Untitled Sermon

Let me be at school. And precious to the purified by heart. Let me be at school.

I know there are those of you going, wait a minute, what about the announcements? But we're going to do announcements today a little differently. It's part of the study this morning. So tape's rolling and we're going to do announcements. Now you can take your own bulletin and you can read all the things that are in there. And I'm not going to read them to you this morning

because I've got a whole lot of other stuff that kind of pertains to what we're doing. But first, as you grab your bulletin and all, turn with me to James chapter 2. James chapter 2.

God is remarkable. And as much as God is constant, God is also moving. So he's constant in his faithfulness. He's constant in his being. He never changes. But what he does changes as he moves through our lives. His purposes are always the same for us. But the ways that he moves are always changing and always different. And I like what Pastor Chuck always says,

you know, as far as the the attitudes are concerned, he's added one, blessed are the flexible for they shall not be broken. So if you're fighting for a constancy in your life, give it up. Rest in the Lord. God's constant. Be flexible with the moving of his spirit. We'll share a lot about that today. But one of the things regarding that is this study this morning.

I was all set to go into chapter 3. I was ready for chapter 3. We finished chapter 2 last week. And I read chapter 3 and I figured out where I needed to make the breaks and where we needed to start and stop. And I was like, and I got commentaries out and started reading those and underlining, taking notes and everything else. And I started to put it together

and it's like the Lord was going, no, no. And I just, I'm learning. I have not learned. I've been doing this for 18 years now, but I still, I'm still learning how to discern what God's doing, what his voice is saying to me, where he's moving. And there just was so much, so many things coming for announcements this morning. I thought, Lord, how am I going to do this?

I mean, if we do announcements, it's going to be part of the message. And he goes, duh. Okay, Lord. Well, what is it? You know, and God really directed my heart to kind of follow up on what we ended with last week and the areas of our faith because of the possibilities of deception. He evidently wants us to emphasize this again. In the last part of James chapter two,

verses 14 through at the end of the chapter, last time we looked at the idea that the workings of our faith are reflected in our relationships with each other. And these are visible or these are seen as the result of our faith. But there are three kinds of faith that James lays out in the last part of this chapter. So look at verses 14 through 26 just to look over it again.

James says, What good is it, my brother, if a man claims to have faith but has no deed? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, Go, I wish you well, keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action,

is dead. But someone will say, You have faith, I have deeds. Show me your faith without deeds and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God? Well, good. Even the demons believe that and shudder. You foolish man. Do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did

when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness and he was called God's friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.

In the same way was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction. As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. There are three kinds of faith lest we're deceived. And it's easy to be deceived by the first two. And the first one was found in

verses 14 through 17 and that's dead faith. That's an intellectual faith. That's the faith that knows what they're supposed to believe. It knows the doctrine. It knows justification. It knows the doctrine of sanctification. It knows what the word propitiation means. It knows those things. But that's it. It's someone who talks the walk but doesn't walk the talk.

Then we saw last time that there's also a demonic faith and it's also deceitful. And it's in verses 18 and 19. A demonic faith. The faith that demons have. They believe in God, he says, because he says, you believe in God? You say you believe in God? Verse 19. Well, great. Even the demons believe that and shudder. And so demonic faith takes intellectual, the intellectual part of faith

and adds to it the emotional. So you feel as a result of your faith. So that you look to justify the fact that you're saved by what you know and how you feel. And so there's a great clamor when you first come to Christ to learn all of the different things about the Bible rather than about God. More so that you're not so embarrassed when they say turn to Habakkuk

and you go, oh, let's see, table of contents. You know, you want to be able to turn to Habakkuk and have your pages open and not go because you've never been there before. And so we want this intellectual understanding but we also want to feel it. And so we seek the experience of faith. We seek to feel God. We seek to feel his presence, to sense his spirit moving.

And so our goal can be simply the experience along with I want to know sanctification but I want to feel the Holy Spirit. And so we look to the emotional side but the Holy Spirit can manifest himself in some way either through speaking in tongues or through prophecies or through visions or dreams or in some way healings and miracles where we can experience God. And unfortunately often we stop there. And if I can experience that, if I can feel that, then I think I'm okay.

