Church Members

Hey. Good morning. And it is good to see all of you. It was good to hear all of you singing that. That second song. That was incredible. Just to be able to be together and worship our God together. My name is Tim. I get the privilege of being the lead pastor here. And if you’re a guest with us and I haven’t had a chance to meet you, I would love to do that. Right after the service. I’ll be through those doors in the west lobby, so come on up. Introduce yourself. And I’d love just to hear what led you to Shepherd’s Gate. Also, to those of you that are, viewing online, maybe you’re streaming in or watching later on demand. We’re glad that you’re joining us as well. If you have any questions, there’s people in the chat, that would love to connect with you that way. As we are concluding a series of messages that we’ve been on the last several weeks called The Faces of God. And basically the premise of this is we’re looking at the way that God uses human beings, all human beings on this planet, for our good, whether they believe in Jesus or they don’t believe in Jesus.

God is so amazing that he orchestrates the events of our lives, even the people that surround us in life, to help us navigate this time that we have on this earth. And so we’ve been going through that the last few weeks. And so today we’re going to conclude by looking at this whole idea of what is the point of church. And why do we gather together? Is it just this 1 hour or 70 minutes sometimes on Sunday, where everyone kind of stares at the back of the person’s head in front of them, and we sing and you listen to me and we receive communion, and then we leave and come back the next week and do it all over again. Is that what God’s designed for church? Is that the definition of church? Because I know some of you, you would say that Shepherd’s Gate is your church. Anybody that would say that, okay, I have some unfortunate news for you this morning because, Shepherd’s Gate is actually not your church. Okay? Some of you, you think that you come to Shepherd’s Gate Church so people, you’ll be in conversation with people and you say, oh, no, no, no, I don’t go to this church or that church. I go to Shepherd’s Gate Church. Anybody never done that before? Yeah. Because you actually don’t come to Shepherd’s Gate Church. Okay.

You’re always getting ahead of me here. This is just a building. This is just, you know, some brick and mortar that happens to be the place that we all agree to meet up a certain time on a certain day. You are the church and you are the church. If Jesus us has produced faith in your heart and your life, if he’s your Lord and Savior, and not only you are connected to this local body, you’re connected to all Bible believing, faith filled people on this entire planet. Now, some of you, if you call this you’re a church. Like if you say, this is the place that I go to, to worship, it’s connecting you to the other people in our church. Then you are Shepherd’s Gate Church. Does that make sense? Let me do it this way. If this building ceased to exist like that storm that we had this weekend, how many of you enjoyed the storm getting woken up at two in the morning? If that storm would, it came through and knocked down our entire facility. Everything. The gym, all the classrooms, our former worship center, the original worship space, all the offices. If all of that ceased to exist, we would still be a church. Yes.

Now, this is what’s kind of interesting because you see this happen from time to time. Sometimes there’s a fire and a church will burn to the ground. And what’s so amazing is that following Sunday, the people that call that place their home will gather and they always gather outside next to it, and they always want to be close to it. And attendance always surges, or a hurricane or a tornado comes through and rips a church to shreds. The people of God will still gather together. In fact, it’s usually during times of persecution throughout history when the church sees its most significant growth. Which. How many of you want to join me in praying for more persecution? Like, maybe we’ve just gotten a little too comfortable. In fact, if this whole building fell down, I think we would really know who’s actually part of Shepherd’s Gate Church, because then we would know who showed up the following Sunday because some of you might have this thought they don’t have air conditioning anymore. And you know, Trinity Utica is looking good right now. Saint Peter is right. My you know, on my on our way to Shepherd’s Gate or Emmanuel Lutheran, all of our sister congregations. And so that may be the temptation if this isn’t your church family.

Well, the word in the New Testament is actually it’s actually see can we all see actually see it together. And so we translate in the English as church. But it really, truly means it’s an assembly. It’s a gathering. And in order to have that you have to have the people together or to constitute a church. Let me give you some examples. Paul. When he wrote to the church in Corinth, he said to the Church of God, the ecclesia, the gathering of people who just happened to be in the physical location of Corinth, and the reason they’re the church is because of Jesus Christ. They recognize what it is that Jesus has done for them by hanging on the cross, by taking the sins of the world upon himself, by breathing his last breath, and then three days later, coming out of that tomb and declaring victory over sin, death in the devil for you and for me, and the promise of the Holy Spirit that then followed, which is what is lives inside the heart of every single believer. And so not only are you gathered because of that commonality, you’re also gathered together with all those everywhere on the planet, the entire globe, who call on the Lord Jesus Christ and recognize him as their sovereign Lord and Savior.

