In the mid 1800s, there was a man named Alfred Nobel. Now you might recognize the name from the Nobel prizes, like the Nobel Peace Prize, he actually donated his fortune at the end of his life to start that And he was a chemist. He was an inventor. He actually ended up holding 355 patents by the time he was done, but he was most known for his invention of a portable explosive device. He, he was fascinated with nitroglycerin, but the problem is with nitroglycerin is that anytime there was shaking involved it would explode. And he actually, through experimentation, actually end up losing a family member in that process. And so he was determined to come up with a new compound that would be safer to hold and could be used when building roads and bridges and construction to clear out pathways and something that would be safer to use and that could be used across the world. Now, he invented this new product that he first sold it as Nobel's blasting powder. Nobel's blasting powder, but he wanted to switch things up. He wanted to give it a more meaningful name. And so he found this greek word, Dumas, also pronounced Dina Miss. And he pulled out of that. And so now as we know it, it's called dynamite. And so it was a greek word meaning power and strength. And so using that greek word, he pulled it and and invented dynamite and would go on to great wealth, but then we ended up donating most of that wealth at the end of his life to move forward. Well that same greek word that he went back and pulled it from was found actually in scripture. And if you have your bibles you can open up to the Book of Acts. Acts chapter one verse eight will also have the verses on the screen and if you don't own a bible we'd love to give you one at the end of service at our information table. But Acts chapter one verse eight was written by a guy named luke who was a follower of jesus. He also wrote the gospel of luke luke and Acts is actually seen as one continuous work kind of like two chapters if you will or two sections. And so he's writing to this guy named Theophilus and he's writing about the history of Jesus in the history of the start of the church. And so jesus to set the scene, jesus Had just risen from the grave. It's wild, it's crazy. He then spent the next 40 days Speaking, interacting with people interacting with his disciples, actually speaking with over 500 people. And so jesus who rose from the grave, he conquered death. He he predicted his own death and resurrection and then did that and he's getting ready to ascend into heaven and he leaves these words for his disciples and he says, but you will receive power. That is that word do enemas, that is that word Dina miss that word power, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem in judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth. Now, that's not the first time that jesus promised the disciples, his followers power. In fact, when they were doing ministry earlier on in the book of luke again, same author luke chapter nine verse one, Jesus said this and Jesus called the 12 together and he gave them power again. Dynamics. He gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases and he sent them out to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal. So picture for a moment that God has given you strength. He has given you supernatural power. In fact, he's given you the same power that just conquered death itself, but he's not just giving you power for power's sake, he's given you power for a purpose. And that purpose is to proclaim the Kingdom of God. And so then in Acts chapter Two, they received the Holy Spirit, they received this power. They preach the Kingdom of God and the church is born. What's interesting is that at the beginning of the church, there was political unrest, there was social unrest and that first church had no building no no political power. They had no budget really, but they had power not just any power, supernatural power. And what's interesting is that if you don't have God, if you don't have the power of God in your life, nothing's going to change this year, you can try, you can try, you can try but without the power of God, nothing changes. But with the power of God, nothing can stop you. The largest movement in human history, the church began when faithful ordinary everyday people receive Dina miss the power of God inside of their spirit and then empowered them to go and to make disciples. And what's awesome is that power? The same power that conquered death that was given to the disciples was actually promised to all believers. We see this as an example because just a few chapters later acts, chapter six verse eight, we read this about a guy named steven, it says this and Stephen full of grace and that word again, power was doing great wonders and signs among the people. Now, Stephen would go on to be the first martyr. But what I want to point on a point out is that This ultimate sacrifice that Stephen made this, this testimony that really scattered the church but launched a movement came not from one of the original 12 disciples, but from someone who they disciples. In other words, the power of God is not just meant for the prestigious, the close the power is available to everyone who believes and claims the name of jesus as their own and so we went from a couple of scared ordinary fishermen To launching a movement disciple ng others to where the first martyr, the the the man that would scatter the church and launched the movement wasn't even one of the original 12, but rather someone who received the power of God believed the resurrection of Jesus and his life was transformed and changed because of it. One of the interesting people that was