This sermon emphasizes the importance of wholehearted devotion to God, drawing inspiration from the dedication of persecuted believers worldwide. It highlights the need to surrender our lives completely to God, even in the face of challenges and risks, and to be willing to follow Him wholeheartedly, like the martyrs and heroes of faith. The speaker shares a personal testimony of transformation and calls for a deeper commitment to God's calling and purpose.

Would you join me as we pray? Father, we pause, Lord, to acknowledge that we, living here in America, sometimes forget and take for granted the freedom that we have to gather as we do tonight. And we also take for granted the truth that there are millions of Jesus followers in this world who gather together to worship you and learn your word at the risk of their own lives. And so, Father, we lift a prayer to you for those around the world who are persecuted for their faith in ways that we only read about or hear about in a video like this. Yet we are united with them, and we lift them up to you. God, I am moved by the prayer of this young girl in Vietnam who says, pray for us that we will be faithful to the end. God, we pray for your church around the world that, indeed, whether in times of peace and prosperity or times of desperate persecution and difficulty, that your church would remain faithful to you, that you would strengthen your church, that you would orchestrate governments, leaders, kings, prime ministers, whatever the case may be, who will come to know you, who will create climates that are conducive to the spread of the truth of Jesus Christ, your gospel in the world. Lord, we lift up our brothers and sisters to you and pray for their protection, for their faithfulness to you, and that your light will shine brightly through them. And we pray it in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Thank you for joining us in that prayer. I'm going to ask Ginny Stetson if she will join me. Ginny is part of our Love Expresses ministry here, worship and arts. But she's also an admin on our team. And in August, she sent me an email and said there's this guy who's going to be in the United States. I really think you should consider having him come and speak on a Wednesday night. And she sent me a link to his website. And so I hit that link thinking, OK, who is this guy? And I listened to a couple of sermons from Pastor Scott Hines in Northern Ireland. And I wrote her back and said, I think you are correct. We should have him come and be with us. And so I'm going to ask Ginny to introduce Pastor Scott Hines, our guest speaker tonight, and tell him a little bit how you met and your trip that you took with Pastor Scott in the summer. Well, I was gone for about two weeks from my job here working for Pastor Terry. And he's here right now. So I just had to say that. Anyways, I went for about nine days to Haiti. And Scott went with us and a lady that I know from Florida, Joyce Gilpin, we all went to Haiti. And I actually have some pictures that I would like to show. There are two pictures of little boys that live across the street from a missionary, our missionary friend Judy Foster. And one of them is Maxwell. And Scott got to pray over him. We got to pray over him one evening during the day. And then there's another picture of Maxwell and Steven. And yeah, so they really touched our hearts, those two little boys. But anyways, I met Scott in Haiti and came back and talked to Pastor Rob. I'm like, Timberline really needs to hear him speak and give his testimony. I do want to say this, that every time I listen to him preach, I want more of God. There's something God really speaks through him. So open your hearts tonight, because he has something, God has something to say to us as a church. And I'm very excited for you guys to hear him. Awesome. Would you give a warm welcome to Pastor Scott Hines as he comes? Thanks. Wow. Evening. Still a little bit jet lagged, I should say, at top of the morning to you, because in Northern Ireland, it's the morning time. It's an absolute joy to be here tonight. And I really thank Pastor Rob, truly, for this opportunity to be able to speak to you guys tonight. I really do. Now, if you can't understand me, just nudge the person beside you and say, what is he talking about? They might know. You never know. I'm not posh like Mr. Jeff Lucas. He's an Englishman, us Irish, we're just mere peasants. So if I can't articulate a message like Jeff tonight, please forgive me. Amen. It's really good to be here. And I was in Oklahoma for five days, ministering there. And what a joy it was just to be able to minister to God's people and to encourage them. And here I am in Colorado, first time in wonderful Colorado. It's great. And hopefully not the last. I just want to pray, and then I shall share what God has put in my heart. A lot of the times, I don't really know what God's going to say. I do prepare, and I do seek his face. But a lot of the times, even back home in church, I would sit there, and I have something already prepared or structured. And then just before I get up, God says, I want you to speak something else. That's quite challenging. It really is. And so I don't really know what