Courage | Part 4

So I don't know if you were like me. When I was a kid, I had a very active imagination. How about you? When I played, I could really get into it. And and one of the things I I really like to pretend the most when I was a kid was being a superhero. And my favorite when I was a little kid was Superman.

Matter of fact, I had some Superman, pajamas that I would wear even in the middle of the day if I was Superman. Put them on, you know, I wore them till they went from pants to capris to shorts to I look like Incredible Hulk. But but

but the thing that really tied it together was I had this old red towel that we had announced that we didn't use as a towel. It was my cape. And and if if I put that cape on, I was Superman.

A matter of fact, I wouldn't even answer to my name. If I was walking around with that cape on, my mom would go, Billy. Billy. Then she'd see the cape, I'd go, oh, Superman. I go, yes, good citizen. How may I assist you? And and she actually liked that because I knew I was trying to be Superman. Superman was a good guy. So she could ask me to do anything and I needed to say yes until I figured out I could say, I'm Bizarro Superman and run away. So if you know superheroes, that's funny actually. But,

but, but I was really into it. And one day I was, dressed up as Superman and I walked outside. I happened to walk by and my dad had left the ladder up against the side of the house from from where he was doing some work, but he wasn't anywhere around. So I was gonna be more like Superman.

I climbed up the ladder and got on the roof, And and I went right to the edge, and I stood there Superman like. And I looked out, and then I said, it's a bird. It's a plane. And right before I yelled Superman and jumped,

my my dad heard me saying it's a bird in a plane and ran out and got right underneath me. And he's like, stop. And that's the only thing that could snap me out of it was he was like kryptonite. And I was like, good. He goes, get down out of there. And I and I come over. He gets me down off the roof.

And he's like, what were you thinking? And I goes, what was your plan? And I'm like, I was gonna say it's Superman and jump because I'm Superman. My dad goes, that's not a plan. That's stupidity. That that you would have been ER boy. That's what you would have been, not Superman. ER boy. And and

and he looked at it. And as I thought about that story of what I did at that moment, that reminds me a lot of of of our struggles when it comes to this concept of courage, of courageous faith, having courage in our relationship with the Lord. That many of us think that courage in my faith with the Lord

is the spiritual version of what I just described.

Is that you think it's supposed to put on my cape and say, I'm gonna be super Christian. I'm gonna climb up on some high point, and I'm just gonna leap. A leap of faith and yell, I'm super Christian. And that's how it's supposed to work. I'm supposed to just get this idea, and then I'm supposed to go jump with no plan.

And the reality is that's probably what that view is what a lot of you think you hear when I'm saying we need to have courageous faith. You think I'm saying just just jump like like be stupid. No plan.

And that's not how it works. Matter of fact, we've been unpacking over the last four weeks these six conditions of the heart of courage. We've been looking at these six conditions of heart because courage is not about our circumstances. Courage is an issue of our heart.

It's an issue of our heart. If I'm waiting for my circumstances to change to make me brave, that's not courage. Because if you're not scared, it's not courage.

And so we've been unpackaging these these six conditions of a courageous heart and today is condition four. The big idea for today is this, the fourth condition of courage

is a strategic plan.

That to have courage for the Lord does involve making a plan. It really really does. And we're gonna see it because we've been looking at this. We've been looking through the life of a guy named Nehemiah in the book of Nehemiah, his story, and this is where we keep getting these conditions. But by way of review before we hop in where we're at today, what we saw is the first condition of the heart, week one, I think it's up here, was it takes a dislocated heart. That means the first thing that I need to have courage for the Lord is my heart needs to dislocate

and it needs to go where God wants it to go. It needs to be maybe I haven't made that jump yet, but it my hearts went there first. My hearts went there first. We saw that Nehemiah,

in that he was in the city of Susa. He had was born and raised in captivity in this foreign empire, the Persian empire at the time. And he was now the cup bearer to the king, which was a pretty high responsibility.

He would be the the food taster and stuff. You made sure the king didn't get killed or poisoned. That you're like the head of the secret service, which made you one of his closest advisors.

But he had never been to to Israel. And his heart dislocated because he was a faithful follower of God. He knew his word. And about a hundred years ago, the people that have been put in captivity and Israel was destroyed, God had made promises seventy years before that, I will bring you back.

And he kept his promise and people had went back. And Nehemiah was excited because God says, I'm gonna bring you back for my glory to be part of my plan and my stories to declare the glory. So he thought he was excited when one of his brothers showed up who had been in Jerusalem. He wanted to hear all about how's the glory of God, how's God's plan going. And he goes, it's in a disgrace.