there at the stoning of Stephen was a guy named Saul, he was set out to persecute christians because how could they believe a guy jesus who claimed to be god and this religious pharisee who was named Saul was there at the stoning and then heard of more christians gathering in Damascus and so he set out to lock them up and to shut things down. But on the way to Damascus, this zealot, this religious guy, this leader of a movement to try to squash Christianity, was stopped in his tracks and had an encounter with jesus and then the craziest thing happens, one of the greatest opponents and antagonists against Christianity stops, believes in jesus Repents of his sin and then receives that same power that the disciples and the disciples followed Jesus for three years but now a guy who was at the stoning of Stephen, someone who you think there's no way he's going to get access to that, imagine if someone had a bunch of wealth and and you got your, your kiddos and you're, and you're sharing and you're passing out the wealth, but you got one child who's just completely rebellious, You're like, okay, you get money, you get money and I don't know that was that was Saul, he would become paul. But yet he receives the power and when he receives the power, his life is completely changed and he goes on to plant churches, develop leaders and end up writing most of the new testament. And towards the end of his life, he's writing a letter to his God son timothy who's pastoring a church in Ephesus And second timothy chapter one verse seven, he says this for God gave us a spirit not of fear, but if there's that word again, dynamics of power, he gave us a spirit of power and love and self control. Where is your focus as we go into 2021? Is it on fear? It was on faith, It is is your focus on the problems around you or the power within you? Because God has given you this power Now, this morning's messages entitled vision sunday, real creative, right? But we want to talk about where God is taking us this year. Last week we used the analogy that if you picture driving in a car that you have the rear view mirror and you have the windshield and the windshield is much bigger because it's much more important to know where you're going than to see where you've been Now before we launch into this year and I share with you where we're going as a church. I do want to take a few minutes and take a look in that rear view mirror and just see where is it that God has taken us in 2018? All right, when we started. So we launched October 7th 2018 and we had our fair share of challenges. When we were in the pre launch phase, we were getting so many momentum. We were meeting in a house, we outgrew the house, we went to a classroom, we outgrew the classroom, we went to the school cafeteria and we were meeting and it was awesome. And then they said, oh, we're doing some remodeling, so it's closed. So you're out. So then we lost our location, Who knew back in 2018, not having a gathering space, was really preparing us for 2020. And so we didn't have our meeting space. And then right before we're gonna launch, we got the meeting space back and so we did this big marketing campaign and and all this stuff and we challenged everybody to invite their friends and then we had flooding that, closed all the main roads to our church on our grand opening day. It washed all our signs out. We had to go and move them. We got drenched. It was, it was fun. That's what I'll say. It was, I remember the next year we wanted to launch our small group ministry our growth group ministry. And so he said, hey, let's do this dinner at the community center and let's rally. And so our family pastor, pastor Clark um prepared a message and we had a meal and right before the event started, the community manager said, oh by the way, just to let you know, we accidentally double booked, it's also caribbean music night. And so clark gets up to preach and we got steel drums in the background and so we go And then to start off year two, we hit a global pandemic And then we weren't able to gather for seven months and we're praying and we're knocking on doors and where can we meet? And the one that opens up, it's a comedy club and so here we are two years into it and we see that God is continuing to move because while we had some challenges, we also saw some incredible blessings because when we lost our facility, we started looking for ways what, what, what can we do. And so we started serving and serving and got opened up door after door after door. And so that's where we adopted the phrase for the community because we believe that God has for us and if God is for us, then we want to be for you and together we can be for the community and we started serving and serving and serving. You know, we started seeing people getting saved and people getting baptized, I will always remember our first baptism service because in that first baptism service I got to baptize my son. We've done a few cents then and and one of the ones I'll just highlight cause I just had a conversation with her this morning. We had a girl Sophia who got baptized got saved and get baptized. Now she's serving in our kids ministry and she got engaged and now she's planning her wedding for april. And so if you see Sophia after this morning service, just give her well okay, don't give her a hug because we're in Covid still but but give her a high five or no, you can't do that either. Okay, so give her a wave and a smile under the mask and and just ask her how our wedding plans going. So we're excited for luke and Sophia, you know, we saw some incredible things as well. We, on our first year anniversary, we did what's called a reverse offering. So instead