So excited for 2023 and all that God's going to do. And so today is called
Victory Sunday. And the reason we're doing that is that we are celebrating all
that God has done and that we are praying for all that God is going to do. And
so this morning though, to share some exciting news and going back and forth,
I'm gonna need a little help from you guys today. So if you get excited for
something, feel free to shout an Amen. Um Clap a, a little bit. I know it's not
common for us to interact here in the service, but it's OK if we can get a
little more charismatic this morning. OK, just to interact with me here because
we're gonna be sharing a lot of fun things and exciting things. If you're
heckling, maybe not, maybe not that interaction but encouragement. I appreciate
that as we go into it. No, I uh this last week spent some time up in Flagstaff
with the family. I got to recharge and refuel and it was a lot of fun. Uh My, my
wife loves to snow ski. My kids picked up snowboarding. I prefer snow falling.
Um, both to watch and physically. That's what I do is I just fall, uh, I, I
consider myself the buzz light year of the mountain. Um, I'm just falling with
style. Ok. And, uh, I, I am still hurting quite a bit actually. Uh, I am not
good at snow sports but, uh, my kids picked it up and I'm both proud of them and
jealous because now my six year old daughter is way better on the mountain than
I ever could hope to be. So, uh that was a lot of fun. But we spent that time
rejuvenating as a family and really to spend that time being grateful for my
family. But I also spent time just being grateful for my church family as well.
And so today we're gonna do a lot of celebrating. But before we jump into what
God is going to be doing here in 2023 we don't want to move into this new year
so quickly that we don't stop to praise God and thank him for what he did in
2022. And so let's just start off right in the most recent thing here with
Christmas. Christmas in all accounts was the largest uh activity or event or
celebration. However, you wanna word it in the history of Mission Grove. Church.
Amen. Yeah. What do I mean by that? Well, it's our largest in person gathering.
We had 331 people here on Christmas Eve, we had another 398 p views online with
the Christmas at home experience. Had 30. Yeah, we keep clapping for that. We
had 39 1st time guests. And what I want really wanna hear some clapping on is
that we had 29 people pray to receive Christ at our Christmas Eve services.
Isn't that awesome? So 29 people there were following up with them. Uh super
excited that we had another 22 other faith commitments, meaning like prayers,
requesting prayer, recommitment, rededication, those type of things. So
together, that's over 50 faith decisions just two weeks ago. And then last week
while we didn't meet in person, we got to share the incredible faith story of
the butler family. So if you know the butlers, they sit here normally in the
front row, second service here. Well, you got to hear the heartbeat of Corey and
Wendy and their kiddos as well. Who Wendy really? This idea of for six years of
not being able to walk and battling charcoal and stuff. And then just around
Thanksgiving here after a number of surgeries, if you've not seen their story go
on youtube, not right this minute because you're in a service, but when you get
home, go and watch it because it'll inspire you and encourage you because now
she is walking. Amen. After six years, it is a walking miracle. Yes. So we're
praising that as a about 250 people have watched that. So uh almost 1000
different interactions with the church just in the last two weeks. And so we're
super excited and praying and praising God for what he's doing now. For our
church. Our vision is to help every man woman and child experience Jesus. It's
all about Jesus. It always has been and always will be. This is the DNA of our
church. And so a vision defined as the living picture of a preferred future,
meaning for every man, woman and child to experience Jesus. This is where we're
going. This is what we're after. This is our why now the mission, some people
use mission and vision. Same time I, how I define it is that vision is that
living picture of where we're going. OK. The mission is how we get there. And
it's what we're doing on a daily, weekly basis as a organization and as people.
And so our mission as a church is to plant the gospel, grow in community and
multiply through service and see we're seeing God move throughout this. And so,
for example, last year we had eight baptisms that we celebrate that and you can
see some photos there and we celebrate, we're clapping. Uh It was personal for
me too. Got to baptize uh Carter, my middle son and that was so precious and
sweet and so exciting there. We're seeing those, you know, 29 salvation
decisions there at Christmas as a part of that. So we wanna plant and declare
the gospel in our lives every single week. But not only are we planting the
gospel. We're also growing in community. And this fall semester, we launched
more growth groups than ever before. And so we actually have nine growth groups
currently meeting that reaches over 100 and 60 people on a weekly basis. Amen.
