The Bravest Prayer- Virgil Grant

MESSAGE TRANSCRIPTION: 

And we worship together. You left me when I woke up. I can. Well out. I set my feet on solid. The up. Right. Just before you had to. See. Dead or alive. For. I’m. Oh. Yes. So. I’ve seen. Got. Yes, exactly. Hence the. I’ve got. I’ve seen this out with. I can get it for four years after the job is done. Three. And one. After. They right. It is so, so good to see all your faces this morning. We want to welcome you to our campus and to our church. If you are joining us online this morning, welcome to you. We’re so glad that you’ve chosen to join us this morning. If you are new around here and we just have not had a chance to meet you, we would love the opportunity to do so. You can text your name to the number on the screen. Seven, six, 5744156. To our group of volunteers, with love. The chance to just get to know you, learn your name, and a little bit about you. And also, as you noticed as you were coming making your way through the campus this morning, there are signs asking for you to leave your mask on during worship and while you’re on campus. Our goal is to meet continuously without having to stop or have an interruption in the gathering. And so we just thank you for your cooperation and your help with that. And this morning also, we have, again, a brand new sermon series this morning, Pastor Virgil Spark. And we’re excited to have it back. And it’s titled Whisper. And I don’t know about you guys, but sometimes it’s really hard for me to quiet the noise of the world around me and hear what God is trying to say to me personally.

And so this morning, he’s going to begin that new sermon series, and we’re really excited about it. And one more thing, as you exit that building today if you do not have children in Ekids, we are asking you to exit out the to and exit these doors on stage, right and left of me. And it’ll drop you right out into the parking lot. If you do have kids at Ekids, please go pick them up before you leave today. And let’s pray for our message today. Father, thank you so much for your goodness. God. Thank you for each person that is here today, whether they’re on campus or online. Father, you brought them here for a reason. You have a message for us, Father. God, I pray that you would soften our hearts and open them so that we could hear what it is you are saying to just, even in a simple whisper. Father, be with Pastor Virgil as he delivers your message today. It’s in your holy name. We pray, Amen. Let’s continue to worship this morning. And to thank God for his love that he’s given to us.

Well, good morning, everyone. Energy is outrageous in this place today. Let’s try that again. Good morning, everyone. Oh, there we go. Well, I’m so glad that you’re here today. I’m Virgil Grant. I’m one of the leaders around here. And today, we’re launching a brand new sermon series called Whisper. It’s only two weeks long, but I pray and have been praying that this sermon series will help you to hear the voice of God. Now, if you want to know more about this topic, I read on my Kindle the book by the same title, Whisper by Pastor Mark Batson. He’s a pastor in Washington, D.C. He’s written about 15 different books. When I read this book last fall, I said, Man, I’ve got to preach a sermon series on this. And thus, this is what has led to this sermon series on Whisper. From reading that book. And in the book, you say that you know, he talks about seven languages that God speaks in order for us to know his voice. And the primary one being that of scripture. But the six secondary languages is that of desires, dreams, doors, people, promptings, and pain.

And this week, we’re going to do an in-depth study of scripture, the first language, and then all the other ones, the six secondary languages, as Pastor Mark calls them. We’ll give an overview of those next weekend. But if you want one more, just go and purchase this book online, and you can read more about that. Now, if you have your Bible or your Bible out, let me invite you to turn with me too.

First Kings chapter 19, and we’re going to get to that passage in a moment. But over half a century ago, there was this doctor named Dr. Thomas Mathis. Dr. Tom Mathis was an ear, nose, and throat specialist, and he encountered a very unique case that there is never experienced in 50 years of practice. A renowned opera singer had mysteriously lost his ability to hit certain notes, even though those notes were in his octave range. And so a lot of the other your nose throat specialists said there was something wrong with his vocals, and that’s the reason why he couldn’t hit the notes and couldn’t sing the notes. But he didn’t think that that was true. And so he used this instrument called a sample meter, and he recorded the voice of this renowned opera singer and realized that the opera singer was singing notes at 140 decibels, which is the equivalent of a military jet taking off from an aircraft carrier. Well, that discovery led to this diagnosis, and this was the diagnosis that the opera singer had been deafened by the sound of his own voice. And because he couldn’t hear the note, he couldn’t sing the note. And this is what Dr. Tom Mathis came to the conclusion. The voice can only reproduce what the ear can hear.

