Life in Connection with the World

Our vision here at Cross Connection Church is life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus. We are finishing up the series talking about that here at the beginning of 2018, so jump in with us.

In Luke chapter 19, we will discuss connecting with the world. Welcome to Cross Connection Church; we are so glad that you're here. As you are standing, would you take out your Bibles with me? If you don't have a Bible, you can raise your hand, and one of our ushers will bring you one. We are going to open to the Gospel of Luke. About a third of the way through your Bible, you will find Matthew, Mark, and then Luke. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John—Luke chapter 19 is where we are going to read from in just a moment.

This is a great passage of Scripture. Jesus is moving in this section of the story of His life and ministry from the area of Galilee, where most of His ministry was performed, and He is on His way to Jerusalem for the very last time. This would be the time that He would go up to Jerusalem to be crucified. The last outpost on that journey from Galilee to Jerusalem was the town called Jericho.

We read in Luke chapter 19, verse 1: "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 that way.

When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him. He 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."

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 that 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 friends, to be called children of God, children of the Most High. All because You came to seek and to save that which is lost. 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, may You cause that truth to bring us joy, knowing that You have come to seek us out. Lord, may that truth go into our minds and our hearts and transform us. Help us understand that You've sought us out for a reason and 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 for a month. I had already taught there several years before, in 2004 and 2005, when I was there for a year teaching at this Bible School. I was invited to come back at the beginning of 2008.

So, my wife Andrea and I went over for the month of March in 2008. I remember the day we were getting ready to board the airplane at the airport in San Diego; it was a Saturday morning. 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.

I went to Germany because it gave me a month of free time while I was teaching just one class. This time allowed me to think, plan, and pray about coming to be the pastor of this church. It was God's providence that while I was there, I was with a very good friend of mine, David Guzik, who was the director of the Bible School in Siegen, Germany, at the time. Pastor David Guzik has taught here before; he is a great Bible teacher and has written a commentary on the entire Bible. He has been a mentor of mine for many years, and this opportunity allowed me to spend a lot of time with him, asking many questions just before I became the pastor.

One of the weekends I was there, my wife and I, along with Pastor David and a group of students from the Bible school, took a trip from Siegen, Germany, about three to four hours to Wittenberg, Germany. Wittenberg was essentially the hometown of Martin Luther, the 16th-century reformer. We were going to see some of the sights there and learn about the events that took place during the Protestant Reformation 500 years ago.

During the drive, I was sitting right behind David, who was driving, and I kept asking him questions. One of the questions I asked was, "Dave, if you were a senior pastor of a church again, what would you do differently?" His answer stuck with me. He shared that one of the things that led him to step away from Calvary Chapel Simi Valley and move to Germany to oversee a small Bible college was his realization that the church he was pastoring had become a sermon appreciation society.

He explained that while it was good that the Bible was being taught and people were being encouraged, challenged, and equipped, it seemed like every week he would work very hard to preach the Scriptures, only to be critiqued and graded in a sense by this sermon appreciation society. He noted that 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!"

They would say, "Oh, I just love the way you used that illustration! I had never thought of that reference before." However, I began to feel like it was the same group of people saying the same thing week after week. I started to question whether this was really what the Lord wanted me to be doing. I remember thinking, as David was saying that, that I certainly didn't want that to take place.

A few weeks later, I became the pastor of the church, and I stepped into, in earnest for the first time, a pastoral preaching ministry, 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.

It was interesting because, 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 and say, "Myles, that was really good! You're getting better all the time." I heard that often, 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. It stirs you to dig deeper, to seek to preach stronger, and to learn a little better what it is that you're doing in bringing forth the Scriptures. In that sense, I think it's a good thing for the ego, but not necessarily a good thing overall.

A few years later, as time went by, I started to recognize something that was causing me a bit of concern. I remember it 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: "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. Again, the people who were saying these things were very well-intentioned, and I appreciated it. Don't misunderstand; I'm not judging that in any way. I appreciated what they were saying, but I was challenged by the fact that every week, I would wake up on a Sunday morning to come here 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 passed 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. However, 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 are a lot like Zacchaeus. Whether they realize it or not, they are lost. I don't think Zacchaeus necessarily realized that he was lost; he probably would not have applied that word to himself.

When Jesus looked up in the tree and said, "Zacchaeus, come down! I'm going to your house," it was a significant moment. 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." Come on, Pastor Mark sang that last week, so the story might be familiar to you. Zacchaeus was in the street, and when Jesus called him down, he quickly came down. Jesus was going to stay in his house.