he's going to say tonight, but I know that God will speak to us. We believe that, don't we? That God speaks. And I just want to pray, even now, if we can, still our hearts, and just ask our God, the God of our salvation, to speak to every one of us, and that we would hear what the Spirit has to say. That's important, that we hear what he has to say, not what I've got to say, but what God has to say. Father, we thank you, God, for your love and your kindness. We thank you, God, for the day that you brought us out of darkness into your glorious light. We thank you, God, for the day that you intervened in our lives, because, God, we were walking the road that leads to destruction. And God, in your mercy, God, you called us out of that place. And we thank you, God, tonight that, as the Scripture says, he that has the Son has life. God, we have life this evening, and we can rejoice in the life of God. Lord, I pray tonight that, indeed, you would anoint me and give me unction from on high. I pray, God, that you would take this weak man, and, God, you would make me your oracle this evening. Lord, you know every person in here. You know their hearts, where they're at. And, God, I pray that, indeed, that their hearts would be receptive to hear what you have to say. God, we need you. Even as we sung earlier, Lord, we need you. We need more of you, more of you, more of your power, more of your presence in our lives, God. Bless us, God, in Jesus' name. Amen. One Scripture I just want to start with, and it's in the book of Revelation, chapter 12. And it's verse 11. And the Scripture says, and they overcame him, or the wicked one, or the devil, by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony. And they did not love their lives to the death. I just want to share a little bit of my story, how I came to Christ, and even a little bit of the church and what we're doing back home in Northern Ireland. I was brought up, born into a time which was called in Northern Ireland as the Troubles. During the early 70s, and for 30 years, there was great conflict in Northern Ireland. I'm sure that some of you guys tonight would have seen the newscasts regarding the violence. I was brought up in a Protestant home in Northern Ireland in a place called Portadown. And I never knew or had any association with a Roman Catholic, because we were segregated. We were separated. Protestants lived on one side, and Roman Catholics lived on the other side. And I suppose as a young boy, I was taught that they were the enemy. They were the enemy of the Protestant people of Northern Ireland. And I had lost a few relatives at the hands of Roman Catholics or even the IRA. And so as a young boy, this just instilled a great hatred inside my soul for the Roman Catholic people of Northern Ireland, and specifically the IRA. And so I can remember I aspired to be like the Protestant paramilitaries or the Protestant terrorists. I think today of young kids in this land, and they have posters of football players on their walls, or hockey players, or basketball players. I had posters of terrorists, men with masks and guns. That's what I wanted to be. I wanted to be like these guys. I wanted to go out and harm, and shoot, and so forth, and so on. And that was instilled inside me within the home and my peers, and so forth, and so on. I was brought up in a working class home. We didn't have a lot. There wasn't much to do when I was a kid. So out of boredom, I began to experiment with certain things. I began to sniff petrol, nail varnish remover, boot polish, anything I could get my hands on just to get a buzz, just to get a high, just to escape, so to speak. That began to grip my life. And on a few occasions, you could say I overdosed on that. I remember one time I had taken too much. I was maybe 11 or 12 years old. And I collapsed on the concrete. I was somewhere on my own. And I remember I came around, and I couldn't move my body. I couldn't even flicker my eyelids. And all of a sudden, I saw another me begin to leave my body. And I began to panic a little bit when I saw that. And I thought to myself, I'm dead. I thought to myself, I am dead, and I'm going to hell. Because I knew I was a sinner. I had went to Sunday school when I was a child. My mother had sent me to Sunday school, and they had sowed the word of God into my heart. Thank God for Sunday school teachers, or kids workers, or children's pastors, or whatever. They had put the word of God inside my soul at a young age. But I knew that I was going to hell. And I began to think to myself, my family, my friends, I'll never see them again. I'm going to hell. And I cried out to God, and I said, God, please don't let me die. Please don't let me die. And as soon as I said that, I came around, and I woke up. And whatever way I had fallen, I had damaged my arm. And I picked myself up, and that was a scary experience, believe me. But yet the next week, I was back doing the same thing. You see, the Bible says this, he that commits sin is a servant of sin, or a slave. And I was in bondage to this stuff. So I began to mature a little bit, began to do other things, smoke and drink and so on. Began to gamble, it was all about me. I totally disrespected my parents. No respect