And so this led the French Academy of Medicine to dub this as the Tomathiastomathias effect. And I think that the ramifications of the Tommathias effect goes way beyond opera. Now, let me just tell you what I’m talking about. We all have problems. There’s not a single person in this room that’s not experiencing problems. So if you think that your problem is the only problem in the room, then you need to wake up. There’s problems everywhere. There are relational problems. There are spiritual problems. There are financial problems. There are emotional problems. There are all kinds of other problems in the room. Now what happens? Patrick? We think that the problem is the problem, right? But the problem is never the problem. The problem is only the root, a manifestation of the root cause. And we have a lot of times, a lot of us here today, we have a spiritual Tomathias effect. And that Tomathias effect is that our ears are deafened to the voice of God. Now, let me say that again. For many of us, our ears are deafened to the voice of God. Then the question becomes, Why is your ears and my ears? Why are we deafened to the voice of God? I think there are a lot of different reasons. And let me just quickly go through some of those reasons. One is because of negative self-talk. Does anybody else in the room have negative self-talk? You talk to yourself, and therefore God cannot get a word in edgewise. For some people, it’s the voice of criticism for some of you. You have this inner critical voice that lives inside of you. And every time you do something wrong, that voice criticizes you. For others of you, it’s the voice of conformity. The voice of culture is that you want to conform to the ways of the world.

And therefore, you cannot hear the voice of God because the voice of culture is way too loud in your life. Then there’s the voice of condemnation, that there’s a recording that you keep playing over and over, that your dad, your mom, your grandparents, that somebody said to you and they said that you were not worthy, that you were not enough, that you’re not good enough. And that voice of condemnation is played over and over in your mind. For some of you, you have a deeper issue. It is the enemy of God, the devil. And the Bible says that he’s the accuser of the brethren, and he’s filled your life and your heart with so many lies that now you have started to believe those lies. And if you believe those lies long enough, it would deafen you to the deaf in you, to the voice of God in your life. Now, why is this important? Because if you cannot hear the voice of God, listen to me. If you cannot hear the voice of God, then you cannot sing his song. And then your life is off-key. And for many of you that are here today, your life is off-key. And you think that is COVID-19. You think it’s your relational problem. You think that’s your financial problems, But the reality is, is that your ears are deafened to the voice of God in your life. Now, let me give you a prescription for this problem. It’s going to come up on the screen learning to discern the will, or the learning to discern the still small voice of God is the solution to a thousand problems. And learning to hear the still, small voice of God is the key to discovering your identity and your destiny.

His voice is joy. His voice. It’s grace. His voice is that of wisdom, of healing, of grace, and of truth. And his voice is very powerful. Now, look with me at Genesis chapter one, verses one and 33, coming up on the screens now. It says, In the beginning, God said, What? What is God saying? Let there be. Four words, and God spoke those four words. And guess what happens, my friend? We take what happened. The galaxy. The universe came into existence. Any of you that has a science background, You’re scientific in nature. You know as well as I know that the universe, even today, is expanding. Even as we’re sitting here in worship together. And that every single day that the universe continues to expand. It has been expanding since the beginning of time. And it all happened when God said, let there be light. And God says, you know what? If you just think about God, this is what God has said. I just want you to know what I can do with my voice with four words. Let there be light, and the galaxies continue to grow, and the universe will grow because of my voice. And here’s the thing, my friends. If God can speak and galaxies and the universe can be created, then let me ask you a question. What do you have to worry about? Think about that. Do you have anything to worry about? I think that’s a legitimate question. If God’s voice can create the universe and it can continue to expand from the very beginning of creation to today, and it will tomorrow and the next day, what do you have to worry about? Think about the voice of God. The voice of God spoke. It parted the Red Sea.