And wouldn’t you know, he didn’t write just one letter to the church in Corinth. He wrote two and he did it again because he said, hey, you see you gathering of people in Corinth. And by the way, remember, it’s not just you in that local setting. You’re connected to all of these other churches as God’s continuing to move on our planet and bring people to faith. Again, he does it. When he writes to the church in Galatia, he says to the churches, not just to one church, but to all the churches. And so the simple way to explain this is really two things. There’s the invisible church and there’s the visible church. There’s the invisible church, which is made up of people who truly believe Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, because you know that there’s people that can come to church and they don’t have faith. There’s people that can spend their entire lifetime attending church services. But yet, deep down, a work has not been done in their heart and their life. It’s a facade. It’s a show they don’t have saving faith, and unfortunately, they are on the edge of damnation. They’re on the edge of going and spending eternity in hell. Likewise, there’s people all over the place that we don’t even know or realize.

Have faith that God has produced faith in their hearts and in their lives. One of the best examples of this is in the scriptures. When Jesus was sending out the disciples to to perform miracles and to heal the sick, and on one of the particular trips, they run into this guy, and he’s also performing miracles and he’s healing the sick. And they get mad at the guy and they say, hey, you stop that! You’re not one of us. You’re not wanted. Jesus is in her circles. And they go back and they tell Jesus, you’re not going to believe there’s somebody else out there doing what we’re doing. And we told them they’re not part of our posse. They’re not part of our tribe. And you know what Jesus said? He rebuked them and said, don’t you don’t worry about who I’m working through and who I’m using as vessels to reach people with the true message that I am the savior of the world. Now, of course, there’s also the visible church. You can see its congregations, and for us this is important. It’s where God’s Word is preached, the full gospel.

All of the books of the Bible is profitable for us. It’s for our good, and it’s the infallible Word of God. And also equally important that the sacraments are administered. And here at Shepherd’s Gate, our sacraments are baptism and communion. And so we have lots and lots of baptisms, and we receive communion, which we will today frequently, because we believe that that’s what God calls us as this local church to do in our expression, in our gathering, in our ekklesia of God’s people. Now, what’s so interesting is I’ve had kind of an unusual week, like my schedule for whatever reason, it has been very full. And it for for another interesting reason, it has completely lined up with the subject matter that we’re addressing today, which there’s two options for that, either by coincidence or it’s by the Holy Spirit. So let me go through this really quickly. Last Monday, I went down to one of our local mission partners in Detroit, and I was doing a video shoot with a really good friend of mine, Pastor Matt. And you’re going to see and hear all of that if you’re here next Sunday.

For church, one of the ways in which God is working through him to reach children are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of children. In the city of Detroit. Tuesday I went the exact opposite direction. I went up to this place. I don’t know if you ever heard it. It’s called Frankenmuth. And if you didn’t know, it’s like a Lutheran Mecca. Okay, there are a lot of Lutherans and Frankenmuth because Lutherans are from Germany. And if you didn’t know, I’ll just tell you. Just spoiler alert. This is a Lutheran church. We’re connected to a larger Lutheran church body. And I was at a conference with a bunch of other Lutheran pastors all over Southeast Michigan, and it was our sectional meeting that we’re required to go to. And so obviously, I have relationships with these guys getting to know what’s going on in their church. Our district officials were there and giving us updates on everything that’s going on in our district, which is the Michigan district.

Wednesday, our whole staff did what we call a priest up, out and serve. So every year we go and we do a step out and serve site project at someone’s house. Hold on to that. So I’m going to get into that later in the message Thursday. This is what’s crazy. You ready for this Thursday? I found myself in a meeting with all of the pastors from all the largest churches in all of Metro Detroit. And I’m in this meeting and I’m asking myself, why am I here? How did I get invited to this meeting? And if you don’t know, maybe you do. There’s really three large churches in metro Detroit. I call them the Big three. You ready? It’s not for GM and Chrysler. Okay. The big three are Kensington, Woodside and Heritage. And so the pastors of those churches are at this meeting, as well as some of the other larger churches. And I’m like the only Lutheran there, and I’m the only one. I know them, but they don’t know me. And again, I’m scratching my head going, what is going on here? Why am I at this meeting? God, what are you up to?

