Fri. Evening Service (2002 C&ma Council) — Jim Cymbala

Celebrating God’s Faithfulness

We celebrate this God, this glorious God who has been faithful to us. I told a congregation recently, when we talk about the faithfulness of God, we're not talking about someone who is faithful to people who are faithful to him.

If we'd been faithful people and God was also faithful, no big deal, just reciprocity. I'm faithful to those who are faithful to me, but what makes God truly amazing is that he is faithful to men and women and boys and girls who are scoundrels, who are not always faithful to his cause and loyal to his name.

I want us this night to open our time together by declaring God's faithfulness. Would you please stand? I'll feed you the words of this well-known hymn.

Thy faithfulness, O God my Father, great, no shadow of turning, thou changest not thy compassion, they fail not. Thou hast been, let's talk about the witness of nature, summer and winter, springtime and harvest, sun, moon, and stars in their courses above.

Join thy faithfulness by mourning mercies. Thank you most faithful Holy God.

Thank you for your chesed, your fidelity, your mercy, very obvious signs that you love us. Thank you for the witness of nature to your faithfulness, for the rise and fall of the sun, for the rising and setting of the moon, for the way each blade of grass and each bird dares sing your praise.

Teach us to do the same, to give you the glory that is due your magnificent name, to heap praise upon you. We shall ever adore you, give you thanks evermore in the strong name of Jesus we.

Dare ask these things. Amen. You may be seated. Let's have you sing again in.

Psalm 92 and Congregational Praise

Spanish, Psalm 92. Some of you asked if you could just hear that one more time, so we shall do that. Psalm 92, and you'll see in front of you the words, it is good to praise Jehovah, to sing psalms to your name.

It is good to praise Jehovah, to sing psalms to your name, to announce in the morning your mercy and your fidelity or your faithfulness in the evening or at night or of night. And then I will ask you, who is he who saves?

And you'll answer, Christ is he who saves. And then we'll use other verbs, who is he who rains, who is he who heals, who is he who lives, who is he who is coming, viene. And I invite you to simply celebrate this glorious God.

It is good to praise Jehovah, to sing psalms to your name. It is good to praise Jehovah, to sing psalms to your name, to announce in the morning your mercy and your faithfulness at night. To announce in the morning your mercy and your faithfulness at night.

Who is he who saves? Christ is he who saves. Who is he who reigns? Christ is he who reigns. Who is he who lives? To announce in the morning your mercy and your faithfulness at night. It is good to praise Jehovah, to sing psalms to your name.

To announce in the morning your mercy and your faithfulness at night. To announce in the morning your mercy and your faithfulness at night. Who is he who... This is a hymn text I wrote. It's a hymn of gathering.

O Lord Christ, we do now gather. And I wrote it for the beginning of a school year as students gathered in the name of our Lord to declare themselves to be a community of faith. And I invite you to do the same as we gather in our Lord's name this night.

I've used Franz Joseph Haydn's wonderful melody called the Austrian Hymn. You would know it as the.

Tune to which we sing. Glorious things of thee are spoken. But I'm going to invite you to.

Stand and sing this hymn of gathering. Now I want to warn you there's a line in it where you describe God as father, mother. And somebody once said to me, well God is only father, he's not mother. I remind you that Jesus said to Jerusalem, oh how I would long to have gathered you like a hen gathers her chicks.

That's a maternal image by the way. So God is both father and mother in the way he cares for us. Would you please stand and let us declare that we gather in the name of our Lord.

Seeking God in Worship

To know thee, to worship thee. Teach us to ask the right questions. Not so much what did I get out of it, but what did I put in.

May we invest ourselves in the pursuit of the holy. If there be anything that stands in the way of our experiencing thee this night, remove it we pray. That when we leave this place we may be able to say we have been with Jesus.

We have heard him, we have seen him, we have felt him, we have known him. Blot out every transgression. That we may love thee as we ought to love thee. It is our prayer in the strong name of Jesus. Bless the Lord, oh my soul.

Sometimes when I'm planning worship I have the people recite with me the Apostles' Creed. A wonderful opportunity for us to affirm our faith. Tonight I'd like you to affirm your faith in the singing of the Apostles' Creed.

This is not mine, but I found it in a handbook on worship. Looking for worship ideas. This is a musical version of the Apostles' Creed. I believe in God the Father almighty. I believe in Jesus Christ the Son.

