1/21/18 Follow up

Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. He sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature. So he ran ahead and climbed into a sycamore tree to see Jesus, for Jesus was going to pass by that way.

When Jesus came to the place, he looked up, saw him, and said to him, "Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house." So he made haste, came down, and received Jesus joyfully. But when they saw it, they all complained, saying, "He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner."

Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord, I give half my goods to the poor, and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore it fourfold." Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost."

Father, such good news! Jesus, we thank you. I thank you that we find one of the purpose statements for your coming is that you came to seek and to save that which is lost.

Lord, as we were just singing, I was struck by that lyric that you're our friend and king. What an amazing thing that the King of kings and Lord of lords has made the way open for us to be called your friends, and even more than your friends, Lord, to be called children of God, children of the Most High, all because you came to seek and to save that which is lost.

Lord, we praise you for that. I pray, God, that you would take that truth as we consider these things today. As we think on this, cause that truth to bring us joy, knowing that you have come to seek us out. Lord, let that truth go into our minds and our hearts and transform us, understanding that you have sought us.

out for a reason, for a purpose. So speak to us today, we pray. We ask this in Jesus' name, and all those that agreed said, Amen. You can be seated.

A month before I became the pastor of this church ten years ago, I had the privilege of going to Germany to teach at a small international Bible school there for a month. I had already taught there several years before. In 2004 and 2005, I was there for a year teaching at this Bible school, and I was invited to come back at the beginning of 2008. My wife, Andrea, and I went over for the month of February, I believe it was, or March in 2008. It was March.

The day that we were getting ready to board the airplane at the airport in San Diego was a Saturday morning. I remember it really well. I was waiting for an important phone call before we boarded the plane, and it came just about ten minutes before we got on the plane from one of the elders here at the church. They had just had an elder meeting, and it was decided at that meeting that when I came back from this trip, the following month I would become the pastor of this church.

I believe it was completely by God's providence that at that moment He had me getting ready to go on that trip to Germany. It gave me a month while I was teaching this class, which allowed me quite a bit of free time to think, plan, and pray about coming to be the pastor of this church. On top of that, it was God's providence that while I was there, I was with a very good friend of mine who was the director of the Bible school in Ziegen, Germany, at the time, David Guzik. Pastor David Guzik is a great Bible teacher who has written commentary on the entire Bible, and he has been a mentor of mine for many years.

This opportunity allowed me to spend a lot of time with him just before I became the pastor, asking him many questions. One of the weekends that I was there, my wife and I, Pastor David, and a whole bunch of students from the Bible school took a trip from Ziegen, Germany, about three or four hours to Wittenberg, Germany. Wittenberg was essentially the hometown of Martin Luther, the sixteenth-century reformer. We were going to see some of the sites there and learn a little bit about the events that took place during the Protestant Reformation 500 years ago.

While we were on that drive, I was sitting right behind David, who was driving, and I kept asking him questions. One of the questions I asked him was, "Dave, if you were a senior pastor of a church again..."

Pastored two different churches, he planted, helped plant, and pastor Cary Chapel Oxnard. Then he pastored Cary Chapel Simi Valley for about 14 years before he moved to Germany. I asked Dave, "If you were a pastor again over a church, what would you do differently?" His answer stuck with me. One of the things he said, all of it really did, but one thing really stood out to me. He mentioned that one of the reasons he decided to step away from Cary Chapel Simi Valley and move to Germany to oversee a small Bible college was that he started to realize the church he was pastoring had become a sermon appreciation society.

He explained that this wasn't necessarily the worst thing. It was good that the Bible was being taught and that people were being encouraged, challenged, and equipped. However, it seemed like every single week he would work very hard to preach the Scriptures, only to present them to be critiqued and graded, in a sense, by the sermon appreciation society. Afterward, he would have a line of people coming up to him, saying, "Oh, Pastor Dave, that one was really good. That was so much better than last week." Others would say, "I just love the way you used that illustration. I had never thought of that illustration or that reference before."

