Investing in Love: Our Mission and Community

1) "You know, our church's mission is to love people the same way that God loves us. And we do that through what we call four love lanes. You know, love lane number one is the next generation. We do that through See Kids, our kids ministry, Firescape. That's our middle and high school ministry. And we also do it through our amazing Christian school, Virginia Academy. You know, right now our church is expanding over 60,000 square foot of expansion to our building, an amazing gymnasium, nine classrooms, science labs, a library. What are we doing, Pastor Charlie? We're making room for more students so they can hit the road. We're making room for more people. We're making room for more people. We're making room for more people." [14:41] (41 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2) "You know, it's so tempting you come in a church like this, you know, it's so tempting you come in a church like this, there's lights, there's screens, and guitar players and drums, and if we're not careful, we can just get caught up watching. And our prayer is that every single one of us would experience the help and the strength, the healing, and the love of God. Jesus said, when two or three of you gather together, if you'll do that in my name, I'll be there. And God is with you forever, that we may be in your midst." [26:57] (33 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3) "I just want to remind everyone that we closed out this past year with our our usual our big give we had a goal the largest goal we've ever had of of two million dollars and uh we surpassed that two million dollar goal by 2.1 million more than what we needed so I just wanted to say thank you for being a generous church and everything that we listed on there to help people because the big give was about helping people uh we're gonna do everything including the you've seen the bulldozers and stuff outside there the expansion got a missionary joe said I don't know if you're in this service or you and joe said and jay's you're right there come on stand up you guys wave at everybody come on point to them come on point to them right now you guys are you guys are a clappy second service I want you to point to them right now come on jay stand up next next to joe said next to your bride stand up he's having trouble understanding my english but because of the big give this couple was going full time um to the congo and going to take the ministry there to to abused women and their children to a whole new level that's what happens folks when we give so we're all about that they're gonna with us for another month you'll hear more about it we'll be praying and um and sending them out but all those projects we talked about just wanted to give you an update or happening so thank you um for for being a part" [33:41] (97 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4) "Christianity. This is in your notes. Christianity is a sober minded, well -grounded representation of the way things really are. That's what the word reality. Come on. Come on. Let's read it again. I want you to engage your mind. This might be the last place on planet earth where we can actually think clearly. I pray that it's a place where we can think clearly about our lives. Let's read together. Christianity is a sober minded, well -grounded representation of reality. It's truths are what, what does that mean? That means they're verifiable available. You can test them to anyone. And this is important to anyone who, and this is important to anyone who, and this is important to anyone who, and this is a key word truly or genuinely wants to know where these truths found. These truths are found in the Bible." [43:05] (51 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5) "What man has impacted the history of the entire world as this carpenter from Galilee? Now, we're going to read a passage that describes Jesus' life. This is from an unknown author. But if it's up there, you can. Follow along with me. He says, he never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never owned a home. He never went to college. By the way, there were colleges back then. There were places of learning. You know, people went to school, had rabbis, had teachers. He never traveled more than 200 miles from the place he was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompanies greatness. Yet, reason here, reason here, yet all the armies that ever marched, all the governments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned have not affected life upon this earth as powerfully as has this one solitary life." [58:30] (61 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6) "Wouldn't we expect, if you're a thinking person, if someone claims, if someone claims to be the son of God, wouldn't you expect that you better do something to show us, give us some proof, give us some sign. There it is. What's a sign do? A road sign is pointing you to in a direction I'm driving. You have to give us a sign of who you are that I'm any rational person would think that. And yet here we have Jesus's life and it's full of signs of who he is. In fact, I was reading this with the new light in John's account of Jesus's life. And I can almost hear his frustration because he's like, you don't believe. Yet look at the evidence. Look at the things I'm doing. We still have to wrestle with that today." [01:06:18] (54 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7) "Has there ever been a man who gave us? Teachings like Christ. And should we expect anything less? Teachings. Anybody heard the golden rule? You think that's a good idea for the healing of society? Come on, I'm not tricking you. I'm asking you a real question. In the first service, I saw Loretta Hall. And she's been a teacher here in Loudoun County for, oh goodness, 45 years. They named a gymnasium after her. She's a Loudoun County walking piece of history. African American. And she can tell you stories about here right in Loudoun County. About Douglas Schoolhouse down right down here, how it was built, why it was built. All kinds of stories. She's been a teacher here ever. Since 40 years. She's been a teacher here in Blessed County. someone to be like okay you you can whatever be down and mad and upset at everything why are you she goes when my parents raised me they said i should treat everyone just how i would want to be treated so i've tried to do that with my life what was happening it was like god was sending a message to the world hey hey human civilization this is how it can work if you treat others with the kind of respect and that you yourself would like to be treated by you and jesus is turning on a light he said i am the light of the world he who follows me learns from me is my disciple will not walk in unclarity will not walk in darkness but will have the light and clarity of everlasting life" [01:14:03] (169 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8) "I believe we could debate it, but See, we take it for granted today, but what was Jesus teaching about agape love? It's the kind of love. It's the kind of love that wills good. It wills and wills into action the benefit of the person being loved. Even to the point where it hurts you, or it might, even to the point of, that's how much I want to see you succeed. That's the idea in the Greek of agape love. God so agape you. God so loved you that he gave his only begotten son. Are you getting the idea? His son was sacrificed so that we might have eternal life in and through him. God, you love me that way. And in turn, as I receive, as I receive that love, he challenges us to agape one another." [01:19:31] (67 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)