Compelled For One More

AI Transcript

Amen. Amen. Thank you, Pastor Rick. Amen. Well, welcome. Good morning. There we go. I just needed the right question or response. Something. I don't know what I'm doing. So if you're new here, welcome. My name is Mark. I'm one of the pastors. It's my joy to open up God's Word with you this morning. We are in week number two of a series that really is a two year launch into something that God

is calling our faith family too. you're here, if you're visiting, you're here at a great time. If you weren't here last week or this is your first time, last week we passed out a series guide to help walk you through that. And if you weren't here, we want to have you raise your hand so we can get this into your hands. If you were here and you forgot to bring your series guide back, no problem. You can go on your phone to redemptionparker.org, compelled, and under resources you can get a PDF of this. But raise your hand so we can get this in your hands.

so you can follow along and this will be a tool on the journey with us. sometimes in our theological tradition, you'll hear people say, you need to accept Jesus into your heart. And while that's not in the Bible, I understand the concept. The concept is, you need to open up your life to receive Jesus as savior and...

Set your life on a different course. I think that's right and good. However, I think there might be a better biblical metaphor. It isn't so much that we need to receive Jesus into our heart. What if what if Jesus is saying, hey, I want you to come into my heart?

Think about the difference. we are, if we come to Jesus and say, I open up your life, Jesus, I want you to come and bless my life. just need I need you to bless all my plans. I need you to bless all my will and all my desire. Just just give me a little bit of that Jesus juice, please, please. Or we say, Lord, I want my heart to reflect your heart.

I want to be in your will. I want to be in what you're doing in this world. I want my life to conform to your life because that's where life is abundant life into the heart of Jesus. We've launched this series out of this passage that the apostle Paul writes to the church at Corinth and he starts by saying for Christ's love compels us that this has to be the engine of what of the Christian life.

It isn't about us. It isn't about Him blessing all of our plans. It's about what is Christ doing? What's the energy that we're going to have to go forward in the mission of God? It's the love of Christ. Christ's love compels us. And what Christ gives to us, He means to do through us. One of the problems with accepting Jesus into your heart in our

hyper individualistic Western mind is it can all be about me and Jesus. Just me and Jesus come come pour your love into my heart pour your love into my heart without any outlet. And that can actually become a dangerous thing for your life spiritually. In northern Israel there's a mountain some famous mountains called Mount Hermon in the wintertime and it collects snow and and of course in the spring it begins to run off and and over the course of forty five miles it it co-relates to one.

River. It's called the Jordan River and in it it's got oxygenated. It's teeming with life. It flows into what the Bible calls the Sea of Galilee. But it's actually just a lake. It's a giant lake. But in this lake there is life and there's vitality. And for millennia villages and towns and people have lived around this lake. Jesus spent a lot of time in those villages and towns and on the lake sometimes even walking on the lake. But there was life in the lake and the towns and villages got their life.

got their water, they watered their crops, they watered their animals, all these things because there was life in it. But at the other end of the Sea of Galilee, at the other end of the lake, there's an outlet. And it flows out of there and it flows for another 80 miles down the Jordan Valley. That's where we get the Jordan River name from. And along those 80 miles, again, there's just life and vitality.

tropes that are being watered, there's villages and towns, and this has been the history, but unlike most rivers, it doesn't, you know this already probably, it doesn't flow into the ocean, it flows to the lowest place on earth, 1,404 feet below sea level to the Dead Sea. It's called the Dead Sea because the water full of life and vitality comes into this place and there's no exit, there's no outlet.

The sun, the desert sun just bakes it, it evaporates, you know, the salt and the minerals stay behind such that no life can survive in that place. I think for some of us, we are okay with receiving the love and mercy of God, but we think it should stop with us. And we have a kind of spiritual deadness. I see it all the time as a pastor. People are like, I don't feel the...

the power of God. don't feel the presence of God. I don't feel all these things. And I just want to say, well, is there any outlet for the love of God to flow through your life into the world? Because it wasn't meant to stop with us. It's meant to go through us. What Christ does in us, he intends to do through us. fact, in our passage, 2 Corinthians 5, if you have your series guide, you could turn to page 47, which is our passage today. But we launched from this passage where

After he says, Christ's love compels us, he goes on, says, all of this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us, look at this, he gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That's an all play, folks. That's not my job. It's not the deacon's job. That's, if you're a follower of Jesus, he gave you a ministry. It's called the ministry of reconciliation. That's what you and I are called to.

as followers of Jesus. So how's it going? How's your ministry of reconciliation? Well, what is that? He goes on and says that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. This is what we're about. This is what we have to be about. If you want to experience the abundant life that Jesus promises you, you have to be a conduit of the love he pours into your hearts.

on the great commission Jesus comes after death, burial, and resurrection. says, therefore and make disciples of all nations. Teach them to obey everything I have commanded you and baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And surely I am with you, with you where? As you're going, as you're on mission. That's where he's with us. That's where this felt presence is. Not just in our own little homes, in our own little lives.