What are you stirring in the hearts of these pastors and come to find out what they want to do is they want to figure out how we can all work together to reach more people for Jesus. And I stood up and said, that’s a terrible idea. Why would we ever get along? Why would we ever cooperate? Right? This is nuts. And here’s what they said. And this was so cool and so profound. They said, really, honestly, we need to confess the fact that we’ve kind of all gone into our own shells, into our own churches, and we haven’t done anything for ten years. We can’t blame Covid. It’s it goes beyond five years. Ten years ago, there was movement in metro Detroit. Some of you might remember this. One of them was called each everyone. A chance to hear another movement was called one McComb, where all the churches were actually getting along and lock arms and realizing the most important message any of us could ever preach is the crucified and risen Savior, Jesus Christ.

And again, I’m like, why am I at this meeting? How did they get my name? God, what are you up to in this area? Friday I went to a sister congregation right down the road Clinton Township, No, Sterling Heights, right at Hall Road and Hayes. They got a brand new pastor there. His name is Mike Dushane. He actually used to be a member of this church, and he’s only been there a couple of weeks. And so we got to tour the facility, and he has a massive facility. He has a gym the same size as ours. He’s got classrooms. He has a worship center. I mean, they got more than we have. He’s worshiping about 100 people. And he said, is there any way possible is there anything, is there any way that maybe you and some of your staff and some of your members would come and you would help us reach our community for Jesus? They have zero technology in their worship center. Nothing. No screens, nothing. There is literally zero. They have an organ and a pastor. That’s it. You know what I told Mike?

Absolutely not. You know, we got stuff on serve coming off. We got our own building project coming up. We got an outdoor service. We just don’t have time. No, I was honored to be able to go in to see, and that he wanted us to come and walk alongside him. Can I give you one more? He’s still with me because yesterday morning my family, along with some other families, were gathered in this very room as my oldest son, Henry, eighth grader, stood right where I’m standing and shared his faith. His testimony for our confirmation service and what was so awesome is I just got to come and be dad. I didn’t do anything the entire service. And these kids, one by one, shared moments in their lives the way that God has been working in their lives. And it was one of our ushers that said it after the service because I didn’t even realize it. They said, hey, do you realize that where Henry was standing, sharing his testimony, was the exact same spot that he was baptized 14 years ago?

And this was back when we worshiped over there. We just happened to be in here for the special service for Christmas. You might remember you played Baby Jesus’s first year of his life and I’m like, what is going on? See how my week is just doesn’t make sense. All of these things that God is orchestrating, all the ways in which he’s working through people. What’s so fascinating? If you read the scriptures, they actually refer to the ecclesia as being part of a body. This is a simple concept, probably something that we have not talked enough about, and we haven’t talked about enough recently. Here that we are the body of Christ. And I want you to see what he says. He says, for we were all baptized by one spirit as to form one body. We are the body. Christ is the head of the church, and our job is to follow in his ways and to do what it is that he calls us to do. Amen. Now it says this. The body is not made up of one part, but of. So it takes many of us to make up this idea. He goes on to say, if the foot should say, because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body, it would not for that reason stop being part of the body so you can say that you’re not part of the church.

You can deny all these things, but it really doesn’t mean that you’re still not part of the body. If the ear should say, because I’m not an I do not belong to the body, you would not for that reason, stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? What is he getting at? It takes all of the different personalities. It takes all of the different giftings and life experiences within a church to be a biblically functioning church. The older generation can’t look at the Gen Z and say, we don’t need you. We don’t want you. Gen Z ears can’t look at the boomers and say, what the heck, we don’t need you, the Gen Xers. Where’s my Gen Xers? There’s only a few of us. Praise God, we need to grow more of us. We can’t look at any of the other ones and keep playing the victim card. We had to say, God, you must have us here for a purpose and a reason.

