Compelled For Our Time And Our Place

AI Transcript

Hey, well welcome. Welcome to Redemption Park. you're new here, we're glad you're here. You're here at a good time. As Jen mentioned, we're week three of our series that is launching us for the next couple years into where God has us. We do have a series guide. If you weren't here the first couple weeks, Pastor Rick will pass that out. Just raise your hand and we'll get that to you if anyone needs that. No one needs that. Okay, you're good. If you're afraid to raise your hand, you can get one on your way out as well.

at the table. Well, yeah, in honor of Pastor Rick today, I'm wearing my Memento Mori shirt. Memento Mori means remember death from Psalm 90 verse 12. Teach us to number our days, Lord, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Unlike Pastor Rick, I don't have the tattoo Memento Mori. I don't have any tattoos because I'm a Christian, but I...

I don't have that one. And unlike Pastor Rick, I don't have skulls in my office. He's got these skulls in his office that loom down look down on him as he's writing his sermons. I don't have any of that, but it's a good reminder. And throughout church history, Christians have said this to be like, hey, let's not waste our lives. Let's take advantage of the moment. I don't have that, but I have something else in my office that I've shared with

with you guys before, it serves a similar purpose. From as young as I can remember, when I'd go visit my grandma and grandpa Oshman on the farm in Kansas, my grandma Oshman would tell me the story. Tell me the story about my grandfather who was part of the 5th Marines during World War II. And he, if you know the 5th Marines story, you know that they were

the force that landed on the beaches of Iwo Jima. And as they came onto Iwo Jima, it was a very costly, very strategic battle. He spent the first five days on his face in the sand, crawling from the front lines to the orders in the back and back and forth, just bullets constantly flying over his head. Well, on day five of the...

landing on Iwo Jima, he was shot by a Japanese soldier about 15 yards away as the story is told to me. then the soldier jumped out of his foxhole and like a scene out of a movie runs full speed at my grandfather with his rifle high and his bayonet raised. And as he's over my grandfather, my grandfather's friend and fellow Marine shoots the Japanese soldier dead.

And I think about that often as I look at the Purple Heart that a few years ago my dad gave me to keep in my office. And I ponder that moment and that life. as I ponder this, the first time I got this, I was looking at this and I was like, man, there's a lot of history behind this. And even as I was looking at it, I was interested, I pulled up the cotton and underneath the cotton is the Japanese bullet that

went into my grandfather's shoulder, made its way towards his heart, hit some bone along the way, and by millimeters missed ventricle in his heart. He was taken to the hospital on the ship and very carefully they took this bullet out. And I think about that often because I think about how millimeters is the difference between me being in existence.

dad, my well, Redemption Parker being in existence. And I think about if we could see the world and our lives as God sees the world and our lives in history, 10 million times, this is all of our story. So somewhere along the line that there were moments where you should not be here. We shouldn't be alive. And yet in God's providence, we find ourselves in this moment. And when I look at that box and I think of

of that providence of God and I look at my life I'm like man I don't want to waste my life scrolling social media I don't want to waste my life on frivolous things I want to enter in this moment that is so precious right here right now. Again I think this is all of our story. A years ago I read a book by James K. Smith he wrote it was entitled How to Inhabit Time. How to inhabit time.

And you're like, well, that's weird. Like, what do mean? How do I inhabit time? Well, he says, well, in the secular West, we actually are very poor at inhabiting time because in the secular worldview, there's, in America, we don't have any sense of where we came from and really no sense of where we're going. It's all about what he would call presentism. Like we think only this moment matters. And so in a kind of cultural colloquial way, you might hear YOLO.

This is is YOLO. You only live once. Only this moment matters. But he argues that Christians above all people should should should know how to inhabit time best because we are part of a bigger story like this is our moment. We there's something that came before us. There's there's much that will come after us. But in this place and in this time this is where God has you and me. If you came in the lobby.

You saw our timeline and it says God's story, our turn. And in the timeline, it's just a story of redemption Parker over the last nine years, but that timeline has arrows on each side that go for eternity past and eternity future. But in this time and this place, this is where God has us. Do you ever think about that? Like it's no accident that you're here in Parker, Colorado in 2026, whether you want to be or not.

