We Are Rock Point | Week 4 | Bill Bush | Full Service

you know, I was a decent athlete. I thought I might get a college scholarship for that. I got good grades. I thought I'd get a scholar college

scholarship for that. But I really wanted you know, they talk about, hey. You need to build that college resume kind of a thing. So then I I was thinking about what should I do? What should I do? I was talking to my one friend and my friend was the the the Key Club lieutenant governor. And I didn't even know what Key Club was. It's a subset of Kiwanis Club, the adult version, and it's a community service club. I had no idea what it was, but a lieutenant governor, he was over the clubs of, five schools.

And he goes, what you should do is you should just become president of Key Club. And and I was like, well, what what? Why how does that even work? I go, why would I do that? I don't even know what it is. But he goes

I go, how would I even do that? I go, we're about to reelect a new president. The guy that was doing it quit, and the reason he wanted me to try to do it is he was embarrassed

that the the key club we had, he goes, it's only got like four people in it. So I go, well, how am I gonna get elected? I've never been. He goes, just bring four friends. The five of you, you win the election. And I'm like, okay. So I did it. I brought four friends and I won five to four.

And I I I can't imagine what the the four people that were actually trying and doing stuff thought when I just walked in and took the election from them, but I did. And, and now I'm the president, but, you know, I still didn't even know what they did.

I mean, the only reason I did it is I wanted to be able to write that down on a college application. I wanted to show that I had this community service thing, that I was a leader, that I that I that I got to do that. But I had no intentionality in actually doing the job.

I actually didn't wanna do the job. I just wanted what I was gonna get out of the title. I wanted to be there and get what I wanted. And so we'd be in meetings. I'd be like, alright. We gotta do something. And so I'd let the four people that actually cared. They're doing all the work. And I'm just, you know, being the the guy that gets to be the the president that gets to put that on my college application. And actually, it did. It ended up on my college application and in the yearbook, Key Club President,

even though my reign was short and terrible. So we ended up finally having to do something. We planned this dance finally because I hadn't really been doing much. We planned this dance that you pay. It was gonna be fun. We're gonna and then it was all going to charity. And so then the night of the dance,

I get a phone call. I answer. It's my friend Dave who's the over the lieutenant governor. He's like, hey. I'm down here helping him. It's it starts in a half an hour. We've been here for like three hours, four hours setting up. Where are you? I've been trying to call you. He's like, I'm at home. He's like, well, why do come by? I just don't feel like good. I think I'm gonna stay home. And he's like, but we needed you to be here. I go, well, you got it set up. Why do you need me?

And he got so mad at me. Says, you're no longer the president of Keyclub. He fired me. And I'm like, can you even do that? Is that even in the rules? He goes, I don't know, but I'm doing it.

So there it was, very short lived tenure as key club president, but I got it on the resume, I got it on my college things, it was in the yearbook, I was the president of key club in high school. But really, was I? No.

I was just doing what I wanted out, getting out of it. I was not actually engaged. There was no intentionality in the mission or the purpose or anything. I wasn't growing, I wasn't really being a leader. Well, what we need to close this this series out is I we need it's a little bit of a challenge tonight.

Because you need to ask yourself, if you say I'm a follower of Jesus, you're gonna have to do some self evaluation as we talk about what we're gonna talk about tonight. And that is this. We go live intentionally. If we're a follower of Christ, if you're a part of it, you will live your faith with intentionality.

And Jesus made it really clear what that intentionality is supposed to be. What we're supposed to be about, what the mission is supposed to be. And so I hope you'll ask yourself, am I doing this? Do I even wanna do this? Or do I come to church like I went to Key Club to become president?

There's something I want out of it, and I have no intention of actually being a part of what I'm supposed to be a part of. I have no intentionality of doing it. Because if that's true, you almost seem to ask yourself, am I really a Christian? Do I even believe in Jesus?

Because Jesus was very clear in what the mission was, how we were supposed to go,

and he says it in Matthew 28. In Matthew 28, this is, you know, he's died. He's resurrected. He's now met with his disciples, and it's his last moment of talking to him before he ascends into heaven and sends them the holy spirit.

And it says here and starting in verse 16 of Matthew 28, it says this, then the 11 disciples left for Galilee going to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him. This is the craziest part. But some of them doubted.

Man, they've seen everything they've seen, and they're still not trusting Jesus. They're still doubting. And that's where I think a lot of you is what we're gonna talk about today. You still doubt. You still doubt God's love, you still doubt his mission for you, you still doubt, I don't know what it is, but you're holding back. I bet it was I bet it was Thomas.

Doubting Thomas is still doubting, I bet. But anyways, he's doubting, but then Jesus came and he told his disciples this, He says, I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go

and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you, and be sure of this, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

So Jesus' last words were, I'm giving you a mission. Here's where you're gonna go. Here's the intention. This is the purpose of your life. We all have to have jobs. We have relationships. We raise families. That's the bonus part of it, but that's not what our life our the mission he gave us. If you

are a follower of Jesus, our lives should be intentionally wrapped around this great commission. We are called to make other disciples. We're not called to just go to a church. We're not called to watch the pastor and tell him to go make disciples. Matter fact, the bible says the opposite. My job is to equip y'all to go.

