Good Morning Mission Grove Church. How are you guys doing? Good, good. I feel like I came up a little too early on that one and just kind of hanging out up here with the lights off. Just what do you do? Uh yeah, what a blessing it is to be here. I can't wait to share a little bit about my story. And then I actually get to kind of round off Chapter three of Ephesians and the series that you guys have been going through battles and blessings. Uh, so that's been really exciting that I get the opportunity to do that. Here's a slide, a picture of my wonderful family And I've been married to my wife Brittany for over 10 years now and we have four kiddos. We have my six year old son, his name is Camden's our four year old son, his name is barrett. And then we were blessed and stressed with twins. That was a surprise. But we got our baby girl. So that was the win. And thats Beckham and Adeline. So, uh, why we have such wild names? Is that when you do youth ministry for over 13 years and your wife's a teacher for over six years and then you go on to Google to see the boys list of names. We're just not that creative or you know, just if there's three words, that's what it is, bob Al bobby allen. So, I mean we just decided, All right, let's just like throw some words together and see what we come up with. And that's how we got those names because people always like those are really strange names and yes, they are. Uh, so yeah, so that's been a wild ride having four kids six and under, it's been a trip. But we love it. They were supposed to be here this morning, but a couple of them got sick this morning, which is, which is always a joy. So I can't wait to come home to that, anybody want to take me out to lunch. Really, wow! Okay man, can we just do one thing real quick? Can we just give it up for john cradle pastor of Mission Grove? Mm hmm. Yeah, so three weeks ago, it was probably a bigger surprise than you thought it was. It was like, it's me when talking about church planning, you know, you really just want to see a church, you want to see that grow and go and john's heart from the very beginning was multiplying it was not this desire of wanting to, to find property and build a church. Although that's in the future for sure. His heart was to get a church started in the first 3 to 5 years, which is incredibly uh commendable. The statistic is that, you know, 4% of established churches plan. And that's just a really sad number Churches that have been established, only 4% of them end up planting another church. So here's the coolest thing you guys are now of the four isn't that great. And that's all thanks due to your great leadership and trust in john cradle, john cradle and I go back a little bit actually. We go back in the youth ministry days about six years ago when he came over from florida to start a youth ministry at Northridge. Uh, so he just sent out an email saying, hey, just want to get to know some of the guys in the area. So it was like great. I would love to meet him. In fact when I was digging through my office, I found a calendar and on the calendar in 2016 it was marked meet jOHn Kregel at, you'll never believe it, saddle saddle creek coffee and that almost came out terrible. That could have been bad saddle crack. What was nice is first our filled in my sentence. So I didn't have to think of that name because I never get that name. Right. Anyway, saddle creek coffee. Yeah, cool story about that is that they gave that coffee spot Northridge and so he was the youth pastor there and the students met at the coffee shop and I thought that's a pretty sweet deal. Uh, there's pros and cons to that obviously. But he managed and we got to do some winter camps together. We got to do some conferences together and then our past split when he was going into planning the church. Now it's so great about john when I first met him, that is what he told me he was here to do, he said, I'm here to plant a church and it's so great just to see the faithfulness of God and the steadfastness of john getting through his all of his wonderful degrees. And uh now here we are, Mission Grove Church. So how I got here, I just would love to share this with you so that we can connect a little bit so that you guys can get to know me better. I got the opportunity to experience church for 13 years of full time ministry, got to see the highs and the lows and then it brought me into just a deeper love for ministry. I love youth ministry. And about two years ago, God put on my heart that that was a season and I never saw that coming. I always thought forever. I was going to be young and I remember as that season called that there was gonna be end sometime, I was like, okay, now what, what, what's in store for me? And that got me praying a lot. That got me talking to a lot of people, getting a lot of wisdom trying to figure out what that next step would look like. And it wasn't until about a year ago that God just really impressed on me a love for his church. I mean, I've loved the church forever. I mean when we really think about it, how is it made it all this way without it being God's divine hand, right? When we just think about how screwed up churches are and if you take, you know, any kind of church history class, you'll learn, it's pretty screwed up and how it's come to this day to, to