for them whatsoever, didn't care about them, only cared about me and bringing pleasure into my life. You know, let me say this firstly. The things of this world are only for a season, and that's the truth. And we know that the devil comes to steal, kill, and to destroy. That's what he comes to do, and he was doing a thorough job in my life. When I was 18, I joined the British Army. I thought, I'll get away from everything. I'll get away from the violence and the hatred and the lifestyle. And I joined the British Army, and thus began a bit of a nightmare because I was introduced to drugs then. It was quite silly of me taking drugs as a soldier because if I was caught, then I would have been put into jail. I didn't get caught, but the whole rave scene or clubbing scene in the UK was taking off then, and I had to be part of that. I always had to be part of what was happening. I always was part of the in crowd or the cool crowd. And if there was anything new or anything happening, I wanted that, and I always did more than anyone else. I had to have more, and I began to do drugs. I began to do ecstasy and amphetamines and LSD and marijuana and all that sort of stuff, and I began to enjoy this. I began to go to these clubs and take all sorts of drugs, and everybody loved each other. The drug of choice was ecstasy, and it didn't matter if you were a Catholic or Protestant. If you were in a club, you just loved each other. That was a total lie from the pit of hell. I left the Army at 21, and I began to really go wild big time. And because of the abuse and the daily consumption of drugs, I began to lose the plot, basically. Mentally, I began to have a bit of a mental breakdown, and I remember one particular night, I'd been up taking drugs for a couple of days, and I was in a particular club, and all of a sudden, I remember I was in the midst of the dance floor, and the strobe light, there's plenty of lights in here tonight, by the way, the strobe light pulled me into the dance floor, and these people were nudging me so that the strobe light would get ahold of me. So this is where I'm thinking here, and over across there was a friend of mine, and he was right against this quite large speaker, and Satan was telling him a message through the speaker. That's what I was thinking, and I thought to myself, I'm not going near that, there's something not right, and all of a sudden, I looked down in my chest, and it was as if my heart was literally protruding out of my skin, and I thought to myself, this place is hell, I'm gonna die, I need to get out of this place, and I remember they were serving water and Coke at a counter, and I made my way towards that counter, and I jumped over the counter, I don't know what the girls thought, or whoever was serving Coke or water, I just had to get out of that place, we were two or three stories up, I saw the window, I thought to myself, I'm going out that window, praise God, there were bars on the window, I had to go down the stairs, I remember I went outside, and there was two policemen outside, and I could hear them talking in demonic voices, I thought to myself, this isn't good, so this is where I was, this is where my head was, I went home that night, and I remember my dad was up all night waiting for me, and he was quite worried, and I asked him for a cigarette, and he gave me a cigarette, and it was a different brand to the box that he had, and I thought, he's been sent by Satan to poison me, there's poison in this cigarette, so by then I thought to myself, this isn't good, mentally you're not in a well place, you're not in a good place, and I thought I'm gonna have to stop this, and I eventually did, I stopped hanging around with these guys that were into the drug scene, and I went from one extreme to the other, I went from the drugs to a group of guys that loved to drink, you know, I was chasing something, you know, someone has said there's a God-shaped hole in every one of us that only God can fill, and let me tell you, I was trying to fill this hole in my life, but every single morning after the night before, I really felt empty, I felt a void and an emptiness in my life, so maybe something over here will do the trick, so I began to drink a lot, the local bar called me sleepy because, I mean, I had to fall on the floor to be happy, you know, I couldn't have one, I had to have 20, I would come home after a night out, and I would decide to put the oven on and go to bed, on a few occasions I did that, and wake up the next morning and the hamburgers are still cooking away after six or seven hours, and I was in a rush, it wasn't a pleasant sight, believe me, smoke everywhere, but you know something in the midst of all that, God had a plan, God had a plan, he had a plan for my life, I didn't know it, but he had a plan, I just want to move forward a lot here, 28 years old, life's going nowhere, I thought to myself, my sister had emigrated to Australia, and I thought to myself, I'm going to get away from the bitterness and the hatred and from the drugs and the drink and the lifestyle, and I decided I would borrow 3,000 pounds, I don't know what that is in dollars, maybe 5,000 dollars in 1999, and I'll do a runner, that was my plan, I'll just