That's a demonic side of faith because demons do that. Demons believe God. Demons, last time we went through the doctrines of the demons and the demons believe the basic doctrines of the Christian faith. And they show up. They matter. They emotionally experience. They fear God. They know where they're going. They know there's a place of judgment. They know Jesus is

the Son of God. He is deity. He is the judge. They will stand before. They know that. And they tremble at it. So just feeling it is not enough. We know that in verses 22 at the end of the chapter James talks about a dynamic faith. A dynamic faith. It's a faith that knows the doctrines, that knows what they believe. It's a faith that does experience the feeling,

that is emotional, that does have the experience of the gift of tongues or of prophecy or of, word of wisdom or word of knowledge or visions and dreams or that emotional feeling of the presence of God. It experiences that. It doesn't deny it. But it goes beyond that into the evidence of a changed life. A life that demonstrates a change. If there's no change of life,

there is no salvation. That's basically what James is saying. That's his emphasis on the deeds. If there are no workings of faith, then there is no real saving faith. You're just deceiving yourself. And so building on that this morning, that's the direction of the study this morning. I want to show you here an article with you that I received from The Navigators.

It's a business and professional article for business and professional people, business and professional ministry through The Navigators. It's on complacency and stagnation and death. Listen to this, if you will. The author says, this morning I had breakfast with a businessman who is coasting spiritually. Maybe that's where you are. Basically, he's bored with his

Christian experience and under-challenged with life in general. At midlife, he has mastered his profession. He enjoys the easy lifestyle of private clubs and clubs. He trips abroad in the respect of his peers. His time with God is bland. His ministry is, his involvement in ministry is dutiful, uneventful, and predictable. There is no overt sin in his life, you understand.

He's a nice guy who faithfully shows up each week at church and Bible study, but he's dying from within, bloated from too much intake and too little outflow. What is missing is the very life of Christ pulsating through his veins. Jesus wept over Jerusalem. Jesus washed people feet. Jesus climbed into the electric chair and died. Jesus cautioned us, whoever wants to save

his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. So I asked him, if you are stagnated now, what will you be five years from now? I then challenged him to find the highest piece of real estate in his city, go to the top and look over the city and pray, asking God to allow you to see your city through the eyes of Jesus who wept over Jerusalem as he viewed its tragically lost condition. I urged him to ask God to give him a vision for his world that was larger than his safe and diminished life, a vision that would demand faith and sacrifice.

Is it not true that unless we are involved in a life of sacrifice in fulfilling a God-given vision, we too are in the process of dying? So let me ask you, what is your vision? What is your passion? For what are you extending your life? Is it the life of the cross or simply business as usual? If it's business as usual, you may be a spiritual cadaver in the making.

Where are you this morning? What's the passion of your heart for life? What's directing that? What's the evidence of your faith? What are the workings of your faith this morning that are reflected in your relationships with others? Are you simply hanging on an intellectual faith that says, I know these doctrines, but it really doesn't seek to go anywhere other than

to know those things here? Or are you hanging on to a demonic faith, God forbid, that seeks just simply the experience of life? Just to feel good, almost like a drug. Or are you living in a dynamic faith that's charged by a continual relationship with the Lord that seeks to do His will in every second of life? That's what I want to encourage us in this morning.

And I want to lay before you, first of all, opportunities. Opportunities. And I want you to see these as opportunities. You see, it's so easy to blow off a bullet. So take that bullet and blow it off. Everything in there has been designed to give you information on how this ministry functions. Right inside the cover is the purpose of this ministry. And I want to talk to you

about that today. Because you receive it every week. And it's really easy to just flip over that. A schedule of what goes on. And then announcements in the bulletin. Something for you to think about. Things that are there as far as offering is concerned. As far as visitors are concerned. And we always welcome visitors. We're glad you're here. If you're here,

you're a part of the family. And we encourage you to share with us that you've been here by placing the bulletin flap in the agape boxes. We worship that way in the giving of our tithes and offerings. All that's in the bullet. You just read it. But I don't want you to blow it off. So I'm not even going to bother reading it at this moment. You read it. Because I've got so many

other things to share with you. Things that are going on that the Lord is doing. How the Lord is moving. And I want you to be aware of it. Because it's part of an opportunity for you to minister to others. You see, that's the mark of faith. Remember? That's what James has been telling us. It's an other's centeredness. That's what true worship is back in chapter 1,

verses 26 and 27. It's an other's centeredness. It's a guarded mouth. It's a concern for the orphans and the widows and their distress. An other's centeredness without the aspect of being repaid for that. And a keeping of God's pure and separate from worldliness, from the attitudes of the world. That's worship. And this whole idea is coming into what we're talking about today

on a dynamic face. So I'm going to share with you opportunities for an other's centeredness. I want you to see it that way. So just as you take notes in any other study, take notes of these opportunities. Because hopefully God's going to do something this morning to lift us above complacency. That you and I might see one another in this city as Jesus saw Jerusalem

and wept over it. There's people in this congregation that have a dead faith or a demonic faith that are going to die and go to hell unless they come to an understanding of who Jesus is. Let alone people in this city. I want you to get a burden for that. I want you to look outside of yourself for a change. Because I know how hard it is for me to look outside of myself.

