Sermon Transcript
We’ve waited for this day. We’re gathered in your name, calling out to you.
Your glory like a fire awakening desire will burn our hearts with truth. You’re the reason we’re here. You’re the reason we’re singing.
Open up the heavens, we wanna see you. Open up the floodgates, a mighty river flowing from your heart.
And filling every part of our praise.
Your presence in this place, your glory on our face. We’re looking to the sky, descending like a cloud. You’re standing with us now, Lord, unveil our eyes.
And you’re the reason we’re here. And you’re the reason we’re singing.
Open up the heavens, we wanna see you. Open up the floodgates, a mighty river flowing from your heart and filling every part of our praise.
Open up the heavens, We wanna see you open up the floodgates, a mighty river flowing from your heart and filling every part of our praise.
Show us, show us, show us your glory. Show us, show us your power. Show us, show us your glory, Lord.
Show us, show us your glory. Show us, show us your power. Show us, show us your glory, Lord.
Oh, we wanna see you. We wanna see you, so open up the heavens. We wanna see you, open up the floodgates. A mighty river flowing from your heart and filling every part of our praise. Open up now, open up the heavens.
We want to see you open up the floodgates, a mighty river flowing from your heart and filling every part of our praise.
Hello everyone, my name is Andrew and I work with the youth here at Bridges. And we are so excited you decided to join us today for our online service. If you’re new with us, we would love for you to click the button on the side that says, new to BCC, click here, so we can get connected, answer any questions you may have, and find out how we can pray for you. Thanks again for being with us today, and let’s worship together.
Turn my eyes to see you, Jesus, in all your glory. Turn my eyes, tune my heart to I see a wonder of how you love me to my heart.
Oh my God, forever you reign here and now. Hear the sound of your name.
Jesus, there is none more beautiful than Jesus.
There is none more powerful. The risen Christ lifted high. Jesus, now be glorified. Center my life on your name.
I center my life on your name. Oh, oh, oh.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Turn my eyes away from searching for less of glory. Turn my eyes.
Teach my heart with all your wisdom to live for heaven. Teach my heart.
Oh my God, forever you reign here and now. Hear the sound of your name.
Jesus, there is none more beautiful than Jesus.
There is none more powerful, the risen Christ lifted high.
Jesus, now be glorified. Center my life on your name.
Center my life on your name. Oh, oh, oh, oh my God.
Forever you reign, here and now hear the sound of your name.
Jesus, there is none more beautiful than Jesus. There is none more powerful, the risen Christ lifted high. Jesus, now be glorified, the risen Christ.
The risen Christ lifted high. Jesus, now be glorified.
Jesus, there is none more beautiful than Jesus.
There is none more powerful. The risen Christ lifted high. Jesus, now be glorified. Center my life on your name.
Center my life on your name.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
Oh, when all I see is the battle, you see my victory.
When all I see is a mountain, you see a mountain moved. And as I walk through the shadow, your love surrounds me.
There’s nothing to fear now, for I am safe with you.
So when I fight, I’ll fight on my knees with my hands lifted high. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. And every fear I lay at your feet. I’ll sing through the night. Oh God, the battle belongs to you.
And if you are for me, Who can be against me?
For Jesus, there’s nothing impossible for you. When all I see are the ashes, you see the beauty.
When all I see is a cross, God, you see the end.
So when I fight, I’ll fight on my knees with my hands lifted high. Oh God, the battle belongs to you, and every fear I lay at your feet. I’ll sing through the night. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. Almighty fortress.
You go before us. Nothing can stand against the power of our God. You shine in the shadows. You win every battle. Nothing can stand against the power of our God.
And Almighty Fortress, you go before us. Nothing can stand against the power of our God. You shine in the shadows.
You shine in the shadows, you win every battle. Nothing can stand against the power of our God. Almighty fortress, you go before us. Nothing can stand against the power of our God. You shine in the shadows, you win every battle.
Nothing can stand against the power of our God.
So when I fight, I’ll fight on my knees with my hands lifted high. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. And every fear I lay at your feet. I’ll sing through the night. Oh God, the battle belongs to you.
Oh God, the battle belongs to you.
So the wall was finished on the 25th day of the month Elul, in 52 days. And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God. Now when the wall had been built and I had set up the doors and the gatekeepers, the singers, and the Levites had been appointed, I gave my brother Hanani and Hananiah, the governor of the castle, charge over Jerusalem, for he was a more faithful and God-fearing man than many. And I said to them, let not the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun is hot. And while they are still standing guard, let them shut and bar the doors.