To the tune of Joyful Joyful we adore thee. Let's affirm our faith. I believe in God. Thank you God for sending us this life to which you've called us. We affirm with angels and archangels your worthiness.

We pray that as we continue to worship you, you would be glorified and lifted up. It is our prayer in that name that towers above every other, even the name of our Lord Jesus. And the people of God said, Amen.

Our thanks to the Birchfield Brothers and Rich and Eller Farmer for being our worship leaders and they'll both be back in just a few minutes. Now let me ask you. I'm Ron Gifford. I'm a pastor in the Southern District and aren't you glad that God brought us together in the Southland for this week?

Hey, have we treated you all right? You're being looked after okay? You know, Joan and I live just a few miles from the Gulf Coast in L .A., they say, lower Alabama. And there's a bar down on the beach in Gulf Shores named Bahama Bob's and it says on their sign, the lower the latitude, the better the attitude.

Have you picked up some of that this week? Good, we're at our best to serve you well. We're going to give Jim Davey, our assistant moderator, a moment to address you all. I think that you'd like to know the results of the elections and this is where we're going to fit this in and how's your attitude Jim?

Very good. Thank you, Pastor Gifford. When business concluded a little before five o 'clock this afternoon, the report of the tellers had not yet arrived. Being from Florida, I suspected a butterfly ballot, but it was a hanging Chad that did it.

Tomorrow morning in the session, there will be a time of installation and solemn setting aside to God of the newly elected officers and board members. But we thought you needed to have this information tonight and in a moment it's going to be scrolled for you.

I'm very happy to announce the election of Dr. David Pressure as vice president for advancement and the re-election of Dr. Peter Nanfelt as our president and would invite Dr. Nanfelt and his wife Jerry to come to the podium at this time for just a brief comment.

And then the remainder of the election results will be scrolled for you as soon as Dr. Nanfelt's comments are concluded. And it looks like there are more family members coming, including Brooke. Would you welcome them?

Thank you very much, Jim, for this opportunity to just say a brief word. I'm very humbled by your expression of confidence and certainly want to serve you well over the next three years. The one comment I wanted to make, and I hope Jerry doesn't kill me, but you know it's seldom I have an opportunity to do this, and I just wanted to express appreciation to you, Jerry, for the way you have served so well.

Jerry has gone with me to over 40 conferences, district conferences, visited over 40 Alliance churches. She's preached at seven or eight women's conferences. She's gone with me on four overseas trips and has entertained groups in our home of sometimes well over 100 people.

And so I'm just really proud of you and thank you for that, Jerry. Appreciate it. And I just have two other very special ladies that I want to introduce to you tonight. The first lady over on my left is our daughter Tammy, who I'm so proud of and I'm so glad that she could join us at Council this year.

Tammy and her husband Raleigh attend the North Springs Alliance Church in My little granddaughter Brooke, and I know that a lot of people have been asking me about her, and this is what Brooke looks like.

So I'm so glad that Brooke could come to Council too, and thank you for welcoming her. I have no idea how to segue from that to introducing a man from Las Vegas. My sample poll of what's the first thing that comes to mind when you say Las Vegas, I came up with these things.

Ministry in Las Vegas

Gambling, and gambling, and gambling, and then it went to sin, and Frank Sinatra, and Wayne Newton, and prize fights, and wedding chapels, and Ocean's Eleven. Is that about it? And that's what you see on the billboards.

It takes a different kind of vision to see something else. There are a million and a half people in Las Vegas who serve the entertainment industry. There are people with families, and children, and marriages, and stresses, and too much to do, and working crazy hours, and people who need the Lord.

Las Vegas has the fastest growing school district in all the country, and I'm going to introduce to you a man who sees beyond the billboards and sees people who need the Lord. Actually, in recent years, people have been coming to the Lord in Las Vegas in remarkable numbers, and here's Brett Johnson to come and tell you about a special church plant in Las Vegas.

Thank you, Pastor Ron, very much. About a year ago, the video team out of the national office came to Las Vegas to record what God was doing at South Hills Church Community and to record a little bit of our story, and this video that you're about to see will be featured on the next Alliance Video magazine.

So I know Robbie said a picture's not worth a thousand words, but it's worth something, so enjoy as we preview this video.