I want us to look outside of ourselves and see those things around us. Opportunities to share Jesus with people. First off, let me share with you that we have a sister in our fellowship who is in surgery this morning. Nancy Jordan. She's in surgery this morning at the hospital here. She went into the hospital yesterday with great pain. She had concessions. She had tremendous

gallbladder problems and they were going to do the surgery tomorrow. They did it this morning. Emergency surgery. So please, please keep Nancy in prayer. If you have a minute, sometime in the next few days, just drop into the hospital and say, hey, you know, or send her a card or something and pray for her. Pray for her recovery. We're in 212 at the hospital here in our city.

Just a basic, exciting opportunity to minister to somebody else. Here's one. We've had all of our K teachers, or all of our Sunday school teachers, our children's ministry teachers filled, but we're going to need a kindergarten teacher for this next quarter starting the 1st of February. K-4s and K-5s. Pray for that, if you would. What an opportunity. We're glad to use you

in the life of somebody else. If you want to teach this service, you can come to 1st service and get fed and then give out. But 1st service is going. Amazing. We're getting a whole bunch of people in there. Here's another one. Another opportunity for ministry. Many of you know Steve and Debbie Bliss. Steve used to be one of our deacons. Started a Bible study

over in Elk Falls and about eight years ago went over and started passing. Their home burned down this week. They have practically nothing left. Great opportunities for ministry there. We've already sent finances over. When you give to this ministry, almost 20% off the top that comes in goes to 1st Roots. 1st Roots we use to support missionaries and we use for helps

like this. We sent $1,000 over this week from this ministry. Wichita sent down $1,000 from the Calvary in Wichita. GE sent over a bunch of finances. So finances are coming in really well. Elk Falls is hosting a house learning, if you will, this Wednesday. They opened up the bed and breakfast over there and they've been living there until yesterday and then they are

moving into a home over there that is rent-free for a month to them while they pray about what the Lord wants them to do. There are some other exciting things in the works. That's where that's concerned that I can't really share openly yet. So pray if you would. That's Melody. Are you here? No. Okay. Melody's coordinating with Elk Falls and we're going to have

a house learning for them here as well. So as we get that information I will share that with you. But keep the blisses in prayer. If you want to designate some funds towards them that's fine. I'm still getting calls and we've still got funds coming in that we're getting over to them. So designate it. Drop it in the box and we'll see if the blisses get it. There's an opportunity

to minister and an opportunity to pray. We also have a women's retreat coming up. An opportunity to minister rather than to just receive. But I want you to start thinking about every single event in your life as an opportunity to minister. Even going to the bathroom. I'm not kidding. Man, you walk into some of these restaurants and some of these stores and you'll be amazed

at who you run into. That's not coincident. That's the direction of God. God's leading you in there. So as you, you know, it's kind of scary, huh? I don't want to go to the bathroom. Find yourself arguing with God in the midst of Walmart down the aisle. I don't want to go to the bathroom. God, I don't want to go. People are looking at you. Thank you. Thank you.

Begin to see every incident in your life as an opportunity to minister. I want to have Anne come up and share a little bit about the women's ministry with this women's retreat and the opportunities that you have with this retreat. Go ahead, Anne. My husband's going to sit. He didn't show that part about going to the bathroom in the first service. Well, I want to invite you

to share in the opportunity of the women's retreat this year. The theme of it is a journey and we've picked it up. It's the scripture joke 23, 10 through 11 that he knows the way I take. When he has tried me, I shook him forth his goals. My foot is held fast to his half. I have kept his way and not turned his side. We started having women's retreats in 1991.

So this is our sixth year for it. Normally, we have them in the fall, but this year we decided to change it and have it in the spring. So it's going to be a little bit new experience. Not quite what we've been used to weather-wise, but we are in a different facility this year and we've looked for a long time for it and finally found one that we felt would be a really good place for the women and we try to find a place that pampers the women and you will be pampered this year, I assure you.