of collecting money, we passed out thousands of dollars and gave people the challenge to go and bless their community. When the pandemic hit, we didn't want to sit back and do nothing. We wanted to double down on our generosity and so we actually had the opportunity to pay off the medical debt for 700 families right here in this zip code and the ones nearby And while everyone is kind of pulled back and we lost their location and we moved to a comedy club and we're moving these different things. God has been faithful and actually we gave over $30,000 last year to kingdom causes to see ministry happen and to move forward. Just just last month at christmas eve between in person and online we had over 600 people engaged with our christmas Eve service. We saw new families come out and we saw six faith decisions And that when we are launching digital ministry and our YouTube channel looking at the analytics at the end of the year, we had over 13,000 views over 1000 hours of watch time which represents over a 700% increase from the previous year. Mm hmm. Okay, so yes, we've had our challenges And yes, 2021 is gonna be filled with challenges. But I believe that God is with us And that if the spirit of God is not in you, nothing will change. But if the spirit of God is in you then nothing can stop you. And I truly believe that nothing is gonna stop mission grove. In 2021 I believe this is the year that we have been placed in position to be exactly where we need to be to see God move and to see this community and this valley reached with the gospel and the good news of jesus author Jon Gordon says this. He says critics write words but they don't write the future. I don't want to just be a critic. I don't want to just turn on news like well that's bad pull up social media. Well that's bad, Walk outside. That's bad. Like I don't, I don't want to play that game that's not motivating to me, that's not inspiring to me. And so while yes, critics can give their opinion and share their opinion. You know, opinions are a lot like noses, everyone has one, but you can only pick your own. Sorry, we're in a comedy club, we got occasionally clearly is in, sorry, I wasn't even in my notes, it just came to me, I don't know, I was like, I don't know if this is gonna work too late going for it. Okay. Yeah. See critics write words but they don't write the future and I believe God does and he's given us the power and the keys to the kingdom to go and live victoriously. Physical vision is what you see with your eyes open. But spiritual vision is what you see with your eyes closed. The idea is is that God has given us this picture a living picture of a preferred future and that he calls us to go somewhere great and to become even greater versions of ourselves. We've seen a lot in two years as a church, but I believe the best is yet to come and that God is just getting started today, we're wrapping up our series entitled Dream Big and new york times. Bestselling author, bob Goff always talks about dreaming big and going after your ambitions and to take initiative. And then at the end of all his books, if you didn't know this, he actually puts in his cell phone number and said, hey give me a call and so I'm putting the finishing touches on this message. And I thought to myself, hey, what would bob say to the in this in this message? So I called him not thinking he would pick up and he did, hello, this is bob. I was like, hi bob, This is faster John from Mission Grove Church in Phoenix, he said, what can I do for you? John ended up having like a 15 minute conversation with Bob Goff, the author of the book, who that we've been studying as a church. And so as we started talking, I actually asked bob, I said, hey bob, we're a new church two years old. We just gave out copies of your book to um our whole church. What what can you say? What kind of message would you, can you say to a new church and people pursuing their ambitions this year? And his response was interesting. He actually quoted 1st Corinthians 13 verse 13, It says this, it says, and now these things remain faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love. He said, the world's gonna come after the church this year and you know it, So don't pursue ambitions that simply work instead pursue ambitions that will last. These will remain on the other side of a pandemic. On the other side of an election, faith, Hope and love remain. And so as we talk about our vision as a church, I want to pursue the things that last I want to pursue and live life with passion and boldness that stem from a power that doesn't come from me. This isn't about self actualization. This isn't about a self help book, it's about receiving the same power that conquered death into your spirit and to get a vision for your life. So over the last couple of months in my devotional time, quiet time, I was praying for God's direction because we don't know where we were meeting, we didn't know where we're gonna go next, what's going on. And so I'm saying God, what are you calling us to do, Who are you calling us to be? and one word kept coming up repeatedly in my prayers. And I believe this is the word that God has not only for me, but has for us as a church family. And I believe one word for mission growth this year is this empowered, empowered to receive the power of the Holy Spirit into our lives, but not to sit back but to go for it and to go beyond. And so what are we empowered to do? Well, you notice the three ease that are in the word, if you know me, I liberate everything. So just it is what it is, Okay. And so I believe scripture tells us that we are empowered to do three things first. Okay, We have E three, we're going to see this