This city, commonly known as Las Vegas, lost wages, lost civilization, is very much excess. From the food, to the neon, to the hype, to the glitz, everything is due excess. We have an exorbitant amount of not only teenage pregnancies, teenage suicides.

We have the highest percentage of those, as well as the highest percentage of deaths per suicide in any other state in the union. Welcome to fabulous Las Vegas.

Very rarely, when someone thinks of Las Vegas, do they think that, well, here are all these, you know, struggles that adults may be facing, but there are kids that are growing up in those homes who are affected by those struggles or those addictions.

And many of them are being neglected. Many of them aren't being parented, or disciplined, or loved, because the parents lack that themselves.

I'm trying to realize unto myself, I work every night, and my biggest concern should be a single parent of three bringing money home. But, it's like a hooker. I have money in my pocket. It's a gambling town.

We all work nights. Do we come home with money? Most not. And if I'm successful at gambling, unsuccessful at drinking, unsuccessful at staying out all night, the family will destruct.

Las Vegas is an interesting place in that almost everybody here has come from somewhere else. There's very few native Las Vegans. People are also looking for a home. They're looking for a place to belong.

We were surprised when we came here as we talked to people. Within five minutes, people would tell you their life story. They'd tell you their darkest secrets. They would tell you about their, that they're on their third marriage, and they would tell you that they were abused as a child.

As soon as, you know, I heard their story, I would tell them my story, and then really tell them about God's story.

People are so open that they just really want to feel connected, and they want to feel like they have friends, and so I think that's why they share so much, right, when we meet them.

The most we can do, you know, would be just to show people that love. I mean, it's just absolutely been incredible, the authenticity, the realness, the transparency of the people of South Hills.

I love the fact that we don't have a building. I love that. That wherever we meet is church, and it's not like I'm going to church. It's a bunch of us gathering, and so it has been based on relationships.

And we're not doing anything spectacular. We don't have a great program, but we're just loving on kids and sharing Christ with them. And kids just respond to love in incredible ways. This one kid came up to me one time and said, Rob, you know, you love me more than my own parents do.

There are people that we were, you know, continuing to see, and they weren't coming to church. That's fine. Whatever God's going to do is fine. I'm going to keep on inviting people, but I'm going to keep on loving them, too, whatever way God allows.

This lady, when we first moved out here, we met her at a garage sale. We were garage selling, and I could tell something was wrong with her. The sun was up, and I just shared with her, hey, what's going on?

And she was like, I'm going through this nasty divorce. My husband's actually restraining order against him. I've got to move out of this house tomorrow. And I'm like, wow, so you know what? Well, we can help.

We helped move her whole house, and she was just blown away. She was just blown away. She couldn't believe that, you know, this is what Christianity was really all about.

A lot of what we're doing is youth ministry for adults. I mean, the whole principle of relational ministry, the whole principles of discipleship and all that stuff that you use in youth ministry are being done here at this church.

We want to be real. We want to be genuine. We want to touch on issues where people really are coming from and deal with issues that people are really grappling with. And part of that just flows out of our heart.

We want to make the faith, we want to make being a Christian real, genuine, and accessible. Everything you see in front of you is Clark County, Nevada. This is just a great place to see the entire valley and to see how many people live here and how many people need Jesus Christ.

The light that comes from Las Vegas is a false light. It's just electricity. But the church really is the true light, and it provides life, and it has its own attraction. And we love it. I would just love it if the Lord would, with his light, with his power, draw people to himself the way Las Vegas draws people to itself.

Las Vegas really is a needy city. You heard the story of the taxi driver in that video. If there's anything that is bad, Las Vegas leads in it. I live in a city of 30 ,000 prostitutes, 50 ,000 when big conventions are in town.

We lead the nation in teenage suicide and alcoholism and gambling addiction and broken marriages. Somebody would say, well, people have asked me, why would you go to Las Vegas? I would say to those people, I say to those people, why not go to Las Vegas?

Isn't the gospel about changing people's lives and bringing hope to people? That's why you go to Las Vegas. And can I make a very important announcement? Where God leads you, he makes it great. We have a great ministry in Las Vegas, and God is doing incredible things.

Church Planting and the Faithfulness of God

Two years ago, on this day, I was a 41-year-old successful associate pastor in a large church. But God made me very uncomfortable, and he put in my heart a vision to plant a church. And not only plant a church, but to plant a church that would plant churches.

