Pastor Brian and Jacque Lother
Jacque: That is a theme going through all the music today, isn't it? And the words, the faithfulness of God. Aren't you grateful? Faithful. How many of you, at home and here, see the Moments of Hope videos that we produce every week? Aren't they great? They are so great. They are professionally produced. Pastor Jeff, he finds a moment in the service and a couple of moments and we send them to a professional guy and he creates these beautiful videos out of the most amazing video footage, and then Brian speaking. It's just amazing, or whoever is speaking. Jeff made some awesome ones. If you don't get those, they are all over online, but we can also email them to you every week.
If you don't get the Moments of Hope video— they are about a minute long and they are a great tool. I sometimes just remembered what the content is and sent them to people specifically that needed to hear that message. Of course, I'm always inspired when I see them and hear them. If you would like to receive those, any way you can get us your email address, you can do that. You can also go to the website, My Hope Community, and there is a button right there; you can give us your email address. You can choose to just get the videos or you can choose to get a newsletter too, but we just want to get these into your hands to be encouraged and to encourage others with them.
Brian: I watch them and I get inspired.
Jacque: You get inspired too.
Brian: I get inspired by myself and it's not really me.
Jacque: That's amazing.
Brian: But I do get inspired by the incredible professionalism of the music and the video pictures that go along.
Jacque: It is true that a picture is worth a thousand words. When he brings those pictures into the words that you are saying, it just brings such a life.
Brian: Yeah. And they are like 60 to 90 seconds. We call them Moments of Hope. They hopefully would bring encouragement and blessing to all of you. So feel free to give us your email. We are not going to be sending you a whole bunch of solicitations, so you don't have to worry about that.
Jacque: We promise.
Brian: We just want to be a blessing to you. Today is Sanctity of Life Sunday around the world. Usually, we kind of do our Sanctity of Life Sunday in February because generally, Jacque and I are actually gone during part of the month of January. I always like to be here for Sanctity of Life Sunday because it's such a very special part of who Jacque and I are and what our vision and calling has been for many, many. Because we are here, we are actually not going out of the country this year we decided to obviously observe it today.
I would like to really just share with you a topic that's really— I think needs to be embraced more largely by our culture today. That topic is the sacredness of life, the very sacredness of life. I want to give a little brief history lesson here this morning. So don't some of you turn me off quite yet. It will be brief and you'll learn a few things from it. In March of 1857, the United States Supreme Court ruled on a very, very important question in our country. It was a question that had troubled the citizens of the United States for really many years. On March 6th of 1857, the United States Supreme court ruled that African-Americans were not legal persons. They made that ruling in 1857 that African-Americans were not legal persons according to the United States constitution. In other words, they were non-persons and therefore, they were not protected by the constitution of this country.
I know that to many of us that just seems very foreign, but that is where we were as a country in 1857. An African-American, who was more than likely a slave, was the property of the owner of that person. That person, that African-American could be bought. He could be sold. He could be used in whatever way the owner wanted, and he could even be killed without punitive consequences. That was the right and the privilege of the owner of that African-American. This ruling, which was called the Dred Scott ruling, was final. It was final. Or was it? Because 11 years later, including a civil war in 1868, the people of this country voted into effect the 13th and the 14th amendments of our constitution. In this historic decision, the word person in our constitution now was to be interpreted as all living human beings.
It was a great day for our country. A legal personhood was now not based on color; legal personhood was now not based on age or class of person. It wasn't based on status or even the place of residence of that person. Once human life existed, legal personhood also existed, and with legal personhood came constitutional rights.
105 years after that momentous historic decision where the 13th and 14th amendments were added to our constitution, on January 22nd, 1973, the United States Supreme Court decided another very vexing question in our country. They ruled that once and for all, unborn humans were not legal persons, that unborn humans were not legal persons, according to our constitution. An unborn baby was declared to be the property of the owner, in this particular case, it would be the mother, and she could have her baby killed at her request. This ruling was final or is it? Or is it? In the Dred Scott decision, discrimination was based on skin color. Today, the preborn are discriminated against on the basis of their age and their place of residence.