He noted that it became apparent that it was the same group of people saying the same things week after week. He started to question whether this was really what the Lord wanted him to be doing. As David shared this, I remember thinking that I certainly didn't want that to happen to me. A few weeks later, I became the pastor of the church and stepped into pastoral preaching ministry in earnest for the first time, doing this every single week. If you were here in 2008 when that happened, God bless you. You were so gracious to me. Thank you so much for being patient and gracious with me at 28 years old, taking over the church.

Interestingly, in your graciousness, those of you who were here at that time, I found that I was hearing very much the same things that Pastor David expressed to me. I think it was well-intentioned, and I appreciated it. People would come up every week, saying, "That was really good. You're getting better all the time." I heard that, and it was very kind and much appreciated, especially since my ego really liked that. One of the things that happens when you're receiving feedback like that is it encourages you and stirs you to dig deeper and seek to preach.

Stronger, to learn a little bit better what it is that you're doing and bringing forth the Scriptures. In that, I think it's a good thing on the ego side, not necessarily a good thing.

A few years later, as time went by, I started to recognize something that was causing me a bit of concern. I remember it really clearly. It was the middle of 2011 when it happened. I would meet new people who were coming to the church every single week. Oftentimes, the new people would say a very similar thing to me. They would say, "I'm so glad we found this church because your preaching is so much better than the other church we were going to."

I was challenged by that because I would say probably nine out of ten, if not ten out of ten, new people that I would meet were coming from another church. The people who were saying these things were very well-intentioned, and I appreciate it. Don't misunderstand; I'm not judging that in any way. I appreciate what it is that they were saying.

However, I was challenged by the fact that every week I would wake up on a Sunday morning to come to the church. At the time, we lived on the east end of town, so I would drive across the entire El Norte Parkway all the way through the middle of Escondido. As I did, I would pass dozens and dozens of homes of people who were not a part of a church. I found that I was coming every single week and speaking the Scriptures, which I absolutely believe are able to transform our lives. I wouldn't do this if I didn't think that.

Yet, I would see many of the same faces and meet new people, but they were coming from another church. We weren't really reaching these people who were a lot like Zacchaeus. Whether they realize it or not, they were lost. They are lost. I don't think Zacchaeus necessarily realized that he was lost; he probably would not have applied that word to himself.

But Jesus, when he looked up in the tree and said, "Zacchaeus, come down, I'm going to go to your house," demonstrated a profound truth. If you have ever taught children's ministry, you know the song: "Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he. He climbed up in a sycamore tree to see what he could see."

The story might be familiar to you, but Zacchaeus was in the street, and when Jesus called him down, he quickly came down, and Jesus was going to stay at his house. It is very amazing to me that it was the followers of Jesus, the crowd around him, who were upset that Jesus was reaching lost people. They were upset by it and complained about it, but Jesus said, "The Son of Man has come..."

To seek and to save that which is lost is one of the purpose statements of Jesus. There are four or five of them in the Gospels where Jesus explicitly says, "This is why I came." One of them is found in Mark, chapter 10, where He says that He has come to give His life a ransom for many. Another one is in John 10, where He states, "I have come to give life and that more abundantly." Here in Luke, we find Him saying, "I have come to seek and to save that which is lost." He explicitly tells us what His mission is, His objective. He had a mission statement, a purpose statement: "I have come to seek and to save that which is lost."

I remember very clearly in the middle of 2011 being challenged by that reality and thinking a lot about it. One afternoon, I opened up Google Earth on my computer and found 1675 Oaks Road, right where we are. I drew a circle on Google Earth around our building with a radius of five miles. Within that radius, there are places like Escondido and San Marcos, the northern part of Rancho Bernardo, a little bit of Elfin Forest, and a little bit of Vista going up into Bonsall and Valley Center. These are places where probably most of you live, along with 400,000 other people.

