Jesus For Messiah | Week 6 | Sermon

And that's really what Jesus is talking to to his disciples today in in this this message here in chapter 25 of Matthew. You see, he's in this all of it discourse. He's only got a little time left where he's arrested and tried and and dies and then resurrects,

and now he's not arguing with the religious leaders. He's he's just with his disciples now. And so these are some key moments we can learn from of what he's trying to teach them, where he's trying to guide them. And he talks about don't miss investing in the wrong thing.

Don't miss out by doing that, but invest in the right thing. In other words, our big idea today is an invested life is an ideal life. Because there's three things we can do with our lives. Every one of us in this room is doing one of these three things. You're either wasting it, the bible calls that a fool,

or you're just spending it, which I would it would be like the typical person.

I'm just trying to grow up. I'm I'm I'm getting a job. I'm getting educated. I'm working hard. I'm I'm taking my money, and I'm buying stuff, and I wanna get the next stuff. I'm working my way up the ladder. I got this house. I'm gonna get a better house, then I'll get a better car, then I'll work along here. I'll get married. I'll have kids. I'll teach them to do the same thing.

And we think that's the good life. It might be good, it might go well for you, but it's not ideal. The invested life in what God has called us to be and invest in is what God says is the way to true happiness, to joy, to peace, to contentment, and to see the awesome thing of how God will use your life

to impact eternity in others. And so here we go. It's in Matthew 25. It starts in verse 14. It's called the parable of the three servants.

He just tells them a story. You might have heard if you grew up in church or knew older bibles, the parable of the talents. And what we're gonna see is in talent here, it doesn't use the word talent in here, but it does use the word talent. It's just the way we define it. Talent was a measurement

of money, but we'll see it means more than just that as we read this. But here we go. I just wanna read this and point out two principles that Jesus is kind of this passage lands that we have to embrace if we're gonna invest our life.

And he goes, verse 14, again, the kingdom of heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone. So this in this parable, God or even Jesus is the master, and those who follow him were the servants.

And so he entrusted them with what he was what they're supposed to do while he was gone. He gave five bags of silver to one, two bags of silver to another, and one bag of silver to the last, dividing it in proportion to their abilities. He then left on his trip.

The servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and earned five more. The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more. But the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master's money.

After a long time, their master returned from his trip and he called them to give an account

of how they had used his money. The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of silver came forward with five more, and he was actually excited. Master, you gave me five bags of silver to invest, I've earned five more. The master was full of praise. Well done, my good and faithful servant.

You have been faithful in handling the small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let's celebrate together.

The servant who had received the two bags of silver came forward and said, Master, you gave me two bags of silver to invest, and I have earned two more. The master said, Well done, my good and faithful servant. You've been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I'll give you many more responsibilities. Let's celebrate together.

Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, Master, I knew you were a harsh man, Harvesting crops you didn't plant and gathering crops you didn't cultivate. I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here's your money back. But the master replied, you wicked and lazy servant,

if you knew I had harvested crops I didn't plant and gathered crops I didn't cultivate, why didn't you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it. Then he ordered, take the money away from this servant and give it to the one with the 10 bags.

To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they will have will be taken away. Now throw this useless servant out into outer darkness,

where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. That's kinda harsh, that last verse. It kinda indicates maybe that guy never was in in the context of what he's trying to use this parable to say, is that guy might not even have been a believer at all. He's not really a follower of Jesus.

Because he's saying, if you said you believed in me and I gave you something and you never did what I asked you to do your whole life, you probably aren't really one of my children. In other words,

you just spent a life believing in. He said, I knew you had this power. I knew you could do things, and you got stuff where you never thought it would happen. I knew you had all this, but I was afraid because it was harsh, and I didn't wanna do it, so I buried it. And basically, he says, so you believe in him, but you just refuse to believe him.

That's really what Jesus is trying to tell his disciples, and that's what it still speaks to us today. We might come to church, we might say we're a follower of Jesus, but do you just believe in or do you believe? Because if you believe him, you will make a choice. You will decide to trust him.

That's what he's talking about here. We need to invest our life in what he's asked us to do, as we can see in this. There's just two principles, I think. There's two things from this passage, another scripture that says, if I don't embrace these two things, I'll never get to the joy on the other side.

I'll never get to the ideal life. And if you don't embrace these things, you will probably live as a very frustrated Christian and probably walk away. And what is the first one? It's I need to embrace this idea that everything I have really belongs to God.

