Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:04 Well, my name is Michael fueling. I'm the lead pastor here at the village church. I was singing way too hard, so my voice is already, uh, going, going, gone. And, uh, it might be weird, but happy anniversary. I think you can say that back to me. Thank you my anniversary too. So, um, if you are new with us, I think this is one of the best weeks to join us and see, um, what's going on here and to hear about our history. Um, this weekend has been honestly more delightful than I even imagined, and I, I have cried. I have wept and it has just been honestly really special for me in my family. And, and it's actually been really amazing to see. So many of you come from out of state to glorify God together and to share stories of his goodness and faithfulness.
Speaker 1 00:00:49 Um, Friday night we had over 270 adults come together and we celebrated the faithfulness of God over 50 years. Um, we had the opportunity to bring up our village church, east elders and deacons, and to pray over them and their future. Uh, we had the joy to, uh, just get a glimpse of some of the vision that God has put on our hearts and minds as elders and leaders at the village church of Bartlett. And honestly, it was such a special time. And then yesterday at Dave and Julie's home, we had our last church picnic of the summer, and I think we've been having church picnics at their house for over 40 years. And so what a joy to be able to culminate, um, the last picnic of the summer, there was well over 500 people there coming in from all different kinds of places.
Speaker 1 00:01:36 And so, um, it, one of the most special parts for me was, uh, there was a time of, of sharing and people were able to get up and take the microphone and talk about God's faithfulness through village church and their life. And I sat back with my sunglasses on and just kind of cried the whole time because God has been really good and faithful to this church for five decades. And, and as, as I said, when I prayed earlier, if we were left to our own devices, we would've tanked this place in the first week. Um, but God by his grace and his mercy has sustained this place. And so I can't think of a better way to kind of culminate, um, our weekend together than to worship and to open up God's word. So this weekend I'm reminded once again, that Jesus loves the local church.
Speaker 1 00:02:21 Uh, there are Christians by the way, who don't. Um, but they're not on the same page with Jesus because Jesus loves dearly the local church. He has launched hundreds of thousands of local churches over the last 2000 years, all over the globe. And together we have the, we, we have the privilege to steward this local church and this season and this place, and we just counted an absolute joy to be a spiritual church family, um, with all of you. And so, um, of all the churches in the new Testament, um, the church in Ephesus reminds me the most of the village church. So this morning, what I wanna do is I want to tell you the story of the church in emphasis, this really beautiful local church from the first century. And if you've been around for a little while, I think you're going to begin to see some uncanny resemblances between the church at emphasis and the village church.
Speaker 1 00:03:22 Let's, let's start off. Um, I wanna show you a timeline of the Ephesian church, kinda where they began and then where they ended. Uh, the Ephesian church was birthed in ad ad 52, um, by Apollo, Priscilla, and Aquila, and all of this began to really come together under the leadership of the apostle Paul. Uh, about two to three years later, the apostle Paul came and he spent three years training all of their elders and their leaders and pastoring this church and shepherding them. I mean, could you imagine having the apostle Paul for three full years training you in ministry and spiritual leadership and the depths of the gospel at I'm so jealous by about 80, 57, after three years, Paul leaves, and as he leaves the elders and the people are weeping because he was their pastor, the Lord had something different for him and the Lord moved him on.
Speaker 1 00:04:17 And, but in 80 57, that's about when that happened. Um, over the next decade, the Ephesian church, it really began to grow 80, 62. The apostle Paul writes the book of Ephesians to this young church. And you see a maturity, you see a depth of knowledge of the word of God, a love for each other. You get a glimpse into the kind of miracles that God's working in the community of this church in the mid sixties, Paul begins to write letters to this young pastor named Timothy and Timothy is taking the mantle of leadership as the, as the senior pastor, if you will, of the church and emphasis and, and Paul is coaching him and, and writing him how to lead as a young pastor in a growing church by about the late sixties ad the apostle John shows up. And, and we don't know if John at the time was the pastor or if he took Timothy's place or he was there to kind of champion support Timothy.
