 20 years in this building we've been teaching a lifestyle of generosity.
[00:21:03] I'm never going to apologize to you for asking you to make Christ part of your economic life.
[00:21:12] He's worthy of it, church.
[00:21:15] He's made promises to the generous. He has said give and it will be given onto you. Good measure, pressed down, shaking together, overflowing. He'll pour back into your bosom.
[00:21:30] There are hundreds of people in this room who will tell you that they have risk by faith being generous and God has rewarded them in beautiful and holy ways.
[00:21:47] All these rewards aren't just economic.
[00:21:52] Sharon and I believe in generosity.
[00:21:56] There is a generosity in the world that you can't buy.
[00:22:03] My grandson's life was hanging by a thread and it was a generous person who helped us get all the help help we needed. I could not have bought that help at any price.
[00:22:17] God is generous in many and beautiful ways. And for 20 years in this building we have seen the generosity of God.
[00:22:30] We are completing the vision of the first generation of a century church.
[00:22:39] Ah.
[00:22:40] A part of my original vision for all this church was to be a century church.
[00:22:47] Ah.
[00:22:48] In my experience I had seen a lot of churches be good generational churches. But at the end of the first generation they started a decline that ended in the death of the church.
[00:23:06] One of the greatest churches in Ohio when I was a boy is not only closed, it's torn down the building isn't even there anymore.
[00:23:15] So from the very beginning, we've had a vision to be a century church.
[00:23:23] I'd like to share with you some of the things that has happened in the first generation of our century church.
[00:23:32] Ah, we've grown from averaging about 50 people a Sunday to this year we are averaging over 3,000 people on a Sunday.
[00:23:48] We've grown from me cutting the lawn, taking out the garbage, cleaning the bathrooms to a staff of 30 people.
[00:23:59] We've grown from no elders to eight elders. We've grown from four deacons to over 150 deacons.
[00:24:07] We've grown from no life groups to multiple life groups every single day of the week.
[00:24:13] We've grown from a budget of $25,000 a year to a budget of $3 million.
[00:24:26] We've grown from a single campus to three campuses. And we helped one of our pastors start another campus several years ago.
[00:24:35] Ah, that's a pretty good start for the first generation.
[00:24:46] But in the same way that Passover was a transitional event, it transitioned from the 400 previous years to the next 1,000 years.
[00:25:05] Ah, we have to transition.
[00:25:10] Ah, you can see that I'm not the boy I once was.
[00:25:15] I saw a picture of me in one of those and I say, hey, I missed that guy. Where'd he go?
[00:25:23] Ah.
[00:25:24] Part of our celebration today is an awareness that if this church is going to celebrate 20 years from now, there has to be a healthy transition from where we came to, to where we're going. Can you hear this church?
[00:25:42] We are actually already transitioning.
[00:25:47] The, the second generation of leaders are in place. And if a fiery chariot showed up and I got to step on it and fly away, drop my sport coat on the way up.
[00:26:06] For you who aren't Bible readers, that's an Elijah story.
[00:26:11] Our second generation leaders are ready to take over right now.
[00:26:15] And the elders are going. The elders have a good plan about how we transition to a new lead pastor and all that will be presented to you in the future.
[00:26:30] Our second generation isn't ready. We have a third generation that's already engaged in leading how many churches, How many churches can say we have a second generation in place that could take over like this?
[00:26:52] And on top of that, we have a third generation of leaders who are already engaging in leadership.
[00:27:02] And if that doesn't surprise you enough, we have a fourth generation that's standing on the very edge exploring what it means to live a life with God, to serve God in a meaningful way with the best of what you have.
[00:27:20] Ah.
[00:27:21] Ah.
[00:27:22] Ah, this celebration is a statement of what God has done, but it is also an expectation of what he's going to do.
[00:27:36] On top of that, about a year ago I asked the church to help finish this project.
[00:27:45] About a year ago we owed a million five hundred and some thousand dollars on this property.
[00:27:52] In the last year we've paid that down to $460,000.
[00:28:06] Ah.
[00:28:07] So if you haven't helped and you'd like would be a beautiful thing and you have been generous. May the Lord God bless you. You've laid up for yourselves treasures in heaven.
[00:28:24] Ah.
[00:28:27] Our west campus has already received a bunch of permits and it is our belief that we're going to break ground on that new campus at the end of this month.
[00:28:41] It'll, it'll take about a year to build and there'll be an auditorium there that seats about 350 people and it's in a neighborhood where there are no churches.
[00:28:55] We believe that church will double and triple within a very short time.
[00:29:03] As the Lord did miracles to transition Israel from slavery to a better future, Christ is doing miracles to transition Christchurch into His beautiful future for us.
[00:29:17] I'm asking you this morning, would you commit yourself in the next 20 years to, to glorify Jesus Christ, to celebrate his favor and to be a healthy Christ honoring church.
[00:29:35] And I want to be more specific in that.