That is an act of surrender. You need to come to the conclusion and realize that your stuff isn't yours. Your life isn't yours. It all is God's, and he's entrusted it to you. I need to do it. We all do. I'm like, you. You. If I do this, there's more fingers pointing back at me. So I'm included in this.

In other words, have you you might have surrendered to the love of Jesus. I believe you died on the cross for me. But have you surrendered to the fact that you don't own any of this stuff? We we need to surrender to this. What it's basically saying is, I need to understand and embrace that I am not an owner,

I'm a manager of what God has given me. And when you're a manager, you do things differently.

When you're a manager, you don't have to react in fear. When you're a manager, you know, but if you have an owner mentality, if you're if you're afraid, if if you have this, is we are to manage what God has given us, we don't own it. And if you have an ownership mentality, that's why you finalize it. That's why you go, oh, here he goes again. Why is Bill talking about what I do with my money and my stuff and my time and all that? And once again, we've just been going through Matthew.

It's not me being repetitive. It's Jesus being repetitive. And here he is, one of his last talks with his disciples, and he goes back to it again. All I know is if Jesus like think about it. If you're a parent, what are the things that you always keep what does it mean if you have to keep repeating something to your kids?

Does it mean they're doing a great job at it? Does it mean like, wow, they're fantastic. They got this down, or does it mean they're struggling with this, and I need to keep reminding them? Well, it's the same with God.

If he's repeating something over and over, guess what he knows? He knows that that's probably gonna be the biggest struggle that many of us have in following him. And we do. That is probably the biggest struggle, is we can believe in Jesus, but we don't believe him. The problem is if you have that mentality,

you're gonna react like the servant with the one bag servant did. He had one bag, so he's left holding the bag at the end of all this. The idea is this, look at how we reacted. Just think about it. You're harsh.

I know you can do great things that shouldn't be possible, but I was afraid.

He looked at God and saw the command as harsh. He was afraid. He he he didn't think he could do it, and then he made excuses for why he didn't do it,

And he missed out. And a matter of fact, I guarantee if you think like that, if you hear like, hey, God's gonna call us invest, invest. And what are we investing in? So if you understand, it's it's idea that that that God has given us some talents. The reason I say talents is in the Greek, it's

a word that means talent, and that's where we get the term in our English to be talent, and we think of it as just you're really good at something, but talent was originally a source of money, a bag of silver. Now it weighed 20, it weighed 75 pounds. That's a pretty big bag of silver. And it was about twenty years wages

for the average worker. So it's the median income, twenty years worth, he gave them to invest. In other words, it's kind of a king. I gave you a lifetime's worth. It's like implying, I gave you your entire lifetime's worth of what you're gonna make,

and are you gonna invest it in what I want you to invest it in? And some had more ability. They had more. Some were more, but but and then they just they invested it. And if we think like that one way, like, you're gonna be the person that's like, this is harsh to quit talking to me about money and time, but the talent doesn't just mean money. It does mean money.

But it also, it means more than that. Biblically, when we hear God talking about our talents and all this, it really means anything that God has entrusted to me because everything I have really is his. It's anything, and that includes my abilities, my resources, my opportunities.

In other words, what we say around here is to go live intentionally, is to invest. And live intentionally with what? We see scripturally there's four things that he's entrusted to us that we really, really, really need to steward and invest in the kingdom.

And that is our time serving, our talent using our spiritual gifts that God has given you. And if you do know Jesus, do you know the Bible says that you have at least one, at least one

supernaturally empowered by the Holy Spirit gift that was meant for you to serve your church and to share your faith with others? If you've been a Christian for very long, do you know what your spiritual gifts are? And are you engaged in ministry using them? Then there's treasure, our money. God talks about us giving.

He challenged us. Malachi, the book of Malachi even says, test me on this and see if I don't open the floodgates. He was talking to God's people because they said, we're serving God. We go. We believe in you. But they were cheating him on the tithe, the tenth.

And they asked, how are we cheating you? Because they were still bringing stuff. But he says they missed the point. They were doing two things wrong. It was supposed to be the first and the best.

To give to God in the way he wants us to give is you don't give after you've paid all your bills and see what got left over. That's not trusting God. The whole reason he asked us to give the point isn't the money we give, the point is the faith we show and the faith that it gives us because when we give first and best,

it actually teaches us that money doesn't need to control us because you see that God takes care of you.

And he says, you're cheating. He says, but test me on this and see if I don't open the floodgates of blessing. Now floodgates doesn't mean he's gonna make you rich. It means you're gonna get the blessing. Say, oh, wow. I was able to survive.

