Reflect

So that the children of Israel could not look steadfastly at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? If the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in respect to this because of the glory that excels. If what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious.

Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech, unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. Their minds were blinded, for until this day, the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the old covenant because the veil is taken away in Christ. Even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Father, we thank You for Your Word. Your Word is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, and You use it to discern, to reveal the thoughts and the intents of our hearts, Lord. You show us what is really there, that we might confess it, and that You could forgive and cleanse us. Ultimately, that You would be glorified, just as we sang over our lives and in all the earth.

That is our desire, Lord, that You would be glorified in all the earth this morning. May that be the case in each of our hearts, personally and individually, and then as a church corporately, that we would be able to shine Your glory into the darkness of this world. We pray in Jesus' name, and all God's people agreed, saying, Amen.

You can be seated. Amen.

On Christmas Eve, I received a gift—a gift of a cold that is like the gift that just keeps on giving. The only good thing, I was telling the worship team this morning, is that it gives me the ability to do my Chuck Smith interpretation. So now, turn in your Bibles. When I have a cold, I can do that. Kay and I were down at South Coast, doing the whole service that way, right? I'll get in trouble, I'm sure.

It's hard for me to come up with a better word than "amazing" when I consider the goodness of the Lord. I begin just about every time that I teach by saying, "God is good." I say that with sincerity because I recognize the goodness of God. It is wonderful to consider how good God is.

The position I am afforded as the lead pastor here at the church gives me the opportunity to see God's goodness in very tangible ways week in and week out throughout the year. I have the opportunity, having an oversight position, to know what's happening in every different ministry. There are a lot of different ministries happening within our church and as a result of our church in the community. I receive feedback and reports from people who are involved in the work of the ministry through our church throughout Escondido, San Marcos, and the surrounding areas.

It's always a blessing to consider the good things that God is doing and how our church is impacting our community, both locally and to the ends of the earth. The Lord commanded that we are to go into all the world, and our church has had the privilege of fulfilling that commission in many ways. There is still obviously a lot of work that remains to be done, both in our community locally and to the ends of the earth. However, He has allowed us to be a part of that work in such a wonderful way, and it's amazing to see God's hand in all of it.

Ultimately, if the Lord doesn't build the house, those who labor, labor in vain. If God is not in it, then we're just idly doing something that has no ultimate impact.

Just as Gamaliel, the great Jewish rabbi, said when they were considering the work happening through the early church in the Book of Acts, the religious leadership in Israel wanted to shut it down. They were very concerned because it did not align with their understanding of the scriptures. However, it was, in fact, a fulfillment of the scriptures. Gamaliel stood up and said, "Listen, if this work is not of God, it will fail. But if it is of God and you fight against it, you will find yourself fighting against God." I love that. The reality is that what is happening in and through our lives, both corporately and individually, is a work of God.

One of my favorite passages of scripture is in Philippians chapter two, where we are reminded that God works in us to will and to do His good pleasure. He is at work in us to do what is pleasing to Him. We all recognize that in our own strength, trying to make ourselves pleasing to God is completely futile. But God works in us to will and to do what is pleasing to Him. It is awesome to look and see what is happening through the church.

For many years, we as the leadership of the church have praised the willingness of this body to commit to the work of the Lord and to give to the work of this church and through this church. It is very true that never has there been a need presented to this church that has gone unmet. I am privileged to see tangibly what that looks like.

As we close 2012, one of the things we wanted to do was to share with you, the body of Cross Connection Escondido, some of the things that the Lord is doing through this church and how you are impacting the community locally and the world to the ends of the earth. That is why, when you came in today, you were given this little brochure that says "Reflect." Yes, I know it is not a printing error that it is backwards; I will explain as we go through today.

2012 was a great year. As I stood before the church at this pulpit on January 1st, 2012, I shared with the body that our leadership was anticipating great things in 2012. We were looking forward to God doing wonderful things through our church. Just as God's word says, He does exceedingly abundantly above all we can ask or think.

Ask or think. Ephesians chapter 3, verse 20, Paul says, "Now unto him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to his power at work in us." As He is working in us, He does things that blow our minds.