Isn't that awesome that we can clap for that, that we're growing together, that
we are connecting. If you do not have a group, I invite you and encourage you
and urge you to get plugged in because the Christian life is not meant to be
lived alone. And more than just sitting in rows like we gather together, we
sing, you hear the word of God preach. You can process through your life, but
more than rose. Uh We invite you to be a part of a circle, a part of a
community, a part of a family to know somebody to be known. This is where the
transformation happens and it's not just listening to the words of God, but how
you apply them in your lives and how you encourage others to do the same. This
is where lives are changed. And that's why we don't just plant the gospel on
Sunday mornings, but we encourage you to grow in community here throughout the
week. Now, along with that, then we multiply through service. So if you follow
the path of a seed, it's planted, it grows and then it multiplies to others.
That's why we're called mission growth is that no single tree can make a growth,
but a growth can start from just one tree. And the way we do that is that we
multiply through service. And so you see all throughout the year, we have
incredible opportunities to be for the community. And we say that because we
believe God is for you, which means we are for you and together we can be for
the community. We are changing the narrative of what the secular world thinks
when they hear the word church. So many people, when they hear the word church
define what they are against. But here at Mission Grove, we wanted to be defined
by who and what we are for. That's why we've been serving the homeless going
downtown. That's why we do these uh activities like fall festivals here with the
Aviano community, whether it's the fireworks or Easter or blue bash. That's why
we partner with schools. That's why we are, we provide a Christmas for a hope
kids family or why we are buying gifts and supplies for the students at Echo
Mountain. Um And for their teachers and you guys should know on top of what you
guys gave at Christmas time, we're putting in Amazon gift cards on top of that
uh for every single teacher that we're gonna get and we're gonna pass those out
here this month to the Echo, the teachers and staff there at Echo Mountain. And
one of our very own Lacy here is a part of that. So thank you Lacy for
connecting us with that and for serving the kiddos every single week. So this is
what it means to be for the community, looking for ways to serve, but not only
do we do that here, we do that around the world. And so we had our, our first
really official mission trip. We did a scout trip two years ago, but we took
over 20 people down. We built a house for a family in Mexico. It was incredible.
It was so much fun. We're gonna do that again in March. That's what you just
heard about. But then also we began our partnership with the Timothy initiative.
Now here in the next couple of weeks, I'm gonna show you some interviews that I
got to do with the leaders. Now that one just, I'm giving you a heads up online
audience. That one when we show the interviews that might have to stay in person
because of the security risk for the people there. So you'll get to, it's an
encouragement to be here. So you can see those interviews. But if you cannot
make it to here and you wanna see the interviews that we're gonna show this
month. Um fill out that next step form. Let me know and I can send you a secured
link. We just can't post it publicly because there's some security stuff going
on in the world. And so we're gonna show some of those over the next couple of
weeks. I think you're gonna love it. But along with that church because of your
generosity, we have planted just in 2022 320 churches in India and Nepal isn't
that amazing? See, we're seeing God move in such mighty ways to help every man,
woman and child experience, Jesus that we plant the gospel growing community
multiply through service. This is how I try to live my life personally. This is
how we try to live our life organizationally and this is what is going to bring
victory in your life here in 2023. Now we talk about the crazy love project.
This is what we launched there on our four year anniversary. And really the idea
behind this is that we are compelled by the love of Christ to reach our
community with the good news of the gospel. And I have some really fun updates
to share with you. But to give an idea of where we're going in 2023 we got a
little video playing. I want you, you can kind of see. This is Cape Creek Road.
I'm gonna sit down so I can see it as well. Uh So you have Cave Creek Road just
driving up here. You're gonna see um, I was in a small plane and I know it's a
drone footage. Um, and, uh, and so then, uh, you can see this building here just
at the corner of Cave Creek and Lone Mountain Road. Well, we've been praying for
months and I've shared with some of you publicly and more detailed personally.
Um, all the challenges that we faced with the negotiation with the lease with
legal, with paperwork, uh, with permits with the city. There's a lot of stuff
that goes in. If you've ever been in a building project, you understand that
there's some challenges there. You can see this space. It's 11,444 square feet.