logo a lot this year, So E three. When you see the E three, it's that we are empowered and we're going to be empowered christians were gonna be empowered church and we want to live empowered lives and so we are empowered to do three things. Number one, we are empowered to go, we are empowered to go and Matthew chapter 28 Verse 18- 20. We see jesus saying these words and jesus came to them and said All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father, the son and the holy Spirit and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and behold I am with you always to the end of the age, That promise is still true. 2000 years later, he says all authority has been given to me and now all power I'm giving to you. Here's here's a picture that I see as the church. I'm gonna put it up on the screen, a lot of people view church as the image on the left and and it's accurate, I'm not saying that you can't do that, I mean when you're inviting someone, you typically say, hey will you come to church or let's go to church, and I love that there's people in the room, but what's crazy is if that's all we did, we weren't able to do that for seven months, but yet we continue to see God move because the church never actually closed, there are people watching online right now, just as much a part of church as you are here in the room and I realized that church is not a building to come to, its a family to belong to, and that God has empowered us, given us the keys to the kingdom and said, go what if our church didn't look like the picture on the left, but instead looked like the picture on the right, and we realized that without God, nothing is gonna change, but with God, nothing's gonna stop us, and so we're gonna go and make disciples, what does that look like for us this year? Well, last year we launched some digital discipleship tools called experience jesus, we're gonna actually revamp that and up that and create even more tools so that we can equip and empower you to become a disciple makers in your home, in your workplace and in your relationships, my goal is to have everybody disciples and everyone disciple to be a christian, is to be a follower of jesus, to be a christian is to make other followers of jesus, there's no like, there's no like okay christians and then super christians to be called to Christianity, is to be called to follow jesus and to help other people follow jesus and so we want to help you do that, almost think of church like a spiritual home depot, the phrase at home depot when you go in is you can do it, we can help you go to home depot, whether it's online or in person to find the tools and maybe even get the mentorship or coaching, so that then you can go home and do the project as a church this year, we're going to find new and creative ways to equip and empower you so that you can both be disciples and to go and make disciples. Now that word go, doesn't just remain here In Acts 1 8, it talks about going to Jerusalem judea samaria to the ends of the earth and so what I'm excited to share with you this morning, it's, it's so new, we don't even have slides for it as we're going to launch mission grove missions this year and so were you know, being filled with the spirit and power of the spirit, I don't, I don't know the full details yet, but here's what I can tell you is that we're going to take several ex exploration trips and pursue some partnerships, so one of the partnerships that we're pursuing right now is with the ministry called I 68 Based off Isaiah 6 8, which says, here I am send me and so actually in talking with them and then talking with some of our sister churches were part of a network called Vision Arizona, one of our sister churches North Valley Community Church is said, hey, actually we partner with Isaac's eight, we're taking a trip down, why don't you come down with us? So I don't have all the details, but I'm gonna go down and I'm going to invite anyone that's watching this to go down with me, March 18-21. We're gonna go down and we're gonna help build a house for a family and rocky point and then do some discipleship ministry right there on the ground and so for those interested, I can get you more information in the days to come. But you know, we're going to pursue that. We're also in talk with another missions agency who serves and they have a project just on the other side of the border. I think it's Sonoita right there and there's this church that is feeding and helping people in that community. What I love is their heartbeat to generosity. So they are not a wealthy village, they're very poor town. Most people just drive through sonoita on the way to Rocky Point and they have this heartbeat, so that actually their neighboring town is more poor than they are. And so they're in the process of actually trying to build a church in that neighboring town and we're going to see if maybe there's a way that we can go and help them do that. This is just beginning and just starting, there could be other partnerships and things moving forward, but we're not gonna sit back, we're gonna go and we're going to be empowered to make disciples both here and throughout the world this year, Amen. Alright number two, we are empowered to love, we are empowered to love. It's not just loving out of human ability but of God's power and God's love Mark, chapter 12 verse 30-31, jesus says that you shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind with all your strength. The second great commandment is this, that you shall love your neighbor as yourself, that there is no commandment greater than these, here's what I mean when I say that we are empowered to live that we want to love God so much in our worship