As we go, in accordance with what He commissioned us to do in Matthew 28, going into all the world, we, the body of Christ, go under the power of the Holy Spirit. We have the opportunity to see Him work in miraculous and awesome ways. This doesn't just mean going out on a short-term trip to Africa or to China. It also means you, when you wake up on a Monday morning and ask God, "God, be with me today as I go to work or as I go to school. Give me the ability to see as You see. Give me the opportunity to be Your hands reaching out."

If you start your day in that way and ask God to move in that way in your life, you will see Him move in tangible ways. You will see Him move in miraculous ways. God routinely accomplishes infinitely more than we might ask or think of Him by His mighty power at work in us. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in us day to day, and sometimes we fail to recognize that.

Sometimes we disregard it and say, "I can handle this," like a little kid who's learning how to ride a bike. You took the training wheels off, and the little kid says, "I can handle this." Then you see how well they handle it, and they end up with skinned knees and a scraped face. Does anyone remember experiencing that as a little kid?

We do that in our walk with the Lord. God wants to work in and through us, yet so many times we say, "I got this." God is so gracious that He says, "All right, I'll let you handle this. Let's see how well you handle this." How many of you have experienced God having to fix the messes you got yourself into? A few, definitely.

Aside from many other great things, the missionary to India, William Carey, was known for saying, "Expect great things from God and attempt great things for God." As we entered 2012, we were expecting great things and seeking to attempt great things for the Lord. We have seen God meet us every single time.

In 2 Chronicles chapter 16, the nation of Israel was confronted with a spiritual battle that was manifesting in a very physical war. The king of the nation during that time was tempted to rely on allies and earthly means to fight this battle. A prophet named Hanani came to him and said, "Listen, you need to trust in the Lord in this endeavor." The king was torn between trusting in the Lord and witnessing God move powerfully or relying on his own resources and allies here on earth.

It is very tempting for us to side with earthly solutions when confronted with difficulties. Unfortunately, the king chose unwisely; he decided to trust in man instead of God. The prophet told him in 2 Chronicles 16:9, "For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself mighty on behalf of those whose hearts are loyal to Him." This means that God is looking for people who will completely put their trust in Him, saying, "We're trusting solely in You, God, and we're not going to trust in any earthly thing."

The prophet continued, "In this, you have done foolishly, O king. Therefore, from now on, you will have war." He emphasized that the king's failure to trust God would lead to ongoing conflict. This passage presents a great promise and a strong exhortation. The promise is that God is eager to show Himself mighty on behalf of those who choose to trust Him completely. The exhortation is clear: if you do not trust in God, He will allow you to rely on whatever you choose to trust in, because He is gracious.

We saw the Lord work mightily in 2012. Some of the information in this brochure highlights how the Lord provided through this church, through your weekly giving and the commitments made by this body towards missions and outreach. This body gave $1.35 million to the work here through this church last year. That is impressive, especially considering that we are not a huge church. We are a good-sized church when compared to others, but the reality is that this church is incredibly generous.

Of the $1.35 million given, $964,000 was contributed to the general fund through weekly offerings received here at the church. Nearly $400,000 was given above and beyond that to designated outreach.

Missions, benevolence, and various events through the church have seen a full 12% increase over 2011. I want you to grasp the reality of that increase because I have many friends who are senior pastors of other churches. We recognize that from 2008 until now, we have been in the midst of one of the most difficult economic downturns our nation has seen in a generation. Many pastors I know have experienced budget declines of 10%, 20%, or even 30% over the last several years. Their giving has been down significantly.

However, every single year since 2008, we have seen the Lord provide more and more through your giving each week. It is phenomenal. It blows our minds when we, as the elder board, come together to look at the finances during our meetings. We see how the Lord is providing, and in one sense, our jaws hit the ground. But then we realize our God is an awesome God, and He is the one who provides for our needs.

In my house, my wife and I have a saying when we encounter unexpected events. For instance, I was over at Pastor Josh's house last night for dinner, and he had an unexpected situation where their water heater started spewing water all over the ground. How many of you have had one of those unexpected events this past year? When we confront those situations in my family, either Andrea will say it to me, or I will say it to her. I often remind her that our God owns the cattle on a thousand hills, and if He needs to take one to auction, He can do so. The scripture says He owns the cattle on a thousand hills; we just added the auction part.