Think about that: 400,000 people live within five miles of this building. If you extend it out to ten miles, it's over 900,000—nearly a million people live within ten miles of this building. In 2010, the Southern Baptist Convention, a group that we are connected with, conducted research on the 30 cities in North America, both the United States and Canada, where they believed a move of the church was really needed. San Diego was one of those cities.

They found that there are 3.3 million people who call San Diego home. There are 114 different languages spoken in this city that we call home. In San Diego, 56.1 percent of the population is not affiliated with any religious organization. When they went a step further and asked how many people in San Diego County are connected to, affiliated with, or attending a gospel-preaching church, they found that only 9.8 percent are. This means that within five miles of this building, there are 360,000 people who have no connection to a gospel-preaching church.

The challenge for me, the conviction in 2011, when I would drive here every Sunday morning, was that there were people here. You are here coming to hear the Scriptures, and I believe that this is pleasing to God. I think that God finds joy in His church, worshiping Him through song, through the study of the Scriptures, and through sacrificially giving themselves and serving. All of these things bring joy to God in heaven. I believe He is pleased with what happens in this church, as well as at Emanuel Faith, North Coast Church, Mission Hills Church, Valley Baptist Church, and Bethel Baptist Church. What happens here week in and week out is a good thing, and God is well pleased with it.

However, the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which is lost. My heart began to be stirred back then in 2011, and that stirring started to cause some changes in my own heart. It also changed the way that I would share the Scriptures and encouraged our leaders. This led to some changes for our church. We decided at that time to change the name from Calvary Chapel of Escondido to Cross Connection Church. Not only did we change the name, but we also changed our vision to "life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus." Jesus came to seek and to save that which is lost, to bring life through the cross, and to make it possible for us to be brought back into fellowship with Him and with one another. We wanted to be connected to God and to one another through the cross of Christ.

We started to make these changes because of our desire to seek and to save that which is lost. Just a little bit before the story about Zacchaeus in Luke chapter 19, there is a passage in Luke chapter 15 where the idea of seeking and saving that which is lost is seen several times. The reason for the teaching that pops up in Luke chapter 15 is interesting to me. It says in Luke chapter 15, verse one, "Then all the tax collectors and sinners drew near to Jesus, and the Pharisees and the scribes complained." Think about that: lost people were drawing near to Jesus. Unfortunately, the found people, the church people, were bothered by this. Just like in Luke chapter 19, Jesus is going to spend some time with a sinner who needs to be found, a lost person who needs to be found. It was the followers, the church people, who were upset.

The Pharisees and the scribes, as noted in Luke 15, complained, saying, "This man receives sinners and eats with them." In response to that, Jesus gives a teaching. He actually tells three stories, which may be familiar to you.

The first story is about a shepherd who has a hundred sheep. When one of them goes astray, he leaves the ninety-nine to go find the one that had gone astray. The second story is about a woman who had ten silver coins, and one of them goes missing. She turns her entire house upside down until she finds that one lost coin.

The third story is very familiar to many people; it is the story of the prodigal son. The man had a son who one day came to him and said, "Father, I want my inheritance now." Essentially, he was saying, "Dad, I wish you were dead." So, he takes his inheritance before his father had died and goes off. The King James Version describes it as him spending it on riotous living. Some of you may be well acquainted with riotous living from your previous days. He squanders his inheritance, and ultimately, at the end of the story, we see the young man coming to his senses and returning home. He finds his father waiting with open arms, ready for him to return. The son that was lost is found again.

These three stories illustrate something being lost and then being returned or found. At the end of each story, when these things come back, Jesus emphasizes the joy of recovery. In Luke 15:6, at the end of the story about the shepherd, He says, "And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.'" Three verses later, in Luke 15:9, when telling the story about the woman who lost the coin, He notes that when she found it, she called her friends and neighbors together, saying, "Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost."

Finally, at the end of the prodigal son story, in Luke 15:23, the father says to his servants, "Bring the fatted calf here and kill it. Let's eat and be merry, for my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found." They began to rejoice and be merry.