This is where God has you. And the question is, will you inhabit time well? Will you understand that you've come from somewhere, you're going somewhere? Because the secular worldview doesn't think about the past and really the future. As Americans, we're optimistic and that's good. But it's a baseless optimism on human progression if it's not founded in God. And so this is what they'll say.

We're just going to progress as humanity into a glorious future. This in spite of the fact that the last 150 years have had the most tragedies in the human history. And you can go onto the news today and see we're not really progressing. There's no utopia around the corner, at least not in that worldview. But the Christian understands there's a bigger story. The story kind of goes like this, creation, fall.

promise, redemption, renewal. And you see this and it goes, this is the part of the story that we find ourselves in. And if we were to zoom into the story, we would find ourselves between redemption and renewal, between the cross, burial and resurrection and Jesus is coming again. And if we could zoom really close into there, we would see Redemption Parker. And this is our moment. This is our time. This is our place. So the question for us is, will we be faithful in it?

Will we be found faithful in our time and our place like so many of our brothers and sisters throughout the ages and across the world? See, if we had this timeline in our mind, so many of our problems would fade away, right? We're stressed and anxious, but if we understood that God's providence, so we understand God's sovereign, He is in control of all things, but providence is a subcategory of sovereignty. It is His good working for you.

for his glory. So it's his goodness in your life. Have we understood God's providence that he's for you, that he's got a good plan for you? Man, how much of our stress and anxiety would kind of melt away? We are overburdened and materialistic. But if we understood that this life right here and right now is not all there is, how much more free would we be? We are distracted and disconnected. But what if we lived purposely?

in this moment for this time in this place we are insecure and self self-focused but if we understood that we stand between redemption and renewal that we are in Christ how how secure would we be if all of our hope was in him right we are Christians that that means we are Christ followers that means we are to constantly remind ourselves of who Christ is that he stepped off his throne in glory and entered into

the time and the space that he spoke into existence. It'd be like Shakespeare writing a play and then going up on stage. He controls the whole narrative, right? He was never stressed or anxious. He was never overburdened or materialistic. He was never distracted or disconnected, never insecure or self-focused. He was completely walking in shalom.

And that's what he invites us to. And so again the question is in our time and our place will we be found faithful. If you have your series guide you can turn to page 51. We are in week three of the series and each week we are launching from this this text in Second Corinthians five where the apostle Paul writes for Christ's love compels us. It is the fuel for our Christian lives. It's Christ's love. Consider his love that he

died for us, that he rose for us. Christ's love compels us. And then he unpacks that in various ways over the next several verses. And down on verse 20, it says this about our time and our place. He says, we are therefore Christ's ambassadors. As though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.

Christ's love compels us and because he's given us, like we saw last week, the ministry of reconciliation, we are given a title. We are ambassadors. There are so many implications to our lives if we understood what it means to be an ambassador. If you're a follower of Christ, you are an ambassador. That is someone sent by a king to represent a king and his kingdom. That's what we are here.

in 2026, Parker, Colorado, there's massive implications. It's a great honor to be an ambassador, to be sent by a great king to represent a great kingdom. But we also understand as ambassadors, this is not our true home. No matter how long you've lived in Colorado or Parker or in your home, it really is just a stopping point along the way. It's an outpost. Don't get too comfortable. As ambassadors, we speak with

delegated authority, not our own authority. We speak on behalf of the King, and we represent His interests and not our own. That's what ambassadors do. As ambassadors, we're respectful students of the culture, but we do not assimilate to the culture around. It's not who we are. As ambassadors, we represent the reign of Christ inside a world still in rebellion to Christ.

As ambassadors, we have authority. Says as though God were making his appeal through us and we have urgency. We implore people to be reconciled to God. Do you live as an ambassador as ambassadors when the world turns against us? They're actually not turning against us when the world rejects our message. They're actually not rejecting our message. They're rejecting the king and his kingdom and he can handle it.

He can handle it. So as ambassadors we speak faithfully on behalf of the King. The story of Christian history is Christians to various degrees representing Christ in the long chain of Christianity. Some have done it well others not so much. But I want to look at this scene if you turn to page 53 so you got a place for notes and then.