It will be held at the Annette Reflection Ridge in Wichita and it's March 14th through the 16th and the guest speaker this year is the one that we had our very first retreat with who is Janie Alford and she's a pastor's wife from Colorado Springs. She's a good friend of mine. She's a lot of fun and those that heard her five, six years ago in 91 know what a blessing she is. She is, her husband pastors the Calvary there in Colorado Springs.

She's been married for 27 years. She's the mother of five girls, two of which are married and the youngest is a five-year-old so she has quite a range of experience in mothering. She was a PK, a pastor's kid or a missionary kid. Her parents were missionaries in Brazil but Janie is, she's just a real person. That's what I like about her the best is that she doesn't

put on any airs. She's just a real person and she shares from her heart her experiences and she really listens to the Lord and can relate it in a good real person down to earth type way. She's hilarious. She's from the south originally. She still has a thick southern accent and lots of cute little southern phrases that she throws in with her teaching and then you might

think well why do I want to go to a women's retreat? There's a lot of reasons to go. First of all of course is to spend that time with the Lord and you might say well I could spend time with the Lord at home but even Jesus had time to be a part and spend time with God and this is a time that we can take and be a part from our normal setting, from our home, from the people that are around us and just have that special time to really listen to his voice and see what he has to speak to us individually as women and it strengthens our walk and sometimes we get in that place where Mark said in the article about coasting in the spirit. Some of us might be in that place where we need to be encouraged to start pedaling again or start hiking up the hill

and climbing over the rocks that he set before us or wherever we're at. Maybe we're just in that smooth time and that's great if we are and he will still speak to us even in a really good easy time. We have great time at Women's Retreat. We have a lot of fun. Our city girls are known as the rowdy girls and anyway, it's $75 and that includes two night lodging

and four meals and I don't know where else you can go for the weekend and it only sends $75. You'll be blessed if you come and so will your husband and your family because you will come back a different person. Thanks. I'll be in the office if you want to find out. Thank you. And again, the opportunity to minister is there because there's so many any retreat you go to

it's always amazing to me I go because I want to hear the speaker I want to get away I want to spend some time with the Lord I want to renew my walk there's always at a men's retreat there's always guys there busted they're having trouble in their marriage they're contemplating moving out of state they're having problems with kids they're going through something and there's a real opportunity to pray with the minister and same thing at the women's retreat so ladies I encourage you where that's concerned opportunity is what we're talking about opportunity to minister Susan there you are we have another opportunity to minister here in the area in the community Susan's involved in the hospice in Cali County and has a couple things to share

as far as I need for volunteers when I thought about bringing the information about becoming volunteers for hospice I really felt pressed by the Lord that I needed to share a little bit about that with you all most people think that hospice is caring for the dying and it is and I've been a nurse and I've been a nurse for a long time and I've been a nurse for 13 and a half years and most of my nursing career has been in helping those to live and three and a half months ago the Lord took me out of that type of nursing and it kind of devastated me I wasn't sure why he did that but he placed me in a position where now I'm helping those to die and what I mean by that is not in assisting their death but in bringing them comfort through pain medication

but also in being there to hear them because most people when they're dying have been left alone even with their families the families have a hard time coping with the death of their loved ones and I have lived through several deaths in my family some that were taken quickly and some that were slow so I know what loss is and I guess the thing that I would encourage all of us is that we not neglect those who are dying because that's sometimes I've found such a blessing in being in such a privilege in being with those as they leave and go to heaven not all that I sit with do that and that brings grief upon me but that's not something I can I can't change those people's hearts I can only share within Jesus in my action and sometimes in my work

and I encourage all of you that if any of you feel the need to help especially in this time I feel like this is a real hard time God just blesses you so much in sitting with those that die He opens up so many opportunities to share Him sometimes in words and like I said sometimes in just being there with them and just providing comfort or providing support for those who are watching their loved ones die there's a great need in this area we have so few volunteers and I just encourage you to receive one of the biggest blessings you ever will as well as just planting seeds I mean you're not only planting seeds in the hearts of those that will stay on living but you're giving the opportunity to share heaven with those who are dying and I've been with

people who were Christians it was such a blessing there was no fear in that dying process in fact it was almost like an adventure you know people were on the brink of beginning their life and to me there's a real excitement in seeing that happen as that person leaves this earth and goes in that so I just encourage you there's pamphlets out front regarding signing up for volunteers there is a class that's going to be starting in Wichita it's a day class and an evening class but I've been informed by our volunteer instructor that if we get enough people in the Cali County area they will provide a class down here for volunteers because it is something you really do need some instruction in but I encourage you to really receive as much of a blessing

