Welcome to our new location, church in a comedy club. So you know what that means, right? That means I get to tell a lot more, not so funny jokes during the messages. And I'm excited. Uh Well, thank you guys so much for being here on preview Sunday and thank you so much for those who are tuning in online. Um We are in the final preparations to really relaunch our ministries um Here in a public fashion. I am grateful that we can honestly say that the church doesn't have to reopen because really we never closed. And so we saw God move through incredible ways in these six months while we've been online digital ministries, we did some incredible things like paying off the medical debt for 700 families right here where we live because of your generosity, encouraging notes to those who are in nursing homes. We passed out um encouragement, bags and, and ice coffees and things to health care workers. We passed out family packs and, and gave out uh Kona Ice there on Fourth of July here in the Aviano community. And so we were able to offer encouragement and to ultimately be for the community even in this time where we haven't been able to gather. But that being said, it feels so good to be back here together again. And so church is gonna look a little different than it has, but I'm excited for it. And so I wanna encourage you guys here as most of the people in this room or might be watching online are already part of the church family here. And if um you walked in a little bit later, wanna encourage you to download. It's called the church center app, the church center app. And there you can, you can give online, you can update contact information. You can register for a group, read for events. If you are a parent, you can pre check in your kiddos for grove kids. And so you will check your kids in on your phone, it'll give you a code, you walk up, scan the code and then you drop off your kiddos. And so it's pretty awesome that way. And if you are one of those people that says, you know what I don't like downloading apps, I don't need another app on my phone. That's ok because you can actually get the same information minus the kids check in. You won't be able to do the kids check in without the app, but you can visit Mission grove.info, Mission grove.info. And so when we announce an event, um we will post it there as well. And so you can register right there from your seat or right there from when you're watching at home right now. And then you can also download the weekly uh sermon guide message notes. There's gonna be uh lyrics because I know in this location, the screens are on the sides. And so we actually have lyrics available each and every week for you if you would like to sing along as well as we encourage you to learn the words and sing those out as well. So next week is our grand opening and we are praying for a big move of God to be in the community and literally one of the most busiest shopping centers in all of Arizona. And we get to be right here in the middle of the marketplace proclaiming Jesus. That's a pretty amazing blessing, isn't it? And so we are excited for that. I'm excited for little things like just hearing somebody say amen because for six months, I've been preaching to a camera and cameras don't talk back to me. So I am just, I'm already blessed just by the few amens we've said here. So if you need to be a little extra encouraging today, that would help me. So thank you so much for that. But while we get ready to launch next week, and we're gonna go into a brand new series entitled Whisper. It's gonna be awesome about how we, we're gonna talk about how to hear the Voice of God. And so wherever you are right now in the community or watching online, I wanna encourage you to invite somebody to join you, invite somebody to come here in person, either nine or 1030 next week or just invite them, share them the link to watch online with you, engage in church ministry as well. And so we're gonna invite that new uh people in to start this brand new series. But today I got a specially entitled message that's just called when plans change, I thought about just simply titling this message 2020 because it means the same thing, doesn't it? I think a decade from now, I think a decade from now that 2020 is gonna have its own meaning when you experience an abrupt drastic change of plans, people are gonna say, oh, you just got 2020 because things this year have been crazy. And so what I wanna do this morning with our volunteers in the room or for everybody watching online is that I want to spend a few moments and talk about this idea that when plans change cling to purpose, when plans change not if because they will when plans change cling to purpose. One of the fun memories I had during this quarantine season is I got to take a series of trips with my family and with my kiddos and one of those trips was to Oceanside while the beaches were still open and it was, it was kind of nice because there was people on the beach, but everyone kind of kept to themselves. And so you had your own little section of the beach. And so we would take our three kiddos and we would go and build sand castles. And my boys absolutely loved boogie boarding. But for those that aren't familiar with boogie boarding, just imagine yourself walking into the water and just repeatedly getting hit in the face with waves, time after time after time because you think of boogie boarding as riding this wave and it's like, oh, this is fun, but to get the right wave, you have to wait through like 20 of them and then being the dad a lot taller than my kiddos, I'm just standing there getting pelted by the water, helping my kids stay afloat where they are. And sometimes I think that's what change feels like is you're, you're trying to stand still, you're trying to stay in one spot and you just keep getting hit by wave after wave, after wave. What are some of the waves that you faced? What are some of the changes that you've had to go through? Yes, we've been facing a global pandemic. Maybe you've been facing financial stress. Maybe you've been facing relationship difficulties or battling anxiety or depression or an addiction or a change of job. 2020 is filled with waves. They keep pounding, pounding, pounding. But when I was boogie boarding with my kids. It was, and it was fun. I noticed off to the distance were some surfers who seem to be riding the waves differently besides being jealous of their body suits and wet suits. Because California water is cold. Ok. It is freezing cold. Why do we punish ourselves? But it is a lot of fun. And so besides that, I noticed that they were just on top, they rode the waves