The walls are still down around the city. And that dislocated his heart. He got distraught. Why? Because because walls in that day and age were important for two things. One, the obvious one, your city isn't protected. But also if you didn't have walls, city isn't important.

That's probably what broke his heart more than the protection part. Was the fact that God, hundreds of years before, had already declared that his glory, his story was gonna involve the greatness of this people and this city, and it's not happening. And he goes, there's something wrong. And then his heart broke for what broke God's heart.

And although he's still in Sousa, his heart dislocated.

Well, led to week two where we talked about he then spent months praying and we talked about the next step is a broken spirit or I called it a broken heart. And that's where he spent this time confessing his sin, his brokenness before the Lord. His people sinned before he even asked God to help him do anything. And that's really the second step is we need to be broken before the Lord and we need to see our brokenness because it's critical for a couple reasons.

The the the the first reason is is is when God wants us to be broken before him and say, hey, he's God. We're not. We are broken and far from him, And we are sinful people that often act in cowardice, not in courage. God wants us to see that. Not to feel bad, but enable us to act bold.

Because when we know it's God that's gonna do this, I just have to have the courage to trust him and his plan. I can act boldly. Instead of worrying about my fears, my own shortcomings, my own problems, my own circumstance. Like, God, I can't do that all the time. God, I don't have the money. I don't have this. I don't have that. I I I don't get caught up in the fears because I start to understand

it's not about me, it's about God. Then that lay led and that's what Nehemiah did for months. He prayed. Then he comes to what we talked about last week. He's been praying. He finally prayed. That brokenness led him to a prayer request,

which was in alignment with God's plan. He knew if I'm supposed to go be a part of this, I know the first thing I gotta do is I gotta talk to my boss. I gotta talk to the king.

And I I I can't just leave. In this day and age, has he served the king, he couldn't just quit. He couldn't get leave. He needed an opportunity to talk to the king. But we saw in the context of passages, you couldn't just walk in and say, king, can I talk to you? You did not get an unauthorized audience for the king. So he had to pray about a moment that would happen. And that moment happened when he looked really sad in front of the king.

And the problem with that is, like I said last week, is they had a no Eeyore policy back then. Meaning, if you look sad in front of the king, you could be put to death. You could be executed

for being bummed in front of the king. So the king says, you look sad. So that's the way God opened the door. A scary thing. And that was when we talked about a radical faith. That you're eventually gonna have to have this radical You're gonna have to actually do something. If you have a dislocated heart and a broken heart, it always leads to action. You're going to have to take a step of faith.

And it might be scary. And like I said last week, if you're looking for the safe Jesus that always just keeps you in safety, and it's all about safety, you're gonna miss Jesus. Because Jesus will put us in terrifying moments where you're gonna have to act with some radical faith.

And he explained to the king what he wanted to do. Instead of killing him, the king said okay. That's radical faith. But now we come to this week for today,

a strategic plan. And let's pick up the story with Nehemiah where we left off. I I finished at the last part of verse six last week where the where Nehemiah says, after I told him how long I would be gone, because the king says, Basif, I want you to come back. He said the king agreed to my request. Awesome.

But all of a sudden Nehemiah has to say something else. He says, I also said to the king. Because he realized I think this is the second part of him being terrified because he knew if the king says yes to let me go, I know I need to say this too. And just bear in mind what he says next could still get him killed

if the king didn't like what he had to say. You have to understand the context of which the story is taking place. What he says next, now won't just get him in an argument, won't just get no, your request denied. If the king doesn't like it, he can just say, hey, I'm gonna execute you.

And so here's what he says next. I also said to the king, if it pleases the king, let me have letters addressed to the governors of the province west of the Euphrates River, instructing them to let me travel safely through the territories on my way to Judah.

That's okay. I needed letters and letters of reference to keep me safe. And please give me a letter addressed to Asaph, the manager of the King's Forest, instructing him to give me timber. Now he's asking for him to pay for it. He goes, I will need it to make beams for the gates of the temple fortress, for the city walls,

and for a house for myself. He knows I even am gonna need a place to live. So he asked for the king to give him and at this time, the King's Forest recent forest, especially in Israel. I've been there. Wood is a tie priority, top commodity, and the king controlled this forest. This is some expensive stuff he's asking for.