where we still gather together in a building to pray and worship and and learn from his word, it's incredible. His church still stands. I want to be a part of that. And so it was simple. It was just doing some research and all of a sudden I'm finding out phoenix metropolitan area, we're so far behind planting churches, having churches for the thousands of people who are coming to the phoenix area. So it's really easy for me to be like, okay, I can already kind of take a step in that direction because I know that there's a need for churches. So that led me just to kind of be like, okay, well where like where where do you want me to be? And I live in anthem. An anthem at one point used to be its own little, you know, area and now everything is coming to it. Everything is growing to anthem. There's not really a big space between anthem and north phoenix. And so as I drive down the 17 and then three or three area, they're developing that whole property on the west side and it was like almost like a perfect moment for me and God as I'm driving and I'm praying with my eyes open and I looked over and I just felt like this is where a church needs to be. It's a new area, new development, new families are coming, this is a place to be. And so that just kind of just instilled in my heart, I could not get rid of it. I couldn't, I couldn't just push it out. And that's what led me to applying through vision Arizona, a nonprofit church plant organization that you guys are a part of. And the great thing about that is that I had no idea that john was a part of it. So I'm doing a wedding in the summer for my previous intern and it's at Rock Point Church, anybody knows Rock Point Church, It's like in Tucson basically. And so it's like an hour and a half drive from anthem. I'm like, where are we going? This is just farmland and then it's a beautiful church. It's a beautiful church. So I'm standing there, I'm in my tux and I'm ready to do a wedding and this, this gentleman bumps into me and he just kind of casually sparks the conversation with me. And then halfway through, he goes, oh, by the way, I'm Bill Bush, I'm the founder of Rock Point and Rock Point is that Vision Arizona Church as well. And so I was like, okay, I feel like I could share my story. So I talked with him about that and then we just kind of parted ways and then I did a wedding. Uh, so that was, that was fun running into him And right before sunday in july, I'm ready to go to summer camp with my high schoolers on saturday. I get a phone call from john cradle and it's been a couple of years that since him and I have talked, but it was just like, hey, what high, what do you, what's up? What's going on? And he's like, you'll never believe who I talked to on the phone. And I was like, I have no idea who you talked to on the phone. And he's like Bill Bush. I was like, okay, that's weird because I just talked to him at a wedding a few weeks ago and come to find out Bill Bush has been coaching john through this church plant for the last three years. What's even more radical in how God works? Is that john cradle has been praying for the last couple of years for someone to be put on his radar to potentially be that next planter. So the second Bill Bush said, hey, do you know craig Clopton and john craig was like, yes, I do. He's an awesome handsome tall guy. That was the weird part. But I went with it anyways. And uh, he's like, yeah. And it was almost like as if that just worked And right there on saturday john cradle on the phone says, do you want this? And I'm like, I got to go to camp, right? I mean I am leading the camp, I'm running the camp. I'm like two total different things are happening here. So all week, it was just a whirlwind of thoughts. So after that I have a couple of meetings with john and he's just like, hey, it's, this just makes sense. And I was like, wow, thank you God you what you did is that you placed this person in my life because I was praying at the time, I cannot leave my family high and dry. I have six bodies to, to keep healthy and, and they're not cheap. And uh, I just thought starting out at ground zero that, you know, we're taking a leap of faith, wanting to play in the church and just taking a leap and just having no funds, nothing like that in store. And so when jOHN partnered with me, let me tell you guys, it was one of the biggest God moments for me in my life and all of you here as surprises. You were a couple of weeks ago, what I want to tell you from the bottom of my heart is thank you. Thank you for trusting John Cradle for being sensitive to the spirit and when my name was brought up, it wasn't like we have 10 people we have to interview. It was like, we just think that you're it and I was just overwhelmed because God has just been so faithful in this season and it's been a blast. It's been truly a blast to be a part of it. So I just want to try and say all of that in in a nutshell, just to say if there's a way that I can communicate a message to you without you really knowing who I am, I think we missed the mark. So I just wanted to share a little bit about who I am, where I came from and where we're going. So if you have your bibles were gonna be in infusions, chapter three We're gonna be rounding off the the end of it and I'm gonna pray for us. Mhm let's pray, jesus, thank