Courage | Part 5

I also gotta adjust what I do for exercise a lot, and and I can't just do nothing. There's a philosophy. Can go hard or you can go long, but you can't do both. I have to go to the go longer mentality, which I hate. I hate to throw heavy things around and be all, and you get like, I want to throw up and then be done in 20.

But now I got to do something. So what I decided I needed to do just to move, to keep myself sane, is walk more. So I committed to walking more. And as I said that, my wife who is in we got these Fitbits, she got me one over a year ago. And, basically,

while I'm done with it is it tells time and it tells me how lazy I am. But

but she said, you know what you could do? Join one of my challenges. I'm in a challenge. She's in this challenge every week. It's a work week challenge thing, and there are a couple of guys in the band who are actually in it. I know she's in it because she'll sit there and some of them will download their steps later. She's like, oh, lost the lead and all that. I know she does this. She invited me and goes, if you're really serious, I go, yeah, I'm committing. I'm making a personal commitment to do this thing. She goes, Alright, well then join the challenge. That'll keep you motivated and give you a goal and all that.

I immediately said, No. I'm like, no I don't want to do that. Then I walked away and I thought about it. I go, why did I say no? Am I serious about I'm going to walk more? I'm going to get more steps? Because if I really am committed,

why wouldn't I get into the challenge? Because I'm also competitive. I like winning things. So if I'm really gonna do this, it would give me it would motivate me. And I realized I think the reason I said no at first was although

I meant what I said when I said I'm gonna walk more, I think deep down in my heart I didn't really mean it. If I said yes to the challenge that was gonna just declare to

the people in the challenge. It was gonna just make it known whether I was serious or not, and I wanted to quietly fail. Where where I I wanted the choice to either be committed or not and have no responsibility or anybody know about it, only myself. And I thought about that and I said, no. I seriously need to do this.

I think the only way I'm going walk more is I'm going to have to accept the challenge. I did. I went into the challenge. I usually if a good week for me is maybe 70,000 steps, this is only a five day that's for seven days. I got a 108,000

steps in five days this last week. And and and I'd never done even remotely close to to to that at all. A couple of them are here. They're like the ones that normally win are all sitting right here. You lose. I totally want you guys.

Actually, James gave me that. He goes, are you gonna talk about this? I go, no. Then I thought, well, actually, yes I am. Not to pat myself on the back but to make this point. Why did I not want to get in? Because I realized part of me I had a dislocated heart as we've been talking about in Courage. I really wanted

to do this more, but there was something about me that was shying away from personally committing. It was that commitment of getting in that changed something for me. It it it changed it for me and that's really what we're going to talk about today. We've been talking courage.

We've been talking about how courage is a condition of the heart, not your circumstances. If you're waiting for your circumstances to change so you can be brave, if you're waiting for it to not be scary, that's not courage. If you're not scared, it's not courage.

We've been unpacking then. It's a condition of the heart. What are these conditions of the heart? Today is our fifth condition of the heart. It's simply this. The fifth condition of the heart is personal commitment.

The fifth condition of the heart, if I'm ever gonna live this courageous life, the life that actually God built me for, the one that that that even though I might run after a lot of things that aren't God and aren't his will in his life, ultimately, if we trust God's word and we believe in who he is, we know that the only way we'll experience what we really long for is to go after what god built us to go after but it's scary a lot and it's hard and it's gonna take courage as we've been talking about. So, we've been unpacking.

What are these conditions of the heart? Today, we wanna talk about personal commitment but by way of reviews to catch us up here just to see the other weeks, we've been doing this by looking at the story of a man named Nehemiah and his book in the Bible.

But in a nutshell, he was a faithful Jew, but he was in captivity. He grew up in another land. He was a cup bearer to the king, and and he had heard about what was happening in Jerusalem. God had made a promise to bring his people back and declare his glory and and declare his glory to the whole world through his people. And and and so Nehemiah found out that they've been back for a long time, and they got the temple built but they still didn't have the walls built around the city.