He's like, now I don't wanna leave your service. I need you to help pay for it. I need you to pave the way for me to be able to do this. So he was bold. That's when he had broken spirit. He goes, hey, this is God. I I gotta ask God. I need to do it. So he goes for it. And then it says, and the king granted these requests

because Nehemiah had so much woo and was such good salesman that he caused the king to make it rain. No. That's not what it says. And the king granted these requests because of the gracious hand of God was on me. What does he mean by that? He goes, he granted these requests because my request came out of a plan

that came out of being committed to God's plan. And so I I I went after what God wanted. So I knew that if this is where God wanted me go, I knew I needed to do these things. I knew I needed these things. That's the prayer request. I needed this stuff to be able to do God's plan.

Not God, I need you to give me the stuff so I can do my plan. That's how a lot of us pray. A lot of us pray over and over and over again. We cry like this child. We sit there and cry out to God because they want something, and we want something. We think if I just if I just cry out to God enough,

he'll finally give me what I'm asking for. And a lot of us, that's how and then we go, I'll go to church. I'll be a good person. I'll do the right things. I'll do the good things. Then he'll be more apt to answer my prayers. We have the wrong view of prayer.

That's about that broken heart. Broken heart says, I am so committed to God's plan in my life that I'm praying about it. And then out of that prayer comes the request that have to do with what do I now need to do what God asked me to do. In other words, I start to have a game plan.

And that's what we're talking about this week. Because because here's a question. This is a very specific request of this king. And we all learned last week that this moment to talk to Nehemiah was not a well, he didn't get up that morning and go, today's the day I'm talking to the king. It came up as a surprise.

The king just noticed him sad. Do you really think he thought of this specific of requests right there in that moment? Where did he get this plan? What do you think he was praying about for four months? He wasn't just praying, God I need to go. Let me go. God I need to go. Let me go. God I need to go. Let me go.

He was like, God, I need to go. And if you've wired me to go,

what kind of a situation am I in? I need to start praying in accordance with your word, God. Help me come up with a plan of what would I need to do. And he knew first thing, I'm gonna need to talk to the king. Give me favor when I talk to the king. The second thing is what I'm gonna need to ask the king for. I need him to let me go. But you know what? I'm never gonna make it there if I don't get these letters. And the other thing I'm not gonna make it is I'm gonna need some timber. There's not enough timber there. I'm gonna need some of this stuff. So I need to ask him for that. And then he formulated a strategic plan.

So what what do I mean when I say the strategic plan? Here's here's a definition of it. When we say scripturally, what are we talking about for a courageous strategic plan? Boom. It's understanding the big pieces of the puzzle in my life that fit together

in order for me to fulfill a part of God's overarching design for the universe. That's a lot of words. The Bill Bush version to say, I start to put a plan together on the pieces in my life that help me fulfill my little part of God's big part.

What's my little part? What's my plan for my little part for God's big huge part of a plan? We've all been given a little part of God's plan for the universe.

And we all have have a calling to do it. And one of the main ways is through my church. Am I a part of a church? Am I gonna engage in that? But I individually have to start having a strategic plan for what is what do I need to do to be a part of this plan. That's a strategic plan. That's what Nehemiah did. You see it. If you go read the whole book of Nehemiah, we're only gonna isolate. We've only got I mean, we're four weeks in. We have we're barely into chapter two. We're not gonna go through this whole book. We're just gonna look at some certain parts of it. I challenge you. Go read the whole book. Nehemiah over and over again is a strategic planner

through prayer. Prayer and plan. And and that's really what we need to do. You know why? It's because God doesn't bless vague ideas. Where God's agenda is championed, his resources flow. It's like where he guides he provides. Have you ever heard that? How many have heard where God guides he provides?

Alright. Here's a cool question. How many of you when you hear where God guides he provides you think money or resource of some kind? Every time you hear it. You ever think he also provides a plan?

Why do we not think that he wouldn't provide want me to start praying about a plan? Sometimes we blame the Holy Spirit for disorganization. We have this weird idea about who the Holy Spirit is, how God works. We kind of have this weird spiritual idea that he's like that crazy art teacher we had

growing up. You know the one that's like, are they ever gonna be on time? What is the purpose of the class? What's going on? They're dressed funny. They act weird. You know, they're doing all this. Now if you're art teacher, I'm sorry. I just had several of those, so I'm just going by my experience.

But but the reality is you think God's like that. He's like, oh yeah, whatever. I got this plan, but you never know how it's gonna work, you know, and and and all this stuff. Really? The God of the universe who says in his word that he planned you before time even existed. How how extremely type a planning is that?