God spoke, and He turned water into what God spoke in. The man with the withered arm. His arm was healed. God spoke, and the sun stood still. God spoke, and the man who’d been dead for four days was resurrected. Folks, there’s nothing that the voice of God cannot accomplish, and He can accomplish it any way that He will. Just think about what God did. God used a burning bush. God used that of a donkey. And when Jesus and the disciples were on the Sea of Galilee, and the winds and the storms were coming up, what did God do? God spoke. Peace be steel, and everything was calm. Then the problem that you and I have with the voice of God being powerful is this We think of a voice is used as only one way, and we think about using our voice. Patrick How to communicate with them, which is communicated is all their voice is good for. And we think the louder we talk, the more authoritative we talk, the better that it is. Or maybe the sweeter that we sing. Maybe our voice would be more acceptable to God. But the reality is this is our voice. We look at our voice as communicative, too. But God’s voice is to convey, to heal, to create, to bring grace and Gardiners to our lives. And the problem is, for most of us, we’ve never heard the voice of God in our lives, not at least in the typical fashion, between the 20 and 20,000 hertz. We have not heard the audible voice of God, but the voice of God is bigger than our ability to hear the voice with our ears. And so here’s what I know for sure this morning that God is speaking.

God is speaking every single second of every single minute of every single hour of every single day of every single week of every single month of every single year. And the question is, are you hearing him? And maybe a better way of saying it is this is God, the loudest voice in your life? And for many of us, God is not the loudest voice in our life. And the reason why is because someone else or something else has taken precedented precedence over the voice of God in our lives. And see folks, is that prayer isn’t just about me outlining my agenda to God. Prayer is not about me telling God what I want to do. Prayers about giving into the presence of God. Prayers about giving it to God’s Word. And it’s about God outlining His agenda for my life. And that’s what turns prayer from a monologue to a dialog when we start giving it to God’s presence in His word and allowing God to outline his agenda for us. Listening to God is far more important than talking to God. Amen. I mean. Listening to God. Listening to the whisper that we’ll talk about in just a few moments is more important than we talking to God. Let me put it another way. I need to hear what God has to say more than God needs to hear what I have to say. Now, just think about that, folks. You and I, we stand in need to hear more from God than God needs to hear from us. Now, when I was reading the book by Pastor Mark Patterson called Whisper, he talks about a couple biases that he has when it comes to the word of God. And I said, Man, this is interesting.

I’m going to write these down. The first thing that he says is this. If you aren’t willing to listen to everything God has to say, eventually, you’re not hearing anything that God has to say. And then notice what he says. He says if you’re not willing to listen to everything that God has to say to you that eventually, you’re not listening to anything that God will have to say. In other words, that is what he’s saying. You’ve got to take the voice of comfort along with the voice of conviction. See, I don’t know about you, but when it comes to the hard parts of scripture, and there are difficult parts, the parts this convicting. I know about you, but I just want to read through them really, really fast. But when it comes to the words of comfort, the words of blessing, I just want to kind of slow down and marinate on those passages and see folks. Here’s what it tells me. It tells me that I don’t understand the heart of God because whenever God speaks, it’s always love. And it can be tough love. But God is willing to go there. And the second thing that he talks about is the advice that he has is that we live in a culture where everyone wants to be heard but has so little to say. Is that not true? Everybody wants to be heard, but no one has anything to say. Everyone has an opinion, but no one has an original opinion. You know how you have something significant to say or to share with the world is you hear it from God first, then you share it with the world. All that we’re doing as Christians is that we’re not hearing the voice of God.

What we’re doing is that we’re just repeating what the culture is telling us to repeat. And God says, Listen to my whispers. And then you have all kinds of fresh words to give to society. Now let’s get the first Kings. Chapter 19. I told you I would get here. Tell me a little time. But we’re here first. Kings Chapter 19. The Lord said to a larger. Go out and stand on the mountain and the presence of the Lord. Can I just say something to you this morning? The Lord is here. The board is here whether you recognize it, whether you acknowledge it, whether you’re if you’re looking for it or not. God is here this morning. And the reason why I know that he is here is because I already met him here this morning. He’s met me here. We’ve talked with dialog. We’ve been in conversation. God has done some miraculous things already today, for the Lord is here, for the Lord is about to pass by the notice of what it says that a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart. And shattered the rocks before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind. And after the win, there was an earthquake. But the Lord was not in the earthquake. And the earthquake came and then a failure. But the Lord was not in the failure. And after the failure came. What? What does it say? A gentle whisper. The Yes be, says a low whisper. The energy is being translated as a gentle blowing. The King James version translates that passage as a still, small voice. Now, here’s the question. How do you define it? A whisper. Now, listen to me. If you don’t get anything else I say this morning, just tune in just for 5 seconds.

