Well, good morning church family here in the room streaming online. Happy fourth
anniversary. Can we just give a round of applause for everyone? Working so hard?
Thank you so much to the worship team, tech team, guest services, kids ministry,
those who are here at six in the morning, setting up every single week, we could
not be who we are and do what we do without you. It's amazing to think that
we've made it four years. It's done. So we're here. We, we are out of the
toddler years as a church. We are a preschool church now. And so, uh we're gonna
go ahead and pass out crayons and we're gonna learn about our letters and
manners. Some of you actually could benefit from that. But anyway, we are gonna
celebrate. It's amazing to think what God has done over the last four years. You
know, from the beginning, our vision from the beginning till now has stayed the
same. And that is that we exist to help every man woman and child experience.
Jesus. A vision is really a living picture of a preferred future. In other
words, it's, it's why we do what we do. And it's, and it's where we're going as
a church. And what we've believed from the very beginning is that Jesus changes
everything that if you have an experience with the creator and savior of the
world, that you live differently, that your relationships, your money, your
habits, your work ethic changes when you encounter a risen savior who loves you
and that our world doesn't need another program, it doesn't need another club
socially or whatever you wanna have it. But really what we need is the power of
Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through his people
to bring about life change in our community and beyond. And so as a church, we
started out really with the idea that too many churches are known by what
they're against. And so from the very beginning, we wanna be known by what and
who we're for. And that we said, and we say almost every single week that we
believe that God is for you, which means we are for you and together we can
continue to be for the community. So today on our fourth anniversary, we are
gonna take a look back and celebrate all that God has done in four years and
then we're gonna end the service and I'm super excited for this to share with
you where we're going and the future for our church, our family, and this
community. And so I hope you're ready to clap. I know we tend to not respond a
lot and services. I myself, it can be reserved but it's OK to clap and, and
respond not heckle. OK, prefer not to heckle. We're out of the comedy club.
That's where we met for a season. But encourage, OK, so I hope you're ready to
clap and share and celebrate with us as we talk about that. So our vision there
to help every man, woman and child experience, Jesus, that concept experience,
Jesus really changes everything. And so while a vision paints the picture of
where we're going as a church, our mission is how we get there. What are we
doing as an organization on a daily and a weekly basis to help us get to where
we wanna go and, and become who we wanna be. And so our mission at the church,
which has been the same from day one is that we will accomplish our vision
through planting the gospel growing in community and multiplying through service
plant grow multiply. It's not only what we do on a regular basis, it fits the
imagery of the tree and of the grove because no single tree makes a grove, but a
grove can start from just one tree. And so we wanna be a church that plants
churches, that plants churches and that we make a transformational difference
for God's kingdom here on earth and then beyond. And so really this idea of
plant grow multiply works its way out in a practical way. In this. That on
Sunday mornings, everything we do is centered around planting the gospel in your
life. And so from the set up team to the greeting to the singing, to the word
that is preached the heartbeat behind, that is to elevate the word of God and
the power of God. And to really help you plant the gospel and plant those seeds
that will be foundational in your life. And then throughout the week, we
encourage you to find friends and get connected in what we call growth groups
because we believe that to grow spiritually, we need to connect relationally.