What's the point of all this? Point number one: Jesus loves to retrieve that which is lost. If you're a follower of Jesus today, I believe many of you are, it is really important for us to remember this.

We were once lost. Probably the most famous hymn of all hymns says, "I once was lost, but now I'm found; was blind, but now I see." Amazing grace! We need to remember that we were lost, and Jesus is the one who comes to seek and to save that which is lost. He loves to retrieve lost things. Therefore, we have to remind ourselves where we came from. There are passages of Scripture that help us remember that.

I think of Romans chapter three, which tells us all about our lost condition. You can turn there if you'd like. If you're in Luke, just turn a few books to the right. You'll pass John and Acts, and then you get to Romans. Romans chapter three contains one of the famous passages of Paul. He says this in verse 10: "As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one." He continues in verse 11, stating, "There are none who understand; there is none who seek after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable. There is none who does good, no, not one." The emphasis is on "no one" and "no, not one." Nobody seeks after God.

He goes on to say, "Their throats are like an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit. The poison of snakes is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes." He concludes in verse 23, stating, "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." A few chapters later, in verse 23 of chapter six, he says, "The wages of sin is death."

We must remember where we came from and the condition we were in when we were lost. It's interesting to observe how being lost affects people. Have you ever watched a child get separated from their parents in a crowd? If you're a parent, you might notice how your own kids react. For a time, they may not even realize they're lost; they just wander around, seemingly content. Then, all of a sudden, they realize they don't see Mom or Dad, and you can see everything in their countenance change. There’s a realization that they are lost.

If you are a follower of Jesus today, there was a point in your life when you came to that realization as well. You may not have realized you were lost at first, but then it came to you—whether it was through a crisis in your life, something going on, or a friend sharing with you the truth of Scripture.

And you realize your lostness. But now, having been found, sometimes we have to go back and remember where we were at that point. It wasn't us who sought after God; there are none who seek after God. The Scriptures say in Romans chapter three that we were lost. We were alienated from God and separated from one another, whether we realized it or not.

Point number two: we all came into this world terribly lost. We need to keep that in mind when we're going about our daily lives, especially when we're getting ready to come to church on a Sunday morning. When I drive here every Sunday morning, I take basically the same route, coming north on the 15 from down by the mall. As I'm driving up, I pass hundreds of homes along the 15, and I find myself praying, "Lord, how do we reach these people?" There are so many people here who need You. They don't know that they need You; they probably think everything's just fine, like a kid who hasn't realized they're lost yet. Everything seems great. I live in sunny Southern California, and it's good.

Let me tell you, last week I went to a conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and I was reminded again why I live here. Within a nanosecond of getting out of the airport, I thought, "This place is horrible." I asked myself, why do they have a conference in Minneapolis in January? Probably because they got a really good deal on the convention center. It was so cold! If you want to triple the size of this conference, do it in San Diego.

We live in a beautiful place, and so it's easy for people to soften over their lostness. But as I'm driving here every Sunday, I find myself praying, "Lord, how do we reach these people that are lost?" Your desire is to seek and to save that which is lost. I am so thankful that Jesus loves to retrieve that which is lost. We are here today because Jesus sought us out, for there is none who seek after God. What amazing grace that we were found by Jesus.

Ephesians chapter 2, verse 11 says, "Therefore, remember," and we need to be reminded, "that you were once Gentiles in the flesh, separated from God, who were called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision made in flesh by hands." At that time, you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel.

And strangers from the covenants and promises, having no hope and without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. We can never forget that we were once lost and where we came from. We must also never forget the means by which we were found: amazing grace. That's the means by which we were found—the amazing grace of God.

This work of redemption, of rescue, is God seeking us out. This work was purposeful. We have been rescued for a reason, for a purpose. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10, just before it says in verse 11, "Therefore, remember where you were," states, "For you are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand that you should walk in." I love that it says "that you should walk in." It doesn't say that it's automatic; you will walk in it, but you should.