You've got Acts chapter four. I want to look at some of very first chains in the story of Christianity. I want to look at them and see what does it look like to be ambassadors in a particular time and a particular place. So we pick up the story in the book of Acts which is the story of the early church in chapter four and it starts like this in verse one. says the priest and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking.

to the people. They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people proclaiming Jesus in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. Now you may know this that the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection and so when they hear about all this resurrection talk they get upset. The stupidest thing you can remember about the Sadducees is they were Sadducee because they didn't believe in the resurrection.

You'll remember that for the next rest of your life in some Bible study. You'll be like, you know why they're sad? OK. It's not in my notes. So they don't believe in the resurrection. Peter and John are preaching about the resurrection, and so they're disturbed. It says they seized Peter and John, and because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. Again, don't read your Bible too quickly. How many times have you spent a night in jail because of your faith in Jesus?

I'm guessing no one in here but we do have brothers and sisters around the world and throughout history and even right now that are doing this just because of Jesus because they're ambassadors. They're spending a night in jail. Well verse four but many who heard the message believed. So the number of men who believed had grown to about five thousand. So if you were here last week and you're running the numbers on the early church where.

We're two services in and we're running about eight thousand for our services. Right. So the next day the rulers the elders of the teacher of the law met in Jerusalem and as the high priest was there and so was Caiaphas John Alexander and others of the high priestly family. If those names seem familiar to you because you can go it's because you can go back to the Book of Acts or all the gospels and you can see these are the very people that just a few weeks before this condemned Jesus to death.

by torture on a cross. So these are guys with real power real terror in their hands. They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them by what power or what name did you do this. Then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit. Now whenever in the book of Acts you see this phrase filled with the Holy Spirit buckle up. There's about to be an unleashing of spiritual power.

by God through someone or some people. So now Peter is filled with the Holy Spirit says rulers and elders of the people if if we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and being asked how he was healed. Let me just pause right there. So in that series guide you don't have to ask chapter three but let me just set up the scene. So at this point in Acts three there's about three thousand people that are followers of Jesus and we're told that.

The church would gather in homes in small groups to do life together and then they would gather corporately together to worship and learn from the apostles. And so that they had their gathering in a large place and then in small places. But one day Peter and John are headed to the temple because the temple courts were massive and it was the only place you could have three thousand people gather and teach in that moment. So they're.

all going there. Peter and John in Acts chapter 3 are walking into the temple and as they're going through this gate called the beautiful gate that there's a man there that has been set there. From birth we learn that he has been paralyzed. He's lame the Bible says. He cannot walk and so his friends or his family every day come and set him right by the gate so as people are coming in for the worship of God he's got his hands out and he's receiving alms.

It's a good place to be because people want to feel good about going into the temple worshiping God and showing kindness. And so that's how he earned his living. Well it says Peter and John were walking in and they saw this man and they got his attention. And it says he thought they were going to give him some money. And he said and Peter says silver and gold we do not have. You know I said that because he's a preacher silver and gold we do not have but.

What we do have, we'll give you in the name of Jesus. And I'm sure this guy, we know from the context, he's over 40 years old, he's like, what, you're gonna give me some advice? Great. He says, no, in the name of Jesus, I pray that you would get up and walk. That's a bold prayer. But Peter and John are walking in step with the Spirit. That's a bold prayer, honestly. I mean, I...

I pray for people healing all the time, but like to just be like, yeah, you're going to get up and walk. But then it says that it wasn't until Peter goes to the man, picks the man up, then his legs are healed. So not only is he praying boldly, but he's walking in bold faith in that moment. And as the man stands up, his legs are healed. And apparently all the muscle that he hasn't developed for 40 years is there and he is overjoyed.

He's literally jumping up and down, praising God. And the people, the 3,000 that are there, they know this guy because he's been there every day for over 40 years. And they start shouting and praising God. And then there's thousands of other people that have just come to worship in the temple. And they're like, what's going on over there? And so this crowd just kind of goes over to what's going on. Peter...

