Hello and welcome to church online with Mission growth. Before we jump into our brand new series, I want to share too quick updates for our church family 1st. Let me just say thank you. Last week we shared that we were going to pay the medical bills for 667 families right here in our community With our previous commitment as well as all the money that came in over the weekend. We were able to meet our goal and to give a donation of $13,000 to RRP medical debt Being that they're able to purchase medical debt for a penny to the dollar. This represents that we are going to be paying off $1.3 million dollars in medical debt for families that live right here in this community, for all who gave a part of our vision and mission here at Mission Grove. Thank you. Second, I've been receiving the common question of when is Mission Grove going to reopen? I'm here to tell you that Mission Grove is not going to reopen before you get discouraged. Let me explain. We are not going to reopen because in fact we've never closed in the first place while our methods have changed from in person gatherings to online weekend experiences. Our mission has not and neither has our vision because here in Mission Grove we desire to help every man, woman and child experience, jesus. Now we're going to continue to do that through whatever means possible. Now the next logical question then is when is our actual in person gatherings going to begin again. Well, to that question, I have a short term answer and then some long term questions that we are pondering as a leadership team for the short term answer. You should know that meeting in an elementary school means that we are connected directly with the Paradise Valley school district. At the moment, the district has decided that all on site activities at our location are canceled through june, which means that in the short term we will not be having in person church gatherings through the month of june, we will reevaluate as we approach closer to july now those long term questions are beyond just is it legal for us to gather together? See we want to go deeper and part of being for the community means what is going to create the best experience for people when we gather again, what does Children's ministry look like, What does worship look like and our seating arrangements and guest services? And so as we ponder these big questions as a leadership team, I encourage you to pray with us and I also encourage you to get involved right now in our current methods, it's never been easier to invite someone to join you for church because you can just share a link or shoot them a text and in seconds you can be experiencing church online together. And so I'll keep you updated for when the next time we could gather together in person. But in the meantime I encourage you to lean in, be a part of our church family and invite someone to experience church online with you. Let's pray dear heavenly father, We thank you and we celebrate the generosity of our people that we can be for the community because you are for us. We celebrate the fact that we can give a donation that will ultimately pay off $1.3 million dollars in medical debt for the people in our community. And as we launch into a brand new series, it's my prayer that we can be challenged and changed by your word, we love you got it in your son's name. We pray amen the crisis we're facing right now is not an interruption. The crisis is what's known as a disruption. Now, what's the difference between an interruption and a disruption? Picture yourself playing basketball and you're in trouble and your team calls time out, that's an interruption. Now, in the time out, your coach will call the play and then you come out of the time out and you go to execute the play, that's an interruption. Now, a disruption would be like still playing that game of basketball, you're in trouble and so you call time out, the coach draws up the play but on the other side of the time out, you come out and you're playing a completely different sport. Can you imagine your coach calls time out and in the huddle he draws up a play for basketball like a high pick and roll and then an off ball screen for a spot up three point shot in the corner. And so you're all set for the play, you say 123 team and you walk out and instead of playing basketball, the other team is now set up for hockey. You're thinking yourself not only will the play not work that we just drew up, but we're not equipped to face or to play that sport in the same way. I feel like this crisis known as the coronavirus is a disruption because it's not just a pause for movement, but rather on the other side of the society is going to look different. You see going into this crisis, we were already facing issues. People were stressed and felt overwhelmed and overworked and searching spiritually and for identity and meaning. And in the middle of all the searching that people were doing were then dropped in this unknown virus that can't be seen. And most of society as we know, it came to a halt. And so as people come on, the other side of this, we're gonna learn a new way of functioning. Education is going to look a little bit different. Business is going to look a little bit different sports as we know it's gonna look a little bit different and church as we know it is going to function differently. Yes, we're excited to get back to what we call normal. but the reality is is that we're not gonna be able to get back to normal as we know it. If we started here and the coronavirus knocked us down to here, we're not gonna be able to get back to exactly the way things were, but instead we're gonna land in a new spot or a new normal. Now, I don't want you to be discouraged because this new normal could