You know, Bridgewater Church is 216 years old, and things have never been better, honestly, for our church over that period of time. I mean, he was talking about salvation. It's actually, there's three more, it's not 97 have gotten saved. And you know, it's just amazing what God is doing. We've gone from, in the last 21 years, we've gone from having 130 people at our church to having over 2,000 people. Yeah, yeah, but here's the thing. Things have never been better for Bridgewater Church, but I think morally and spiritually things have never been worse in our community, in our nation. And God has called us for such a time as this. You know, God has called us not to be like, "Ooh, isn't it great that we found Jesus and that we have forgiveness and that guilt is off my shoulders and that, that I know his love and I have his peace and I have his joy even in difficulties, like isn't that great? That we can all get together and just praise God together. It is great. And we need to celebrate what God has done in the past and enjoy the blessings He's given us in the present. But man, there's a future He's calling us to, to reach this community for Jesus Christ. And just to be a part of a movement, I am a churchaholic, I was going to say I'm a recovering churchaholic, but I'm not recovering. Okay? Like I'm just, it's just, it's like a extra hobby. Even if I wasn't a pastor, I would take my, I would, my family would go to church on vacation. Okay? Like, it's, and then, and there's some of you like that too, you know, Rick, Rick, like, let's go to a, let's go to a church, man. That's why we came to, you know, I thought we came here for the beach. No, no, no, they got this church we want to. So I, you probably, none of you probably have this, but I have a news feed that, that sends me five, at least five different articles and graphs about churches and religion in America every week. It's by Ryan Burdge, you can look him up and if you want, if you really love, if you're a churchaholic, you'll, you'll subscribe to that too. But one of the interesting things he's talking about is the, the fastest growing churches in the United States. He said of the 200 fastest growing churches in the United States, he said, you know, almost all of them are in areas that are growing demographically. They're in places like Austin, Texas, where tens of thousands of people are moving to every year. And so the churches are growing because tens of thousands of new Christians are moving into that area, Raleigh, North Carolina, places like that. He's like 199 of the 200 fastest growing churches in the United States in the, in the year that he had stats for are in growing areas. There's only one outlier. It's a church nobody's ever heard of in northeastern Pennsylvania, in Bridgewater church. And, and so I just, I just say that, to say that there is something going on here. In fact, some in this area, they've seen it and they're like, that's got to be a cult. Like, you know, I have like 600 people go to a church in a town of 1400 people? Like, you've had to say like a cult, like what's going on over there? You know, I went to the school one time, they had a, you know, one of those things where they, the kids want to look at different occupations and what is that, a job fair, career fair? They were like short people. And so they're like, hey, can you, and so I went in to do a career fair and anybody want to work for the church, you know, and, and so I was asking these kids, how old do you think Bridgewater church is? And we had kids who go to this church. And we were all saying like 25 years or less, like it's 216 years old, like we are older than the Mormon religion, okay? We are older than the Seventh-day Adventists. We are older than that like, like, and yeah, God is doing something. People ask me like, what is going on? And, and some of it is we have a fantastic kids ministry and some of it is the worship ministry and the music that people appreciate and some of it is the relevant practical teaching of God's Word, but there's churches that have all that. And what God is doing is not happening there. And I just want to just encourage you and challenge you. Jesus told a parable about how the, you know, you'll leave the 99 and you go to the one, but the truth is in our world today, it's almost reversed. We have one in the fold in 99 who need Jesus Christ. In Susquehanna County, over 66% of this county, no church, no connection to any church. And most of them, it's not like they're atheists. If you ask them if they're atheists, they say, no, I'm not an atheist. Are you a Christian? Ah, maybe not really. What are you? Nothing. I'm a nun, none of the above. And, and this is what, you know, the suicide, the drug use, the lack of hope, the depression, the anxiety, the pornography, the gambling, the divorce, the foster kids, things are not getting better. And we have the answer. It's Jesus Christ, it's, it's forgiveness that we can find in Him and to live our lives for Him instead of living for ourselves, which sounds like freedom. But I've tried that and it's addiction to your own desires and your own, your own wants and your own, like, and, and so we, we need Jesus Christ. And we need to tell people about this, this answer and the solution that we have found. And that's why, I'll get to my slides here, that's why we sent off Conklin and Vestal January 1st, along with Pastor Andrew who saved us this morning from all our technical problems from the power outages and stuff. But Conklin and Vestal were saying, you know what, we, we don't have time. I think Jesus Christ is coming back and we don't have time to mess around. We can only start one new congregation a year because of some things in technical of your church at a holocaust. I'll explain it to you later, but, but, but if we become two churches, then even if they start a church once every two years, a new congregation, like, like, that's 50% more. And, and the goal is not to be one of the 200 largest churches. We're going to shrink. 