Appoint guards from among the inhabitants of Jerusalem, some at their guard posts, and some in front of their own homes. The city was wide and large, but the people within it were few, and no houses had been rebuilt. Then my God put it into my heart to assemble the nobles and the officials and the people to be enrolled by genealogy.
We’ve been working through the book of Nehemiah as a church, and at many points we have seen parallels between Nehemiah’s situation and our current situation. Nehemiah’s people were scattered, and Nehemiah was working to get them regathered into their city. The Israelites have been through a national disaster. We can relate to that a little bit. And the way that things were before are not the way that things are now.
And the Israelites needed to rebuild. Nehemiah needed to restart. He mobilized everyone to pitch in on the effort, like we’ve asked you to sign up in some volunteer capacity. So there’s been lots of overlap between Nehemiah’s story and our story. Last week we read how Nehemiah’s team reached a major milestone.
They completed the fortress walls around the city. Building these walls, if you haven’t been listening for the past few weeks, this was the whole reason Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem. Nehemiah was over there in Persia, then he heard that the walls were in ruins, which meant his hometown city was not protected. It would be open to threat of attack. And so, Nehemiah wanted to get back.
He wanted to rebuild the walls and therefore really to restore the people of Israel. He wanted to restore their ability to conduct safe commerce and worship worship. They wouldn’t need to live in constant threat of attack. So now we’re at the point in the story where the walls are rebuilt. It took tremendous effort and incredible endurance.
He had to navigate all kinds of opposition, but now the walls have been completed. Nehemiah, therefore, it seems, has accomplished his mission, right? Jerusalem will be a safe place to of once again, like, he’s done it. For us, maybe the comparison might be, we’re looking forward to the day when maybe we’re back together, especially inside, right? And we’re just singing as loud as we can without any masks on, and maybe then we’ll finally think like, okay guys, we made it through this season, right?
That could be our milestone, perhaps. So, if Nehemiah got got the walls up, and getting the walls up was his mission, I guess he can just go back to Persia now. Like, story over, ride off into the sunset, live happily ever after. We might think that that’s what happens next in this narrative, except we’re basically in the middle of the book of Nehemiah. This is the end of chapter 6, beginning of chapter 7.
There’s 13 chapters in Nehemiah, so it his mission was only to go to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls, why are we only halfway through the story? What else is there? And whatever else there is, what does that mean for us and our story? So, as we look at this text today, we’ll see When we complete God’s mission for us, like, when is that? When are we done with God’s mission?
Who joins us in God’s mission? And finally, where all the missions lead. So, first, when have we completed God’s mission for us?
Never. Like, we’ve never completed the full mission. The mission is always ongoing. Nehemiah had worked so hard to get the walls up, you know, chapters 1 through almost the entire way of chapter 6. Like, he’s faced opposition, conflict, lack of resources.
It’s been an incredible feat, and they got it done in 52 days. Amazing, right? So you’d think for the rest of his life Nehemiah could look back and say, well, hey, at least I built that wall, right? Like, I’ve done something with my life. He could maybe go on a book tour talking about his accomplishment, like he has fulfilled his purpose as a human and a follower of God, you’d think.
But that’s not the way the story’s told. The completion of the wall is mentioned in like 3 verses. It’s almost a footnote. It’s like, oh yeah, we built a wall, it terrified our enemies, They could see that God was with us, and it was awesome. And then he’s off to the next thing.
Like, Nehemiah is on to his new task. He’s appointing guards, he’s appointing a governor, he’s giving them instructions on when to open and close the city gates. So a little bit of historical context here. Most of the time, city gates would open before sunrise or at sunrise, but Nehemiah says wait until noon to open them and close them before it starts to get dark because he doesn’t want anybody to be able to creep in under the COVID of darkness like a Trojan horse, get into the city without anybody knowing about it, and then causing a problem. Nehemiah is staying vigilant even after the walls are up.
His purpose is not over. It’s not like Nehemiah thinks, I can ride my big accomplishment off into the sunset and let someone else carry the load from now on. He is still carrying the load. He knows God has more for him to do.
We are never done with God’s mission for us. It’s, I think, a little bit like parenting. Like, when are you done being a parent? Never, from what I understand, right? Those kids are 80 years old, they’re still your kids.
I know eventually they need to start parenting you, But that’s a different conversation and we’ll cover that some other day. Nehemiah is maybe like that coach who wins a championship and they ask him, like, as he’s, he’s like holding up the trophy, right? And they’re like, the reporters are like, what are you going to do tomorrow, Coach? And he says, like, start to prepare for next season. What else would I be doing?