I didn't know about the CNMA. I'm new to the Alliance. I didn't know about church multiplication movements. I just read my Bible, and I sought the Lord in prayer. And here's what the Lord put on my heart.

I believe with all my heart the Lord spoke to me and said, Brett, I want to take you to a place, and I want you to plant 20 churches in 20 years that will lead 20 ,000 people to faith in Jesus Christ.

At this time, we were in the San Francisco Bay Area, and we would go up on a hill, and we would pray over the city. God gave me that vision, praying over the San Francisco Bay Area. Then he led us to Las Vegas.

And at the end of June 2000, almost two years ago, my family, my wife and three children, and five people in their 20s moved to Las Vegas. We didn't know a soul. After five weeks, there were 40 people meeting at our home.

On Thanksgiving of that same year, five months later, 70 people were eating dinner at our home. We had our grand opening in January, six months after we had been there. 192 people were at our grand opening.

Jesus is going to build his church. Let me tell you one great story that came out of our grand opening. We watched with great anticipation, as you can imagine, the people that God would bring to us. One family that walked through the door, we were kind of blown away by.

A man who is easily recognizable as one of the great baseball players in history. He's a member of the Hall of Fame. He came with his wife and his 15-year-old son. They were having trouble at home. They were looking for something.

They got our flyer in the mail, and to the wife, the Lord spoke and said, this is the place where you're supposed to go. Raleigh Fingers played with the Oakland A's and the Milwaukee Brewers, and they've been coming to our church every week since we started our church.

Let me tell you a great story. Two months ago, Raleigh went to New York with other Hall of Famers for the premiere of the movie The Rookie. While they were there, the Walt Disney Company said, we want to give you Hall of Famers a donation to your favorite charity.

Well, they said our favorite charity is South Hills Church Community. Ladies and gentlemen, the Walt Disney Company is supporting our church. Isn't that great? There's another guy, a friend of ours, who went to college with one of our teammates, and he got signed by the San Diego Padres.

He made a commitment in college that he would tie this signing bonus and his first-year salary to our church. You know what I say? Thank God for Major League Baseball. God has provided for us all the way.

It's been so wonderful. It's so scary to plant a church, and yet God is so, so faithful. And so we're on our way to plant a church that will plant other churches. We live in the south part of Las Vegas.

Everything south of the 215 freeway, we're told, was not there five years ago. Today, 100 ,000 people live south of the 215 freeway. 100 ,000 people. Ladies and gentlemen, there is not one evangelical church building south of the 215 freeway.

100 ,000 people, not one evangelical church building. There's 10 Mormon buildings, no evangelical church building. Is that a shame or what? But the Alliance is doing something about it. And we have been positioned strategically to plant a church and build a building for the glory of God and for the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Pray for us. Let me share one challenge that the Lord has really been laying on my heart. I want to start a church multiplication movement out of our church. But the Lord has said to me, Brett, you need to be a multiplier.

You need to lead men and women to faith in Christ, not just from your pulpit, but from your neighborhood. Not just in your church, but on the golf course and where you meet people in the store. And in our street, I'm so excited.

I'm more excited about what's happening on my street almost than what's happening in my church. Our neighbors across the street, he's a police officer, Metro PD. Works the night shift, very dangerous.

Two, three doors down, Jeremy, a Nevada Highway Patrol. Had never gone to church. His wife started coming, his little girl came. Jeremy today is one of my best friends. And Jeremy is coming to Jesus Christ.

Me to say thank you so much to the alliance, especially to the Central Pacific District, to Ted Klein and Randy Berg for believing in a vision that I brought to them for going out on a limb financially to make this happen.

For many of you who have told us you're praying for our church, we don't even know you. And Lord God in heaven, thank you for the promise that you will build your church and for demonstrating your faithfulness and your goodness to us.

Amen.

Offerings and Worship Through Music

Well, now it's time to prepare your offerings and the Birchfield brothers are going to come back and do some operatory music. And I told them after they prelude music, this isn't the grand old opera. You can't have that much fun here.

This is church. And they said, well, something's gotten into us. All right. If it hasn't gotten into you yet, wait until after the preacher's done with you and something will get into you before we're done tonight.

Will you prepare your offering, please? Dr. Nantell, these people believe in the Great Commission Fund. Thirty four million dollars is a big stack of George Washington's, isn't it? And I'm so impressed with that.