We’re all part of his church together, and that’s one of the beautiful things I love about Shepherds Gate, so that I the diversity of generations and stages and ages that are here that God has blessed us with. In fact, it is God that has placed us here. Every single one of you. If you felt drawn and led to be part of our new member class, if you stood on this platform as well and you said, I’m a believer in Jesus and I commit myself to Shepherds Gate, as Shepherds Gate is committing itself to me and my family. You are part of this body. God is the one that has placed you here for such a time as this. Now, part of the unique role and responsibility that I have as the lead pastor according to our Constitution, is. I see all of the transfers of people that come to Shepherds Gate in those that transfer out. And it’s kind of fascinating because there are people that will shift and move. I mean, we got lots of churches in Metro Detroit, and so we have people that come from different churches, different church bodies. And really, Shepherds Gate is just a beautiful mosaic of a lot of different church backgrounds.

But we’re united under one mission, and that is we want more and more people to know the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen. What I also find fascinating is this from the very beginning, all 45 years of our church’s existence, this church has always, always and this sized discipleship. Follow me for a moment. It is so easy to grow a church. Did you know that it is easy to get but in the pews you know how you do that? You know the number one way to grow a church. Be a. No, because not everyone wants to hear the truth. Entertain them. This is what you do. The number one way to grow a church is to offer free beer on Sunday morning. And we’re Lutheran so we can get away with it. Not like our Baptist and Pentecostal friends. We can even say this recipe is from Martin Luther, the great reformer.

Everyone drink up. And God is blessing our church. We’ve been celebrating that. We’ve been seeing people come in and check us out and breaking these attendance records, which is fun to celebrate. But here’s the thing it doesn’t mean anything. If people aren’t connected into the body. It means absolutely nothing if we are not discipling people. But I can tell you this too. And some of you have seen this oftentimes, again, because I’m the one that has to watch this stuff as part of my job. Oftentimes when people will leave Shepherd’s gate, they will go to other large churches where they can hide. And I’m just being honest with you, it’s easy to go to a big church where you can come and sit and listen and leave, and you hear us talk about this all the time. Anybody that call shepherds Gate their home, we do not want them to come to sit. Listening. Leave. We love you enough to make your life uncomfortable. And we love you enough to say if this does make you uncomfortable, you’re probably going to leave, which is sad. \

Thanks be to God. You still love Jesus, but as a community of believers, we have committed. We have committed from the very beginning to Scripture first and foremost, and God’s design for the church and the way that he is structured. Church and God is going to allow us to grow at the rate he allows us to grow, based on our ability to disciple those that he has brought through our doors. Does that all make sense to everybody? Because some of you are. Some of you are new and you can hear some of the biggest amens are from the people that have been around a long time. And they’re really glad that we’re addressing this this morning. It’s why the I cannot say to the hand, I don’t need you, and the head cannot say to the feet, I don’t need you. None of us have the right to do that. We are all part of a local body, and we want to be obedient to the will and the Word of God, and to do what it is he’s called us to do. Now follow me here. He also says this.

On the contrary, there are parts of the body that seem weaker, and those parts are actually indispensable, and the parts of the body that we think are less honorable. Well, by the way, you figure out who those people are and you give them the seat at the head of the table, you you treat them with special honor. So I want you to think about that for a moment. What do you think he’s addressing in this passage? What groups of people do you think he that he that he thinks maybe often are overlooked? Or maybe it’s easy to just think, well, that’s too bad for them and hope they can figure it out. Hope they can take care of themselves. I would hope somebody said one widows are children. That’s another really good. What was another one? The elderly, homeless? Homeless? Recovering from recovering drunks. That’s an awesome one, man. You guys are way better than the 9:00 service. By the way. Do not tell them that. Okay? It often goes to this scripture. Many of you know this religion that our God, that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless as this to look after orphans and widows in their distress.

And we’ve been having this thought the last couple of weeks as we’ve been figuring out how do we continue to minister to the widows that God has as part of our church over 80 widows in some way, shape or form are connected here at Shepherd’s Gate, and I’m so thankful for our team of people that go out and do step out. Serve 365, because I believe the last 3 or 4 handicap ramps that they have built, they have gone out, got the lumber and gone to these houses and built them, are widows from right here in our congregation. We have an obligation to take care of those that are right here in our midst. Amen. I also had this thought because there’s people that have gotten to a certain age and stage of life where they can no longer drive, or they’ve been placed in assisted living. And so their connection to our church is through the cameras back here. And so they come and and they, they, they watch our services instead of being able to come here in person. And I want to ask you this. You guys know what this is. You guys all know what this thing is like. It has its own name.