[00:29:39] If you've been here a long time, I've talked to several people this morning that have a long history here.
[00:29:48] Here's what I'm asking.
[00:29:50] Asking that you respect and support our second and third generation leaders.
[00:29:58] I'm asking that you let the second and third generation leaders do exactly what we wanted to do when we were their age. We wanted to dream a dream with God.
[00:30:10] I didn't want to do church the way it had been done before.
[00:30:15] I, I clashed because at a different idea. I said, people don't want to go to church like that.
[00:30:23] I said in a leadership meeting, you guys don't even like coming to church.
[00:30:30] That's why we have to change it.
[00:30:32] All right.
[00:30:34] I'm asking if you've been here a long time and you've gotten used to things being the way they are, that you would let God be do in the second generation of leaders what he did in the first generation of leaders.
[00:30:49] I had a vision for a church that was very different than what was around us.
[00:30:54] And of course I had to listen to.
[00:31:01] We'll just pass over that.
[00:31:05] I had to listen to people who didn't understand vision.
[00:31:13] And I put my faith in Jesus. My Anchor to the ground.
[00:31:26] If you're a longtime member here, I'm asking you to respect and support our new leaders.
[00:31:33] I'm asking you to allow God to work in them. I'm asking you to encourage them and bless them. And if you feel critical, keep it to yourself.
[00:31:46] I'm asking you, please don't. Time out of ministry.
[00:31:50] I'm not timing out.
[00:31:53] There'll be a time when I'm not the lead pastor anymore, but I'm still going to be here serving the Lord, Not retiring and going to freaking Florida.
[00:32:07] This is my home. This is my church. You are my friends and I'm going to find a way to serve God in this church as long as I can, even when we have a new lead pastor. Church longtime members, this is what I'm asking you.
[00:32:31] Pray and figure out how to give God your very best the rest of your life.
[00:32:38] I'm praying and asking God, as I transition, how can I continue to give you my very best the rest of my life?
[00:32:47] How can I be part of your team? How can I learn to serve you in ways that are consistent with where I am in life?
[00:32:57] How can I give you my very best by sometimes not saying anything at all?
[00:33:02] Church now, you have been here a middle amount of time.
[00:33:11] You came here, you got invited. You've been here a middle amount of time and God knit your heart to this place.
[00:33:18] You said, this is where I want to go to church. I want to be part of what what's happening here. This is what I'm asking for you. I'm asking you to continually grow.
[00:33:28] Grow into your full spiritual maturity. Join a life group. Be part of something that you have a consistent way of becoming a better and better follower of Jesus Christ.
[00:33:42] I'm asking you to gradually accept responsibility for ministries that somebody who's getting too old to lead them is leading. Right now all our ministries have to transition, right?
[00:33:59] I'm not rolling in here in a wheelchair and getting lifted up on the stage.
[00:34:06] But that doesn't mean I won't get rolled here in a wheelchair and lead a life group. Okay? All of our ministries have to transition.
[00:34:15] And I'm asking you who've been here a middle amount of time to grow into your full potential and start accepting responsibility for ministry.
[00:34:25] Middle timers. I'm asking you to give Christ your very best.
[00:34:32] I'm asking you that the church won't be your hobby. It will be a place where you find joy in giving Christ your very best.
[00:34:43] New members, here's what I'm asking you.
[00:34:47] I'm asking you to share in the dreams and the visions that Christ has for the future of this church.
[00:34:55] I'm asking you to have the DNA that this church has had since 1982.
[00:35:02] I'm asking in your generation that you say yes when God asks you you to do hard things.
[00:35:10] When God set us on the track to to build this building, people said it was absolutely impossible. I actually had people say I'm going to ruin the church by making a promise we can do this and not being able to do it.
[00:35:26] Guess what?
[00:35:30] Where did their faith get them?
[00:35:32] Where did our faith get us?
[00:35:35] I'm asking you to say yes when God calls you to live the adventure of faith and do hard things.
[00:35:45] I'm asking you to make a lifelong commitment to give Jesus Christ your very best.
[00:35:56] I was having my devotions this week and I, I, I read a passage in First Corinthians that I hadn't planned to put in the sermon, but it fit so well. I, I did listen what Paul wrote.
[00:36:16] This is. I have the same feeling that Paul had.
[00:36:21] According to the grace of God given to me like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation and other people are going to build upon it.
[00:36:34] Let each one take care how he builds upon it.
[00:36:39] For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
[00:36:48] Now if anyone builds on the foundation, gold, silver and precious stone, wood, hay and straw, each one's works will be manifest for the day will disclose it because it will be revealed by fire.
[00:37:03] And the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.
[00:37:09] If the work that anyone has built upon the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.
[00:37:16] If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only through fire.
[00:37:26] Listen what Paul said.
[00:37:30] I got this started, right?
[00:37:34] And now it's up to the future church to make sure that it continues to build on what God started right here.
[00:37:46] Church.
