Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #20241218 - Calvary Church's 25th Anniversary Service

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#20241218 - Calvary Church's 25th Anniversary Service · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

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Welcome to the study of God's Word with pastor and author Ed
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Taylor, recorded live at Calvary Church in Aurora, Co.
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To learn more about the many resources available through
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Abounding Grace Media or to tune into our live stream services,
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visit us online at Calvary Co dot Church or download our free
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Calvary Church app. Now.
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Here's Pastor Ed to take us into our study.
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The day you may so I rejoice. I rejoice and be glad, Joyce,
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and be glad. This is where I believe you are
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more than the more than the you see it out.
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You're faithful. You are faithful your promise,
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you are strong when the presence I have Lord.
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The joy of the Lord is my strength.
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It's more than the feelings, the joy of the Lord.
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The joy of the Lord is my strength.
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Oh my soul, Oh my soul, bless his name.
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All that is we need me stay and destroy all the Lord and Jesus
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come with me worthy, worthy all my pray.
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The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my friend.
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Bless you, take all that is we need say the
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joy of the Lord. The joy of the Lord is my.
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Let it rise. I could read Holy Spirit, let it
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move out with no little Holy Spirit, let it rise.
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So let it rise, let it go.
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Joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my friend this morning.
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The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my friend, my soul
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that is giving me safe. O my soul, bless his name, all
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that is within. Amen.
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Amen. Amen.
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It's so great to be with you this evening as we celebrate 25
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years of the Lord's faithfulness here in Aurora.
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Amen. Amen.
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We'd love to do some some older songs, maybe some songs that we
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haven't had in the rotation for a while.
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You guys good with that? All right, here we go.
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We turn to you. Oh, we stir, oh, oh we stir.
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Me hearts are yearning for you. When we see, when we see, we
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fight straight to the face of the dead.
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You sing it out in your presence, in your life.
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Wash the wind. Full sand, full sand.
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You are the God who stays. Unbelievable.
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Outrageous. Jesus, you sing Hosanna.
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Hosanna, you are the God who saves us.
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From the lies to the steady sun. The.
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You see all together, great is your faithfulness, great is your
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faithfulness. Oh God, you wrestle with the
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sinners heart. You wrestle with the sinners
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heart. You eat a spice to waters, you
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eat a spice to water and a tube mercy to keep us our heart.
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So remember. So remember your people,
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remember your children, remember your pride.
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Oh God, stick it out. Your grace is enough.
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Your grace is enough. Your grace is enough, Your grace
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is enough. Remember, Remember, your proud
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isn't for God.
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Grace is enough. Your grace is enough.
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Your grace, Your grace, just now, one more time, see, your
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grace is enough. Your Grace.
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Oh, great is your faith in them, yet great is your faith for
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them. Oh, you never change, you never
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fail. Oh God, true are your promises
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true? Are your promises.
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We raise our holy hand, so we raise our holy hand.
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We raise up, so we raise up holy hills.
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And is this too hard? You where you are, you were, you
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are. You will always.
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You will always be. You will, you will you will you
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always be there You are, You are, you Thou always be He.
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Raise the holy hands, praise the Holy One who was in it, and it's
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to crown the Lord God. So we raise up only head, praise
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the Holy One who was in it, and it's too hard.
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You guys can take a seat. We'll sing a couple more songs.
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It's an interesting thing having a timeline of songs to pick
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from. As we were preparing, it was
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overwhelming the amount of songs we could have picked. 1 of the
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things I love about worship songs is that there are vehicles
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to remind us of God's faithfulness.
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And so this might be a really familiar song to some of you,
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and to some of you might be a new song because it's a really
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old song, right? But they're vehicles to remind
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us of just what God has done and how far he's taken us.
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And so sing it with us if you know these songs.
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As we gather, may your Spirit work within us.
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As we gather, may we glorify your name, knowing well that as
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our hearts begin to worship, we'll be blessed because we
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care. We'll be blessed because we
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care. Lord, we have come to this house
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where we love to see your praise as we lift our hearts and our
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heads to the King of all the ages.
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Hear us, Lord, we pray. Come Jesus, come, come, fill
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this place. Meet us here, Lead us here to
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the world. We are few, but we are strong
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when you surround us. Lead us here.
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Lead us here to the world. As we gather in your leg, beat
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us. You see that course one more
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time. Meet us here.
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Lead us here. Lead us here.
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We are few, but we are strong. When you survive our love, meet
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us here. Meet us here, us here.
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As we gather in your name, meet us here.
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You are my king, Jesus, You are my king.
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Jesus, You are my king. Jesus, you are my king, Jesus,
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you are my king. Sing it out, Jesus.
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You my King, Jesus here, Amazing love, amazing love.
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How can it be that you, my king, would drive me?
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Amazing love, it's true. It's my
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joy to honor you. Well, I am on nowhere.
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You sing all, but I never hear the sound.
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Lord, I'm amazed by you. Lord, I'm amazed days by you.
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Lord, I'm a man. How you love me and how I How
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deep? How deep?
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How great is your love for me? How deep, How great is your
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love for me? The.
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Is your love for you amazed by you, Lord?
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I amazed by you, Lord. I'm amazed by how you love.
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Well, it is great to be with you guys this evening.
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Would you just take a quick moment?
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Would you guys all stand again and just walk around?
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Meet someone that you haven't met yet?
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Welcome them to Calvary Church tonight.
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Hey Pastor. Ed and Marie, we love you guys.
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As Westminster Calvary, we just want to come to you and just say
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how much we appreciate you guys. Your impact in ministry over
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these last 25 years has been absolutely amazing.
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Pastor Ed, I met you in 2005 and since then some of the things
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that have stood out to me about you is your loyalty and your
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kindness. It is just been such a huge
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blessing for us as a fellowship. These people that are standing
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here right next to me are a direct result of your ministry
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to me and Jody personally and how God has multiplied the
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effect of of of what is coming through you and Marie and even
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the greater church family over there at Calvary Church in
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Aurora. And so all of us together here,
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we just want to say happy anniversary.
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Love you. Guys, God bless you and much
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love from us up here at Westminster Calvary.
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We'll talk to you later. Hi everyone, my name is Joe
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Gomez. I am the pastor at Calgary San
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Juan in Friday Harbor, WA and from all the way in the upper
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northwest corner of the USI want to give you a big
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congratulations on 25 years and what a blessing to watch the
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ministry grow. I, I've known you guys or been
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in and out of Calgary church there for the last, I don't
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know, 10-12 years or so and I have just been so blessed by
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your ministry. You guys are so gracious every
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time we visit. And so we just pray that God
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would just continue to bless you for 25 years and beyond.
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Just kind of like Paul told the Ephesian church that God would
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do exceedingly abundantly above all that you could ever ask or
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think that God who began a good work in you, the church there
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would continue it until we all together see Jesus face to face.
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So God bless you guys. I'm so happy for you, excited
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for you. I'm praying that God will just
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richly bless you and I can't wait to see you again at the
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next refresh. So again, to Pastor Ed, the
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Taylor family, the staff and all the church there, we just give
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you our big congratulations from my family to yours.
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God bless you guys and have a Merry Christmas.
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What's up Gallery Church Pastor Daniel Fusco from Crosses
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Community Church here in Vancouver, WA.
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I am so excited to be celebrating 25 years of ministry
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with you all. Pastor Ed Marie, you guys know I
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love you. I respect you guys so much, so
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proud of you. But for the entire church,
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listen, what God has done over the last 25 years is incredible.
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It's extraordinary what a testimony to the grace of God
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and impact as you all simply respond to Jesus.
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But I want to remind you what God has done is incredible.
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But what God is going to do, I cannot wait to see this.
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And just know we are celebrating with you and we are praying for
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you that God would do more in the next 25 years and he's
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already. Done.
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So let's keep on keeping on. Let's keep simply responding to
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Jesus. God bless you, Paul Balash here.
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Congratulations, Ed and Marie, Pastor Ed Taylor and Aurora
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Calvary Chapel, Calvary Chapel, Aurora, congratulations on your
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anniversary, very special anniversary.
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And I just celebrate with you all that God has done through
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the last several decades and all that he's going to do.
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I know He has done exceedingly, abundantly beyond what you could
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possibly ever ask or think. And you ask and you pray and I
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know you've cried out to God and He has just been more than
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faithful. And I'm just happy for you, and
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I celebrate with you and for you.
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And I love your family. And I'm not going to name your
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kids by name, but I just love your family and I love your
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ministry. I love your heart.
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And I just pray God's continued blessing and favor as you go
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forward. In the name of Jesus.
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Well, welcome. We're here celebrating 25 years
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of God's faithfulness. It's amazing to be able to stand
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before you this evening and be able to look back on not only
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what God has done, but also reflect on the many things he
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not only has done but wants to do in the future.
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And tonight we have a special opportunity where we're actually
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going to do kind of AQ and a interview with Pastor Ed Marie.
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We'll be going through a few questions, looking back on how
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the Lord has brought us here, the different things that Lord
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has done, some fun memories. We'll have other announcements
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and videos to show you throughout this interview, and
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then we'll end with some more worship.
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But before we even get started, I want to remind you 2 very
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important things. One, there's free ice cream
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downstairs after tonight's service.
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So please go get it. We already paid for it to just
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go use it. The second thing I want to
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remind you is right outside these doors, if you were to turn
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right, there's a room dedicated to recording your memories of
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how Calvary Church impacted your life.
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And you may be like, oh, it's too much of A line.
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I don't want to wait. Please take some time, sign up.
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We'll give you a pager so you don't have to wait in line.
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You can get your ice cream and then we'll buzz you to come back
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up when it's your turn to do those videos because we want you
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to be a part of not only tonight, but also to share your
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memories of how the Lord has used the church in your life.
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So please take some time, record your videos.
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They'll be really quick. Or at least please be very
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quick. Don't take too much time and we
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just would love to share tonight with you.
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So please keep that in mind. But with that, let's jump into
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tonight's special time of interviewing Pastor Ed and
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Marie, also my parents. So this is going to be a lot of
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fun as we look back the last 25 years.
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I think actually before we even start, let's just pray prayer of
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thankfulness to the Lord just because it's because of him that
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we're here tonight. So if you would, let's bow our
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heads, Lord, We just thank you so much.
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Lord, we look at 25 years and we know that we're just a small
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piece and part of the church as a whole, but we thank you for
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these 25 years, Lord. We thank you for the life
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change. We thank you for the
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discipleship. We thank you for your
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faithfulness and how you've shown up time and time again,
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not only to bless us, Lord, but to show us how much you love us.
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And I thank you, Lord, that we get to stand here or sit here as
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a testimony to you. And we're excited not only for
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what you have done, Lord, but what you're going to do.
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But we ask, Lord, as we take this time to look back, that we
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look at all the time that you led and guided and provided and
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brought us to this moment. And we give all these moments to
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you as a praise and a glory to your name and your name alone.
