Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. My mom was born in California. Good morning. Okay. I don't know where it works. You can try it. It's like this way. You want to try things. th th th th th Well, good morning folks. All right, so y'all ready to worship and bow down? Get you to set back up though. I know anybody's head on pew in front of you snoring Okay, well, we're glad that you're here this morning. Hopefully we'll get a few more Come in But we're glad to have charity with us say trust you'll take time to Look at the display out there and got bookmarks, got prayer cards. You want to pick those up so you can be sure to be remembering to pray for her. And again, she's got a connection there with our missionaries in France with Ed and Sylvia Christie. And at least starting out, the plan is for you to go in to work with them. I'm sure that they're chomping at the bit. to get her over there. Help's a coming, the Calvary's coming. So, but we're glad that Charity made it down here safely from Minneapolis yesterday, her last evening. And so be sure to pray for her too as she's doing a U-turn and heading back here this afternoon. So, but let's pray and we'll let her get started. Heavenly Father, we thank you for safety for each one of us here today. Thank you for getting us here through the rain and all, and apparently we needed that rain. But Lord, we do pray that you'd help Charity as she shares the type of ministry that she would have there in France in the music area. And it's good to know that there are people who want to come alongside the Christies and give them some help in the in their ministry there. They've done a good job through the years, and he's still using them. And so we just dedicate this morning service in the music and all that's said unto you. Pray your blessing upon our time together now in Jesus' name, amen. All right, so I'll let you introduce however you want what we're gonna do here today. There's always one. Yeah, ignore the guy in the corner. Well, I'll introduce myself and my ministry a little bit, and then I promise I won't talk too long this morning. But I have seen through ministries throughout the years that ministry is made up of a team of people with all different skill sets. And just like in your church, your pastor probably doesn't do every single little thing in the church. Many of you help him out, I'm sure, with your skill sets. We need that on the mission field too. And so the skill set that God has given me is primarily in the area of music. And I will talk a lot more about this during the morning service, but I want to share with you three things that over my years in music ministry and observing lots of other people's ministries, God has shown me we can use music in our corporate worship, and that's when we all get together, we're worshiping the Lord together, saying the same thing to God. And so the first is what we think of, we worship God. We see throughout scripture, people learning who God is, they see him do miraculous things in their life, they see miracles, and a lot of times, you'll see them turn around and worship God through a song. And so when we sing together and we're singing songs that expose who God is, that tell his attributes, that tell his great works. We're worshiping God together. Another way is we can grow stronger relationships with God through music. Because of the sticky aspect that melodies have, they get words stuck in your brain. Have you ever had a song that's in your head over and over and over? It's that sticky aspect of music. So the songs that we are singing, parts of them are gonna get stuck in our head. And so if as a church we're being strategic, in the songs that were getting stuck in people's heads. It adds an opportunity to have doctrine, to have attributes of Christ flowing through your mind throughout the week. And then the final is we can evangelize through music. And I'll share some stories throughout this morning of ways that I've seen this. I spent almost seven years in Romania teaching music at a little Bible college and got to see many ways that God used music to start a gospel relationship with someone. And so this morning, I would love to do that second attribute, or that second principle of growing stronger believers with Christ. So I put the words to the songs that I'll be playing and singing up here for you guys to follow along, because I'm hoping it's not just beautiful music. I hope that you can meditate on the words and remember who God is, remember how he's been strong in your life, how he's been faithful, he's been near to us. Psalm 96 is one of my favorite songs. It says, sing to the Lord a new song. Let the whole earth sing to the Lord. And so using music in missions is an opportunity to invite all of the nations to sing together with us. So throughout this, there will be at times where you all can get involved, because I don't want you to fall asleep. I recall seeing this beautiful rainy morning, but that means we're all tired. So we're going to start with blessed be the name, and this goes through a lot of the names of God. so Mmm. This next song is written rather recently, and it goes through a complete outline of the gospel. It talks about our fall from grace, Christ's sacrifice for us, and then it ends with what I quoted earlier from Psalm 96, inviting the nations to come and to seem with us. O sing, my soul, the ancient song, And gladden your righteous brains, To Him who is the King of all. O let us sing his name. Now to the uncreated One, O let Friendship is a new kind of yeshiva, that shows in death we found from life a sign of unity. The death of death and the death of Christ. into the great unknown. I wanted to share a story with you about a man. I talked to his daughter when I was in France last October for a family conference that I will share more about later, too. But his daughter was sharing his testimony, how he came to know Christ. And he was a taxi driver in the country in Africa where they were from. And he had dropped off his client for the night and was kind of driving down the streets. And he heard music coming from somewhere. And he's like, oh, I like that music. So he stopped, and he went in, and it was a church service. And he enjoyed the music and thought nothing of it. And about 10 years later, he was a taxi driver in Paris. Same situation. He had dropped off his client, just kind of driving down the streets, and he heard music. And he's like, oh, I remember that from somewhere. I liked that. And he stopped again and he went into this church service and he got saved that night. And 10 years, or I don't remember how many years later, but his wife is, his daughter is now the wife of a pastor in Paris. So it was neat to hear her testimony of how music played a role in helping her dad find the gospel and just leading his whole family to Christ. And that is just one example of the deep love that Christ has for us. This was one of my students' favorite songs in Romania. They love the minor quality of the melody of the deep, deep love of Jesus. And so they would do a lot of their own arrangements of it. And we don't get to sing it very often because it's not in a lot of our hymnals. But it's such rich theology, talking about the love that Christ has for us and just how deep that is. We can't even fathom it. I'm going to play it for you. so so so so so so so you This next song is I'd Rather Have Jesus, and in most Well, so the average size of a French