Speaker 1 00:05:11 But man, what a loaded group of leaders to have in your local church, right, will buy, um, about ad 70 to 80 90. Um, the church enters into its weathering phase. Um, something happened, um, that caused the hearts of these Ephesian Christians to grow cold in their love for Jesus Christ. And by some time in the middle of the second century, the middle of the 100 S ad the Ephesian church is dead and gone. Could we just agree that we would like to avoid the Withing and the death phase at all costs here at village church? Can you gimme an amen if you agree with this? Amen. So this morning, what I wanna do is I wanna share with you five encouragements that I've learned from the Ephesian church. And I think these encouragements are very apropo for the village church. Here's number one, protect our heart values.
Speaker 1 00:06:16 You, you already know what a core value is. Let me define heart value for you. Heart values are values that are so central to our identity, that to lose them is to lose ourselves. And, and, and as you study the, the church in emphasis, um, you look at all the kind of books that are written to them, some of the themes, and you begin to realize there are two major heart values that emerge outta the church and emphasis, and, and it is striking to me that these are the exact same two heart values that were birthed at the village church. And we inherited these heart values, not just from the seven families who, who planted village church, but from the people who discipled them as well. And here's heart value. Number one, we are a family and this church is my home. I want you to listen to what Paul says in Ephesians chapter two first, 19, he says, so then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizen with the saints and members of the household of God.
Speaker 1 00:07:23 Uh, this, this idea of family, of unity, of tightness, of bond of one, another list, a brotherly love is one of the dominant themes that pervades the messages to the Ephesian church. What you may not know is the vast majority of Ephesians were not Roman citizens. In fact, only 20 to 25% of all the people who lived in the Roman empire would be called Roman citizens. In fact, the majority of the people who lived in emphasis were servants, slaves, foreigners who spoke a different language. They've been brought there either by force or desperation or work to make a living and provide for their families. And literally this group of people that would make up the Ephesian church, they were strangers and aliens. They were people from different countries and different backgrounds who spoke different languages and what God was going to birth in this group of very different people, was a oneness and a unity as the family of God, something so special is happening here.
Speaker 1 00:08:26 And, and, and here's what happens typically, when you think about heart values, uh, most people's heart values, they're gonna be developed by the first church that they truly connected to. Oftentimes you're gonna call this your home church. And as I have been listening this weekend, and I've, I've shared this with village church so many times, but the amount of times this weekend, the following phrase, or some version of it has come outta someone's mouth has been striking village. Church will always be my home church. There, there is something. So thank you so special that what happened in you, the love you experienced the truth. You experienced the discipleship poured into you, that there was something so significant that even as people move and leave and they go to different states and countries, when they look back at their time at village church, they will say, there's something about village.
Speaker 1 00:09:22 It will always be my home. And for 50 years, we have done things like a family. Would we eat? We drink together every Sunday morning. Our kids have the run of this building. Amen. They are everywhere and they're unrelenting. And there's just more and more coming. We decorate for Christmas, like a family. We picnic like a family. We play together like a family. We serve together like a family. We worship together as a family. Sometimes I know it's gonna be so hard to believe. We even fight like a family. We give like a family. We grieve like a family. We serve like a family. This is who we have always been hard value. Number two, that both the village church and the Ephesian church share, we are committed to the word of God. The Ephesian church was loaded with some of the best Bible teachers in the new Testament.
Speaker 1 00:10:24 Just listen for a moment to the leaders that this church was stacked with Priscilla and Aquila on the planting team with, um, the apostle Paul and Apollo Apollos, who actually was discipled, became one of the planting members of the church. In fact, the dude was so smart that when people look at the book of Hebrews, it is an incredibly complex book written like a PhD student with tons of huge Greek words. It's so intense that people think Polish was the likely guy who wrote that book, because it was really just such a difficult, challenging book to write and to read. It was somebody who mastered the old Testament. And that's what we know about him. I don't actually know who wrote Hebrews, but that's an interesting idea. Paul organized and trained the church in emphasis for three years, Timothy two new Testament books written in the apostle John.