And if you've been following along with our series Crazy Love. Last week, we
took a look at the 59 1 others in scripture about how you need other people and
other people need you that we are not created to walk through life alone and
that we need one another to spur one another on and to grow in our faith. And so
you plant the gospel, you grow in community. And then we understand that we
multiply through service, meaning that your purpose, your calling and life is
not meant just to be kept a secret and not meant to just be quote unquote
personal that we then turn around and bless and serve our community in the way
that God. God and Jesus has served and blessed us. And so you can do that
whether it's serving here in the church in the various ministries that we're so
grateful for from all levels, or you can also join one of our, for the community
initiatives. And then we even expanded that and launched some missions this last
year as well. And so it's just so cool to sit here four years later and see
really how God has continued to work. I think back to our grand opening Sunday,
October 7th 2018 and there we had flooding on that day that closed Tatum uh Cave
Creek and Pinnacle Peak Road. And so if you could, if you could find us there,
uh My, my oldest son was about half that size as he is now, I think in there. So
he's grown a little bit in the last four years. And uh we said if you had a boat
or a really large truck, you could come to church that morning. And so what
seemed as a challenge to get here? I mean, it washed away all our signs and
everything. Uh What it also did was it closed all the other activities that day
that were outdoors. And so we actually got some new people in that day. And so
we launched and we were off and then 18 months into it, a little thing known as
the global pandemic, uh came into play and through a major curveball across the
world here for us, and it was very challenging and so we went um online, we
launched an online ministry. Now we don't, we didn't have any assets or, or
meeting spaces. I mean, my daughter's bedroom is also working as my office. And
so if you've had a zoom call with me, no, those are not my princess drawings in
the background. That is Chloe's. Well, most of them, one of them. Anyway. Um And
so, um and so we, we just got creative and so we launched an online ministry and
we recorded the sermons and coffee shops after hours in, uh in the desert, in,
up in flag death in the woods, in my house, in the backyard. And we moved
around, uh Andrew, our worship director, I went home for spring break at the
time, wasn't been able to come back uh because of the pandemic. And so we
recorded songs on our iphone um from three different states. They would then
send the music and videos uh to him and there from Iowa, he would then mix the
songs um and put in lyrics, send it back and then we combine it with the sermon
and then we would ship it out every week and we did that for seven months. And
we also uh really found creative ways to serve. So it was during that time that
we connected with the ministry and we were able to pay off the medical debt for
700 families in our community. Can I get an Amen? On that one. So even when we
weren't meeting in person, we were making a difference and it was so cool to see
that. And then when God opened the door to meet the place he opened was a comedy
club. And so we ran church out of a bar and that became fun because, you know,
we kept the two drink minimum, which was nice. Uh, communion was a lot of fun.
And, uh, and so that was good. No, uh I would have conversations with people and
I would invite them to church and, and maybe you've heard this before and people
would say to me, oh, if I walked into your church, the walls would burn down. I
was like, ah, we meet in a bar, you'll be fine. And, uh I said, what, what, ok,
see you there. And, um, and so it became a fun time for outreach. And so we did
that for almost a year and, and to my surprise, a children's ministry was a
little bit difficult in a bar. And so when the schools opened back up to us, we
were able to move back here last fall. And then we went in that. And so while
most churches were going back, I have to understand that during this pandemic
and everything changed, uh, the average church was running about 20 30% and then
maybe 50%. But for whatever reason and through the faithfulness of God and the
faithfulness of our people that we actually started to grow and we actually got
up to back to 100% of engagement and attend and attendance. And we went from 1
to 2 services and then, and then launched back here in the school and upgraded
some things and started reaching more and more people because really what this
is about is life change. And we see that life change through salvations and
baptisms. And we see that and we see these incredible stories of people who are
going public with their faith and declaring their belief in Jesus and seeing the
change of the Holy Spirit in their lives. And then we'd go and we would continue
to serve the community, whether it's with the homeless downtown or buying
Christmas presents for a family through hope, kids who's got a child facing
cancer to buying the technology for a foster care, transition group home to
serving in these community festivals and events or starting a parent child
breakfast program in two different schools. The last one of which we had 100 and
50 people attend. So we see these different impacts going all around the world.
