To God Knows Where | Pastor Eoin O'Sullivan

Welcome to the Springs Church podcast.

We are so glad you joined us.

Our mission is to reach the lost by raising up fully trained disciples that are empowered by God to impact their world.

We pray that you are challenged and encouraged as you listen to this week's message.

Acts chapter 1, verse 8.

Acts 1:8

God, I just ask you that you would help me this morning.

God, for this message, Lord, in the context, Lord, that I'm delivering it today.

That God, you would give us your heart for your mission, for your church, for God, what you're doing, not just here locally in Orange Park, but around the world.

God, you've called us to the ends of the earth, Lord.

God, that you would use the weak things of this world to confound the wise.

God, that even God, the little in your hands, you can multiply it and turn it into much.

God, you can take what seems impossible in man's eyes, and you can use it, oh God, as a testimony of your glory to this world, oh God.

I pray that God you would do that in our midst.

You would do that in us as individuals.

We wouldn't wait for another generation, we wouldn't wait for somebody else.

But God, in this time we would look to you in Jesus' mighty name, and everyone said, Amen.

I'm going to read to you Acts chapter 1 chapter 1, verse 8.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

And I'm going to have a little bit more of a condensed message this morning.

And you'll see why as we walk through this.

So verse 8, it says this.

It says, But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the world and ends of the earth.

Now we've a mission statement here at the church, which is to reach the lost and to raise up fully trained disciples who are empowered by God to reach the world, to reach the lost and to raise up disciples.

Now I thank God right here on Wednesday nights, how God is moving in our discipleship ministry here on Wednesday nights.

It is incredible for our men that were there on Wednesday nights.

You know that we had experienced a move of the Holy Spirit in our midst on Wednesday nights.

If you've not been there, I would encourage you to show up.

I really believe that God is doing something supernatural.

It's Jerusalem.

We can name it, we can see it.

It's in front of us.

There's Samaria.

I showed up at the church on um on Friday morning, and this parking lot was jam-packed.

About 300 cars in our parking lot lined right right up, looking for a bag of groceries, looking for supplies as our food pantries supplied the needs of those that were coming through and praying for them and loving on folks as they were coming through.

Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

One of the my heroes in the faith that I've had for years has been Pete and Angie Speckman.

They're guests with us here this morning.

Pete and Angie Speckman run an organization called Adolem House.

They founded that organization, and now their family helped run that ministry as well.

I came to know Pete over in Ireland when he would come and minister at something called Summerfire Conference, and I began to hear his testimonies of what happened in prisons around the world and how God used them in a powerful way.

And uh they're guests with us this morning, and their daughter Rachel also is now helping run missions in Kenya.

We just had a team come back from Kenya.

We've got some of our team members that are in Kenya this morning.

I see a few of them in the house this morning.

An incredible mission that just took place in Kenya, and God moved powerfully.

They're helping to run that.

They've got a work going on in Moldova, they've got a work uh that's going in in many.

So I'm just trying to catch up with all the work that they are doing, to be quite honest with you.

But I want to invite Rachel.

She's gonna come and just greet the church this morning.

Would you guys welcome her as she comes just to greet us this morning?

Amen.

Uh, it is such a privilege to be here this morning, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart.

Um, just walking in in the presence of God, and your worship was just a treasure.

It really was being here with you all.

And um, this isn't what I'm supposed to say, but I just want to say don't take it for granted.

Like give as much as you can give when you come in here and get what you can get from the Lord.

He sustains us, he's so good to us.

And um, it was just a blessing.

So it's amazing how the body of Christ can knit together so quickly like that.

Because I feel like I know you all, I feel like I'm at home, we're with family already, just in this few minutes that we've been here, and I've never stepped foot in here before.

So it's just the way the Lord works and knits us together as a body of Christ.

So thank you for making us feel so welcome.

As he said, um, my name is Rachel, my dad is Pete Spackman.

Um, everything he said about him is true, which is amazing when you can say that about your own family, right?

So it's a blessing, just not perfection, not anything like that, but what walking with God does to you.

We believe in the restoring grace of Jesus.

We believe that he can transform anything, that there's nothing that he cannot do, that he makes all things new, that no matter when you were saved, if you were four years old or if you were 104, the gospel is radical.