Yes, he's with us there. But do you want to really experience the power and presence of God in your life on mission? That's where it's at. And so today we're going to look at this thing. We're calling it compelled for one more. But really what it is as you turn the page to Luke, Chapter 15, what it is is Jesus inviting us into his heart. You want to see what the heart of God is like. You want to be invited to that. You want to love what God loves. Luke 15 is the place to look.

On the one hand, this is kind of a mirror. We should look at Luke 15 and ask the question, do we love like that? Is this a reflection of our life and our mission in the world? And if not, how do we conform our lives to his life? So Luke 15 compelled for one more. This is the heart of Jesus. It starts off in verse one. Now, the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered,

this man welcome sinners and eats with them. So at this point in the life of Jesus is getting towards the end. He's got massive crowds following him from across the spectrum. was a movement for all people in himself. And we see that here in the text that from the whole spectrum it says there are tax collectors, sinners, there's Pharisees, teachers of the law. It's the whole spectrum. And you may know this already, but tax collector isn't just someone that took some of your money to

to fund the government. No, they were the most despicable, worthy of death kind of people on the planet. These are people that conspired with the oppressive Roman government to extort their own people, their own family, their own friends, their own community to line their pockets, but also to fuel the coffers of Rome so that Rome could continue to send its armies of oppression into their land. Despicable.

the worst deserving of death. They're there. Somehow they're there. That they're hearing Jesus. That they're sinners. We looked at this last week. In that time it was just, yes we're all sinners, but there was a category in people's mind of people that had gone so far away from the will and presence of God that there was no hope for them to come back. But they're there. And you've got Pharisees and teachers of law. These are the most respected people. These are

what every good Jewish mom and dad wanted their boys to grow up to be respectable, moral, righteous. They're all there and these Pharisees and tax collectors are saying this man welcome sinners and eats with them. These crowds are huge, which is surprising because if you look at Luke chapter 14, Jesus is not preaching seeker sensitive messages. He's not preaching nice warm feel good. that's all.

hear Jesus know what he said at the end of chapter 14. You can look at it. What he said at the end of chapter 14 is probably the most offensive things these people has ever heard. He said, Hey, you want it. You want some part in the kingdom of God unless you hate your mom and hate your dad. You have no part in the kingdom of God. What are serious. I mean, maybe that should be our campaign. Hate your mom and hate your dad. Welcome to redemption Parker. It's like they're it's crazy intentionally crazy but

You're like, that's the most offensive thing I've ever heard. He's like, I haven't, I'm not done. Unless you take up your cross and follow me, you have no place in the kingdom of God. They're like, the cross? The Roman torture instrument of death? Are you serious, Jesus? He's like, yeah, I'm serious. And then the crowds would hear this and they'd go home and they'd be like, man, you believe what Jesus said? Here's what he said, hate your mom.

take up your car. It's crazy. And then they would get six more friends and go back the next day to hear him some more. This is what was happening here. See even though his words were hard they knew at the root of it there was love for them in that. And so they're gathering and the Pharisees and teachers the religiously comfortable don't like that those that should seem far from God are there as well. And so they're muttering and so Jesus

tells three stories, three stories that reveal the heart of God, the heart of Jesus. Three stories from three different angles, but making one point. And so the first one, he starts like this. Jesus told them this parable, this story. says, suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn't he leave the 99 in the open country and go after the lost sheep until

He finds it. He starts with something they all know. Every shepherd that's worth his salt, every good shepherd, when he does his count and one's missing, he isn't like, we're still pretty good. 99 out of 100, that's a good percentage. After all, this is where it's warm and it's comfortable and it's safe. It's too bad that one of them was stupid. No, no shepherd does that. They're like, no, okay, you're gonna stay here, but I'm gonna...