flee, and within two months it was gone, I blew it, I'd gambled it, I'd drunk it, I'd been doing drugs again, and as the money was dwindling away I thought to myself, I'll use the Christian life as a way out, but unbeknown to me, that was the way God was drawing me, God was speaking to me, and there was a guy that was converted a few months ago that lived across the road from me, and I would go over to him and speak to him about God, I'd have my Coke can, half of it was full with vodka, and I would talk to him about Jesus, even when I was out going to clubs and there were people outside evangelizing, I would take the tracts, put them in my pocket, maybe talk to them about God, I would say, I believe in God, but don't you know that the Bible says that the devils believe in God? I wasn't following him, and so anyways, all the money's gone, remember it was September of 99, and I had to borrow money from my brother to get some drink from the off license, from the bar, and it dawned on me what I'd done, I'd blown my chances, I'd blown my chances of a new start, and all of a sudden I heard a voice, what about Jesus? And I thought to myself, you know, what about Jesus? Maybe that's the way forward. Now I was pretty drunk, that's an understatement, I was intoxicated, I could hardly walk, and I thought to myself, I'll make my way across the road to this guy's apartment, and I'll just talk to him about God, and I remember I walked across, and I mean, I was like this, and I got to the stairs of his apartment, and I remembered distinctively, I'll never forget it, I heard a voice, and it said to me, away home to your bed, away home and get some sleep, you can see him another time, and I knew who it was, I knew that it was the devil, I knew that it was the father of lies, that's what the Bible calls him, the devil is the father of lies, the scripture says he was a liar from the beginning, he always will be a liar, and I knew it, and I said, I'm not listening to you, devil, and I remember I kept going onwards up the stairs, and I knocked the door, and this guy opened the door, and I broke down in tears, and he said, what's wrong? I said to him, I haven't paid the rent in six months, I haven't paid the electric in, I don't know, how many months, I wasn't eating food, I didn't have any coal to heat the fire, and so on, and I blew all this money, and he said, come on in, and he brought me in, and began to share a little bit of the gospel to me, and he said to me, do you wanna get saved, do you wanna have a relationship with Christ, and I said I do, and I remember I got down on his floor, I'll never forget it, I got down on his floor, and when I got down on that floor, I was completely oblivious to him being there, and even talking to me, because when I closed my eyes, I saw God Almighty on his throne, I saw, as the Bible says, a holy God, and God spoke to me, and God said to me, I can't accept you the way you are, and instantly, I could feel, as it were, a snake inside me, 28 years of depravity, 28 years of rebellion and iniquity, I could feel it, and God was saying to me, I can't accept you the way you are, because I am holy, I am a holy and perfect God, but I will accept you through my son, Jesus, and man, did I begin to cry when I heard that, and I began to wail, wail, I mean, there's slurpers coming out of my mouth, and I'm broken on the floor, and this guy's trying to talk to me and lead me in some sinner's prayer, I don't even know that he's there, because I'm communing with God here, and just in a simple way, I just called on the Lord to forgive me, I called on the God of heaven to have mercy upon me, I don't even remember what I said, I couldn't even speak it from my mouth, because I was crying, I was wailing that much, but don't you know, the Bible says it's with the heart that man believes on the righteousness, and I called upon God almighty to forgive me, and all I can say is this, that instantly, instantly, God lifted the lid of my mind, and I heard the voice, I am alive, I am real, and I felt and sensed the very spirit of the living God enter me, I felt the love of God, I felt the peace of God, I felt the joy of God, I felt God enter my being, and I felt that sin, and that unrest, and the turmoil, I felt it go, I was born again, glory to God. The Bible says, Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter five, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, all things have passed away, behold, all things have become new, and I got down, friends, I got down on my knees a drunkard, I got down on my knees a fornicator, a gambler, I got down on my knees a sinner, but I got up a new creation in Christ Jesus, I got down drunk, and I got up sober. Isn't that wonderful? God's a God of miracles, I got down, I could hardly walk, because I was that drunk, and I got up sober, he did something wonderful, he did something perfect, he did something new, I felt clean, I got up and I felt clean, and I began to dance about, this guy's flat, he must have thought to himself, what has he taken now? But I tasted of the heavenly gift. His counsel to me was, you know, read your Bible, and pray and go to church, and I thought, not a problem. I remember I left his flat, or his