you for this morning, thank you for the worship man, it's just such a good a good morning thank you that they prepared our hearts for what you have in store, in your word God, please give us eyes to see ears to hear what you have in store for us. May we leave today a little bit more transformed than we were yesterday. We love you in jesus name, I pray Amen. Sorry, I just got over a cold and it's just like not wanting to leave so If you have your bibles were infusions chapter three We're gonna be reading 14 through 21 now, what's great about this chapter is that it's a thank you brother is that it is a prayer and in chapter three verse one, it starts off that way. But then as all pastors do, they divert and kind of go down a rabbit trail and then he kinda regains focus here In verse 14 and he gives a beautiful prayer. And this is my hope for you guys this morning, is that you will find some encouragement from God's word in this prayer for you guys For this reason. In verse 14, I bow my knees before the father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. That according to the riches of the glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit, in your inner being. So that christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breath in length and height and depth and to know the love of christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now, just real quick before we hit that verse, that whole section is one long sentence and in the greek it is extremely impressive because to write that long, it's it's it's difficult and you could just see paul with his little quail pin just like just getting on fire, right? And he's just riding through this and he has so much to say and it's really hard trying to break this down because it is one fluid long sentence. And so he wraps it up, which is really nice in verse 20 with the toxicology this kind of closing this way of saying the end, but not really because he has a couple of chapters left, but it's just his way of kind of rounding off the first couple of chapters in Ephesians and he says this, he says in his toxicology says now to him, who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in christ jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen what a rich prayer that paul gives the church. I love paul's heart because the one thing that we just kind of be like, yeah, we know that he was in prison, but honestly to think of a man when you right, when you read his letters in the bible, you were so encouraged and so transformed and you you're just always wondering man, this guy must have had a pad. He must have had a sweet office. He must have a killer imac computer. I mean the guy's in prison with nothing with nothing. And here we find that he goes into the most humblest submissive forms of prayer before God on his knees praying not just for the church in Ephesus, but for you and me, this transcends through thousands of years of time. It can impact and change our lives and here paul in jail writes this encouraging prayer that you know that you know is from the Holy spirit. I just love it. Just that's what gets me going because I don't have those issues and to be encouraged by paul that way is a huge blessing for me. So growing up, my dad worked in construction and uh he had a great opportunity and the opportunity was there is a mobile home and it needed to be worked on and so the general man said this is the best deal, I will send it to your house. And so my parents have a couple acres in Flagstaff and so they brought the trailer there and from the outside it looks fine when you go inside, everything kind of seems fine and it's not until you walk into you go like something, something smells, it smells like smoke like really bad. So it's not until you walk into the back room and you look up there's this gaping hole and it's charcoal black and there was a fire that happened in the attic and it just spread all throughout the attic and the firefighters were able to take care of it up there, but it just destroyed everything else. I mean that smell to this day, if you could just, you could just like remember that smell and you're like and that's what it was, it was just gross and in the attic, all of that um that cotton candy installation, it's not cotton candy don't eat it. All of that was fried, just fried. And so when you had to take the ceiling tile down, all of this insulation would just come down on you around you and it just stunk it just hung if there's as we're getting into the house and we're tearing it down and we're taking things out. We're realizing this house needs a full renovation. So what seemed like a great deal ended up being a long process for months and months go by as we're just taking care of the ceiling of the floors, painting carpet and all those things were given this restoration from the inside out. And so if I could all help paint a picture or this is one way of imagining paul's letter to the believers. That's kind of where I want us to go. The Holy Spirit invades our life when we trust and accept in him when we believe in the Gospel. When we come to accept that jesus died on the cross for our sins, that he was buried and rose again. When we embrace that Gospel, the Holy Spirit moves in and it is a permanent residency. It's not an apartment. It's not church