I I was able to do this. Because what the Israelites were doing is they're supposed to bring on unblemished lamb and the first fruits of their crop. But they were they're taking the last, the leftovers,

and the sickly animals. You know why? Because they said that animal's gonna die anyway, so it doesn't help. Give that to God. Giving last, they're gonna make I gotta make sure I have enough crop to take care of myself, then I'll give to God. That was the problem with their giving.

So even if you give a lot, but it's not first and best, it's not doing what God asked us to do. And here's the crazy thing is, secular studies have shown that there is only one thing that keeps us out of debt. Like, you know, we like to be materialistic.

They try they study people that were able to stay out of debt and how they were able to not get into debt again and and not be, like, just caught up in, like, I want I want I want. There was only one thing that worked. You know what it was? Giving more.

Generosity. And here's the weird thing. This was a secular study. I it was out of Northwestern for somewhere. They found that there is a magic number that actually ups the game, that when you get to this point and above,

you don't fear money anymore. You don't fear the control. You have more peace, more contentment. It doesn't matter your income level. It says you just start to not let it control you. You know what that number is? 10%. You think God asked us to do this because it's a gift for us?

But see, if you think God's harsh and you don't understand what he's saying, you freak out when he says the part that he says, like, how is this a blessing? And he says, well done, good and faithful son. Let's party. Let's party because I'm gonna give you more responsibilities. I'm like, I don't want a Costanza raise.

That's what like if you know Seinfeld, that was really funny. It's more responsibility, more thing, no more pay.

You see, if you think like that responsibly, that word for responsibly means I'm gonna give you more opportunities to be used and to see lives change and to be a part of what I'm doing. And I'm gonna give you more opportunity to know that I've taken care of you and you don't have to worry about those other things.

But it will never happen until you just surrender to the fact that your money's not yours, your time's not yours. It's not. But I did the job. I did the work. Well, who gave you life? Who gave you the ability to do that job? Who gives you the breath in your lungs? God. See, this type of faith, when it comes to investing,

as we say, choosing to live intentionally around my faith with all that God gave me, that's where you start to really experience God in your life in a way that is so real you don't carry all those stresses anymore. But many of us, get stuck like, but the problem is thinking about doing that is what's causing me the stress

because we're just seeing it wrong. God has given me talents. God expects me to use them. Matter of fact, Romans fourteen twelve says, so then each of us will give an account of himself to God. He's talking to

In this parable he says, we're gonna give an account. Well, thought I was a Christian. Didn't have to worry about my No. You don't have to worry about the to don't list. The the things, the sins that we do against but you better think about the to do list.

We we think that that not sinning is to not do the to don't list, but when it comes to this idea of serving, giving, you know, it says in James four seventeen that to know the right thing and not do it is sin.

And most of us, if you've been a believer very long and come to church, your sin is you just won't believe Jesus on these things. When we think God's more worried about the to don't list than the to do list, we think, well, that's just bonus.

I gotta stop doing these things, but I don't. It's optional to start doing these things. No. Same thing. Same sin. Once again, let's go back to the parenting thing. You got a kid. Which option would you prefer? A kid that makes their beds, brushes their teeth, talks respectfully to you,

and doesn't get tattoos, or in this culture agrees to get a tattoo, does all those,

but is still gonna live in your house because they've never learned how to be responsible and get a job and keep a job. They didn't care about school. They have no focus in life. So they're gonna live in your basement, and we don't even have a lot of basements, so they're gonna live on ground level with you. And

they're 27 years old, and they're clear clean. All those things you yelled at them about, they do their own laundry. They just will not get a direction. Would you rather have that or a kid that's a mess?

I'm always messy, a little bit tardy, sometimes fights with you a little bit, but actually figures life out and gets a job and moves out and is responsible. Which one do you choose? I got two daughters. They're probably gonna be mad that they hear this because they always never lie, but they destroy bathrooms.

I mean, they're adults. It could be clean. You walk back in there ten minutes later, I go, this is worse than a subway station's bathroom. I go, how did they do that so fast? And they can never never just not just terrible. Terrible. But you know what?

They both love the Lord. They are super responsible. They know what they're doing with their lives.

See, which one do you want for your kid?

Investing in the kingdom? Living intentionally?

That's what God wants for us. And some of us, we think we're great because I brushed my teeth today. I made my bed. I did the laundry. I'm dealing with that bad sin that I'm doing. But then when it comes to really believing him, the the type of faith that you then get to be a part of watching lives transformed,

I'm not gonna do that.