That’s us.
There is no end to the work that God has for us.
I know for some of us that might sound daunting, but it is really not. The only reason that working forever doesn’t sound beautiful is because work is cursed. God made work good in the beginning in the Garden of Eden, in paradise, when everything was perfect, there was work. Then everything went in the toilet, and that is why we struggle with work, right? The goodness of work was corrupted when everything else was corrupted.
But when Jesus comes, he begins to redeem everything, which includes work. Jesus tells his disciples, come to me all who are weary, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light, right? Which, if there’s a yoke, there is still work to do, but with Jesus, work is light, it’s fulfilling, it’s rewarding. Jesus always has something for you to do, and think about how great news that is. You are never without purpose, never.
You always have an essential role in what God is doing in the world, always. If you are 4 years old, you have essential work to do. If you are 162 years old, you have essential work to do. You have purpose. None of us can ever say our lives are meaningless, that we’re done with what God wants us to do.
There will always be a next thing.
For us as a church, we are so close to being back together in person. We put a date out there you might have seen in our newsletter this week. March 14th is our target for patio service again. I am so excited about that. Our case numbers in our area are down.
Our first responders have all had an opportunity to be vaccinated if they want to be vaccinated. ICUs have enough availability again, so we feel like we can have services without hurting our ability to share Christ with our neighbors. And I am— I’m so ready for that, right? Been waiting for so long. But here’s where we might mess up, right?
We get back together, we might feel like we can relax, like the hard part’s over, like we can coast.
It’s— I’m sure you have felt this too, but it has been difficult trying to keep this ship going in the midst of the storm for the last year, keeping us together as a church when we aren’t together. That’s difficult. There’s been so much fatigue, so many intense emotions over the last year. All of that’s totally justified. Get it, affirm it.
I’m part of it. But because of that, right, there’s been moments where keeping this ship together has felt like keeping a ship together, right? Like bailing water, tying a rope around the bottom of the hull. So when we’re coming out of this storm, we might feel like, oh, we finally made it, right? We can, we can relax.
But that would be a mistake.
When we regather as a church That’s the time to hit the gas.
Like, get involved. Make sure others are involved, especially those who are on the fringes who have kind of like faded away over the last year, right? This is the time to pray for the church and our mission. It’s— if we regather, it’s definitely not the time to stop praying, right? Like, don’t let up.
Like, really pray. It’s the time to really invite. It’s the time to make sure that you are serving and helping in some way. It’s not the time to let off as a church. It’s the time to punch it because our mission is never over.
We are never without a purpose, never without more work to do, never a time that we stop spreading Jesus into our community, right? Okay, so if the mission’s never really over, who joins us on this mission? Who are our co-laborers? It’s, it’s those with a heart for the Lord. Those with a heart for the Lord join us in our mission that God gives us.
Verse 2 here, Nehemiah puts Hanani in charge because it says he was more faithful and God-fearing than many others, right? That’s the qualification Nehemiah is looking for faithful and God-fearing. We might ask, hey Nehemiah, if you’re going to put someone in charge of a city, shouldn’t you look for someone who has experience like navigating a bureaucracy? I guess this— if he’s going to open and close the city gate, has he ever opened a city gate before? Has he managed people?
Like, shouldn’t those be the primary things on the resume? It’s like, that should be primary, and then like, oh yeah, you know, if he happens to love Jesus then, uh, bonus, right? Nehemiah says no. Uh, first and foremost, I want someone with a heart for the Lord. That’s number one.
This is really, uh, the same criteria for who Nehemiah wants living in the city. Notice there in verse 4, there aren’t many people living in the actual city of Jerusalem, uh, because Jerusalem hadn’t exactly been prime real estate as of late. People were scattered all around in little towns all over the region. You can, you can see that on your own if you look over there at verse 73. But Nehemiah needs people living in the city to defend the city, right?
To man the walls that he just built, like to live in the fortress. So who does he go after to live in the city? Does he look for the strongest? Does he look for those with the most military experience?
Nehemiah— this doesn’t immediately make sense, so if you’re like, where did that come from? I get it, we’ll explain it. Nehemiah asked for the records of those who first returned to Jerusalem from exile. Who got here first? As a reminder, Nehemiah was in the 3rd group of exiles that returned.