I'm more like the drill sergeant. I'm more like at boot camp. I'm like, you're gonna get your act together, you're gonna get out there and you're gonna do this. You hear that? That's my job. My job is to throw punch you into going.

And and and so it says that we need to be intentional. We need to go make disciples. And what he says to make is if you read through that and look all through scripture, it's we need to go, show people to know, grow, and go. That's what we've been talking about. And the last thing is go. Is to go make disciples.

And if you if you look at this, look you at this this verse. I'm gonna put verse 19 back up. Or yeah. Go back to 19. There you go. What do you think the most important word is in here? That's what I would think too, especially because it's part of my big idea, But it's what we need to do,

but I think the reason we don't go is we actually miss the most important word. It's them.

If you don't understand it's about them, then you won't go. See, Key Club was about Kiwanis. Was about going to them, people serving others, reaching others. The church is about going to them. You see, we the church, we go to them so them can become we. That's the purpose of the church. That's the mission.

So it's kinda crazy when people like, well, know, we're talking about building buildings. How many people is enough? Why do we have to get you all you care about is this big, large you know what? Yes. You can be in a ministry and try to build people their money and make it all about you. You can.

But just because something gets larger doesn't mean it's wrong. You have a baby. What happens if your baby doesn't gain weight after the first few weeks, two months? What do they call that? Failure to thrive. There's something wrong with the baby. It's supposed to grow.

You see the reason we care about numbers is because each number is a person. Each number represents them. We are to go to them so them can become we.

That's what we're supposed to be. I was just the way we intentionally, but we can't make it about us. We make it like I did with Key Club. You're like, I wanna be in a church that just preaches the word. I don't care about the numbers. Well, if you're preaching the word, then you should care about the numbers. God cared about numbers. What did he who did he love? For God so loved

There you go. And so we should care. I believe that when we say, I am not about that, you keep there, you just push it, it's it's it's it's it's it's a deflection because you as a follower of Christ do not wanna be intentional about what God wants you to do.

And if that's you, you need to ask yourself, what is wrong with my understanding of God's love for me? What is wrong? Why am I sitting on the mountain hearing Jesus tell me this and yet I'm still doubting? Has he not came and died for you? Exactly. Didn't he resurrect to give us life? Didn't he create us?

Shouldn't we trust that what he says we should be doing with our life is gonna be the greatest thing we ever do with our life? We should be very intentional

with our faith, and we need to go be intentional. So what does that look like? Well, I wanna give you this list here. The four t's of intentionality because it's exactly what all the scripture talks about. It's what God has given us. There's four things we have that we're supposed to be intentional about and use to go make disciples.

And the first one is our testimony.

Our testimony. Now there's two things to that. It's the testimony of who God is. We're supposed to go proclaim Christ. That's what it says.

And it says, how will people come to Christ if someone doesn't preach? How can someone preach if someone doesn't go? If someone is in sent and goes. We are supposed to share the faith. It's not just me. We are all to be proclaimers of the testimony of Christ. And the best way we do it is with our own story.

See, that's how you do it different than I do. You have your story, but in your life, your story not only gives you how you know Christ, but also your story puts people around you. You have a force fear of influence. You you realize the people around your family, your coworkers, your neighbors, that is your mission field.

Our goal is to pray and try to lead them to Jesus. So the question there is, if you've been a Christian for more than a hot minute, have you ever led anyone to Jesus? Let's back off. Have you ever even tried?

And if the answer is no, you are ignoring what God asked you to do with your life.

You're just ignoring it. And if you come to church every week and say I like deep teaching, way to get in word and you won't do that, you're playing a weird game. You're trying to build a resume for college. We're

called to be about that. And you know what the cool thing is? What is more powerful? I I the number one especially guys. The number one thing when you when they study guys mental health and a lot of things is,

especially the younger generation where it's been hard with jobs and economy and all that stuff is most men struggle with this idea of this. Does my life have any real meaning and purpose? What has more meaning and purpose than the fact that if I tell someone about Jesus and they come to know him,

that just saved their entire eternity.

An entire eternity has been changed. That's what you long for. That's what God built us to long for. But why do we doubt? The next two kinda go hand in hand. They're they're time and talent. The time and talent. God has given us so much time, and he's given us these talents.

Gifts. Spiritual gifts. The Bible says if you're a believer, you've been given at least one supernaturally empowered gift from the Holy Spirit that's to be used in serving your church body and reaching other people for Christ. Do you know that?

And if you've been in church for more than a hot minute, do you know what yours are? And if the answer is still no, then why have you been coming to church? That's the mission. That's the excitement thing. Do you realize you have a present, a gift that God is giving that he empowers you to specifically transform

the body of Christ to use? What are you spending your time doing? If you're a Christian, you should serve. Let me put it another way. That sounds like it's a guilt trip. If we're a Christian, we get to serve. We get to take a gift and God allows us to be a part of transforming the world. He could have done it

on his own without us, but he invited us to be a part of it. And so we need to do that. We need to take the time and get involved and find out our gifts and use them and use them to use our testimony and our story to testify who Jesus is. To point people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus.

And the final one is the one I think we struggle with the most. I think that people tend to start doing this, but this is often the last one that people will get right. Treasure. The resources you've been given. In our culture, we call it money.