shopping. It's nothing like that. It is permanent. He he dwells in you. And when we have stopped in our Christianity, we've been like, okay, I'm saved. And that's it. But here's the thing, Salvation absolutely is crucial. Yes, it is. You get to be forever with jesus, but it is only just the beginning, it is not the end and so many people get that backwards because I think like I'm saved. So now I can go you know not do this anymore and we miss the mark. We miss what paul has to challenge us with here in his prayer to the people of Ephesus and to you and me. And so we get to understand that the holy spirit comes inside of us and just like this mobile home that my dad and I and my brother did. He renovates us, he gets inside of our lives, he gets inside of our spaces. He opens up the doors that we've done a good job of just being like no one ain't gonna touch that door, right? And he's the one who gets into the ceiling because everything else underneath looks fine but there's a smell and it's not until you pull down on the tile and you see all this come out, do you realize? Okay, I didn't know that was there, right? And he starts to work in us. He starts to renovate in our lives. He starts to clean us out, He starts to open up spaces, he starts to make us new, that's a beautiful thing. And I remember when we first got in there and the job was now we have to tear down the whole ceiling like you can't do anything else until that ceiling is down. And we tore it down. And I remember like being like okay we walked in here and there was places to move and now there's two ft of insulation that's burnt, I don't want to do this anymore, this is too hard. And we just get in that sometimes with the Holy Spirit, don't we? Where he gets into our space and we're like, oh, oh okay, that's touchy, that's too hard. I have buried that a long time ago and it's easy for us to just be like let's close the door and just burn the rest of it right, right here in our backyard, a massive bumper. No, we understood that what we had to do was completely gut this thing out. We had to take everything out and months later, my goodness, months later you could walk into this house and you would never know that a fire took place in it. You see the christian walk for us as mature believers. It it's not over. It is never over. And that the holy spirit continues to push and prod and poke and stretch and grow you to be more and more like him. I mean let's just read it together now we're kind of understanding that in verse 16 again, this is a long sentence. So it's kind of a choppy one. But according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit, in your inner being. So that christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. So he moves in into the ugliness of your life. He moves into the clean space that you think is clean and he opens the door and everything comes out. He moves into that. We have to understand that you don't come to church. Perfect, You come to church broken and it's and goal. Sure, let's be perfect when we're in heaven. But on this side of it, we are still grinding, we are still working things out, we are still being restored. That's why some of us come in here, we're like just I'm not feeling it, not feeling it. I thought Christianity was all about like good grades straight A's three figure income, health wealth. I mean, there ain't a verse in the bible that talks about that, it talks about suffering persecution, hardships, trials, difficult times, But it is so much better with jesus. It's not easier. It's better. It's better. So he moves in and he turns it upside down. So as christ makes his residence in our lives. That's when we start to gain a deeper love for him. In verse 17 it goes on to say that paul says that you being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. The goal is as time goes on, your spiritual life becomes strengthened and you have a deeper love for jesus and your life starts to reflect him and your life starts to reflect him. There is a deep rich love for God that many of us are missing out on, we understand that yes, Jesus loves me, yes, Jesus loves me, yes, Jesus loves me, yes, Jesus loves me. I see, okay, alright, you made up because first hour couldn't complete that and I was like, oh I was really off key though. So I told Andrew you don't have to audition me because that was this is where I belong. It's almost like we have this childish love and we haven't really explored the deep end because here's the question that I want to ask you, do you really believe that Jesus loves you? Does jesus, do you do you believe that Jesus loves you unconditionally. It's always, it's always kind of funny that in in in youth ministry to ask kids, does she just love you? Like, yep and does he love you without condition? Right, because we are in a world where conditional love, you do the right things, you get the right places right promotions, you get raises, get degrees, but jesus says I don't need none of that, I offer you unconditional love in fact all movin right now into your space into your ugliness and I will transform it. I will flip the light on, I will bring my light into your life and rid you of the darkness and your life will be forever changed if you just trust me and that develops into a glorious, rich, deep, deep love christ and