The 1st group was under Zerubbabel about 90 years earlier. The second group was with Ezra about 13 years earlier, and now Nehemiah comes to Jerusalem with the third group of exiles. But Nehemiah asked for the records of who got here first. That’s the list that you see in verses 6 through 73 of chapter 7. Now, Ezra actually wrote and created this list, and you can find where Ezra wrote it down over in Ezra chapter 2.
So, the sequence of events, because I know this is kind of cumbersome to keep straight in your head, first Zerubbabel and company arrived in Jerusalem, then about 80 years later Ezra came and made a list of everyone who had come with Zerubbabel. So, Ezra wrote down who was in Zerubbabel’s group, and then about 13 years after Ezra, Nehemiah pulls out that list list and includes it in Nehemiah chapter 7. So, over there in verse 73 where it records that people are settling in their own towns, not in Jerusalem city center, that’s telling us what happened way back here in Zerubbabel’s day, right? That’s part of what Ezra recorded that the first group of exiles did. So, Nehemiah wants this list.
He says, we need people to live in city, get me the list of the people who got here first. Now, why would Nehemiah want to know who got there first? Is it like finders keepers, first come first serve? Most of the people on the list have probably passed away by now anyway, right? They, they can’t— it was a long time ago, decades ago.
Like, they can’t come live in the city So, why does he want the list? Well, back when Ezra created the list, Ezra 1:5, Ezra records the people who came back first were those whose hearts had been moved by God to come back and rebuild. Nehemiah wants to know whose heart has been moved by God to come and do the work. He doesn’t want just anyone. He asks, are you passionate for the Lord?
Has God gotten a hold of your heart? That’s who he wants. Just like why he put Hanani in charge of the city. Is your heart for the Lord? Now, like we said, that first generation of people has probably passed away, but But that’s where Nehemiah wants to start the selection process.
Like, let’s find out who’s connected to this first group whose hearts were pursuing after God. Let’s start with them. Then over in Nehemiah chapter 11, we’ll get there in a few weeks, when people actually start living in the city, they again look to God’s involvement in the person’s life to see if that person should live in the city. They do an admittedly strange practice that we don’t fully understand, but we do see it through out Scripture, they cast lots over in Nehemiah chapter 7, I mean chapter 11, they cast lots to see who should live in the city. It’s like they’re having a lottery to determine who gets to live in there.
But unlike us today, they looked at this differently. Unlike us today who see the lottery as kind of like a random selection of people that will live in the city, they believed Casting lots would show who God wanted to live in the city. Proverbs 16:33, the lot is cast in the lap, but God himself determines the answer. Casting lots is also— that’s how they determined to throw Jonah off the boat. It’s how they picked the apostle to replace Judas.
They believed casting lots did not produce a random answer. They believed casting lots produced God’s answer. And whether, whether they were right or wrong or somewhere in between about casting lots, you can see what their intent was. They wanted people living in the city who God wanted in the city. They wanted God’s people in there.
They wanted the city to be holy. They wanted the people whose hearts burned for the Lord.
In our church, or really in any church, there can be tension around who should be part of the church. Is the church only for holy people whose hearts burn for the Lord, like Nehemiah was kind of looking for, or is the church for everyone, right? And I— there’s arguments on both sides here, right? On the one hand, if there’s no distinction between the people of the church and the people of the world, then how does the church speak to the world when the church looks exactly like the world? That’s kind of difficult.
On the other hand, how could people who aren’t following Christ ever become passionate about him if they are not welcomed and included as part of the church? So churches face this tension, like, who is the church? So I’ll share my perspective on this, and it’d be great discussion for all of you guys, but I want anyone and everyone to walk in the doors of our church or walk onto our patio. I want anyone and everyone involved in our life groups. I want people who don’t know Christ to be around people who do, to regularly hear in as many forms and as many ways that Christ has come to rescue them, right?
I want them to hear that over and over and over again with no deadline on how soon they need to encounter him, right? Take as long as you need. Just come here and walk next to Christians for a week, a year, 10 years, whatever. Just be here, hear it, right? All of that is fantastic.
At the same time, however, if you call yourself a follower of Christ, Just like Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5, right? If you call yourself a follower of Christ and you are not living in line with how Christ says to live, then we’re gonna hold you accountable for that, especially if you’ve become a member of this church, right? Like, if you are a member, you are giving us permission to speak into your life and hold you accountable for holiness. And that’s really primarily for your benefit. We don’t want you just trailing off and fading away from Jesus.
So that’s primarily for you that we’d hold you accountable. Secondarily, it’s for our benefit as a church, right? Like Nehemiah wanted his core group and city center to have hearts aligned to the Lord, we want people who say they are committed to Bridges to be committed to Christ. We don’t want you to be committed to Bridges without being committed to Christ. That wouldn’t make any sense at all.