It's just a couple miles up the road. So we're not going far. We're still here
in our community. There's actually a space in the back that we're gonna turn
into a community space. There's a playground already set up. Uh There's gonna be
clouds rooms for students, classrooms for kids. There's gonna be a 200 to 300
seat auditorium, plus those classrooms, cafe area, generous lobby and all these
things. Well, I shared with you on Christmas Eve that we got the keys literally
days before Christmas Eve. But what I can share with you this morning the
following week, our permits also came through. So after waiting for over three
months, after waiting for over three months in seven days, we got both the keys
to the building and we got permits for the city, we got insurance, they're going
through. And the reason that's important and the reason I'm sharing all that is
that construction for this project you ready for? It begins tomorrow, folks.
Come on, let's go. We are beginning the project. Tomorrow it starts 7 a.m. We're
gonna be there. The crew's gonna be in there. It's super exciting. Now, here's
what I wanna do. If you are available to help, I don't need you yet because
there's a lot of insurance and licensing and the things that need to go on
first. But if you're available to help, can you let me know that? Like if you
wanna help with demo, not just do you wanna swing a sledge hammer? I mean, that
would be cool. Maybe we'll let you have that. But if you wanna help, if you're
available, please put that in the comment section or prayer section or anywhere
on this next step. Let me know. So that when we hear from our contractors, what
we can and cannot do, they might not trust me with a sledgehammer, but uh I can
reach out to you and follow up to you directly because the project begins
tomorrow 7 a.m. So please be in prayer for that. Let me know if you want help
with that. And here, what's it gonna look like? Well, actually we have a concept
drawing up on the screen now you can kinda see and so it's gonna be modern, it's
gonna be clean, it's gonna be fun. Uh, it's gonna be incredible and it's gonna
be a space that we can call our own. Yeah. Amen. Right now. For those that are
curious here or maybe newer to the church, this project's gonna take probably
about six months or so. So it's gonna take a little bit. Right. It's pretty much
a full remodel space, so we're not going anywhere right now. OK. So next Sunday
don't just show up over there, ok? Um Don't just start hitting things with a
hammer or whatnot. We're still meeting here, ok? Until you hear otherwise this
is our gathering space. All right. And so we are excited for that. We're
connecting to the community, but also with that, I haven't shared publicly any
of the numbers that have come in. We've been putting out challenge cards. In
fact, we, everyone who walked in with a bulletin received another pledge card.
And so what we're doing today and the reason we're calling this victory Sunday
is that for the first time here, we're gonna share with you where we're at in
the project and we are praising God for all that he has done. And so first, we
asked people to make a two year pledge 24 months and if you have not joined, I
understand, I, I wanna give you the opportunity to do that today. That's why we
have the pledge cards for everybody and understand too, that 10% of what we
raise in this is actually going to local and global missions. And so I've
already done that. We've already been giving away to missions uh what we bring
in. So 10% we don't wanna be considered a tithing church, meaning that what you
give, we also give to the community and to missions. And so that's why we say
you don't just give to Mission Grove, you give through Mission Grove. And so for
those that have pledged, thank you for those that are praying about thinking
about it, man, jump in with us and for those that are like, man, I uh great
another church talking about money. Look, this is not me asking something from
you. This is me sharing exciting news for you because whether you give or not,
you are welcome here, whether you give or not, we wanna preach the word of God.
We wanna be the hands and feet of Jesus and we're gonna jump into God's word
here in just a moment and I want something for you and because I love you and
because I want something for you, this is what we're about. This is why we do
it. This is why we celebrate the victory because compelled by the love of
Christ. And so I'm not gonna give you a number behind it like I'm not gonna
guilt you to that because I trust the Holy Spirit to do his work. And So I just
want you to know. I am so grateful. That's really my posture is that I'm so
grateful for those who give. And so I wanna share with you where we're at. See,
we set two goals. We have a victory goal of over two years, the next 24 months
to pledge 600,000. And then we called a miracle goal of 750,000. So the
difference between the two is that 600,000, it's in the building. 750,000, we
think can really more finish the building and get us to the spot where we can
more effectively minister if you think about purchasing a home, the main thing
is to get into the house, right? So, so sometimes you can get into the house.