Go out, out to the wilderness where it's dangerous for me and this lost sheep and I'm going to go find the sheep. Jesus says, you all know this. The Pharisees are like, they're offended by this because they're comfortable. They're religiously comfortable like the status quo. After all, they look around and they're like, most of my friends, most of my family, most of my community is here. And we warned those what God said, if you don't do that, where they're going. so,

If they go out on their own and they go down that path, that's on them. And Jesus says, listen, you know that if you lose a sheep, you would go out and risk everything to find that sheep, but you won't do that for an image bearer of God. Does that make any sense? And the tax collectors and the sinners, they're hearing this. Are we hearing him correctly? Is he saying that that God

Isn't angry with us. Is he saying that that there is actually still hope hope for our lives? I Don't know and and Jesus says yeah, there's hope in fact, it gets better than that because it's one thing to be found by God But but there could some be some fear about that man I've been in rebellion of God with with God for all my life and then he's gonna find me What's he gonna do? Well, Jesus says what he does and when he finds it he

joyfully. That's a happy word. He joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together. He calls his whole community. Look what he says, rejoice with me. I have found my lost sheep. He wants his joy to be a contagious joy. If we have the heart of Jesus, we will celebrate most and loudest.

when the lost are found. Amen. Amen. He has to rejoice with me. He wants his joy to be contagious to us. And again, now the sinners, the tax collectors are like, no way. This is the heart of God. When he finds us, he's not angry with us. In fact, he's joyful. When he finds us and bring us home, there's a party going on. yes, there's a party going on. Jesus makes it explicitly clear. He says,

I tell you that the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven, not just on earth, there'll be the angels will be rejoicing over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who do not need to repent. And they're like, what? No, no, no wages. Shut up. That's wild. You tell me this is the heart of God.

Yeah, there's a party going on in heaven and you're invited to the party? Oh my God, praise God. And then over here you've got the religiously comfortable, the self-righteous, those that don't see any need for mercy and grace and they're thinking and muttering it under their breath. Shut up, Jesus.

Yeah. So Jesus reveals his heart. Is that our heart? He goes on to tell another story. Again, Jesus isn't talking about sheep and in this case about coins. He's talking about what he loves. He loves people. And he'll leave heaven to come on earth on a rescue mission to find lost people. Now we have the parable of lost corn, but again, it's not about a coin. It's about people. Verse eight, or suppose a woman.

has 10 silver coins and loses one. Again, still pretty good percentage. Well, doesn't she light a lamp, sweep the house and search, carefully, your translation might say, search diligently. It actually in the Greek means disrupt everything, turn over everything, clear out the house, take all the furniture out of the house, whatever it takes, disrupt her whole life until she finds it.

And he's not talking about coins, he's talking about people. So what is this? What's going on here? Well, it's a question for us. Are we willing to disrupt everything in our life to find one more? To find one more person? Are we willing to disrupt our lives? See, in some way,

If you have your series guide, hopefully you took it home and you put this somewhere where you could pray about it and ask the Lord, show us Lord what it is you're asking us to do in this. But if you have it in this commitment card, it's one way to look at it. And I think what happens is a lot of people are like, man, I like that God is on the move. I like that he's doing things, but I don't really want it to affect my life at all. Or they'll look at this and they'll be like, we should do something. Right.

But let's do something that doesn't actually affect our life in any way, shape or form. What are the leftovers we have? Let's give those to God. You see the radically different nature of what Jesus is describing here? He's not just telling parables, he's telling his own story. He disrupts heaven and earth in search of one more. One more to come home. See.

It's the difference of living your life driven by something or as a derivative. So let me see if I can explain this. So if something's a derivative in your life, you're like, well, I would like this to happen. I would like that to happen, but I'm not going to rearrange my life for any of that to happen. Maybe it'll just happen. But if you're driven, man, we live in a place and a time that you guys are driven. But like you're driven to do things and you

You're educated enough, you're smart enough, you're willing enough, you have a drive enough, you accomplish those things. So for example, let me give you some examples. First time you go to buy a home, you run the numbers, you do the math, you're like, oh, this is the range, you find your realtor, you're like, okay, this is the range that we can buy. And they're like, sweet, okay, let's show you some houses. And the first house they show you, they're like, well, it's $25,000 out of our range. You're like, well, just see the house, come see the house. And you go and you look around, you're like, well.