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So we love you, Lord, We thank you, and we ask that you bless
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this time. Everybody said, Amen.
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Let's get started. 25 years Pastor Ed Marie.
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Mom. Dad.
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So weird. It is kind of weird.
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I don't know, Pastor. But.
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Son. Son, just a little background.
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My parents moved me out here when I was six years old, seven
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years old. And for me, I can just tell you
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as we get started, as they're going to be sharing a lot of
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their story. I was just a kid, excited,
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excited to see what my parents were doing, excited to move from
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California. I was saying bye to my family
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and friends, but I made new friends.
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I made new experiences. And I got to witness a special
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thing that not many can say they've witnessed in their
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lifetime. I got to see our Home group of
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five people when we were all there, including the kids grow
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into what it is today from a living room to this building to
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countless outreaches. And and I can say sitting here,
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I have only experienced so much, but I know my parents as we
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dived in deeper are going to have so many things to share
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with you on how the Lord guided and directed this huge step of
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faith. And I just want to encourage
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you, if you're here waiting for the Lord to do something in your
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life, continue waiting earnestly so he can show up so that he can
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show you that next step to take because you don't know where
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it's going to end up. We could tell you and they will
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tell you as we get into it. There was no way that we could
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have ever imagined what the Lord has done in the last 25 years.
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No way. And yet here we are getting able
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to celebrate it and being able to to share it with you.
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So back in 1999, when the Lord put it on your heart to move,
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how did he even do that? What was the process?
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How did you get saved? How did you grow up in this
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ministry mindset in the the history of Calvary Chapel?
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Like what brought us to Colorado?
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Yeah, I walked into a Calvary Chapel like this, pretty broken
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and about to lose my marriage, about to face some jail time and
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all sorts of brokenness. And I walked into a church like
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this where the gospel was preached, where I was received.
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And through a course of many nights I received, finally
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responded to the invitation, went home and told Marie that we
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need to start going to church, that that was our problem, not
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really telling her what had happened before that.
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And you know that that pivotal evening in February of 1991
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changed the course of my life. I mean, it was completely turn
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around 180° from where we were headed, save my marriage and
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expanded my family. That's where you came from, by
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the way. Amen.
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I like to call myself the celebration baby after you got
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saved. So I was God's perfect blessing
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to my parents. Amen.
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Oh my God. Jamaica salvation Baby.
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Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
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And. The God, Amen.
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And you know, Fast forward, we spent eight years at that church
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serving and just giving myself to the word and what God had
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called me to do and various places of being able to be
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entrusted with ministry. And along the way, I just felt
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like this sense of, of I want to see this with my own eyes, not
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really believing that I am a pastor or that I could plant a
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church. But Pastor Jeff would share in
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the Bible studies. Often he would talk about where
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the origins of this church and how they started.
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And they might, he might even look out in the crowd and say,
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Hey, do you remember when we were under the tree, just the 10
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of us? And, and I remember looking in
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the room, there's 3000 people there and thinking, Lord, if you
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ever want to do this again, I would like to see that.
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I would like to see something from nothing.
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I would like to see what 10 might become 20 or 30 or
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anywhere. We'll go anywhere, even though I
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think in my heart of hearts, I knew I wasn't going outside of
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the US. That's not how it was made.
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But I would go anywhere and do anything if God would let me see
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that. And you know that fast
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forwarding a lot of years of, of discipleship, you know, coming
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to the place where we started a home Bible study, just like we
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were told. And Pastor Jeff would tell us,
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if you have the gift of teaching, if you think you have
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the gift of teaching, then open up your home and have a Bible
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study. If they come back, they probably
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have a gift of teaching. And people did come back And
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that little Bible study grew and grew to the point where we had a
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decision to make. We were going to somehow take
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that group and plant a church in California or something else.
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And, and planted in my heart was not to build on another man's
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foundation. That was put down deeply in my
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heart. I didn't want and I didn't want
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to really stay in Southern California because Calvary
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chapels are everywhere and I wanted to go somewhere where
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there wasn't one, where the name Calvary Chapel wouldn't mean
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anything but that. Just simply teaching the word,
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loving the people, leading and and through a whole series of
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events, my company moved us here to Aurora and here we are.
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What's your version of that? Hey, wait, no clapping until you
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hear her side. My side is, wow, I'm really
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loud. Is, is finding out that first of
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all, kind of fighting against the fact that people were
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saying, Marie, your husband has the gift of teaching.
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And I'm like, lay low with that, you know, kind of a thing.
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Always wanted to not put any attention.
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I've always been behind the scenes kind of a person.
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So anytime anybody came up and said, I think Ed is going to be
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a teacher, Ed's going to plan a church someday.
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And I would say no, no, just don't tell him that, you know,
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it's OK. And, and, and over the years, as
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he says, you know, as we were raised up in and we're taught
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and discipled at Downey, Calvary, Downey, I just knew it.
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He was excited about the Lord. He was excited about everything.
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He was very zealous for the Lord at the beginning.
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And I just didn't know what to expect until one day he said,
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hey, you know, there's an opening in Colorado for a job
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that I'm going to apply for. Do you think I should go for it
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or something like that? And I'm like, sure, go ahead.
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Thinking that now he's not going to get the job.
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You know, we're, we're good. Thanks, we're good.
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And and then he says, no, you don't understand.
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I got the job. It's just the formality of going
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through the process. And I'm like, oh, OK, now it's
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getting serious in like from one minute to the next.
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And then I said, well, let's let's figure out what is going
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on. And we took a trip out here and,
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but I didn't really have, I wasn't excited nor was I down on
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it. I just was kind of neutral, just
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let's wait and see what happens kind of a thing.
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So. I mean, originally we were going
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to go to another city in Colorado.
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We had done a a little trip out there, kind of a Joshua Caleb
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type of trip. And every single place, this is
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right, this is right, this is right, this is right.
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And, and, and when I came back with the the report, I came back
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and told my pastor made an appointment.
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I said, I think we're moving. And he's oh, wow, where you
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going? Colorado?
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Oh, that's far like, yeah, I think this is from the Lord.
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And. And So what, you know, he had
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another young man to take over my responsibilities in ministry
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and kind of release us and bless us.
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And then I took Marie out on that trip, not Joshua and Caleb.
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Now, Joshua's taking his wife out on that trip.
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And as we're driving into the city, it was in December, it
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would rise. We're driving into the city.
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The Holy Spirit spoke and the Spirit of God sounded a lot like
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Marie's voice. And the Holy Spirit said,
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there's no way in the world I'm living here.
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And it led to a lot of a series of events that really made me
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question whether I was doing anything right, whether like,
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because it wasn't God's will for us to be there, it was.
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Marie was just the catalyst to speak the truth in my life.
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And then each of these closed doors ended up having us drive
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home. I really discouraged.
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I was really discouraged. I think you were probably pretty
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happy. Yeah, but I didn't show it.
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And, you know, God had a work, he had a work to do in me.
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That was the beginning of real deep preparation to be humbled,
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you know, in, in the way by the time I got back and went back to
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work, I figured the Lord would just use me in the corporate
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world. I'd be a good, I'd be a good
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believer, a faithful part of the church, but really take the
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track of excelling in the business world.
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That right, it seems, is it right when the Lord, right when
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he got me to that place where I gave everything up, things
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started to move again. And that's how we ended up
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moving here. We moved here with some open
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doors that we didn't have down South, but all the open doors
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here there was every open door you could think of was given to
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us like it was a free ride to come here to Aurora, exactly
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where he wanted us. He didn't want us there.
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He wanted us here. And we came pretty, pretty
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quick. Pretty quickly, yeah.
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Yeah, within a few months for sure.
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Yeah. Yeah, it was good.
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It's it's crazy to hear it in such a probably 5 minute story
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but I remember as a kid being in a a nasty hotel or motel.
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Whatever it was. Yeah, it was.
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It was. Didn't have.
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The door didn't lock. It was nasty.
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I just remember being a six year old and noticing like, oh, where
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are we? This is kind of weird.
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And then I remember and just from from my perspective, like I
40:05
remember my parents, like something wasn't OK like that
40:08
first trip out, first trip for our family to go out, something
40:11
wasn't OK because it didn't go as planned.
40:15
And so you kind of go out there, you're taking a step of faith,
40:17
it's exciting road trip. You know what all those kind of
40:19
feelings are, then something is not right.
40:22
And we go back home. And I remember and my dad can
40:25
probably speak to a little bit to this, but I remember just
40:27
people coming up to him asking him like how how to go, what's
40:30
going on? I thought you were supposed to
40:31
plant a church. Why are you back here?
40:33
Like, what's up? And, and, and he would just be
40:36
just discourage. You could see it on his face as
40:38
a kid, like you, like something's not right with that.
40:41
And this excitement that we had this, this jump of faith that we
40:44
did. And, and now as a fan, we're
40:46
back here answering all these questions and like, yeah, it
40:48
didn't work. Like here we are.
40:50
I wonder what's going to go on? And and slowly but surely, as we
40:54
just waited on the Lord, he did open up some crazy doors and
40:57
some really cool doors. And I just remember when we
40:59
finally were able to move out here and go to a little
41:02
apartment that was right by a large Kmart, which that's a
41:05
whole different story in itself of spiritual warfare.
41:08
We take steps of faith and I'll let them share that.
41:11
But I just remembered that the mood was different, like the
41:13
Lord came through like something had changed in my family and my
41:17
specifically in my parents demeanor and, and who they were
41:21
where the Lord was answering the prayer that we thought wasn't at
41:26
least it wasn't going to happen the way we thought it was going
41:28
to happen. And I remember that the very
41:30
distinctly like I remember there's certain core memories as
41:33
a kid that you just have. And I remember the apartment.
41:35
I remember our first house and I remember how the church would
41:38
grow from building to building to building.
41:40
But before we get too far, there is a fun story about how the
41:45
devil tried to separate us early on in the move here.
41:50
And I think my mom has a little bit to share about that story.
41:53
It's not the Yeah, yeah. Gosh.
41:57
OK, So we were, it's funny because once we did make a move,
42:03
his, his job put us up in a little apartment that was around
42:07
the corner from a Kmart, I believe.
42:09
And so, so I decided to take the kids with me to go shopping for
42:15
that apartment and we went to Kmart not really knowing the
42:19
area. I mean, it was a nice area where
42:21
we're at, but but just didn't know anything and took the kids.
42:24
And in California, they would always go to the video section
42:28
to go play their video games while I went and shopped.
42:31
And there was no big deal. Well, once I got done with that,
42:34
I went to the video game area, they weren't there.
42:37
Then I went back to the shopping area and they weren't there.
42:39
And then I went to all over the store and they weren't anywhere.
42:42
So I went to the front of the store and I asked the manager,
42:46
would you please make an announcement for my kids?