Some of you have already done Christmas shopping. Right? You're planning for Christmas right now. How many are excited that you might be able to get a tree soon or do something like, when can you put it? You're that person. You just like being way ahead.

Now imagine what God did. He planned you. He took the time to plan you before there was time. That is pretty organized. God is a planner. Sometimes I think we blame God for our lack of willing to make a plan because we're really not sure if we're fully in on this thing.

So we avoid plans. It's like it's the ultimate version. Was, hey, what are you doing Friday? I don't know. What's up?

You might have nothing planned, but you're not gonna say anything until you hear what they have to say. You know why? You don't wanna say, yes, I already have plans. Because what if what they say is really cool? But you also don't wanna

I'm doing nothing. What's going on? And then what they say is, we're gonna go to the library and check out books on on how to make crafts. Now some of you are like, what's wrong with that? Sorry. I just offended you. And art people are just getting offended left and right. I'm sorry.

But but the reality is is is that's what we do with God. I don't want to make a plan because I'm not sure. But we need a strategic plan. We need to pray about that. Most of our prayer requests should come from that. That's where it should come from.

I mean think about it. If you go read in Romans 12, if you understand this idea of praying

with the Lord saying, my life is focused on God's plans and my prayer request should come out of it. What's my strategic plan for how God wired me to be a part of this plan? My request flow from that. If you understand that's what's going on, you will understand Romans twelve one and two a heck of a lot better.

Romans twelve one and two starts off with saying, hey, we should offer our lives as a living sacrifice. And that's kinda cool because because God, Jesus died for us. Right? He sacrificed his life for us. He wants us to sacrifice not by dying, but by living. He goes, I died for you so you can live for me.

And he goes, that's how you worship. Worship is not just singing songs. It's it's it's about am I focusing my life? Am I living for him? For his will, his purposes, his plans?

And then it goes on to say the next thing. It says, so, no, do not be any longer conformed to the image of this world. So it says, how do you start doing that? Don't conform to the image. That word for conformed

is a is a construction thing. Like when you put the wood down and pour concrete, it's the form that keeps it directs the the concrete on where to go. It says, don't pour your life into the mold of the world. So what are we supposed to do instead? It says, be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Now a lot of you take renewing the mind. I've heard this quoted of that's why we just need to study bible verse. Give me Greek. Give me the bible verse. Give me this. Yeah. We need to study it. You do need information in order for transformation. Information is a part of transformation.

Information does not equal transformation. To not to be renewed the renewing of your mind literally means this. You choose to see from God's point of view. It's a choice. It's not about information. It's about a decision. It's about I will you'd have to learn. Do I love God's point of view? From God's word.

So I need to know God's word, but then it's beyond that. I gotta have to choose to say, I'm gonna see my life, the mission of my life, the purpose of my life, and who I am from God's point of view, not my own point of view. I am gonna let myself be transformed by the renewing of making a decision

to look at everything from his point of view. And and then it's interesting because now you'll understand why the next thing it says, it says, and then you'll know the will of God. It's if if you don't understand what he's saying here, that last phrase doesn't seem to fit.

Because then you'll know the will of God. You'll know. You'll be able to have a plan. You'll start putting plans together. You know why? Because you will see your life from God's point of view, and you won't be all confused. So many of us, you're like, keep praying. I don't know the world of I don't know the world of God. Because mainly what you're praying about is, God, I want you to transform

by renewing of your mind into my way of thinking. And I will act good. I'll go to church. I'll be a good boy or girl. So I hope then you will answer my prayers and give me what I'm asking for. We are trying to get God to renew his mind to my way of thinking and him to transform and form into my mold. So then I'm confused all the time. You need to surrender and simply say my life is what God says my life is, and I'm gonna see everything that happens through the lens of his word. Good, bad, and indifferent. Then I'm gonna understand God's will.

And that's where strategic plan comes from. That's why we talked about surrender first,

and then you plan, and then your prayer requests start coming out of that. And that's why Jesus said, when you pray anything in my will, and what he means by my will is you've done that whole process of Romans twelve one and two. He goes, you're gonna get it.

Because you're not trying to trick God or force God into your form. We are choosing to see from his point of view. And I'm gonna tell you the biggest the bigger part of God's plan that he wants us to be a part of, he's already told us. Jesus said to go make disciples.

He didn't say go to a church where the pastor and the staff and a few really weird people make disciples.