church is going to be between 20 and 60 members. And most of these people don't see other believers outside of church on Sunday. And this is especially true for young people. So for you young people here, if you were in France, most likely you would be the only young person from a Christian family in your entire school. And so they face a lot of They face a lot of challenges, a lot of influences of the world on their life, and at the end of October, October begins the 20th, the music association that I'm working with in France is putting on a drama and music camp for young people. And our goal, one of the goals is to get these young people together so that they can build Christian relationships with other young people and realize they're not alone. But another is we know we'll have unsaved young people. And so we're praying that through the story of the lost sheep and the prodigal son, which is the dramas that they're putting on, that they will understand the love that God has for them in their lives and come to know him as their savior. So would you pray for us? For the team that's there on the ground, I get to be involved in the planning of it. I won't get to be there right during the camp, but pray that God will use this in the lives of the young people who are coming and that they can say, I'd rather have Jesus than anything, even the acceptance of the people in my school, friends who might be influencing them to go the way of the world, that they can cling to Christ and realize that He is enough for them. So, you Wow. so So these next two songs talk about God's nearness to us, and I would like us to read some of these verses from Psalm 139, because they talk about why we want to be near to God, how he first was near to us. He knew us before we were born. He formed us in our mother's womb. So I'll read the part that's in white, and if you would join me on the blue. O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine uprising. Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? Here's one more. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the day. The darkness and the light are both alike to thee. For thou hast possessed my reins, thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth greatly. so so so So one of the reasons that, I back up because you don't know anything about what I'm talking about. So Ecclesia Musica is the music part of my ministry in France. Eccle from the Greek word ecclesia for local church and musica is the French for music. So our goal is to equip French speaking local churches to use their music in an intentional way in their people's lives. And so last October, we had a family conference, and we called it Songs Ancient and New. And our goal was to introduce the people who came to songs that had been written years ago that were doctrinally sound and rich, and then songs that had been written recently that were also very doctrinally and theologically sound and rich in that sense. And so we did it in three areas, in choral music, in congregational singing, and in children's music. And we had over 100 people who came, representing 30 different churches and all four of the French-speaking countries in Europe, which are France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and Switzerland. And it was a really neat opportunity for me, being the newbie on the block, to get to know these people, to see their burden for their areas, for their churches, to hear about the needs that they were hoping Éclair Musica can help them with. and to get to know them that week. That was really encouraging. We had one young couple who had just been saved for two or three months, and they had two little girls. One was around six or seven, and the other, she was a little baby, nine months old, and she was the star of the week. And they weren't necessarily musical, we came to find out. And so we asked them, why did you come to a music conference? And they said, well, we want to have Christian music in our home, but we have no idea what that is. And that is a true picture of what our group is in French-speaking Europe for, to have resources to provide this Christian music that can be in the homes, in the churches, in solid Christian music that is actually teaching and encouraging. That has nothing to do with the song I'm about to play, but it's a really interesting story that I love to share. This is one of my favorite songs. It was my grandpa's favorite song, and I love, I can't remember. I think it's the second or third verse. There is a place of quiet rest near to the heart of God, and we can find our rest. We can find our solace in God. so so so so so so so you All right, good timing. This will be our closing song, but I wanted to share one more story and then we'll do the song. At this camp, we ended with a concert and it was the first time probably 50% of our 60-person choir had ever sung in a choir. our choir director was from Switzerland and he did a fabulous job meeting all of us where we were in our skill sets and helping us sing together and learn how to sing together so we can take that home to our different churches. But at the end of this concert a family in the church that we had been using came up and said, hey, I've been inviting my neighbors to church for 20 years. And they came tonight because it was a concert. And they heard the gospel through the music, through the testimonies. And they were so excited that this was the beginning of them being able to share the gospel even more with their neighbors. And France, as you all support the Christie's, so you probably are well aware, France is an extremely secular country. And so having tools that we can use to introduce the gospel to people in a non-obtrusive way is really important, and music is something that can be used very effectively in that. So this last song I'm going to sing talks about God's faithfulness, how he's been faithful in the past, he's faithful right now, and he will continue to be in the future. And right in the middle, there's a verse and a chorus of great is thy faithfulness. So I'd love for you all to join me when we get there. It will say on the screen, congregation join in, something like that. So go ahead and follow those prompts, but then we can sing together about God's faithfulness to us. Morning by morning, I wake up to find the power I watch him amazed in all the mercy of his perfect ways. Lord, let me know his hand will provide. He's always been faithful to me. I can't remember a trial or pain. He did not resign on to blame or gain. I can't remember one single regret. ♪ All I have needed is you ♪ This is my anger. This is my song. God has been faithful, He will be again. His loving compassion, He trusts no end. All I have, He always can and will provide. He's always been faithful. He's always been faithful to me. Thank you. Thank you all so much for listening, and I hope that you take little nuggets with you throughout this week. Thank you, Pastor. Well, I think we should do this every Sunday. Well, do you feel like you can come and worship the Lord? Yeah. Great. All right. And that translates in whatever languages, right? So, yeah. Well, do take time to look at the table. And if you have questions, I'm sure, I'm sure we'll try to answer those for you. And those of you who speak French and want to try it out, go for it. See how it works. So yeah, OK, I've got a couple of questions. All right, we'll see you back here in 25 minutes or so. All right? Do we need to set that?