You should be intentionally investing that in the kingdom. And and and that's what God asked us to do. All over scripture. All over scripture. We're we're challenged to do that. And I think the reason we struggle with I'm gonna mainly focus on this one.

But we we we we we struggle with with a lot of this, but especially this one because I believe there's two lies

that are so prevalent in our culture that the people that call themselves Christians are buying into it in droves. It's why we have this whole younger generation of people that say they wanna say they're a Christian, they say I'm I'm spiritual. I my way is Jesus, but I'm believing this. But they believe these two lies that are flat out from the pit of hell. And I think they make us ineffective at Jesus' words to say, go make disciples.

And here they are. Throw them up here. I can love Jesus without committing to a church. You can't because Jesus says the church is the bride of Christ.

It's the body of Christ. We are called to serve as a part of that body. This whole idea of spiritual gifts, see, each one of us has a thing that's a part of that body. We're like one of the organs. We're with the hands, the feet, the eyes,

you know, all of these things. And and it says we're called to to invest and be a part of that. All through scripture. So anyone who says, I love Jesus, but I don't think I need to be committed to a church. And usually we say it like, I'm not about organized religion. So what are you about? Disorganized religion?

If we're called the body, what's a disorganized body? Dead. It's a dismembered body. If you walk up and see a dismembered body, you're like a crime was committed. You weren't like, now that's the way it should be.

It's a lie. It's a distractionary lie to make us feel good about feel spiritual, feel self righteous, feel like we're doing something spiritual that makes us feel good, but let's flat out ignore what God asked us to do.

And you miss out on the blessing. You miss out on the joy. You miss out on everything it was meant to be. And then a second lie is so where some of us in this room are, I can commit to a church without intentionally investing in it. No. You're not. You might be attending a church, but you're not a part of a church.

You're just coming. You're just showing up.

Two lies that will keep us from really, really growing in maturity in Christ and enjoying and experiencing the life, true life as he intended it, as he really meant it. And that's why money is so critical. Because I believe in our culture, money is the number one replacement of God.

And that's why we doubt the most. That's the last thing we give. That's the first thing we worry about. Because we worry about us and how we're gonna be taken care of. But here's the problem. Money does something with our hearts. It really does. Like, I wanna read Matthew six twenty one

to us. Matthew say, here we go. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be. Now read that again. Wherever your treasure is, there is the desire of your heart will also be. How many of you always hear that in your head, wherever your heart is, that's where your treasure will be?

That's not what Jesus said. Most things in our life do work that way.

Where our heart is, that's where our our time goes. Where our heart is, there's a there's something in a power about money that the bible talks about. That's why Jesus talked about wealth like 25% of his words were about what we do with money and wealth because we try to replace God. It's the number one idol we have in our culture. And and the reason is because there's a power of it that it will direct your heart.

What you do with your money actually leads your heart somewhere. And and and so the problem is I have to get very intentional and make a choice about what I'm gonna do with my money. Am I gonna choose to do what God asked me to do and trust him and sacrificially give or am I not?

The problem is we like to say, it's my heart is the the Lord says that be a cheerful giver and be that. It's like he didn't say don't give until you're cheerful. He says, when you learn to give, you'll become cheerful.

You know, to say that I gotta feel it before I do it, that's exactly like saying, you know what? I'm gonna go to the gym after I get in shape.

That's exactly what we're doing. I'm not going in there till I'm in shape, man. You're not gonna get in shape till you start working out. Your finances will never make sense till you start doing them the way God said.

You'll never experience the blessing and the joy on the other side when you get to see what God does with that giving.

What he does with what you sacrificially gave, whether it's a million dollars or you're the widow's mite. What God does with it is so much more than you would ever do with it. And it's not just about what he does with it, it's about what that does to us.

You see, the campaign we're doing is that God could just like we could go out here like he did manna.

And then we'll bring out into the desert part of our land we still have, and he can make thousand dollar bills just be popping up out of the ground every day. Then they burn up if you don't use them by evening, you know. And

and he could do that, but for whatever reason, he invited us to be a part of giving to what he's doing. Why? It's a blessing, but there's something in us giving that isn't just about them. It's not just fundraising. It's faith raising.

There's something about the fear it takes away. Something about what it does in us, it builds us in maturity. It grows us. So giving to a campaign, committing to tithe at your church does something in you. So this is not something that the church just wants from you. It's what I want for us. I want it for them who we're supposed to go reach, and I want it for us for what it does to us.

You don't believe me? Let me read you a few verses out of first Timothy chapter six. Timothy, young pastor, pastor in Ephesus, Paul was writing to him. Second Timothy was the last thing he ever wrote before he was killed. So he's an older guy, been been this leader, mentor to Timothy, and he starts talking about the issues in his church and how he needs to lead these people to be more like Christ. And and I'm just gonna pull two parts because there's a lot in between too much to teach at once. But he starts talking about where real wealth is. Real wealth is found in knowing, growing, going. It's in trusting God. It's in that relationship. It's in being on mission. It's being intentional.

And he says this in in starting in verse nine, chapter six verse nine. But people who long to be rich

fall into temptation are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. You think, yeah. That's all the people out there that aren't Christians. He's talking about people in his church.