And I'm going to show you something on page 98 of Appendix D of the operation slash finance part of your report. This is what it costs to run council every year in Milwaukee and Portland and Tampa and Columbus.

And and then as this is how much came in the offerings and this is how much was left over that we covered out of the Great Commission Fund. All right. Three hundred and ninety three thousand and four hundred and sixty six thousand and four hundred and thirty three thousand and four hundred and twenty two thousand.

Brothers and sisters, we can do better than that. If God's given you something this week, dig down and give something back to him. And let's pay for counsel out of our pockets this year. You want to do that?

Well, I heard an amen and it was a little weak, but we'll read your we'll read your amens in the total of the offering tonight. Lord Jesus, you are so generous with us in every way. And out of full hearts, we give to you expressions of our love and our gratitude.

And out of the hard currency in our pockets, because we love you, Lord. And thank you for calling us to be your children and your servants.

We love you, Lord Jesus. It's such an honor for us to be with you this evening.

And it's such an honor to be able to worship the Lord through the instrumental music of the classical guitar and that thing right there. Many years ago, our parents traveled from church to church playing their musical instruments.

And today we're blessed to be doing the same thing our parents did and to follow in their footsteps and worship in the same way. Nashville is our home, but I'll never forget the year my brothers and I decided to relocate here to become involved in the music community.

We got in my old car and that's how I just knew the Lord's hand was with us on that trip. We got our instruments and our luggage and we took off down the highway to come to Nashville. And halfway there, my old car caught fire and burned up.

And I've thought about that many times. As I think back about that, I feel like I probably should have pulled the car over and stopped it. But we were making good time, so we kept driving. The car filled up with smoke and it was hard to see.

But as we were trying to find the source of the fire, Benj and I were in the front seat. Our brother, Mark, was in the back seat, sound asleep. And as I look back there, I saw all the smoke was rolling off the jeans he was wearing.

So I thought that's kind of odd. And I thought maybe I should wake him. So I said, Mark, wake up. You're on fire. And he doesn't he never did get real excited about anything. So he woke up and said, you're right.

I am. Why don't we stop? So we stopped and put Mark out and we all got in the front seat. The back seat is totally burned out. It's nothing but ashes. It turned out the exhaust ruptured right under where Mark was sitting and caught his seat on fire.

And he saw the light that day, but we still made it to Nashville. But I'll always remember this part. As we pulled into Nashville, just on the outskirts, up here on Bradley Parkway, I remember how discouraged we were feeling at that point.

The car was very homely by then. The paint was rolled off. And we pulled off to the side wondering, where are we going to go now? As we sat there looking at the city map, this beautiful car pulled up in front of us.

And this old fella got out and he walked up to us. I remember him as though it were yesterday. He had silver wavy hair. He came up and spoke to us and he began to talk to us as though a father were talking to his children.

He was encouraging us. And as we talked, I said, sir, we're musicians. And he said, I know, I can tell by your car. And then I had no idea that he was on his way to the Grand Ole Opry because he was the host.

His name was Roy Acuff. And it turned out the first person we met was probably the most well-known fiddle player in this state. Since then, all those years ago, we've done many travels. And there's a song that we do about traveling.

Our father built a home mission church in the Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee. And as little children, we would gather in there and sing those old gospel songs. This one in particular, I'll always remember learning in that little church.

It's called, I Feel Like Traveling On.

Singing a New Song in Worship

Just to take a piano student in the Bronx, New York, I discovered to my great delight that I could improvise.

And what joy has been mine to use that skill in the context of worship. Many times, my pastor would preach and I'd go to the piano and sing a song that the Holy Spirit gave me during his sermon. And write it and work it out there in the service.

And sing it at the conclusion of his message. I want to sing a new song to the Lord. The Psalter admonishes us to sing to the Lord a new song. And I like to do that literally sometimes. In the interest of time tonight, I'm going to write a song, but I'm going to ask only two persons to help me.

Sometimes I do this in churches and I'll have three or four people give me phrases. But in the interest of time, I'd like one person to give me a phrase about what God has been teaching you or saying to you this week.

Just a short phrase please, not a long talk. A short phrase, one line. Then I'm going to ask one person to give me five random musical pitches. You can just sing them on a nonsense syllable or give me letter names.

One person, five notes. Something like this. La, la, la, la, la. Any five notes you want to give me. And then as the Holy Spirit gives inspiration, I'm going to set that line to music and expand that text and expand that melody.