We are all supposed to go make disciples. And then he he told another guy who said what summarize the little scripture to me. Goes, love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and love others the same.

In other words, every one of us in here that knows Jesus, God has already clearly told you the direction for your life. It's to point people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus. That's not just a mission statement of this church. That is the biblical mission statement for everyone who knows Jesus.

And if you don't agree with that, you will, you're not renewing your mind. You're not seeing your life from god's point of view. The thing that makes us different is we all go make disciples through the lens of how he designed us. For me, God gave me a mouth and that's my gift. So I became a pastor.

That's why I do this. It's not just everyone is supposed to be a pastor or missionary. Some of you are called to do what you're called to do, but in the process a matter of fact, it says go make disciples, the best way to translate that in English, it says wherever you go, make disciples.

Meaning however God's word, wherever he's planted you, wherever he's put you, you're supposed to point people Jesus by loving them like Jesus. Do everything we do. Our time, our talent, our research should be poured into that cause.

And yes, we have to take care of our needs. Just like Nehemiah, part of his prayer was, and I need some wood to build a house for myself. God obviously wants to take care of us. But the goal is not just my needs. The goal is I have needs that I need to be taken care of so I can go after the bigger goal.

The strategic plan. Going after what God wants. And guess what? For whatever reason, God landed us all right here. So guess what we're supposed to do? In the surrounding communities, we're supposed to point people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus. That's our mission.

And if you're and we're supposed to be a part of a church.

So we gotta ask ourselves, am I gonna be a part of that? Am I gonna do that? Am I gonna really go after them? Am have the courage? Because that's really what community is about. That's really what Nehemiah was doing. God empowered him. And don't miss next week, cause next week he's gonna have to go and challenge all the people to be a part of it. And we're gonna see how they fit in.

But that's what he did. That's what we're doing. That's what the church does. And you know what? It it the reason it takes courage is just because it works, doesn't mean it's easy. Because if you look at the the last part of this this verse eight,

it says after he asked the king for all this is, and the king granted these requests because of the gracious hand of God. I already said that. If you go down to verse nine, he goes, so it's God's hand. So you think, okay, God's hands on it. It'll be safe. It'll be easy. Read nine and ten. When I came to the governors of the province West of the Euphrates River, I delivered the king's letter to them. The king, I should add, sent along army officers and horsemen to protect me. The king went above and beyond. So it's even better than what he thought. But

then look what it says. But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard of my arrival,

They were very displeased that someone had come to help the people of Israel. That's gonna come back. You don't wanna miss the rest of the series, especially last week. We're gonna look at what happens when it gets difficult. Because I'm just gonna tell you right now, just because God's gracious hand is upon you and you make a plan, God will resource it. God will make it happen. It doesn't mean there's not gonna be attacks or problems or enemy. I don't wanna ruin the thunder for the future weeks. I just want you to know that if you lean in with courage to where God's called you to go, God will empower it. God will provide. But there is an enemy out there that does not like what you're doing, and there will be an equal reaction back at you. And that's another thing we gotta talk about, but I'm not gonna do that now.

It's just that every time you go for what God wants to go, there's gonna be tough moments, and that's where a lot of us quit. But hold that thought for another week. Let's stay in the cool thing of I got a strategic plan and God is opening the door. So

God has called us to point people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus. God has put you here.

I did a series called we are rock point. If you're a Christian and this is your church, God has also established the church and he establishes leaders. We're all part of a body and God empowers leaders who pray and we try to go, hey, what is God what has God asked us? What's our part of the plan of what God's doing?

And that's what we've done. We have a strategic plan to point people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus. In Nehemiah, his strategic plan and what his people need to do is build a wall. We have a strategic plan that means we need to build several walls. Watch this. This is our strategic plan.

Hi. I'm Dave Sutherland, the executive pastor at Rock Point Church. I'm excited to

tremendously over the last last few few years. Years. Going Going into into summer, we actually went over 3,400 people. Not only that, in 2017, we were the fifteenth fastest growing church in The US, number one in Arizona.

Some of you have seen how full our kids ministry is. We've had to close classrooms especially during our growth times. If you drive by the building anytime during the week, you'll see the parking lot is full. We have adult classes going on, middle school communities, young adults,

CR, all sorts of activities events. We're using that building to its maximum. Not only is Rock Point growing, but the community around Rock Point is growing. Queen Creek currently has 44,000 people in it. They're projecting growth to 70,000 people by 2026. Not only that, but Santan Valley currently Gilbert has 230,000

people in it. 60% of them are unchurched. Another exciting thing is the town of Queen Creek has approved a development straight to the south of us. It's called Box Canyon. It has about 3,700 homes in it and which equates to about 13,000 people.