Right here. For 5 seconds. Tune. How do you define a whisper? A whisper is using one’s breath to communicate. It’s not using your vocal cords. It’s using your breath. Now you go. Okay. Use your breath. You don’t use your vocal cords. So what? Think about the theological implications. Remember in the beginning that God reached down and took the dirt and took the clay, and he did what he formed man. And after you formed man, what did he do? Did he speak to the man? No. What did he do? He breathed into his nostrils. He came off to laugh. In other words, every individual is a whisper from God. Your child, your children, your grandkids, whatever you may have is that all of them started as a whisper. Think about the theological implications. Look, with the second Timothy chapter three, verse 16, it says that all Scripture is What is God? Vocal chords? No, that’s all it says. Is that God? What? Breathe. And every time that you open the Word of God and every time that you read the Word of God, what is God doing to you and doing for me? He’s whispering to us. Now I want you to hold that thought just for a second about a whisper, whispers what? It is using your breath to communicate. It’s not your vocal cords. So please hold that thought for a second. Now, I’ll give you an illustration, and then we’ll tap back to the whisper in the first Kings chapter. Not to in. August 27th. 1883, Inn ranchers in Alice Springs, Austria, heard what sounded like gunshots. Now listen. The same mysterious sound was reported in 50 geographical locations around 1/13 of the globe. What the Aussies heard was the eruption of a volcano on a remote island in Indonesia.

2233 miles away. So this volcano erupts, and when it erupts, it sends out a sound that is heard by ranchers in Australia, some 2233 miles away. And they say that this is possibly the loudest sound that’s ever been recorded, and the sound waves measured. Listen to me, 310 decibels. And they went all the way around the globe four times. It’s 8000 miles around the globe. So this sound from this volcanic eruption went around the globe four times, 32,000 miles, 310 decibels. It generated 3000-foot tidal waves. It threw rocks a distance of 34 miles, and it cracked one foot, the concrete 300 miles away. And that is the power of a sound wave. Now, you said, what’s the big deal about the sound waves? They listen to the power of a sound wave as if the sound exceeds 110 decibels. We experience a change in our blood pressure. If. We go to 141 decibels, and we become nauseous. If it gets to 145 decibels of a sound wave. Then what happens is our vision becomes blurred because our eyeballs begin to vibrate at 195 decibels, or our eardrums are in danger of rupturing at 202 decimals. You and I are on the brink of being killed or death by Soundwave. So think about this. On one end, the sound wave is 202 decibels, and we are on the verge of being killed by sound. But on the other end of the spectrum, you know what the decibels are for. A whisper is at 15 decibels. Now think about this. Elijah hears the fire and sees it. The earthquake fills the wind. God’s not in any of that. And we think, Hey, you know what? Just discount that. No, no, no. I think all of those supernatural things got Elijah’s attention.

But when God wanted to speak to Lodge, how did he do it? And what does God do when he wants to speech speak to you? He doesn’t speak to us through fire or wind, or earthquake. He speaks to us in a whisper. See? God has an outside voice. But when God wants to get our attention, God uses his inside voice, and he uses a whisper. Now the question is, why does God use a whisper to get her attention? Here’s the reason. Have you ever listened to someone whisper? Have you, Patrick? When you listen to someone who’s whispering. What do you have to do? You literally have to do what? Put your ear against what? Their mouth. And you have to, kind of. Create a sound barrier as they whisper to you because it’s so soft, is so gentle because it’s coming from your breath. It’s not coming from your vocal cords. And here’s the thing is when God whispers to us, God wants us to lean into him. God wants us to get close to him. So we think that we want to hear God’s voice, to know God’s will. Well, that’s interesting. It’s having a relationship with us and for us to have intimacy with him. And that is the reason why God talks in a whisper. Now, folks, I don’t know if you realize this or not, but every major blessing in your life, every major breakthrough in your life, started as a whisper. It is a whisper from God. Will you realize that so-and-so was the perfect mate for you? It was a whisper from God whenever you decided to go to church. It was a whisper from God. When I think about East Side Community Church, you know, most people that I talk to not tell them.