I see why it's this is nice. And your spouse is like, this is really nice. And you're like, let's let's go back and figure this out. Why? Because you're driven and you go back and you're like, well, I could work more. We could go out and eat less. Maybe maybe not do some vacations for whatever it takes because you're driven to get that house and you get the house. Right. What you're driven for, you will arrange your whole life for. You know, for others, it's like, man, I want my kids.

to go to college, right? Like right now I have three daughters in college. I'm paying three tuitions, I'm paying three room and boards, three food, all the things. I promise you, you do not pay me enough for that. I promise you that. But 22 years ago, we were driven to lay a path for our kids to go to school. And so what that meant was we didn't go out to eat. My kids didn't go out to eat. If we did,

I promise you they only ever had water. I promise you that. Like we're not paying $5 for a drink. That's wild. It's not wrong to go out to eat. It's not wrong to have a Coke. It's just in our economy and with a missionary salary, we're like, this is what we have to do because we're driven. That's it. You're driven by there's someone or something that you will turn everything up over to get. Right? mean, we live in park, Colorado. Some of you you're like, man,

sports schedule comes out. I go, okay, guess what kids? This year, we're gonna travel to 18 countries in six weeks. Well, not countries, that's a little much. 18 states in six weeks. And you're like, how much is that gonna cost? Well, don't worry, it's airfare, it's tournament, it's everything. Okay, well, we're gonna need a second mortgage. Why? Because we're driven. You do whatever it.

takes. is what Jesus saying. Are you driven by the kingdom of God. Is there anything in your life where you like man I'll disrupt everything. We need a new car but I'm going to wait a few years because we could drive a nicer car in a few years but I want to do it so that one more one more person can walk the streets of gold forever. I'll do whatever it takes to just delay this so that my life is disrupted so that one more can can come and experience the Lord.

Jesus Christ one more for the kingdom of God King David once one time in his life he he he was a man with a lot of flaws But it was also a man that was a man after God's own heart and at one point he he needs to make this offering this sacrifice and he comes to this guy's land named Arun Arjuna and he he says here's what I need to do But he recognizes him as the king and he's like, you're the king. It's an honor just to have you you don't need to pay for

the bulls that you're going to sacrifice. You don't need to pay for the wood and the altar. You can have it all King David. It would be an honor. Like David understood worship isn't like that. And so he says this in second Samuel 24 24. He says no I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God offerings that cost me nothing.

Are you OK with sacrificing to the Lord that which costs you nothing? To have the heart of Jesus, this is what we're getting at. And he comes to this last parable, the most famous parable. I wish we had more time to dig into all of it. I've done other series where we did several weeks on this, but I'll just go ahead and go through it pretty quickly. You know the story. It's called The Parable of the Lost Son. It should be titled The Parable of the Lost Sons. There's two lost sons in this story.

He tells a story about how the younger brother basically comes to his dad and says, I wish you were dead. Massive offense in that culture. Give me my, give me what's coming to me. And surprise of surprise, the father agrees and it says he divided his property. The word property there in Greek is bios. We get biology. He divided his life among his sons. We know the story. The son takes it, goes to a far country.

He lives it up for a long time. He gets whatever he wants, but eventually the money runs out, a famine comes and he finds himself at the worst possible place that any first century Jewish boy could find themselves in a foreign land with foreign gods knee deep in the muck and mire of a pig sty. He hits rock bottom. Sometimes rock bottom is God's grace to us, right? For some of you, that's your story.

had to hit rock bottom, but he hits rock bottom. And the story says he came to his senses and he's like, what am I doing? And he develops a plan. It's the religious plan. It's this, I'll work really hard. I know I can't come back as a son, but my father's a good man and maybe he'll let me be a slave in his household. And so he gets up and he begins to make his way back home. The long journey home covered in

pig stuff, muck and mire. Now, some commentators believe that this story, this parable was actually a well-known story in the first century, but Jesus puts a very different ending to the story. Because the Levitical law said this kind of disrespect to a parent, to a father, that person deserves to be stoned to death.

In fact, it was on the village elders that if this son who had so disrespected a father was ever to make his face shown again, that the elders are to grab him, seize him outside the city gates and stone him to death. And in the original story, that's what happens. The son gets what is coming to him, which makes Jesus's story so radical. says this, verse 20.