differently and the difference was that they would cling to their board, they would cling to their surfboard. So it didn't matter the waves coming in, they would just go up over the top. Or sometimes if a big one came, they would grab hold of it and go through and sometimes there's waves in that in our lives that we can't go over top that you have to go through. Well, in that moment, you have to cling to your board just like a surfer. In fact, they value their board so much that most of them have a rope attached to it so that if they fall in the water or when they fall in the water that they will not ever be too far from their board. Well, we identified the waves that you might be facing right now. Well, the question is, what is your board? What is the purpose that you can cling to? I'm someone who likes to read and also like to listen to books on you can't really say audio tape anymore because no one really has tapes, but uh listen to audio books. And I came across an idea uh just a few weeks ago entitled Commander's intent. Have you ever heard of this concept? Commander's intent was first established in the military and it means that it's the overall objective of a particular mission. So commander's intent is the overall objective to a mission and they established this because before commander's intent, they would give orders, generals and officers would give orders on down the line. But what happens is those orders are nice until you encounter an enemy and then plans always change. Well, if they gave very specific orders and they get onto the battlefield plans change and so how do you know what to do? And so they have to work their way back, get a new command. And by the time they got a new command, then it was no longer relevant when it was down on the battlefield. Kind of sounds like corporate business too, doesn't it go do this, run this report, do this thing. And by the time you get to the client or the customer, it seems like things have completely changed. And so they started instituting what's known as commander's intent, where the idea was that everybody in the platoon should know what is the mission or the goal or the objective of the mission? A great example of this is on June 6th 1944 also known as D DAY. Thousands and thousands of troops landed on the beaches of Normandy and the first wave of what's known as operation over um, overlord or overload. Sorry. And their goal was to secure five bridge heads and to secure land so that they could then bring in more troops and move inland to ultimately defeat Hitler. And the Nazis. What happened on D DAY? There's many incredible books and movies out there depicting the bravery and the courage of all the soldiers that gave their lives that day. But their plans, what they had planned for years for this completely changed the morning of D day. But all the soldiers knew the commander's intent. They knew the goal to secure the land, to secure the bridges, to secure a path further inland. And so while everything changed, they still accomplish their mission. So how do we come to realize what's known as commander's intent? The combat maneuver training center, the unit in charge of military simulation recommends that officers arrive to commander's intent by asking themselves two questions. The first is if we do nothing else during tomorrow's mission, we must do blank. If nothing else gets accomplished tomorrow, we must do blank. And the second question they ask is the single most important thing that we must accomplish tomorrow is when you can answer those two questions, you can come to commander's intent. And it's less about the how and it's more about the why or the, where, where are we going? Because you can figure out the, the how and the to do. And so if you're in a business or a leadership position, how does this apply to you? Think about the people that report to you or that you're responsible for when you go into that next meeting? Do the people on your team understand the commander's intent? Do they have that surfboard to hang on to? Because we know that there are waves that are coming. So then that got me thinking, what is the commander's intent in the Bible? What has God given to us to do? And I realized that a lot of the commands of scripture actually come through this filter. He doesn't give a lot of descriptions on how to exactly do church. And I'm grateful for that because now we are doing church online and in a comedy club, I don't think that's going to be found in scripture anywhere, right? But what is it that Jesus told us to do? What does it mean to be a part of the church? So I want to highlight just three passages together and these might be familiar passages to many of you. But I want us to be grounded in the firmest foundation possible because if we're gonna be for the community, if we're gonna launch next, next weekend, we have to understand why we do what we do and we have to know where it is that we're going as a church family. So the first passage comes from Mark chapter 12, verse 3031. And he says, and you shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and all your strength. And the second is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these love God, love people. Well, Jesus actually takes this love people a step further. And in John chapter 13, he washes the feet of the disciples and then he says this a new commandment I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you. You also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples. If you have love for one another, loving God and then loving people the way that Jesus loved us, this is the Commander's intent. In fact, this is known as the Great commandment that here we are 2000 years later on the other side or still in a global pandemic. But these words still ring true. This is the board that we're hanging on to. We're being pounded by the waves here during 2020. Or if you're watching this later on youtube or watching this at a future time on our podcast, whatever difficulty that you're facing, you have to cling to something love God, love people. And then as our spiritual commander in chief, the head of the body known as the church. He was getting ready to ascend into heaven and he gives the commission to his disciples who had just been locked in a room, afraid for their lives. So there are people that were in a room smaller than the amount of people that are in this room right now. No power, no budget, no building, no understanding of what was about to happen. And yet Jesus gives them these words in Matthew 28 he says, go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age, it's been six months since we've