So where even last year at this time, we announced that we're gonna start
another church. And so we've, we brought in our first church plant resident uh
Craig Klauke who then uh trained with us for a couple of months and now is in
the process of trying to launch grafted church uh there at Sandra Day o'connor
High School. And so he's trying to, he's building his launch team right now and
in the process and in that daily grind that we were in only four years ago. And
so we've been trying to make a difference each and every year and then last year
at, at, I just think about in these last 12 months how God has moved, I think
about Christmas Eve really here in this school where we were like, OK, it's
still kind of fresh out of the pandemic. Are people gonna come? Uh Are they
gonna respond those type of things? And we saw 18 people pray to receive Christ
last Christmas Eve service. Isn't that incredible? And then we spent all of
January praying, fasting, going through and saying, ok, God, what, what do you
want us to do as a church? And God placed it on my heart, just one word that
became a theme for our church this year? And that word and you go back and look
up the message it was delivered on January 30th there on our vision Sunday from
that from that year for this year. And that word is more and not more as the
world thinks of more but more in a God sense of more, more like Paul's prayer in
Ephesians three, which says that to the God who can do immeasurably more than
anything you can ask, think or imagine to Him be the glory in his church and for
all generations to come. And so we prayed for that. We prayed specifically for
more God, more love and more disciples. And let me tell you church, if you
picture throwing a rock into a pond or into a lake, the ripples that prayer has
had this year in 2022 is continuing to just blow my mind. And we've seen God
work in amazing ways and, and I'm about to share with you. I'm not exaggerating
here when I say this could be and is the single most important day in our
church's history right now that this moment can launch a movement that could
change legacies in generations in this community forever. But before I share
that, let's think about how God has moved already. This year, we talk about
baptisms and salvations. I think specifically of Tenley who got baptized and she
came forward in her faith and we were celebrating. We all clapped and cheered
and we started to walk to our cars when a high school now, senior named Colin
approached Pastor Clark afterwards said, hey, I'm ready to get baptized. And
they said, great, let's talk about when, when do we want to? He was like, no,
like right now, wait, what like right now. And so we're like, wait, everybody
come back, everybody come back like literally, people were in their cars, you're
like, stop, come back. We got another one. And so then while Colin was getting
baptized, we had a first time guest. His name was Dustin who was there in Polo
and khakis. And while he was, while these people were getting baptized, we had
another out of state. First time guest explaining to him what baptism meant and
leading him to there in the moment to where when Colin got out of the water, he
stepped up first time at church said, I'm ready to get baptized and we're like,
what is going on? And then we took the water, we just start spraying people and
go OK. It doesn't seem theologically accurate. But anyway, um ok, so we didn't
do the last part. But um we saw God move in incredible ways. Then at Easter, we
saw our single largest gathering at the time where we had 315 people worship
with us here in the school, as well as another 200 engage online with our Easter
at home experience. So combined, we had over 500 people worship with mission
Grove church, this Easter Amen. And so we see all these incredible things. You
know, we built a home in Mexico. We took a mission trip down. We were en engaged
with that. We s we saw all these community initiatives and then this summer, we
said, you know what, this blessing, this life change is not just meant for here,
that really we wanna impact the world. And so then we shared uh our partnership
with a global missions agency called the Timothy initiative. Who the, the vision
and heartbeat behind the Timothy initiative is to make disciples who make
disciples. And so they train natives and locals to start multiplying house
churches. And we share that we are on the front end of this movement here in
Arizona where Arizona and Valley churches are combining and working together to
try to plant 4000 churches over the next four years in a project called The
Achieve project, which stands for a church in every village everywhere. And so
this summer, we laid out the challenge and we said, ok, whatever God has placed
on your heart, I want you to give to that. And I didn't even set a number. And I
said, I, let's let's plant some churches and that we wanna plant churches in
Northern India and Nepal. And then you guys stepped up and stepped out in faith
in amazing ways. And if I can get a little drum roll, please, drum roll, please.
