Sunday Message | The Gathering, Colorado Springs
📍 Join us Sundays at 10 AM — 720 Elkton Dr, Colorado Springs, CO 80907
🎥 Watch on YouTube
📖 Follow along with Leah’s notes

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There’s a stirring in the city. A call rising from the heart of God for mothers, fathers, and spiritual parents to take their place again—for a generation that’s been scattered, silenced, and searching for home.

This past Sunday, we looked at one of the most overlooked women in Scripture—Rizpah, a mother whose love refused to die. Her story isn’t glamorous; it’s raw and holy. And somehow, it’s the picture of what God is doing right now in Colorado Springs.

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Rizpah: The Posture of Unrelenting Love

When the land was under famine because of Saul’s sin, Rizpah’s two sons were taken and hanged. Everyone went home—but she climbed the hill, spread her sackcloth on the rock, and stayed.

For months, she watched over what seemed dead.
By day she drove away the vultures.
By night she fought off the beasts.

She refused to let the dignity of her sons—or the other five who hung with them—be devoured.
And when David heard of her vigil, he gathered the bones of Saul, Jonathan, and these sons and buried them with honor. After that, God responded to the plea for the land.

Rizpah’s faithfulness broke the famine.

This is more than a story of grief—it’s intercession. It’s the love that stays. The kind of love God is releasing again in our city.

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A Call to Spiritual Parents

We live in an era of content without connection—where influence often outpaces intimacy. But Paul wrote:

“Though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers.”
— 1 Corinthians 4:15

Colorado Springs doesn’t just need more teachers—it needs fathers and mothers who carry the weight of God’s heart.
Those who will pray when others move on.
Who will love long after the applause fades.
Who will carry sons and daughters—both natural and spiritual—until Christ is formed in them.

This is the invitation:
To move beyond mentorship into motherhood.
Beyond guidance into guardianship.
Beyond words into presence.

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Reconciliation and Rain

Rizpah stood on the rock until rain fell again. The famine broke when love refused to leave.

That’s the Gospel:
Christ Himself climbed another hill, spread His life upon the Rock, and stayed until heaven’s mercy was released.

The cross wasn’t a transaction; it was a vigil.
A mothering act of love that said, I will not leave you.

This is the nature of spiritual parenthood—love that bears, believes, and remains until the rain comes.

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For Colorado Springs

God is forming communities of belonging across this city—small groups, homes, and prayer altars where His presence reshapes lives.

Some of you carry wisdom in business, others in counseling or prayer. The very thing God has formed in you might be what He wants to pour into others.

We’re inviting you to pray about launching or joining a small group—to build spaces of grace and growth all over Colorado Springs.
Together, we’ll form communities that reflect the heart of Jesus in our neighborhoods, our homes, and our workplaces.

If you’ve been asking where you belong, this is the answer: right here, in the story God is writing across our city.

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Reflection

• Where might God be calling you to “spread your sackcloth on the rock”—to stay and intercede for what seems lost?
• How is He asking you to parent, not just guide, the next generation?
• Where do you sense the rain beginning to fall again in your own life?

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Come Be Part of What God Is Doing

🕙 Sundays at 10 AM
📍 The Gathering – 720 Elkton Dr, Colorado Springs, CO 80907
☕ Arrive early (by 9:45) for coffee and fellowship before worship.
🎥 Watch the full message on YouTube
📖 Access Leah’s full teaching notes