42:48
They're, you know, 12 or 11:00 and 7:00 at this point, 12:00
42:54
and 7:00. And, and I said, can you just
42:56
shout out and ask him to come up front because I can't find them
43:00
and I need to go home now, you know, and, and they made an
43:03
announcement. They wouldn't come up and they
43:05
made another announcement. They wouldn't come up.
43:07
So I start freaking out. So I run to the nearest payphone
43:11
because there's no cell phones at the time.
43:13
Nearest payphone. I call Ed and I said, Ed, I
43:16
can't find the kids. I'm outside, I'm watching.
43:18
Nobody's taking. I don't think they've left yet,
43:20
you know, and I'm freaking out. This is the first time I think
43:23
I've ever had like a small little panic attack.
43:26
And Ed comes. So we had no cars yet because
43:28
our cars hadn't arrived. So Ed picks up Caitlin from the
43:32
apartment and he starts running to the Kmart and, and I'm over
43:36
there crying. I'm like, I don't know where
43:37
they're at. And then finally went back in.
43:40
They, I don't know if that the all of the workers were looking
43:45
aisle by aisle for these two boys.
43:47
And finally they show up and, and I was just was so scared.
43:52
And I told that I said, I don't think, I don't think we're going
43:54
to make it here. I don't think we're going to
43:56
make it here. This is the way we're going to
43:57
be treated the whole time. I'm.
43:59
Like the first week? The first week we landed in
44:01
Colorado. And so it was just like not a
44:03
friendly place. I don't like this place at all.
44:05
And so, but it's still, it was just at the moment I just, I
44:09
just realized this is what spiritual warfare looks like and
44:13
I hadn't experienced it before so.
44:15
Yeah. You know, along that time, that
44:17
same time period, same apartment when we moved here, you know,
44:20
the Internet was very primitive back there.
44:22
So there back then. So there wasn't any, you
44:24
couldn't look anything up. You didn't know what was going
44:26
on like you can find today. And, and one of the
44:28
prerequisites was that there's no Calvary in Aurora.
44:32
That was a that had to be a necessity.
44:36
We didn't move all this way just so that we could interrupt
44:39
something that God's already doing.
44:40
We want to go somewhere where there wasn't by the by the time
44:43
we get here, there was a brother in, there was already a church
44:46
meeting in Aurora, there was already a Calvary meeting in
44:48
Aurora. They were seeing trying to
44:50
establish and see if there was going to be a work established
44:53
on this side of town. But there was no way to find
44:55
that out. And right when we moved here, a
44:59
brother Irwin had finally got a website up on on online that I
45:03
had found. And I'm like, are you kidding
45:05
me? I can't believe that we got hard
45:07
closed door down South and now we got a what are we doing?
45:11
What are we doing? We are.
45:12
I am so wrong. This is such a wrong losing my
45:15
kids. We're all freaking out like this
45:18
got. So I I called the pastor, I met
45:20
with him and he basically said, Hey, look, we already got a
45:22
church here. You need to find another city.
45:25
I'm like, OK, all right, I'll do that and we'll figure this out.
45:28
But I left that meeting so crushed and deflated.
45:31
It was like, I like, I can't believe nobody wants us here.
45:35
Nobody. Like it was just, are you
45:36
kidding me? Like Aurora's 400,000 people
45:39
like, as they're not like, what? What's going on?
45:41
So I went back to the apartment and I picked up that phone and I
45:45
called my boss back in California and I said, hey, Ron,
45:49
how you doing? He says, hey, Eddie boy, he
45:50
could call me Eddie boy. And how you doing?
45:53
I was Colorado. It's horrible.
45:54
Is my job still open? Because I knew it would take him
45:57
a long time to fill it with all the things that were necessary.
46:00
He goes, oh, yeah, that's all. And and it's like, I don't think
46:03
I'm staying here. I think we're going back.
46:04
I don't want to stay here. There's already something going
46:07
on. I can't find my, you know, with
46:08
Marie. We're all arguing.
46:10
And I said, and I got Marie in the background going, hang up
46:13
the phone. Hang.
46:15
We're not going back and and I'm, I'm wrestling with that.
46:19
I'm like, I'm more easy on I'm I want to be upset, not yelling.
46:22
But you know, in the backroom, she's, she's helping the Holy
46:29
Spirit's speaking again. We are recording this, right
46:33
because we just had a conversation about that.
46:35
So yeah, he keeps. That's the second time.
46:37
Third time what I say. That I'm your helper and like
46:41
the. Whole you're my helper all
46:42
right. And the Holy Spirit.
46:43
But you're not the Holy Spirit, you're like the holy.
46:45
Spirit, OK, Thank you. You know, not the Holy Spirit,
46:49
but at any rate, I end up saying, OK, Ron, I'm not going
46:52
back. And I needed to press through
46:54
and these episodes where there's this internal battle like you've
46:58
taken the step and, and God is very gracious with me.
47:01
That's how he that's how he works in my life.
47:04
He leads me to a decision that I really can't undo.
47:08
Like I, I'm out here, I've got responsibility in my job, my
47:13
family's here and I have all these emotions and I even want
47:16
to work my way back, but there's too many barriers that I've set
47:20
up or that God is set up where I can't go back.
47:23
And so we decided to pick a city, start a Bible study in our
47:28
front room and down in North Parker there and begin to attend
47:32
this church that's already going on on Saturday nights because I
47:35
don't want my kids not to be in church.
47:38
You know, we came from this massive large happening church
47:41
to just us in an apartment and in a home.
47:45
I I knew I our kids needed to be in church and we lived on this
47:48
side of town and and it wasn't but a few.
47:52
I don't know how Fast forward we are, but it wasn't just a few
47:55
months before the pastor came on.
47:58
I remember like it was yesterday because I didn't have any winter
48:00
clothes. I didn't know.
48:01
I didn't know. Nobody told me how cold they
48:05
would get here. So I have my California winter
48:07
clothes on. And it was the end of a Saturday
48:09
service at the end of October, and we were to walk into our
48:13
cars or the last ones there. We cleaned up, put everything
48:15
away. And he says, well, Ed, you know,
48:17
I think you're the guy. And I go, yeah, you say, I've
48:20
been calling. He said, I've been calling and
48:22
checking up on you, see who you are.
48:24
And, you know, your background came back clean and everybody
48:26
thinks you're supposed to be here.
48:28
And, and I really think God wants me to go back to full time
48:31
to the church that I have on the other side of town And and
48:33
you're the guy. And you know, my, you know how
48:36
you have an internal voice and an external voice.
48:39
So the external voice says, yeah, I agree with you.
48:42
The internal voices. I told you that months ago that
48:46
God called me Pastor Jeff even spoke a word of prophecy over us
48:49
that we would Pastor Calvary Chapel, Aurora before it ever
48:52
began, before there ever was one that word was given to us, even
48:56
though it was I was questioning it.
48:57
And, and so we took that group on on the 1st Saturday night of
49:02
November, kind of finished out where what was happening in a,
49:06
what book he was in the Bible there.
49:07
I think it was Revelation. And then I told one of the
49:10
faithful brothers there, Hey, we need to get out of this building
49:14
here on Saturdays and take this group Sunday.
49:16
There's about 30 people there. I said we need to go Sundays,
49:19
but I don't know how I'm going on vacation.
49:21
So hopefully I got to go visit, take my kids back to, you know,
49:25
see their grandparents. And when I get back, hopefully
49:28
you'll have a place. And he did.
49:29
He found a school. I didn't even know you could
49:31
meet in a school. I didn't even know that was
49:33
possible. Like meet in a school.
49:34
What does that even look like? And so then began the education
49:39
and the growth. I had a lot to learn.
49:40
I have a lot to learn. And that's kind of how we
49:44
started. Sundays, December 26th, 1999.
49:47
They did start, yeah. Yeah.
49:52
Speaking of buildings, I think we have a B roll video that I
49:57
actually want to play right now just to kind of give you a
49:59
picture of the places that we met.
50:01
So from the Saturday night gathering, if it's going to play
50:04
in 321, there it is. Saturday night.
50:08
Saturday night building. That's where we were meeting
50:10
with the group when we originally took over that night.
50:14
Then we moved to Columbia Middle School, which is just around the
50:16
corner. We're there for seven years.
50:19
We tried to get inside the cafeteria, but we couldn't.
50:21
They didn't answer our phone back.
50:23
So our calls, but there's the door and then there is the
50:28
little shack that we would meet on midweek service.
50:31
We'll get a up close picture right there.
50:33
And we met in the basement as the kids and I remember just a
50:36
fun story of a rat running around with us down there.
50:39
Then New Life. That's where we upgraded in our
50:41
midweek service to New Life Church just down the street by
50:43
Range View High School. And and those were the different
50:46
areas before we eventually broke ground here.
50:48
But I'm just thinking like the early days of ministry.
50:51
What were some of the challenges that you remember?
50:54
Obviously looking for a new building, didn't know how to do
50:56
that, but starting off a church plant.
50:58
It started as a home Bible study, then taking over this
51:01
group. And then what were some of the
51:03
things that were harder or growing pains for you 2, Not
51:07
only as ministry leaders now, but as a couple, as parents as
51:11
like, what were some of the things, the challenges early on
51:15
with the ministry that the Lord gave you that maybe you didn't
51:17
think about or didn't know about when stepping into this role?
51:21
What do you think or taking this step of faith?
51:24
That was probably your biggest challenge.
51:29
That was your opportunity to say, Oh, no, Ed.
51:32
Yes, you weren't. You weren't Ed.
51:35
I mean, moving here, being apart from family, that was probably a
51:37
big. You know, for yeah, I do well
51:40
alone. So it's one of those things that
51:42
it wasn't a big challenge. I know it was a challenge for
51:44
you, but yeah, no, I think that that some of the things is just
51:49
balancing young kids and planning a church.
51:52
I think that's that was hard for me is trying to support you in
51:55
the ministry yet and at the same time making sure that the kids
51:58
are taken care of and and and are you know, their needs were
52:02
met. I had never overseen, I had
52:05
never pastored a church. I never had the full weight of
52:08
responsibility on on my shoulders.
52:11
I never had. So all of it was brand new to
52:14
me. And when we moved here, I had a
52:16
very demanding full time job in a company that wasn't doing well
52:20
and such a different same company, but a different office,
52:24
you know, a completely different world here.
52:27
And, and so having to deal with the stress of working full time
52:31
and then this, this group meeting on Sundays, it grew very
52:36
rapidly. I didn't know.
52:39
I didn't know what their all the things I had heard and people I
52:42
talked to, I'd never experienced this type of 30 to 50 to 70 to
52:47
100. And, and it, the needs of the
52:49
church, I fully expected and I wanted to work for seven years.
52:54
That was my goal. I had it all mapped out.
52:56
We can put some money aside and save.