600 people are leaving us and you know what else? $700,000 in giving a year. In fact, I thought that would be harder on them because, you know, we have, I don't know what we have. We have more than that. But, apparently, like, anyway, it's, it's, it's a sacrifice. You know, we got to tighten, I hate, oh, for core, I can't tighten my belt after all that food I ate last night, but, you know what, we're, this is, this is why we're doing this. In fact, um, Bridgewater, um, you know, North Bridgewater, they're announcing their new name this morning over at those campuses. It's Northbridge. So, that, that, we're going to have a new church in Conklin Investment called Northbridge Church. And, um, there's, there's one more. Now, they've got a logo and everything, so, you know, that's the, this is the new logo. All right. Thank you, Pastor Andrew. Um, so, but this is why, um, we're, you know, we're raising money, um, because we need, so buildings are only a tool for people. We don't build churches, we build people here. That's what it's about. God, God doesn't care about buildings, he cares about people, but, but buildings are a tool. If we did not have this building, how many of you would have come in the 34 degree weather this morning? Yeah. Yup. And you would. Matt would be here. I'm not sure your kids would, but, you know, right, you know, but, but we need buildings to, and so that's why Elk Lake, you know, remodeling that, that building that was given to us and, and filling in, and Tunkanic renovations, honestly, um, if we have someone who, who could give us 700,000 for Tunkanic building renovations, we need it. Okay. We need it. Um, we put 100,000 because this makes a goal that we think we can make. Um, Hancock renovations, I really believe there's, there's two families in Hancock right now that are watching, that each one of you could give 60,000 on your own, and you'll have to, uh, now, and you guys don't know, but they're probably like, are you sure? I, I, God does not, like, he gives us our resources to do what he wants us to do. And, and I think in Montrose as well that there's, there's multiplying ministry leaders. This next Sunday, I, I thought about, do I say this because if I say this, then maybe some of you won't come back, but I'm just going to trust that you're like, you love, love Jesus and you'll be that back next week. Um, Dallas Siemens is our, uh, one of our pastoral interns in Vestal and he's going to be preaching here next Sunday and he's going to talk about his life and how chaotic it was growing up and, and how God saved him at, at, at, at Ross Corners Baptist Church, which is now Bridgewater Vestal and he went from an unsaved kid to a curious kid in the youth group to a saved young man, to a married young man, to a man who wants to be a pastor and to invest in that next generation. I think there's someone here in our audience right now and you would say, you know what, I want to invest in the next generation, I can drop 40,000 myself. And honestly, as I was thinking about this, this, this is my heart. And Becky and I, we give thousands of dollars every year when we have this thing. And there's been times where we thought, you know what, this took us years to save. And if we give it away, it's going to be years before we can give a gift like this again. But you know what, it happens and we're able. And I'm, I'm here to ask some of you, and if you're new here, I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to those of you who've been coming here for years and you know what God is doing and you know it's unique and, and you know it's making a difference in people's lives. We're going to get a van load of, of guys from a halfway house next service. Amen. You know, and, and I'm just here to tell you though, I can't do it. I don't have the resources. Becky and I, we don't have the money. We can give thousands, but we can't give tens of thousands. We can't give hundreds of thousands. We can't do this on our own. We need you to step up and say, you know what, I want to be a part of what God is doing. What, what is the reason you're alive? What is your purpose? Because the truth is it's not about, this is not about fulfilling the church's purpose. If it was that, then you know what, tip, tip on your way out and say that was really interesting. It's cool to be a part of something else. This is about fulfilling your purpose. Why did God make you? You know, a lot of times this is a question that we think is this really esoteric, you know, complicated, like big, it's a mysterious question. It's unanswerable, it's so theoretical, what's the purpose of your life? Honestly, it's just the opposite. The purpose of your life is clear. There's only a few answers to that question, and it may be hard to figure out which one's right, but they're very simple answers. It's clear, it's practical, and you always answer this. If you don't know what the purpose of your life is, ask someone who knows you well and they will tell you by how you're living. All the purpose of your life is computer games. All the purpose of your life is to accumulate lots of money. The purpose of your life is your family, and here's the thing. The purpose of your life, if it's your family, what happens if your kid won't talk to you anymore or your spouse dies? If the purpose of your life is your country, what happens when you get disillusioned with corruption and the highest ranks of our government or things like that? If the purpose is your country, like how is that different than people in China who think their purpose is the Chinese, there is nothing worth your life more than Jesus Christ. There's nothing solid if your purpose is your family or some other goal, Elon Musk's purpose of his life to make human beings multi-planetary. Like why? Because people are rare and important. Well, so what? Why? In fact, you need to use that three-letter word more. Why? We need to ask that more. Like kids, you know, the kid will discover that word and they'll think it's the secret to endless conversation. It's time for bed. Why? Because it's dark out. Why? Because the earth rotates spins and so when it's, never mind, you're stalling, go to bed, you know? Like they just why? Why does the earth spin? You know, because we want, you know, but the purpose of your life, the only thing solid, the only thing that's not like balancing on the blade of a knife, the only thing that's that's that you can rely on is the rock. Jesus Christ, God the Father, the Holy Spirit and living our lives for Him. In fact, this was something that the Apostle Paul said as he wrote to the Corinthian church in Greece, he said, "If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink." Some