500 years ago, another man who was quite instrumental in bringing change to our world, his name was Martin Luther. I know that there are some issues with Martin Luther that some people have, but I'm thankful for Martin Luther and all the things that he accomplished, even though he had certainly some flaws in his life as we all do. Martin Luther believed that every person, especially what was called at that time, the common man, and he wasn't referring to a radio program on K Fan, by the way. The common man should be able to hear and to read the scriptures in their own language. The reason he felt that was so that they could have more understanding of God and how they were supposed to live.
He took the Latin scriptures, which was called the Septuagint— The Septuagint was the Latin translation from the Greek and Hebrew and translated it into Latin. That's what the church had used for many, many years. The fact of the matter is most people didn't speak Latin anymore; they spoke their own native tongues, and Martin Luther felt that we should take the language of the Bible, which was Latin at that time and translate it into everybody else's language, so that everybody could understand it. That's how the translations of the scriptures came to be. The Latin was translated into German and into English and into Portuguese and into Chinese and into all sorts of languages around the world. People from every culture were able to read and read the Bible for themselves and to discover this wonderful love that God has for us.
Luther was very instrumental in taking the Latin and bringing it into an understandable language. It's interesting that some decades ago the pro-abortion movement did the reverse of what Martin Luther did. They changed the English into Latin. So now a baby in the womb was no longer called the child or a baby, but rather it was called a fetus, which is a Latin term. All we have to do is get people to use language that doesn't really understand or make sense to them and we can get them to do anything.
I would like to take a look today from the most important book, the word of God, the Bible, and see what God's word has to say about humanity, what God's word has to say about you and me, what God's word has to say about everybody on the face of the year. The first script I would like to read, we find it in Psalm 139, verses 13 through 16. I would like to read this again from the message Bible, because I believe Eugene Peterson just paints this incredible picture in our language, in our American language so that we can truly understand what God is really saying in the original scriptures.
Jacque: Oh yes, you shaped me first inside then out. You formed me in my mother's womb. I thank you, high God. You are breathtaking.
Brian: Just ponder on that for a second. Wouldn't it be great if even everybody who called themselves Christians really had that perspective? Oh God, you are breathtaking. We used to sing a song, it's been a number of years, but you take my breath away. If we really ponder and look at the beauty and the incredibleness of God, and especially when we look at the vastness of the universe, how that's so breathtaking and God can really take our breath away.
Jacque: From one cell, a complex body is created on the side of a woman.
Brian: It's baffling.
Jacque: It's breathtaking. It is. Body and soul, I am marvelously made. I worship in adoration. What a creation! You know me inside and out; you know every bone of my body. You know exactly how I was made bit by bit.
Brian: I liked that, bit by bit. That's how we were made. It started with just like one cell, then 2, then 4, then 8 and 16, bit by bit. But it was a person. All it took was time. All it took was time.
Jacque: How did the bits know where to go?
Brian: God gave them instructions.
Jacque: Yes, he did, bit by bit. How I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth. All the stages of my life were spread out before you, the days of my life all prepared before I had even lived one day.
Brian: God's purposes for you were prepared for you before you even lived one day. What an incredible understanding that that can give us in regards to the fact that you are not an accident. You are not an accident. You have purpose in the heart and mind of God. Let's read another one. This is found in Jeremiah chapter 1, verse 5. This is a scripture specifically about Jeremiah, but it's not because Jeremiah was elevated above humanity. It's just that this is what God's purpose was for him. Here is how he says it.
Jacque: From the NIV. Before I formed you in the womb I knew, or I chose you.
Brian: Yeah. The word new means chose you.
Jacque: Before you were born, I set you apart. I appointed you as a prophet to them.
Brian: Before he was born, like pastor Jeff was saying earlier today, before Jeremiah was born, God had already set him aside, set him apart as far as his purposes go, to be a prophet to the nations. Here is something that we have to understand: God only calls persons and Jeremiah was appointed by God before his birth and a child is a person having been given life by God, even though they are yet unborn. They are persons; they are people. Wouldn't you agree that the place of residence of that person should not determine whether that person should live or not? Wouldn't you agree with that, that the place of residence should not determine whether or not a person lives or not?