52:58
I made really, really good money and I, I fully expected to work
53:03
all that time. And maybe in seven years we'll
53:05
have enough people that gather together that, you know, we
53:08
maybe could take a salary, maybe I can have someone else serve
53:11
alongside of me. And that that's not what
53:14
happened. It happened very, very rapidly,
53:16
but it also happened rapidly, like the church continue to grow
53:20
beyond my maturity. And that takes a special, you
53:24
know, those of you in a newer church or you know, those of you
53:27
that might be watching this later on in a church plant, You
53:30
know, it takes a real special person to grow up with your
53:33
pastor, to show grace to your pastor as he's growing and as
53:38
his family's growing and as you're as he's learning how to
53:40
raise his family in this context.
53:42
And now all the attention is put on his kids and his wife.
53:45
It was, it was just a super challenging time.
53:47
And, and I remember at work, I needed time off and I worked at
53:53
a company where you kept accruing, crewing, crewing.
53:55
They never let you take your vacation.
53:56
They always declared an emergency.
53:58
And then in emergencies, you can take it.
54:00
So I remember asking for for some time, I just needed one
54:03
week off. And I felt like if I got a week
54:05
off, I could be more available to Maria.
54:07
I could be more available. I just need to rest and clear my
54:09
mind. Things were out of control.
54:11
And my boss, he understood. We work together.
54:14
He understood. He's like, yeah, man, I just, I
54:16
just took a vacation. I probably won't come back.
54:18
And I'm like, oh man. And you know, so he approved it
54:22
no problem. But then it went upstairs to HR
54:24
and HR called and said, well, you know, and we, we don't give
54:28
vacations. It's an emergency.
54:29
Like, bro, it's always an emergency.
54:31
Like I need this time off. Well, you know, if you leave,
54:34
you're not going to have your job.
54:35
And I'm like, well, I guess that's the way it is.
54:37
You want me to send my resignation in right now?
54:39
Oh, no, no, no. Why don't you sleep on it?
54:41
And I'm like, I don't, you know, this is a long conversation.
54:43
I was like, you don't, I don't think you understand.
54:45
I need time off and if I don't get the time off approved,
54:49
here's what's going to happen. I'm going to take time off.
54:52
The only question is, is do you want me to come back?
54:55
And so contact them the next morning they go, no, you can
54:58
just leave and we'll cat. And so I quit.
55:01
I resigned and then I called Marie and said, Hey, I'm I, I
55:09
resigned. I don't, we're we're done.
55:11
I'm done. I can't.
55:12
I can't do as you did what and and, but you were very
55:15
supportive. I did what?
55:16
But then I said, well that's good, it's from the Lord, so
55:20
let's move. On it was just like pressure all
55:22
the time. And the pressure really is to to
55:24
take and I was very cooperative with it.
55:27
So I can't blame the pressure or the trials.
55:29
Like I was very cooperative with this constant goal to take my
55:33
eyes off of the Lord and what he's called me to do.
55:35
It's a real simple thing. Just do what God's called you to
55:38
do and keep your eyes on him. But all these circumstances and
55:41
emotions and feelings and and the kids and I want everything
55:45
right. And I want, you know, we're in a
55:46
new place and even just looking for a house was stressful.
55:51
And we, we had that big blow up in front of the real estate
55:54
agent and, and, and he was like tripping out on us because we're
55:58
like all pastor come upon a church.
56:00
He's tripping out on you. No, no, he and I, he and I were
56:03
on the same page. And it wasn't a fight if it was
56:05
if it had to be in both of us, but it ended up being I I
56:09
stopped looking for it was so stressful.
56:11
I'm like, I'm not even going to look for a house.
56:12
Just tell me the one you want to buy Marie and.
56:15
I did. I bought a house without him
56:16
knowing and signed the papers, had no problem with it.
56:18
So I guess even go back to the discussion about it, yeah.
56:22
But there was a lot of houses, like I remember sitting in the
56:25
van or the in the car and going house after house after house
56:29
after house. And as a kid, like it was the
56:32
worst, worst idea of how to spend your day was sitting in
56:35
that car going into another house looking.
56:37
But when we found it, it was great.
56:39
It was awesome. It was.
56:40
Great. I remember, you know, separate
56:42
from the church, things like as a family, there were things that
56:44
were growing. There were things that were
56:46
exciting, getting your first house, getting your first
56:50
neighborhood friends. I remember as a kid, I had no
56:53
friends. So we moved into the house, and
56:55
I told my older brother, like, hey, like, you need to come with
56:57
me. And he's like, do, do what?
56:58
And I was going and knocking on every door in the neighborhood
57:02
asking, hey, do you have any kids that are my age that could
57:04
be my friend. And my brother was reluctant.
57:07
He didn't want to do that. That's so embarrassing.
57:09
What are you doing? And sure enough, you know,
57:10
there's at least three houses that had kids around my age.
57:13
And that's how we made friends. And I just remember walking up
57:16
and down the street and I ended up becoming that kid.
57:19
Fast forward because we'd be doing like these mission trips
57:23
where you have to sell boxes of chocolate, like sees candy bars.
57:26
And I already had a great Rep in the community.
57:28
So I would sell those boxes like crazy to everybody.
57:30
They just buy them. They're they'd feel sorry for
57:32
the kid with no friends and I was OK 'cause I went on a bunch
57:36
of mission trips, praise the Lord.
57:37
So there was a lot of other things happening as as yeah,
57:41
they're suffering and and and discouraged and going on the.
57:45
Living the life. I'm just, I'm a chocolateer man.
57:47
Like I'm ready to join Willy Wonka and going on all these
57:50
mission trips. And I just remember even from my
57:53
perspective of being able to see it first.
57:55
And I remember our first mission trip in 2002, at least the one I
57:59
got to go on to New York City after 911.
58:01
And I remember as a kid being a part of that, raising support.
58:05
I was only man, I was only 10, maybe turning 10 years old that
58:10
year. And I remember the, the
58:12
excitement around going with a team and seeing the gospel
58:15
shared on the streets of New York and, and seeing how, wow,
58:18
this is real. Like God is real.
58:19
He's not just, it's not just some Bible study in Aurora like,
58:22
but he wants to reach people outside of our, our state,
58:25
outside of our city with what we're in Aurora for.
58:28
Like it, it made me as a kid realize like God's really doing
58:32
something here. Like this isn't just an isolated
58:35
event. It's not just a pipe dream that
58:36
my parents have. Like this is something that
58:38
God's doing. And I just remember having these
58:40
moments where I would see different things happen, whether
58:44
it was the and we'll get to a little bit later, but maybe the
58:46
marriage counseling that would take place in the the living
58:49
room while I was upstairs in this, you know, kind of
58:51
listening. Are they done yet?
58:52
Like, can I go downstairs to get water, you know, and like the
58:54
nights and the long nights and all these ministry things, like,
58:57
is this really going to be from the Lord?
59:00
Is this really going to make it? And sure enough, yeah, being in
59:02
the middle school, I mean, I, I remember the nursery closet or
59:06
the nursery room being in the janitor's closet.
59:09
Like we just we stuck up. Storage it was.
59:12
Storage. Whatever it was I guess.
59:14
We're rolling around with detergent or anything.
59:17
Oh man, it was. Feeding supplies.
59:18
It. Was Landry, I remember Michelle
59:20
Landry and I don't know which kid was in there, but she was,
59:24
she was in there helping us. She actually, her feedback
59:26
helped, you know, put some cushions on there and put a
59:29
little speaker in there. And we had a rug.
59:31
It was real primitive. We didn't have the technology
59:34
like technology. It's so pervasive now, but back
59:37
then it. But we also didn't have the
59:38
room. We only had a certain amount of
59:40
classrooms. We could use a certain amount
59:42
of, you know, the lunch area and the gym.
59:45
And so there was no place to actually put a nursery.
59:48
So we saw the closet and we made do with it.
59:51
So again, you have to be a very special person to have gone
59:56
through this whole, you know, a series of events with us.
1:00:00
And we're just so thankful for all of you that have stuck
1:00:02
around with us and have helped us, you know, with this.
1:00:06
Yeah, Amen. I remember, you know, when it
1:00:10
comes to the school, as I was growing into learning how to
1:00:14
pastor a church and understand the dynamics of people coming
1:00:17
and going, it never surprised me that people would come.
1:00:20
You know, they would find us at the school because they had this
1:00:23
sense of what they thought it was.
1:00:25
And it never surprised me that someone would come to the
1:00:27
school, but it did surprise me that they would come back
1:00:31
because it was a very rough place.
1:00:32
The music was extremely loud. The chairs were very hard.
1:00:37
If the if there wasn't, if it wasn't clean, there was food.
1:00:40
You know, here's one of the chairs right here, you know,
1:00:42
very bad on the back. The school let us take one of
1:00:45
every color so that we could have them around as Ebenezer
1:00:48
stones. And never forget where we came
1:00:50
from. The principal of the school
1:00:52
ended up coming to church here for a while really good brother,
1:00:55
but the the reality of coming back and really God really did a
1:01:00
work. It was almost like the Lord was
1:01:02
showing us I am doing this. They they will that I will build
1:01:06
my church. You don't need to worry about
1:01:08
it, Ed. You just be here, do what I've
1:01:10
called you to do and and I want this church here.
1:01:13
I I see even you know what God could see to think in those
1:01:16
seven years we were in the school, God had other things in
1:01:18
plan. He had this property in plan.
1:01:20
He had radio. He had all of the things that
1:01:21
we're walking into already planned for us there.
1:01:25
It was already preordained for us.
1:01:27
We're just walking into them. And you know, I remember that
1:01:30
time we were when it comes to the school, like I was still the
1:01:33
one answering the phone. I had some system where they
1:01:35
could forward the phone, the church phone to my cell phone.
1:01:39
And I was driving around on Parker Road doing some shopping
1:01:42
or something and the phone rang. Hey, Calvary Chapel.
1:01:44
Hey, is this the church that the pastor's on the radio?
1:01:48
Yes, we were on one station back then.
1:01:50
This is Jan and some, you know, where do you guys mean?
1:01:53
And I and I said, you know, Columbia Middle school.
1:01:57
Columbia Middle school. Yes.
1:02:00
And and so Are you sure? And I'm like, yeah.
1:02:01
And I'm giving the address. Are you sure it's Columbia
1:02:04
Middle school? Yes, I'm sure.
1:02:05
It's saying to give her the address.
1:02:07
And and then there was a pause and she said, well, you sound
1:02:10
like a real church on the radio. And it it crushed me back then,
1:02:20
Pastor Gino was across town and when I had met him, I met Pastor
1:02:24
Brian down in the springs. It was a great help to me.
1:02:27
Pastor Gino was a great help on this side of town.
1:02:29
And and I remember him telling me, if you ever have a problem,
1:02:31
just come on over. If I'm here, you walk right in.