Speaker 1 00:11:10 I mean, these guys were stacked and it is not surprising that what you see in this group of people is there is a passion and a love for truth that is different than most of the other local churches in the first century. So personally, I, I am just amazed that I have the joy to stand on the shoulders of 50 years of men and women who have faithfully taught the word of God. And, and I'm not just talking the pulp, but I'm talking about in homes, women's Bible studies, men's Bible studies, adult Bible fellowships. You guys remember when we used to do that community groups, village kids, student ministries, AANA in the pulpit. And even more, it's like everywhere you go at village church, we open up the Bible and we want to go deeper into it to understand God's heart and his mind and what he wants for us next for 50 years, this has been the legacy and the heart value of village church.
Speaker 1 00:12:12 And our goal was never just to be smart, but let's just be honest for a moment. I have never met a more biblically literate group of people that I have for the people who've attended village church for more than two to three years. It, it is unbelievable how smart some of the people here. And this is what happens when you immerse yourself in the word of God, but smarts and intelligence was never the goal. The goal was to know, and to love and to worship and to experience Jesus personally, encouragement. Number two, Jesus fully equipped village church to do his will. Uh, we, we have had tons of visionaries at village village church. In fact, there are so many of you, you have this picture and vision of a preferable future for the church, your heart just bursts with a burst, with ideas, for what the Lord could do in this place.
Speaker 1 00:13:05 And what we have come to learn and to love is that God resources his vision for this church at his time. And he does it in some really special ways. I wanna, I wanna show you this from Ephesians chapter four, verse 11 and 12, it says this, he gave apostles. He gave the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and the teachers, this group of leaders, why to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ. And I think when the Ephesians got this letter, they were like, yep, we sure have had some of the most incredible leers leaders, teachers Shepherd's prophets and apostles leading this place, loving us and challenging us. And here's what we have come to learn. Again, God always resources his vision for his local church. And I wanna, I wanna share with you, what I think is one of the most important resources that God has provided right here, right now at village church.
Speaker 1 00:14:04 And it is you, you have been placed here by God. If this is your home church, you have been placed here by God to be a significant part of accomplishing whatever his will is for this local church. If you're visiting with us and you have a, a home church, you are there, God sovereignly ordained, you plucking you out, putting you in that local church, whether it's for six months, six years or six decades or more, and God was not willy-nilly or flippant about putting you personally in that local church. And, and what we have found is that every single person that God brings in, he wants them to be a part of the vision that he is accomplishing in that community. God has resourced every local church with everything they need to do what he wants them to do. Unfortunately, sometimes our ambitions aren't God's ambitions.
Speaker 1 00:15:03 Sometimes our vision isn't God's vision, but we have learned is every next step the Lord asks us to take. He re resources that vision, let me, lemme say this. So God has supernaturally brought you here to resource his vision. Not my vision, not the elder's vision, his vision for whatever the Lord has for village church encouragement. Number three, you've heard me say this last week, you heard me say this Friday night, you'll hear me say this over and over again. Every local church is a miracle. Emphasis is a miracle village. Church is a miracle. I don't care where you go in the world. If you see a local church that is semi-functional step back and say, that is a move of God. A miracle is something that is impossible without God's intervention and sustaining, uh, I way to think about this. So I want you to imagine somebody pitches to you a business idea, and here's what they say.
Speaker 1 00:15:53 We're gonna start a small business. That's gonna require five to 10% of everyone's annual income, just to function multiple hours a week of unpaid service, an hour long lecture. Every single week, the men will have to sing and sing loud and lead by example. And the people will invade your personal life. Oh, and the devil himself will align all the forces of evil against you. And it's possible you're gonna die. The fact that anybody shows up at a local church is a miracle. The fact that anybody shows up and hears the vision of a local church and begins to understand the scope and reality of what happens here and sticks around is a miracle. And it is a move of God. Uh, look at me with act, look with me at acts 1824. And I wanna show you what happened with Apollo. When he came to Ephesus says now a Jew named Apollos.