So, it’s for Bridges’ benefit. But then thirdly, holding you accountable if you are a Christian, if you say you’re a Christian, that’s for the benefit of the Christian witness in the world, right? You know what happens when someone who says they are a Christian and they behave inappropriately publicly. It hurts the Christian witness in the world. World.
We don’t want that to happen. You don’t either. Okay, so to summarize, um, if you’re just trying to figure this whole faith thing out, um, you stick around for as long as you want. We’ll keep telling you about Jesus no matter how long it takes or how sideways you are to what Jesus says to do, right? But if you are someone who says that you follow Christ especially if you are a member here, we will hold you accountable for pursuing holiness.
All right, lastly, if the end of Nehemiah’s mission wasn’t or didn’t end when he rebuilt the wall, right, if we always have more purpose to fulfill, Where’s all this going? Where do all missions ultimately lead?
It’s the people of God coming into the city of God to spend eternity with God. That’s where Scripture ends. That’s the last pages of the Bible. That’s the final complete redemption of everything, the people of God coming into the city of God to spend eternity with God. This text in Nehemiah gives us a foretaste of that day.
When Nehemiah rebuilt these walls and the people came back into Jerusalem, it was the people of God returning to the city of God after being in exile. It was, but it was not the final homecoming. Coming. It was not the ultimate return from exile. It’s a shadow, it’s a preview, it’s not the real thing.
By the way, Nehemiah and his contemporaries probably knew that they weren’t rebuilding the real thing. They, they knew they were waiting for more, just like we know we are waiting for more, right? I mean, the church today is great, I love it, but it’s not the end.
There is more to come. Both Nehemiah then and us today, we are both a shadow of what will be someday. Israel’s prophets spoke of what the final homecoming would be like, and Nehemiah’s efforts weren’t it. The church today isn’t it? How the prophets described the ultimate return from exile was so extraordinarily wondrous.
It’s really miraculous. It’s supernatural. And it hasn’t happened fully yet. Listen to how the prophets described the return from exile. In Ezekiel 36, thus says the Lord, on the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, The waste places shall be rebuilt.
So they’re like, there’s a rebuilding, there’s a coming back, right? Pulling out of exile. And they will say, the land that was desolate has become like the Garden of Eden.
The desolate land is like the Garden of Eden. Really? No. So not just pretty good, not just nice. The Garden of Eden, unparalleled paradise, that’s what it’ll be like coming back from exile.
Or Isaiah 35, speaking of the return, he says, the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped, the lame man leap like a deer. So, when people return from exile, they will experience physical healing, I mean, that’s not recorded in Nehemiah, right? Isaiah continues, waters break forth in the wilderness, streams in the desert, the burning sand shall become a pool, the thirsty ground springs of water. I mean, did that happen when the 3rd group came back from exile with Nehemiah? The desert became an oasis?
That sounds like the Garden of Eden again, right? Isaiah continues, no lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come upon it, and the ransomed of the Lord shall return. So Isaiah is talking about return from exile, in case you were wondering. Isaiah continues, they will return, they will come into Zion with singing, everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. Everlasting joy, right?
Nehemiah’s wall project fell a little short of everlasting joy. See, when Nehemiah came back to Jerusalem, it was not the final return of the people of God to the city of God to be God forever. Nehemiah would have known his rebuilding efforts weren’t the ultimate rebuild that God would one day provide, right? If Nehemiah was aware of Isaiah, I’m sure he was, if he’d read Ezekiel, Nehemiah knew he was participating in a chapter of redemptive history, but he was not the final chapter, and we aren’t either. In the final chapter, God brings our eternal home to us.
That is even Isaiah 65. You don’t have to read all the way to the end of the Bible to see that. Isaiah talks about it even. We don’t create our eternal home. God creates it and brings it to us.
It is not something we build. It is something that is provided. Jesus says, I am preparing a place for for you. Both Isaiah and John see the new heavens and the new earth arriving or being created, right? It comes, it comes to us in spite of us.
We, we failed to build Eden. We even failed to maintain Eden when our ancestors were there once, right? But, but God God in his loving kindness sends Jesus Christ to begin the work of recreation. Jesus started with us. Recreation started with us, right?
Jesus took the penalty and punishment of our sin. He makes us new. And when Jesus was physically on the earth, he gave us a preview of the type of healing that we will see in the, in the final kingdom, right? He was restoring people’s bodies that were broken or had illness, right?