apartment, and I went down the stairs, and I'll never forget this. I heard a voice, and the voice said, look up, and there was this little bird that followed me the whole way home, just above my head. I don't know the significance of that, but I'll never forget it. And I tell you something, I felt clean, and I felt a spring in my step when I left that place. And so I finally found myself in the church, and I remember the pastor saying that, God has called you to preach, God has called you to be an evangelist, and me, you know, I used to choose people to pray, to open or close, and I would always say, please don't pick me, don't pick me. I would have a little prayer rehearsed, because I felt inadequate, I left school at 15, didn't finish my education. I would love to do what he's doing, but I couldn't do it. You know, with God, all things are possible. He chooses the weak things of this world, and the imperfect things, and the despised things, and the base things, doesn't he? God can use anybody, God can use anybody in this place tonight, all that God is looking at is a vessel, a vessel that will go into the highways and the byways, a vessel that will go and declare the good news of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, because as Paul says, it is the gospel of Christ, which alone is the power of God unto salvation. It is the gospel, it is the blood. I read it earlier on, we overcome the wicked one by the blood of the lamb, and the word of our testimony. Thank God for the blood of Jesus, amen. Thank God for the blood of Jesus, because as John says, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin, and continues to cleanse us from all sin, hallelujah, that the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, hallelujah that the blood never loses its power, it never loses its power, friend. Isn't that wonderful? That's good news. Praise God when we fail, and when we falter, the Lord's there to forgive us, and to cleanse us, and to raise us back up again, amen. Glory to God. And so, I began to do some ministry. Didn't even know how you preach. Pastor said to me, you're preaching one night, and I thought, well, how do you do that? Well, God gave me a word, and I remember my first message was on David Goliath, and it went like this. David Goliath, amen, hallelujah, praise the Lord, amen, hallelujah. And David went down the hill, hallelujah, praise God, doesn't God good, praise the Lord, hallelujah, glory to God. I haven't got it all going on now, but God's been teaching me some things, and I had the joy of just going out to different places to minister the word of God in Europe, and I went to Australia for a few years. It's amazing, I borrowed all that money off the bank to go to Australia, and then God finally sent me there. I spent a few years ministering out there with the families of God in Australia, and then God called me home to Ireland to plant the church. And we have a lot of churches in our town, and I sort of questioned that, and I said, God, there's plenty of churches, why do you need me to go home? But we believe there's a people that we can reach that no one else can reach. And the church, it's a new church plant, I planted it three years ago, and just a small bunch of people, but there's unity in our midst, and God blesses that unity, he blesses that one accord. God is calling us to reach over to the other side. Those people that I used to hate and despise, he's calling us to reach them. And there's no evangelical witness in there, there's no one in there, and God is calling us to go. And that's quite a challenging, difficult thing, because that particular place has been a hotbed of violence for many, many years, really has, outside of our city. And there's been lots of riots and shootings and all sorts. And so, going in there, there's gonna be repercussions, there's gonna be consequences from my own kind, and from them. I might get my windows put in, who knows? I don't know, but God's calling me to go. And you see, I'm a God pleaser, not a man pleaser, amen? That we are called to please God, and if God tells us to do something, we'll have to do it, we'll have to go. And so, that's what's happening with us at the moment in Ireland. And I encourage you, I call for prayer, please pray for us, please pray for the work of Pillar Christian Church. Pillar, there you go, we'll have a pillar to our left, and a pillar to the right, one at the back, and another here. And that's what we want to be, a pillar, a support, a support for the local community. And so, I call for prayer, and please remember us when you're praying, because literally, as I said to the pastor earlier, not to the same extreme, but it's like planting a synagogue amongst the Arabs in the Gaza Strip. That's what it's like for us to do that, and so it's quite daunting. But if God's with us, if God's with us, and I believe that God is with us, no devil in hell will stop us, amen? No devil in hell, no scheme of man is able to thwart the church, because Jesus said, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Praise God this evening, church, that he's building his church, and except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain. And I thank God that God is building the