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I've Got Something to Say
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DavidJeremiah.org/Rallies
I first heard of "An evening with David Jeremiah" coming to St Louis a few weeks ago when Chris, a friend from church, had mentioned something about it, getting tickets, and how much he was looking forward to it. I didn't think to much about it at the time - yea, it would be nice to attend this event, but I didn't pencil it into my schedule or persue it.
Wednesday afternoon, Jacque IM'd me a message that our pastor had a ticket available for this event and wondered if I wanted it. I said sure; there was nothing planned in my schedule so why not.
Chris did not make it up to church Wed evening, as he & his family usually does, but I called him later & left a voicemail that I would be going Thurs night to the event, and inquired if we could meet up to get there together or sit together while there - it was all general admission seating. He & I finally caught up with one another on the phone Thursday around lunch time, and turns out his wife has been sick for several days, and while she is recovering now, thier youngest kid is sick & going to the Dr. today. So he wasn't going to be able to attend tonight after all.
I also found out Thursday that the ticket I received was an extra ticket, while I was thinking up to this point that our pastor gave up his ticket. So, I called him early in the afternoon to see if we could connect & go there together and/or sit together. Turns out he was downtown all day, first to attend a pastor's breakfast that was part of the David Jeremiah activities for the day. Then he stayed downtown and meet up with his wife & father-in-law to attend the opening day game of the St Louis Cardinals.
The game went into extra innings, so at 7:00 Randy callled me to say he had his phone off all afternoon and was just now leaving the stadium. I told him I had a seat next me in section 105 that he could have once he arrived - he walked in about 30 minutes later while we were singing some songs.
When I first arrived at the arena, I was expecting to be by myself, so I thought I could just wonder around, even in the floor seating section & look for a single seat. Well, nothing seemed to be readily available. Most seats that were emptied were actually being saved by others sitting around them. I wasn't quite bold enough to go walking down the aisle with my index finger held up hollering if anyone had an open seat by them - or to ask an usher to assist in my quest. I eventually took one of two empty (aka available) seats I found in a lower row of the second level in the corner where the side section curves around to the end opposite of the stage. As I sat there I saw an usher down around the first couple rows of the lower level a couple sections over from where I was, holding up her index finger signifying that there was a single seat down there. She was down there for 2-3 minutes, so I thought I'd make my way over there to get a closer seat. As I was walking down the stairs, she was still holding up her finger, but then a lady a couple steps ahead of me claimed the seat. It turns out there was a pair of seats in the next section over, along the rail over one of the 'entrances' to the floor, so I claimed them - then when Randy called I was able to invite him to come join me, if I had found a single seat Randy would have been able to find a seat, but we would not have been able to enjoy the service together.
The service was great. It is always an awesome experience to sing to & praise God with 10,000 or more other people. To observe & experience a taste of what others do during their weekly worship services is a very uplifting and encouraging time. Plus, as we sang through several songs that I hear on the radio (via Joy-FM 99.1) or sing at church will now trigger a visual rememberance of being in this service. One of Dr Jeremiah's son, who is the head of Turning Point Ministries later introduced his father's sermon time during these events is usually one that he has recently preached from the pulpit on Sunday mornings at Shadow Mountain Community church, but this one is a new sermon, one he hadn't even heard before.
The sermon focused on the question: what has happened to Jesus? Basically, the stand point that everything from the media & entertainment, to even the most professed christians are getting very blazay about who Jesus really is and making Him out to be who we want him to be. To remind us of who Jesus is, not just who He was when He walked here on Earth, and not just who He was before & when the Earth was made, but who He is today and who He is in the time to come AND what all that means to you & me - we need to remember His titles, His accomplishments and what He has to offer us, and we need to be sure that is the Jesus we serve and profess. The scripture text came from Hebrews, not any of the gospels. As Dr Jeremiah said, "You can learn a lot about Jesus by reading one of the gospels. You can learn a lot more about Jesus by reading the book of Hebrews!"
He gave an invitation at the end of the service and several people made their way down to the foot of the stage to profess their faith in Jesus Christ, so many so that Dr Jeremiah called for several pastors who had attended the morning’s breakfast to come down to counsel some of these people as was talked about at the breakfast. Well, Pastor Randy said he would go down & see what he could do. After the closing prayer & departing song, I made my way out to the lobby to buy a couple books that were promoted during an early part of the service, then on out to my truck.
I parked in a nearby parking garage, and had made my way there via side roads from work and entered from a side road (Lindell) and not the main road (Compton) that has direct access to I-64 a couple blocks away and the traffice to go with it. Upon leaving, I exited the same way I came in and followed Lindell up to Kingshighway to get to I-64, to I-170 then on home within about 35 minutes time. When I got up Friday morning and was preparing to leave for work I noticed I had a voice mail on my phone; it was from Pastor Randy time stamped about 10:10 PM Thurs night. He said he was just now getting out of the parking garage (I don’t know if it was the same one I was in) but he had parked on the top level and it was slow going getting out. He went onto say that he wasn’t sure if I saw him or not, but he was able to pray with a young man about receiving Christ when he arrived down at the foot of the stage.
I’m kind of glad I didn't notice my phone ringing last night when he made this call. I don’t know how he would take it if I answered the phone and replied to him that I was safe & sound at home already.
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