He loves it. Throughout the book of Acts he's like, oh, there's a crowd. Let me preach a sermon. And he's got one sermon. I love it because people you say I only have one sermon. He's got one sermon and he preaches the sermon. And that's where these five thousand are like, we're in. We're in too. And the word gets to the leaders. They're like, what's going on there? It's something about Jesus. Jesus, I don't even remember. That was like five weeks ago, Jesus or something. Yeah. What is this? And so that's where the context is.

And so Peter says to the leaders who have just put Jesus to death, he says, if you're bringing us here because of kindness showed to a man, let me tell you how and why we did that. Verse 10. Says, then know this, you and all the people of Israel, it is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, but whom God raised from.

the dead. This man stands before you healed. Jesus is the stone you builders rejected. You leaders of Israel who should know better. You leaders of Israel who have the word and the prophets that that pointed to Jesus. You rejected him but he has become the cornerstone the very foundation of all that God is doing in the world. And then the most important verse in the book of Acts maybe in the whole Bible Peter says this salvation.

is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved." So you want to know who did this? You want to know what this is all about? This is about one name, Jesus. This is not about Peter. This is not about John. This is not about Redemption Parker. What God is calling us to, it doesn't matter if...

Anyone in our city knows any of our names, but if the name of Jesus is lifted high that's a win. It's about one name. This is significant for guys like Peter and John because we know just a few weeks earlier at the very week that Jesus was about to be crucified they had this ongoing argument the disciples remember the argument the argument was this whose name is going to be greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Peter and John and James and Thaddeus, all of them would argue, no, it's me, it's me, it's me. And Peter was just, Jesus was like, you guys aren't getting it. But after the death, burial, and resurrection, it became about one name, and one name only, the name of Jesus. They were transformed. It's the name of Jesus. That salvation is found in no other name under heaven. No other name. So your name's not gonna save you. Your family heritage.

You're not saved because they were Baptists back in the day. No other name of world religions is going to save you. The postmodern idea that there are many ways up the mountain to find truth and go to heaven, that doesn't save you. They're very clear. It's only Jesus, ever Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. That's the only hope for the world. And so that's why Peter stands up. He's like, that's the name.

And then verse 13 says, when they saw the courage of Peter and John. And again, this is remarkable because Peter and John were not marked by courage just a few weeks before. When Jesus, before Jesus gets arrested, Jesus tells Peter, you're going to deny me three times before the alarm clock goes off in the morning. And Peter's like, no, I would, I would die for you. I, I'm courageous. He's like, no, you're not.

And we see it. denies them all that. But after the death burial and resurrection of Jesus, Jesus meets with Peter and encourages them. Love my sheep. Love my sheep. Love my sheep. Then the spirit comes and the spirit fills Peter and John and the rest of the believers and there is courage. This is what they're marked by now. They're full of courage. When they saw the courage of Peter and John, I love this, and they realized they were unschooled ordinary men.

They don't got a good education. Who are these guys? They're courageous, but they're just fishermen. But it says they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. How did they take note of that? They're like, well, we remember Jesus. We remember Jesus at the trial. We remember how he just stood there and took our accusations, how people punched him in the face and he just...

took it but but but he had this peace and shalom about him these guys look like that guy these guys have been with that guy may it be said of redemptive parker and the whole church in parker that that that the christians have been with jesus have you been with jesus lately did you spend time communing with jesus did you stir your affections for more of jesus do you get into his word do you get with his people do you

with his spirit to empower your life. These men had been with Jesus and they were astonished, it says. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say. And everybody knew the man. He's literally doing Jesus jumping jacks in the temple and they're like, what are we to say about that? Something has happened here. So they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin and they conferred together.

What are we going to do with these men? asked. Everyone living in Jerusalem in this time and this place knows they have performed a notable sign and cannot deny it. But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn them to speak no longer to anyone in this name. mean, this is like the most 2026 politically correct thing possible. Hey, do whatever you want. Worship whatever you want. Love whoever you want. Just don't mention Jesus.