Today right now, our church has given you guys have given over $100,000 to plant
320 churches in India and Nepal. That's crazy. I didn't say it publicly, but I
was like, man, that'd be great to plant 10. And then this theme of more and like
we, we're planting 320 churches. And that actually next month, uh me and some of
our leaders here are going to a Global Partnership weekend and we're gonna
actually get to meet um the leaders who are on the ground, planting these
churches and having discussions and we do some interviews with them so you can
hear these stories of what's going on. And so you've been faithful and God has
moved and it's incredible. And so today, I wanna take a step back for a moment
and I want to ask a simple but yet profound question that if you can answer it
correctly, it can change everything for you. And that question is this, what
motivates you, what motivates you. Motivation can be defined as the reason or
reasons for why you act a certain way. So understanding why you do things and
what your motive is impacts the actions that you do. The words that you say, the
thoughts that you think it impacts your endurance and perseverance and it
impacts really every area of your life. And so what I want to do today is that
we've just shared and celebrated all that God has done. But I wanna take a peek
behind the curtain and share with you the motivation behind everything that I do
and everything that our staff does and everything that our church does. That
this is why we do what we do. And our motivation is this if you, if you're
having um if you're taking notes, write this down for Christ's love, compels us
for Christ's love, compels us some people are motivated by power, some by greed,
some by fame, some for the family, some for production. Some people respond to
tragedy in their youth. Some people emulate someone that they look up to. But I
want to tell you that what we do here as a church is motivated by love. It's why
we paid the debt for 700 families. It's why we're planting churches in India.
It's why people that you might not even know are here at six in the morning in a
place that the air conditioning sometimes works and it seems to not work in the
summer, right? And goes in and they're setting things up and, and praying for
and, and working with kids and handing out water bottles and, and holding up
signs and putting up a frames and all these things. It is the motive behind
everything. And these words are not just my words, these come directly from the
word of God. And so if you have your Bible open at the second Corinthians
chapter five, and I want to show you the motivation for our church. Now, as you
turn to Second Corinthians chapter five, I want to give you a little bit of
context and, and really Second Corinthians is written by an apostle Paul who was
persecuting Christians gets saved and then becomes a preacher and a church
planter and he's writing to the church in Corinth and Corinth is this really
pagan city. And so it's do what you want, believe, what you want. It. A modern
equivalent might be seen as Las Vegas if you will uh a sexual act. Uh and those
days were seen as to was named to parenthesize. And so like if your city is
named or equated with an immoral sexual act, you can understand or get a picture
of the craziness going on there. Now, in the midst of this, there was a faithful
revenant of uh remnant of believers who are investing and bringing life change
into the city. And so Paul writes this letter around 55 or 56 ad and he writes
it to address and discipline, what's wrong to encourage and affirm what's right
and then offer some encouragement and perseverance because they were getting
persecuted for their belief. And so he writes this letter and then it, we're
gonna pick it up in chapter five. But understand this, that the chapter
previous, he writes these words in chapter four, verse 16 to 18, he says, do not
lose heart though outwardly, we are wasting away inwardly. We are being renewed
day by day. Our momentary troubles are achieving for us, an eternal glory that
far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes, not on what is seen but is but on
what is unseen since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Such a great phrase, isn't it? What is seen is temporary? What is unseen is
eternal. Then in the beginning of chapter five, the first five verses, he gives
this illustration. He compares our bodies and uh in this life to living in a
tent, any campers out there, anyone love camping? That's how most people are.
OK? That didn't put their hands up. I'm with you. OK? But even if you love
camping, here's the deal. If your door has a zipper, that is a temporary
structure. OK? That is a temporary structure. If your door has a zipper, ok?