That’s just a faint picture of like the restoration that we will see in completion one day, right? And eventually it won’t just be our spirits, it won’t just be our bodies, it won’t just be our relationship with God that is reconciled, but eventually one day we will see everything will be made new. Creation itself will be new. And we will finally be home. We will be the people of God living with God in the city of God forever.
Let’s pray. Jesus, thank you for coming to remake us and remake our world, which we have broken. Broken. We pray that our hearts would be aligned to you, Lord, that we would want nothing more than you, that we would not want nothing else other than you, that you would be everything to us, that we would find it a joy to be on mission with you, to complete, to fulfill, to continue the work that you have for us, Lord, as we step into eternity and we get to be with you forever and ever and ever. We never want that to end.
We want it to begin now, Lord, in our hearts. For anyone who is not on mission with you already, we pray that today they would see their need to end adding corruption to the world and to begin working with you to restore the world. So help us to repent and trust in you, Lord, and take whatever next step there is in our journey and mission with you. We pray those things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing. Our helper he amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing. For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe, his craft and power are great and armed with cruel hate. On earth is not his equal.
Dare we in our own strength confide? Our striving would be losing.
We’re not the right men on our side, the men of God’s own choosing. Dost ask who that may be? Why, it’s Jesus, it is he. Lord, save our earth, his name from age to age the same. And he must win the battle.
And though this world with devil’s fill should threaten to undo We will not fear, for God hath willed his truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness will— we tremble not for him. His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure. One little word shall pass That word above all earthly powers, no things to him abide.
The Spirit and the gifts are ours through him who with us died.
And kindred go. It’s more alive also. The body they may kill, God’s truth abides still.
His kingdom is forever.
Thanks everybody for joining us for today’s online service. We hope you were encouraged and challenged and that it’s prepared you for the week ahead. If you have a question or two that has come to mind from Pastor Dan’s message, message today, we’d love to know about that. And you’ll find a button on the service page that you can simply click. It says Sermon Questions, and you can submit one or multiple questions to Pastor Dan, and he’ll do his best to field those questions and to answer as many of those as he can in the coming days.
But we love interacting with our church family in that way. Please feel free to submit your questions, whatever it is that God’s brought to your mind. Let us know if there’s something we can do to pray for you or to be a support. You’ll also find other helpful buttons that are there. You’ll find a button there that allows you to easily like and share today’s service with others that you know.
You’ll find a button there that allows you to worship the Lord through giving. We are grateful for the tithes and offerings every single week that come in to continue the ministry of Bridges Community Church. You can simply click on that button there that says give, and we appreciate that. That’ll take you to those next steps. You’ll find other buttons there that allow you to again interact with us us and us with you.
If you’re visiting, as we said at the very, very beginning, thanks so much for being a part of these services. I want to tell you about a couple things that are coming up. One, that you can simply go to our webpage at connectbcc.org, and if you go to connectbcc.org/serviceopportunities, you’ll find out more information about the upcoming Walk for Life event that Bridges Community Church and many others around the Bay Area are participating in to help raise awareness and much-needed funds for the ministries of Real Options. And we are so grateful for Real Options. They’re a wonderful Christ-affirming ministry in the area that ministers to pregnant women and provides well childcare and help for those who are in need facing unplanned pregnancies.
And we’re so grateful for that ministry. It’s a way that we can come alongside them. You’ll find out more about that information for the Walk for Life on March the 13th. You simply go to our website at connectbcc.org/serviceopportunities.
You’ll find multiple ways that you and I can be a part of that. Our goal as a church is to raise more than $12,000, and you’ll find the specific things there on that webpage that I referenced a moment ago that we are raising money for. And we’re so grateful for your participation. I’m looking forward to it. I hope you’re looking forward to it.
It’s just around the corner. One other piece of information that many of you have already heard, we are going to begin our regathering process at Bridges Community Church. And we have on March the 14th, that’s just in a couple weeks, on Sunday, March the 14th, we are going to be gathering once again, doing outdoor services, having one service on that day. And we’d love to get some information to you that can help you to participate in that. So look for that in the coming days.
Days. Stay tuned to connectbcc.org. But what you’ll need to know is that you’ll need to RSVP in advance for those services. But we really hope to see you in person. And of course, we’ll continue these online services, and we’re grateful however it is that you interact with us.
Please let us know how we can pray for you. We want to be of encouragement to you and come alongside you and help each other in the coming days. So thanks again for being a part. We’ll see you later.