And it's a radical as much in a four-year-old as it is a hundred and four-year-old.

It's a radical gospel.

He is life-changing, just one touch from Jesus makes all the difference.

And that's why we're here, that's why we do what we do.

We're a bunch of imperfect people, but aren't you glad that Lord the Lord is not limited by our humanity?

He's not limited by our failures, he's not limited by our inhibitions or our personality.

Just one touch, and there's not one person in here that cannot be used in a radical way for the gospel.

And tonight, as we share with you at five o'clock service, we want to just encourage you what God can do with one person that catches a fire for him, what he can do in your life.

My dad was saved in prison.

He'll tell you his testimony.

30 years old, I was saved at four-year-old.

Four years old, thanks be to God and his restorative power.

So, really quickly in Alabama, we take children whose parents are in prison and we raise them up in the gospel.

We've had close to 400 babies come through our doors.

And in actually, we have a surprise visitor for you tonight, too, because we were blessed to unexpectedly, they'll tell you more about it tonight, but meet in the parking lot and pick up a four-month-old baby.

We couldn't uh two nights ago, so we couldn't make the arrangements quick enough to get him settled, so we brought him with us.

So he's here.

We're just meeting me as meeting him as well as you are.

So be with us tonight.

I am so thankful for the group that came uh to Kenya with us.

I was blessed to see their faces, and I was gonna call you out, but I was like, no, then I have to call you all out.

But I'm so thankful, and uh, they were such a blessing.

This church doing that.

I knew it took a lot of work from you to even make that trip.

We appreciate it so much, and we're looking forward to getting to know you more today.

Thank you so much.

Praise God.

Oh, come on, we can give a big round of applause for what the Lord is doing.

400 children.

That's amazing.

That's just amazing.

I was gonna get the worship team back up here.

I was ready for the altar after that.

That was powerful, so powerful.

And they were telling me that story just a little bit before service that on Friday when they got the call, they had to go three hours in one direction to go pick up this baby uh that was born to a woman who was in incarcerated.

And what is that not the gospel?

Is that not the good work happening before us?

You know, I in all my life I've never seen this just happen by chance.

It's only through the transformation that God can do in the life of a person that can give people a burden and a heart for missions in this manner and in this way that would lead them in such paths that go through from Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth.

And what we're gonna do at the end of this message, we've got Zephaniah here this morning.

So we're going on a journey this morning.

Zephaniah is gonna end my message this morning, and we're gonna be praying for him because he is gonna be sent out today from us as he goes back to Pakistan to minister back there.

And you know, as we were thinking about this and praying about this and looking at the scripture in Deuteronomy, you know, for we know where Jerusalem is, we know where Judea is, we know where Samaria is, we don't really know what the ends of the earth is.

And what this passage of scripture is saying is not that we uproot our lives and then we sell everything, we move to Jerusalem, and then the mission starts there geographically in Jerusalem and then goes out to the uttermost parts of the earth.

Yes, there is a biblical precedence for that because it is the epicenter after the resurrection, when the disciples went down and they waited in Jerusalem, they tarried for the power that came from on high, and when they were the baptism of the Holy Spirit came, you know the account, Peter with such boldness, he stood, he preached, 3,000 came to know Christ, and the gospel began to be advanced, and the gospel has been advancing for 2,000 years.

The God, the God, the power of the blood and the work of the Holy Spirit is still transforming lives, it's still at work.

God's power has not diminished over 2,000 years.

He's the same yesterday, he's the same today, and he's the same forevermore.

He's the same God that can break chains, that can deliver, he's the same God that can restore families, even at this very hour.

And I know that there is so much need now in our society, knocking on our doors, that it's important that we come back to the God that can supply every need.

It's important that we come back, that we're not just looking at the United Nations to fix the heart of a man because it can't.

Only God can do that.

Policy can't change the heart.

Only God can take somebody out of the kingdom of darkness and bring them into his marvelous light.

Do you know that you have the answer in Christ this morning?

You have the answer, and not only have you got the answer, but he's given you himself, he's given you the power of the Holy Spirit to be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Now, Pastor Jesse shared this analogy on Tuesday, and I'm owning it for myself this morning, Pastor Jesse, but he talked about how on a journey from here to Kentucky recently, he put it into Google Maps and it said however long it was going to be, 12 hours too long.