All right, who will give me a line quickly? One person. Raise your hand please. Just like, yes. Surrender. Okay, surrender. All right, one person please. Five random musical notes. I need one person, five random musical notes.

Do it again. All right, well that's six, brother. You can't count, can you? One, two, three, four, five, six. So do it again. La, la, la, la, la, la. Is that what you did? And what's your first name? You don't want to tell, do you?

All right. And we have surrender. As we've got this week.

Psalm 34: Praising God and Seeking Refuge

If you have your Bibles, please turn to the 34th division of Psalms and let us stand together. Beginning with verse one, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

My soul shall make its boast in the Lord. The humble will hear of it and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears.

They looked unto him and were radiant and their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all of his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around about all those who fear him and delivereth them.

O taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in him. There is no want to those who fear the Lord. The young lions lack and suffer hunger. But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.

May the Lord infuse his word in our hearts tonight.

Would you take your seats, please? But stay loose because I'm going to ask you to stand in just a moment. Jim, would you come and join me at the podium, please? I just want you to know that you're among friends here and we're going to demonstrate that for a minute, okay?

So watch this. I don't know if this is going to work at all, but let's try. How many of you have read one of Jim Cimbala's books, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, Fresh Faith, or Fresh Power? Would you stand on your feet, please?

Just stand where you are. So I don't need to tell you all that our guest speaker this week has a heart that beats with ours, do I? Okay, this one's a little harder. How many of you have one of these books?

You've never read it, but for sure you're going to read it as soon as you get home. Would you stand on your feet, please? Everybody, stay standing. Some of the rest of you. Thank you. They just all bought them downstairs this week and they're going to have great reading.

And I don't need to tell them that we're vibrating with you this week. We're going for more. All right? Next. How many of you have a CD or a tape of the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir and it's blessed your soul?

Would you join those who are standing, please? Lots more. And so I don't need to tell you that our speaker comes from a movement that is rooted in worship. Okay. How many of you have ever been to New York City?

Would you join these people, please? Yeah? Just stand right up. Okay. Then I don't need to tell you because you recognize that sometimes when the Lord wants to do something strategic, he starts it in a strategic place.

And it's a marvelous thing to watch how God has placed you. Now, you could have been placed in lower Alabama and nobody would know you were there. But he placed you in New York City. It's a wonderful thing to watch.

Will all of the rest of you stand, please? And let's thank the Lord for bringing this man and his ministry and the blessing of God into our lives this week. Will you please?

Thank you. There is power, power, wonder-working power in the blood of the Lamb. There is power, power, wonder-working power in the precious blood of Jesus. Amen. I stand, I stand. Talk to us tonight through your word.

The Church as the Body of Christ

We don't want some dead word. We want a living word anointed by your Holy Spirit. We don't want merely an intellectual word, but we want a word that gets down in our heart, Lord, and draws us closer to you.

Didn't you say in your word that if we would draw nigh unto you, you would draw nigh unto us? So now we open our hearts and we open your word today. Speak to us. Help us to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.

For we ask it in Jesus' name. And everyone said, Amen. You may be seated. Thank you, folks. It has been a joy to be here with you. This has been a real honor to be invited here. And I want to thank the leadership of the Alliance to have me here.

My wife sends her love to you. If I'm ever invited back, I promise I'll bring my wife. She's my better half. And, you know, my wife is very interesting. She can't read or write music. She's never been trained, so she still can't read or write music.

Both Jim Hammerly back here and Phil Armenia, both are gifted keyboard players, and they can read. They're real keyboard players. My wife can't read or write music. And she never studied music, the piano.

But she directs the choir, and God's blessed her, and the joke in our church is she doesn't know what she's doing. She just keeps doing it every week, and she blesses a lot of people. And a number of you grabbed a hold of me and said what her music has meant to you, and I'm going to bring that back to her to encourage her.

And I hope someday she can meet you. I want you to turn in your Bible to the book of Acts. Would you please ask the first chapter, and let's talk about the church of God, the church of Jesus Christ. I want to talk to you about the thing that's so precious to God on this earth, which is what we make up, the church of Jesus Christ.

Turn to Acts 1, and I'm going to begin to read in a moment from there. And what we want to talk about and think about is this subject, the Christian church, which we're involved with. Luke 1, 1, in my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up to heaven.