be more robust and greater than anything that we've experienced before. So instead of trying to get back to what was I want to prepare us for, what is to come. My guess is through this crisis, you've experienced different levels of frustrations. A frustration can be defined as the gap between your expectations and your experience. Maybe you've experienced frustrations with trying to work from home or home schooling your kids or trying to teach kids at home whatever level you are facing frustration. I want to speak into that tension today. You see in the middle of this tension, our culture tends to respond with negativity. You cannot help but turn on the news and see all the negative voices out there. We're all looking for somebody to blame. Now, as a church, it's not just the obstacle of negativity and frustration, but it's also the opportunity to be the light. Think about a group of people being in a room and the room goes dark now, how many people do we need to tell us that the room is dark before it becomes annoying and frustrating, See what we need right now, an adult culture is not people identifying or pointing out the fact that we're in darkness, but rather what's going to make a difference is someone who brings in light and this is the opportunity of the church. We get a chance to bring the light of jesus into our workplace, into our schools and into our relationships. And so I want to speak into that tension that we might feel right now. And so if you're at home, I want you to write this down the big idea for today, what you seek and what you speak directly impacts what you see. Let me say that again here. What you seek and then what you speak directly impacts what you see, Paul in his letter to the Colossians, Chapter three, starting in verse one penned these words he wrote. If then you have been raised with christ seek the things that are above. Where christ is seated at the right hand of God, set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth? When you're facing troubled times? You have to ask yourself the question, where are you looking? And what are you looking for? Are you seeking? The things of God? Are you looking for somebody to blame for? What's going wrong in our culture? See the early church experienced massive disruption. They had no buildings, no budgets and in fact they were being persecuted for what they believed in. But yet repeatedly throughout scripture, we see examples of people finding joy and the ability to stay positive. Let's check some of these verses out. 1st we see James, James was the half brother of jesus and he writes this, he says count it all joy my brothers. When you meet trials of various kinds. Next you see the apostle john john was known as the Son of Thunder. He had a pretty rough background but he becomes the apostle of Love and then he in his last days he's writing this letter to christians who have experienced difficulties and he says this in first john chapter one verse four, we are riding these things so that our joy may be complete. Our next example. We see Paul who in writing his letter to the Romans in chapter 15 verse 13 writes this may the God of Hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. So that the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope. This is a great verse. If you're looking for one to memorize or to put on your phone or to write in the footnotes of your bible to pray. These words for your loved ones and also for yourself. Let me reread this May the God of hope. Notice this is not the God of despair, this is not the God of disease. This is the God of Hope, May he fill you with all joy and peace in believing. So that the power of the Holy Spirit may have bound in hope. And so you see paul telling people who are experiencing difficulties telling christians who are experiencing extreme disruption in their lives. That Joy and peace are possible through the power of the Holy Spirit. Our next example, we see the Apostle Peter and writing to a group of christians that were scattered because of persecutions. He says behold you may face trials of many kinds, but then in first Peter chapter one verse eight, he says though you have not seen him referring to jesus, you love him and though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. So there you have it, what you seek and what you speak directly impacts what you see. In other words, what are you looking for? Are you looking to find the good? Are you looking to find God? Because if you are, you will find him and when you find God you can find joy. And there are four examples that we just shared with you with James and john and Paul and Peter. These are guys who experienced extreme disruption. Their worlds were turned completely upside down, but yet they knew and understood and believed and experienced joy and I believe that joy can be experienced by you and me today. This is why the series is entitled stay positive. We want to stay positive because it's not about ignoring the bad. In fact, there are whole sections of scripture that talked about lamenting or grieving well, but what I want to encourage you to do over the next couple of weeks is not to stay in the negative but to experience joy and to have a positive influence in your circle of relationships. And so today, because we're talking about perspective, I'm not even going to ask you to do anything specific. I just want to ask you to consider three things and the word consider means to weigh or or to put weight on it. And so I want you to think about these things, not just while you're watching this video, but I want you to write them down and maybe discuss them with a friend and family member or to meditate on this or think about this in your prayers on monday or Tuesday or Wednesday