We have seen God provide in incredible ways, and that is through the commitment of this body to be invested in the work of the Lord and the kingdom of God. It is having an impact here locally in Escondido, San Marcos, and the surrounding areas, but it is also making a difference to the ends of the earth.

You can see some of the things happening here at the church. Above and beyond what was given to the general fund and designated giving to missions and outreach, there were also 160 gifts sent to children throughout the world through Samaritan's Purse during Operation Christmas Child just before Christmas. Additionally, the body here gave another 180 gifts to nursing home residents through our Angel Tree outreach. Furthermore, you helped the youth ministry purchase an outreach motorcycle for their ministry.

In Africa, Cross Connection Outreach has made a significant impact. You donated a ton of items for the rummage sale, which was actually a blessing for us because we were able to clear out our garage. We could park our cars in the garage again thanks to the rummage sale. Everything that was given for the rummage sale here at the church and everything that was sold ultimately went towards missions. We see the Lord provide in that way.

This church not only gives financially but also serves in various capacities. You may not know this, but at the end of 2011, our missions board made a decision to support an initiative that Corey DeAndo, one of the ladies in our church, was pursuing. She was looking to begin an ESL program at Rose Elementary School, which needed an initial amount of about $10,000 to get started. This funding would allow them to purchase the Rosetta Stone software.

During a meeting, we found that we had excess money in our missions account, so we earmarked that for Rosetta Stone and the ESL program at Rose Elementary School. Corey sought help from other churches in the area to see if anyone else wanted to get involved in developing this ministry to reach out to the Hispanic community. Unfortunately, no other churches were able to participate, which left Corey feeling a bit discouraged for a while. However, we assured her that the money was set aside and available.

The impact of this initiative has been profound. The principal at Rose Elementary School, with tears in her eyes, expressed her gratitude for what has happened through this church in helping her school reach out to the community. It is phenomenal to witness. Not only did the church provide the funding, but many people here have also dedicated their time week in and week out to serve. Many members of the worship team are involved in training the parents of the children at Rose Elementary School, helping them learn English and better integrate into our culture.

Every single week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, we have a group of people teaching English at Rose Elementary School through the ESL program that you helped establish. It is an awesome thing to see, and we want to see it continue to expand.

Additionally, we continue to reach out every single week to nine different nursing homes in Escondido. Along with the gifts given for the Angel Tree outreach, we hold Bible studies in these nine nursing homes here in Escondido.

A group of very dedicated servants in our church prepares for, leads worship, teaches Bible studies, and ministers to the residents in nursing homes. This has been happening for years as a simple outreach of our body to the community.

The church here continued to support Shane Nelson as he served in China this last year. You may remember that he went on a short-term mission trip that ended up being a longer-term mission trip because he decided to stay in China to teach English. One amazing thing that we often overlook is the opportunity that growing up in this nation gives you to speak English. This ability affords you opportunities in missions both locally and worldwide. You can go and teach English in other countries, and many nations are actively seeking English teachers. It is the perfect open door for you to step through and share what you know simply because you grew up here. This opportunity allows you to build relationships and connections and to share Christ with people. It is such a beautiful thing that God has given us the chance to do.

Shane is still in China serving the Lord. He is currently attending Bible college in China and has a real heart for the work there. Additionally, this last year, the church sent Anna Kohler to Israel to serve with Shavet Akim.

Remember, we prayed last week for Josh Wise, who has been serving at Crossroads Community Church in Vancouver. About two weeks after he arrived in Vancouver, he called me and said, "Listen, they've asked me to go to Africa with them, but I don't have any money to go." He asked if there was any way the church could help. I had told him before he left to let us know if any opportunities opened up. I spoke with Kelly, and she confirmed that we had the funds available. So, the church sent a couple of thousand dollars to Crossroads so that Josh could go to Africa and serve there. God is impacting his heart and also impacting people through Josh there.

We also sent an additional team to China this last year and engaged in other ministries overseas. We started a homework club outreach at the Crossings, which is a low-income housing complex here in Escondido. Jeff Jackson has been interacting with one of the community directors, who is actually a community organizer. The Crossings is located just a little west of Mission Middle School. If you have never seen it, you should go take a look at it. It is a beautiful place that has been built there by a Christian-owned company.