Why? Because you do know what he's saying here is God is gonna ask us this question. What did you do with what you were given?

You're gonna have to answer that question. So you might as well answer it right now and then make a plan. And the action plan is this, recognize your talents. Look at what God has given you, and then choose to respond to God's word and invest them as a manager, not an owner. That's what he's he's challenging us to do.

And when you do, you'll see the other side of it. The guy who been in our church, great great great guy, walked up to me after last night's service and and because he loves the Lord and he doesn't come to the 10AM service.

He was crying and said, I gotta tell you something. This is so true in my life and I'm learning it even more and more.

He he goes, I'd I'd signed up. When he when he challenged his servings, said, I hadn't served a lot. I go, you know what? I gotta you're right. And he started serving a while ago. And he started serving with this thing we have through our outreach called Rescue America, where they make calls to women that they know or you guys know what is. Calls to people that they know they got a lead that's probably they're being trafficked.

And most of the time they'll get ahold of a voicemail or something and it won't come out. Every now and then you get a person and you talk. What they try to guide him towards, here's the contact, here's what we can get you out of this. We can come and rescue you. And a lot times they don't.

And and he said the last month before he talked to a woman, says, I went well. I'm pretty sure she's she's gonna do something about it. But he wasn't gonna come this last time.

And he had all the reasons not go. He's like, but you know what? I made a commitment. It's not just a commitment. I get to do this. God has. He decided to act like it's it's not my it's not my time. It's God's time. He called me to this. I'm gonna go. So he dragged himself down there, and then they shared that the call he made,

the girl got rescued. So, hey. What if he didn't go? He wouldn't have heard the blessing. What if he didn't go the first time? What if he never served? You see, I open up with, hey, some idiots missed out on money. He would have missed out on the blessing that no, that is one life that has been rescued and has changed

forever. Wouldn't you want? Once you start experiencing that, all the other reasons go away. See, this isn't something God wants from you, it's something He died to give you. It's something he wants for you and me. That's what he wants for us. So why do we not get it?

Why do we struggle with it? And that's the second point is because

we struggle with the idea that I can't please God by playing it safe.

Well done, good and faithful servant, is you step out against the fears. You step out and you trust him. You step out in ways that go, this doesn't feel safe.

You gotta be not like Kodak. You gotta be able to say, but what's gonna happen to this? You gotta focus more on if the master is the one that gets crops where there's no crops, produces profit where there's no crop, what he's really saying is,

I don't know how I'm gonna live if I do that. Well, you're trusting the God who's it's his stuff anyways. It says, if you let go of this and invest it here, you are gonna be fine. And the more you do that, the less fear you have. I guarantee so many of us in this room that are believers, especially men,

your biggest problem that makes your faith not grow, you have a hard time in your marriage, is you refuse to trust God with your money. You just outright refuse.

And you're acting like an owner, and here's the real reason. You're gonna say, that's harsh. Why is Bill mad at me? Why is he yelling? I'm not yelling. I'm not yelling at anybody. I'm yelling for everybody. And I only know two ways to talk about things because I was raised by a war hero and a professional athlete. So

I only know how to do locker room halftime speech. Hey.

We're supposed to win this game. So get your head in the game and get out in the second half, and let's do what we're supposed to do. Or, hey. There's an enemy that doesn't want us to take that hill, and a lot of people are gonna die if we don't take that hill. So let's take the hill.

That's the only way not to talk. If you don't understand that type of talk, you think I'm angry. I'm not angry. I'm just saying, hey. Wake up, and let's win. Because that's what God died for, is so we can do this, and the blessing we get to do this. But why do we play it safe? Because fear.

Because of fear, that's why we bury what we have. When I think of bury, when you take it in the ground, I always imagine this is like you planted it. We're gonna plant what we've been given into something.

I think what he's saying is when you plant it into your own self and your own concerns and you don't trust him and plant it in the kingdom, you've planted it in something that's never gonna go anywhere. It's not gonna grow. You're you're you're you're planting it into that. What are you planting

the things he's given you in right now? And you're missing out. You know why? We can't let fear. Do not let fear keep you from using your talents. Don't let fear stop you. Look to the joy on the other side.

It happened yesterday. This is the dumbest illustration. I probably shouldn't even share it in church, but it's awkward. But my son came to the car show yesterday morning, and and he texted me from in one of the stalls in the in the bathroom, which

don't go, ew. I know every one of you texts people when you're in the toilet, but you don't talk about it.