1:02:33
Well, boom, I called, he was there.
1:02:35
I drove across town and he says, well, come on in.
1:02:37
He made time for me. And I said, Gino, you won't
1:02:39
believe it. Somebody told us, told me that
1:02:41
I'm not a real church, am IA real church because I'm not a
1:02:45
real church. I need to go home.
1:02:46
You know, I was so and he'd calm me down.
1:02:48
He goes well, Ed, are you teaching the Bible?
1:02:51
Yes. Are people getting saved?
1:02:55
No, no does OK. And he's I'm like, hopefully,
1:02:58
hopefully there's not not a lot more No quite no answers that
1:03:02
our marriage. And he started walking me down
1:03:04
and it was yes, yes, yes, yes. And then Gino at the end of that
1:03:07
he says, well, Ed, you're a real church.
1:03:10
You may go now. And I walked right out and just
1:03:14
those sense of like, it's, I don't want to say it.
1:03:18
Like sometimes we'll say, oh, you know, I don't know what I'm
1:03:20
doing. I knew some of what I knew to do
1:03:23
what I knew I had enough information to do what?
1:03:27
And that's how you're going to live.
1:03:28
You have enough information to act on.
1:03:30
You want to be faithful with what you know.
1:03:32
And as you're faithful with, you know, God is going to train you
1:03:34
along the way and you're going to learn along the way.
1:03:37
You're a pastor and you think you're not pastoring a real
1:03:39
church. God will have somebody call and
1:03:42
give you that so you can pursue that.
1:03:44
So it'll give you one more stone of remembrance, one more stone
1:03:47
of confidence, one more place of Ed, I want you here.
1:03:52
You belong here. The affirmation of and doesn't
1:03:54
matter what you see or what you feel, you're supposed to be
1:03:58
here. And this is the church you're
1:03:59
supposed to pastor. And you just keep being faithful
1:04:02
no matter what you face. And we have quite a few of those
1:04:05
types of stories. For sure, one of the things that
1:04:08
you mentioned, the fact that, that, that you were surprised
1:04:11
that, you know, you weren't surprised that people came to
1:04:14
check out the services, but you were surprised that they came to
1:04:18
and they stayed. I think that part of the, you
1:04:21
know, this chair here is that the Lord actually caused people
1:04:25
to sit through the whole service and not walk away because every
1:04:29
time you'd get up, you would bang those chairs playing,
1:04:32
playing, playing, playing, playing.
1:04:33
So anytime anybody wanted to get up and get away, get out of the
1:04:37
row, those they would, they would step against the metal and
1:04:41
it would trip them, but also make a loud noise so everybody
1:04:44
would not get up through the whole service.
1:04:46
And they were just very attentive.
1:04:48
So I think that kind of brought up his courage to continue
1:04:51
because they're like, nobody's leaving.
1:04:53
Everybody's paying attention to me.
1:04:55
And I taught long. And I'm Yeah, you taught very
1:04:58
Yeah long and so so I think the Lord used those chairs to
1:05:02
establish the the work of of his doing and your encouragement.
1:05:08
Yeah. So anyway.
1:05:09
What do you think about my teaching?
1:05:11
I think you're great. Is that the Holy Spirit
1:05:12
speaking? Yes, the Holy Spirit says you're
1:05:17
great. Yeah, so great.
1:05:22
As a kid listening to the Bible studies, every service and you
1:05:25
know, the kids ministry was in the gym and that was the loudest
1:05:28
place you could possibly have the kids ministry where every
1:05:30
single class was these temporary walls with PVC pipe and maybe
1:05:35
some tarp in between. And it was just erupt with how
1:05:38
loud all the way from the little kids, probably first grade, at
1:05:43
least first to to 8th grade in that room.
1:05:46
And I just remember like it was, it was so much fun because as a
1:05:50
kid it was just non-stop loud and and crazy and you get in
1:05:54
trouble and like it was just what are you gonna do?
1:05:56
Like, you know, you can't hear, you can't like, anyways, there's
1:05:59
just a bunch of different things.
1:06:01
And I just remember though, in the school part of the cleaning
1:06:05
chairs was because it was growing so fast, like we had to
1:06:07
put force chairs in there that it was getting really tight.
1:06:11
The rows are getting really small and the Lord's obviously
1:06:14
doing something. I remember some of the people
1:06:16
meeting in those where I'd go and meeting in those chairs and,
1:06:20
and sitting in certain sections. I remember meeting Pastor Avant
1:06:23
before he was Pastor Avant for the first time.
1:06:25
And as a punk kid that I was, he was wearing some type of Chicago
1:06:28
Bears, sure. And I was just greeting people
1:06:32
and, you know, like, oh, man, I hate the Bears.
1:06:34
Go Dodgers. And he just looked at me like,
1:06:36
what in the world is this kid doing?
1:06:38
And we would have these interactions with people that
1:06:41
just by the grace of God, they stuck around.
1:06:43
And I got to get to know them as I grew up.
1:06:44
But all those growing pains for those of you who have kids, just
1:06:47
give them room. Give them room to be kids
1:06:49
because they will turn out OK, most of them.
1:06:54
And I just remember there were things that moments in that
1:06:57
school that would live in my mind forever, whether it was
1:07:00
trying to figure out how to to get food from the teachers
1:07:03
lounge because that's where one of the classrooms was and they
1:07:05
had the vending machines in the teachers lounge or trying to
1:07:08
figure out. I remember.
1:07:10
And I don't know if I don't know if we can share it.
1:07:12
Oh, I'm going to share it anyways.
1:07:13
There is but. We're going to find out.
1:07:14
Yeah, we had some people. We had some interesting people
1:07:16
that would come to the church in the early days.
1:07:19
I remember there was a guy, or maybe it was a gal, but someone
1:07:22
used to clip their toenails in the front row.
1:07:24
It was a guy. It was a guy.
1:07:25
Yeah, he did. It during, not while my teaching
1:07:27
and we're talking from here to the edge of the stage is how
1:07:30
close he was. It was a clip and you see it
1:07:32
flying through the air. I.
1:07:34
Mean it's a different time. It was a different time.
1:07:39
Then we had then we had a mom spread out a blanket in the
1:07:42
front row and start nursing her children in front of and I'm
1:07:45
like. I, I remember teaching, you
1:07:47
know, in this, the room this was in the very beginning, it was
1:07:50
less than 100 chairs out there. There couldn't have been more
1:07:52
than 30 people. You would know everyone, see
1:07:55
everyone. And over to my left, this lady
1:07:57
just groomed and started feeding her kid right while I'm teaching
1:08:00
in the front row. And I'm like, what is going on?
1:08:05
Like we've had so many of those moments, Like what is going on?
1:08:09
We've also had interpretive dancing to start off the
1:08:11
services. And so that was just upon
1:08:13
somebody who wanted to, you know, bless the people, but we
1:08:16
don't do that, you know, for Sunday service.
1:08:18
Yeah, without approval. They were like, what is going
1:08:22
on? He's dancing up there.
1:08:24
It was. It was good because we, we, we
1:08:27
were and, and many of you, we were going around the staff
1:08:30
looking at how many years you've been here and how many years
1:08:33
we've had this longevity. I know a lot of, I know there's
1:08:36
a lot of movement. I know there's a a transience in
1:08:39
the church, but there's also a lot of stability and a lot of
1:08:43
longevity that may get overlooked because the transient
1:08:46
gets the attention that people in and out and the changes in
1:08:50
the adding of services. But there is a lot of commitment
1:08:53
and longevity that it takes a lot to stay in one place for a
1:08:57
long time. It takes a lot of forgiveness, a
1:08:59
lot of agape love. It takes a lot of, hey, you
1:09:02
know, I've got to work this out because I may not like it or
1:09:05
this is from my edification. And it's a real blessing that
1:09:09
many, many did come and did stay.
1:09:11
And even being here in Aurora with Buckley and everything, I
1:09:14
had to learn that there will be people that come, but I only get
1:09:17
2 years with them. And so God would show me like I
1:09:20
got to give them the best two years possible.
1:09:22
They need to leave here stronger than when they first came.
1:09:26
And just knowing that this is they're passing through.
1:09:28
And so in a very real way, I have the privilege of serving
1:09:31
them. But I mean, we're, we're
1:09:33
probably cutting types short like, but there's a lot of
1:09:36
stories of God's faithfulness. There's so many stories we could
1:09:39
do multiple nights, but I think even with that thought of, I
1:09:42
only had so much time to be able to disciple the group that the
1:09:45
Lord would bring in and then send out really leads us into
1:09:48
the idea of we grew out of the school.
1:09:50
We, we wanted to purchase land. It wasn't able to be purchased.
1:09:54
The Lord had a different plan. We purchased this land.
1:09:56
The Lord came through in amazing ways.
1:09:58
But then we really had, there was a heart to, to bring radio.
1:10:01
Yeah, 24/7 to disciple people even when we weren't meeting in
1:10:04
church. And that was what would become
1:10:05
Grace FM. So if you want to speak a little
1:10:08
bit to how the Lord opened that door, Yeah, and started stirring
1:10:11
that up, I think that would be good to touch on tonight.
1:10:13
Yeah. I think as we're sharing this
1:10:15
big step of faith, I just feel a pause here because in between
1:10:17
the school and the first couple years of the building here in
1:10:22
the rapid growth that we experienced, it was very, very
1:10:25
rapid growth. I made a lot of mistakes along
1:10:28
the way. And you may not see that, you
1:10:30
know, standing in the pulpit and what God's doing, but I made a
1:10:33
lot of leadership mistakes. I made a lot of of like, like
1:10:37
not on purpose. I love the church.
1:10:39
And I don't want to say not on purpose, like I take
1:10:41
responsibility for those mistakes, but I love the church.
1:10:46
I love the people, but I'm also learning and and so I'm, I'm
1:10:50
processing everything and I'm I'm doing things that I was
1:10:53
taught not to do. Like, you know, Pastor Jeff
1:10:55
would always say, you know, back in the day, we can't say it
1:10:57
today, but don't read your own press clippings, right?
1:11:00
I basically don't don't pay attention to all the praise,
1:11:03
right, or all the activity. The church.
1:11:05
We were bust busting at the seams at the school and then we
1:11:08
literally doubled when we moved into the building.
1:11:10
It was unbelievable. I'd never experienced anything
1:11:14
like that in my life. But then I began to think that
1:11:16
maybe that was me and my teaching and now we've grown out
1:11:20
and and has nothing to do with me.
1:11:22
It's a work of God and I get to be a part of it.
1:11:26
But sometimes as we live our lives and we don't pay attention
1:11:30
to the inward manner, the integrity of our life, or we're
1:11:32
not sensitive Holy Spirit, we don't listen to our wives or
1:11:35
husbands, vice versa, we can make ourselves very unusable.