And he put it into the Google Maps, and he he he confessed to what we all need to confess as drivers in the house, that when you put into Google Maps how long it's supposed to take you to get from point A to point B, none of us look at that and go, oh, it's gonna take us 12 hours.

I'm gonna at least I'm guilty of this as well, Pastor Jesse.

Is that when when I look at that 12 hours, I think, how can I beat that 12 hours?

My task now is how can I shorten that down to 11 hours and 30 minutes while staying within the speed limit?

Praise God.

So, so how can we how can I do that?

There's something within us that we want to shorten the journey between here and there.

And I want us to just look at Deuteronomy chapter 8 for a moment, another journey from deliverance into destin into a destination.

Deuteronomy 8 · chapter mention

In Deuteronomy chapter 8, Moses is recounting now, as they're about to enter into the land which God had promised them, a land that was not a mystery, in the sense that God had spoken to Abraham about the land.

Deuteronomy 8 · chapter mention

He had spoken to Moses, and he delivered Israel by a mighty hand out of Egypt, and had been leading them.

And now that as they're about to enter into the land, and Moses is giving these instructions, here's what's recorded, verse one.

He says, Every commandment which I command you today, you must be careful to observe that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land of which the Lord swart your fathers.

In other words, as you go into the land, there's still going to be a walk with the Lord.

There's still going to be a serious nature to your trust and your dependence upon God.

Verse 2, and you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way.

Somebody say all the way this morning.

The Lord your God led you all the way.

He who began the good work is faithful to complete it.

He led you all the way these forty years.

Where?

In the wilderness.

Why to humble you and test you and to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.

So he humbled you.

This gets more difficult, church.

I cannot believe.

Sometimes when you read the Bible, it's just the revelation of it.

He humbled you and he allowed you to go hungry, to hunger, and he fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know the man shall not live by bread alone.

In other words, God is going to supply you with a supply that nobody else has a reference point to where this supply is going to come from or how it's going to take place.

But you're going to learn that man does not live by the bread of Egypt.

Man does not live by the bread of the land that you're going into, but there's a greater bread.

There is a manifestation of his presence.

There is the supply of who he is.

There is something greater than this world can give you.

There is a more than the ends of this earth can supply for you.

That every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord, your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.

In other words, God was faithful to you every one of the forty years.

Now we see that there was deliverance and there is a destination, but in the middle of this, there's going to be a discipline, or in the New Testament context, discipleship that's going to happen in between.

All of us wants to go from our deliverance to our destination.

I thank God he delivered me out of my sin.

I thank God that he delivered me out of the kingdom of darkness.

I thank God though my sin was like scarlet.

Today it's as white as snow.

I thank God for that moment at that youth conference in the South of Ireland when I asked Jesus to be my Lord and Savior in one moment.

As we sang about this morning, everything changed in my life.

I thank God for that moment.

And I know that there is a destination.

I'm going to heaven one day.

And when I get to heaven, there will be no more midterm elections or general elections because the king will be on the throne and there will be no more need.

He will be perfect.

He is perfect in all of his ways.

And one day I'm going to a destination where there will be no more cancer appointments or heart disease or anxiety or fear or depression or all of the debauchery of this world.

I'm going to a place that although I see dimly now, I will see clearly.

I will be about the throne of God and worship him night and day.

And if you're in Christ, we're going to be there together.

And we have all eternity to be able to share the testimonies of what God has done.

We may not get to hear all the story from Pete and Andrew.

We may not hear all the testimonies from Zephaniah on this side of Earth.

But there's coming a day where we're going to gather around.

And we talk about community nights.

We're going to have some community nights in heaven.

Hallelujah.

We're going to gather.

Zephaniah will be cooking us some chicken curry and and the folks from Alabama ribs, I guess, or something like that.

But we'll we'll be having something, all right?

We'll be gathering around and we'll be sharing the testimony of the faithfulness of God.

And Moses is saying, okay, you're about to enter into the land, but don't forget these 40 years.

I led you through these 40 years.

I led you through the wilderness those 40 years.

I allowed you to go hungry during those 40 years.

I I was the one who brought you through those 40 years.

See, there's something that every person must understand as we walk through this journey.

