This was the amazing sermon, preached by Pastor Keith Carpenter at Epic Life Church, that moved me to finally make my decision to apply for the World Race. Please listen, you will love it. (especially towards the end)
Keither is so excited for me, and it is so encouraging to have the support of my church family, though it will be bittersweet to be away from them during my time on the race. He laughed, "I have to be careful what I preach!!!" Ha! For those of you who don't know, I moved to Seattle four years ago to help plant a church & lead Incarnational Ministries with an amazing team of young people who have a passion for sharing Jesus' love & developing true community to transform the city. My last four years in Seattle with Epic have been phenomenal. I have learned so much about life, God, and people – and my hope is to come back to Seattle & lead short-team missions teams when I come back!
My favorite quote from this sermon,
"We are not uniquely ours. We never act and just interact with ourselves. Everything we do affects someone else, and we are writing a letter that has ripple effects as we act. You are affecting everyone around you. What we do lasts, it impacts.
What about the letter you're writing? What is it full of? Is the letter you're writing full of fear? Is your letter full of a life lived in worry, anxiety, fear of what's just around the corner? Is it a letter of a boring, ho-hum life, or a story of the miraculous? Of risk-taking and stories of a God that can be trusted? What is it?
Some of you, at this very moment, are deciding whether you're going to write a letter of fear or of faith… I want to write a letter that says to God, and to people, that I believe in the power of the Savior, in a God who heals the sick, transforms relationships, who is forgiving, who reconciles and transforms, who takes our worst and makes it His best, who takes our filthy rags, and says, 'I love you!'"
– Pastor Keith Carpenter