as I have thank you well so in your bulletin you have a handout you have a green handout and you also have a newsletter from Family Life Services both of them talk about the Walk for Life that's coming up this Wednesday this Wednesday is the anniversary of the Roe-Wade decision and every year we have a Walk for Life that's sponsored by Family Life Services we encourage as many people as possible that can be there to walk with us to meet abortion is something I believe that is from the pit of hell I don't think it's negotiable so I want to encourage you if you feel the same way not to turn your head not to give it simply lip service but put some feet to your faith and take a stand for the Lord opportunity to be with you and God bless you God bless you

and to the generation that would provide that so anyhow opportunities again just another opportunity to minister just an opportunity to walk down the street and visibly say I support life I want to stand for life another thing you have in your bulletin as a handout is a Revive America brochure and I'd like for you to look that over if you can and put it up somewhere at home so you will remember that it's coming it's coming January 31st February 1st and 2nd now Chris Twin was here from YWAM last week and shared with us about a little bit about YWAM and about the crusade that's coming the Revive America seminar is like the kickoff for the crusade we'll have international speakers coming in it'll be Friday night the 31st at 7 it'll be held

at First Baptist because that's the largest facility we could find that's available to us at this time from 7 to 9 on Friday night there'll be seminars during the day Saturday and then Sunday night the 2nd at 7 o'clock over there for the final kickoff this is for the church this is not to get people saved this is an instructional worship prayer time for the church that will be teaching I don't know how much you know about past revivals I don't know how much you know about the revivals of the 19th century how they got started how God moved when he brought a revival I don't even know if you know what a revival is when we talk about revival churches have revivals we need to revive us oh Lord just sing that song what does that mean

what are we talking about this is for the church to gather together and begin to really catch the vision for the crusade this Sunday in April it's the time that the 24 hour prayer teams are going to be started it could be wise it will be 24 hours a day one time in the crusade an opportunity to get involved now along those lines I've had several people say well what all are the possibilities of getting involved in the crusade and I'm going to we'll post on the bulletin board a list of all of these ministries that are part of the crusade so I'm going to give it to you now so if you have a pen or a pencil write them down and if you have more questions we can ask you later because it's open to everybody to be involved and the closer we get

you're going to sense and see the spirit of God moving in this community where this is concerned and it's exciting to be a part of and you've got unsaved friends unsaved friends unsaved family members this is a move of God to really wash over them and bring them into the kingdom during this time so it's something to really take note of there are several different committees let me briefly tell you what they are and what they're about there's a prayer committee it is a committee that's involved with special prayer times there's not only going to be a 24 hour prayer chain there will be what's called walls of prayer there's going to be some prayer concerts there's going to be some prayer events during the time you can be a part of them Dixie and Jana

are a committee here at Calvary Chapel and together with the rest of the churches that are involved in this we're going to have some prayer time schedules where as the overall church will be working together in there if you'd like and if you'd like to be a part of one of these committees please fill out your little bulletin flap say I'd like to be a part of prayer or whatever drop it in a box we'll get it to the committee heads and they will contact you because there's meetings already going on with so many different committees there's a music committee or a worship committee they'll be doing it at the crusade which is not just geared for you this is geared for the city for community wide all age groups are going to be targeted in this

with the special parts of the crusade there will be worship there and there will be choirs like the Billy Graham crusade so if you'd like to sing like to participate in that like to be part of music Robbie's in charge of our committee here just drop that in the box there's a youth committee yes there are two nights that are targeted at youth with team destiny they're like the power team and then the team extreme the half pike jumpers on bikes and skates and all that stuff they'll be here so we need some people to work with youth different youth coordinating things in the churches across the city so if you'd like to work with the youth in that committee Alan Brooke if you'd like to work with the youth here is our committee head go ahead and drop that

in the box there's a publicity committee and Kitty Hankins is in charge of that here and they do everything from posters and hand belts to just notifying the different businesses notifying the community of what's going on now YWAM's already prepared radio spots TV spots they'll be coming on later they're high quality very professionally done but it'll blitz this area with that on cable TV and on the radio stations around the area that's all you're going to be hearing before too long it's about the crusade that's coming if you'd like to be involved with that drop your name in the box following the crusade the campus crusade donates to these crusades that YWAM does the Jesus video and so we're going to blanket the town with the Jesus video