That's what that 600,000 number gets us to and then 750,000 helps us finish the
house, build out the room so we can more effectively minister here to the
community. And so so far church through three months. So we're not even, I mean,
it's a two year program. We got a two year goal for three months right now. Can
we get a little drum roll, please? A little drum roll here. We have pledged
currently, we have pledged $521,303 already. We're only three months in church
and we're going and that represents 57 pledges So thank you so much to those who
pledged to that and committed to that. And not only have people pledged to this
project into this campaign is that you have already been faithful to give. And
because of your generosity is what allowed us to put down the deposit and down
payment for the place. It allows us to pay for architecture. It allow us to pay
for permitting and the down payment for our contractor. And because you give and
because you have given already, this is what has allowed us to begin the project
tomorrow. And so can I get one more drum roll please? That currently to date of
the 521,000 pledge, we have already received $254,754 for this project. Amen. So
we are just getting started. I mean, literally tomorrow seven am just getting
started, but yet God has been so faithful. We're growing, we're reaching more
people. OK? Our online presence have over 450 subscribers there. With that,
we've had over 70,000 views online engagement with us there. We just coming off
of our largest in-person service with the most salvation decisions ever. But I
think truly the best is yet to come. The best is yet to come. I really believe
that I really do and I don't think that's just something from me. I think that's
something directly from the heart of God. And so I wanna pray right now and then
we're gonna jump into God's word. And I, I think God's given me a word for our
church today and I think God's given me a word for you today that I think if we
apply this, that it can change your outlook to this new year. Will you pray with
me, dear heavenly Father God? We just praise you for all that you've done From
Christmas to the baptisms, to growth groups, to serving in our community, to
planting churches in India and Nepal and missions all around the world to those
who have just given so sacrificially and generously to this crazy love project.
God. We understand that apart from you, we can do nothing but with you, God,
nothing can stop us and anything is possible. And so God, for those that are
here, I pray that we can just humble ourselves, be challenged and changed by
your word. Yeah, you don't want. It's, it's not about the money out of our
wallets. It's about the idol out of our hearts that you spoke the world into
existence and that it's not wanting something from us, but rather giving
something to us. And so as we approach this new Year, it is my prayer that we
don't just simply live for victory, but rather God, we can live from victory
that we already have in you. And so I lift up this church to you, we lift up
this crazy love project to you and from wherever anybody might be watching or
listening to this, we pray that you can work in our lives today. We love you
God. It's in your sense and we pray. Amen. Let's get personal. Ok. That's some
fun church business stuff that I'm excited about for those. I give, I hope
you're excited about as well. But at, at its core, if God's not working in our
lives, then what are we doing? All right, what are we doing? Like if we're, if
we're not interacting with God on a personal basis, then how do we expect to be
a light into this world? And so I want to ask you a question. Are you ready to
experience victory this year? Are you ready to experience victory in 2023? If
so, then I believe this to be true for taking notes. I want you to write this
down this year. Choose courageous faith and consistent obedience. These two
things I think can radically change the outlook of your year, courageous faith,
consistent obedience. Another way to put it is big faith, risk taking bet the
farm faith that you truly believe in the promises of God. But then small daily
mundane obedience, right? Because your life isn't going to change when you feel
something, your life changes. When you do something I've heard it said before
that successful people do consistently. What normal people do occasionally James
clear in his book, Atomic Habits puts it this way. He says people do not rise to
the level of their goals. They fall to the level of those systems, your habits
matter, obedience to God's word. It's not sexy. It's not crazy. No one might
even see it. But those consistent steps every day, consistent small steps of
obedience with big faith, belief in the promises of God. When you put those two
together, the world has changed. But don't just take my word for it. You see,
God has promised us victory. We find that in first Corinthians 15 verses 57 and
58 it says, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ. See victory in Jesus. It says therefore, my beloved brothers be
steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Knowing that in
the Lord, your labor is not in vain church. When you plant that seed, you might
not see the harvest overnight, but it's time, right? It's time for victory.
Story goes of a Chinese bamboo tree that those that are planted for the first
five years. When you water it consistently and take care of the the soil
consistently for five years, you might not see any growth. But in its fifth
year, it can grow up to 90 ft in a matter of weeks. So when does it grow, does
it grow 90 ft overnight or does it take five years? I don't think it's a
coincidence that here we are church year. Number five. You ready? I'm go. I'm, I
don't know if I'm ready to be honest. I think I'm ready but I, I'm praying
church is our bamboo season. Let's go. Right. We're going for it. How do I know?