There is a wonderful truth that we all need to remind ourselves of. It's this: Even though you and I create chaos, and we do that from time to time, and sometimes the chaos we create is incredible. We can look back historically and we can see men like Adolf Hitler and others in just, shall we say our recent history, who created an incredible amount of chaos, an incredible amount of dysfunction and incredible amount of heartache and brokenness in the world. Even though we even on maybe a smaller scale, maybe more of an individualistic scale, create chaos and disorder in our world, God is able to bring order and purpose into our chaos and into our dysfunction. That's what God specializes in. He specializes in bringing order to our chaos and order to our dysfunction. That's what he specializes in. Your birth was no mistake. You might be watching from Norway today, or you might be watching from Mexico or some other far country tuning into this live stream, and you need to know that your birth was no mistake. Your birth was not a mistake. Your life is not a fluke. It's not a fluke of nature.
Your parents may not have planned you, but God did. Not all parents plan their children. That's the truth, but all children are planned by God. You were planned by God. You were planned by God. Long before you were conceived, you were conceived in the mind of God. Long before you were ever conceived in an earthly way, God had conceived of you in his mind. It's not fate. It's not luck. It's not chance. It's not a coincidence that you are alive at this time. We look around our world and we see chaos, don't we? We see things falling apart. We see uncertainty. We have to understand that God put us here at this time so we could be a remedy to the chaos and the dysfunction and all the uncertainty by having him live through our lives.
God put you here right now at this time, so that we could bring peace and grace and mercy and love and wholeness to this world. You are alive today because God wanted to create you, not because of some accident, something unplanned, something done in an unprotected way. God made you for a reason. God made you for a reason. He decided when you were going to be born. We have to understand that God decided when every single one of us was going to be born. He even decided what race you are going to be a part of and what your physical attributes were going to look like. I know that some of us struggle with, "I wish I looked like this”, or “I wish I was that”, or “I wish I could do this," but you know what? God made all of us for a purpose and a reason. We need to discover those purposes and that reason.
Jacque: He gave us all gifts.
Brian: He gave us all gifts. That was my last line.
Jacque: Oh, sorry.
Brian: That's all right. Keep going. He gave us all these different gifts, giftings and abilities, propensities. He even created your personality as you are. Some people are like Jacque. Jacque makes everybody feel so welcome. She makes everybody feel like they are her best friend. I don't. I'm sorry about that. I'm sorry about that. I'm working on it.
Jacque: You are getting better.
Brian: Yeah. I just need another thousand years; I might catch up to you. We have this uniqueness in our personality and God made me how he made me because he has got a purpose for me. He made Jacque how he made her because he has got purposes for her. He made all of you the way he made you, because there are purposes that God had in mind when you were born, even the natural talents we have. There are some people who are just really gifted in music. Jacque is, I am, Brad and Mike and others and Micah and other people in our church are very gifted in music. And then I've sat by some people who I wish I hadn't sat by them when they were singing. Let me just put it that way. And they are not called to be worship leaders.
Jacque: We don't have the gifts they have.
Brian: That's right. But you know what? They are still called to worship; they can just make the joyful noise kind of worship. Everybody has gifts and talents, but regardless of our origins, God had a purpose in making us and creating us. Are there illegitimate parents? Yes, there are. Unfortunately, in our world, there are parents who could be defined as illegitimate, but I want to tell you something: there is no such thing as an illegitimate child. There is no such thing as an illegitimate child. There are many children who were unplanned by their parents, but there are none who are unplanned by God. A lot of times we look at the unplannedness of humanity, and we ascribe some kind of status to that child, a value. That is absolutely wrong because every child, every person has been created in the image and likeness of God, made in his perfect image and likeness with a purpose from the heart of God and God's purposes for every single one of us.