He says, so he got up and went to his father, but while he was still a long way off, way outside the village, his father saw him. Implication, his father's been looking and longing and hoping and praying for his son to come home. He saw him and he wasn't angry with his son. He was filled with compassion. He said, there's my boy. And it says he ran to his son.

dishonor to a Middle Eastern man hiking up his robe, showing his thighs, running to his son. People are like, he's crazy. What is he doing? And he runs and he throws his arms around his son and he kisses his son so that even if the village elders were to do their duty, they can't throw the stones now because they'd hit the father. He's protecting his son. The son gets out his letter that he wrote. He's got his plan. says,

Father, I have sinned against you and against heaven, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son, but he can't get the rest of it out." His father interrupts him. His father said to his servants, quick, bring the best robe and put it on him. It's a picture of the gospel. This son covered in the muck and mire of the pigs. Cover his filth with the best robe with my righteousness. This is us in Christ. We are covered by the righteousness of Christ.

put a ring on his finger. That's the authority of the father back in his life and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate again. Come celebrate with me. Let's celebrate what God celebrates. Let's be a people that leverage our lives so that we can have these celebrations. This is for this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. So they began to celebrate.

Of course we know that's not the end of the story. There's another son, another lost son. He's the older brother. He's the Pharisee. He's the teacher of the law. He's the religiously comfortable. Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. Okay, it's one thing to hear the music, but have you ever been to a party where you heard the dancing? I mean, that's a throw down, right?

He intentionally wants us to think of the greatest celebration. This is what's going on. This is what's going on in heaven when someone comes to Christ. He hears the music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him, what's going on? He says, your brother has come, he replied, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound. If this older brother had...

any love in his heart for the younger brother, he would celebrate. More than that, if this older brother had any love in his heart for his father, even no matter what he thinks about his brother, he would celebrate because he would reflect the father's joy. But he has none of that. Again, the self-righteous don't like mercy and grace because they don't think they need mercy and grace. And they don't think anyone should get mercy and grace. Since the older brother became angry,

and refused to go in. Another offense to this father. Massive cultural offense. So his father again lowering his dignity, he goes out with and went out to him and pleaded with him. He's like, son, come in. Don't do this. Come, come to the party. It's going on. It's a great party. Come get some brisket. It's amazing. Like it's come into the party. Come on, son.

But he answered his father, Look, all these years I've been slaving for you. That's a weird thing to say to your dad. That's what the religiously self righteous do. I've worked hard. Now you owe me. I've done my part. Now you owe me. All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. right. Yet you gave me yet you never gave me even a young goat.

so could celebrate with my friends. The dad's like, what? I know I'm old. What did you say? A boat? Did you want a boat? Because that makes more sense. You said a goat, a young goat? Yeah, you never gave me a young goat. Are you serious right now? says, but when this son of yours who has squandered your property, your life, and he's speaking the truth, when he squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fat and

for him? That makes no sense, dad. This is my son, the father said. You are always with me and everything I have is yours, but we had to celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. The heartbeat of Jesus is for one more.

One more. One more person to come into the kingdom of God. We are compelled by the love of Christ to pursue one more for the kingdom of Christ. Well, maybe you're apprehensive. think, oh, I don't know about that. You know, if we do that, if we do, if we wreck the roof to make room for one more, if we continue to grow, I think I'm worried things are going to change. I'm going to say a couple of things here.

Things will change. All churches should change. If you have a three-year-old and you're like, I love my three-year-old, I don't want him to change, and they stop changing, something is seriously wrong, right? The question is, how will we change? And when people push back on me on this, I hear what they're saying. They're like, man, I love the welcome of this community. I love knowing people and being known. I don't want that to change. And I say, absolutely, amen. We don't want that to change either.

plan from day one has been get in life together, join a gospel community, go to men's group, go to women's group, join a core group, become part of the covenant membership. That is still there. So it's on you if we're still going to be a welcoming church. It's on you if you're still going to do life together. But we are changing. We're going to change. And that's not a bad thing. We'll wreck the roof if we have to, because after all, what's the alternative?

What child are we going to turn away from hearing about Jesus? You tell me. What neighbor are we not going to invite so they can hear the gospel and come into the kingdom of God and add one more to our midst? What family with disability needs are we going to shut the door on? What single mother are we going to tell you and your children are not welcome here? We don't have the space. We don't want to change.

See, if we do all that, then we will have ceased to be the welcoming church you love, and we will have ceased to be in step with the Spirit. We will have changed only for the worse. So may God shut the doors of Redemption Parker if that's how we change.