The company builds housing complexes for low-income families and has a community overseer, a community director for all 14 different locations in Southern California. There is only one complex in San Diego County, located in Escondido, while the others are in Riverside. The community director, who is a Christian, aims to bring church-centered outreach to this low-income complex. Our church is connected with Cesar, the community director, and we have a group of people from our young adults ministry who are running an after-school homework club on Tuesday afternoons to help the kids improve their academic performance. The parents are incredibly blessed by this initiative, and it is an awesome thing that God is doing at The Crossings.

This past summer, we also held our Vacation Bible School, which attracted 160 kids over two weeks. Additionally, we had about 1,500 people attend our harvest celebration. Many of you served and handed out tons of candy, and I want to thank those who contributed candy in Candlebarrow. God bless you! I gained five pounds just from the residual candy. It was a great start to the holidays here at the church, and it was wonderful to see this place packed with people during the harvest celebration. This event has been going on for 31 years now, and it is incredible to witness what God accomplishes through it.

We also hosted a life skills conference at the church, thanks to a connection within our body. We held two conferences this past year, one in April and another in October. These conferences were designed for high school girls in our community who are single moms. A group organizes this life skills conference, and we had well over 100 girls attend, all in similar situations as teenagers with babies. It was a meaningful opportunity to reach out and minister to them here at the church.

In October of last year, we held a church planting conference. One of the exciting doors that God has opened for us is my involvement on the board of a ministry called the Calvary Church Planting Network. This ministry has a vision to see 500 healthy Calvary Chapel church plants over the next five years. As of yesterday, we now have over 102 potential church planters nationwide who are being mentored by 60 church planting mentors. These are dedicated individuals committed to expanding the reach of the church.

Pastors within the Calvary Chapel movement are actively mentoring individuals who are preparing to plant churches. One of the guys I'm mentoring has actually started coming to the church here. I don't know if he's here this morning, but he and his wife live in Temecula, and they are preparing and praying about planting a church in Connecticut, not far from Newtown. He is one of the 102 church planters getting ready to go out and plant churches, not just in America, but overseas. It is an awesome thing to see.

We hosted a church planting conference at Twin Peaks back in October, which attracted over a hundred different people. Pastor Brian Brodersen from Calvary Costa Mesa and Pastor David Guzik from Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara spoke at the conference, along with a number of other speakers. It was truly inspiring to witness what God is doing.

Next Sunday night, I will be flying out to Florida for a conference with the Calvary Church Planting Network, where I have a whole bunch of meetings scheduled. It is exciting to see what God is doing because Calvary Chapel experienced huge exponential growth in church planting during the 1980s and 1990s. They were planting at a rate of about 50% each year, meaning there were 50% more Calvary Chapels planted annually for several years. However, since about 2000, that rate has actually declined.

Although there are nearly 1,500 Calvary Chapels nationwide, one would expect to see an exponential increase in church planting, but that has not been the case. Each year, approximately 3,000 Protestant churches in America close their doors. While there are 300,000 churches in America, and more churches are being planted each year than are closing, the reality remains that 3,000 churches a year shut down. This statistic pertains to the church in general, not just Calvary Chapels.

According to a group, possibly Barna Research, it has been determined that by 2050, in order to have enough churches to actively reach out to the nation due to population growth and the number of churches closing, there needs to be 70,000 new churches planted between now and 2050. It is hard to even wrap your mind around that figure, and that is just in America.

There is a commitment within Calvary Chapel, and we are part of the Calvary Chapel movement, to see more churches planted. We are actively involved in this mission.

The ministry that Pastor Richard is launching is a key part of our outreach efforts. He is already making contacts, with people calling him for help with administrative tasks. Our church has been actively involved in these initiatives. We had our Easter outreach at the Center for the Arts, which attracted about 1,200 people this past Easter. For our Christmas outreach, we collaborated not just with our church but with five other churches in our community, and we had over 1,200 attendees for that event. It is a blessing to see what is happening.