God has taken into account human error. He knew the world was falling when we were all born, when all of humanity was born. He took that all into account. He took into account the sinfulness of mankind. He took it all into account. God's purposes for every single person, every single one of us have taken into account all of those things, human error and sin. I think we would all agree with this, at least I hope we would agree with this, that God never does anything accidentally. Oops, I didn't mean to do that. That's something I don't think you are ever going to hear God say: Oops, I didn't mean to do that. Nothing God does is by accident, and God doesn't make mistakes. God doesn't make mistakes. He is perfect. He is flawless. His wisdom is beyond examination. And you know what? He made you. He made you. He made you. He made you. He doesn't make mistakes.
I would like to read Ephesians chapter one, verses 3 through 6. This is such a beautiful portion of scripture. If we could just kind of really let this settle into our hearts and minds every day, we would not be subject to such battles of our mind in self-esteem issues. Let's read this.
Jacque: How blessed is God and what a blessing he is. He is the father of our master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down Earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love to be made whole and holy by his love.
Brian: He had us in mind. He had us in mind and had settled on us as what? The focus of what?
Jacque: Of his love.
Brian: The focus of his love.
Jacque: And he made us whole and holy. I love that. Yes, by his love. Long, long ago, he decided to adopt us into his family, through Jesus Christ. What pleasure he took in planning this.
Brian: I love that line: Long, long ago, he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ, and what pleasure he took in doing this. What pleasure he took in doing this. I've had the privilege of being connected and know a number of families through my life that have adopted children. It's almost as though these adopted parents almost have more excitement about adopting this child than many who just have children naturally.
Jacque: They had to work so hard to be able to adopt, wait so long.
Brian: Wait so long and whatever. This is a perfect description of how God was: What pleasure he took in planning all of this adoption process.
Jacque: He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved son.
Brian: His whole goal for us was that we would be included or enter into his lavish gift-giving by the hand of Jesus. So you were created as a special focus of God's love. Fact of the matter is we struggle with this, but God made us just so that he could love us. That's why he made us. He made us just so that he could love us. That was his whole goal. It wasn't that he needed anything; it wasn't that he was incomplete. He was so complete and had so much love, he needed to spill it out on something and someone. Everything God does, God does for a profound reason, not just a little reason, everything God does, he does for profound reasons, and your life, therefore, has profound meaning to it, profound meaning to it.
I think we would all agree that not all issues have the same moral equivalent. In other words, there are some decisions that have been made even by our Supreme Court and by lawmakers and by us even personally, some decisions have greater weight to them than others. Wouldn't you agree with that? The fact of the matter is when we destroy another life, we are robbing the whole world for the purpose for which they were created. When we destroy another life— and of course, the context of much of this message is the terminating the life of a baby in the womb, but there are many other ways that we have devalued life in our culture today as well. Life just doesn't seem to be very sacred anymore. When we have devalued sacredness, and oftentimes we do that by devaluing humanity, it's a perfect picture of what Hitler did in Germany. He devalued the humanity of the Jews, and therefore, they were easily able to be destroyed, and then the people who were physically challenged and mentally challenged and so forth. It was really easy to destroy them.
People with power have a tendency to do that when they don't value life anymore. But when we destroy another life, whether it’s by accident or intentionally, we are robbing the world of the very purpose for which that person was created. I can't help but think that we have really robbed ourselves in America the last 48 years. This coming Friday, it will be 48 years that we have been legally taking the lives of infants in the womb. The life of a child in a mother's womb has not the value that it used to have. At times it can feel as though we are being crushed by the weight of our many sins, not only in America, but in the world. It can feel as though we are being crushed under this weight of sins. Yet when I feel weighted down by the ever increasing sin in the world, I find encouragement in the word of God.
I don't find encouragement by reading People Magazine. I don't find encouragement even by reading Field and Stream, although I would rather read that than People Magazine. I'll tell you where I find encouragement: I find it every time I pick up the word of God and I read it and I meditate on it. I want to leave you with two verses today, found in the book of Romans. Romans chapter five, verses 20 and 21—these are beautiful verses, said in such a beautiful way by the apostle Paul. Jacque, why don't you to read them?