1:11:39
And I'm grateful through the years, especially in that season
1:11:41
moving into the building here, that God was very gracious and
1:11:45
brought me to a place of repentance and started turning
1:11:48
my heart back toward him, even though I hadn't moved very, very
1:11:51
far from him. But turning my heart back to him
1:11:53
because I really do want to be a part of this.
1:11:55
I may struggle about, you know, I may you and we may struggle
1:11:58
about where we belong. But like I'm here because of the
1:12:01
grace of God, he called me or there's no question, even though
1:12:04
I might doubt it or have emotions or whatever, There's no
1:12:07
question about that. And so going through that,
1:12:09
adopting to the, to the change, adding team members, adding
1:12:13
staff, adding men and women, that could really help with the
1:12:16
growing church. I grew up on Christian radio.
1:12:19
I had long commutes in California, Calvary Chapel,
1:12:23
Pastor Chuck Smith owned a radio station.
1:12:25
And that's how I was discipled. I, I couldn't go to school.
1:12:28
I was a teenage parent. We were already married, had to
1:12:30
work provide for my family. So I couldn't take that normal
1:12:34
route of going to school and getting equipped.
1:12:36
I had, I had Radio Colorado, Denver had radio, but it was
1:12:41
different. There was a Bible study, but
1:12:43
then a dude that would confuse you and then a guy that would
1:12:45
try to sell you something and another guy and it was just as
1:12:49
good as it could be. It wasn't what was on my heart.
1:12:52
And you match that with how prohibitively expensive it was
1:12:57
to be on radio. And every time we wanted to do
1:13:00
something new, they'd say, oh, the answer was always yes, you
1:13:03
know, yes, with a shaking of a hand.
1:13:05
And then where's the check? And then.
1:13:07
And so those of you that might know me, I'm very frugal.
1:13:09
So that began me thinking, Lord, I just began to say, Lord, it
1:13:13
would be so good if you give us a station that you just give us
1:13:15
a station. And radio in Denver is not
1:13:18
available. It's just never available.
1:13:21
And then we don't have any of the ends as a church.
1:13:24
We're not radio people to have any connections.
1:13:26
But the Lord knew. And we had made a relationship
1:13:29
with Way FM. If you guys were Way FM still on
1:13:31
the air in town, isn't it? So Way FM when they first came
1:13:34
to town, they needed help and support and we're like, we're
1:13:38
behind this. We're glad you're here.
1:13:40
And so we financially supported Way FM and I became good friends
1:13:43
with the manager and, and we started putting these little
1:13:46
clips on there and it was a great relationship.
1:13:48
But then that contract ended and they moved in a different
1:13:50
direction and I lost touch with the brother.
1:13:53
And I remember some things going on in his family couple years
1:13:56
later that I called him just to check in on him.
1:14:00
Hey, are you doing OK? How's your family?
1:14:02
How's your son doing? And as as we're talking and I'm
1:14:06
ministering to him, he says out of the blue, hey, Ed, are you
1:14:09
still wanting to buy a radio station?
1:14:11
Because I would always share my dreams with him.
1:14:13
Like it was so good that our church would own a station and
1:14:16
the other manager as well. But he said I said, yes.
1:14:19
And he says, well, this is confidential, but we're selling
1:14:21
ours. And I immediately how much and
1:14:24
he goes, well, I, you know, that's not my part.
1:14:26
I can put you in contact with the owner and, and you can go
1:14:29
from there. And I'm like, yes, put, put me
1:14:31
in contact with the owner. And that led to a series of
1:14:34
events where the Lord allowed us to purchase that station.
1:14:40
And there's a lot of things that came along with it.
1:14:43
But as as Pastor Joe had mentioned in his video, you know
1:14:49
exceedingly abundantly above all that you can think or ask in
1:14:51
Ephesians and to be steadfast and immovable, God gave us that
1:14:56
radio station. And when we say gave, I always
1:14:59
want you to remember that gave also equals money.
1:15:03
Like it wasn't like a free gift. It was back then.
1:15:07
What, what are we looking at 14 years ago?
1:15:09
Because we, Grace FM also has a birthday in December. 14 years
1:15:13
ago, we went on the air that gift that God gave that station
1:15:17
to us for $3.1 million back then.
1:15:21
And we didn't have that money because we had just moved into
1:15:24
the building. We're getting expanding and all
1:15:26
that staff. We didn't have that money, but
1:15:28
we had a little bit of it. We had a little bit of it.
1:15:30
And this is a great story. This is another gift that the
1:15:35
Lord would give because during that time I was talking to our
1:15:39
banker, we had a relationship with them and just seeing, you
1:15:41
know, what is it possible? And he said, well, you know, let
1:15:44
me check into it. At that same time, Pastor Chuck
1:15:47
Smith came to town and he was travelling back then with I
1:15:51
think the band Love Song. And he was here.
1:15:54
I'd never met him before. I was in my office and one of
1:15:57
the brothers that was with him came over and says, hey, Pastor
1:16:00
Chuck wants to talk to you. You got 10 minutes.
1:16:02
And I go, do I have 10 minutes? I'll be there before you're
1:16:04
there. And, you know, he was staying
1:16:07
over here in a mobile home plugged into an outlet.
1:16:11
We, we, we, we said that it, it might be a little dangerous to
1:16:14
stay in Aurora in a mobile home, but if that's what you want,
1:16:16
Pastor Chuck, you can do. And he says, yeah, that's what I
1:16:19
want. And so he was right over there
1:16:21
and he, he doesn't know me. I don't know him.
1:16:23
And he says, you know, tell me about the church.
1:16:25
And I'm so excited. Share with him the vision in
1:16:27
very short time. And he says, well, what God's,
1:16:29
what is God doing? I said, well, this radio station
1:16:32
and he completely changed his whole demeanor.
1:16:34
His eyes lit up and he says radio.
1:16:37
And I started giving him all the, the thing, all the
1:16:39
description and the money. He wanted to know the money
1:16:42
side. And I was sharing with him the
1:16:43
money and he stopped me. And he says, Ed, I really
1:16:48
believe Denver needs radio, this station.
1:16:52
So here's the information to my banker.
1:16:55
But if he can't help you, we'll help you.
1:16:57
And Denver radio will come to Denver.
1:16:59
I will give you the money in order to bring radio here.
1:17:03
And this banker happened to be our banker, and I'd already been
1:17:07
working with him. And we didn't need to do that,
1:17:09
but what God was doing was showing me at that phase in
1:17:13
life. So what, I'm in my 40s then and
1:17:15
we're moving forward. It was a, it was a sense of
1:17:18
respect where a complete stranger who is well esteemed
1:17:23
and a wise man and is not like doesn't do things very, you
1:17:30
know, capriciously. He doesn't just give, you know,
1:17:33
I think we would have needed about $2,000,000.
1:17:34
He just doesn't hand $2,000,000 to strangers that the Lord had
1:17:38
given this affirmation that God's established this church,
1:17:43
but that our vision for radio would, is what God wanted and
1:17:48
that he was going to make it happen.
1:17:49
He was going to make it happen with the however he wanted.
1:17:53
He was going to give us, he was going to give us the resources
1:17:57
we needed to get back on our, our feet.
1:17:59
So the Lord did that. And I, I remember one more thing
1:18:02
with radio was a lot of people were upset with me as a pastor
1:18:06
about radio and quite a few actually in that time period.
1:18:10
And they were upset because they would come and say, you know,
1:18:14
Ed, you're egotistical. You just want to make a name for
1:18:16
yourself and you're wasting like I, I and I, I remember I was,
1:18:20
but I was over already after a very humbling moment.
1:18:23
So I was ready. God had readied me for these.
1:18:25
And I said, you just got to trust me.
1:18:27
I'm telling you, it's one of those things I can't explain,
1:18:29
but I'm telling you this station will change and benefit every
1:18:33
real church in this city. It will benefit every real
1:18:36
believer. And it is not about me.
1:18:39
As a matter of fact, it's a net benefit for our church.
1:18:42
It's going to. And, and just it, it, it was a
1:18:44
test on my own because I had to check my own heart.
1:18:47
Like is this for me? Is it really just for us?
1:18:50
And it was not for us. It was for this city.
1:18:54
And as you look and you hear the feedback, and now we've since
1:18:57
expanded to the Springs and I've got an agent looking for us,
1:19:01
even looking for other stations down there.
1:19:04
But listening to the testimony of how God uses systematic
1:19:08
teaching and also making it available to other churches that
1:19:13
may have a smaller budget or smaller discretionary funds
1:19:17
where we're able to say we just need enough to pay the bills to
1:19:22
things aside. But we want you because I know
1:19:24
that God will grow your church. If people hear you, I know that
1:19:27
God will grow your church because they may not relate to
1:19:30
my teaching, but they'll relate to yours or they may not relate
1:19:32
to my background, but they'll relate to yours.
1:19:34
And we've just seen over the years the Lord do great things
1:19:38
through that little tool. And that was modern day
1:19:40
technology back then. That was the that was one of the
1:19:43
main ways MP3's hadn't taken off the iPod.
1:19:46
I was just beginning and that was one of the affirmations of I
1:19:50
brought you here for this purpose at and all those battles
1:19:54
you won. You know, it ends up how many of
1:19:56
you by wave hands have been impacted by Grace FM.
1:19:58
Just see. So just look around the room.
1:20:00
Keep your hands up, look around the room.
1:20:02
Do you think it was from the Lord?
1:20:03
I do. Yeah.
1:20:04
Amen. A little station doesn't just
1:20:11
impact Colorado. We cover just under 90%, a
1:20:15
little over 80% of Colorado, but it also impacts the world.
1:20:18
We get hundreds of thousands of listens throughout the world.
1:20:22
And I get a report every month of the different countries.
1:20:24
And you know, South Korea was one of the main countries for a
1:20:27
long time. Ukraine was a country for a long
1:20:29
time. I mean, it's amazing to see
1:20:31
what, again, the Lord wanted to do through this church, wants to
1:20:35
continue to do through this church.
1:20:36
But with that, let's start a few of those videos.
1:20:39
Let's just play all four of them back-to-back to back, and then
1:20:42
we'll close out with what the Lord's doing now and what he's
1:20:45
going to do in the future. So let's check out some of these
1:20:47
videos. Well, howdy, This is Pastor Dave
1:20:50
Pierce all the way from Fort Collins, Co And I just want to
1:20:53
say congratulations to Pastor Ed Taylor, Marie, the kids, your
1:20:58
staff and the whole congregation.
1:21:01
You guys have been a big blessing to us here in Fort
1:21:05
Collins. And I just want to say 25 years,
1:21:09
what an accomplishment. And we are so grateful for the
1:21:13
ministry of Grace FM. When we first moved here to Fort
1:21:17
Collins, our family and planted Calvary Fort Collins in 1997,
1:21:22
there wasn't a Grace FM. And so Pastor Ed, we pray for
1:21:26
you guys continually because the steps of faith that you've taken
1:21:31
and the Lord has used you to take to purchase the radio
1:21:35
station and put on the refresh conferences.