You may not know that Cross Connection Escondido has a school. While we do not have an on-site school anymore—there was a time when we had a K-8 co-op school here at the church, but that has not been the case for almost ten years—about two and a half to three years ago, Jared Beck, a member of our church who occasionally leads worship with his wife, came to talk with our board. He shared the opportunity to develop an online Christian high school. This is a full private school, allowing us to reach students anywhere in the world because it operates entirely online. Currently, we have about 75 full-time students enrolled in our Calvary Online High School, and it continues to grow.

We have four teachers who meet with their students in an online environment for one hour each week to go through the curriculum. It is an incredible thing that God is doing, and this represents the next step in education. I was just having a meeting with a couple of guys this past Friday, and I shared a bit about the school, which is WASC accredited. If you know anything about schools, you understand that accreditation is very important. WASC is one of the largest accreditation agencies in the world for schools. Most private Christian schools do not have WASC accreditation.

However, Jared has been given the ability and insight to put all of this together. With only about 15 students and a year of history, he was able to secure WASC accreditation for our school, which is phenomenal. It is truly a miracle. I mentioned this to a couple of guys who work in education and are associated with the Zoos of Pacific, and they said it is just not possible to obtain WASC accreditation after only a year. I told them, "Our God is an awesome God. I don't know what to tell you." That is what He has accomplished.

The school continues to grow, and we anticipate significant growth in the future. One of our teachers, Jeannie Richardson, is a member of our church and teaches in the online school. If you know her, you can ask her about the program to learn more.

It is amazing to see what God is doing through our church, and that's just the start. We believe that God has even greater things for us. Week in and week out, this church is impacting the world and our community locally.

One of the neat things about the online school is that several of our students have parents who are missionaries on the field. We have a special tuition rate for missionaries' kids because one of the reasons missionaries sometimes come back off the field is that they often homeschool their children. However, by the time their kids reach high school and need secondary education, it becomes much harder to continue homeschooling. They recognize that they want to ensure their children receive a good education and can get into a school back in the States or a college when they graduate.

We have students in New Zealand and Brazil whose parents are missionaries. One of our first graduates, who graduated two years ago, was a missionary with the underground church in China. She had to finish her high school career while working with that underground church. It is just awesome to see what can be accomplished now because of technology. You are involved in that, and it reflects a group of people—this church—whose hearts are committed to God and loyal to Him. As a result, He is showing Himself mighty on our behalf, and He has much more prepared for us as a body. It is exciting!

At the beginning of every year for the last four or five years, I have shared some words of vision for us as a church as we step into the new year. If you were here in 2009, you may remember that those words were "simplify" and "focus." One of the things we started doing in 2009 to help us simplify and focus was to recognize that we are the only nation in the world that has a TV show called "Hoarders." Have you ever watched that show? It's freaky! We realized that we just collect stuff.

So, what we did was get a huge dumpster. In 2009, we put it at the top of the parking lot and told the church, "You have stuff; you have a week to chuck it." We emptied that dumpster probably five or six times. It was a big 40-cubic-yard container. The thing was huge!

It was emptied like five or six times. Every year since then, we've made that opportunity and had the rummage sale at the same time to help people simplify. The whole reason for simplifying is so that we can focus and do better what God has called us to do.

In 2010, we were reminded of Micah chapter two, verse ten, which says, "Arise and go, for this is no place to rest." This verse reminds us that this place is not our eternal home. I don't know about you, but I'm thankful that this is not our eternal home. I'm looking forward to the place that God has been working on for a couple of thousand years. This world took seven days to create; it's pretty nice, but God has been working on the other place for a couple of thousand years. I'm assuming He said, "I go to prepare a place for you," so I am looking forward to seeing that. This is not our eternal home, so we must arise and go, for this is not our place of rest.

The idea behind this is that we are sojourners. When you put your faith in Christ Jesus, you become a dual citizen—a citizen of heaven and a citizen of earth. In reality, your citizenship is more firmly fixed in heaven than here. You are just an ambassador, a sojourner passing through. We need to make sure that we are not trying to set down our roots and foundation here, because where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. We need to recognize that God wants us to be a people who are on mission, on the move for the kingdom of God. As Eric says, "Oscar Mike," which is a military term for "on the move" or "on mission." We want to be a church dedicated to that.