Then the pastor decides. They go, Oh, that’s a large church. That’s a big church. That’s a church where I’ll never feel known in love. I don’t think about East Side as a big church. You know, I think about it when I think about it, he said. I think about East Side being a whisper. I think about God whispering to my mom. Some 30-some years ago, and said to my mom, Patsy, there needs to be a church on the east side of town. This will be designed to reach young families and young kids. And it started as a whisper. When we look at our current location. Our current location is a whisper that God gave to me in 1998. We were in a different location. We were landlocked. And God says, Virgil, if I’m going to do great things in the East Side, you’re going to have to relocate. And that whisper took four years to bring to completion for us to buy this property, to build our initial facility here, and to relocate here, and sell our existing facility to the Salvation Army. All of that started as a whisper. And folks, here’s the thing that you need to understand. God is whispering to you all the time, every second of every day. But do you hear his whispers? And so I must give you an example. So I was in Florida last Sunday, and last week I was there. And so I was laying in bed last Sunday night at 3 a.m. I couldn’t sleep. I was tossing and turning. And I started praying for this service. I started praying for this sermon series. I started praying for the people who were sick and was dealing with COVID and who were experiencing loss. There’s just so much on my heart, and I just was quiet.

That’s it. God, what do you want to say to me? And God whispered that when the first time he whispered, This is the first time that I heard him that evening. And God says, opportunity. And Patrick, I go, opportunity. What does that mean? You’re like, You know, I’m not big on picking a word for the year. I know some of you have done that, and you’ve got bracelets or charms with your word. I mean, that’s great. That’s best for you. That’s great. It’s just not me. And so, but anyway, they gave me the word opportunity, and I said, Lord, that just seems like just not a good word. I mean, what do you mean, opportunity? He goes Virgil. Let me just fill in the gaps. And so he started filling in the gaps for me. And here’s what he said. He goes, You know, Virgil, 2021 is going to be a year of opportunity for East Side. I’m going to have the opportunity to reconnect thousands of people back to God in 2021. COVID in 2020 robbed a lot of people of fellowship and that intimacy, and growing in their faith with me. But 2021 is going to be the year of opportunity, he said. 2021 is going to be a year of opportunity to help each side to be positioned to push back the darkness for years to come and for decades to come. 2021 is going to be a year of opportunity. And then he said something that was kind of confusing to me, and I thought about it for a while. He goes. 2021 is going to be the opportunity to minister to thousands of people. I go, Well, Lord, we’re ready, Minister, to thousands of people on a yearly basis. What do you mean? It’s going to be a year of opportunity.

And so I got thinking about, and for many of you, this lived in central Kentucky for some time. We have this thing that is called lag time. It’s a phenomenon that’s called lag time. And let me give you an example of what I’m talking about. So in March and April of last year, I had pastor friends around the country that was dealing with a massive outbreak of COVID-19. And there were people that were dying in their congregation. Their community was full of people that had COVID. Now, back in March and April, I’ll just be honest with you, I didn’t know anybody who had COVID, and, you know, I didn’t know anybody had COVID either. So there’s this lag time between what happens with the rest of the world and then when it makes its way to central Kentucky. Does it make sense what I’m talking about? And so now, we have now experienced a heavy load of COVID. And when did we experience that? Not March and April. When did we experience it? We experienced it in November and December, right. Lag time, six, seven months of lag time. Now, you know what? My pastor friends around the country who experienced heavy outbreaks of COVID and a lot of deaths due to COVID in March and April; guess what they’re experiencing right now? You know, we’ll take a guess. They are experiencing hundreds of families, thousands of families in their community. Who’s lost their job? Who’s unemployed? Businesses have shut down. There are a lot of needs in their community, and they’re scrambling to meet those needs. And so the lag effect, the lag time effect, is going to happen for us this year, in 2021. We’re going to have a lot of people in our church and in our community who’s going to need.

Help They’re going to be loved on. They’re going to need to be assisted financially. And what I want to do is I want to introduce you today to this concept called The Compassion Project. And the Compassion Project is our attempt to get ready. To prepare us as a congregation to meet the needs of this community and the people in her church. Now, if you’ve been around East Side at all, there’s a kind of guiding principle that guides everything that we do. We’re called inside what community, what church our middle name is, what community. So everything that we do, if there’s something going on in the community, guess what we do? We show up at that. Because why? Because community is our middle name. There’s kind of a guiding principle for us as a congregation. We have a guiding passage of how our church interacts with its community. It’s found in Acts chapter two, verse 42, through the end of the chapter as one pulls out verse 44, and verse 44 says this It says.