Speaker 1 00:16:44 He's a native of Alexandria. He came to Ephesus and he was an eloquent man, competent in the scriptures. And the scriptures that they're referencing are the old Testament scriptures. Now is knowledge of the old Testament and a good speaker. Is that, is that enough to start a local church? Definitely not first 25 Apollos. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. So he knew some things about Jesus and being fervent in spirit. I mean, this guy's passionate. He spoke and he taught accurately the things concerning Jesus. It it's not that what he was saying was wrong, though. He only knew about the baptism of John. So Apollo, here's what we have. He's an elegant speaker. He's very knowledgeably, old Testament scriptures. He had his, really the information he had about Jesus was accurate, but I want you to catch this. He had not yet fully believed in the gospel.
Speaker 1 00:17:45 And so there's actually a, a husband and wife, couple who are listening to this guy, guy, talk about Jesus, a a, a couple who are true believers in Jesus, Priscilla and Equia, and they're listening. And have you ever like, heard somebody talk about Jesus? And you're like, it's not that I disagree with what you're saying, but I, I actually don't think you've actually believed in Jesus yet. I don't think you actually fully understand the gospel yet. Like if you've got this piece and you've got this piece, but I think you're missing something. And so Priscilla and Equia are sitting there and they're like, we like him, he's smart. He's missing something. And so here's what, here's what happens. Next says he began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Equia hurt him, they took him aside. And I love this line. They explain to him the way of God, more accurately, when you, when you love to hear what happened in that conversation, okay, listen, um, you have this, right?
Speaker 1 00:18:39 I'm not saying you're wrong, but you don't have this thing right here. And if you're gonna be filled with the power of God and the spirit of God, you have to believe the actual full gospel. And here's what Priscilla and Aquia. And then a palace would come to learn. Great speakers can start cults and they can start clubs, but they do not have the power inherent to start a local church. Every local church is birthed out of the mind and the heart of God and God saves and raises up leaders, pastors, teachers, servants, and God, doesn't just birth the idea, but births the vision and the passion, and then sustains it by continuing to equip and to resource the local church for his vision. I mean, it is a miracle. And so when we look back over the last 50 years, there are gonna be stories that we tell of pastors and friends and small group leaders and Oana leaders who taught us the word of God.
Speaker 1 00:19:36 And they're gonna be all of these wonderful things. But what we need to never forget is that for every single faithful man, woman, student, and child, that impacted your life, that faithfulness was birthed out of the power of God, by the spirit of God and the intervention of God. And when that leader stands before Jesus Christ, they're gonna say literally, all of him, unless he had intervened in my life, I would never have done this. And what you find in a local church, family is miracle after miracle, after miracle, the spirit of God, changing one heart at a time, growing in them, a spirit of generosity and service and sacrifice binding them together. As a church family, it's an utter miracle. I I'm amazed that the local church in Ephesus was birthed out of a guy who didn't even understand the gospel yet. He's sitting there preaching Jesus.
Speaker 1 00:20:27 And, and that is not the way to start a church. And so, so Jesus is like, I'm gonna providentially bring Priscilla and Acquia in his orbit to hear him teaching. They're gonna take him aside. And they're going to tell him the whole gospel. Then the apostle Paul is gonna show up and we're gonna birth the church out of this place. And by X 18 and 19, you have 12 men who have trusted in Jesus Christ, along with all of their, their families, probably 35 to 40 individuals starting this church, all the move of God, encouragement. Number four, Jesus permits painful trials in every church. So in act 20, the apostle Paul is getting to leave. He's been there for three years and the elders and the people are crying. This is sad. Their pastor is leaving. And, and what Paul does is he forewarns. These leaders, church hurt is coming.