Jacque: All the passing laws against sin did was produced more lawbreakers.
Brian: What he is saying is the more laws we make to try and be holy, all that does is create more sin. All that does is create more sin. All that passing laws against sin did was produced more lawbreakers. That's true.
Jacque: But sin didn't and doesn't have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace.
Brian: I've got to just read that again. We've got to let this sink into our hearts.
Sin didn't and doesn't have a chance when it's in competition with the aggressive forgiveness that the Bible calls grace. Sin doesn't have a chance. If you read this verse in the King James, it basically says it this way: where sin did abound, grace did much more abound. But I like how Eugene Peterson says this, where he says, “Sin doesn't have a chance with the aggressive forgiveness that we call grace.” I love that. Go on.
Jacque: When it's sin versus grace, grace wins hands down.
Brian: There is lot of competition going on in the NFL this weekend. Congratulations, you Packer fans.
Jacque: You bring it to football.
Brian: There is a lot of competition going on. To be honest with you, I don't see how the Packers are going to lose. I don't see how the Packers are going lose. I'm a Viking fan, and that's really hard for me to say that. I'm going to tell you that. But you know what? There is a competition. There is still a little bit of an uncertainty with the Packer fans on if they are going to still win the Super Bowl in spite of how good they've looked. There is still some uncertainty. Let me tell you where there is no uncertainty right here: When it's sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. There is no uncertainty. Grace wins, hands down.
Jacque: All sin can do is threaten us with death.
Brian: All it has is threat.
Jacque: And that's the end of it.
Brian: And that's the end of it, absolutely.
Jacque: Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life.
Brian: Grace invites us into life. I want life for me. I want life for you. The way life comes is through God's grace.
Jacque: A life that goes on and on and on, world without end.
Brian: Yes, world without end. I want to tell you about two such outpourings of grace. One is a person who passed away in 2017 and the other is here this morning with us. The first person I want to talk to you about is the lady, the person, the woman who was Jane Roe in Roe vs. Wade. Her name was Norma McCorvey. A number of years after she was used by the pro-abortion industry as a person to get abortion legalized in this country, she was basically kicked to the curb. Many years later, she walked into a crisis pregnancy center in Texas, and through that drawing of God's grace into that crisis pregnancy center, she eventually came to know the Lord as their savior and Lord. As a result of that decision, she began to do some work in the pro-life arena. In a few occasions, Jacque and I had the privilege of doing some conferences with her, leading worship at some of these conferences, doing some teaching at some of these conferences. We got to have a number of conversations with her on a personal basis.
The very person that was used by the enemy to bring abortion to this country, God redeemed. God redeemed. Today, she is in the presence of Jesus worshiping the Lord. I know if you go to the internet, you can find that there is some scuttlebutt that her involvement with the pro-life arena and her commitment to Christ was fraudulent. Don't believe everything you read on the internet, by the way. Isn't that a good lesson to learn? Jacque and I spoke with her on several occasions. I don't know, Brian and Christie, if you did; I'm sure you did, but this person had come to know Jesus. Her heart was broken, full of bitterness, full of woundedness, and Jesus came and brought redemption.
Jacque: Lots of regrets.
Brian: She had lots of regret, but today Norma McCorvey is worshiping Jesus in heaven. The other trophy of grace that I would like to talk about this morning is our own Misty, Misty Pressler. Misty has an incredible story. If we were going to hear the whole thing, you would have to get reservations for dinner because that's how long it would take. I want to give you just a little synopsis of it. Jacque, Brian and Christie, and some other people from our church were out praying in front of the Robbinsdale Women's Center in front of the Robbinsdale abortion clinic about five or so years ago. Misty was in a very hard place. She wasn't sure about her future. She was now pregnant and the influences around her were telling her that she couldn't make it in her life with another child. So she came that day to do what so many people do in our country and in our world: they give in to a loss of hope.