It's not very stable. Like that's not meant to be your forever home game. Here's
what Paul is saying is that your life is brief, your life is temporary, it is
short. Your life has a zipper. Your life as James writes it, another writer is a
mist. And so with the brevity of life, don't focus on what is seen, but on what
is unseen. And then he even goes further. And then in verse seven, it's one of
the most commonly quoted verses that never has a reference attached to it. And
he says, therefore, we walk by faith, not by sight. And in verse that's verse
seven. And in verse 11, he says, behold, one day all of us will stand before the
judgment seat of Christ. So he's got this lens in the background, right? So
this, this idea of eternity is in the background, it's in the foreground, it's
in the campground, it is everywhere. It's in the coffee grounds everywhere is
about the eternal life that is found in Jesus. And that sets us up for these
words verse 13. If we are out of our mind, as some say, it is for God, this is
the basis for crazy love. If we are out of our mind, in other words, if we seem
crazy, it is for God, then notice what he says there. He, he qualifies it after
He says, but if we are in our right mind, it is for you. I love that because
it's like on one hand, he's saying be crazy. But like, don't be weird though,
you know, like, have you met a uh someone's a little too Christian? You know
what I'm saying? You know what I'm talking about, right? Like you say, like if
we're crazy, it's for God. And if we seem somewhat normal, it's actually for
you. He said everything we do is for God. And then it says in verse 14, for,
here's the key verse for Christ's love compels us, not rules, not religion, not
fame, not power. For Christ's love compels us because we are convinced that one
died for all and therefore all died. And he died for all that. Those who live
should no longer for themselves. But for him who died for them and was raised
again. If you believe that your life is a tent, that life here is a temporary,
then our goal here is out of the love of Christ. And because of the love of
Christ, we can live in a way that shows and shares the love of Christ with the
world around us. We are compelled not by guilt, but by love. It stands behind
everything that we do. Jesus himself said this in the room with the disciples
after washing their feet, a job reserved for the lowest of servants. And then
moments before he would go to the cross to die for them, he said these words, a
new command I give to you, love one another as I have loved you. So you must
love one another. I love this phrase here because then in the next verse, verse
35 he says by this, everyone will know that you're my disciples. This is the
distinguishing mark of the church. This love that if you are my disciples, you
will love one another. Now, love is our motive. And for Christ's love compels
us. But see that word compels implies action. So compels us to do what? Well,
it's after months and months of prayer and discussions with our elders, with our
staff, with leaders, with mentors, with coaches. I'm excited to introduce to you
today. Our vision for the next 24 months known as the Crazy Love Project. The
Crazy Love Project. See, our community has a need. Do you know that last year in
2021 Phoenix was the single fastest growing city in the entire country that if
you take our church where we're meeting right now and you think of like the
Brady Bunch boxes or Tic tac toe and you just circle around now that the zip
codes and things are kind of funky shaped. So really, there's about 14 zip codes
that encircle us and we're, we're pulling people from all 14 zip codes. If you
take the population of those 14 zip codes and add them together right now, it
equals over 450,000 people. There are 450,000 people within just a few minutes
of our church. And see, we see that it is growing every single day. If you take
any road, we're seeing the traffic patterns like crazy. And if you've been
annoyed by traffic, it's because there's so many people coming in that if you
take Cave Creek Road, for example, every single day, 26,000 cars are passing and
that's even on the northern part of Cape doesn't even by the 101. So we're
seeing people coming to Phoenix in droves. But at the same time, we're seeing
the spiritual engagement decrease. In fact, George Barna, who does, uh, research
around the country and, and specifies on church and uh religious research, uh, a
few years ago posted that Phoenix ranked ninth on one of the uns church cities
in America doesn't seem crazy to you because we got some big churches in the
area, right? So you're like really nice of most unchurched cities. Well, if you
just do the math, the amount of increase of people coming to our state and then
you, you as well as the number of churches and spiritual engagement. Church is
not keeping up. But see, this isn't just a numbers thing. This is personal.
Think about the neighbor or coworker or friend whose marriage is falling apart.
Think about the single parent who is just craving to have an hour to connect
with God and adults while their little one is loved on or the family who's got a
teen facing temptations of the 21st century and they're not sure where to turn.
Think about the struggles that people go through, whether it's health, financial
relational, think about the storms of life that have been coming our way in a
deeply divided world where people are searching, people are struggling, people
are longing. See, it's in this community, it's, it's with our coworkers and our
friends and our family members that we can speak life and hope and love to them.