All of them are gonna be passing right by Rock Point Church because the main entrance is Power Road. So what's our plan? Our plan is to build a new building. What we've learned from our current building is people love that courtyard. So we're gonna do that even better at the new building.

We're gonna have a metal canopy that's gonna be more than three times the size of our current outdoor space. It's gonna be covered and rainproof. It's gonna have activities and cafe and seating under it, so we can do all sorts of ministry and events out there.

That metal canopy is gonna lead into a large lobby. Those lobby doors are gonna try to disappear as much as possible to create that indoor outdoor feel. The worship center will have between thirteen and fourteen hundred seats.

And then we're also gonna move the littlest kids over to the new building so they're close to their parents. So nursery through preschool will be in the new building. Attached to the worship center will be a prayer room. It'll also lead out to a prayer garden.

In the lobby will be an adult classroom, a volunteer central, and a cafe that's gonna be available not only on the weekend, but during the week as well.

Since the youth want an activity space, we gave them a large grass area to use for throwing the football around or kicking a soccer ball around. It'll also come in handy for events like Easter and Christmas Eve.

We're also creating a new courtyard space. They'll have lots of trees, lot like the Queen Creek Olive Mill, with trees, patio lights, picnic tables, and it's gonna be surrounding the new baptism.

The new baptism will be large enough to baptize two to three people at a time, and then during the week, it's gonna look like a beautiful fountain. Our existing building will turn into kindergarten through young adults.

It'll also have a special needs area with their own lobby and two large classrooms and their own restroom. The current worship center will be middle school, high school, and young adults. They'll all share that space. Each kid's space is gonna be broken up into every two grades.

So kindergarten, first, second, third, and fourth, and fifth are gonna have their own spaces. We're amazed what God has done at Rock Point so far, and we're so excited to see where God takes us in the future. Yeah. Amen. Amen.

So last week, we kinda talked about this radical faith and and I talked about how, you know, oftentimes when you're in a church, especially if you're new here or if you've been in church like, every time they gotta talk about money, we're talking about building something, it's almost like we have to half apologize. I'm so sorry.

And like and we act like this is such a huge burden. But the reality is being a part of something like this is not a burden. It's a blessing. You know God could do this without us. But for whatever reason, he chooses to include us.

And there there's just something about that that God wants us to have the courage to be a part of it. So I don't apologize for asking this because God's gracious hand is upon what we're doing. And last week I said, hey, so what you got to ask yourself is,

will I have the privilege of being a part of it? Cause see God's gonna get his will done whether we do it or not. That's it's not whether it's gonna happen. It's whether I'm gonna have the privilege of being a part of it. Well, this week I gotta add one layer to that question. Will I have the privilege

of making a strategic plan

to be a part of it? In other words, will you make a plan to be a part of it? If we leave it so loosey goosey, a lot of people say, yeah, I plan to give or I will, but I'm gonna wait. Like I said, a lot of times that's because we're fearful of we don't know what we're gonna be able to do, and we regret. And that's why we've asked you to make a pledge. That's why you've been given a you'll get a card when you go out that shows the dates of when we need the pledges by. And along with the pledge, we've asked for a first fruits offering, which means, hey, this pledge is a two year campaign. What can I courageously

pledge to give for the next two years to this campaign?

But the first fruits is how much can I front load? What what can I give as a gift right off the bat? Because like I said, a strategic plan is based on where you're at. Nehemiah knew what he needed for at. We know what we need to do in this community. We know what need to happen. We know how it works. And to get financing to be able to do this, we need a minimum of $5,000,000 pledged and we need as big of a first fruits as offering as we can. That's what controls the financing. It also helps us speed up the timetable of when we can break ground.

So that's why we're asking for you to make a pledge. But can I just tell you something? Pledges are not evil. They're not weird. A pledge is a plan.

This pledge card, a pledge is a plan. This is your strategic plan to say how am I gonna be part of the bigger plan of what the church is doing, which is our little part of what God is doing throughout the whole universe. So I'm gonna challenge you and say, please, will you have the privilege of making a plan?

And what I'm gonna ask you to do the same thing is is start praying about it like Nehemiah did and look at where you're at and say, okay, this is where I think I can go that makes sense. It might be hard. And then just take one little step further.