So our response, the right response to being rescued by Jesus, is to walk in these good works. And what kind of good works? What is it that He wants us to do? Well, point number three: Jesus sends the found to find others. Luke chapter 19, verse 10 says, "The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost."

At the end of the Gospel of John, each of the four Gospels concludes with a commissioning statement of Jesus. He is sending His disciples to go and fulfill this mission. In the Gospel of John, the commissioning statement is found in chapter 20, verse 21. There, Jesus says, "As the Father has sent Me, so I send you." Jesus was sent on a rescue mission to seek and to save that which is lost. And Jesus says, "As the Father sent Me, now I'm sending you."

So you and I have been sent on a mission to retrieve lost things because Jesus loves to retrieve lost things. I remember it very clearly in the middle of 2011; I made a decision: God, I want to do whatever I can to make it possible that this is not just a sermon appreciation society and that this would be a mobilization place where we would be...

Empowered by the Spirit of God and equipped by Jesus's word, we are called to go forth and retrieve that which is lost. That's the name Cross Connection; that's the mission and vision: life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus. We have been called by God—not just the pastoral staff or the elders, but the entire church—to seek and to save that which is lost. He commissioned us to this purpose.

So, how do we do that? One of the most obvious ways is found in one of the commissioning statements of Jesus in Mark's Gospel, chapter 16, verse 15, where Jesus said, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." We must share the good news of who Jesus is and what He has done. We share with lost people the good news of God's grace, as well as the bad news of their condition—their lost condition—which they may not even realize until we share that with them through the Scriptures.

As we proclaim the amazing grace of God, those who respond by putting their faith in Jesus experience a turning called repentance. If you look at the way Jesus applies the three lost stories in Luke's Gospel, chapter 15, it's really interesting. He tells a story and then explains why He is telling it. In Luke 15:7, after telling the story about the shepherd who finds the one lost sheep, He says, "I say to you, likewise, that there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance."

What does that mean? It literally means that while God is pleased with His church gathering together to worship Him in song, through His word, and through sacrificial giving and serving, there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who turns to Christ in faith and repents than over the ninety-nine just ones who do not need repentance. These are already followers of Jesus, and He is pleased with them, but there is more joy in heaven.

In the next story, about the woman who finds the lost coin, Jesus applies it in Luke 15:10 by saying, "Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels over one sinner who repents." I love this because it reveals that not only is there joy in heaven, but there is also joy in the presence of the angels, which seems to imply that this joy is God's joy.

God finds great joy over lost people coming to faith. He is pleased with this, but he finds great joy in lost people coming to faith.

In the story of the Prodigal Son, there are two sons. The first son took his inheritance and went to spend it on riotous living. The other son was the good son, the one who did everything his father told him to do and who did not dishonor his father by taking his inheritance and squandering it.

When the brother who was lost returns—who was dead and is now alive again—the older brother, who seems to be the one who did everything right, is upset. He is angry because their father is having a party for the younger brother, who dishonored the family. The older brother refuses to come to the party, saying, "I've been following you the whole time, and now you're being nice to lost people. I don't like this."

The father responds to the older son, saying, "Listen, you've been with me all this time. We should rejoice over your brother who has repented. We should rejoice over this. He was lost, and now he is found." Lost things become found when they turn to Christ in faith, and that turning is repentance. There is joy over repentance—the joy of the father, the joy of the woman who lost the coin, and the joy of the shepherd over the sheep.

This is why Jesus, in his commissioning statement in the Gospel of Luke, said, "As the Father has sent me, so I send you." In Mark's commissioning statement, he instructs, "Go preach the gospel to every creature." In Luke's Gospel, it is written in Luke 24:46, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, that repentance and remission of sins—pardon and forgiveness of sins—should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem."

God has called us to go into this world, into the highways and byways, to bring the good news of the gospel of grace that brings salvation to those who are dead, lost, and blind.

He wants us to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to a world that is dead and disconnected, to bring them back into connection with their Maker, back into connection with the body of Christ, the family, the church.