house, because if my hands were on it, it would fall apart, and it would crumble. And so, praise God this evening that he is the head of the church. He is the head of Pillar in Portadown, Northern Ireland. He is the head of Timberline in Colorado. He is the head, and glory to God that he is the head. Praise God. We need him at the helm, don't we? We bless his name, we really do. Do you know something? I just want to share a few thoughts in closing here, and from the scripture that I just shared at the beginning, that we overcome the wicked one by the blood of the lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. And just that last part really resonated just after watching that video. And do you know something? Just before I came out here, I bought myself a new Bible, and I came across a book in the shop, and it was a powerful book about those who have been martyred in China. And I began to flick through the pages, and many from this land were martyred during the Boxer Rebellion. We've all heard of that, have we? And there was a man from my land, and he was martyred along with his family. And you could see a picture of him in the book, and the story goes that they were caught, and they were brought before some governor of a particular province. And as they were bringing this family in into the courtyard of this palace, the story goes, because I think a local man was able to escape, they saw heads on spears or spikes of other missionaries, and blood was everywhere. And this man of God, this hero, and by opinion, they dragged him to sever his head. And as they dragged him, he preached the gospel. He preached the gospel, and that touched me. And I sat there in that place on my own, and I could feel the emotion. I could feel the tears rising to my eyes, and I thought to myself, there is a hero of the faith, and he's unknown. We've never heard about him, but yet there's plenty of big names and neon lights in this nation, and they're splashed across the television screens. And here's a man, right until the end, like Paul, I've fought a good fight, I've finished the course, I've kept the faith. I will not renounce Christ. He is my savior. He died for me. He went to the cross that I might have life. If he give his life for me, should I not give my life for him? And he did. I want to encourage you, church, today. We need to glean something from these people. We need to glean something from the heroes of faith. In Hebrews 11, some of them were sun and two, the scripture says. They were destitute. They lived in caves. They were mocked and scourged and stoned. They are true heroes. And if they did that, I believe God wants to invoke, in these days within his church, a passion, a greater passion and desire to live for Christ and to go out and to preach the glorious gospel of Christ, to declare Christ and proclaim Christ to the people around us, in the workplace, in the hospitals, in the family homes, wherever we go, that we will be truly light and salt in a dark place, amen. Glory to God, that we would be captivated and dominated by the Holy Ghost, that he would control every part, every nook and cranny, every part of our lives would be dominated and possessed and controlled by the living God. Because listen to me, church, we do not belong to ourselves. We belong unto him. We belong unto him, for he has bought us or purchased us or redeemed us by his very own blood. I am not mine, I am his, and he is calling his people and telling his people to go, to go. He's looking at a man, a woman, a young person. All he needs is someone that will put up their hands, say, I'll go, and God will fill you. I left school at 15, I told you that there. Didn't have any qualifications. Haven't been to Bible college either, but God has anointed me. And I thank God for that, because even tonight, I can't stand here without him. I really cannot stand here. I can't do what I do without him. And there's such comfort and such joy in my heart to know that he is with me. There's such joy inside my soul to know that it's God's power, that it's God's quickening, that it's God's gift. It's all about him. It's not about me, it's not about us, church. It's all about him, amen, it's all about him. We don't love God and serve God because of what he can give us. We don't, because Job lost it all. We know that, church, he lost it all. Let me paraphrase what was going on there. The devil says to God, he only loves you because of what you've given him. God says, is that right? That's my interpretation. Was taken away, and Job stood. And what did he say? Though he slay me, yet I will trust in him, for I know my Redeemer lives. Glory to God, I know that my Redeemer lives this evening, church, do we know that? Our Redeemer lives, our Redeemer lives, and we will bless him at all times, as the psalmist says. