It was so good going to church yesterday. I hadn't been to big service quite a few weeks, so I was looking forward to doing that. As we were listening to the band play during the offertory, Carolyn draws my attention to the bulletin which says that today's speaker will be David Daniels! Now, I have never heard this man speak before. In fact, I have never met him or even seen him in person. But even before I came to EV I heard about him. He was the former college pastor for ECHO back in the 90's (and the early part of the 00's). People would rave about how good of a speaker he was. Pastor Rob made some mention of ECHO being 700 people large back in the David Daniels "era".

Speaking of Pastor Rob, I really enjoyed his introduction of Pastor Daniels. Most introductions you hear in church are very simple, brief and just biographical in nature. But not this one. You could tell the love and respect that Rob had for David Daniels as he retold a quick story about how they knew each other and how they had come to serve together at EV Free. Moreover, you knew that this man had a love for the Word and for the Gospel. It's one thing if you're invited to speak on Sunday simply to fill an empty slot on the worship calendar. It's another thing if you're invited because of the love and admiration that you have gained through your years of devoted ministry to the church. Wow.

Pastor Daniels spoke on the idea of being Settlers vs. Pioneers taken from Acts 1:1-8. He said that Jesus calls us to go out empowered by the Holy Spirit, taking the Gospel to the whole world.

In ECHO, Matt elaborated on the part in verse 8 that says "in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria". Jerusalem was where they were in, so the equivalent of Austin. Judea was the land that Jerusalem was in, so the equivalent of Texas. And then finally, Samaria was a land to the north that no one really liked, and no one wanted to go there... so the equivalent for us would be Oklahoma.

Anyways, more on Sunday later... ECHO was equally encouraging...