that we touch the sky that we touch heaven, but then we want to love people so well that we transform earth, imagine a year where you're not focused on your circumstances, but that you love God so much that you can touch heaven and that you love people so well that you transform earth, this is the kind of love that sparks revival. You know, there's a lot of division, There's a lot of arguing and you know what? I've just come to realize that I don't want to be God's pr guy. I simply want to be his proof. So I want to challenge you. I mean, if you have like healthy debates, that's fine. I'm not saying don't do that. I mean, everyone has their opinion, but when you read something kind of funky in the bible, you don't it's not up to you to defend. I mean, you can you can explain it, but you don't have to be God's pr guy. What if instead you loved people so well that people said, man, I don't know what this says. But do you hear about what they're doing? Can you believe Carl's life was changed so dramatically? How do you explain that? Here's another way to put it. I want to start telling true rumors that God is alive and well, you know how quickly gossip spreads and rumors spread? What if we lived our lives in such a way and love people so well that rumors of God moving throughout our church to start spreading, spreading throughout this valley? Wouldn't that be amazing? Don't feel the pressure to be God's pr guy, God can defend himself. He's fine. Instead, focus your energy on being proof of God's love and a transformed life. So, first we are empowered to go second, we are empowered to love. And third, you want to put it up there, we are empowered to okay, let's go ahead and put it there we are empowered. Wait a second, that was left blank on purpose. You know why? Because you need to fill in the blank, you need to fill in the blank. God has called every one of us and God calls his church collectively. But God has called you specifically. And so the question is, what has God empowered you to do? Over the last several weeks we've been talking about dreaming big, what does that mean for you? What is an ambition in your life that will last, That will impact, that will transform lives. Maybe this is the year that you are empowered to start a ministry. Maybe this is the year that you are empowered to start a bible study at work or a church or or additional group or here at Desert Ridge or in your school, maybe this is the year that you are empowered to forgive. Maybe this is the year that you get serious about your faith and you start reading the bible. Maybe this is the year that you are empowered to share with one other person this year. I don't know that's the beauty of it because God's not just calling me God is calling and speaking to you. And my guess is my hunch is is that the spirit of God has been working the spirit of God is stirring and there's something inside of you that God wants to pull out. You see, it's not about getting people into the room, it's about getting God into the people and people into the world and if we're going to be an empowered church, it's not about seating capacity, it's about sending capacity. And so the question is, what has God called you to do and who has God called you to become, Let me just share some exciting examples happening right here A lot of times you'll hear me share illustrations from people all around the world. But these stories, this is home, this is family, you know, the show, this is us, this is us. When I think of empowered living, I think about stan meyer, she's in the room standing, Jackie have a Messianic congregation that they're serving, where they teach the power of jesus to jews, They have a tree of life congregation that they're serving weekly on Saturdays and they did a Hanukkah outreach that saw 40 people come to where they got to share the connection to Jesus, we can clap for that. That's that's a good stuff, We can do this good when I think about empowered living. I think about Nikki better lee who is a part of that mission agency that's going down to sonoita to serve. When I think about empowered living, I think about our own Wendi Mackay who came, you're went into it and said, hey, I feel called, I really want to start a women's group and now Grove growls is growing and thriving and gathering every thursday and what I just talked to her yesterday in fact that there's other ladies in the church who are now starting off starting additional bible studies throughout the valley that are going to be meeting. So that's so awesome that people are empowered to do that. I think about Michael murtaugh who's actually working full time and then and taking bible classes full time so that he can really walk and fulfill his calling to launch a new church, which he wants to call life recovery church. I think about Kyle Randall who is a student at VCU who is called into ministry and now it's gonna start a mentorship program here at the church and learn, what does it mean to actually live out and to be a pastor, someone who wants to remain nameless, he asked me not to share his name, but he wants to quit quintuple his net wealth through real estate investments but not for him but for kingdom causes because he wants to fund future church plants and compassion ministries. I think about our own Greg cope, who is awesome and incredible, although he's a Dodgers fan, so we still pray for him again, God can use anybody. So, but in talks with Greg and Vicky, Grace and you know what I got a book in me, God called me to write and so we want to support Greg and that as he writes his book on relationships and and leadership lessons and learns about how, what does it mean to become a leader? I think about our