1:21:38
What a blessing you guys have been.
1:21:40
And so we're grateful for your friendship, your fellowship, and
1:21:44
the ministry that God has used you to lead and to grow.
1:21:48
What a blessing you guys have been to us.
1:21:50
And we're so grateful to be a part of the fellowship of
1:21:54
Calvary Churches and the ministry there in Aurora.
1:21:58
So congratulations once again, we're in my favorite hat for you
1:22:01
guys. God bless you guys and have a
1:22:05
wonderful, wonderful celebration.
1:22:07
God bless you. Hello, Calvary Chapel, Aurora.
1:22:15
We are your missionaries, mate and Tessa Marquardt in Myanmar,
1:22:18
in Asia. And we want to say
1:22:20
congratulations on 25 years. What an amazing accomplishment.
1:22:25
Pastor Ed, this is really something to be proud of.
1:22:28
And actually, you're an inspiration to us and our
1:22:31
ministry and all the faithfulness you've shown in the
1:22:36
church, the school, the radio station, It's amazing.
1:22:39
What God has. Done through you.
1:22:41
So we want to say congratulations and thank you
1:22:44
for being faithful. Yeah, Pastor Ed, when we came to
1:22:47
your church almost 20 years ago, I just remember having someone
1:22:52
who is a good teacher. And then when we started having
1:22:55
marriage problems, we just called you and you were there
1:22:57
for us. You've always been a.
1:22:58
Constant, steady in our lives and so we're so thankful to be a
1:23:02
part of. Calvary and to be a part of your
1:23:04
life. Thank you so much.
1:23:06
God bless you. We love you guys.
1:23:07
Bye, bye. Congratulations.
1:23:12
Hello, Calvary Church, this is Pastor Rudy from Calvary Chaplet
1:23:17
Downey. Congratulations on 25 years of
1:23:20
ministry. We've heard how God has used
1:23:23
your church to bless the community and pray.
1:23:26
He continues to do so as you teach and share Jesus with
1:23:29
others. Pastor Ed Marie, I cherish the
1:23:33
memories of those early ministry years with you.
1:23:36
Your servants hearts and dedication have always
1:23:38
encouraged me. Through challenges and growth,
1:23:42
God has been glorified in your lives.
1:23:45
There are still many blessings ahead.
1:23:48
Keep teaching God's word, staying focused on him like it
1:23:52
says in Psalm 66. Five, come and see the works of
1:23:56
God. He is awesome and is doing
1:23:58
towards the sons of men. Congratulations.
1:24:01
Amen. The Lord bless you all as you
1:24:03
celebrate all that he's done. Love you, Maranatha.
1:24:13
Wow. That was my original children's
1:24:15
ministry pastor back in Calvary Chapel, Downey, and he's still
1:24:19
serving the Lord faithfully. Blessing to our church and
1:24:22
blessing to our family. Pastor Jeff, my pastor passed
1:24:24
away earlier this year. And, and so it's, you know,
1:24:28
really Rudy's the one that poured into me.
1:24:30
You can thank him, you can thank God for him, you know, being put
1:24:33
in the children's ministry. That's where I learned most of
1:24:36
my ministry. And because kids, they don't
1:24:39
really care what you know, but they can tell if you, if you
1:24:42
love them and you care for them and then their parents can tell
1:24:45
that. And then you get that feedback
1:24:48
of I, you know, maybe, maybe, maybe, just maybe I'm in tune
1:24:53
with the Lord and I can be used that way.
1:24:56
Yeah, well, as we wrap up, this is coming to the end.
1:25:00
Where do we go from here? What's next for Calvary Church?
1:25:03
Yeah, well, we've come to announce that we're leaving.
1:25:06
No, I'm just kidding. Scratch.
1:25:12
I mean, we, we bought one way tickets, you know, and so we
1:25:20
want to be faithful here. We want to take good care of the
1:25:22
team, take good care of this church.
1:25:24
I mean, obviously we have space issues.
1:25:26
We've had space issues in this building and it's we've been
1:25:29
knocking, knocking, knocking and God just hasn't given us.
1:25:32
But that's how it was when we found this.
1:25:34
We were really frustrated and stuck.
1:25:37
You know, we'll probably add another service on Sunday to
1:25:39
make capacity and maybe some satellite campuses.
1:25:43
We've got some really cool stuff going on with worship with
1:25:46
Pastor Ian and Sean and trying to create a worship community.
1:25:50
And we've got just meet like that.
1:25:53
The team here is so strong and and it's afforded me
1:25:56
opportunities to do other types of discipleship.
1:25:58
And, and so, yeah, I want to stay faithful.
1:26:03
I mean, that's how we got here to be faithful.
1:26:05
And I want to stay faithful and usable.
1:26:07
And I think the Lord will show us what's in the future.
1:26:10
Amen. I think it's something to be
1:26:13
said to see how the Lord has used this fellowship, just
1:26:16
faithfully coming, faithfully serving, faithfully listening to
1:26:18
the Word and all the fruit that's come out of it from the
1:26:21
ministries, whether it's the pastors, community ministering
1:26:23
to regional pastors. But it's a refresh conference,
1:26:25
which sold out this year for the first time for people who are
1:26:29
serving in ministry, whether it's the missionaries all around
1:26:31
the world down at the mission. Well, yeah, things that got for.
1:26:34
And we're excited to see what the Lord wants to continue to
1:26:36
do, whether it's through Grace FM, whether it's through these
1:26:38
future campuses. We just have open hands and just
1:26:41
want to glorify the Lord. We want to be able to have our
1:26:44
hands up when the Lord's looking for someone faithful to do the
1:26:47
next thing he desires to do here in this world.
1:26:50
And I know that us being here and being faithful to teach the
1:26:53
Word and love Him and glorify His name is just going to open
1:26:56
up more doors for our church, more than we can ever possibly
1:26:59
imagine. Because like I said at the very
1:27:00
beginning, sitting here tonight and looking out at the room and
1:27:04
knowing how much the Lord has done and being able to have a
1:27:06
front row seat to His faithfulness, it's incredible
1:27:10
and it's amazing. And I'm just so excited for the
1:27:12
future of Calvary Church, and I hope you are too.
1:27:14
I appreciate you sharing before you know, I want that what there
1:27:18
has been a turn in our church and that is we've become a
1:27:22
greater resourcing church like our heart is to help other
1:27:25
churches and not just say it, but do it.
1:27:28
And you may not hear a lot about it.
1:27:29
It may not be public, but just know that that's the commitment
1:27:33
that this church has made. Like God has been so good to us
1:27:35
that there's an overflow in our lives.
1:27:38
There's an overflow of a variety of different ways that the Lord
1:27:42
allows us, whether it's conferences, support,
1:27:45
encouragement, There's a that that's that's your heart.
1:27:47
So when you think of the ties and offerings, you think of your
1:27:50
faithfulness, your worship money under the Lord, you know, it
1:27:52
helps here. It helps our community,
1:27:54
Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, uttermost parts of the earth.
1:27:57
But the future of the future is in the local church and these
1:28:01
young men and their families that are a few years behind me,
1:28:05
maybe getting the kind of support that I didn't get or
1:28:07
that I wanted or, and making sure that it's duplicated and
1:28:11
replicated. Because then when their cup
1:28:13
overflows, they're going to be helping.
1:28:14
And it multiplies the opportunities that this church
1:28:18
impacts. And we don't need to know about
1:28:20
and we don't need to put it on the screen and we don't need to
1:28:22
count it down. All we need to know is that
1:28:24
we've been faithful to the Lord and he'll take care of all the
1:28:27
details, whether it's in my role as a pastor, your role in
1:28:30
ministry. But I think the, the, the most
1:28:33
important thing I think of is that I appreciate, love it.
1:28:35
We love and appreciate you. It's a blessing to be a part of
1:28:38
this church. This is our church.
1:28:39
This is where our kids grew up. This is where we've been
1:28:42
discipled. This is where we grow.
1:28:44
This is where we fight the battles.
1:28:46
This is where this is where we've matured for 25 years.
1:28:50
We came very young at a level of maturity and now 25 years later,
1:28:55
Marie and I and our family is at a different level of maturity
1:28:58
because God has used you in our lives to help us grow in Christ.
1:29:01
So thank you for your faithfulness and your commitment
1:29:04
to the Lord, because we is always the language of ministry,
1:29:07
always. Amen.
1:29:09
Amen. Yeah, with that, we're going to
1:29:15
close out with some encouragement videos and Pastor
1:29:17
Ian and the team are going to come back up and close this out
1:29:19
with some worship. And then remember, we have free
1:29:21
ice cream and the memory booth. So please take some time, share
1:29:25
your memories, and if you have more questions, we're around,
1:29:28
but let's praise the Lord. Amen.
1:29:31
Well, hello Calvary Church in. Aurora, this is a Pastor
1:29:34
Fernando Ortiz with Mile High Calvary and we just want to wish
1:29:38
you guys a happy 25 year anniversary.
1:29:41
Pastor Ed and Marie and the entire staff at Calvary.
1:29:43
Aurora. We are ever so grateful for you
1:29:46
guys and your ministry, to our community, to our city, our
1:29:50
state. We're so blessed by you guys and
1:29:52
your church. I think of what Paul the Apostle
1:29:55
says in Ephesians when he says in chapter 1, verse 15 that I'm
1:29:59
always grateful for you, remembering you in my prayers
1:30:02
and we pray for you guys. We're grateful for you guys and
1:30:06
just celebrating with you from a distance.
1:30:09
It's just a blessing to see the ministry and how the Lord has
1:30:13
used you guys greatly in our. Community.
1:30:15
We love you. Dearly and a happy 25 year
1:30:18
anniversary. Congratulations, Calvary Aurora.
1:30:26
Wow, 25 years. You know, when I think of you
1:30:30
guys, when I think of Pastor Ed and Marie, I think about what we
1:30:36
read in the book of Acts. Great grace.
1:30:40
I see great grace upon your pastor, his wife, his family,
1:30:45
your church, and I want to encourage you that you pray
1:30:49
that. Pray that more than you've ever
1:30:50
prayed it before, that even more grace.
1:30:55
Grace is undeserved favor. You guys all know it.
1:30:59
It's favor that you don't deserve.
1:31:02
Start asking God for even more favor than the church has ever
1:31:07
seen before. And I want to just send my love
1:31:10
to you. Ed and Marie, we love you and I
1:31:13
want to pray a prayer over your fellowship.
1:31:16
I want to pray the prayer that Paul prayed.
1:31:19
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and
1:31:27
the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all as you walk into
1:31:32
all that God has for you in this coming year in Jesus name.