That's basically what they're saying. Just stop mentioning Jesus. And then I love their how they respond in verse 18. So then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied which is right in God's eyes to listen to you or to him. You be the judges. Should we listen to God or what you guys are deciding. As for us we cannot help speaking.

what we have seen and heard. Why? Because they're ambassadors. They represent a king and his kingdom. That's their whole role in life. An ambassador is to speak on behalf of the king and the kingdom. So that's what they're going to do. It says after further threats. And again, these are not empty threats. Like torture and crucifixion is horrific death. But these are the threats that the Sanhedrin are.

leveling against them. After further threats, they let them go. They could not decide how to punish them because all the people were praising God for what had happened for the man who was miraculously healed was over 40 years old. And so they're released and they head back to the believers and they start gathering together again. Verse 23, on their release, Peter and John went back to their own people.

and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer. So they've already been marked by bold prayer. I pray that you're healed. And they've been marked by walking in boldness. They lift the guy, he is healed. And as they pray, notice how and what they pray. They pray in light of that timeline you saw.

They pray in light of knowing that God is sovereign, more than that, knowing that the providence of God is going forward in their lives. They say this, sovereign Lord, you're in control of everything. You made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them, creation. They go through creation, fall, redemption, restoration. He says, you spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David. Why do the nations...

raged in the people's plot in vain. The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed one. Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate, this is redemption, Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed. This is when they had that sham of a trial and they sentenced Jesus to

crucifixion but look what they said in verse 28 they did that horrific thing that they did they did what your power and your will had decided beforehand should happen it was part of your plan God they are responsible for their sin but you're sovereign over it and then it says now Lord consider their threats again not empty threats consider their threats now at this point in the prayer how are you praying here's how I'm praying

Lord, the same people that crucified Jesus, they're threatening to do that to me. Lord, would you stop that? Lord, I'm praying for your just your blessing of safety and comfort and security. Lord, I know those are from you. And so, yeah, this is how I'm praying at this moment. Like I don't want to die, but this is not how they pray. It's amazing. Consider your threats, their threats.

and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Because they're ambassadors. They've been speaking in boldness, they've been walking in boldness, now as they're threatened, they're like, we need more boldness, Lord. Would you just give us more boldness? They're not praying for safety and security and comfort, they're praying for.

boldness and then they asked stretch out your hand and to heal and to perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus Lord validate our ministry in our message with your power in our lives so that more and more can come and know you as Lord verse 31 after they prayed the place where they were meeting was shaken it's God saying I hear you I'm gonna shake this place and they were all filled

with the Holy Spirit. Again I said watch out whenever you see that phrase in the book of Acts but here it's not one person it's all the believers. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Okay so what is God going to do now? When the whole church is filled with the Holy Spirit it says and they spoke the word of God boldly and it continues but unfortunately in the modern translations you have this break and it makes it off to the side and it's got this the believers share their possessions but

In context, how you interpret the Bible, you say, okay, if they are filled with the Holy Spirit, what's going to happen? What's miraculous that's going to happen? What's supernatural that's going to happen? Well, it's the very next passage that shows us what's going to happen when an entire church is filled by the Spirit. You know what happens? The way we say it around here, gospel doctrine and gospel culture rise up together. That's the Holy Spirit at work.

in a people, gospel doctrine, gospel culture, the word goes forward, people live in light of the word, they love one another. Jesus said, they will know you are my followers by your love for one another. A new command I give you, love one another. We can't do that in our own strength. We need the Spirit of God to fill us. This is exactly what happens as they're all filled by the Spirit. It says all the believers were one in heart and mind. There's a

unity amongst this church that's Spirit-filled. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. They're like, but the mission's more important than my own stuff. With great power, the apostles continued to testify. There's Gospel doctrine to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all, the whole church, that there were...

no needy persons among them. They were meeting one another's needs. Now there are many ways to be a needy person. We have sometimes it's a physical material need, sometimes it's a spiritual relational need, sometimes you just need your brother or sister to come and give you encouragement or prayer or whatever it is that filled by the spirit they are living out the gospel together. There were

needy persons among them for from time to time those who owned land and houses sold them and brought the money from the sales and put it at the Apostles feet and it was distributed to anyone who had need. There's a spirit filled generosity in the room. Verse 36 mentions perhaps apart from Jesus my favorite person in all of the New Testament.