or throughout the week so that it can apply in your lives. The first thing I want you to consider is this that Joy is a who not a what Joy is a who not a what? No, not talking about naming a member of the band, the who, but rather I'm talking about jesus christ himself so many times in this world. Our culture tries to tell us that Joy is connected to the things we have. Maybe it's the job or position or the money or the power or the house or the car or the new phone? Our marketing agencies are centered around the idea to convince you that you need their new product to be happy. Well, I'm here to tell you that Joy is not a what? It's a who. It's about knowing jesus, the God who created you and the God who saved you listening to a podcast this week with Pastor timothy Keller. He shared an interesting apologetic, which is this part of what this coronavirus has really revealed in our hearts is that there are cravings in our lives that cannot be satisfied. Now when you have a craving or a desire in your life that cannot be satisfied. What do you do with that? Well, there's four options according to timothy Keller. Option. Number one is to get a newer or better thing. So if you're not happy with your phone, get a new one. If you're not happy with your car, get a new one. If you're not happy with your house, get a new one. Now that seems ok until you apply that to relationships. If you're not happy in your relationship, get a new one and you see where this becomes the continual search for new and more and better and the reality is nothing of this world is going to satisfy and you're gonna always be searching for what's new and you might have, what's best for today? What happens when your neighbor gets the nicer car or bigger boat the next day? Are you still going to be content? So the first option is to look for what's newer. The second option is to get better. Well, if I'm not satisfied, well then no one can be satisfied. And so maybe you get negative and you get hardened in your heart and you become critical and cynical and how you speak to others. Well, that's a reality for some, but no one wants to be that cynical, critical person. No child growing up longs to be really mean and cynical and bitter when you ask a kindergarten what kindergarten or what they want to be when they grow up. You get answers like a superhero or a policeman or a sports star. You never hear a Kindergartner say, man when I get older, I hope I become really cynical and I shout at people who walked past me see that's something that as a human nature, we really achieved that over time and that I don't think that you long to be that way either. Well, another option really comes from the philosophical and theological bend that in the old biblical times were from a group known as the gnostics and this is where they would separate the flesh from the spirit in modern days. It might be seen as Eastern theology. So Hinduism buddhism, it's this idea of separating your flesh from your spirit and self actualization. Now, that sounds really spiritual and cool, right? Like the idea of becoming one with nature, one with yourself. But there's a problem with that belief one, if you completely separate the flesh from the spirit, then you can convince yourself and rationalize that you can do anything you want in the flesh because it's not connected to your spiritual life. Well, that doesn't work because there are consequences when you make poor decisions. And then the other thing is is that if you completely separate spirit and flesh, then you think that the flesh could be all bad when we know that when you experience the love from a child or a spouse or partner or somebody that our family member and you experience the love, how it's meant to be. It's an experience that is emotional and spiritual, mental and physical, all in one. See, jesus was both the son of God, but also the son of man, which means that we can experience him on a spiritual level, but we can do so because jesus physically died. And so it's not about separating yourself like a gnostic would in bible times, it's not about complaining or being bitter about our culture and it's not about always searching for more. Well, there's 1\/4 option and that is that if nothing in this world satisfies your soul, maybe just, maybe you were created for another world. See if you look at the feet of a duck, you see the webbed feet and some might say, well that's from evolution over time. Well, if you look at their feet, then you see that they were created to swim in the water. And so their feet, the way God designed them, That creation pointing back to a creator shows evidence of water in the same way a newborn baby craves milk. I've had the privilege of of seeing my brand new nephew, My sister in law gave birth this week. She is a superhero. She's awesome rockstar and gave birth to this cutest little boy. And when you look at a brand new baby, what do they do? As soon as they come out, they start craving milk. Well, they're little mouth movement where they're going. And if you've seen babies, you know what I'm talking about. That is evidence that milk exists. And so if you take that thinking and understand that the desires you have in your heart are not bad desires. But rather those desires should point you to the God who knows you loves you and created you. And this all comes back full circle to understanding that Joy is not a what Joy is a who and specifically that joy is jesus. The second thing I want you to consider today on how to stay positive is this repeated negative thoughts never produced a positive life. This comes from the biblical concept of sowing and reaping. If all you do is consume negativity, you're not going to produce positivity on the other side For this reason, I