Sometimes it's not so much about the destination we're going to as much as the formation that the Holy Spirit is doing in our lives as we walk through this journey.

God is doing something in us as He's preparing us for where God is taking us into.

We're living in a time where nobody wants to wait for anything.

Nobody's patient for anything anymore.

We're living in a time where people are so infatuated with having followers and having influence, but they're not ready to carry the responsibility of what it is to follow God or to be able to lead themselves.

No wonder we're living in a time where it seems like society is collapsing beneath under our feet because people want the responsibility, but they don't know what it is to have the character to be able to hold up behind that.

We're living in a time where people want to be able to have all of the benefits of a relationship, sex before marriage, and go against God's original design and have everything on this side of it, but not know what it is to be able to sacrifice and lay down your life for your wife, for your spouse.

See, sometimes it's not good that we get everything up front.

Sometimes it's good that we don't get all the fortune up front, and because how many times have we seen in celebrity standards people get all these things and it just ruins their life?

Why?

Because man does not live by bread alone.

In fact, if you have everything that this world has to offer you and you don't have Jesus, you have nothing, sir.

But if you have nothing that this world has to offer, but you have Jesus, you have everything.

He will be your hope.

He will be your joy.

Hallelujah.

Moses is reminding you: you go into this land, you're not arriving into joy, you're not arriving into peace, you're not arriving into the provision of God.

God has been your joy, he has been your peace, he has been your provision, he's been your very present help in your day of trouble, he's been your guide.

If you weren't going through the wilderness, you would have never known the pillar of cloud by day.

You would have never known that he could have guided you by a pillar of fire by night.

If you had not gone through the wilderness, you would not have something to testify of the character and the nature of God.

He's teaching you something, he's doing something in your life.

We want to rush through what these moments in time, rush through these seasons in life.

But what if you're already in the place that God has destined you to be in?

What if you're there right?

It may feel like a wilderness.

It may feel like you just want to get from this place.

Pastor Old, how long are you gonna take in this sermon?

The Jaguars are about to beat the Patriots at one o'clock today.

How long are you gonna take, Pastor Olin?

I gotta get my Chipotle.

All the time we can be thinking about the next place that we're going to and missing what God wants to do in us right now.

This is the day that the Lord has made.

We shall rejoice and we shall be glad in it.

Don't miss, don't miss what God wants to do right now.

Maybe God wants to heal something in your life right now.

Maybe He wants to bring a breakthrough in you in this season of what you're walking through right now.

I certainly know what it's like to go through the wilderness.

Personally, I felt like I've gone through a personal wilderness for the past four or five years.

And as I've gone through that wilderness, I've oftentimes thought, when is going to be the finish line?

When am I gonna graduate out of this wilderness?

When am I gonna get through to the earth tonight?

But I can look back over the last four or five years and I can see miracle, I can see the hand of God, I can see the protection of the Holy Spirit, I can see his everything everything that I've needed along the way.

God has been my provider.

Has anybody got a testimony this morning to say, oh no, I've gone through it?

Oh no, it's been difficult, oh no, I didn't know.

I'm still going through it, but God's still faithful.

That's that's what praise really looks like.

That's what worship really looks like.

It's easy to worship on the mountaintop, but it's another thing when you're going through the valley of the shadow of death to say, God, I don't understand everything that's going on, but Lord, I lift up my eyes to the hills and I see them where my hell comes from, that it comes from the Lord, who is the maker of heaven and earth.

God, you're faithful.

I was reading a missionary story of Darlene Rose this week.

I was uh reminded of this story this week of a missionary that went to New Guinea before World War II, and she went there with her husband and was faithfully operating in missions work there.

When World War II broke out, the Japanese came in and they captured Darlene and her husband and sent them to work camps, to work prisons.

And they were separated from each other.

And after a period of time, she was informed that her husband had been killed at the other prison camp that was there.

But she continued to trust and believe God and pray.

And as the war increased, the rations began to decrease, and the tortures became more regular, and she found herself in a very discouraging place.

She got so sick in her body because of the malnutrition and the bad environment that she was in, that she was she was completely crippled and wasn't able to walk.

And she began to ask God, say, God, there's nobody here to pray for me.

So, God, I'm just gonna have to pray for myself.

God, would you heal me?