In 2011, we talked about loving God and loving one another. The great commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. The second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself. We recognize that we want to be committed to doing what God has commanded us to do. As we are on mission, fulfilling the great commission to go, we also want to fulfill that great commandment to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. This means that with all of our being, we want to love Him and follow Him, and then love one another. Jesus said that they shall know you are my disciples by the love you have for one another. They will know that you are truly followers of Jesus when they see in us a love for one another.

In the last year, 2012, we started the year talking about enjoying God's grace and extending His glory. We who have received the grace of God...

In abundance, it's not that we've just tasted a little taste. Like when you go to Baskin-Robbins and they give you that dinky little pink spoon, they know the first one's free, and then you'll want all 31 flavors. We don't just get a little pink spoon of God's grace; we receive it in full measure, hard pressed and overflowing. Those of us who have experienced God's grace are then called to extend His glory.

As we step into this year, the word that has continued to resonate in my heart is "reflect." If you look up the word "reflect" in a dictionary, you'll find several definitions. One of the definitions is to look back on or to consider things of the past, to behold what has happened. In a sense, we're doing that right now, considering some of the things that God has done in 2012.

However, the second definition of "reflect" is the one I think is more important. It conveys the idea of displaying, showing forth, or casting back light upon something. On the front of this, it appears backwards because this is what it would look like if you looked in a mirror. If you hold this up to a mirror, you'll see it the right way and be able to read it correctly.

The idea is that we are reflecting the glory of the Lord, both to Him and to this world. When we read in the prophetic works that the glory of the Lord shall cover the earth like the waters cover the sea, we understand that God wants to glorify Himself in His people, and they will cover the earth. This is how God is going to glorify Himself in all the earth.

It's so fitting that Candy finished with the song "Glorify Your Name in All the Earth, Lord, glorify Yourself in us." That is what He wants to do. He wants to shine upon our lives so that He can shine through our lives to other people. Remember, Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid." God wants to glorify Himself in us.

The idea of "reflect" comes from the verse on the inside cover here: Second Corinthians chapter three, verse 18. "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord." Ultimately, this is a work that God does in us.

by His Spirit. This comes from Second Corinthians three, where we read verses seven through eighteen when we began today. In those verses, Paul contrasts the glory of the first covenant with the glory of the second.

Now, don't misunderstand; the first covenant was glorious. When God met with Israel at Mount Sinai, Moses went up on the mountain as the cloud of God's glory covered it. I believe that cloud was more to contain the glory of God than to display it. It was like a veil shrouding His glory. Moses went up on the hill, entered the cloud, and appeared before the presence of the Lord. One of those passages talks about him going into the thick darkness that surrounds the Lord.

There is Moses, with God in the book of Exodus on Mount Sinai, while the children of Israel are down below. God is revealing His character, His nature, His will, and His law. Over a forty-day period, He gives Moses the tablets of stone. This is glorious; this is awesome. God is meeting with man, seeking to tabernacle in His midst. No one could say that's not glorious. That is glory.

It was so glorious that, at a certain point in Exodus chapter 33, Moses is enraptured by this and says, "God, show me Your glory," as if that had not been enough. But in reality, he had not seen it fully. The Lord tells him, "You cannot see Me face to face because no man can see Me and live. I'm so glorious that My glory in your presence would obliterate you." That's awesome.

God then makes a provision because He does want Moses to see something of His glory. In Exodus 34, God places him in the cleft of the rock. We're not entirely sure what that means; there is a lot of speculation about it. But God says, "Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to pass by you. I'm going to put you in the cleft of the rock, cover you, and then allow you to see My afterglow presence." The King James Version refers to this as His hind parts, which is not what you might think.

So, God says, "Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to shroud you so you can't see My full glory. I'm going to put a veil between you and Me, and I'm going to come and stand in your presence. Then, when I leave, there will be My glory, My residual."

The glory is still there. The afterglow presence of God is still there, and you can see that. God demonstrates this in Exodus 34. Here's what happens: Moses sees the presence, the glory, the afterglow presence of God. He goes down the mountain, and he is physically changed by that. His face is now shining as if he has been radiated, kind of like John Boehner's face after a spray tan. I know that's a bad illustration.