would not recommend watching the News 24 7. I'm saying that you should be informed. But if all you hear are bad stories and negative negativity and different people to blame depending on what side you are on the political spectrum, then you're not going to produce a positive attitude or lifestyle. Now, negative events can motivate us to get better. But if you live in that negativity, you're not going to encourage and bring light into the room. You're just that person in a dark room, constantly pointing out the fact that it's dark in here Now, after a while, that's going to get not only frustrating but also annoying and so rather than just saying, hey, this room is dark, how about point people to the light or better yet? How about you bring the light? So the three things I want you to consider our first joy is a who not a what? It's not about that position or money or things in this world, but about a personal relationship with jesus second, I want you to know that repeated negative thoughts never produced a positive life. What are you sewing in this season of crisis that will benefit you in the time to come. And third, I want you to simply look for the helpers. Mr Rogers whom we all know. Once stated this, he says when I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me look for the helpers, you will always find people who are helping when we face times of crisis. Are you the person in the room that's simply pointing out the fact that it's dark or are you want to bring in light into the room and to make a difference wherever you can in your relationships, see the present pain that you're experiencing right now, might be the very thing that God uses to minister to somebody down the road. I don't want to make light and what people are experiencing right now, but rather I want people to lean into their experience and to find joy through jesus in that experience, and then look for ways to help others who are experiencing the same thing, if there are students who are missing their graduation, I just want to say sorry, I'm sorry that you don't have the same experience as every other high school graduate has in the years past, but just because your experience is different, doesn't mean it's bad. And so what I want to encourage you to do is find ways to creatively celebrate you and your friends through this time of transition and focus then on what you have the fact that you've completed school, that you're ready to transition into a brand new world and who knows the world's gonna look differently in years to come and you're right in the right position at the starting line to make a difference for all of our community, when I think back onto the moments in my life and specifically what has happened in the life of our church mission growth, I see how God's hand has been working through every situation and if I had focused on the negative, I would have missed the hand of God in my life. For example, when we were just a bible study meeting at a school, we went into the summer and we lost our location. Now when we lost our location, we started meeting in homes and we started to pray together and those are times that I will cherish for the rest of my life. And then we got to meet back into the school and so we entered back into the school and we were more grateful than ever to have a location and we were getting ready to launch when we had flooding on our grand opening, while floods closed the main roads to get to our church had also closed down activities for the day. And so what I thought was a complete disaster actually ended up being a huge blessing as hundreds of people came out to celebrate our grand opening, even in the middle of a downpour. And now when we think about this coronavirus, I hate that we're not meeting face to face right now. And we're only in year two of a brand new church plant, and we are facing the largest pandemic in the last 50 years. And so some might think, man, this is crazy. But when you have a positive perspective, you start to think things like what would we do as a church? If this had happened only 20 years ago, our online church would have involved dial up and you've already adhered, screeching, like we wouldn't have been able to do hardly anything at all. But because we live in the digital age in a matter of hours and only days, we were able to shift our programming as we know it online and we are now reaching more people today than we were when we were in person. For example, last week, when we shared our video, we had people from 10 different states tuning in and engaging with the mission, we had a little girl accept christ at the end of our service on sunday who, I don't know if she would have even stepped foot into our building, but she was visiting family and when visiting family experienced church online, her heart was convicted and she prayed to receive jesus. You see the coronavirus has been a reminder to me that church is not a building to go to, but a family to belong to and ultimately church is a mission on a movement really with the message of God's forgiveness through his resurrection. See the church cannot and will not be stopped. We've talked a couple of weeks ago that because our God is unstoppable then our faith is unshakable, and so my perspective throughout this Coronavirus has changed now, don't get me wrong. Things at home can be tough with three little ones trying to work at home, while your kids are running and screaming at each other can be difficult, homeschooling our kiddos can be difficult. I feel for our teachers who are trying to teach online to our kids who are at home, who don't necessarily want to watch a video and so everyone is fighting some level of stress. For me personally, I like to think a lot, I almost over think