And and and he knew that this was a great disgrace, not just because it meant the city was unsafe. He was more concerned with how it was unimportant. It's in disgrace as he called it. Because how could God's plans happen if the people don't get the walls built?

And that really kind of moved. That's what we've been looking at. That's this whole story of how God used him to rally God's people to do God's plan. And as we looked at it, we've been looking at these these these conditions of the heart. And so just to review, we saw the first week you need a dislocated heart.

And that's where Nehemiah, you know, his heart dislocated. That means where it's like you might be here, but you you you know you wanna be there. Your heart goes to where God is. At least your heart's gone there. And then the second week is is the broken spirit or the broken heart. That's where we saw that you gotta be broken for God, and you gotta own the fact that it's God that's gotta do this through you. You gotta trust God. You gotta be complete faith in him which leads to week three that if I put my faith in him, I can then have a radical faith that says, I'll jump lord. If you want me to jump, I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna do it. I'm willing to do it but then we saw last week that all that doesn't mean much without a strategic plan.

That god is not the god of the of this crazy, just like, whatever.

Here you go. It's like we need to make plans, but those plans need to be made out of God's plan. My plans need to come out of, alright, Lord. If this is where you're heading, this is what your word says, this is what I'm called to do. Okay. Here's how you put me together. So then here's what I think I need to go do to to serve you.

And really, learned that's where most of our prayer requests should come out of. Our plans that we make, not to get God to honor our plans, the plans we make that are how are we going to go about God's mission that he gave us.

And then that leads to this week. Even if you have a strategic plan, at some point you're gonna have to get in the game. It's gonna take a personal commitment. We're gonna see that in life of Nehemiah here today. But first let me define personal commitment. It's a pledge or a promise. A dedication to a course of action,

relationship, project, or cost.

It means I've made this pledge. I've made a promise, but it's a dedication to a course of action. I'm gonna go somewhere. It's to a relationship. It's to some project or to whatever cost that it's gonna take me. It's gonna cost me something. Personal commitment is gonna take sacrifice.

Personal commitment is where it gets really scary because personal commitment means I might have to walk away from something I like to go towards something God wants. And that's where it gets tough. And we're gonna see in the that at this point in the story, Nehemiah displays it but he actually challenges God's people now

to say, hey, we need to go where God wants us to go. So where we're at is we're in Nehemiah chapter two. He's already talked to the king. We talked about that the last couple weeks, put his life on the line, and and he made a pledge and a promise and he did it. And now he's he's he's heading towards Jerusalem.

He's in Jerusalem. We're gonna see here starting verse 11. But one thing I just wanna add is as we look at this, it's is you're gonna see a consistent theme throughout scripture and throughout history. As anytime you see a movement of god happening where god is just doing something, you will always find people of god

who have made a deep personal commitment. You'll never see god moving where peep where these people have not made a deep personal commitment. It always he could god looks for the hearts. He looks for the people that, hey, I'm willing.

I'm willing to do what you've asked me to do And Nehemiah is one of them. So here we are. He's in Jerusalem now. He's finally got to the place he's never been. And starting in verse 11, here's what he says. So I arrived in Jerusalem. Three days later, slipped out during the night taking only a few others with me. I 'd not told anyone about the plans I gotta put in my heart for Jerusalem. What's he doing? He doesn't tell anyone. He he wants to go survey. He he had a strategic plan. He knew he need to bring materials, but he's never seen the walls of Jerusalem. He didn't know what it would look like. So to to have the right plan, he needed to go check it out. So he didn't wanna say anything to people till he knew what was going on.

So he takes off. He goes he'll he we took no pack animals except the donkey I was riding. Get over here donkey. And after dark I just I randomly do that if you're new. Get used to it. Verse 13. After dark, I went out through the Valley gate past the Jackal's Well and over to the Dung Gate. That sounds beautiful.

To inspect the broken walls and the burned gates. Actually, Dung Gate was where they took the trash out. That's why they called it the Dung Gate, by the way. Just thought you might be interested. Then I went to the fountain gate into the king's pool, but my donkey couldn't get through the rubble.