Because God has already promised this victory. It says in first John 54, it says
for everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world and this is the
victory that has overcome the world. Our faith. It doesn't say that your health.
It doesn't say that your finances. It doesn't say that your popularity or
reputation. It says your faith will be what makes you victorious. That's why we
say that this year to choose courageous faith with consistent obedience, that
it's your faith in the promises of God that leads to victory and to help you
with that to get real practical as well as sharing with you at a deeper level.
The passage that really defined this whole crazy love project. I wanna share
with you five keys to victory. And these come directly from the word of God, not
for me, but they come from second Corinthians chapter five in the beginning of
chapter six. And you're gonna see the basis for this crazy love project. But
more than just this project, I want you to have victory in your life. And more
than just information shared from the stage. I want to see transformation in
your life throughout the week. And it's courageous faith, consistent obedience.
So the first key to victory in 2023 is our motive, our motive. If you want to
have victory in 2023 you have to have the right motive and that motive being
love. Second Corinthians chapter five, starting in verse 13. It says, if we are
beside ourselves. In other words, if we're crazy, it is for God. if we are in
our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us. Other
translations use the word compels us. This is our motive. This is our
motivation. This is our why says for the love of Christ controls us because we
have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died and he
died for all that, those who live might no longer live for themselves. But for
Him who for their sake died and was raised. This is why we're going not to just
build a building, not to just pat ourselves on the back, but to reach more
people, for the kingdom, to reach more people with the news that Jesus rose
again. This is our motive. What is your motive this year? If your motive is
anything else, anything else other than love, I promise you, you're gonna fall
short because love isn't a number. Love isn't just an outcome, but it is uh it's
the reason we do it right. It's not always about numbers. Sometimes it's about
health, right? If someone asks me and says, hey, John, how's your family doing?
I don't go five. Right. Think about that for a second. Right. You, you do that
as a church, at least church world, right? Oh, what do you do? I'm a pastor.
Church. Well, how many people go? How do we right. Your job. How, how much
business do they make? What's your profit? Was it? Right? I'm not like more
successful or less successful with the number of people in my family. Really?
It, but I'm motivated by love, right? There is quantity involved if you're in
business and you're like, I don't know what I'm making. OK? You got other issues
like so I'm not saying, don't know the numbers, just understand that there is
quantitative, but there's also qualitative and it comes back to our motivation,
which is love. The second key to victory this year is our mindset, our mindset
and our mindset has to be one of a new creation. So our motive is love. Our
mindset is new. This comes here in verse 16 and 17 says from now on, therefore,
we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ
according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in
Christ, he is a new creation, the old has passed away and behold the new has
come. We've shared this before. But in church world. So oftentimes we get
identity and activity mixed up. You see, Saint is an identity. Sin is an
activity. Sometimes we reverse the two. We think that I go to church. I read my
Bible, I do this, I do this. This is, this is an activity. That's what it means
to be a Christian. This activity, no, to be a Christian is to be a forgiven
loved child of God that you did nothing to earn. It's called grace. This is your
identity that there is nothing you could do for God to love you more. There's
nothing you could do right now, for God to love you any less. And that you can
approach the New Year, not just new year, new you, it's new creation, right? And
so it changes everything that your identity is a child of God. That's why we can
walk from victory, not simply for it. And then sin is an activity that we
battle, we struggle. What Satan will do is that when we mess up, when we fall
short, then that becomes our identity. Oh, I am my sin. I am my issue. I am my
addiction. I am my worst moment. I am the worst thing that somebody did to me. I
am a victim. I am this. No, you are not a victim. Church, you are victorious
because you are a beloved child of God, a guy by the name of Saint Bernard. Uh
Clair who wrote this it's a great quote here. It says in the first creation, God
gave me myself, but in his new creation, God gave me himself by that gift,
restored me to the self that I had lost. Not good. When God created the world He
gave you. You right? You are unique. You are a snowflake. I always thought that
was a weird story, right? Like you're a snow fake, it's you're unique. You get
trampled on and disappear within moments, right? Think about it though in the
first creation, God gave you yourself. You exist, God created you God thought of
you said, yep, the world needs you. But in the new creation in salvation, God
doesn't say self help. Hey, you're a better version of you. Not the old SNL
sketch with Michael Jordan looking in the mirror. I'm good enough, right? And by
golly, people like me, right? Like it's not that it's not self-help in the new
creation, God gives you himself. So our motive is love. Our mindset is new. And
then thirdly the third key to victory is our ministry. Our ministry really is
reconciliation says in verse 18, it says all of this is from God who through
Christ, reconciled us to himself, to reconcile means to restore, to original
purpose. Think about that to, to restore to its original intended purpose. We
had it perfect in the garden and we messed it up by chapter three and the entire
Bible is filled with mistakes until God makes it finally, right? And in the last
two chapters, so of the entire Bible, there are only four without conflict.