1:31:38
God. Bless you Calvary Church, this
1:31:40
is Pastor Tony Clark. And.
1:31:42
I am Jenice Clark, and you know what we want to say.
1:31:45
Happy anniversary to you. Yes, we do. 25 years of
1:31:50
incredible ministry. You've seen the good, bad and
1:31:53
the ugly and you're still standing so.
1:31:56
Still standing, yes, and no matter what, you have that great
1:31:59
wife Marie next to you who makes the most incredible carne asada.
1:32:04
But that's that's another thing ever.
1:32:06
Ever. Never.
1:32:07
But happy anniversary, God bless you guys.
1:32:10
Looking forward to hanging out with you and seeing you and
1:32:14
possibly eating some more. Connie Asada.
1:32:16
But once again. That's a side note, but happy
1:32:19
anniversary to you too. And the Calvary Church there.
1:32:22
Happy anniversary. Calvary Church pastor Ed and
1:32:29
Taylor family, we wanted to say congratulations and celebrate
1:32:34
with you on 25 years. That's incredible 20.
1:32:38
Five years of faithful. Fruitful ministry and I wanted
1:32:43
to say. Thank you We.
1:32:44
Have our church in Petaluma has been blessed and built up and so
1:32:49
encouraged through Pastor Ed and through you all in the ministry
1:32:53
there. We've got to come out to refresh
1:32:55
conferences. We've had Ed and Josh here and
1:32:59
it's just been such a blessing being connected to the work that
1:33:02
God's doing there. And so we're praying for you.
1:33:05
We're celebrating with you and what we're praying for is 25 or
1:33:11
more years of fruitful ministry. So recently we just learned from
1:33:15
Pastor Ed actually, we, we love the past, but we live the
1:33:19
future. And so the best is yet to come.
1:33:21
God bless you guys. We want to sing some songs with
1:33:30
you guys, but before we do that, we actually have a song.
1:33:36
It's a formative song for this church.
1:33:37
We've, I don't think we've ever sang it actually as a church,
1:33:42
but I think it's a really formative song for the tailors.
1:33:46
And so we want to sing this song.
1:33:49
I want to start crying so you guys can sing along.
1:33:52
The lyrics will be up there. We're just going to sing the
1:33:55
verse and chorus a couple times. But I know this was a formative
1:33:58
song for them to take a step of faith.
1:34:02
You know, we get to celebrate God's faithfulness because of
1:34:06
the obedience of the Taylor family and we get to see all
1:34:10
that God has done. I've been able to be here for
1:34:13
about 20 years to see all that God has been doing, and it's an
1:34:16
amazing thing, such a privilege. And so we're going to sing the
1:34:21
song. Feel free to sing along with us
1:34:23
if you pick up on the chorus. I built my house here alongside
1:34:49
this mountain, this rugged mountain that stands so tall.
1:35:01
I've had a good life above the lowlands.
1:35:09
It's more than I asked for, less than I dreamed.
1:35:17
I've often heard a voice called down to me.
1:35:26
If you'd climb higher, you'd find wondrous things to see.
1:35:33
But the way is steep, and a storm may come for such a time
1:35:44
as is, isn't it much too great a risk?
1:35:50
I've never flown from the edge of a Cliff, never walked on the
1:35:56
water. But if I turn away, how will I
1:36:03
know what I have missed? Have I waited all of my life for
1:36:10
such a time as is? Let's see that course one more
1:36:16
time before such a time as is. Is it a much too great a risk?
1:36:25
I've never flown from the edge of a Cliff, never walked on the
1:36:31
water. But if I turn away, how will I
1:36:37
know what I have missed? I've waited all of my life for
1:36:45
such a time as is. It's going to stand together.
1:36:53
We're going to sing these songs, worship the Lord here in this
1:36:56
place. Let's see the shoe rest.
1:37:24
Jesus is mine. He's been the 4th man in the
1:37:32
fire, time after time, born of his spirit, washed in his blood.
1:37:48
And what he did for me on Calvary is more than in love,
1:37:56
missing out. Who I trust in God, my Savior,
1:38:02
the one who will never fail. He will never fail.
1:38:17
I trust in God and I say you're the one who will never.
1:38:28
He will never fail. Perfect sumnation, always.
1:38:49
I know thee tomorrow, so did my stuff.
1:38:58
So this is my story, this is my song.
1:39:05
I'm praising my rising King and tell you all the time I trust in
1:39:19
God. I trust in you, I trust with
1:40:06
God. Faithful and true.
1:40:14
You say God, I sought the Lord and I sought the Lord, and he
1:40:20
heard and he answered. I sought the Lord and he heard,
1:40:26
and he answered. I sought the Lord and he heard
1:40:30
and he answered. That's why I trust Him that you
1:40:35
sing it out. Sing it out.
1:40:37
I sought the Lord, that's why I trust Him, that's why I trust
1:40:56
Him. I sought the Lord and he heard,
1:41:00
and he answered. I sought the Lord and he heard
1:41:05
and he answered. I saw the Lord and he heard and
1:41:10
he answered. That's why I trust Him.
1:41:13
That's why I saw, Oh, I saw the Lord and he heard and he
1:41:19
answered. I saw the Lord, and he heard and
1:41:24
he, I trust Him. That's why I trust in God, I
1:41:36
said. I saw the Lord, and he heard my
1:42:13
cry, and he answered. I saw the Lord and he heard, and
1:42:23
he answered. I saw the Lord and I trust Him.
1:42:48
That's why I trust Him. That's why I trust Him.
1:43:28
Would you lift your voice tonight and see that I trust.
1:43:31
I trust in God. One more time I trust how I
1:43:51
trust in God, who will never, He will never fail.
1:44:10
And that's our testimony tonight.
1:44:13
Amen. Amen.
1:44:19
Yeah. Well, as we move forward into
1:44:21
the future, don't worry, there's ice cream in the very near
1:44:24
future here. But before that, there's a song
1:44:27
that we want to share with you guys, a new song we haven't
1:44:29
shared with you guys yet we're really excited about.
1:44:31
And this was kind of born out of our time through Exodus, as
1:44:33
we're going through Exodus with Pastor Ed on Wednesdays and
1:44:36
considering the people of Israel.
1:44:38
And the very first song found in the Bible, it's the song of
1:44:41
deliverance after the Red Sea parted.
1:44:44
But just before that song, these people were freaking out.
1:44:46
They had this moment where they're caught between this
1:44:48
raging army and this raging sea, and there's no seeming way out.
1:44:54
And God delivers them. He shows them, I am your
1:44:56
deliverer. And they make it to the other
1:44:58
side and they cannot contain their praise.
1:45:01
They burst into praise. And I've heard it said before
1:45:04
that that that praise was valuable, but it would have been
1:45:07
even more valuable had it been on the other side of the Red
1:45:10
Sea, right? Had they trusted in the
1:45:12
beforehand that they knew called us to this point.
1:45:15
God's not going to leave us here to die.
1:45:16
We can praise him now before the miracle even comes and that
1:45:21
praise is valuable and the majority of us are are in a
1:45:24
season of waiting right. God's time is seldom our timing,
1:45:27
so often times we're waiting. But how, how awesome is it that
1:45:30
we can bless the heart of God as we're in the season before the
1:45:34
deliverance comes, before the healing, before that miracle
1:45:37
that we would just raise our hands and say, God, I trust you
1:45:40
right now in the waiting. I don't know what this is going
1:45:42
to look like, how this circumstance is going to unfold,
1:45:45
but it doesn't matter because I trust you're the king of the
1:45:47
universe and I can trust you with the outcome.
1:45:50
So that's kind of the heart behind this song.
1:45:51
We hope it blesses you guys. Go to take an open door.
1:46:20
You can't find a way to make it out of it.
1:46:24
It's going to take a miracle. Ready to back, It's already
1:46:30
done. Ready, waiting.
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Troubles are cherry chasing and acting.
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They back me up against some agency.
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Faith is knowing that you still rescue.
1:47:05
So I believe it. Though I can't see praise in the
1:47:11
way that shit like it's already gone and praise and the way they
1:47:21
sing. Praise in the way they trust for
1:47:31
the trial is gone, but shit like it's already.
1:47:51
Oh my soul number all his mighty teeth is only can raise the and
1:48:01
only we can park the Oh my soul oh that is within me See only he
1:48:15
can raise the only he can part of the sea.
1:48:22
Praise in a waiting sing before the miracle comes worship like
1:48:31
it's already done raising the waiting crazy the waiting traps
1:48:36
before the trial is come worship like it's already done.
1:48:49
Crazy, crazy the waiting the snow O my soul and learn all his
1:49:07
mighty deeds and only raise the dead only he can part the sea.
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Best of all my soul. But all that is within me sea is
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only can raise the dead Only he can part the sea.
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Oh, pray, I'm going to pray, Sing it one more time.
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I'm going to pray in the waiting.
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Sing before the miracle comes. But like it's already done.
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Pray I'm praising the waiting hey.
1:50:10
Man God bless you guys. Such a great time with you guys
1:50:12
tonight, remembering everything. Hey, did you guys write that?
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We did. Yeah.
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Yeah. Good job.
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Good job. Thank you, Pastor Ian 2, for
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pressing through on that song. I can't tell you how many that
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and I, I listened to the version that Crystal Lewis recorded and
1:50:31
how many times that song pressed me and took me off of the edge
1:50:35
of just like, I don't think I can do this.
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I don't think I want to do this. And just a special gift.
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Thank you. Bible says this.
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For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus
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Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is
1:50:48
named. That He would grant you
1:50:50
according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with
1:50:53
might through His Spirit in the inner man.
1:50:56
That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
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That you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to
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comprehend with all the Saints what is the width and the
1:51:05
length, the depth and the height to know the love of Christ,
1:51:10
which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the
1:51:13
fullness of God. And now to him who is able to do
1:51:17
exceedingly abundantly above all that we can think or ask
1:51:22
according to the power that works in us, to Him be the glory
1:51:25
in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all the ages, world
1:51:30
without end. And the church would say Amen
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and Amen. Lord, thank you for tonight.
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We worship you, we celebrate you, thank you, God, that we can
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be a part of a very small part of the huge work you're doing on
1:51:43
the earth today. And so keep us usable, Lord,
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keep us in a place of grace, mercy and love.
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And may we experience, Lord, the fullness of your love day by day
1:51:54
in Jesus name, Amen. God bless you guys.
1:51:58
We pray that you've been encouraged by this Bible study
1:52:00
delivered live from the sanctuary of Calvary Church.
1:52:03
For prayer, call us at 87730 grace that's 877-304-7223.
1:52:13
To listen to this message in its integrity or to join us for our
1:52:16
live stream services, visit us online at Calvary Co dot Church
1:52:22
or download our free Calvary Church app.
1:52:25
Be blessed as you worship Jesus this week.