It’s called the. If you’re new, it’s called the Mission Mobile. And 99.9% of the time this vehicle right here is on the road doing those wheelchair ramps, going to people’s houses, painting, doing landscaping. There’s a trailer that goes along with it, all sorts of incredible ministry to take care of not only the people that call Shepherd’s Gate home, but those in our community that we have relationships with. And I had this thought, what if there would be people in our church that once a month would be willing to give up their morning and to go, and to give the people that can no longer physically come to church and to pick them up. We already got the vehicle and to bring them here and to allow them to be face to face with other members of our church, to be able to taste and see and experience Holy Communion, to be able to hang out afterwards.

Because they’re friends with everybody and just be able to fellowship and have their heart filled with that. Is that something that our church could do? Is that something that maybe God would be speaking to some of our people today that say, hey, you know, once a month I could do that, or once every other month I could be on a rotation or once every three months. I would love the opportunity to do that. And I bring this up because this is the church. This is when the body takes care of the other members of the body. Nobody gets overlooked. Everyone is loved and cared for. Now, I mentioned earlier that on Wednesday our staff went out and did what has been kind of a tradition for our staff, which is like a priest up out in serve weekend, and we get to go and we get to serve.

And this year we got to go and serve at a home of a single mom. And the single mom is a member of our church. She’s been coming here for several years. She has a special needs child that is nonverbal. He’s never spoken a word. And we’re going to continue to pray with the specialist that he has that one day she will hear him say his first words. And this is something that it’s actually voluntary for the staff. We don’t force or make anybody on staff do it if they want to do it. And every year we always have a great turnout. And here’s what’s really cool. We were able to go into bless her, because we want to be the example, we want to lead the way and all of the staff again, we’ll all be on sites, step out and serve weekend as well. But what you might not know is there’s a couple in here, Tim and Ingrid Welch, and they were kind of the connectors for us going to her house and blessing her this year on the Sundays when we don’t have kids programing, which is kind of rare. I mean, we usually have kids programing all year long now and Christmas and Easter in particular.

We like to have the kids with us and so on those days, Tim and Ingrid actually take her son into one of our classrooms and play with him and love him in that classroom so that his mom can enjoy one of our Christmas and Easter services. That’s the body taking care of the body. That’s when people realize that maybe there’s something more to being connected to the local church. Again, God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lack it. So there should be two things no division and that it’s part should have for equal concern. And as far as I know, nobody’s fighting with each other. I hope that’s not the case. I hope nobody’s at odds are at war in our church. And if that’s the case, you got to put that out. If you need to go and offer forgiveness to somebody or tell somebody that they offended you in our church, make sure that you do that. We don’t want any of those little fires brewing or people being angry with each other. If anything, we model the forgiveness that Christ has given us through His son, Jesus, and we don’t want division in our church.

And we also want to make sure that every single person is cared for. Now, do we always get it right now? Do sometimes we let people down, or sometimes people have this perception of what we should be doing or not doing, and and sometimes we don’t even realize that people want more care than maybe what that they’re giving them. Can I just tell you, you got to let us know. Like, we have an incredible staff here at Shepherd’s Gate. We have an incredible pastoral care team. We have care coaches. We have so many people that are devoting their lives to walking alongside you and your family and wanting you to know how much you are loved by Jesus. What I would ask for is this is that you give us the benefit of the doubt. It’s always fascinating. Sometimes people come at us or people accuse us of stuff and you’re like, wait a second here. That’s not even true. And then you wonder, well, how many other people did they tell that to you? Because that actually never even happened.

See, we have to be able to speak truth to each other. I get to do it from the pulpit because I’m the pastor. Yay! Likewise, I’m part of the body. You get to speak into my life. I get to come to a confirmation service and be blessed by Pastor Van and the music team and the ushers and everybody that was part of that service yesterday that I had to just sit and soak in, and my full attention was on my son and what God was doing in and through him. And that moment, the body working together. So how does the church display the face of God? Or maybe a better way to ask this is what is it that God has gifted and called you to do? Because it’s so easy. It’s so easy to come to a church and attend service like that’s like step one. It’s like Christianity 101. And if you’re a guest and you’re checking us out, that’s what we want you to do. We want you to come and to see and hear and to experience Shepherd’s Gate. But there’s no way that we want you to stay just a spectator. We don’t want you to just to come in and, you know, two years from now and five years from now and ten years from now, you’re still a guest.