And the testimony is that she records after she's been delivered out of this place, that in that moment God healed her and raised her up in that place as she asked God for healing.

But the story that stood out to me the most was that there was a day that she was just not, I didn't have a lot of food, and everything was unappealing.

And she just taught herself, oh, how much I would just love to be able to have a banana.

Just be able to eat a banana.

And she began, she said she just lifted up this prayer to God.

God, would you please just allow me to eat a banana?

That's just where she was at.

And then she thought to herself, what a silly prayer.

What a what a what a silly prayer to ask God until all of a sudden somebody threw a banana into her prison cell and a banana landed in there.

And she said she picked up that and the joy of the Lord entered into this place at this provision that God had provided for her.

Years later, she would record how day after day these bananas would just be thrown into the prison cell.

Something so simple that she prayed for and that God provided.

See, sometimes we gotta go through times of lack and nothing to realize that God actually does hear our prayers.

That he's teaching us something.

That we're not here to try and get what we can out of this world, but that there's a God out there who hears our prayers, and he's the one who provides for us, and he's the one who leads us, and here's how he guides us.

Here's where I'm getting to as Zephaniah prepares to come and close out this message for us this morning.

Where are we going?

We're going to God knows where.

See, the Great Commission is not just a Zephaniah mission, or it's not just an Adolham House mission, or it's not just a Pastor Rowan mission, it's a commission.

We're all a part of this mission together.

I'm so glad.

No, no.

You should be so glad that God didn't call me to be the worship leader of the Springs Church.

It would be like screeching cats in this place.

Why are you laughing so much?

So I thank God that we've got some incredible musicians here that could be playing in a lot of different places, doing a lot of different things, but that God has called people to God knows where.

There's some people you walk in here on a Sunday morning and you've got a spirit of heaviness.

And these guys are praying and they're practicing, and in their time of worship, that God lifts you out of that spirit of heaviness and he gives you a garment of praise.

We don't know where it's going, but we're just saying to God knows where.

When the guys are here in the live stream and they're uh getting up and they're putting this out there, we don't know who it's going to minister to until we get a connect card from somebody in Alaska saying that this is their church, and they tune in here every week because they don't have a church in Alaska.

To God knows where, it's the ends of the earth.

But I want you to know that where Zephaniah, and he's I don't want to steal your ton there, but where Zephaniah is going is our ends of the earth.

But his ends of the earth is our Jerusalem.

Right here.

This is where God has called us to.

Here's where it is.

God is not so much, it's it's not so much about the place that you're going to next, as much as the person God is making you today.

It's about the person that God is, He's making you more like.

You're the you're He is the Potter, we're the clay, the works of our hands in the middle of the wilderness, in the middle of this place that we're in.

He's doing something in you right now.

Right now! You're not waiting for the next week, the next podcast, the next thing.

Oh, it's gonna be better tomorrow.

No, today he's working in your life, today he's working through your life.

Look back over the road.

He's been faithful the whole journey.

And even as you're sitting in this place today, I believe God is still moving in your life, he's still knocking on your door, he's still taking out the carving tools and he's making you and molding you into the very person that God designed and created you to be in the first place and to bear the image of him.

He's teaching us not to depend on the resources of this world, to but to depend on the presence of Almighty God.

Zephaniah, why don't you come and take the last point here and preach it for us this morning?

Would you welcome Zephaniah as he comes?

Praise the Lord.

Um first of all, thank you very much, church, for supporting Missions Pakistan.

All that we have been doing in the nation of Pakistan has made possible through your generous giving and support.

And just hear a testimony real quick before I get uh close this message.

This year, at the end of this year, we're bringing one family out after many years of slavery.

That's testimony of God right there.

There's a lot of that.

And not just bringing them out, but we will be walking through that family as they reintegrate back into a normal life, and it's gonna be up through a proper discipleship we'll be doing.

Going back to the message, do God knows where?

I want to emphasize back on the words Pastor Owen brought in at the first place.

You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.

And you will be my witness to Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, to the ends of the earth.

You know, we we are reminded this morning, church, that we are not just a group of people that every week comes and gather just to worship, but there's something more than that.

We we are the part part of God's mission that what God is doing around the world, we are part of it.

We get to do something about it.

We're not here to just praise and give Him thanks, but we are actively working for the kingdom of God.