That's not a good percentage. But the reason this is important, it says because
he reconciled us to himself and then notice this and gave us the ministry of
reconciliation. So he saved us to himself. But then he saved us for something
that we get to bring people to be restored to Him. It says verse 19 that is in
Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses
against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. If you have
young kids, you have to understand the battle of entrusting them with something.
Right. Right. Like you're hesitant to give them your phone or keys or anything,
uh Don't break it. God gave us the keys to eternity. That's how much he trusted
us. He knew all of our mistakes, all of our issues and saying I'm reconciling
the world to me and I'm gonna invite you into that process so that through your
passion, skills, desires, work ethic, you will be restoring creation, restoring
relationships, restoring business and community and athletics and education and
health care. God has called you into something so great because you get to
restore creation to its original intended purpose. This is why our identity
matters. This is why our ministry matters. So God gives us a new motive. God
gives us a new mindset. God gives us a new ministry, but then fourth God gives
us a new message. What is the message? What is it that we're sharing through
what we say and do? What does it mean to love God and love others or read here
in verse 19, it says that is that in Christ, God was recon reconciling the world
to himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the
message of reconciliation. I wanna pause there for a second. We just read that
verse. But why is it that if God is willing to not count their trespasses
against people, why are we so quick to count them? Think about that for a
second. God is willing to lay down his life as payment for the sins of others.
And yet how many church people do you know that we are that are so quick to
judge? And how many of us when we think about ourselves are so quick to judge,
right? He says, no, that's not our ministry. It's a message of reconciliation.
So what is it? Verse 20? Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ God making His
appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God and
it's not on the screen. But verse 21 I forgot to put on there that He continues
on and he says, for our sake, he who knew no sin became sinner. God made him. He
who knew no sin to become sin so that we could become the righteousness of God.
This is the message, this is the good news. This is the great exchange. So we
get to exchange our sin for God's righteousness, our Brokenness for God's
blessing that this is the message that our world needs. Right now. I shared this
with some of our church family a year or two ago, but we have a lot of new
faces. So I I wanna bring this illustration back that did you know that any
airplane or aircraft can be Air force one? Do you know that any aircraft can be
air force one? Why? Because the call sign of air force one is not the physical
attributes of the plane. It's a call sign representing that the president is on
board. We think so highly of Air force one, the protection, the equipment, all
these things, right? No, the the reason it's Air Force one is because the
president is on board church. You are God's Air Force one that if you believe in
Him, you have the presence of the Holy God living inside of you. You are God's
Air force one. You are the temple, the living temple that embodies with the
power of the Holy Spirit that we can reconcile the world to him and share the
message that hope is possible. Forgiveness is possible, that love and purpose
and joy is here, not in us but in Jesus. That if you really wanna have victory
this year. It's not gonna be your profit or loss statement. It's not gonna be
the weight gained or weight lost. You know, I, I have a goal to lose £20 and on
a weekend I've only got 25 to go. You know, that's what happens, right?
Courageous, faith, consistent, obedience. Last thing here, church, we have to
understand that this is our moment. This is our moment. The time is now. Don't
take my word for it though. Let's, let's let's look at the Scriptures. Second
Corinthians chapter six verse one and two. It says, working together with Him.