His name is Joseph. You know Joseph? Well, that's the only time he's named here, but we're told how we know him throughout the rest of the New Testament. says Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas, which means son of encouragement.

sold a field, owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles feet. So everyone knew in the church, hey Joseph, look what Joseph has done to advance the mission. He's sold his stuff and he's brought it here. He's so encouraged the church. You know what we should nickname him? Son of encouragement. If encouragement had a son, this is the dude. This is what it looks like to be filled by the spirit. Listen, church, don't over-spiritualize this.

Encouragement is what everyone in this room needs. No one in this room is over encouraged.

And that's one of the evidences of grace to me as your pastor. Like even this week, several of you have went out of your way to send me a text of just encouragement.

Listen, know Pastor Rick knows, we know there are no perfect churches and there are no perfect pastors and we mess up. But when you go out of your way to encourage, man, the wind in our sails fills our sails. And that's true for every one of us. You want to walk in the spirit today? Stop being discouraging and start being encouraging. That's it. You can make that choice and the spirit will empower that.

We are ambassadors for this time and this place. Filled by the Spirit, we walk in gospel culture. The early church was compelled by the love of Christ to live and love faithfully in the time and the place which God set them. The question is, are we compelled with the same? You say, well, things were different back then. Jesus had just been resurrected. Yeah, I mean, I think that did help.

John and Peter. But for the rest of the 8,000 people in the church, they have what we have. They have the eyewitness testimony of John and Peter telling them, we saw Jesus dead, buried, alive. So we have that. They prayed boldly. We can pray boldly. They were filled by the Spirit. We have the same Spirit. They had a calling to be ambassadors in

Jerusalem, we have the same calling to be ambassadors. All I'm saying is we have the same. Everything that they had, we have. We just have to walk in it. Gospel culture. I think God is doing 10,000 things among us that we are not even aware of in relationships and in life together, but we are aware of a few things. And so we've put together a video that just captures one way.

that God is working by His Spirit in gospel culture.

I'm DJ Henley and this is my wife, Sam. We've been coming to Redemption Parker for about three years. We have three kids, 10, seven, and four. That's Noelle, Isaac, and Elliot, and then we've got one on the way. The messages right off the bat really spoke to me. We were immediately invited to a GC. We started going pretty quickly and so kind of found community right out the gates, which was great. Prior to coming to Redemption Parker, I really struggled with running to community. I was...

kind of taught from a young age into early adulthood that you run away from community unless you have it all together. So I did not have it all together. So I was kind of hiding the background and it was through a couple of years of being in a GC where I started really sharing things and hey, things are hard and realizing that people around me had similar burdens. And so God was already kind of softening my heart going into about a year ago when DJ came forward with a lot of the things that he was dealing with. GC was there and

walked through really heavy burdens with us. There are two spiritually significant moments that really are solidified in my brain for key milestones in my personal journey through healing and freedom. One of which is when Scott, my brother in Christ, looked me in the eye and said what I was doing was not right and not healthy, but it wasn't in a judgmental way. It was like, this is not good for you.

this is not healthy and there is a better way. Following Sunday, I went to a theology on the ground meeting where we talked through the Romans seven man and I truly do think that God pulled some scales off my eyes and helped me see where I had been blind previously. So, I mean, we've obviously grown a ton in our marriage, but then we've also seen our kids grow tremendously since we've been at RP, I would say our oldest in particular.

a longing and a growing in her heart that she didn't have previously. She's just really eager to know more about the

Pastor Mark talked a little bit about influence and just legacy and how much influence one person can have in your life. And then you get to be that influence to more people or your kids or your kids' kids. And just seeing that play out is cool. What I've gained by being a part of that body, if I can give even like a fraction of that back, it really is a joy and honor to be able to serve at RP through time and resources.

I would say the culture of RP is authentic people trying to authentically follow Jesus Christ. Yeah, it's a bunch of authentic broken people that accept our humaneness, but we're all working together and towards Christ to be more sanctified.

Amen, amen.

Filled by the Holy Spirit, are therefore Christ's ambassadors as though God we're making his appeal through us. implore.