add today and be married. For tomorrow we die. Elon Musk, if human beings are not made as a reflection of an Almighty God, who cares? They're just random clumps of matter, colliding into other random clumps of matter and none of it matters. Why are you here? Why were you born? Why are you not dead yet? There's an ancient catechism and it says that the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. And so how do we do that? How do we glorify God? It's more than just coming to church on a Sunday and singing or praying. We glorify God by giving Him our lives and by bringing as many other people along with us in that journey to become more like Jesus, more and better disciples of Jesus Christ. Great is the Lord. He is most worthy of praise. No one can measure His greatness. Let each generation tell His children of your mighty acts, let them proclaim your power. That's what God, and I'm so stoked about the babies in this church, especially since one of them is my first grandchild, a little shout out, a little shout out to Lucy. I have under authority officially. She is the most beautiful child born this year. I don't know if you realize that, but it's actually very true. But yeah, and then raising those kids to love Jesus. And then our neighbors and our co-workers and our friends and our family members telling them about Jesus. I don't know where you fit in all that, but you fit. And you need to just whatever God's made you to do, just do it. Whether it's Darlene Grisoffi writing cards with her grandkids, they get together and they make cards. And then they mail them to people who are sick or are grieving losses. That's a double, that's a double ministry. She's ministering to her grandkids. And then she's also ministering to these people that are going through rough times. And you know what, sometimes an adult sends you a card and you're like, "You don't understand." A child sends you a card and you're like, "Oh." And they get past all your defenses and maybe even your bitterness and your grief and they just sneak under and minister to you. And so what does God maybe to do? Maybe it's helping out. We got some dinners coming up for funeral dinners, things that maybe you can help with that. Maybe it's just inviting your neighbors. Maybe it's kids ministry. We're going to close with just a story about what's, some of what's been going on in our kids ministry. Take a guess of how many children, different, unique children, have come to just Montrose. And if you take a guess of how many, this year, 11 months this year, shout out a number. 500. That's crazy. That's almost right. We've had over 400 different kids, Latham Street Elementary in Montrose is basically a little bit over 400. We have like the entire local elementary school essentially. And obviously it's not just them, it's from Chocanade, it's from Elk Lake and Blue Ridge and other school districts, you know, but kids. We got kids. You know, I've shared this before, but we were back in the old building and there's this older woman who had come, it was her first Sunday. And she was getting up after the service and she turned and this little like second grader just flew by, almost knocked her over. I'm like, I'm seeing orthopedic surgery, you know, breaking hips and things like that. And I'm like, oh, and I went up to the lady and I'm like, I'm so sorry, he just wasn't looking and it's it. And you know what, she rebuked me. She said this, no, this is good, don't apologize. My church, we have no children. And I'm just happy to see kids learning about Jesus at this church at the risk of my life. So jump into ministry. If you are not a part of things, maybe, maybe God's ministry, you know, is to give, maybe it's to serve in some way. Just be a part of things. You don't know how to do this. Go to that long desk before you leave and say, sign me up for something. You know, there's a next steps in the back right there, that little black table that you've all ignored now because it's been there for years. But you can sign up for a new ministry there. There's a little sheet. Say, man, I want to do something. I want to be a part of something. This is just weird. I'm telling you, I've been to a lot of churches. What God is doing here, it is unique and it's him. And so let's just listen. The Easter story of this past year, we had a small group of kids that are with us for both hours. One such child, a little boy named Garrett, after we got through the 930 hour, he came up to me and he said, "Can we please watch the so-and-so show?" I said, "Well, Garrett, it's like this. It's Easter Sunday, so some children might be visiting today who've never heard the story about Jesus." I said, "How about this? Would you pray for me while I'm teaching?" So what happened was, every time that I turned to the right to look and read my Bible, I could see this little boy sitting on the floor and he was sitting there with his legs crossed. His head was in his hands. And I knew that he was praying for me as I was teaching. It turns out that Wyatt and Garrett were very good friends on the way home from church Easter Sunday. I told his parents that he wanted to ask Jesus to be his leader and forgive her. We were just thrilled for Wyatt's salvation that day, but the story didn't end there. Wyatt's mom went and called Garrett's mother and she went and found Garrett and she said to him, "Garrett, your friend Wyatt prayed to receive Jesus and you prayed that morning and this is what happened." And Garrett was so happy, but then he said, "But mommy, I want to receive Jesus too." He had never made the decision for himself and that morning that whole experience just brought everything into focus for him and he realized that he also had a need. Many times as you teach what you're doing is you're planting a seed and seeing God grow them up and turn them into amazing people who serve and follow him with all their heart. And that's why I love being a teacher in our kids ministry because the story isn't about me, it's about God and how he can take and use anything to lead someone to him. And it's just an awesome and amazing thing. It's a humbling thing to be part of that story and to just have a chance to see it all happen right before you. Amen. Well, we'll get the lights back up here in a second. Why don't you stand and let's sing together to close out this morning?