ACTS 2:44 (MSG) 

And all the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, holding everything in common. They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person’s need was met.

This is the heart behind the Compassion Project, and we will pull our resources together. And we would meet every need in our church and in our community that we will say no to no one this year, that whoever has a need, they would say, yes, we’re going to meet your need in the name of Jesus Christ and we’re going to meet it. Now, do you think that would do something for our community if we met every single need inside our church and every single request that came to our church from the community? I think it would be.

I think it’d be fantastic. Would you not agree with me? And so what I’m going to ask you to do. I’m asking you to join me in prayer. And I want you to pray a seven-word prayer. And the seven-word prayer is found in First Samuel, chapter three. Now, let me just give you the background. The first Samuel, Chapter Three. There’s a lady named Hannah who wanted to have children, but she couldn’t have children. So she kept going to the temple year after year. And finally, God said, You know what? I’m going to bless you with a child. And the first child was named what I remember Samuel. And she took Samuel, and she dedicated Samuel to the temple and to the Lord. And in essence, Samuel grew up in the temple, and the Bible says and first in Samuel 2:26.

1 Samuel 2:26 (NIV)

Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the Lord and with people.

And so here’s Hannah. She dedicates Samuel to the Lord. She has four more children. And so Samuel grows in the favor and the statue of the Lord and the people in that day. It was rare to hear a word from the Lord, and there was no vision. And so Samuel began to hear the voice of the Lord, but he didn’t know what the voice of the Lord was. Look what it says. In first, Samuel three seven.

1 Samuel 3:7 (NIV)

Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.

He did not know how to distinguish the Word of the Lord from the Word of Elijah, who was the priest of the temple. And so Samuel kept getting these confused. And so I want you to look at what happens in First Samuel chapter three, verse eight nine.

And so there’s a third time that the Lord called to Samuel, and Samuel got up and went to Ella, the priest, and he said, Here, Amma, you’ve called me. Then Eli has a light bulb moment. Notice what he says.

 1 Samuel 3:8-9 (NIV)

‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening

Would you say that with me? Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. And here’s what I believe. I believe if you pray that prayer. And you really mean it. Then will speak, and he will do radical things in your life. And so all I’m asking us to do right now is for our congregation to pray about what God would have us to do. That’s all Largely. Just the first step in the Compassion Project is to pray and listen to what God says to you. And here’s what I know. God’s going to speak to you in a hundred different ways. He’s gonna say and challenge you and his whispers to do different things. But here’s what I think God is going to do. Here’s what I think. I think for some of you 2020 was a banner year for you. 2020 was a year of financial blessings. Here’s what I think is going to happen. God is going to wish for you. And you know what? I want you to make a one-time donation.

To the Compassion Project. And they’re going to make a 500 or 5000 or $50 donation. And the churches will take that money, and we’re going to set it aside, and we’re going to meet needs in the name of Jesus with that donation for some of you. You like me? Over a year ago, my family and I increased our giving to the One Fund. Remember when we asked people to increase their giving? And I don’t know about you, but if you win 151 families, you increase their giving. But, Patrick, my increase in giving. Went up like this, but God’s blessings went up like this, and I didn’t do it for God’s blessings, just the way God’s blessings were greater than the expense that I had. And so, my family and I were asking God, God, how much you want to increase you’re giving. Do you know what’s going to happen? You increase your giving by $5 a week. Every bit of the increase that you give for 2021 is going to go to the Compassion Project. We’re going to meet needs in the name of Jesus. For some of you guys have been whispering to you for some time to step into the stream of generosity, and you’ve just been hesitant; you’ve ignored that whisper. And you can join our online giving team. Today we call our online giving team members generosity rock stars. And what you can do is that you can go to our website.

Eastsideky.church/give. 

. And you’re going to set up an online giving profile. You’re going to set up recurring giving. And it could be week weekly. It could be twice a month. You could be once a month. And you’re going to set an amount. Then you go hit, saved.