We have failed you. If you’ve been coming here for that many years and you still have not crossed over, and you have started serving others in the church, we have failed you. If you still come here and you’re holding on to all of your resources, did you know that if we’re not willing to call you up and to challenge you and to explain how the Body of Christ works according to the Word of God, and again, it’s not always the most popular message. It’s not always what people want to hear. And sometimes that’s when people say, maybe this isn’t the church. For me, but I can tell you this God’s up to something in this place. There’s something stirring in this church, and there’s something stirring in the churches in this community. This is how God says to do it. In Romans, it says us be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord. The passion of the Holy Spirit should be inside of us. What wakes us up is this desire and this drive to want to be in community, to want to minister to each other, and to want to go out and reach the lost world for him.

We are to be joyful and hope as we wait for his return. We’re to be patient with each other. When circumstances and hardships come into our lives, we are to be faithful in prayer that if I say, I’m going to pray for you, I am actually going to pray for you, or I’m just going to stop what I’m doing in that moment, and we’re going to pray together. Look at what it says. Last. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. One of the hardest things for Americans is opening up their pocketbooks, which is insane given the fact that we live in the most prosperous nation, the prosperous nation on the planet. And yet so many people are like, I’m not sharing my resources with you. I’m not sharing my resources with others. It is the heart is thing when it comes to discipling people. And we all know it’s a heart issue, isn’t it? Something has to break in people’s hearts. The Holy Spirit, to get people to move from being a consumer to being an a contributor. And then look at this last part practice hospitality.

Once you like those two words together, some of you are like, wait a second, this is fine and dandy for you, Tim, because you’re a pastor and you’re a preacher. And it from all my observations, it looks like you’re an extrovert. You like people. Most of the world’s introvert. Most of us don’t want to be around people. I have three friends. I don’t need any other friends. It’s my wife, my dog and my cat. Thank you very much. That’s all I need. And yet Paul is telling the church in Rome, practice hospitality. What does that mean? You actually have to open your front door and let people come in. You have to open the front door of your heart and let people in. Oh no, no, no. Since Covid, that’s all changed him. Everyone’s introverts now and what you do is you do and we just come to church and we just play this game and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. No, that’s not biblical community. This is biblical community is that we express genuine love and concern for each other, that we worship and pray together, that we gladly serve each other and share our resources because we’re all part of the Body of Christ.

And for those of you that are our financial partners, some of you, you have the gift of generosity. You are so faithful to the tide. You are so faithful and in being obedient in that area. And I just want to thank you because you are funding all of the ministry that takes place here and your sacrifice is what’s allowing us to have kids ministry and youth ministry and care ministry and adult ministry. Your funds are what’s allowing us to go out and to serve the community. Your funds are what give us the ability to have the lights on and air conditioned in the summer, and heat and the winter. Thank you. Thank you for your faithfulness. But now, how do we figure out how to invite those who have come here, who have gone through the membership class to take that next step? And so I want to invite our executive director up here at this time is we put an end to the message. And so would you please welcome Jim Jensen. We call him JJ around here.

JJ has been our executive director for the last two years, and part of his role is monitoring what it is that’s going on in our church. So he analyzes all of the data and really helps to make sure that we’re doing what we say that we’re doing, that we’re actually leading people into a discipled life of Jesus. And so maybe, Tom, just a little bit about that. Yeah. Actually, in my research, I’m excited because what I see is a scaling up of what’s happening at Shepherd’s Gate. And it’s kind of like when you’re by yourself, you have a certain number of connections, a certain number of resources, a certain number of living space, and maybe you meet someone, you get married, and then those connections increase. The space maybe needs to increase a little bit. And then if God blesses you with children, then you’re thinking, well, do I have enough bedrooms? Maybe I need another bed, or maybe I need another house or boy, the calendar’s getting full and it’s just like a family. Our church family is growing and scaling, and it’s really all about if we want to continue to pursue this mission to impact the world with the love of Jesus, it’s really about everyone scaling up, serving, giving, discipling each other.