So the need is great. But then our opportunity is great because we have the
opportunity to share and show the love of Christ to our community. And beyond
that, we have the opportunity to show people that even in the midst of this busy
world, when it's easy to feel overwhelmed and alone, we're building community
around the message of Jesus to help people find the peace and purpose they've
been searching for all along. That's why it's our opportunity that in the crazy
love project over the next coming weeks and months, we're gonna be launching an
application here to, to try it or we're figuring out the details of where people
can post needs online and then other people in the church can meet them so we
can practically live out this whole concept of loving one another. That's why in
the coming weeks and months, we're gonna be launching a new discipleship
curriculum, not based in a classroom, but based mobilely so that we can not just
say, hey, go to this class and it said we can equip and empower you to disciple
people where you are in the workplace, in the families, in your community, in
the cul de sac. And that we can actually be a church that makes and multiply
disciples. And let me share with you also what God is doing right now. You see
by my count in four years, our church has met in really eight different
locations. We launched in a living room, then we went to a classroom, then we
came into a cafeteria and we had like no supplies, like a broken projector
stacked on textbooks and like a hand me down, hand me down sound system that
sometimes worked. Uh uh And we launched the kids ministry with nothing. So we
just kind of put kids into a room that was smart. Um Maybe not. But, um, and
then we're building momentum and it was great. And then the school said, oh, by
the way, we're remodeling. So you guys are out. And so then we were back in
homes and we were trying to get creative and then the schools opened back up.
And this time, we came back in with some supplies and we grand opened and then
18 months into it global pandemic and, and we had to go online and then things
opened up and we went into the comedy club and then we came back here on this
into the school. And so in four years, we've had eight different meeting spaces,
but God has been with us every step of the way. And today is the biggest day in
the history of our church because I wanna introduce to you publicly for the
first time location. Number nine church. We are officially getting a building
and a home. Let's go. Let me tell you a little bit how God opened this up at the
end of last year, beginning of this year, at one of our lowest attended days,
like no joke. We started the service with two people in the room. I think I
literally looked at Bob and Rose Frankhauser and said, hey, Bob Rose stand up,
let's say, and I was like, I went home like God, are you working? Are you doing
like, what's going on? It's been like 34 years at this point and this is what's
going on. And that same week I got an email from somebody say, hey, God placed
your church and your ministry on my heart. We believe in what you're doing. And
I wanna help you get into a space. And so he gave a generous donation that
allows to start searching. And so we were searching for a location and there was
one spot that opened up and the spot was here and it's actually just a little
bit north of us. So it's still, it's just a couple of minutes from us. It's
still within our target audience here just north of the 101 and just south of it
right off a main road. It's at the corner of Cave Creek and Lone Mountain. It is
a former preschool building just fitting because we're now a preschool church.