Speaker 1 00:21:23 I've never met a 50 year old who has not experienced hurt from their family, their friends, their community let alone a church. And, and, and Paul and God were so gracious to these young elders. And he says, it's gonna be really hard. And I want you to hear what he says to them in acts chapter 20, he says, pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock don't get lazy. Don't just assume it's gonna be fine. The moment you take your eyes off of protecting the flock something's gonna happen. He says this pay careful attention to the flock in which the holy spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his blood. This is personal for him. I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves will arise.
Speaker 1 00:22:23 Men speaking, twisted things to draw away the disciples after them, Paul writes a letter for, to the Corinthian church. And here's what he says to them about Ephesus. He says, I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost. Lot's going on over there for a wide door for effective work has opened to me. And I, I like wish he put like a period and ended it, but then he says, and there are many adversaries. Here's just like a, a short list of the trials. This Ephesian church is endured false teachers, persecution division, demonic forces, cult worship, unbelievable opulence Becking and summoning the hearts of every Ephesian Christian over 50 years, the village church has experienced excruciating trials as a church family. And so this weekend, um, we have a table right out to your, when you go out the doors to your ripe and it's a table of different color PostIt notes.
Speaker 1 00:23:31 And we've asked you yesterday, ask again today. Um, if there are ways that God has done really incredible things, we'd love for you to write out that story. But we also know after 50 years, there is a whole lot of pain and heartache and you know, the human heart, because we all have it. We hold onto these things and we internalize these things. They can corrupt us and grow a bitter spirit. And we would like nothing more than for this weekend to even help you take one more step to healing. And so even if you're willing to actually just go and write down a pain point or hurt that the Lord maybe has yet to really resolve in your heart, you don't have to put your name and, and we just want to be able to pray over those things. And, and we've learned is that even the ability to articulate, even, even just in a summary statement, some of the pain you've experienced, uh, really does allow the holy spirit to come in and do some really remarkable healing in those places.
Speaker 1 00:24:23 My, my wife shared, um, she's been here for, I think it's 31 or 32 years, not good at math right now. And, um, she articulated yesterday, the village church. She has never been more loved and cared for by a church community. And at the same time, there has been no group of people that has wounded her more. And I can say the same thing about myself. I, I love this church and I have never been better, more well loved by any group of people in my life. I've also never been more wounded, but your story's the same with your home church. Isn't it? The people who love you the most can wound you the most. And so we commit to working through stuff and letting the power of Jesus Christ heal and redeem the pain that we have caused each other. Sometimes the people who hurt you, they're dead and gone.
Speaker 1 00:25:13 You can't have a conversation. And so we go before the Lord and we say, would you bring some kind of healing to this? May, may I not think of the 50th anniversary as a oh, that place where I was her, but may, may. I remember this as a time when the Lord worked in my heart to bring redemption to my pain, I've never met anybody who said being in a local church was easy, but I can't tell you it is worth persevering. It is worth it. It is the bride of Christ. And when you love the things, Jesus loves, we are blessed for it. Lastly, encouragement, number five. I think this is probably the hardest one. No, no, no. Church is guaranteed to stay alive. Here's what you are guaranteed. If you have personally trusted in Jesus Christ, your sins are once for all and forever forgiven.
Speaker 1 00:26:02 Amen. You are guaranteed that the moment you die, you are gonna see Jesus Christ. You will be with him forever at the resurrection. You're gonna be in the resurrection of life where you will be in the presence of God. It's gonna be amazing. That is guaranteed. Village. Church is not guaranteed existence. Next year, God is not promised that every single local church gets to live forever or just because he did good things in the past that good things are gonna continue to happen in the future. And so here's what we know. You already know the end of the story, EUS died, and they had the best leaders and teachers and pastors and preachers and servants in any church in the world, probably at the time, they were a sincerely loving family, their, their love for the living and the written word brought out tons and tons of glory.