It is amazing to me that it was the followers of Jesus, the crowd around Him, who were upset that Jesus was reaching lost people. They complained about it. But Jesus said, "The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost." This 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, "I have come to give my life a ransom for many." Another one is in John 10, where He says, "I have come to give life and that more abundantly."

Then 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 Seven Oaks Road, right where we are. I drew a circle on the map.

Within a radius of five miles, there are places like Escondido, San Marcos, the northern part of Rancho Bernardo, a little bit of El Cajon, and a little bit of Vista, going up into the Bonsall 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, partnered with researchers to study the 30 cities in North America, both in 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, and there are 114 different languages spoken here in this city that we call home.

In this city, 56.1% 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 or affiliated with a gospel-preaching church, they found that only 9.8% 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 I felt in 2011 when I would drive here every Sunday morning, was that yes, there are 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 of themselves and serving. All of these things bring joy to God and to heaven. I believe He is pleased with what happens in this church, at 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 began to change the way that I would share the Scriptures and encouraged our leaders, and it started to move.

Some changes were made 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 before the story of 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 mentioned several times. The reason for the teaching in Luke chapter 15 is interesting to me. It says in Luke chapter 15, verse 1, "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, and unfortunately, the found people—the church people—were bothered by this. Just like in Luke chapter 19, Jesus is going to spend time with a sinner who needs to be found. It was the followers, the church people, who were upset. The Pharisees and the scribes 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, and 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 essentially turns her entire house upside down until she finds that one lost coin.

The third story is also very familiar to people. It is the story of the prodigal son. A 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 took his inheritance before his father had passed away.

He died, and he goes. I love the King James Version, which says he spends it on riotous living. Some of you are well acquainted with riotous living from your previous days. So, he goes and squanders his inheritance. Ultimately, at the end of the story, we see the young man coming to his senses and coming home. He finds his father waiting with arms open wide, really for him to return. The son that was lost is found again.

We have these three stories of something being lost and then being returned, being found. When these things come back, when they are found, at the end of each of the stories, Jesus says this. 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 He tells the story about the woman who lost the coin, when she found it, she calls her friends and her neighbors together, saying, "Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost."

Then, 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; they began to 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. I think it's really important for us, as followers of Jesus, to remember that 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 reminds us that we were lost, and Jesus is the one who comes seeking to save that which is lost. He loves to retrieve lost things.

We have to remind ourselves where we came from because it's easy to forget. There are passages of Scripture that help us remember that. I think of Romans chapter 3, 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.

Chapter 3 contains one of the famous passages of Paul. He says in verse 10, "As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. 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. The way of peace they have not known; there is no fear of God before their eyes."

In verse 23, he states, "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." A few chapters later, in verse 23 of chapter 6, 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 a child who gets separated from their parents in a crowd. For a time, they may not even realize they are lost. They wander around, seemingly content, until suddenly they realize they don't see Mom or Dad. You can see everything in their countenance change as they come to the realization that they are lost.

As followers of Jesus, there was a point in our lives when we came to that realization as well. We may not have initially recognized our lostness, but then something happened—perhaps a crisis in our lives or a friend sharing the truth of Scripture—and we understood our lostness.

Now, having been found, we sometimes need to go back and remember where we were at that point. It wasn't us who sought after God; the Scriptures say in Romans chapter 3 that there are none who seek after God. We were lost, alienated from God, and separated from one another, whether we realized it or not.

Point number two is that we all came into this world terribly lost. We must keep that in mind as we go about our daily lives. When we prepare to come to church on a Sunday morning, I often reflect on this. Every Sunday morning, I take basically the same route, coming north on the 15 from down by the mall. As I drive up, I think about these truths.

Passing hundreds of homes along the 15, 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 cold! If you want to triple the size of this conference, do it in San Diego.

We live in a beautiful place, and it's easy for people to soften over their lostness. 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 seeks 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. "Therefore remember 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 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 and this work of redemption and rescue. God's seeking us out was purposeful.

We have been rescued for a reason and for a purpose. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10 states, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in." I love that it says "that we should walk." It doesn't say that it's automatic; it says we should. Our response, the right response to being rescued by Jesus, is to walk in these good works.

What kind of good works does He want us to do? 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 from Jesus, sending His disciples to fulfill this mission. In John chapter 20, verse 21, 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 He now sends us on a similar mission to retrieve lost things because He loves to retrieve lost things. I remember it very clearly in the middle of 2011 when 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, but a mobilization place where we would be empowered by the Spirit of God and equipped by Jesus's word to go forth and retrieve that which is lost." Thus, the name Cross Connection reflects this mission.

The vision is 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.