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. I will bless the Lord when I'm up. I will bless the Lord when I'm down. I will bless the Lord in the morning time. I will bless the Lord in the evening time. I will praise him, for he is worthy. He is worthy of my praise. He is worthy of my life. He is worthy of my adoration. Glory to God, church, we need to get stirred. We need to get stirred in God. We need to get passionate about the Christ of God, don't we? He's wonderful, isn't he? He's wonderful. We need to have a begging spirit. Now, what do I mean by that? Do you remember the man from Gadara? The man that had the demons? Do you remember Jesus touched his life? He was delivered. Do you know what the Bible says? He begged Jesus that he might go with him. And could it be tonight that God wants to say to you, get yourself a begging spirit, that you just want to be with him and follow him. That wherever he goes, that you would go. That's what I, I want to be like that. I want to be like Mary, that sat at the master's feet. She sat at his feet. Jesus came into Martha's house, and immediately he began to speak. There was a discourse. Mary thought to herself, that's where I want to be. I'm just going to sit there. I'm going to glean from the master. He sat at the feet of the rabbi. I'm going to hear from him, but Martha was away off. She was distracted. She was serving. What she was doing, there's nothing wrong with that. Martha was a godly woman. She wanted to prepare stuff for the Lord, and for the apostles, but she was all over the place. And if you look at that, and read some of the commentaries, you will find out that she wanted to put on a big sumptuous feast, a big feast of the Lord, a big grand banquet. But the Lord wasn't interested in that grand banquet. Something simple. And sometimes we can get completely distracted from sitting at his feet, because we're doing the grand thing, or we're chasing the grand thing, or pursuing the grand thing, and it's taking us away from the place that we should be, and that is at the feet of rabbi Jesus. Just receiving, and just hearing, and receiving instruction. Seek ye first the kingdom of God. You see, if we sit long enough at the feet of rabbi Jesus, then when we do go off and do our things, then I think we're going to be even more geared, and even more blessed, and even more switched on to what we have to do. I don't know about you, but that's what I believe. That's what I believe. Sitting at the feet of rabbi Jesus. I just want to sit at his feet, church. I just want to know him. As Paul said, that I might know him in the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, because that comes with it. But that I might know him, church. And I believe that that's the heart of God. The heart of God is that you might know him. The heart of God is that you might have a spirit like Enoch, that you might walk with God, that you might walk with him. Walk with him daily, not just on a Wednesday night, or not just on a Sunday morning, or Sunday night, but that you might walk with God as Enoch walked with God. When I look at that scripture, I think of myself. You know, God took him. Enoch walked with God, but God took him. And my thoughts on that, could it be that God was saying to the angelic host, you know something? I just can't wait for that man to live out his days. I just can't wait for him to die. I have to take him now, because he walks with me. He knows me. He is precious to me. I want to be like that. I don't know about you, church. That's my passion. That's my heart, just to know him, just to walk with him, just to hear his voice, just to know his presence. Oh, glory to God for the presence of God, for in the presence of God, there is fullness of joy. Glory to God for his presence. Glory to God for his spirit, for the spirit of God lives in us. Isn't that a wonderful thing, that God would choose to live in us, that we would be the temples of the Holy Ghost? Isn't that wonderful? Does that not excite you? I'm about to do an Irish jig here. Glory to God. I can feel my river dance coming on now, so I can. Glory, God excites me. He saved me, he set me free. He that has been forgiven much shall love much. And I feel for me that he's forgiven me so much. And I just love him, and I falter, and I feel, and I don't always get it right, but isn't he so merciful to us tonight, church? The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and of great mercy. Isn't that wonderful, that he that has begun a good work in you will finish it until the day of Jesus Christ? Jesus said, I lost none except the man of perdition. That gives me hope. That gives me hope in the midst of failure. That gives me hope in the midst of the storm. If I deviate to the left or the right, you know, he's still there, he's still there. He's a wonderful God. I just want to close in prayer. If we can just still our hearts, please. Father, we thank you so much. So much, God, for your mercy. So much for your grace, Lord. God, we cannot articulate, God, truly, how wonderful and majestic and marvelous that you are, Lord, to our hearts. Father, we don't want to settle for the mundane anymore. We don't want to settle for the status quo. We don't want to settle, God, for where we're at. Lord, I don't want to be stunted. I don't want to be static. And maybe that's you this evening. You're stunted and you're static. You know something, I just want to share this last thought. During the First World War, when the men, those soldiers, were in the trenches in France, and the constant bombardment of shells would rain over, and some of those men exhibited the symptoms of