Speaker 1 00:26:51 So in light of these two heart values, wouldn't you expect if this was their value, if this was their reality, that they should just go on living. And so here's what we find. The 80 nineties, John delivers the book of revelation and in this are seven letters that Jesus himself personally give to the pastors of these seven churches. And I wanna, I wanna read you a portion of the, uh, letter that Jesus wrote through John to the church in emphasis. He says in revelation to, I, I know your works, your toil, your patient endurance, how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but you have tested them. Those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. If you know the history of village church, amen, the discernment and the clarity about truth and falsehood have always been a relevant part of this community.
Speaker 1 00:27:44 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my namesake and you have not grown weary. The Ephesian church somehow became a very serious group of people. They were quick to identify other churches, theological error, and probably publicly. They were quick to identify lies and falsehoods. And then probably do that publicly. I dunno if you've ever heard this phrase phrase, it goes like this. It's hard for a watchdog to smile. And this is who the Ephesian church became. Well, listen to Jesus' rebuke of them. He says, but I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.
Speaker 1 00:28:36 Remember, therefore from where you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first, if not, I will come to you and remove your lamp stand from its place unless you repent. So the question I have is which love have they abandoned love for God love for one another abandoning either of these is certain death for any local church, but it, but it seems as you read Jesus and what he says, it seems this, that their love for truth became greater than their love for God. I wanna say something very blunt. This has always been an Achilles heel for village church revelation. Two, four is a warning to make sure that our love for the written word of God always amplifies our love for the living resurrected word of God, who is Jesus.
Speaker 1 00:29:38 So village church, uh, when we preach, we end our sermons with so whats and I have 37. So whats for you, but I've boiled them down to three. Number one over 50 years, our lowest points were always when we abandoned our first love. I, I have listened intently for the 21 years that I have been here to the stories of village church all the way back to the beginning. And our lowest points always seemed to have one of two things in common. Number one, when we acted like we were enemies instead of family. And number two, when the written word of God became more important than the living word of God, Jesus. And what I've also watched is over 50 years, I have watched a spirit of repentance at village church. I, I don't care who you are, where you go to church. Every church has heart values.
Speaker 1 00:30:38 Every church has like Achilles heel that they are pulled to and you do really well and you find yourself struggling. And, and so the expectation for any local church is not that it's always gonna be great. And it's always gonna be trending healthy. That's not real in a sinful world. What I want to know is when you're struggling and you realize that will you communally repent of your sin, turn back to Jesus Christ and realign your heart to him. And I believe that village churches here after 50 years, because of the spirit of repentance that has pervaded this place, there have been seasons of growth and seasons of decline. And we have watched regularly in the lowest of moments, excruciating decisions to repent, but this isn't the church's story alone, is it it's our individual stories. Any of you ever been in a perfect spiritual growth trajectory without a single sin or struggle in your life that caught you up?
Speaker 1 00:31:33 It's the same story with churches. It is for people. The mark of a great church is not a trajectory of health that never stops. It is a trajectory of repentance. And so made this for the next 50 years, be the spirit of village church. We will struggle. Attendance will go up. Attendance will go down. Pastors will come. Pastors will leave. People will argue. People will forgive. They will reconcile. They will work it out. Some will be unreconcilable, some will die. And before they can have that opportunity to reconcile, this is life in the world with sin, but will we repent? Will we continually look for the things that are pulling our mind and our heart away from devotion to Jesus Christ? And will we align ourselves regularly? When the sin of this world, the sin of our hearts, the idols of our heart pull us away. When they got this letter from Jesus, were they quick to be broken? I, I, I don't know what happened between the mid 80 nineties and the mid second century, this 50, 60, 70 year timeframe. But I do know this Jesus kept his promise and he took his lampstand away from this church. And it closed. That is an unnecessary ending for a local church. Always. Number two, let's get more positive.