And specifically when it comes to serving, you’ve done a lot of number crunching. You’ve looked at some of the trends. And let’s be honest, I mean, we have such a focus as a community on outreach, outreach, outreach outside of our building. But for the last five years, it’s really been a struggle to get people to serve inside the church. So maybe just talk a little bit about that. Yeah, that’s right. Of course, as part of that scaling, as we are blessed with more people than there are more people to serve. And again, it really comes down to everyone doing their part. And in fact, this summer we have the fun squad for our outdoor services. If you’ve never served anywhere before, this is this is a great one. You get a free T-shirt, you get to feel what it’s like to serve others in a really fun outdoor environment. Maybe that’s a first step to take. And actually, you can sign up today in the lobby, but it’s really the week in, week out serving opportunities that we need to continue to scale in order to continue to grow and impact the world with the love of Jesus.

And there are tons of serving opportunities right here in the church, almost anything you can think of. And then finally, this last one, right? This is the taboo one. Or, you know, you’re not supposed to talk about this and all that. That’s not us. We have no problem talking about money and generosity, because this church is insanely generous with what God has given us. And so you’ve also been crunching numbers. You’ve been looking at some of the trends. And so maybe just talk about what this looks like. That’s right. I’ve been looking at the data and, you know, there are some churches, I think, that have a few, maybe wealthier families that fund, you know, 30, 40, 50% of what’s happening. I need to tell you that that’s not the case at Shepherds Gate. There are some sacrifice givers. That’s wonderful. Or we love that they’re able to do that. But really, what it comes down to when you look at the numbers, is everyone doing their part, everyone stepping up to give and to be on that giving journey and that generosity journey. That’s how we’re doing it. That’s how we’re going to continue to move forward.

Yeah. So listen to this. This is very important that you hear this okay. What JJ is doing is he’s taking people who are members of her church. That means you went through the new member class, you had an interview with the pastor, you stood on this platform and said, this is my church. Anyone that’s been a member for three years or more, because if you’ve been a member for three years, you’ve probably been attending for 4 or 5. Can wouldn’t say that sounds logistic or logical. So for three years or more that aren’t serving and have yet to experience generosity. And so JJ is going to be reaching out to you and making that connection with you. So it’s important that you take his call, don’t block his number or ignore his emails or goes to him. We want to call you up into this. We want to help you fully assimilate into the life of our church. Yeah, I don’t think this has to be awkward at all. And we also have resources. If there’s, some blockage to generosity, we have people that can come alongside you. Financial experts that can work with you in confidence to get that, the budget and the financing in order. We also have Financial Peace University, which we offer once a year.

But really, as you said, it’s a heart issue. And we just want to have the conversation. We just want to see what can we do, how far can this go? There really is no limit with God blessing us, just being obedient to what he’s asking us to do. Exactly. So sound good? Everybody sounds logical to everybody, but it has to be fueled by prayer in the Holy Spirit. So thank you for joining us in prayer. In that, can we give JJ a big hand in all that he does for our church? And at this time, we are going to prepare our hearts to receive Holy Communion. If you’re a guest, this morning, our communion guidelines are going to be on the screen. But we invite you if you’ve been baptized, you believe that Christ is present. And and with the bread and wine, you are more than welcome to join us this morning in our practice here at Shepherd’s Gate is actually to bow our heads and close our eyes. So you go ahead and do that in this moment with me. And the reason we bow our heads and close our eyes is because this is the moment between you and God. This is the this is the opportunity for you to get open and honest about your sins, your shortcomings, the idols that are in your life that God already knows, and to hand them over to them, to him, to confess those things to him.

And so we’re going to have a moment of silence now for you to do just that. Gracious Heavenly Father, thank you that you have heard our confessions. And because of your son, Jesus Christ, because of the price he paid on the cross for each and every one of us. You do. In fact, you forgive us of all of our sins, and you cleanse us from all unrighteousness. In the name of the father, and of the son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. He sees on the night that Jesus was betrayed, took bread, and when he given thanks, he broke it. And he gave it to the disciples and said, take, eat. This is my body, which is given for you. Do this remembering me in the same way. After supper he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to the disciples and said, take drink. This cup is the new covenant of my blood. This is given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins. So do this as often as you drink of it, remembering me. And so we come now, and we receive this incredible gift that God our father gives us through His Son, Jesus Christ, who is our Savior and Lord.