Well, the reason he texted me is he knows a little bit of Spanish, and two guys came in and they started talking very loudly. It's not like he's, oh, I'm gonna eavesdrop. It's like, I can't help but hear them. And he picked up enough to go, hey. They're they're they're talking about Rock Point.

But he didn't catch everything. So as they talked, he opened up Google Translate and held it so he can hear what they're saying. Someone came up to me after the first service I shared that says, well, you know, kids will be kids. I go, my son's 25 years old. And he's the the father of my newest granddaughter.

And and and I go, but he is a youth pastor, so that explains things. But not at this church, so you can feel safe in the bathroom.

He heard him and he knew some of it was one guy saying something good and he just wanted to know. When Atrezza wrote back, he's like, Ted, the one guy came in and said, I really like this church. I've never been here.

Was impressed with how the car showed and how cool and how inviting and how neat it was. And the other guy says, you should come. And he goes, well, I don't want to come because I don't want to have to give money. And you know what the other guy responded? He said, way it translates he said, giving money is joy.

That's what Google took what he said and said in Spanish. He said, giving money is joy.

Many of us aren't experiencing that because of fear. Plain and simple. It's fear. It's not because you don't have money, because we have a God that can get crops where there's no crops, can produce a profit where there's no profit. It's it's it's just the fear. And and and you miss out. We all miss out.

There's three kinds of fear I see happening in this moment. Self doubt, self pity, and self consciousness. Those are the three types. Self doubt, self pity, self consciousness. The self doubt is when you hear yourself doubt, it's like, what that's I just can't do that. I can't. That's why God talks percentages.

It's it's it's like even the way he gave the talents, money to these guys is he gave them according to abilities, one had more than the other. But you know what? The two that did it right invested what they had. They did what they should. They invested what was asked to invest.

And it came out alright. But we can say I can't or I won't try. What are you afraid of? I

think the reason I give these talks is not to make everyone mad. It's like, oh, is that guy trying to raise money or just are they hurting? It's like, no. I mean, we always need you know? It's like the truth is is this is the one of the best ways to grow your faith is to truly believe God in the areas that you're like,

you're trusting in your money. You're trusting you're spending your time on stuff. You're trust it's like you're missing out. And then there's self pity. Poor me. Well, you don't know my story. Who are you to say that? He was what excuse can you give to God for not trusting God?

I mean, you think us can hear hear you like, well, I really had this and that. Oh, you know what? Okay. You you're an exception.

I know a lot of you come in, it's like, well, there was always a church and it was church hurt. They abused it. They they did. They, you know, they they misused the money. All they cared about was the money. The pastor was getting rich. He was you know, all this stuff. And I go, true. That might have happened.

But you think that means you don't have to do what God says anymore? That just means find a different church. That'd be like if your kid had a bad teacher. Like, this teacher wasn't good. My kid didn't learn right. You know what? That's it. You're not going to school anymore.

Even if you didn't give out his education, you really wouldn't be stuck with your kid all day?

You know, I'm joking when I say something. Every time there's some sensitive homeschool mom that thinks I'm being a jerk. But I love my kid. What's wrong with you? I'm just kidding. Okay?

And then they're self conscious. Some of us, we are really worried about how will that look. And sometimes that's the problem is because you're married, and one of you doesn't want what you do, so it's the look like there's be a fight. Well, maybe if you guys sit down and talk about it.

But, yeah, with our time, our talent, our treasures, our testimony, don't be afraid of the fear because it's hard. And you know why? We all need to go. If you know the Lord, kinda take this step.

Rock Point, I I didn't even believe these numbers. But you know how many people have said yes to Jesus this year, put their faith in him as their savior, as messiah? 4,539 just this year.

They're growing. They're learning. And and and why do you think we need another building over here? Why do you think we need more chairs in here? Because what I'm talking about

some people think when I say this, the church must be bad noises. I guys, no. No. No. No. No. The reason we're where we are is because if you give, if you invest here with your time and your money using your testimony, your story, wanting to point people to Jesus, and you are doing these things, which is a ton of you,

that's the payoff. God has let us be a part of 4,000 if they have kids and kids how many lives have been altered for all of eternity because God let us do this? We've baptized almost just under 2,000 already. Isn't that crazy? That

happens by the power of God when the people of God surrender to that God and live intentionally when we choose to invest in what he's asked us to invest in. So that's why I share it. That's why I challenge it because I just I know that when we do it and everyone more people get faithful, we grow.