How cool is that by the way that we get to work with God? Like if you ever do a
project with your kids, like I remember building the crib for Carter and Jackson
when he was like four was trying to help me. He's like, yeah, I wanna build it
and like he really just took a screwdriver and just started scratching up the
thing and just banging it on the wall and then like, you know, you build it and
we get done and Jackson goes, we did it. That's kind of like how our partnership
is with God, right? Like God does all of the work and then we try to take credit
for it, right? But here we see it working together with God. Then we appeal you
to not receive the grace of God in vain says for he says, in a favorable time, I
listen to you and in a day of salvation, I have helped you. Oh, I love this
phrase right here. Behold. Now is the favorable time. Behold. Now is the day of
salvation Church. What are we waiting for? I get it. Inflation is high
challenges are tough. But I was reminded recently just Monday night of just how
everybody needs God. I say that because if you're a sports fan and you were
watching the Bills Bengals game Monday night and in a moment, DEMAR Hamlin stood
up for making the tackle collapsed on the field and instantly a world became
spiritual. You think about that? A billion dollar industry stopped in a moment
and all people could think to do is to pray. And it wasn't just on the field, it
wasn't just in the stadium. It was in the news, it was in the media and it was
amazing to see all of a sudden this world that was so quick to forget God
begging God to do something. Check this out. I was watching ESPN and I, I'm a
sports nerd. Ok. This is who I am. Ok. And I love it way too much. I freely
admit that. And a sports program that that's all about money and stats and
agency and teams and predictions and betting and all these things. And a church
service broke out in the middle of live television, check this out, go ahead and
check this out. Football gave me everything, you know. And I think even through
the midst of absolute tragedy last night, I think you saw some of the beauty of
football as well that it's brought us all here together. Um, you know, like this
is a little bit different. I heard, I've heard it all day like thoughts and
prayers. You just heard Sheriff and Jonathan Allen say like all we can do is
pray for him. And I've heard the Buffalo Bills organization say that we believe
in prayer and maybe this is not the right thing to do. But I want, it's just on
my heart that I wanna pray for Lamar Hamlin. Right, right now. Um I'm gonna do
it out loud. I'm gonna close my eyes, I'm gonna bow my head and I'm just gonna
pray for Him. Um God, we come to you in these moments that we don't understand
that are hard. Uh because we believe that your God and coming to you and praying
to you um has impact. We're, we're sad, we're angry. Um And we want answers, but
some things are unanswerable. We just wanna pray, truly come to you and pray for
strength, for DEMAR, for healing, for DEMAR, for comfort, for DEMAR to be with
his family, to give them peace. If we didn't believe that prayer didn't work, we
wouldn't ask this of you God. Um I believe in prayer. We believe in prayer. We
lift up DEMAR Hamlin's name. And your name? Amen. Amen. Amen Church. I don't
care what industry you're involved in. I, I don't care if it's the most secular
thing. When you think of in a moment's notice people are gonna cry for God. What
we do matters. Eternity is real. God is big. Life is short and we do pray for
Tamar and, and praise God. He is his, his woken up. He's still in critical
condition that he's talking with family. He had the face time with his team last
night, I'm watching an NFL game and to see an entire stadium begin an NFL game
in prayer. We're seeing posts. We're seeing tags. Why? Because people understand
that they cannot save themselves. And while we celebrate the prayers and things
for dear Hale, I also think about all the struggles people have. I think about
the butlers, right? When Batling is still battling, I think about Bob Fankhauser
who many of you know, later this month begins chemo, one of the founding members
of our church who drove the trailer for over a year. This church begins chemo
here in two weeks. How many of you know somebody who's struggling whose marriage
is broken, whose finances are struggling, who maybe they had all the success of
the world. But they're searching church. We don't have to search, we have
victory in the world. It's not just against us here. We think it's like, oh,
we're being persecuted. No, the world needs the gospel. The world needs Jesus.
This is why we do what we do. This is why we gather. This is why we pray. This
is why we sing. This is why we take communion. The reason I know we can have
victory in 2023. It's because Jesus had victory 2000 years ago on the cross. And
so what we're gonna do now is we're gonna sing. We're gonna open these elements.
Top one is the way for representing the bread cup, representing the blood, open
those elements. It might take a minute reflect on those. We're gonna take those
together because it's through Jesus. We have victory this year. Dear heavenly
Father. We just come to you. Yeah, we do pray for DEMAR Hanlon. We praise you
that you saved his life. We got in the middle of that tragic moment. We are
reminded of how our world needs you that we cannot save ourselves, that God, you
have saved us and that through you, we can have courageous faith and consistent
obedience and ultimately victory. Help us remember where that victory comes from
as we take communion together. Amen.