own holly Holmes who besides helping with our kids ministry and delivering these incredible family devotional boxes every week, who has a heart for homeschool ministry and I'm not sure if you know this, but in the pandemic, everyone became homeschool parents real quick and none of us know what we're doing. Okay, look, I already took second grade twice. I don't want to take it again. Okay. And so she actually has a gifting and a calling and a skill set in that. And so she actually launched a Facebook group called rugged schoolers. Now it's 35 parents involved and now it's gonna start a cohort and a ministry that teaches parents how to homeschool their kids. I think about our own John Dishes sitting here and besides leading worship here is a part of a movement on Arizona Christian University's campus. And so once a month he leads a worship night called encounter where they get anywhere from 50 to 90 kids that, that gather together as young adults and just spend the night in prayer and worshiping God for who he is, it's not not about adults either. There's a story of little brady butler in our own ministry here and brady got a call to collect bibles to give to people in prison and you think, well why would you know, where does that come from in a kid? I don't know. But you know what I get excited about is that while Covid has kept us from going in to actually deliver some of these bibles, He's actually already this, this elementary school kid has already collected over 40 bibles and is getting ready to serve and to give people the word of God where they're not getting it church, this is here, this is now, this is us. We're gonna partner with organizations like hope kids and serve families who have kids facing life threatening illnesses. We're gonna partner with ministries like Grace and mercy, homeless ministry and serve the least last and lost downtown, we're looking to partner with johanna homes for those that know Kevin and Priscilla Dc Kevin helped us plant the church and was on staff with us and then came to me and said, hey, you know, I'm really feeling called to help these foster group homes full time. And so we prayed over Kevin and Priscilla and they had to move south a little bit. They still come up and visit and if they're watching, hey guys, um, but I love that Kevin didn't leave ministry. He just changed roles. He moved from a pastor on staff at a church to full time leading foster group homes, bringing the light of the gospel into these group homes, we're gonna look for ways to partner with him and a partner with Ohana homes church. Did you see where the value of vision and the value of empowerment comes into play? I don't want to just sit through and drift And coast through 2021. I know times are hard, I know challenges are tough. I know people are going through health issues and relationship issues and job issues and financial issues and it's because of that that I believe that people need the Gospel more now than ever and that when there is a world filled with darkness, we are called to be light. When there's a world filled with Brokenness, we are called to be a blessing in church. If you try to live this year on your own, nothing's gonna change. But I promise you that you live in the power with dynamics, the power of the Holy Spirit, the power that conquered the grave. If you live with that spirit inside you, then there's nothing that can stop. Will you pray with me, dear Heavenly father, thank you that we have the freedom to gather, that we have the technology to connect with people who are unable to gather this morning God. It's not about getting people in the room, we're getting people to tune in online, it's about getting you into your people while people receiving the power of the Holy Spirit God, it's about us receiving that power and they're going to live with purpose and on purpose. I mean we live empowered to go and make disciples both here and beyond. When we live empowered to love you so much that we touch heaven and to love others so well that we transform earth God help us to live in power to Yeah, fill in that blank, May this be the year that people forgive, May this be the year that people grow, may this be the year that people disciple that they will reach that friend, that family member that launch ministries that will find creative ways to reach new people who have never heard you before. We start telling true rumors that you are alive and well instead of focusing on fear instead of focusing on problems instead of focusing on pain, but we focus in on the power that you have given us because God, if you are for us then who can be against us God, if you are with us then nothing can stand in our way God you have called us to be the people of Mission Grove to go and spread the gospel throughout this community, God you are mighty, you are worthy of our praise. We lift up your name, God, I may just prayer and make this prayer a prayer of blessing over the people watching online and here in the room when we just be empowered with your spirit. If there's somebody who's never received you as Lord and Savior when they do that today, it's not about our works, it's about your grace, it's your strength and your love. May it change us? Maybe we walk out these doors bold and courageous with you. May you empower us to live lives of purpose and of mission. Mhm. God we truly believe the best is yet to come. And I don't I can honestly say I don't know where you're going to take us. Yeah, but God may we lean into being empowered by your spirit to be spirit filled and to be spirit led and may we be obedient loving and so we give our lives and our ambitions to human, help us pursue the things that last he says I would pray.