And the truth is we can't be afraid because fear will cause me to make excuses and not do it, and we gotta keep doing it. Otherwise, miss out. We miss out on the payoff on the other end. Because you know, you guys probably have heard of what happened in Cupertino, California in 1976 in a garage.

Couple guys got together and started this company with computers involved. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. Hewlett Packard. No. One of the guy's name was last name was Wozniak. The other guy Jobs or something like that.

There's the two. You always hear the story. Think it's the two of them. There was a third guy in that garage. Did you know that? Ronald Wayne. And that's not like Bruce Wayne's weird brother. He was older than them,

and he had had some financial hardships. He had kids. He had more of a family than them, so he had a little bit more at stake. But he came in, so he only wanted to invest. He invested a 10% stake, which his 10, to own 10% of the company, was $800 Ronald Wayne actually drew their first logo.

But twelve days into this venture, he was so worried about taking care of his family and and and his home life. He came and said, I want to buy out. Can I have my $800 back? And they gave it to him. His 10% stake that he paid $800 for today is valued at over $200,000,000,000.

Don't be a Ronald Wayne.

Did it be Bruce Wayne? He invested in doing something. I don't know be Batman either. Think about that. And here's what's crazy. We're like, what a huge missed opportunity. You know what? That was still a risk. He didn't know Apple would work. But here's us. If you know the Lord, you know Jesus, you've seen what he's doing,

he already told us. We already know what happens to our investment. And I guarantee 4,539 changed lives for all of eternity. Even that one girl that was rescued, that one life is more valuable than $200,000,000,000 because in the end, that goes to nothing.

So why do we get so frustrated and so mad over me talking about let's invest this for something that is an internal reward that the master could say, well done, good and faithful servant. Guess what? I'd let you be a part of this. He could've stayed and done it all himself, but he's inviting us into it. He's getting us to be a part of it. And you know what? So many humans, so many of you young people are like, I gotta figure out my purpose for life. It seems so hopeless.

This is your purpose for life. And when you embrace it, you will get to the other side, and you will have peace and joy and patience and happiness and the fruit of the spirit. That's how it works. God is giving this to us because he knows an invested life is where you find the ideal life.

And I wanna give an example of this to close out before we leave. I'm gonna invite some friends out here. And they're they're getting ready to start a church called Echoes. Echoes. And here they come. Come on out. There you go. Come on up here. Right here. Let's line up right here. Quit hiding. You know, Ashley likes to hide.

It's not her favorite thing to do. I think the person that's stepping out against fear the most in all of this is you, Ashley.

If you're if you're new right now, I'm wearing this shirt, Echo's just like, why is he wearing another church's shirt? And we're launching a daughter church because that idea of stepping out and not playing it safe is not a one and done thing.

We're sitting in this room because twenty three years ago, my wife and I looked at each other and said, I I was working in a church, so I was serving God, but I was super content. We had finally got a house. We could afford to live there. And God said, I want you to do something stupid. I want you to go plant a church. But

our church I was at loved me, they were a great church, they're great men, but they didn't understand what we're doing right now at all. Most churches don't. So they didn't understand, they didn't really support it, they just said good luck.

So the only way we could survive is I took what tiny little bit of retirement I had, all of our savings account, sold our house, and dragged here with two kids at the time, little kids, and moved out here with no source of income, nothing, and said, I'm starting a church.

And it was crazy, and it was the craziest thing I've probably ever done. And you know what? I'm sitting here looking at all you, and I go, I would do it a 100 times over. I mean, it was so worth it. It was so worth it. I can't retire till five years after Jesus comes back, but it was worth it. However,

that was twenty three years ago. I feel like God has called us to always be willing to not play it safe, but invest. And what I prayed about was I I just wanna have a church, and I don't care if it's the largest church no one's ever heard of. I just wanna know that God let me have a front row seat of what he was doing.

I will and I said, I'm willing to be the tip of the spear where I'm willing to do hard things as my dad taught me. Not because I feel this harsh God forcing me, but I know that Jesus loved me so much, I just wanna be a part of this. And I said I wanna continue to be a part of it.

And so I've said, we're gonna continue to be scared a little bit. And so what we've done now is we've started pouring into, investing into churches and plants in the way that churches I had never seen them do before.

In other words, you want your kids to have it better than you. You wanna set them up. So we've been about that. And we are just dumb enough to go, hey, let's launch a church with our teaching pastor that's almost as good looking as me, so it's a threat. And no. And and and but let's

send a church to this potential area just twenty minutes down the road. Take as many people that you want to take, and and let's support it and coach and continue to pour into. At the same time, I'm saying, hey, y'all. We need to raise $6,000,000

to finish this building and get this thing set up. And I'm asking us to give to all of it and do all of it. And I know that already over $1,000,000 a year has went with him. At the same time, I'm saying, let's let's do this. That's why it takes a special kind of stupid sometimes. And and so here we are.