And uh and so it is 11,444 square feet and it's got a playground. It's got
plenty of parking, it's got classrooms and, and God opened the door. And here's
the thing, a challenge for most places of nonprofits like ours is we have
nothing as collateral to secure the lease. But because we received this gift,
this gift allowed us to not only secure the lease, but then put it in an account
that it will use to help pay a large percentage of the rent for the next seven
years. Amen. And so we signed the lease about 2.5 weeks ago. I don't have keys
yet. It's that fresh. Ok. And we're going through and we were praying and we
were processing. And so here's the opportunity for us is that while that gift
secured the lease to get us in the building, we can't touch that money towards
the remodel. And so it, it is going to require a significant remodel to get into
the space unless you feel comfortable with all the tiny toilets and the
individual bathrooms and the tiny chairs. So, no, so what we're gonna do is use
the framework of the building itself and then we're gonna completely remodel the
inside. And so I want to share with you a little bit of the plan with that. And
so the plan, you can see the architecture plan within this space. We're gonna be
able to put in an auditorium that seats 250 to 300 people as well as offers
seven classrooms for kids ministry, student ministry, adult ministry. It's gonna
have a generous lobby space, a cafe area, a playground for kids. We're gonna be
able to offer 24 7 access and ministry ministry happening every single day of
the week. We got men's Bible studies, women's Bible studies. We're gonna be able
to fully launch a student program that meets weeklies. We're gonna be able to
offer a kids program that meets in the summer. We're gonna be able to offer so
many things and counseling. We're gonna have workspace for our team. We're gonna
um you know, it's just gonna be incredible. And all of this here as God has
opened the door for us and you can actually see a drawing. We have a concept
drawing. So you can kind of get an image of what it might look like once we get
in. And so all within just a couple of minutes north of us here in the one
building that was the size and the one place that would rent to churches that
happened to be at the lowest rent price in a crazy market that then worked with
us. Then they're even giving us money to go towards the remodel that God
provided the funding for to get into the space that now we can move to. So
here's the opportunity and the challenge is that while the lease is secured and
we have some funding to help us with rent. We, the remodel has to be all on us
here with it and all within our church community and going through that. And so
what we are gonna attempt to do. So the timeline, let me share the timeline here
with us with you is that uh fundraising now getting the permitting because that
takes a little bit of time doing the demo going through that. So we're not,
we're not moving tomorrow. Ok. It's not like next Sunday meet there. We're going
to be here for the little, a little while. Ok. And so that's going to happen
this fall, the remodel will hopefully happen this winter. And then sometime in
the end of, uh, towards the end of spring of 2023 we will grand open in our new
permanent home. Amen. Can we give a round of applause for that? And so to help
cover the cost, what we've done is that we, we've set two numbers, so two
numbers here. Um The first number is what we call our victory goal and the
victory goal we believe will help us get into the building. And so that victory
goal number is 600,000 spread out over the next 24 months. So that's over the
next two years. Hoping to raise 600,000, help cover these remodel costs to get
into the building and pay the remainder of the rent, that type of thing and the
costs associated with the move. And now from the beginning, we've always been a
tithing church, meaning that we give away 10% of what comes in to local and
global causes. And so we're not gonna change that. That sounds crazy when we
could use the money to build the facility. But we think you can't out give God
and so whatever comes in, we're gonna give away 10% to ministries like the
Timothy initiative that this miracle is not just for us, it's for the world and
it's for God and planting churches around the world. And so 10%. So if we raise
600,000, we think that'll get us into the building as well as we will then give
away 60,000 to missions, both local and global. But we understand that costs are
going up, challenges are faced. There's a lot of unfortunate things we don't
know yet. And that's why we're also setting what's called our miracle goal of
750,000. So 750,000 we believe can get us into the space as well as remodel to
become more effective and multiply ministry more effectively. It's kind of if
you picture like moving into a house, you want to get in the house first and
then you might have some projects to work on if we can hit our miracle goal that
allow us to do more and do more ministry. And so that's kind of the numbers that
we are having here. And so let me share with you also then how you can
participate because God has already opened up so many doors and it's been
incredible. But what we're gonna do today is that on your way out the door? We
have booklets for everyone that is launching today. Our Crazy Love project. So
it's got all the details as well as there's a website. You can go and visit at
Mission Grove, church.com/crazy Love. There's also a QR code on the screen or
you can, there's a button on the, on our digital bulletin as well. And so
everyone's gonna be getting a booklet, everyone can uh visit the website that is
now live and that what we are asking people to do is to prayerfully commit
financially to give an above and beyond tithe for the next two years, the next
24 months to help us specifically to get into our first official space with 24 7
access to more effectively reach people with the gospel and share and show the
love of Christ with this community and beyond. And so I, I understand the push
back. I've been about a part of churches before and I understand when, when
people hear building project that some might say, oh, here we go again. The
church just wants my money and, and I wanna tell you like I get it. I know
there's been some bad things in the past or bad experiences. And so I don't
wanna make light of that, but I also wanna encourage you that II, I actually
don't want anything from you. Like here's the deal, like whether you give or
don't give everyone got cake today. You know what I'm saying? Like, like
everyone's welcome to come. Like we are a place that we want everybody to come,
whether they give or not we want everyone to come. But here's the truth. And
while I don't want anything from you, what I do want is I want something for you
and this church, this project is for you. This is for your family, for the kids,
for teens, for the loss for your neighbor, for your coworker. I want something
for God to spread and show his love. I want something for this community to put
plant our flag in and say we are for you. And so I want you to know that whether
you give or not everyone is welcome here. But if you call this church home, I
wanna challenge you and I wanna invite you to join the generosity. I wanna
invite you to join this generosity and to join this project. And so everyone's
gonna also receive this pledge card that between now and October 30th, we ask
that you would commit. Now, if you want a gift today, great, we'll do it right.