[00:37:48] Ah, there is a solid foundation here. We have a solid DNA.
[00:37:55] We have a solid ministry model. We have a model for. We have a model for mentoring and developing future church leaders. We have a model for reaching our community for Jesus Christ.
[00:38:07] We have a model for raising the money you have to raise to do ministry. We have a solid foundation here.
[00:38:15] This church is named Christ Church for a reason. We want to glorify him in everything we do.
[00:38:22] And now I'm saying the last 20 years is just a foundation for what God wants to do in the next 20 years, in the next 40 years, in the next 60 years.
[00:38:37] And it Matters Church, listen to me. It matters what we are willing to do in the service of Jesus Christ together.
[00:38:46] It matters that we volunteer and serve. It matters that we show each other love and appreciation. It matters that we show more encouragement than criticism. It matters that we create a warm place when people are far from God come in here, they feel accepted, they feel loved.
[00:39:06] It matters that we continue do a kind of ministry that the name of Jesus Christ is glorified.
[00:39:16] I personally want to thank everybody in this church.
[00:39:20] My life is better because I am a member of this church.
[00:39:26] My life is better because I know you.
[00:39:30] My life is better because we've done hard things together.
[00:39:34] My life is better because you've been encouraging and supporting, ah, I don't know. Somebody gave me an envelope with a real nice note on it and a gift in it. And I don't even know who you are, but I love you and God bless you for your kindness.
[00:39:55] My life is better because I've spent 43 years in this church and I want to thank every single one of you.
[00:40:10] If I were you, I'd have fired me a long time ago.
[00:40:15] I want to thank the Lord.
[00:40:18] When I was 18 years old, I was living in a third story apartment in Elyria and I had my Bible open and I was reading and you know, sometimes when you read the Bible, a verse seems like God is saying it specifically to you.
[00:40:40] When I was 18 years old, I was reading in Isaiah and I read the passage that said, thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth.
[00:40:54] Middle Avenue, Illyria is not the ends of the earth, but you can see it from there.
[00:40:59] Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth and called from the remotest parts thereof. I learned it in the King James and said unto thee, thou art my servant, I have chosen thee and cast the not away.
[00:41:14] Fear thou not. Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
[00:41:27] I was 18 years old when God said that.
[00:41:31] I'm 72 years old right now. And he's never broken that promise to me once.
[00:41:41] And I want to say thank you, Lord.
[00:41:45] Church.
[00:41:47] I want to end with a prayer for the church.
[00:41:51] I'm going to pray out loud, but I want you to pray in your hearts.
[00:41:57] I'm going to pray out loud, but I want you to pray in your heart. I want you to start whispering in your heart.
[00:42:05] What would you like out of me, God?
[00:42:07] What can I do to be part of of the incredible things you're going to do in the next 20 years.
[00:42:15] What can I do so that 20 years from now I look back and say, I have lived well. The grace of God has been evident in my life.
[00:42:27] Things have happened that wouldn't have otherwise happened.
[00:42:34] Dear Heavenly Father, oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.
[00:42:46] I give thanks to you.
[00:42:48] I worship you. I acknowledge that your favor has rested upon us richly.
[00:42:57] You've blessed us in our rising up and our lying down are coming in and are going out.
[00:43:05] Sunday after Sunday, you've brought us unchurched people from the north, the south, the east and the West.
[00:43:11] Sunday after Sunday, you saved your elect.
[00:43:15] Sunday after Sunday you stirred up people's spiritual gifts and made them want to be part of ministry.
[00:43:23] Sunday after Sunday, you have stimulated generosity in people's hearts and we have funded ministry all around the world.
[00:43:31] I want to thank you for all you've done.
[00:43:35] I want to.
[00:43:38] I want to pray that you would bless those who have been faithful to you with blessings beyond what they have imagined.
[00:43:49] Then, Father, I want to say, because you have begun this work within us, will you make it perfect until the day of Jesus Christ?
[00:43:58] Dear Heavenly Father, I pray for our second and third and fourth generation leaders.
[00:44:04] I pray that they will be ambitious to attract people to the excellence of Christ.
[00:44:11] I pray that they will be skilled in inviting people into the joy of ministry.
[00:44:18] I pray that they will be courageous in living the adventure of faith.
[00:44:23] And I pray that they would diligently teach the lifestyle of generosity.
[00:44:28] I pray that as you have blessed us and we've grown from a very small church to a very large church, that you will continue to bless us.
[00:44:38] I pray that we would have the ability and the faith and the resources to start campuses in neighborhoods where churches are going out of business.
[00:44:49] I pray, Heavenly Father, that there'll be a spirit of unity in our church and that the unholy one will never have place here.
[00:44:58] I pray that we would be bound together in the spirit of love and in the unity of peace.
[00:45:06] And then I pray that Jesus Christ will be glorified in the coming 20 years as he has been glorified in the past.
[00:45:14] And I ask this all through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