And each week or each month or every other week, there’s just money that will be debited from your checking account, and it will just come out, you know. You know, the church is going to do the first three months of your generosity. The first three months, we’re going to take that money, and we’re going to put it in the Compassion Project. And what we believe is going to happen is there’s going to be thousands of people who are going to need help financially. And then everyone in town is going to say, if you need help, go to East Side because they’re full of compassion and love and generosity. And we’re going to meet all of those needs as many as we can, as many as you will provide for. And I’m just asking you to start by praying. A simple prayer. Speak, Lord. For your servant is listening. And here’s what I know. Some of you may be here this morning. And you may be wondering where your next meal is going to come from. You know what? And you’re wondering if God’s going to answer your prayer. And the answer is yes, this guy is going to meet your prayer, and your need through is sad, and we’re going to meet that need in the name of Jesus. So if you’re behind on your rent, you’re behind on your mortgage, and you’re wondering if there’s any way for you to salvage your mortgage. You know what? Yes. We’re going to help you in the name of Jesus. So if you your water bill and electric bills pass do, there’s going to be cut off tomorrow. And you’re wondering, is anybody going to help me? Is God going to meet my need? And the answer is yes; we want to do it through the name and in the name of Jesus right here at East Side.

And folks, I think this is a year of opportunity for us unleashing compassion on our members and in our community. What about it? What do you think? Would you stand with me? Farther right now. As we prepare to. To sing her closing song and observe baptism. This morning we’re reminded of. The new life that you provide for us. And that through your death burn resurrection. That all things are possible. And we’re thankful for this one. Who’s giving their life to you? Who’s going public? And thank you for their family and friends who’ve gathered here today. To observe this baptism. Father whispered to us this week, Help us, Lord, to hear your whispers, but more importantly, help us to respond. And, Father, as we now come to observe baptism. And it closes out with this final song, Leading Goddess in Jesus’ name as we have baptism. But asked family and friends to come on down and join us in this baptism.

I searched the world. It could even be. M.A. Briggs Express-News. The. If. You came long. Let me get back to you. Stepping aside. How satisfied. Better than. It. Levin, is that? Oh. I’m. Wow. My friends in the class got to see me a lot. And you still got. Has not released the message. Better than you first. Better than you look, Mr. Nothing is great than. You bet up the side? Yeah. We’re so happy that you guys came to church. Are you happy that you guys came too? It’s been an awesome morning. When he was bringing on the high school student last here. And this is the time that we talk about generosity and, uh, you know, the exciting side we got to talk about what compassion is and the new movement that the church has a heart about.

Also, there’s the other side that is taking a step into generosity. I talked about it at our service last year of 2020 that you guys his generosity kept the doors of the church going and open even when it had to shut down for a short period. And, you know, I have a little bit of a bias since I’m a high school student, pastor. But one of the things that you guys were able to start up was our Sunday nights, which we’re able to relaunch this month. So you guys give it up for that. I’m super excited for those that do not know what Sunday nights is. Sunday Nights was a worship service created for our students because we knew that they didn’t really have anything right now, and we wanted to give them something. This is an opportunity for our student ministries to move more on for Christ and not only our students but our adults as well. And a lot of you this morning maybe are feeling a nudge or a whisper of taking a step in generosity. You’ve been hanging on to it for a long, long time. And this morning, you’re feeling that nudge, and maybe the restraint is I don’t know where to start. I don’t know how much to give. And, you know, when we say all the time, the recommendation is you give $20 a week because that’s what the average person spends on coffee. I’m challenging you to have a pot of coffee at home this week. Get online, go to Issaquah dot Church support, slash give, have some coffee at home with your family, your significant other, whoever, and start giving. Because not only is it a step in an outpouring of what happens here at East Side, but it’s also a step in faith you trust with God, and your relationship is going to grow that much more.

So I want to thank you guys for coming. Before I dismiss this prayer, just a reminder, if you guys have kids in your kids, then you guys can go out of the back of the worship center. But if you do not, we encourage you guys to go out right here to the stage, right, stage left. So I’m going to pray for you guys And us. God, we just came to you this morning, and I’m so thankful for the service this morning. We’re so thankful that we were able to gather God to pray for everyone here, God, that they would choose, take the opportunity, and a time to be still this week. A guy that they would seek out your voice, the God that they would pray that prayer. That they are servants and that God, that their ears are open and ready to listen to whatever prompting you have over their life and in their heart, God, to pray for everyone here that they just have a safe week. I pray for everyone online. Thank you for the gathering today. We pray all this in your name, Amen. You guys have a great Sunday.