For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. He didn't say money's the root. He says the love of it is the root. And some people craving money have wandered from the true faith, wandered for the he's talking about church people. They've wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

See, need to keep this because I need, I need, I can't give because you're really worried about what you're gonna lose, and really what you gain is it's never gonna work out the way you thought it was. You're never gonna find what you're looking for down that road. And so then he finished it when you jump down to verse

oh, yeah. Verse eleven first. But you, Timothy, are a man of God, so run from all these evil things. Pursue righteousness and a godly life along with faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. And then he comes back to the money thing in verse 17.

When he when he's now, he's saying, here's what you need to do with your people. Teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and to trust in their money. Now here, rich in this world. A lot of you just shut that. The law's not applied to me because I'm not rich in this world.

Can I tell you something? If you're the poorest person in this room, you're on welfare. What you get from welfare in The United States puts you in the top 60% of wealth in the whole world? Did you know that? Our poorest people in The United States are still wealthier than most of the world.

Now get this, Queen Tucky out here, which should be called Beverly Creek. You got Paradise Valley. The only people who live there are the Arizona Cardinals, the the Diamondbacks, the Suns, the owners, and and and all that. That's Paradise Valley is a small that's the highest median income in in the valley, in the state.

You know what city is number two? Queen Creek, Arizona. Number two, it's higher than Scottsdale and Chandler and Gilbert. So guys, we are the wealthy people he's talking about. Get this, in a newer study, even more than just overall money, because you can look at places in like California and Massachusetts,

where there's places that make a lot more median income, they did a study on what community has the most expendable income, because that's better determinant of how much extra money you have because you might live in a place you don't make quite as much, but it's cheaper to live there.

Number one part of the country for expendable income, Southeast Valley Of Phoenix. Number one. So if we don't give, if we say I don't make enough to give, then who's giving? You and me are the people that are rich in this world.

And we have got to get our act together and realize it's not that I don't have enough money to give, it's that I'm choosing to hoard it and spend it on what I wanna spend it on and not be intentional about what God's asking me to do with it. And when you do it, the sorrow is

doing that is like eating junk food. You're still hungry, you're getting fat, but you want more. It never gets better. You're never gonna get to that point that it's enough. Howard Hughes, billionaire, was asked, you got a billion dollars, how much is enough? You know what he always said? Just a little bit more.

So you say, I'll give when I get to this point. I'll give it no, you won't. You won't. We have to be intentional. See, don't be proud. Don't trust in that, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment. You don't understand

and trust him richly giving you if you don't give. You miss the blessing. You miss the blessing of what it accomplishes, and you you miss the blessing of being relaxed.

You see giving is where you actually find content.

And we're intentional about the mission. It's faith raising not just fundraising. Because we go to them so them becomes we and we grow as we give. We grow ourselves. We grow. That's why it's so important. That's why it's so critical. We need to be unified on this. We need to be the body of Christ. You know in in in John

chapter 17 verse 20 to 23, I just wanna read it really fast.

Jesus, this is the last thing. He's praying over his disciples,

and this is one of my most powerful passages in scripture because he starts praying and then he starts praying for you and I. Those of us that know Christ now, he says I'm not just praying for those who have seen me, I'm praying for all those who will come to know me that come after this time.

Literally before Jesus went to the cross, he prayed for you and me. And I think since he's God, no, but this is I think he saw our faces. And this is what he prayed. I'm praying not only for these disciples, but also for all who ever believe in me through their message,

through their men. How are they gonna come to believe? Through the message of other disciples. People that go intentionally. He says, I pray that they will all be one just as you and I are one. As you are in me, father, I am in you, and may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.

I have given them the glory you gave me so they may be as one as we are one. I am in them and you're in me. May they experience such a perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. How many times do you say one in unity and love?

We need to commit to a church. We need to be intentional in the commitment. And we really need to let our money join as well because he talks about the wealth. And then we need to go share the message of Christ and show the world the love of Christ by loving one another and being unified in that mission.

That's what we need to be because that's what Jesus called us to do and that's even what he prayed over us. There is one recorded prayer of Jesus literally praying for us and that's what he said. So why are you still sitting on the hillside doubting? Like doubting Thomas, whoever it was.

It's an opportunity. It's not an oppression. It's a chance to be the church. We are rock point. And you know what? Let me share a little bit. I wanted to show like, what does our money go to?

What happens? What are some of those blessings? Because I realized our church has taken on a little bit of my personality and our team has and a lot of you volunteers have. We are go getters. We just go get it. We go after the mission and then we're like, yay. And then we move on to the next mission. And half the time we don't even say yay. We take a hill and we go, there's another hill we need to This then we got up here. Oh, we can see another hill. Let's go take that one. And we don't stop and celebrate. We'll celebrate a few things. So on Wednesday afternoon, just I popped my head into a meeting of some leaders that kinda had a lot of ministries back. And I go, guys, can you me a favor? Can you just spend twenty minutes? Can you just off the top of your head, rattle off some yay gods and some some victories and some things that have happened because people give and we have a church and the fact that we have buildings, we have a budget, and we have volunteers. It was those three things. We have lots of volunteers, people that are willing to be intentionally be involved, but they can't do that without we have those facilities and we have the budget to do these ministries.