Misty came that day and met some people who were praying outside of the Robbinsdale Abortion Clinic, and they basically began to engage with her. Out of that, there is a little four year old that comes and runs up and gives me a hug every week in church. They are here today to dedicate their whole family to Jesus Christ. So I invite Misty to come with your kids. There are some very special friends that are here today: Ivy and Rob, Jen and Kelvin and Emily and Scott. I would invite all of you to come up as well, and your mom and dad, of course. Come on up and stand right down here at the front.
Misty wasn't able to be with her children for a portion of this time; because of that, there were these wonderful foster parents. Maybe we could do a little symbolism here. Maybe each one of your foster parents could stand behind one of the children that lived with you. I'm so thankful for the body of Christ. These three beautiful children were cared for by these foster parents when Misty was not able to and allowed to. When the opportunity came for Misty to be able to become a mother in person again, these people, these foster parents had given these children a safe place to feel loved and to know that they matter.
This is how the body of Christ works. It works through grace. It works through giving us things that we don't deserve. That's what grace is. It's a divine empowerment to make our lives into something grand and glorious. There is an enemy of our souls that tries to rob us of the very purposes for which we were made. We all suffer under those schemes of the enemy. I'm so thankful today that there is a tough gal right here in Misty, who is also very tender, tough and tender. She has loved her children, and God has started to restore and has restored their family. She has been given back many privileges that were taken away from her. She has earned that by how she is living. There has been favor of God upon her, and there has been a provision of God for her. She, today, wants to dedicate herself and her children to the Lord.
Jacque: Misty, We are just so proud of you and this commitment that you've made to Christ. You are working so hard. You are working so hard, honey. We are so proud of you. We just promise we'll always be here for you and your family, all of us standing here. Yes. God has got you. He is taking good care of you. That's good. We just want to dedicate [crosstalk1:13:54-1:13:55].
Brian: One of the things that— Yes. So if your kids want to come back by Misty.
Jacque: Standby mama.
Brian: One of the things that the enemy can never do to us is he can never rob us of the very purpose for which we were created. All we have to do is say yes, which is what Misty is doing. She is saying yes to this purpose of God. In the same way that Mary and Joseph presented Jesus in the temple, Misty is taking her three children and presenting them to the Lord at this time. She is also doing something else. She is also presenting herself to the Lord and she is dedicating herself to the Lord as well.
The one thing that as parents we need to realize is that our children really aren't our children. They are just on loan to us from God. Before they were ever our children, they belonged to God. Misty is recognizing this, and that's why she is presenting her three children to God. Let's pray; let's extend our hands towards them.
I thank you father, that we can come into your presence and that there is so much grace available. There is not a hole so dig that we've dug that you can't reach down and lift us out of. There is not a pit so deep that someone else may have created and thrown us into that you can't reach down and lift us out. I thank you today for your grace, which is more than enough to give Misty and her children all that they need in their life. I think of little Jeremiahs little Hannahs that might be standing here today. Jeremiah fulfilled his purpose and you have moved forward to the 21st century and you, Lord, are putting your purposes and revealing your purposes into their lives.
So I pray Lord, Raelynn and Sean and Mariah, We present them to you this morning, Lord, recognizing they are a gift from you. We make a pledge to you today that not only will we live a life that will model Jesus to them, Misty is making a pledge that she will love them unconditionally and model for them what it means to be in a relationship with you. So today I thank you that you make all things new; old things passed away. You give us a future and a hope. I thank you for the promise that is really a theme song of this church, which is “I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord: plans to give you a future and a hope.”
The plan, Misty, for you from God and your family is to give you a future and a hope. Keep your heart pure to the Lord; allow yourself to be the bride of Christ. We dedicate now your whole family and you to the service of Jesus Christ. We pray this in his name and for his sake. And everybody said—
Congregation: Amen.