But God is at work in our midst. I can't even fully explain it. Sometimes people are like, we're gonna change, we're gonna sell out the gospel, we're not gonna tell about Jesus. Listen, we just did a six week series, passage by passage, through the book of Revelation, for crying out loud, and we added 45 new covenant members. That's wild, like no, you don't do that. No one wants that. But God's at work. Listen, the church always...

changes. That's not a bad thing. Acts chapter one tells us, I think in verse 20, that there were about 120 followers of Jesus in those first 50 days after Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection. 120. You can imagine that. They get to know each other. They're doing life together. But then at Pentecost, the Spirit comes and empowers them. Peter stands up and preaches this sermon. It's honestly

I've taught some classes I'm preaching. It's one of the worst sermons I've heard. It's so harsh. He's just so harsh. But he preaches the gospel. And what happens? We read 3,000 people, not overnight, in that moment, come to be followers of Jesus and are baptized. In a moment, they went from this nice little community, everyone knows each other, to a mega church. Did it cause some problems? Yeah, you can read about it in the book of Acts.

Was it worth it? Absolutely. That's why 2000 years later we're gathered here today because people were willing to do whatever it takes to make room for one more. This is the heart of Jesus. A church on mission is always changing as it pursues one more. We've got a video we want to show you about some of the ways God is calling our church and moving amongst our people.

I was struggling in life. I knew I couldn't do it alone anymore. Found RP on Google. The reviews of people saying how welcoming and how full of love that church was just drew me in. It was scary going in there the first time, for sure. That fear all went away the moment I walked in the door. Felt like a place I truly belonged. December 16th, 2025, I made the choice to walk with Christ and become a Christian.

What I love about Retention Parker is just the close-knit community that there is within. It's a place where you can know others deeply and be known, and people truly care and see one another on a daily basis. What I enjoy most about RGCs is just the place of accountability. There's a place of belonging, and we really do care for one another. And it just allows a place for people to show up and know that someone

really cares about how your week went and how to pray through what you're going through in life at that time. And it's just really special to be part of that. As part of the COMPEL initiative taking place, I think God has moved in my heart to pray more for the future of our church. I think it's really exciting to be part of something so early on and to...

help grow and create a permanent, beautiful place of worship. And just to be part of something in the beginning is really beautiful and really cool. Disability ministry matters because God cares about disability ministry. One in five families are affected by disability. That means they have either a dependent in the family or are affected themselves, which is 20 % of our neighbors. So that made me pause and...

ask myself, if 20 % of our neighbors are affected in some way by disability, why is that not being represented within the walls of our church? Is there something that we are not doing that is hindering them from coming in? And so, just like we want to consider what are we doing to serve the people who are already within our church well, we also want to ask the question of who's not coming and why aren't they coming and how can we rip off the roof if we need to to get them inside to meet Jesus.

Before coming to RP, I was squarely devoid of a relationship with God. And now that I'm part of the RP family, I feel that I've got that daily engagement with God that absolutely is driving the direction of my life at this point. There was not an earthly explanation that I could come up with for the changes that I had seen in people that were very, very close to me. And that was sort of my first realization that, okay, God's really impacting people's lives.

And if I open the door, he can impact my life. It was time to accept Jesus is not the Lord and Savior, but is my Lord and Savior. When I think about what I'm most excited about, I think it's the future of RP. It's the future of the membership growing. It's seeing how I can contribute and give back so that we can better be the hands and feet of God here in Parker. What I love about the heartbeat of Redemption Parker is everybody is truly eager.

to make room for one more. One more family on the block, one more mom friend who comes to the play group, one more coworker, one more foster child welcoming in one more single, one more family with a single parent, one more child. It's such a delight to see people who love the gospel and love Christ, but they don't stop at being welcomed in by him. They work hard laying down their lives to welcome in others. And I think that's what's gonna compel us forward.

And Amen, let's give it up for.

Praise God. Jesus is at work rescuing people in our midst even right now. Last week we had 150 kids or we had 150 check-ins in our kids ministry. There is limited space there. We are up against the clock. We will have to turn people away. We don't want to do that. There's an urgency here. I hope you feel the urgency. If you have your series guide on page 50, if you turn over, there's three questions for reflection.

The idea is that you would take some time maybe later today and fill those out. But I want to point out question number three and it is this who is my one one person I will pray for.