following the crusade you'll be going to different doors and hi would you like a copy of the Jesus video this is just to follow up the crusade that's come through thank you have a nice day if you'd like to be a part of that you can put that down Curtis is heading up the Jesus video here and we'll be getting you'll be finding out more about that but that's basically what that committee is involved in there's a hospitality committee there's going to be about 150 different people that are part of this crusade coming through town various parts of the crusade they will need to be housed they will need to be fed they will need to be transported here and there the hospitality committee is in charge of doing all of that the hospitality committee has already

put on one dessert banquet we've got another one coming up in February that the hospitality committee does it's done by the different churches last time you baked some pies and they were very well received that's what we'll be doing for the dessert banquet it's not like we have to carry the whole ball it's all done by the church coming together it's exciting to see all these things happen if you'd like to be part of hospitality Debbie Nellis is in charge of our group here so you can put that in the box like to help out with hospitality house available whatever we have arrangements and ushers and they make the arrangements and usher and they'll be doing that at the Revive America seminar they'll be doing that at the dessert banquet

they'll be doing that at the crusade if you want to just help I mean you know like Team Destiny has got all kinds of stuff to bring in cinder blocks and bars that they bend and all of this and we'll be coating those things in and put them in chairs if you want to be a part of that please put that down Mike DeShazo is in charge of that here finance committee who's already been working real hard we already have almost half of what's needed in for the crusade and let's see finances oh Leni Webb is in charge of the committee here and Greg Kelly is the overall city chairman of that committee so if you want to be a part of figures and facts and doing all of that stuff you're welcome to be a part of that we have a telephone committee and we

desperately need people for that this week we have a meeting tomorrow night here at 6 o'clock for the telephone committee it's the second committee telephone committee no big threat you'll just be calling people within our fellowship reminding them of the revive America seminar we have first dinner mark available to us it has a bank of phones all the different churches in the community have a phone committee that they're putting together we'll meet there together and call all the people this is a reminder Diane Nichols is the head of that committee here and again we'll have a phone committee meeting tomorrow night at 6 here if you'd like to find out more but those we need we need some people I'll work an hour just calling people in the fellowship

if you could do that then put your name in the box and we'll be here tomorrow night we have an operation Andrew committee operation Andrew is part of the Billy Graham crusade format Andrew when he heard Jesus speak he said this is the Messiah went and got his brother Peter and brought him to see Jesus that's the concept of operation Andrew before and that's going to be popping up here in the next few weeks you begin to pray that God would lay on your heart anywhere from three to five friends or family members that that you know need the Lord you pray and then you begin to make contact with these friends through some just casual fellowship and then towards the crusade time you'll you'll invite them to the crusade and and that's that'll be

there'll be your responsibility it's real non-threatening real low low key no pressure and so if you want to be part of operation Andrew that's coming up soon Ronnie Bruton is in charge of it here and within the next few weeks Ronnie will be sharing with us some more about operation Andrew counseling and follow-up at Parsons last year which is a town about the size of our city they had a thousand people come to Christ they said it's still affecting the town the town's still amazed at what happened as a result of the crusade we're anticipating anywhere from four to six hundred conservatively and praying for a thousand here as well and so we need counseling and follow-up there are classes for that that are going to begin here in the first of

February so if you want to be a part of the counseling Tim Durham's in charge of that with our with our group you have to there's four classes that you have to go through they're the Billy Graham what are they called the I can't remember but it's developed by the Billy Graham crusade they're excellent it's an excellent class but you need to go through that if you want to be in counseling so let me know here anyhow the crusade opportunities again opportunities to be involved the last thing in your in your bulletin that you have is the deacon's selection sheet let me explain just a little bit of that because I know there's a lot of people that are here that have no idea what Calvary Chapel is all about as far as leadership is concerned some of you

have been through this before it's going to be kind of old hat to you I'm going to talk to you about our purpose statement too that's in your bulletin in a minute the old hat for some but new for others and I want to stir up the oldie okay that's old hat to you where are you what's your passion what's your vision okay so we'll do some stirring this morning your deacon selection sheet we have deacons we have elders our deacons are in charge of family care groups in other words we've taken our fellowship and assigned each deacon anywhere from 10 to 15 families that he prays for every day during the month he makes contact with those families periodically finding out if they have any special needs if they have then he if there's a need that beyond his

ability to help minister to or pray for he lets the elders know and we pray for those or we move to meet those needs in that way everybody is continually being covered in prayer and there's somebody available other than me I can't I can't do it all so we've got a bank of leaders that do that and we don't the way we do it the way we elect deacons okay here's how deacons go because we take it from the book of Acts chapter 6 Paul told the people there to choose out from among them seven men who are full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom that we might place them over you or