How do we do this? There are many different ways that we can bring this connection to people in the world, but I want us to consider three of them. First, we connect with the world through compassion. This is quite literally loving your neighbor. Jesus said in John 13:35 that they shall know that you are my followers by the love that you have one for another. This is love expressed in very practical, tangible ways—meeting the needs of those in our society who have needs, and everybody has needs.

In Matthew chapter 25, Jesus tells a story about the day when we will stand before Him in heaven and hopefully hear Him say, "Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of your Lord." He says, "I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was naked, and you clothed me. I was alone, and you came and visited me." They asked, "When did we do this?" He replied, "When you did this to the least of these, you did so unto me." What is that? It is sharing compassion with those who are in need.

Secondly, another way that we connect with the world is through charity. We connect with the world through charity by giving of the things that we have to those who are in need. Just as Jesus said in Acts 20:35, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." God calls us to connect with this world through compassion and through charity. Those things are really good, but we can never neglect the most important aspect: we connect with the world through evangelism.

Evangelism is sharing the good news of what Jesus did and who Jesus is. You were once lost, and now you're found. You were once blind, and now you see. It is sharing that good news of the work that Jesus did on the cross to deal with my sin and your sin, to say, "It is finished," so that He could pardon and forgive our sin and make us right with a holy God. We are no longer enemies with God; we have been brought near by the blood of Jesus Christ. This is the gospel that we are called to give forth to this world.

For some reason, we sometimes get a little skittish about that, fearful and embarrassed to share it with lost people who need to be found. But Paul said in Romans 1:16, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes."

God's power in the gospel is essential. You may say, "Well, I understand the compassion thing and the charity thing. I could probably do that." But when it comes to evangelism, you might think, "I'm not an evangelist. I can't do that. That's for the pastors. I just don't think I could do that." And you know what? In your own strength, you would probably be right. You probably can't do that in your own strength.

In the opening words of the Book of Acts, Jesus was with his disciples just before he ascended into heaven. He said, "Listen, you shall receive power, enabling power, ability when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you shall be witnesses of me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and unto the outermost parts, beginning where you're at and moving out from there." You will be witnesses of me in these places as you are empowered by the Spirit of God.

I attended a conference in Minneapolis that focused on the empowering work of the Holy Spirit. It was a good reminder that what we are called to do as ambassadors of Jesus is not by might nor by power, but by His Spirit, says the Lord. So, yes, in our own strength, we don't have the ability to do this. But God, by His grace, empowers us.

Not only does He empower us, but Ephesians chapter four says that He brought you into a body of believers and set pastors, teachers, apostles, prophets, and evangelists over you for the equipping of the saints, the church, the body of Christ, for the work of the ministry. This means that the work of the ministry is the work of the church, the body of the church. The work of the ministry is not necessarily the work of the ministers. The work of the ministers is to equip the church to do the work of the church, the work of the ministry.

We gather here together to be equipped and encouraged, asking God to empower us by His Spirit to go out and fulfill the mission that Jesus has called us to do.

Point number five on your outline: Jesus empowers and equips us to reach the lost. This is good news! He empowers and equips us to reach the lost. Within just five miles of this building, there are 360,000 people who are lost and don’t even know it. Over 840,000 people within ten miles of this building need Jesus. God has strategically placed every single one of you in this room in places where you are connected with those people.

Whether it's connected at work, in your neighborhood, or at the ball field when your kid is practicing soccer, God has placed you there like a web around this community. You are connected to people to extend the grace of Jesus Christ through compassion and charity, but also through the evangelistic means of sharing the good news. How shall they hear without someone to tell them, a preacher?

I believe that in 2018, God wants to further expand our reach as a church and bring us into a fuller experience of being His ambassadors here in San Diego County. There is such a huge need, and many great churches are reaching out to try to connect with those people. However, the sad reality is that all the research has shown that, in the United States over the last 25 years, the greatest majority of church growth has been church transfer growth. People have transferred from one church to another, from one denomination to another. Many have left Catholicism for Protestantism, and others have moved from mainline Protestantism to evangelical churches. We've seen people move out of Presbyterian churches and into more non-denominational churches. This is the church growth we've been witnessing in America over the last generation, 20 to 25 years.