Commit today. But again, we're not compelled by guilt, we're compelled by love.
And so if you wanna go home, pray about it, talk about it with your spouse. Look
at the numbers and things for you, whatever you need to do, I want you to do
that. All I ask is that whatever God places on your heart that you would come
back and that you would do what God told you to do. And then we see how God
shows off when we show up. Now, the reason we're saying the pledge by October
30th is that we do have to make some construction decisions based on the pledge.
So we will take pledges all for the next two years. So if you're not ready, like
no, on your timing, but we do have to make decisions in November. And so that's
why this helps to know by the end of the month. And here's what I know to be
true is that God is so big and God is so great. And I truly believe that this
crazy love project will be successful. And I believe this for two reasons.
Number one, I believe because God has been so faithful these last four years and
all the ups and downs God has been with us every step of the way. And I truly
believe that the best is yet to come. And the second reason I believe this will
be successful is because I've had a front row seat to the faithfulness of God's
people. You know, this, this decision wasn't made lightly with elders, with
staff, with leaders, with mentors. We've been praying over this for months and
then I went even crazier and just like a week or so ago, I went to some of you,
I went to some of our leaders and I say guys, this is crazy, but I wanna show
the world, I wanna show our community that we are in this together. And he said,
I wanna challenge you to do something crazy. I want you to make your pledge
before we even go public. So last week, we were collecting pledges from some of
our leaders and this is the stack of cards that it holds for you right now. And
I have just been completely humbled and blown away by your faithfulness. Many of
you in this room right here because today is day one and we're starting and our
victory goal is 600,000. And just from the cards that I'm holding here right
now. Day one out of the gate, I wanna share with you that already pledged is
345,000. $630. We are over halfway there and it's day one. Isn't that crazy. And
out of that already, $38,000 have been given in cash right now to go towards
this project. And so we are, this is crazy. It's day one. It's not supposed to
happen like that, but you stepped up, you stepped out. God has showed up and is
showing off time and time again. And so I am asking you right now, will you
partner with me? It is your turn. Let us go. We are not just playing defense as
a church. We are going on offense and we are reaching people in this community
and beyond with the gospel. And God is doing so much more than anything we can
ask, think or imagine. And I'm inviting you into that journey with me and with
these leaders who have already committed. So will you do me a favor and will you
stand and will you pray with me dear holy father. We just thank you. I am so
blown away. I am blown away by our leaders who have already stepped up and
stepped out in faith and already pledged that we already have pledges of
$345,000. But God, we know that we're gonna need more. We know that there's
gonna be more, but we know that you are the provider that you were in control of
everything. And so we submit our plans. We submit these details. We submit our
lives to you and we are compelled purely by your love. Thank you for loving us.
Thank you for saving us. We commit this crazy love project to you, not for
ourselves but for your kingdom, not for our will, but your will be done. And we
ask that you would provide and that we would respond and that we would join
your, your ministry, your plans and your generosity to impact this community and
this world with the gospel. We love you and your sons. Let me pray. Amen.