How do we do that? One of the most obvious ways is through another commissioning.

One of the statements of Jesus is found in Mark's Gospel, chapter 16, verse 15, where Jesus said, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." We have to give forth the good news of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done. We share with lost people the good news of God's grace. We also share with them 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 hear may turn in response to put their faith in Jesus. This turning is called repentance. In fact, if you look at the way that 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.

For example, in Luke 15:7, after telling the story about the shepherd who finds the one lost sheep, he says, "I say to you, 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? I think it literally means that although God is pleased with His church gathering together and worshiping 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. They are already followers of Jesus.

He is pleased with this, but there is more joy in heaven. In the next story, about the woman who finds the lost coin, Jesus applies it in Luke chapter 15, verse 10, 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 clues us into the fact that not only is there joy in heaven, but there is joy in the presence of the angels, which seems to imply that the joy is God's joy.

God finds great joy in 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, we see that there were two sons. The first was the one who took his inheritance and spent it on riotous living, while the other son was the good son, the one who did everything that his father asked.

The father told him to do what he was supposed to do, and he didn't dishonor his father by taking his inheritance and spending it on riotous living. When the brother, who was dead and now is alive again, who was lost and now is found, returns, the older brother—who seems to have done 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 is mad and refuses to come to the party. He expresses his frustration, 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 because he was lost, and now he is found." Lost things become found when they turn to Christ in faith, and that turning is called 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 who finds the sheep.

This is why Jesus, in His commissioning statement in the Gospel of Luke, emphasizes the importance of this message. In John's commissioning statement, He said, "As the Father has sent me, so I send you." Mark's commissioning statement instructs us to go and 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, 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 the 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 share the gospel of Jesus Christ with a world that is disconnected, bringing them back into connection with their Maker and with the body of Christ, the family, the church.

How do we do this? There are many different ways to bring this connection to people in the world, but I want to focus on three of them.

Consider for a moment how we connect with the world. 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 for one another. This is love expressed in very practical, tangible ways—meeting the needs of those in our society who have needs. Everybody has needs.

In Matthew chapter 25, Jesus tells the 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." This illustrates 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 compassion, and we connect through charity—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 charity, and those things are really good.

However, 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. We share the good news of the work that Jesus did on the cross to deal with our 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 share with 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 chapter 1, verse 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 is in the gospel.

Now, you may say, "Well, I understand the compassion thing and the charity thing. I could probably do that, but the evangelism thing? I'm not an evangelist; I can't do that."

The pastor said, "I just don't think I could do that." In your own strength, you would probably be right; you probably can't do that. However, 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. You shall be witnesses of Me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts." This begins where you are and moves out from there. You will be witnesses of Him 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 4 says that He brought you into a church, 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, is for the work of the ministry. This means that the work of the ministry is the work of the church. The work of the ministers is to equip the church to do 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 because, within just five miles of this building, there are 360,000 people who are lost and don't even know it. There are over 840,000 people within ten miles of this building who 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 at work, in your neighborhood, or at the ball field when your kid is playing.

Practicing soccer connects us to family members who don't know Jesus. He has placed you there like a web around this community, connected to people to be able to extend the grace of Jesus Christ through compassion, through charity, but also through the evangelistic means of sharing the good news. For how shall they hear without someone who tells 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 this: in the United States of America, 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. This is the church growth we have been seeing 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 would empower 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 are going to seek 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 Sharansky, whom I have known for about 10 years, was a pastor at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. He felt the call two years ago and talked with me, saying he believes the Lord wants him to go plant a church in Baltimore. I prayed with him about this.

Then we've been talking ever since, and he and his family moved to Baltimore a little over a year ago. 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, Maryland. So, God bless him.

Haven City Church is the sponsoring church for this endeavor. I want you to pray for Josh and his family, and 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. We are not just a place where we gather and say, "That was a good one." After the first service, all of our leadership came in and said, "That one was really good."

Let's stand and pray. I’m going to pray that God would remind us of the power He has given us in Christ Jesus. Read Ephesians chapter 1; 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?

Heavenly Father, I 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. So, God, I pray that You would help us to experience the empowering of the Spirit this week. You have gifted every single person here in this room who has put their trust and faith in You.

Lord, You have called every single 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, at 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 to share the good news of who You are and what You have 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, "Would you come with me this weekend to church?" Whatever it may be, help us to be faithful in sharing Your message.

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 would 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 would 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 as they have services and minister. They are getting ready to plant Haven City Church, and I pray, God, that You would 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 would stir our hearts.

We lift up San Diego County. Lord, 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 own spirit and pour out Your spirit afresh.