God desires that we reach the lost because Jesus came to seek and to save that which is lost. In just a few minutes, the worship team is going to come back up, and we will close the service. We will pray that God empowers us again by His Holy Spirit to be His ambassadors. He has already done that. If you are a child of God and have put your faith in Jesus, you have the Spirit of God in you and with you. Perhaps we just need the challenge to say, "Okay, it's time for us to step out."

One thing I want to share with you is one of the ways we will be seeking to fulfill this mission this year. If you look inside your bulletin on the left side, you will see our mission. We have partnered with a church that is not yet established; it is getting ready to be planted. We are the sponsoring church to plant a church in Baltimore, Maryland, this year. My friend, Josh Teranski, whom I have known for about 10 years, was a pastor at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. He felt the pull two years ago and talked with me about it.

I believe the Lord wants me to go plant a church in Baltimore. I prayed with them, and then we've been talking ever since. He and his family moved to Baltimore a little over a year ago, and they are in downtown Baltimore, Fells Point, not too far from Washington, D.C. God is preparing to plant a church there, and we are the sponsoring church. That's Josh, his wife, and their three kids. They are freezing cold today in Baltimore, Maryland. He lived for most of his life in Hawaii and Southern California, and now he's in Baltimore. So, God bless him.

Haven City Church is the sponsoring church for this effort, and I want you to pray for Josh and his family. Pray that maybe the Lord would have you go on a trip with us to pray for the city. Perhaps the Lord would stir your heart to be involved with this church plant in some way. God desires that we reach lost people; that's the mission we're on. It's not just to be a place where we gather and say, "That one was a good one." After the first service, all of our leadership came and said, "Oh, that one was really good." I appreciate the encouragement, but let's stand and pray.

I am going to pray that God would remind us of the power He has given us in Christ Jesus. Read Ephesians chapter one; we have all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. That means we have all of the Holy Spirit. The question is, does He have all of us? Does He fully have us?

Father, we pray that You would remind us again of the empowering You have given us when we became Your people, Your children. First Corinthians 12 says that we were all baptized in the Spirit. I pray that You would help us to experience the empowering of the Spirit this week. You've gifted every single person here in this room who has put their trust and faith in You.

Lord, You've called every one of us to be a light to a dark world. Each of us is connected to people in our neighborhoods, on a school campus, in an office building, on a construction site, or on a basketball court. Wherever we are, we are connected to people who need You. I pray, God, that You would be with our lips and our tongues. Lord, give us boldness to speak up and share the good news of who You are and what You've done.

Maybe it's as easy as sharing the good news of what You did in our lives. Perhaps it's as simple as giving an invitation and saying, "Hey, would you come with me this..."

Weekend to church? Whatever it may be, Lord, I pray that you would first open our eyes to see the lost. As we drive home from this place, as we go out to lunch or wherever we go today, I pray that you just open our eyes to see those who are hurting, those who are in need, to see as you see.

In the Gospel of Matthew, it is recorded that Jesus saw the multitudes and was moved with compassion because they were like lost sheep without a shepherd. I pray, God, that you'd help us to be moved with compassion as we see, as you see.

Lord, we pray for Josh and his family back in Baltimore today, having services and ministering there as they prepare to plant Haven City Church. I pray, God, that you'd be with them, encourage and strengthen them. Give them vision, boldness, and your strength. Keep them warm in the cold.

If you would call any of us here to be a part of that, maybe just in prayer, whatever it may be, I pray that you stir our hearts.

We lift up San Diego County. I pray for the 3.3 million people that call this place home, and the better part of them are far from you. We don't want anyone to die in their lost condition. So, God, stir our hearts. We pray, pour out your Spirit afresh and anew upon your church. We pray in Jesus' name.