There's a kingdom of God that is expanding around the world because God's kingdom is not in talking, but it's the power of God, it's the demonstration, and we get to be a part of it.

You know, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and it will empower you to be my witness.

You know, Jesus said that on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

We are the part of God's mission, we have a call to serve, and really, it's an important question.

But I think it's before we get to a destination, the mission is more about the heart posture.

You know, we can so get focused on the ends of the earth and missing on what actually God has placed right in front of us.

You know, Jerusalem, Pakistan is a Jerusalem for me.

I was born, I was raised in that nation.

But in many ways, it's still the ends of the earth for us as a church as we go on into those bricks factories, as we go on to the border places and we begin to reach those tribes, and we bring to begin to preach the gospel and bring begin to bring discipleship campuses and discipleship for local local church is is the ends of the earth, but it's also a Jerusalem for me.

So, what I want to challenge this morning to to all of us is that it's not really where I want to go, but it's it's am I willing to serve where God actually has already placed me?

Am I willing to be witness where God has already placed me?

You will be my witness.

Sometimes the great we can think the great commission is only to the ends of the world, but sometimes Great Commission is mean only it's it means like just crossing the street.

The Great Commission is also preaching the gospel in your neighborhood.

The Great Commission is also reaching the the Orange Park, the Great Commission is also going in in a random park and begin to tell people about the name Jesus.

Can I pray for you?

Can I can I tell you about Jesus?

The Great Commission is very local as it's international, but it's also local, and we are called to be a part of the Great Commission.

We have a mission to serve this morning, church.

You will be my witness.

You know, Jerusalem is not unimportant, it's very important.

You know, it was Jerusalem when the Holy Spirit fell.

If on the upon disciples, it was the Jerusalem where they were empowered and strengthened.

Can I tell you this morning?

If the Holy Spirit doesn't move here, then how we will we can carry his power there?

If the Holy Spirit doesn't empower us there, then we are not uh qualified to go around the world.

If if we are not willing to serve in Jerusalem, then how can we expect God to move around the world?

Jerusalem is important.

Where God has placed us is important.

We have a mission to serve in Jerusalem.

You know, when I was an intern here back in two uh two years ago, 20, 20, 24, I came for internship here.

And what I'm doing in the nation of Pakistan at the moment, you know, God, when God saved my life 10 years ago, I had a radical encounter with Jesus, and from that very night, God spoke to my heart that I'm calling you, and I'm gonna use your life, and you're gonna go around the world, and I'm gonna use your life for mission.

And I thought that's a silly idea.

That's not me.

But now I look back on the journey that God has brought me on a journey, and it took me 10 years to what I'm doing right.

It was a 10 year journey that God brought me on, and it every chapter that I had walked through in this life was God was so intentional about it.

You know, I came to Spring Church 2024, and I remember it was one specific night.

All staff, all pastors, they began to serve.

It was a volunteer night, it was a volunteer banquet, and that night something Holy Spirit just opened my eyes towards, and God some sparked something in me that night as I began to see Pastor Owen, Pastor Matt, Pastor Paul.

They begin to pull the carts, they begin to mop the floors, all staff, sweeping, grooming, putting their hands into the dirty work, and the Holy Spirit opened my eyes towards something.

Zephana, do you see that?

That what it means to serve in Jerusalem because there are people in Jerusalem who need the love of Jesus, there are still people in Jerusalem who need the gospel, there are still people in Jerusalem who need the power of God.

So when I encourage you this morning, you have a mission to serve in Orange Park.

This church matters, the Orange Park campus matters.

You know, I cannot today talking about the goodness and testifying all that the Lord has done in the nation of Pakistan.

I cannot separate what God is doing there from what God has already done here.

There's a connection because there's a church here that serves, because there is a church here that sends, because there's a church here that believes that's where God, because of that, obedience and faithfulness, and because we believe that we have a mission and mandate to serve what God is not only doing around the world, world, but we have a mission to serve right here, right now, in this moment.

We are on a mission, church.

Bring us this message to conclusion.

When you serve in your Jerusalem, when you serve in your Orange Park, when you serve in your neighborhood, it's not Zephaniah missionary, we all are missionaries in our context of life.