What I call the courage zone. That says I need the gracious hand of the Lord upon me for this to happen. I didn't say jump off the roof with your with your red cape tied around you. I just said what's a little bit further. And God can change the plans. This is not like, you know, you're not getting sued if this didn't happen. You know, God can change plans. Matter of fact, it's easier to move an already it's easier to turn an already moving vehicle. Right? So that's how God usually modifies our plans. As you go, maybe it'll be different than what you thought. You know what I pray for for everyone? Which has happened every campaign. A lot of people made a pledge and they gave more than their pledge. That's my prayer. I pray the plan works the other direction.

The truth is, I would rather us just get $17,000,000 pledged and not even have to use a bank. And you know what? I think we could do that. If everybody that calls this church their home literally stepped in the courage zone. If everyone

stepped into the courage zone, I guarantee we could build this building straight up cash. The question is, will we? Will we step into that courage zone? Will we be willing to do that? Will I make a plan? Will I do that and be a part of it?

And you're wondering why I say this because I have learned over and over and over again that what God wants to do, why does he ask us to do this? He asked us to do this because there is something beautiful on the other side of courage.

There's something beautiful and you know he already showed us the example of himself. When he went to the cross, you look at the cross you see the ultimate example of courage and the beauty on the other side. When Jesus died for us, he courageously went and died for us. The disciples were confused, weren't they? They didn't understand what God is. It looked like failure.

It looked horrible. They were all discouraged and running all of this until what happened three days later? Jesus came back to life. There was something beautiful on the other side of courage. And he invites us to do the same

because he wants us to experience the same thing he does. To have that beauty that's on the other side of courage. You know, that is actually something I've always tried to pour into my children.

I told you my dad taught me if you're not scared it's not courage. The other thing they taught me is, and there's something amazing on the other side of courage. And I've tried to teach my kids the same thing. I don't want them to grow up thinking it's all about always being safe. Because they're not always gonna be safe.

They need to know the difference of what's the right kind of courage versus stupidity. And how do you handle it when it's tough and you go for courage. I'm telling you, do yourself a favor. Teach your kids the beauty of courage.

And that's what I've tried to teach them. I've talked about it many times. But I don't know about you, but as my kids have grown up, do you ever wonder, are they picking up what I'm putting down? Are they are they really getting there? And the hardest one for me to read is my youngest daughter who's in high school now.

Because she's my introvert. And so I can never tell what she's thinking. I mean everything I ask or say I get the same response.

I just said I love you.

Couldn't you tell how mad I was? Could you it's like it's the same thing. So I was hoping she would understand it. Well, I found out this end of the last school year, end of her freshman year, come home one day, and she starts asking me for all of these synonyms for weird words. So I finally go after like the fifth word, I go, what are you doing? What are you doing?

And she goes, I'm doing a project for school.

I go, what is it? She goes, I have to write a sonnet. And I said, what's a sonnet? I knew it a poem, so she explained that to me. I don't remember. But she she she goes, I'm writing a sonnet. I go, what does that gotta be about? She goes, it's gotta be about one of our pieces of artwork. And I go, so what's yours about? She goes, I drew this forest.

And I go, oh, that's interesting. So then when she was done, she goes, you wanna read it? And I'm like, that's cool. She wants me to read her poem. So so she gave it to me. And I just wanna read it to you. Says this, a forest thick with trees and mystery, there lives a fairy tale of great sorrow.

Stories of a witch told through history, lasting from past yonder and tomorrow. The townsmen all fear the witch's fable and refuse to enter the thicket's doors. The tale drove some past the point of stable. Fear stopped feet from finding the forest floors.

But the rumors of a witch are not true. Wagtails and woodpeckers and worms do dwell, but there is no lair where potions brew. For the forest is nothing if not swell. The fear of the forest nearly killed thee when all that lived inside was just beauty.

And I remember I looked at her, I go, wow. You're trying to say something deeper, aren't you? And she's like

She was of course. And I go, hey pretend like your dad's dumb. And she goes pretend? Like And I go, what were you trying to say? She goes, was trying to say that this forest scared people no one would go in. And they missed out. Because the truth is the only thing in there was beauty.