And within a few hours, I had to cut it off. I said, stop sending eight pages. And then I tried to share all these last service and we went way too long. So I was gonna share all of them again. Let me summarize

some of these just to know what happens with with with this, with our giving, when we commit to this, how God uses it, and how it changes us, and the opportunity we have. So here's just a few of them. And and and here's the thing. Every team that answered,

part of the pages, they'd have a whole page. Every one of them said, our volunteer base has grown. People have committed. God has moved in mighty ways. That's standard all across the board. But here's some of the specific ones. Our outreach team, which is local outreach.

We do this thing called Angel Tree where we collect toys for kids that their parents are in prison. They've collected 1,500 toys this year. 125 families were a part of the community Christmas event. They've added four local businesses that are a partner to it. 500 toys were given to a local nonprofits,

group homes, and agencies because we had an overabundance. We took care of every kid that needed Christmas and then gave extras away. Amen to that. Food drive, 800 bags of food was collected by us. That was $27,000 in groceries, or in other words, 240 families had food for a whole month.

Back try backpack drive, where we help kids that don't have supplies and all that. We collected 640 full backpacks, which is over $25,000 in supplies,

and we had a 190 full backpacks donated to a local resource center in schools because we gave every kid that showed up at the event one, and then we gave a 190 to help a a local agency go, hey. Here's some extras for you. So if you have a need.

A 175 foster group home kids received new shoes and clothes as a part of our partnership with the purpose movement. So it's a 105 kids that needed clothes and food. Foster adopt. I don't know if you know about Arizona, but Arizona is the number one in the country for a foster crisis foster care crisis.

And they said, basically, they said they did a study that said if every bible believing church in The United States just had two families that would would do foster care, there wouldn't be a crisis of foster care in The United States. So think about it. You only need two per church.

We've had in this year 31 new families to come to the support group network. 10 new families now became licensed to do foster care. That's that's like we've done five times what a church would need to do this year. Our medical dental clinic had 75 appointments, which was $35,000 in free dental services.

13 doctors and dentists at Rock Point volunteered their time to do that. Thank you, docs. Human trafficking, which is a huge issue, and we've been going after it. We we are part of the thing where we have a a hotline for the voice of heart, hope, that we help. Through Rock Point, they had a 121 hotline calls.

And through this rescue America partnership, over 100 survivor exits, meaning 100 people, we got them out of sex trafficking. That's what our time and our money helps do.

And out of that, this was just local. We're just giving. We're just we're not even trying to get them to come to church. But out of that, just so far this year, 21 new families started coming to Rock Point on campus because of it. Some of them, they came to Christ. Some of were like, they saw what we're doing, and they said, I gotta go to that church.

Adult ministries. They they this like the they've had, over 950 people are in classes, over a thousand home groups. It it's crazy how much is going on around here. And men's ministries has doubled in size just in the last few months. It's going nuts, and usually the guys are lagging seriously

behind the women, which I think they still are a little bit behind because the women just keep going, but anyways. Incredible stories. Matter of fact, in this class, I experienced this firsthand. Like, why do we need more room?

Pastor Daniel helps lead part of his job when he, you know, is to help gather all of our young communicators and we do workshops and we grow and we do stuff. So we'll do a run. Well, we just started another group of classes with about 20 of us, 20 of the communicators.

And and I show up. It's 08:30 in the morning was when we did it on Wednesday morning. 08:30 in the morning. And we had to cram into the little green room back here, the little room where the band goes, which has a smaller TV. We couldn't get any of the real classrooms anywhere on the campus. And I said, why are we in here? And he goes, well, because this was the only room available.

I go at 08:30AM on a Wednesday.

You realize I've been trying to move people off Sunday and a lot of you came? Do you realize we had to close the nursery in this service and not because of lack of teachers? It was over full.

That's why if you hear a baby crying around here, we're gonna just be patient because they didn't have a place to stick there was no room in the inn. And guess what? All of you that moved, Sunday is still just as full. Filled right back up. Filled right back up.

Youth Outreach and Castile Park. We have an outreach, Youth Outreach, and we partner with the school across the street. We do a thing called a seminary class.

They can come over and have a bible class so you can go to that school and it's like you're going to a Christian school. They can sign up for it through the school and come over. They do two classes a day. There's over 75 students that come to our seminary class right now. And we yep. We have after school hangout,

which if you ever come over here at the coffee shop, do not hang out from Monday to Friday from 02:25 to four because over 400 students just come over here and destroy the place. They're like a plague of locusts, but it's awesome.

And we've added families to the church because of that, and it's just we just love this community. We partner. We support all the the sports over there. Matter of fact, when we are building our office back here, which by the way, we built for cash, first building we ever just because of your guys' giving, we're able to just not even borrow any money. Just built it.

But why our contractors,

they they we love them. They love us. We said, hey. If we buy the supplies, we found out that over there, the sports fields, they didn't have a they never were able to finish the fences around their bullpen for the baseball field and the girls softball, and they just didn't have the budget money. And we went to our contractors, and they were willing to go in with us because they love us. They're like, hey, we'll buy the stuff. Will you send your guys over to put it over? They go, yeah. So we did. So we finished their field for them. We

host the homecoming every year,

which gives them a safe, affordable place. And our our security and safety team works with theirs and keeps it an awesome safe place to to be. We buy the staff, all two forty staff people over there once a quarter, we feed them lunch and go over and just, hey. And then our our guy that oversees us, Dale, actually is over there and he actually got them all together and he's, hey, is if anyone needs prayer, just talk to me. And he had tons of people come up and they he prayed for a bunch of teachers.