So, he goes down the mountain, and he doesn't realize he has been changed by being in the presence of God's glory. Now he is glowing, and the children of Israel are kind of freaked out by this. They don't want to come close to him; they are fearful about what happened to Moses. In this passage in Second Corinthians 3, Paul says that Moses veils his face to hide that glory. There is a veil even between that residual glory of God and the people.

But that's obviously not how God intended it. That's not what God wants; He wants the world to see His glory because He is worthy of being glorified. Amen. The old covenant can only show us the veil of glory in God's glory. We trust that it's there; God's glory is there, but there is a veil separating us from it. The glory upon Moses's face was a fading glory over time that started to go away. It wasn't there any longer.

Paul seems to imply that there was even some sort of pride issue in Moses's heart, where he didn't want the people of Israel to see that the glory had gone away. For a time, he didn't reveal that; he didn't remove the veil so they could see that it was a fading glory. Then he tells us about the surpassing glory that comes in the second covenant, the new covenant, the new covenant of the gospel. There is surpassing glory.

He says, "Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away." In Christ, there is no veil. Under the old covenant, there is a covering, and that glory is always covered. But under the new covenant, we all— not just one guy up on the mountain— but all of us within the body of Christ, with unveiled face, are able to behold the reflection of God's glory. We are able to see how glorious He is.

In seeing and beholding, just as Moses was transformed by seeing and beholding the glory of God, we are in the midst of this process of being transformed.

Transformed into the same image. What image? The image of His glory. God is transforming us to be reflections of His glory. He wants us to reflect His glory. This is not a fading glory because He says it's from glory to glory, and this is by the Spirit of the Lord. It's not by something we do, not by our works of righteousness, but it's something that God does in us and through us. As we merely come and behold Him in His Word and in worship, we come before His presence with thanksgiving. As we do, God is transforming us more and more into the same image.

This is something God purposed to do in every single one of you. We're going to see this in Romans as we study through Romans. God purposed in every single one of you who believe that this would take place. We know this because that's what His Word says. Romans 8:29 states, "For whom God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed into the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren." So, God purposed before the foundation of the world that you would be conformed into His image and reflect His glory. In doing that, you're fulfilling God's purpose.

In Romans 12, we read, "I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world." The world wants to conform you into a different image. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Why? That you may prove, that you may show what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

All of us who are Christians have no veils on our faces, but we reflect like mirrors the glory of the Lord. We are transfigured; we are transformed by the Spirit of the Lord in ever-increasing splendor, as stated in the Phillips New Testament, into His own image. God wants to imprint upon us His image to show it to this world, that we would reflect it to this world. It's an awesome thing that God wants to do.

D.L. Moody is attributed with this quote, which is in the brochure: "The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through and in and by the man who is fully and wholly consecrated or dedicated to Him." He said, "By God's help, I aim to be that man." By God's grace, we desire to be what He desires us to be. This is why Paul, in Philippians chapter 3, says...

That I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of me. He has saved me for this purpose, and I want to fulfill that purpose. Amen?

In your brochure on the right-hand side, where it says "Info 2013," you'll see some of the goals and things that we want to accomplish this year. This is just a portion of it; it is not all of it. We have a proposed budget for 2013 that is 6% above our budget for last year, and we're trusting God for that. We say, "Lord, it's in your hands." We don't know what you're going to do, but it's in your hands. Do you want to do more than that? Exceedingly abundantly above all we can ask or think? This is what we're asking for, and we pray you do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think because it enables us to reach out more into our community.

We're launching Calvary Admin Services and continuing to grow our connect groups this year. We will be working hard on that. We want to extend the ESL program, not just at Rose Elementary. Let me just say, we could really use some help. If you're interested in helping, especially on Tuesday or Thursday nights, we could really use your assistance with some new volunteers for the ESL program at Rose Elementary School.

All you have to do is sit down at a computer terminal with a non-English speaker whose first language is not English. You will help them read through the material on Rosetta Stone. When they come to a word they don't understand or cannot read, you will assist them in sounding it out and conversing. It's not hard; it's a no-brainer. If you're available on Tuesday or Thursday nights and would like to be part of the ESL training program, please go into the office after the service today and let Karen or one of the people in the office know. They will put your name down on the list, and Corey will get in touch with you.