that's ultimately displayed on the cross. The cross is where we see the ultimate display of love today, 2000 years later, if you see someone with a cross on their neck, you don't go, what's the T stand for Trevor, right? You don't you don't do you don't do that. You think that's a cross. That symbol has held for thousands of years. That's incredible. And it all comes to the proclamation that it makes love salvation, freedom. And so now what do we do? Well paul challenges us that in the holy Spirit. Now our job is not the one ft end of the Pool of Love. It's so shallow. There there is so much more to discover of God's love and it will take you a lifetime and it will take you eternity to explore discover, learn all of the riches that God offers you. Is that good? Isn't that good? That's a good word craig, Thank you. I have to do that sometimes. I mean, high school kids are rough. I'm purging myself of that though, A couple of questions to think about as you go throughout your day, your week, what does it mean to be rooted and grounded, what does it mean to be rooted and grounded? Paul uses these to cool illustrations to use this kind of this agricultural concept and then he uses this architectural term and uh it's interesting because because rooted it, it starts with what it starts with a seed, right? You can't get roots without a seed and so everyone in this room, even right now, you've had the seed given to you, it's been planted into you. And paul says, hey, my job only is to plant and God does the growth, God is the one who makes it grow. And so from that seed inside of you, the holy spirit has awakened you and brought that seed from death to life. And what happens to that seed when it becomes alive, when you put it in healthy ground with good nutrients, water and soil, son, it grows, what happens when christ awakens your life? He brings that seed in your life of the gospel, the good news, He brings it to life. What happens roots start to grow? What are some ways that you can nurture and grow deeper roots? I mean this is one of them coming to church, being in God's word daily, just allowing him to speak into your life. That's another way to get deep rich roots, cutting out bad unhealthy, unwelcoming influences in your life develops deep rich roots grounded is just a quick basic just idea of a concrete foundation, having a solid foundation, I think of the story of, of the people who built their house on sand and the wind in the storms of this world came and collapsed it and the man who in the person who built their house on the rock, on the Gospel, on God, on his love, it stood the test of storms and turmoil and trials that this world throws at you. So having those two concepts together, paul is saying, we have an infinite amount of time to explore the depths, the heights, the lengths, the width of God's love, it's immeasurable, you can't measure it, it's not a degree where you fall out of that love you, you can't, God loves you unconditionally, jesus desires to join you just as you are, this concept of you have to come here with it all together is such a lie. He wants to meet you right where you are, in the ugliness, in the burnt out mess that you have on your spiritual house, He wants to meet you there and he wants to restore you. He wants to bring you home, would you pray with me? This concept of a seed is just right here right now. If there's someone in this audience or someone online or or someone in this crowd and this is the first time you've heard that metaphor that jesus wants to plant a seed of his good news in your life in your heart. He wants to waken you up, He wants to meet you. He wants to come and clean house and restore you. I just want to invite you to embrace the Gospel. So that's anyone in this room. This is a simple prayer. It's not there's nothing magical about it. There's not a right way of saying it really, God can handle just about anything. Yeah, it's just a prayer of surrender. I can't do this anymore. God I am I am tired like I am tired pretending I am someone, I am not this world. It is tiring and you are full of love. You are welcoming, you are gracious. So that's anyone here today to accept the gospel to accept salvation. Just pray this prayer. God, I surrender my heart. Save me, save me from myself, I belong to you, forgive me of my sins, forgive me of my past, Let today be a new day. And it is a new day. It's a new day that the Lord has made and he is rejoicing right now at your decision. And if that's anyone in this room or online, this is the time that we don't keep it under wraps. That's not the Gospel. The Gospels contagious. Tell someone, tell your pastor, tell your friends, tell your family member today, be the day that you allow christ, jesus to invade your house, to clean it up to renovate it and to make you brand new And for those of us who have been christians for a season in our life, God can we not come to church and just go, oh yeah, I heard that one. Can you motivate us by your spirit? To love deeper? To love wider to love longer. There are people we have to love God, help me love my wife. Better help me love my mom and dad. Better help me love my neighbor. Better help me love my coworkers. You know our hearts, God you know where we're at and we thank you for your unconditional love for us, Your Children Amen.