And so that's amazing. Yeah.

There's me more on there. Worship team, an entire page, but I'm only gonna read because there's so much about the the team growing, the training, the fact that other churches come, and now we've been helping a bunch of other churches train them on how to do stuff because they they watch what we're doing. So we're drawing and we're not we're not just us. We're equipping other bodies of Christ. But the thing I wanted to point out here is because all these big numbers also represent individual numbers. And they said one of the things he put on here was they have a very committed worship leader, Peter, who commutes. You know where he commutes from?

Canada. He lives in Canada. He's trying to get a visa delivered full time, but he fly down and they consider this their church. So you think, well, I can't serve, it's I live far away, I'm busy. He comes from Canada.

Oh, go on. The youth ministry. Here's just some of the things in our youth ministry. Middle school, 106 middle schoolers serving somewhere in the church. 106 of them serve. People say this next generation doesn't care about anything. Yeah. They do. 62 middle schoolers were baptized already this year. Yep.

Currently, they did a study. They found out as far as we know, a single campus church, not counting the totals from churches that have, like, 12 different campuses, but even at those churches, the largest single campus middle school ministry in The United States is the Rock Points. And that's because you guys give, you serve,

we have an awesome staff because we can afford to have awesome staff. High school, they've had 50 p 50 students come to Christ this year. 92 rededicate

their lives. They took over 200 to camp. They've had 41 baptized already this year. They have 311 signed up for small group, community group. Matter of fact, if you add up middle school, high school, and preteen, there's over 800 youth that are in a small group. So remember when talked about getting community? You guys better keep up with with your kids.

Young adults, there has not been a week where there isn't someone new. It's growing all the time. It's one of the largest in the valley and in the country. And they said this. This is this is the cool part. Not just the total numbers. It's about the individual stories in those numbers. They said they keep they're the one of the chief offenders of when they try to figure out how many people we've baptized. We think it's somewhere between five and six hundred because there's so many unauthorized. They never get it recorded because that's what they do. They just do it, which I'd rather them just do it than us have the numbers.

But they they routinely have someone come to Christ, and they'll just go out there and pull the thing out and start baptizing. They go, every time one person says they wanna get baptized, five more volunteer every single time.

Our guest services, our connect the New Here team, the people just welcome people and all that. I thought this was crazy. We've had, over 1,200 new families. That's about 3,000 new people have showed up this year.

Yeah. There's all currently between five over 500 people baptized. But the story I loved was it's a simple story about what happened with an interaction with a volunteer. This just happened, like, I think last week. It was on a Sunday. A young man was sitting outside.

The a volunteer saw, said felt very convicted, went and talked to him, realized he was an atheist, but he had a near death experience, didn't know what else to do. He ended up showing up here, he wasn't even going inside. And after they talked to him for a while, he accepted Christ and they baptized him.

Our safety and security team, you don't even think about that. They are the point people. You know how many stories we have of because they say ministry first, safety, they keep us very safe. They know what to do. They're all very well trained professionals, but they have a heart for Jesus. When they see someone acting weird, they first approach them with a ministry mindset,

thinking maybe they're just struggling. You know how many times they've led someone to Christ or pointed them to celebrate recovery or got them into help? So many times. Our communications team told me that that we have people watching on our YouTube channel and our podcast from pretty much every country in the world.

Every country in I know a couple. There's one family guy got ahold of me. He lives in Siberia. Him and his family, there's no church. And he says, Rock Point's my church. So hello, Ivan. And there you go.

Another group, I know of at least one, there was two, but in in New Zealand, they're off in the middle of nowhere.

And there's a group of about 10 that they gather together, they watch our service, they use our IO questions, and they do kind of a small group together, then they eat together. That's their church, Rock Point.

We are currently, myself and our team, our lead team of different guys are coaching six different church plants right now, new churches. One of them is in Lehi, Utah. I got to know this guy a few years ago, and, they're booming. They they we helped them get into their first building.

Matter of fact, they they got a chance to move. It was the old, jail, and they just need a little bit of money. And he's like, how do you even do this? I go, what do need? He goes, we we got the lease. We can do that, but I need, like, $7,080,000

to get some equipment. And I talked. I go, here's how you can challenge your people, man. Just here's the art of the throat punch. You know? Just here's what you need to do. And I go, and if you really wanna motivate them, we have a thing that we called opportunities. Because of your giving, we keep a chunk of money in our budget of missions that isn't targeted for anything. And this was late in the year. We had 20,000 left in it. So I said, and here's the other way motive him. Tell him a church, a pastor that's been pouring in I'd never even met him face to face. We'd only talk. And I go, tell him a pastor that you've never met before from a church that's never seen you guys before is throwing in 20 of that 80,000.

They raised a 120,000. So I asked for the 20,000 back. No. No.

It cost actually cost more than the 80. You always underestimate those things anyways. Our church, Christ Culture, that we've hosted and, know, that they needed a relaunch and we read they're now strong enough and big enough and going well, if they're moving out in four months, they're gonna get out of our basement and go get their own place.