Amen. The communion servers and ushers are coming at this time. Just a few words of instructions. We do receive both the bread and the wine here at Shepherd’s Gate. Body and blood. Also, we do have gluten free wafers available at your server. And although, extend the gluten free wafer tray to you. Also, the red cups have wine in them. The white cups have grape juice in them. How’s it? Perfect. Son of God. And all his devices. You’re walking in the door with you in me? He knows what living is. He’s acquainted with our grief. The man of sorrows. I of suffering. Hold until. How come? There’s a God who lives. There’s a God who plays. Oh, Christ, the one who died for me. Hallelujah! To the side of suffering. Some imagine you. I decided that you chases down a mercy from a sin. Yeah, a TV series, an intro to grace. And to me and the truth is. Hey, listen me. The proof is in your guilt. All the latest. All. Come with me. There’s a God forgives us. There’s a God who is always the one who is for me, who is suffering. Upon your cross. My freed of your stripes. My healing all praise. King Jesus, glory to God! I love you, boy. It’s to speak. So I say your praise, King Jesus. Glory to God, for I, your crown is my freedom. Yes, dice my head I in Jesus. Oh, you got your sticks in your soul. Is sheet all right, King Jesus, glory to.

Take us. Together this tell you? Glory to God for. Your grace. Nothing you say I need no. It’s kings. It’s up to you. It’s just me. And so is always changing. And glory to God forever. Oh, glory to God forever. All the glory. Glory to God forever. And love. Oh, God, I want to see. How can I be? There’s a God who heals. There’s a God who bleeds. All praise. The one who. Would reach for. Me. Hallelujah to the sun. So see, oh hallelujah. To the sight. Of. Of my whole heart. To the sight of suffering. Oh, honey. To the sight of suffering. Your Christ, my feet, your stripes for healing. All praise. King Jesus. Glory to come home. Come your love so sweetly. Your love so praising all praise. King Jesus, glory to God to love us. Glory to God for loving us forever and ever. Glory to God for us. He deserves us. Glory to God for all the. Oh Jesus. And now, may this true body and blood of our Lord and Savior. May it strengthen you and preserve you and keep you in the one true faith. Until that day that we see Jesus face to face. Amen. At this time, we’re going to pray. And the Lord’s Prayer is the prayer that Jesus has taught us to pray. If you know this, you want to say this with us.

Let’s say this together. Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. We’re going to continue our worship of our God this morning by receiving our tithes and offerings. The ushers are coming forward at this time and again. This is a reflection. This is a response to the abundance of what it is that God has produced in our lives. And now, faithfully and obediently, we give back that to which belongs to him, that we may continue to advance the gospel. The worship team is about to lead us in another worship song, and we just ask that you would remain seated until everyone has had an opportunity, to receive the basket. And then they’ll have you stand and we’ll close out our time together, worshiping God.

I. Have. You I love you, I love you. Bring light to the dark. Give us. You give hope. You restore every heart that is broken. You great. Are you love? It’s your cross and it’s so. We pour out the praise with all our praise. You and in us. So we pour out of praise to you. Oh lay. Sing a song. Together. You confess. You love. You pray. Tell us. You restore every heart that is okay, okay I. See you. It’s your heart I guess. Series. It is for a phrase. It’s your way. Right. So we have raised him up. Is your breath in? I was so love face to face. Your. Love wasting. There. Oh, you’re so worthy. Jesus, sweetheart. I pray. Everything the Lord. Hears is all yours. Quick shout. In praise. All hands will cry. These words will sing great. Are you? Oh I am. We will show you these. Oh, God is. Great. Day to day. Day out to Christ. It’s clear. Day. And. It’s. Always so amazed to make some days. And I guess some things. See, it’s. I life is friends. Times to make on us. So best in me and great I. Pray. And.

Amen. Can we give God praise one more time this morning? Once again, thank you so much for joining us. If you need prayer this morning, we have prayer partners that are available to you to be the face of God, to you, to join you, and whatever that prayer request may be. Also, make sure you stop by and see JJ out there in the west lobby. You can’t miss him. The mannequin has a whole new look today, so just look. Look for the mannequin and JJ will be right underneath that. But receive this blessing before you leave today. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May he make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you, and may he look upon you with favor, and give you his everlasting and eternal peace. Amen. Have a wonderful week! Can’t wait to see you next week! If you’re traveling, make sure you join us online. God blessed guests. I’ll be out there. I’d love to see you. Also, if you’re able to help with the chairs, if you’re on the chair team, we’d really appreciate that as well. Thank you.