shell shock. They didn't know what shell shock was in those days. But shell shock causes you to, well, it causes you to get a little bit confused. It causes you a little bit to lose direction. You become disorientated. And you know something, that's what the devil does. He comes to steal, kill, and to destroy, and to buff it, and to buff it some more, and to buff it some more. And maybe that's you tonight. You're a bit disorientated, and you're a bit all over the place, and you don't know what way you're going, if you're going north or south or east or west. But I want to encourage you tonight to let you know God's with you. God's with you. He says he's with us, even unto the end of this age. He's so good to us. Father, I just pray in the name of your son, Jesus. Father, for every soul in this place, every head, God, that's in this place. And I pray, Lord God, that they indeed, Lord, would respond, God, to what is being said tonight in some way, God, Lord, that they would step up, step out of their comfort zone, step out of their lethargy and their apathy, step out, God, of just clocking in and clocking out, but that they would become disciples of Christ and followers of Christ. Lord, that they would become men and women of faith, like Joshua and Caleb and Deborah and so forth. Lord, bless them, exceeding abundantly above all that they can ask or think, according to the very spirit of God that lives and works in them. In Jesus' name, amen. The Lord bless you and keep you and cause his face to shine upon you. Let's say a prayer, God, amen. Oh, aren't you thankful? Say thank you again to Pastor Scott Hines. Amen, amen. Amen, bless your heart. Just remain standing, go ahead and remain standing. I want us to pray for Pastor Scott and for his church and what God's calling them to, very, very big vision that calls them to love not their lives, even to death, to proclaim the gospel. You join me, Father, I thank you for the opportunity to develop friendship with a brother from far away and the bond that we share in the family of God and the body of Christ is a unique bond. And so our hearts here in Fort Collins reach out to Pastor Scott and his congregation, the church there that you called him to plant three years ago that he has diligently and faithfully poured his life into. And now, God, as they are on the precipice of a new chapter in the vision of that church, launching into an area that makes no sense apart from the leading of your spirit, choosing instead of being safe, choosing to be obedient, to obey you and to follow you, into the darkness to proclaim the light of Jesus. God, would you provide for the needs that they have in every way, financially, in terms of protection, the anointing and empowerment of your Holy Spirit, wisdom, strategies. God, will you just pour out your spirit upon this church in Northern Ireland to accomplish something so great that when people look upon it and see what is happening, no one will get the credit but you. It will be clear that, God, you chose to do something in response to your heart for people and the obedience of people to follow you, that, God, people will stand in awe of the mighty work of your spirit. Lord, we pray that in Jesus' name, amen, amen. Would you be seated just one more time? In just a moment, we're gonna dismiss you, but we, some of you, based on my track record, have thought that I forgot the offering. I have not. We want to take it at the end. It's our normal offering, only one offering, our normal tithes and offering, but we wanna give you an opportunity. If you would like to give financially toward the work that is happening in Ireland through Pastor Scott and through Pillar Christian Center, Pillar Christian Church, if you would like to do that, we wanna give you an opportunity to do so, and here's what you would need to do. If you're giving cash and you want it to go towards the work in Ireland, use an envelope that's in the chair back in front of you and just write on the envelope Ireland. That's fine, we'll know where that goes. If you're writing a check, please write it to Timberline Church and then in the memo line of your check, just write Ireland, and then we'll make sure everything that's designated to Ireland and that work there goes to the church and the work that Pastor Scott's involved in, all right? So here's what we're gonna do. Ushers, come, prepare to receive the offering. As the plate goes by, you can stand and worship. Our worship team's gonna lead us in one last song and then I'll come back and we'll dismiss, all right? Say a hand clap of praise tonight. We just honor him. Thank you, God, that you are mighty to save. If you would like prayer tonight, we have a prayer team that would love to meet you at the front and join hands with you and pray for you. I wanna invite them to come at this time. Please, please come up and pray. If you would like to say hello to Pastor Scott and meet him and connect with him, please feel free to do that. Hope you'll be here this weekend. Pastor Jeff is back in town and he'll be continuing. We've got two more messages in our series in Esther. It's gonna be a powerful weekend, so I hope you can come. God bless you. Thanks for being here tonight. Go in his grace.