And I know that you gotta step out against fear, and that's kinda your story. Because when I first met you, and you're right, you correct me, I thought it was after we had. It was in the interview process. We were just interviewing him, and I asked him, hey, would you ever consider planting a church? Because I just saw

special kind of stupid. And I just asked him. Why don't you share what you answered and then what happened and where we are now?

Yes. I told him I would never plant a church in a million years. Right? And that's why I was leaving the church I was at in San Diego and coming out here. Truthfully, I I had never I have said for probably ten years, I would never plant a church. I don't want to.

And then I don't know, about two years ago when you say I never would do something to God, I think he kind of chuckles, right? And we started to feel, my wife and I started to feel,

man, it just again, the scripture say, without faith, it's impossible to please God. And it felt like we had not pushed our faith chips kinda to the middle of the table and said that we were all in. As we really started to pray, like, what would it look like for us to risk everything that we have to

leverage everything you've given us to expand your kingdom to the best of our ability, what would that look like? And then we both got to the place of really feeling like we were supposed to plant a church. And I just again, it was a process of, like, I don't wanna do this, but I feel like this is what God is calling us to do.

And we just got lucky that we were in a church that is very supportive of stuff like this. Right? Bill was one of the first people that I processed a lot of this stuff with. And most churches around the country, when you say, hey, I wanna plant a church, that's code language for here's your two week notice and don't let the door hit you on the way out. And even people that are part of our team, their churches literally even asked for the laptop they had given them back and said, good luck. We'll pray for you, but give us all of our stuff back and you go do your thing. Because that's

kind of just unfortunately a lot of churches mentality,

because it means they're gonna take from us, which means less for us. And our hope, and I think our goal through this whole process is to be then maybe churches across the country that have influence and ability and could actually send out successful church plants would be willing to do something like that because of this guy's willingness to try something crazy here. And so I'm really praying that God would use this, yes, locally to do something, but also nationally to potentially spur a movement of church planters and guys that are willing to go out and that they don't have this fear of going, well, the moment I say that I wanna do this, I know I don't have a job. I'm gonna have to it just gets really hairy from there. And so as I look at what God's doing here, 4,000 salvations in a year, 2,000 baptisms, like, those numbers are just outrageous.

And it but it makes sense to me why God would entrust a movement like that to a guy that would lead it like this guy will. Right? And I think that God knew what he would do with a lot of this influence.

And it's just a it's a really special thing. And so I just again, any chance we get to honor this guy and his leadership, we always do it. He's a one of a kind leader. So

Brad, that's all I needed you out here for, to say No. Just kidding. But you know, it is it is weird that churches, even larger churches, think we're stupid. Yep. And I go, isn't in the words of the Mandalorian, isn't this the way? And it was like, this is what we're supposed to do because it's not ours.

So I thought this is the perfect way. This is their official send off. It's not like boohoo, we're never gonna see them anymore. They're probably still gonna, you know, come back and wash their clothes every now and again. But no. They're just down the street. We're in we're friends. We're involved in coaching and all of that, and what we're excited about, what I'm excited about is when we get to do this together with a grandkid.

We get to then that grandkid gets better support, and then we have this movement of churches, and I'm just hoping more churches will catch on to this. And the reason we can do this is because of who God is, but also because of you and Ashley realizing, and

then we have Ian here. Forgot about him over there. I didn't see him. No. He's just sitting there. Ian, who's one of our worship directors, and Maggie, who's been our communications director, and

and and been on it. And these two down here, man, don't get me started. I'll start crying. They've they've grown up around here. I've known them, and and they're always at our house at, like, fourth of July celebrations. Anytime they can get a free meal, they come over,

and so they literally remind me of my own kids. So they're like they're like extra son and daughter to me, and I feel like that's another grandkid for me with Sawyer there. And and I'm proud of you guys. Proud of how you guys have grown and you're willing to risk it. It's hard and I

couldn't say enough. I'm thankful to who you've become. Daniel, I'm thankful to you that you were the man I thought you were when we were in that interview. I'm glad I wasn't stupid, that kind of stupid. But I'm thankful, and I'm excited for what God's gonna do. But, you know, we know this can happen

even in this crazy time, even with us trying to build, even with like, how do you do that? You're gonna everyone's gonna freak out. They're gonna get mad at me. You know, I know the God we serve, but here's the second part of this. I

know the congregation I'm blessed to lead. I know you guys. And you guys are all a special kind of stupid along with us. When people say, how do you think that'll work? Why do you think? I go, because I think I have a different group of people with me. I think we are the we'll charge hell with a squirt gun type of people.