things or anybody watching that are like that. And so when you combine the fact that I over think things and then I'm a driven person. It's hard for me to shut my mind off at night. And so just being transparent with you, there are many nights where I'm just lying in bed with my eyes wide open, I'm not fearful, I am encouraged by what God is doing, but I cannot turn my mind off. And so everyone is experiencing this a little bit differently. But every once in a while, you come across things that remind you to pause, I want you to take a look at this photo, see this photo is just a simple photo of my dad and the kids, grandpa playing with his grandkids now on the outskirts, it seems like a grandfather playing with his grandkids in the heat of an Arizona summer, but I want you to know this is a much deeper story. You see when I started reflecting on how God has worked in this situation and in my life, I remember that my dad just a short time ago was battling cancer and so that photo doesn't just represent a playtime with grandkids. That photo represents life. I think about the fact that my oldest son, Jackson is 11 and that we're already halfway through parenting him man, it seems like time flies, but I'm also excited to see what he's gonna become. And so to see those interactions that I have with him during this time, when going for bike rides in the desert or going up to circle K to get a slushy. I'm gonna cherish these times forever. Then I think about my son carter who I didn't know if carter would have ever come because what you might not know is that after Jackson, my wife and I experienced back to back miscarriages. And so there was a time where I didn't know if we would ever get pregnant again. And so here comes carter and in the delivery, there were some complications where at the delivery point, my wife went back for surgery and carter went back for surgery. But here we are, this little boy who's gonna turn eight in july and he is just the happiest silliest kid. And so when I see that smile in this photo I think about the miracle that he is of my child and the life before God and how I can cherish my kids and then I look at my daughter Chloe and that spunky crazy smile And I think back to a time in the summer of 2015 where God placed it on my heart and placed it on my wife's heart to become foster parents and how God gave us this weird vision that we thought we were going to raise a little girl and gave us more specific details and what that might be. And so we started taking hours upon hours upon hours of foster class and preparation and a home study and going through that and and we took care of a kiddo and it was some difficult times and then but then I also remember the moment that I heard that there was a couple who are foster parents who knew that we were foster to adopt and he said you know what this girl might be for you And I went over and I met this little infant girl and she was so tiny, literally she fit in my hands and so I held this little girl and I knew right in that moment I said wow guys, this is my daughter and and so to go from that moment 2, 4 years later to know that she is a part of our family that she just snuggles me every night and every time I tuck her in bed before I get up she grabs my face and just goes, daddy one more minute and I think if I hadn't been in that exact moment in the exact time, okay, I wouldn't have my little girl and so that picture is swimming in a pool, but it's a relationship with my dad that gets to extend for years to come. In fact, he's on the other side of this camera right now and to know that cancer didn't conquer him, but rather he conquered cancer and that God has given him more time so that he can have pool parties with our kids and take my kids golfing and and to shoot video for Mission Grove to help us get started as a church, I think about relationships with my kids that yes, sometimes I wanna scream and I want to yell, but when I pause and when I reflect and when I seek and when I speak of the things of God, I see things from a completely different perspective and I see my kids as a blessing and I see my family as a blessing and I see our church positioned in a way that can make a radical difference for our community and so wherever you are right now, I want to encourage you to pause, I want to pray for you And I want to encourage you to seek the things of God and to speak the words of God so that you can bring light into your situation. And so you can look back and tell the story of the 2020 coronavirus, how you grew in your faith like never before and how the church changed and we didn't get back to what was but we went to someplace new and some place greater in the name of jesus. Let's pray dear heavenly father, We thank you for who you are guys. We praise you for all that you've done. When we look for the helpers, we think of our medical care workers and our those working in stores and first responders, God, we think about the people who are sacrificing by staying home. Maybe they're losing income or relationships wherever it is God we are going through this situation together. And may we stop looking at the negativity but instead look at these opportunities to make a positive impact on those around us. May we seek you God, No, you as Lord and Savior know that you are the only one that satisfies and may we speak the words of encouragement and light and bring light into our situations. God, I thank you for my family. I thank you for my kids God and I thank you for this church because God truly you are for us and because you are for us, we can be for our community, Help us to have a positive attitude today, we love you God, it's in your son's name and pray, Amen God bless, make it a great week and stay positive.