Brian: Amen. Amen. Thank you. You can be seated. Life is sacred. Life is very sacred. That's why we present our lives to the Lord because he sacred. All life is a gift on loan to us from the Lord, our creator. Every single life is a gift to us on loan from our creator. You and I are powerless to create life. We are powerless to create life, and unfortunately, we are also very blind to the consequences of taking life and ending life. All life has value because all people are made in the image of God. When we were praying outside of the Robbinsdale Abortion Clinic, little did I know that four years later, these beautiful children would be here. This little one would come up and give me a hug every week. You never know with God's grace, what one small effort of love can do.
Jacque: I want to thank Brian and Kristy Oats for their faithfulness to be out on the street, praying and counseling women. Thank you for that. It's so good to remember the Sanctity of Life Sunday. Every Sunday I think God, I'm not doing enough. I can do more. I pledge that I will be out praying there more this year. I will be.
Brian: It makes a difference.
Jacque: It makes a difference. We have to be— Sometimes God calls us to be right in the place.
Brian: I was talking to Joanne Eklund who is on the staff of the Robbinsdale Women's Center, and they are saving on average one baby a day. That's where they are at right now. Just imagine every one of those children, what they could be, because God has a purpose for them. God has a purpose for them. None of you were an accident.
Jacque: The other focus that we really want to have is the mom, the mom that's in crisis, the mom who has lost hope. We want to be there for the moms and for the little ones.
Brian: The RWC has done that. They have begun to focus on mothers. As the mother's being the recipient of their focus, more and more children are being saved. What I would like to do now is I would actually like to take an offering for the Robbinsdale Women's Center and our pro-life ministry here at Hope Community Church. If we can put up the text to give sign, if you want a text to give, you can just go to special. We'll make sure that that goes to the pro-life arena. If you want to do it on the kiosk here we can do that as well. It will be under special. I believe that there is such a great value in doing this. Let's pray together and then I'll just go play something at the piano quick.
Father, I thank you. I thank you for life. Life is so abundantly in you. There are so many attempts to destroy the beauty of what you have made and created, but at the end of the day, we are only robbed if we allow ourselves to be robbed. So I pray that today, we would remember that you don't do anything by accident and that you created all of us in your image, and you've created us with a purpose. I pray that today, we, for ourselves would know that more deeply, even if we are in our eighties or nineties, and maybe we never even knew this before. Maybe there is somebody watching today for the very first time, they never really realized that they have been made by you for a purpose. I pray that Lord, that purpose would begin to be revealed more and more, clearly more deeply in our hearts, more succinctly. Help us to embrace it; help us to know it and help us to be drawn to you through it. This, we pray, in your name and for your sake. Amen.
[Music 1:23:30-1:25:19]
Brian: We love all of you. I'm so thankful for Misty today. Am I on? There we go. I was being picked up there. I turned myself off instead of on. I'm sorry. We love all of you and are so grateful for all of you who are here today. Misty, we are so proud of you and your children. God has a great future for you. God also has a great future for all of you who are watching today. You may find yourself in a place of regret, but let me tell you something: Don't look in the rear view mirror; look out the windshield instead.
Jacque: We’ll all remember that too. Yes. I need to remember that.
Brian: There is a much better view of the windshield than there is in the rear view mirror. God isn't actually in our past anymore. He says his name is I am which is right today and now. He is with you right now, and he has got a future for you that can't be undermined by our failures of the past. So keep looking to him. There is hope for tomorrow, there is grace for today and there is power in his presence. Let me pray for you.
Father, I just bless those who are here today, and those who are watching. Help us to walk into the very purposes for which we were created. We thank you, God, that you do all things well. You are able to take our mistakes and bring good out of them. You are able to take our sins and our failures and bring blossoming flowers and the planting of the Lord out of now. So I pray, today that our hearts would be encouraged and we would not allow ourselves to be discouraged by the lies and the schemes of the enemy that says it's too late, it's over, because it's never over with you, because with you, all things are possible.
Let's raise our hands together, shall we? Now may the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you. May the Lord turn his face toward you and give you his peace. May you know your purpose for which God created you. This, we pray, in the name of the father, son and Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you. Have a wonderful day. Thank you for being with us. We thank you for all of your participation and your support. God bless you.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 1-17-21. If you would like to watch the full service, click one of the links below.