Speaker 1 00:32:58 We fully intend to hand the Baton to the next generation of leaders stronger than when we received it. Our elders are very well aware. We are temporary. I am very well aware that I am temporary. One day, I'm gonna ha hand the Baton of, uh, lead pastor to some other, um, man who maybe he'll even be 28 years old. Like I was, when you guys hired me, what were you thinking by the way, <laugh> crazy. And we want to hand this Baton off stronger than we got it. And I wanna look at that person in the eyes and say, one day, you're gonna hand this thing off. Build on the foundation, laid for 50, 60, or 70 years before you continue to build the building of the people of the house of God and hand this off. May you love this people as your family, and may you give them the word of God that cultivates a sincere love for the living word of God, Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 00:33:58 And so we are well aware. It says, we look at elders and deacons and pastors. This is what we want to see. We wanna see, they love you and they love the word and they love Jesus. And that is such a high value for us. And, and so we work really, really hard to make sure that the leaders we have in this church really do love you and really do love the word and really do love Jesus. Finally, my last, so what for, um, village churches who maybe you're visiting back with us this weekend, maybe you're watching online and, and I, I wanna just encourage you take back to your local church, what God birthed. You hear what God birthed you here is a sincere love for your local church, family, imperfect, always, but a love and devotion that is beautiful and unmatched by the world.
Speaker 1 00:34:48 And take back to your local church family, a passion for the word of God, but may it never be about information acquisition, may your time in the word of God, through your preachers, through your devotional life, may it spur you on to a deeper love for Jesus Christ and one of the best ways to be a transformational experience for good in your local church is love them with your heart. Love the word and love Jesus. And if you can take those heart values with you, the legacy of village church, it isn't just here on Sunday mornings, but it's what happens when the people scatter all over the nation and the globe discipled by really incredible men and women here at village church and carrying on those heart values. So I, I wanna take a moment and I wanna just pray for us and thank God for his goodness and his faithfulness as we just ponder everything he's done, father, um, love you so much.
Speaker 1 00:35:45 And I am so privileged and honored to be the one to open up your word this morning. Um, I thank you for even just showing us a mirror of ourselves and the Ephesian church. God, I thank you for 50 years of just faithful men and women opening the word of God, filled with love, delivering meals, always just being there at the lowest moments, showing up. And, and Lord, I know that's not unique to village, but it is so special here, Lord, I thank you for the word of God, faithfully taught. I just thank you for the privilege that we have to be part of a, the spiritual community. And most importantly, though, all of this is because of you, your goodness, your faithfulness, and we give you all glory and all honor, Lord. If we lay our heads on our pillow tonight and we love our church and we're receiving the word of God, may we just be so thankful to you?
Speaker 1 00:36:38 So Lord, as we celebrate communion together, Lord, would you cause even just remembrance of your goodness and your faithfulness, would you even bring stories to our brain? Or if there are stories of hurt and pain that we still need to bring back to the foot of the cross, would you bring those to mind also? And would you give us the courage to face them and allow the healing power of the holy spirit to transform us? We love you. And we thank you. And we pray all this in Jesus name. Well, in a few moments, we're gonna sing a song together before we do. We are gonna celebrate communion. And during communion, this is an opportunity to remember the faithfulness of God, yes. To village church, yes. To your life, yes. To your family, but all of this is represented in his faithfulness to give us Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 00:37:26 And so we have this opportunity to reflect and to remember, and to give God a glory because had Jesus not died for our sins, we would not be here. We would have nothing that you not personally trusted in Jesus. There would be no transformation in your life. All of this hinges on the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So if you are grateful to God for village church or his goodness, all of this roots back to our gratitude, that God kept his promise. When he said he would crush the serpent and he would give us his son. And so God has been good to keep every one of his promises. And so, um, we're gonna have a time of silence in a moment. And it's an opportunity for you to reflect for you to confess your sins for you to thank God for you to kind of just maybe even say, Lord, there's some pieces of my heart that are not, there's just not right.
Speaker 1 00:38:12 Would you shine light into this? Would you bring healing into this? And, and this is an opportunity just to go before the Lord. Now, when you came in, if you didn't get elements, you are welcome to get up now or in the time of silence. No problem. They're gonna be over to the, my left at that column. Also the column to my right, and then between the double doors, when you came in, uh, when I ask you to have the time of silence now, and then we're going to partake after, after that time of silence,