gathered publicly. And so what I wanted to do in our first time here in this room or watching online right now is I wanted to remind everybody of Commander's intent that we are called to love God, love people the way that Jesus did and to make disciples. This is our board. I don't know what waves have been coming at you. Some have been getting just tidal waves coming at you this year. And if you haven't yet, there's still time in 2020. I know that sounds really depressing. But I'm just saying, do you really feel like we're gonna be more unified? As a country come November 3rd. I don't know. Right. Like, I mean, everything just was piling on. It just seems like, you know, here, here's a way to tell. Ok, here's a way to tell if you have a wave. If you've ever said the phrase, I didn't ask for this. If you've ever said it out loud or in your head, if you've ever said I didn't ask for this. I didn't ask for this diagnosis. I didn't ask for this change of job. I didn't ask for that family member. Ok. Ok. Don't nudge them while laughing. That's a little obvious. Ok. It just, it just seems like it's just, it's 2020 right? It's a new word even this morning just being transparent with you. Even this morning we're setting up. I get out of the car, I'm moving carts and I hear rip my back of my pants just ripped right straight down. And I'm like, I didn't ask for this. Oh my God. Like I'm setting up for church today and my pants ripped and saying, well, I'm trying to give you a sign that it's time to go back to the gym now that they're open. Um, so that's a wave I'm facing right now, but it could be a small thing, right? You're, you're on your way to that meeting, you're running late and you hit traffic, you got kids, you're trying to get them to school and of course you have that dreaded. I can't find my shoes. It's still me. Yeah. Thanks Cheryl. Or more serious things. I don't know how I'm gonna pay rent. I don't know how I'm gonna move forward. Where am I gonna find friends? How am I going to battle this feeling of anxiety? So we can't stop the waves from coming and sometimes, sometimes it just seems relentless. But when those waves come, remember, we have a God who can silence and rebuke a storm with two words, be still. We have a God who walks on water. We have a God who saved Jonah with a fish in the water. We have a God who saw the wave and the depravity of sin and Brokenness in your life and in mine and he came down and he said, I will be what you cling to the cross is your cornerstone. The cross is where you come at the feet of Jesus. And when the world literally is going to hell, we know that got us the same yesterday today and tomorrow he is the alpha and the omega. He spoke this world into existence. And that's the same power that spoke this world into existence that says He loves you that you are valued, that you have worth that you have meaning. And so for us as mission grove, if we're gonna reach this community, it starts with connecting to our board, to love God, to love people, to make disciples. This is the filter for our decision making. This is why we do what we do that our vision here at the church is that we desire to help every man, woman and child experience, Jesus. We believe that God is for you, which means that we are for you and together we can be collectively for the community that here at our church, we want a church to feel like home, to feel like family, that people are searching. But it's not gonna be a political candidate. It's not gonna be another government program or that job or that promotion that's gonna fulfill the need in your soul. Only Jesus can do that and therefore in our house, everybody belongs that because you are created in the image of God that makes you family and it's OK to not be OK in our house. We believe in the person and the power and the purpose of Jesus that his word is our message. His life is our method and his people are our mission that we are unapologetically a Jesus church that here in our house. Let me remind you that this is our creed. This is what it means to be a part of this family that in our house, we are becoming men and women of Godly character that we are not perfect, but we are growing that we will continually strive for better that we know we have a long way to go. But we are going to help every single person take that next step along the way. And in our house, we are building God's kingdom and not our own. We have been called to someone greater than ourselves. And therefore, we pray boldly share openly, gather, often worship freely and serve repeatedly church that is here church that is watching online. Let me just say once more, welcome home. Really? So let me ask you when plans change, what, what are the waves hitting you right now? Because when plans change and they will and they are and they have, will you cling to the cross? Will you cling to the commander's intent that he's given us the mission to make disciples that to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love people. The way that Jesus did is that we're not, we're not trying to go out there and win an argument. We're trying to win souls and lives and to serve. And so yes, church is gonna look different. Yes, things are going to feel different. I don't know when it's gonna be back to normal. But let's be honest, what is normal anyway, I'd rather be not normal if it means being close to Jesus. I don't think people called Christians normal back in the day, sharing your possessions, serving, sacrificing, loving, giving away. That's not normal. I'm OK, not going back to normal. That's what I'm saying. And so what I want to do right now. Is that for those of you in the room, we are gonna take communion for the first time publicly together here in six months. And the reason we take communion is to be reminded of the Commander's intent to be reminded of what we cling to the two ordinances of the church that we practice is communion and baptism. Both are a symbol of what Jesus already did for you and for me, church, we're gonna have fun. It's gonna be an incredible ride moving forward and I have no idea what's gonna be in store. But what I do know is that when the waves come, we are gonna love God, we're gonna love people and we're gonna make disciples and there is nothing better I can offer you today than to cling to the cross. Let's pray together dear heavenly Father. We know this has been a tough year for many God as the waves keep coming. May we cling to you God. You have created us on purpose and for a purpose. So let us cling to that purpose today. Let us be reminded of who you are. You love your goddess in your son's name. We pray. Amen.