And they didn't have the courage to step in there and their fear made them miss the beauty. Like, wow. She goes, you know what I named it? I go, no, what? She goes, the beauty of courage. She listened to what I've been trying to teach her. Amen? That's a cool dad moment. Yes. The cooler moment

is what she just wrote here is what this whole series is about. It's the why I'm not afraid to ask you to do this and be a part of this. You might have been here, you just showed up. If you know Jesus and this is your church, join us. It'll be great

because there is something beautiful on the other side of this kind of courage. And and and the reason I share that too is because

I told you before I came before you guys, strategic planning, I met with our staff and our elders and then some of our core families. And I I and I met with them first. And and and and and you know and and and we need 5,000,000 minimum.

And to encourage you I asked them to step into the forest to to have that that that courage first. And and that we already have a little over $3,400,000 committed which is 68% of our minimum goal from 3% of our attendance. What would happen if the rest of it, the other 97%

says, I'm gonna do the same thing. I'm gonna lean into the courage. And I shared this with them when I challenged them to give first.

I I I shared and and it was really cool. I wanna show you a picture. I shared with the staff and the elders here. Right out here in front of the cross one night. And it was kinda cool. We were able to project the words to the worship songs up on the cross. It was awesome sitting here at this cross and talking about it. And I said, hey, look, the beauty of courage is many of us, because some of them have been around before we built this. I said, remember

how we built this? Look around. Look at the beauty of the last courage we had. And look where we are now

sitting at before the cross. And I always say the cross goes before us. Jesus is the example. So as we sat at the cross, and are we gonna have the courage to follow the cross? And I don't know if you were around, but you might remember some of you were here before we had this. We had to have courage even before that. And I have another picture, an older picture.

An older picture. There it is. And and and some of you were any of here when we had this? Here's a cool thing. How many of you have a stake that was in the ground there? There you go. There are some hands up. And if you look in the interior of those stakes, there's some rocks.

And you were here back when we did the rock part even earlier than yeah. There we had the rocks there too. And what we did is we we would go out on this land and talk about the beauty of courage of what would happen if. How could we reach people? How could we point people to Jesus? We love them like Jesus through doing something on this land that God gave us. And and and what we did is we did these rocks, but then those stakes represent that was one of the last things we did to to build this building. And if you look, that's about 300 families.

300 families had the courage that built all of this. We have almost we have between two and three thousand families in this church now.

And and and if you look, the stake was an idea that they wrote their family name on. That was their pledge. They said, I'm making a plan. And what we did is we talked about how God is less concerned with our mistakes than he is with our missed stakes. Our missed opportunities

to to have courageous faith and be a part of something awesome. And if you had one of those stakes or those rocks, every service I see some already, everyone gets teary eyed.

Because they got to see what happened as a result. But here's a cool thing that some of you might not have realized because you weren't here when I shared that night. That cross we put up out there is in the exact same spot as that cross that's out there right now.

That's why we waited to put it up there. We built this building knowing the cross led the way. So as we sat there, I said imagine the beauty that could be here. Then we sat there and said look at the beauty that is here now. And then I said look over this way into the darkness there.

Imagine the beauty that could be there because what's there right now looks like a scary forest. All the things that's out there right now at night is scorpions and rattlesnakes and coyotes and the thieves that are waiting for us to leave anything out that we didn't put in the con ex. They're gonna steal that.

But what could be there if we follow the cross? If we have the courage? Will I make a plan to be a part of that? And and the last thing I want to tell you to close this down and pray is simply this. The whole time I'm talking about the beauty of courage you might have thought I'm saying the building itself is the beauty.

That's not it. The building is just a tool. The building is just a tool. The reason everyone who has a stake in that ground that's still here and the rock, the reason you get teary eyed.

Because the beauty on the other side of this kind of courage is you. It's you.

Trust me. There's a lot of reasons when I started a church that you think this would be so cool. You wanna get a building, you wanted this. Guys, I hate buildings. They're they're a big pain to get done. Campaigns. But you know what I'll never hate?

And I am privileged to have seen is get to stand here and look at you guys every week.

And look at how many of you are here since we built this building. The beauty on the other side of this courage is not a building. It's we get to point people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus.

You're the beauty on the other side of courage. So the question is, not what? Who? Who is on the other side of this courage? Father God, I thank you Lord. I thank you that you do love us. And the really reason you ask us to to to to courageously sacrifice, to financially sacrifice, to make a plan to sacrifice,

is not to to to prove our love for you, but for you to show us something. So we can see what you really love.

We can have our mind renewed. We can see from your point of view. We can have the privilege of seeing the real beauty of courage. So I pray that you will inspire and speak to every one of us to make that kind of a commitment. And that we get to see what's gonna happen when we lean into that courage, Lord.

I just thank you and I just pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.