We have two church planting residents. You're gonna get to know them as we go. They're gonna go plant a daughter church for us out here in the Superstition Vistas area, just east of Eastmark out there. And and they've been they've been here for about five, six months. They're learning. They're growing. You'll hear more about them, and they're getting ready to go. They got like thirty, forty already in a core group, and and they're getting ready to launch, and we've helped support and coach them. And that's because of your guys' faithfulness.

And that's awesome. Amen? Amen.

We have Malanga, who I've talked about. The guy I was in Zambia with, and and and and and he's now got to seven church plants. We've helped him plant two in just the last year, and and they're cranking out there. They're they're they're just they're just reaching people for Jesus left and right. That's us. We we give to that, and that's where some of our giving goes. Amen? Amen.

Alright. Let's keep going. I'm gotta hurry up here. I'm running out of time. This is this is the reduced version, by the way. Our facilities team, they wrote like they just they they they one of the things they do that's really cool is they'll take on community service people.

But a lot of people do that just for free work. They do it as a ministry. So they recently had a guy named Sean who, they ended up baptizing him, and now he's on staff. And

here's a powerful one, our care team. This past spring, there was a man coming that was very lost, very depressed, very disconnected, didn't even know if God was there, but he came and he gave a message to our care team because he heard that this place cared about people. You know what his message was?

Here's my family's information. I'm going to go kill myself. Will you take care of them? That's what he said. He was very upset. So they brought in our care pastor, Dennis. They also called the police because they go, is this guy really that's what you should do in this scenario. Is this guy really going to go kill himself?

But within several minutes, a bunch of the men in our church, volunteers, just showed up, started praying to him, talking to him, encouraging him. He agreed to go back to the prayer room. The police officers went back there too.

And they prayed with him as well. Our police officers did. How cool is that? Thanks for protecting and serving all you police officers out there.

He has since put his faith in Christ, is involved in our men's ministry, and has literally been bringing friends to Rock Point now.

Another cool thing about the police thing is we hosted because we have this big of a facility. Gilbert has its own police academy now. We just hosted and they loved it so much and felt so loved that they've asked if we can keep doing that. Hosted their graduation, the police academy graduation. So we served our community.

Alright. Some of our kids teams. Let me hurry. I'm I'm running out of time here. Some of the kids general wins. First, we averaged in August $900 just under a thousand kids per week,

and it's getting bigger and that's why we're closing classes down. We need room. The weekend attendance has grown to just the general kids by 20%. And a 100 and we had a hundred and forty five first time kids just in August alone.

In our preschool, one of the wins is these are a ton in here, is is the preschool attendance has increased by over 40% in the last year. K through three, we had over 280 kids attend the best week ever.

And the new families whose kids had a hard time separating from parents are now sharing how excited their kids are to come to church. That's why we wanna build even a better environment. We want kids to be like we want it to be awesome for the parents. They say my kids wanna be in there. So it makes it easier for you,

but it's awesome for them. Pre teen. Over 200 pre teens went to summer camp. The average weekend attends of pre teens is a 161. That's just fourth and fifth graders every week. And then here's the one that gets me, special needs.

We just saw this need and we went for it. We're trying to expand and make room for it right now. It's already out of room. And they got a whole list here of just how kids are being loved and how it's going so well, but they need more room. But here's the thing that got me.

Parents are reporting they're hearing their children talk about God and his love during their everyday routines at home. It

gets better. Parents report that their children, either verbal or not, even the nonverbal, are expressing their excitement and desire to go to church and will run-in without looking back or feeling anxious about separating. So the kids that can't even be verbal that you could tell they get excited when they show up.

Parents continuously express their heartfelt gratitude for this ministry and the meaningful impact it has had on their family. They said another thing. Individuals that are nonverbal have recently been engaging in worship by standing up, vocalizing. They can't talk but they're making sound. Dapping, dancing, smiling,

jumping up and down while worshiping Jesus.

Why wouldn't you want to be a part of that?

Just walk around this campus and see what God is doing And then ask yourself, what am I spending my time and money on?

You see, all of this happens because once you saw the sense, it's very volunteer driven.

But who needs to herd those cats? We have an incredible staff and we can do that because you give.

We also have the buildings because we give. So every one of you that serves here that gives, every one of these victories is a victory for you as well. God lets us all be a part of this, and this was just twenty minutes on Wednesday afternoon,

and I couldn't even share it all. People kept trying to give me more and more as afterwards. Oh, wait. What about this? What about this? I could stop.

But you know what I realized? Last service, I just moved past it because I did exactly what I said we do. We have a wind, then we just move past. Can we just say thank you, Jesus, for just a sec right now for all that?

And that is why you were given this pledge card.

We are already two years behind. We're already out of room.

We say we've to go to them so them can become we. Them is actually showing up here. It's the fish are jumping in the boat. We need a bigger boat.

That's why I'm gonna ask you to make this pledge. Now there's a way you can use the old fashioned way. There's also You can go to the website here. Here's where the rubber meets it. Here's where I'm gonna ask you to be very intentional. I'm asking every one of us to make a two year commitment, financial commitment,

above and beyond your regular giving. I can't believe I have to say that. If you just transfer the money, we'd be in trouble. Of what can I give over the next two years and I would like you to have that committed by October 1, and what I mean by committed is start actually funding it?