When you serve your Jerusalem, when you serve in your local context, you are participating in God's mission to the nation.

Because it's Jerusalem.

For the nation for the call I may never able to get on the airplane.

When I can kill you a power of God, be a powerful I like to have a woman to lead us in the time of all God would you leave.

Praise the Lord.

What I'm gonna do for the altar is Zephaniah, I'm gonna invite you to come down to the altar.

And then what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna this is gonna be our altar call this morning, is it's the call mission.

It's this is what God put in my heart for us to do this morning.

If you have been part of the church very long, you know that Zephaniah is a son of this house in the sense that he did his internship here.

He came through Summit International School of Ministry, and then we've been in a journey with him.

And over a year ago, when we were sending him back, there was like this plan that he had that he went before a missions board of like what he wanted to do.

And the missions board and all of us were like, Zephaniah, that's way too much, you'll never be able to do all that.

And he was like, Oh, but God will sh God will make a way for me.

Sorry, Zephaniah, it's all I got.

God will make a way for me, and so and what what's happened, Zephaniah?

God has made a way in one year.

141 people in a very hostile nation has gone through a school of discipleship over three campuses.

We were able to get a car for him, we were able to provide from across the way.

God has done it.

Let me just say that again.

God has done it.

You're gonna if you come out tonight at 5 p.m.

to hear the story of Adolham House and Pete Speckman, it will encourage you, it will strengthen you because you will hear how God can.

Some of us just need to hear from other people how God can do it.

This is what God put in my heart this morning.

If you if you're a part of that co-mission this morning, you're saying we're not just praying for Zephaniah to go to the nations, but we're saying, God, Lord, here I am in mission with Zephaniah.

That God, right here in this place, in this church, the Springs Church, right here in Jacksonville, Florida, Lord, I am not just going to wait on some other place or some other person, but God, here am I.

Use my life for your glory.

I'm gonna invite as many as feel comfortable and want to just come forward.

We're gonna pray for Zephaniah this morning as he gets ready to go to Pakistan.

If you would prefer to stay in your seat, you can stay there and just stretch your hands towards him.

But we're gonna pray for him this morning in this place and ask God's blessing upon him as he goes and steps into this really this massive step of faith on this journey that he's here.

And you certainly can be a part of that.

Before we go into this time of prayer, I just do want to make this appeal this morning as well.

If you're part of our church, you know that this is something that I very, very rarely do.

But I am just making that appeal to you today.

If it's something in your heart, you feel a joy in doing it.

Today, I do create that opportunity if you want to give to helping Zephaniah on a fiscal place, helping Springs missions, whether it's with a Dollem House or the Teen Challenge or the food pantry this morning.

We're putting a special emphasis today on the mission.

We're putting a special emphasis upon that.

There are some of some people that will go and pick up the baby at outside the prison and will look after him and care for him.

There's some people that will lead worship, there's some people that will care for the kids, there's some people that close out business deals and go through the training and they help support the work of God around the world.

And if that's you this morning, you want to be a part of it, then I would encourage you through the digital options to tap this, the website, physically on their way out.

If you want to support that, you can do that.

But right now, I want us to just pray.

I want us to enter in and into this commission together, saying, Here I am, Lord, use my life.

We come together in partnership.

God, Lord, for what you have in this time and this season, I'm gonna ask the band to lead us to the song of worship as the folks that are here just begin to pray and ask God.

If you're there, just begin to pray right now.

Come on, right now, we just want to pray.

We want to ask God's blessing, we want to ask God's favor, we want to ask God's protection, we want to ask God's direction, his leading.

Every step of the journey, the greater things will be done, the greater ladder will be greater than the former, that the kingdom of God will forcefully advance, that God will continue to build his church here in this time, in this season, and that the gates of hell will not prevail against us.

And here I am, Lord, I'm available, God.

Not just Zephaniah, not just the specmans, Lord, but here am I, oh God.

Use my life, I'm available this morning, God.

Use me as you see fit, Lord, in my context, in my place today.

In Jesus' name, let's think through this this morning.

Thank you, Jesus.

Thanks for listening to the Springs Church podcast.

We pray that you were encouraged, uplifted, and challenged by the message today.

If you need prayer or want to learn more about the church, we would love to connect with you.

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We pray you have a great week walking in all that God has for you.