I think we'll do hard things. I just think that of you. I've seen it over and over and over again. So when I challenge people to join in, guys, if you're new and you're holding out on this, it's not I'm mad at a whole group of people. I am actually encouraging you to, you're missing out. Join the rest of us

in what we're doing. And so, hey, I wanna pray for you guys, but you know what? And you able to do this, and especially with our congresses, the reason I knew this would work, was because of your guys' faithfulness in serving this church, but also the people we have in this church. It's not just you we're commissioning.

There's a lot of people sitting in this room that are that are going with you. And what's crazy is I've had several when I get talking to them about something, they I go, so what's going with you? And then they I'm sorry. I'm I'm going with echoes. You don't need to be sorry. This is exactly

especially if you're wearing a Seahawks jersey. I want you to go. No. You won't leave. You like staying and harassing me. It's too much. So what I wanna do when I pray, I just want everybody who's gonna be a part of Echoes,

or if this, what I just did irritated you enough, you're like, I decided I'm going now, but, would you just stand? Stand with them and stand with us right now. I see you back there. And and then I just wanna, like, find out how many more seats we're gonna have at this service.

Look at that. Big old group. You got a bunch of back row Baptists going with you, man. Stay standing. I was like, just look around. We've had probably over a 100, a 100 feet in every service. See, here's the beauty. Until we can pay for the seats we need to put in here, they're gonna go reach more people,

and we're gonna fill all these seats lickety split. That's why I'm not afraid of letting go, because God said to those servants, I will give you more. And it wasn't more money, more he says, if you trust me, I will give you more opportunity to see people's lives change. I will let you have more of that. And take it from me,

who's been doing this a long time, you have to fight it every day, but it never gets old getting to do this. This is where I know that God allowed me to be a part of something. He used my life and my life was a part of something that no $200,000,000,000 could ever touch, and I want that for all of us.

So when you look around, some of you that have you've only been sitting in here, you believe in Jesus, but have you believed him? Have you decided to join in on what we're doing? We're sending a lot of great people, money to gifts, people pointing people to Jesus. This is your chance to step into that spot.

This is your chance to know that God wants you to have the blessing of being a part of this. But to you guys standing,

thank you. You are being sent just as much as they are. And God is gonna use you, and he is gonna bless you, and it's gonna be hard, and a lot of you are gonna wanna come back after setting up and tearing down for about a month.

But just know,

just know that you've stood to say, I am going to go live intentionally. Now if you plan on just going and sitting, don't do that. If you plan on staying and sitting, go with him.

I know how to ruin a good moment, don't I? I think this pleases God. I think God is looking at you all in this moment saying, done. Well done, good and faithful servants. And I'm crying because I got to be a part of this. Why would anybody be afraid of this? I don't get it.

But let's pray. And if you just reach your hands out towards the people. If you're close to them and you know them, you can actually put your hands on their shoulders. Don't creep them out by being a stranger doing that.

Father, I just thank you, Lord. I thank you for this moment. I thank you for echoes. I thank you for what you're doing. I thank you for my friend, Daniel, who was just willing to be crazy. I thank you for Ashley, who really unlocked this whole thing when she said, yeah. I think this is what we need to do.

And Lord, I thank you for Ian and his heart for worship and and and his just love of wanting to point people to you. I thank you for Maggie and her ability with communication and just her love her love of of this church, my family. Thank you for little Sawyer,

that she's gonna get to grow up in a family and a church that just gets it. And I pray that at a young age, she will know how much you love her, and she will choose to love you back. And Lord, I pray for every person standing in this room and the same things. I pray for their families.

I pray for for their relationships. I pray you protect their hearts. I pray you protect their minds. I pray that you give all of them, especially Daniel here as the lead guy, thick skin, but a soft heart. And I thank you for allowing me, just allowing me to be a part of this. God, thank you. Thank you so much.

And we just pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Hey, everybody else stand. We're gonna do one last thing. I gotta suck a little bit of more work out of Ian. So we're gonna let him lead us in a closing song. Amen? Amen.

It's

the galaxies in motion Would descend to give his life for me For what could make

the

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