We want to grow that program. We will continue to work on our community chaplaincy and extend a chaplain program to the nursing homes in Escondido. There are over 100 nursing homes in Escondido, not to mention those in San Marcos, Rancho Bernardo, and the other areas around us. Nursing homes are all over the place. We are ministering every single week in nine of them, but we would like to raise up chaplains who can minister in two, three, or four of them each month. They would go one day a week to visit for a little while, making themselves available to the residents and the staff.

We will be launching a new ministry called Nexus, which will be our young adults ministry. We have some great things planned for that. Additionally, we want to continue to develop our Rewirement ministry. The idea behind Rewirement is to encourage people not to just retire and check out. God has work for you to do, especially if you are at that stage of life where you are stepping into retirement.

Out of your career, you have time, training, experience, and the ability to impact the Kingdom of God like no other generation. Let me tell you, the greatest potential for ministry in the next 25 years is retiring baby boomers. I guarantee it. I don't think the church in general has recognized this yet, but it's the greatest potential for ministry. That's what rewirement is all about.

We're going to be recording the Palawan New Testament with Cross Connection Outreach next month. Terry Moody, I saw you. Terry, raise your hand. Terry is going out with Luke and Kristen Ryder to the Philippines, and he will be working on the recording of the Palawan New Testament. Bill and Donna Davis are missionaries we have been connected with. They have translated the New Testament into this language, and we are recording it for audio scriptures. Those will be distributed perhaps sometime this summer, but the recording is coming up next month.

We want to expand our community outreach, including the crossings and other locations, and expand our Calvary Online School, among much more. Additionally, we have a lot of missions opportunities coming this year. Obviously, we go to Tijuana about every six weeks. Dave, raise your hand. Dave Bossie runs the ministry down in Tijuana, and he would love to have you come along. Sometimes he just goes down on a Thursday afternoon to prepare dinner for the kids at the orphanage at Rancho San Juan Bosco. It is an awesome opportunity to drive down there and serve.

We also have groups that will go down about every six weeks. We are going to Belize, Mozambique, the Philippines, China, and Israel. We will show something about that in a minute. In just a few weeks, in fact, I believe this next week for Kristen, we have two people who are part of our church, who grew up in our church and were part of our youth ministry, preparing to go out on the mission field. Karian Richardson is going to China to teach English, and Kristen Lane is going to India.

We want to have both of them come up. Come up here, you two. We are going to pray for them. As we have been doing, if you want to come up and gather around them and pray with us, lay hands on them. The youth ministry is in here today, so if you from the youth ministry want to come up, these are your friends. Let's pray for them. This is Kristen Lane and Karian Richardson. Kari is going to China, and Kristen is going to India to serve the Lord.

Father, we thank You for the way You are extending our influence as a church.

And how you are raising up people within our body to step out into territories unknown, to step out into works that you've called them for, and to do things that you have prepared before the foundation of the world. Your Word says that we're saved by grace and not by works, but you've prepared good works that we should walk in them.

We pray for Kari. We pray for Kristen. We ask, Lord, that as they step out into this, just the initial steps of the life that you've prepared for them in serving you and shining your light, we ask, God, that you would pour out your Spirit upon them and that you'd protect them. We pray, God, that you'd be with their families back here in the States who are going to be missing them.

We ask, God, that you would make them effective for your kingdom, that you would use them in ways that blow their minds and that they would see your hand mightily working with, in, and through them. Lord, help them to not be fearful or anxious, but to be able to put their trust in you and to bring every thought captive to the obedience of your Son.

We pray, God, that you would enable them with power that they can't even understand because it's purely from you. As they see that they're not sufficient of themselves, may they find their sufficiency in you. So, God, equip them beyond what they feel they're able to do. Give them wisdom beyond their years and the ability to shine your light wherever you would carry them.

And, Lord, when they come back to us, may they return with joy filling their hearts and rejoice in the good things that you have done. So, pour out your Spirit upon them. We commit them into your care, trusting that you will keep that which we committed unto you until that day. We praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.