And anything you can give up front, first fruits, we got about 300,000 that's already come in, first fruits, Because that's what helps us pay for the design of the building. Most before we can even start building anything, we gotta design it. And so while we're designing it, we get money up front. We can do that as we raise more of the money, and then the last thing we do is borrow.

Just the difference. I would like to raise all the money by the time we build the building. Here's the thing. If everybody that says they come to this church gave sacrificially, we would have all the money. I would love love to see that happen, but it means every one of us is going to have to be intentional.

So I'm going to encourage you to do that, to get very intentional. Let me just close with this. My heart of what I've learned about the power of what it means to give. The power of what it means and what it does with our relationship with our heavenly father.

What it does for us. What it does for the people that we give through. The importance of it. As I thought about this, story in my life that always makes me understand what God's asking us to do and the beauty of it, it goes back to when I was playing baseball as a kid. My dad played professional baseball.

Taught me how to play. This is actually one of my son's first gloves. He was a lefty. I started off as a lefty. I'm actually ambidextrous, means I eat with both hands. But

I was a lefty. I remember my dad got me I got a brand new glove, expensive glove. It was the most expensive thing I owned. The year where I was going into where you actually pitch now, it's not just coach pitch.

And so I was out practicing to be a pitcher like my dad, lefty like him. And I'm throwing, and as we're throwing, my dad just says, let it loose. Just let me see a good fastball. I kept throwing it harder and as hard as I could, he goes, hey, can you throw it any harder? Like you just wanted to know. And I was like, yeah. And he goes, well then do it. I go, okay. I took the glove off my left hand.

And I threw it right handed. And I threw it a lot harder. And he goes, get in the car. Now, you know, I'm probably getting a new glove. Right? He's like, I'm gonna be a ready now. He goes, you're a right hander. You need to throw right handed. I'm like, okay. So I get in the car. I assume we're just gonna go get a glove.

Well, as we're driving, we don't go to the the the the store first. We we go to the poor part of town, to this this apartment complex. It's that's kinda the the poorest part of our town. I mean, that pulls up and he goes, hey. You know Adam on the team? I go, yeah. He's a lefty like you were.

And he goes, do you know that his family has hit hard times? Dad left, and the mom's trying to support him,

and he lives right there. He pointed at the door. He's been trying to help him out. He said, Have you seen his glove? His glove is falling apart. You know what I think you should do with your glove? The most expensive thing you own? And I didn't have a new glove yet. I think you should give it to Adam.

Really? He goes, what do you think that would do for him? I'm like, okay. Let's go, dad. He goes, no. No. No. No. I just want you to take it. I'm gonna stay here. You walk up and give it to him. So I took the glove, knocked on the door, Adam answers, his mom walks over. I'm like, turns out I'm a right hander.

So if you want it, I wanted to give you my new glove. He was like, really? I go, yeah. He's like, yeah. And he got super excited. And I was a kid, but I remember the I remember him being excited. You probably remember that. But I remember looking at his mom. She started crying.

It was a little confusing to me. I'm like, thought this is exciting. Why did I hurt her feelings? But then I saw her look past me. She saw my dad sitting in the car, and I could read her lips. She went, dang. She was crying. And I realized that all I did was give something.

And the reality is, you're like, well, your whose glove was it really? Who bought the glove? My dad. So you're like, well, you just gave your dad's glove away. Guess what? Guess what your money is? It's not yours.

None of it is. Like, but I did I did the work to get it. Yeah. Who gave you the ability to do that work? Who gave you the breath in your lungs to breathe to go to do that work? Who gave us everything including life itself?

Yeah. This was my dad's, but he gave it to me and it was something precious. But he says, I want you to give it away. And when I went and gave it, I just blessed two people and encouraged a mom and an whole family. Yeah. He got a glove, but they got an encouragement for life. And that wasn't even the best part.

I turned around. I was super excited about what I got to do. I forgot about giving up the most expensive thing I own. I forgot about the fact that my dad never said anything about getting a new glove. I had no idea. There was no promise. I think in my heart, I kind of assumed. I trusted my father. I knew that he wasn't gonna make me play bare handed.

I didn't doubt my father, so I had no problem giving up the one thing I had. And the best part was when I walked back to my car.

One of my favorite memories of my death is the smile on his face.

That is how I imagine Jesus looking at us. That when we are intentional and faithful to hear him say, well done, good and faithful servant. That's what I want in my life. And you know what? Giving up my glove. My father gave me a new glove. I also found the blessing of being right handed.

Never would have known if I didn't get rid of the glove. What are you missing out on?

Because you won't take the glove off. You keep it. That's what I want for all of us is the blessing. Because that's what it means to be the church. Father God, just thank you, Lord. I thank you for how you do love us. I thank you how you give so we can give. When we give, it is such a blessing.

So I pray for anyone in this room that's struggling with this understanding, that is fearful that maybe they're still sitting on that hillside like those disciples And there's some kind of doubt or fear in them. Lord, give them courage. Give them courage. May we truly be the church. May we go and live intentionally

around the purpose you died to give us. I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus, amen. Amen. Love you guys. Thanks for joining us online this weekend. Let us know if we can help you in any way. Make sure to follow us on social media and connect with us on rockpoint.io for prayer and everything happening here at Rock Point.