Though it was still dark, I went through the Kidron Valley instead inspecting the wall before I turned back and entered again the valley Gate.

The city officials did not know I had been out there or what I was doing for I had not yet said anything to anyone about my plans. I had not yet spoken to the Jewish leaders, the priests, the nobles, the officials, or anyone else in the administration. But now I said to them, you know very well what trouble we're in.

Jerusalem lies in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire. Let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem and end this what? Disgrace. You notice he didn't mention the lack of safety? What was his number one concern? God's plan.

It wasn't about them being safe. He goes, our primary concern is not build walls so God's people are safe. His primary concern was build these walls so God's plan can move forward. It's interesting because God still works that way today. He hasn't changed.

Verse 18. Then I told them about the gracious hand God had been God had been on me. But I just how the gracious hand of God had been on me. There you go. It's all on the put the emphasis on the wrong syllable. Sorry.

And about my conversation with the king. So he talked he told him, hey. Here's what happened. He told him his story. He told him that what he's been through. In other words, he's modeled it for them. He's already made a commitment he's gonna ask them to do.

And and and then he says so he asked them. He goes, we need to do this. So he goes, they replied at once. Yes. Let's rebuild the wall. So they began the good work. Well, sounded really easy, didn't it? He finally went and told them. But then verse nineteen and twenty happened. But when Senballat,

Tobiah, and Geshem the Arab heard of their plan, they scoffed contemptuously. What are you doing? Are you rebelling against the king? They asked.

I replied, the god of heaven will help us succeed. We, his servants, will start rebuilding this wall, but you have no share, legal right, or historic claim in Jerusalem. So what's interesting about those two verses, you're gonna not wanna miss next week. We look at this last condition of the heart. We're gonna talk about this. The problems that come up is it sounded easy, but then all of a sudden, immediately he's getting attacked.

That always happens. Whenever God moves, there's a there's a there's a movement back against. And and you know what? These characters are gonna show up again. And it strongly implies, it's pretty obvious, why were the why were the Jews not able to rebuild these walls for all these years? It's because these guys,

they've been threatened. They've been menacing.

They show up and they say boo. And everyone's been afraid. But what did it take? It took this one guy who finally had the courage

to show up with a plan and say, God is doing this. I've modeled it. He says to get this done. And he stood up to these cowards and says, you got no right in this. Get out of the way and we're gonna see more about that next week but that's what it takes. They they they've been controlled by fear. They've let fear stop them from being faithful for far too long and that's a lot of us. A lot of you, the the the story of your life, even if you've been coming to churches, you've let fear keep you being faithful

for far too long. And we as a church do not wanna be the church that lets fear stop us from being faithful for far too long. Because there's too many churches that that do that. They don't make it. We wanna and we wanna have this courage.

So what did he do here? They said they're gonna go do it. And then in chapter three in a minute, like, if you get a chance, go read chapter three. I'm gonna read a couple verses here in a minute. But I I I just on your own because it's cool.

It seems kind of boring because it's a bunch of names. The reason I don't want read is I can't pronounce half the names. But if you read it, it's one of the coolest passages in scripture because it's an entire chapter that just says who was building what part of the wall. And every one of those names

is a person like you and me with a story. They they they god's people had to jump in and do it. They had to be willing to follow this plan to be faithful.

And and it's interesting. What we saw in Nehemiah is he did two things that that that helped him enable to get these people ready to go. First, he modeled it himself. What he's asking them to do, he modeled that personal commitment himself. And and then secondly, he asked for it specifically.

He literally said here's the plan and here's what I'm asking you to do. That's great leadership by the way. When he said he modeled it and then was very specific in what he asked for. And and guess what? They went about building this wall. They had a wall they needed to build to stop this to to go about God's plan.

And and you know what? I've been very open about this. We

need to build some walls too. God is working through our church. To to do God's plan, we need to build some walls too. And and and we've done the same thing so far in this campaign. We've modeled it, literally modeled. We have a model out there, a model of it. We've not only modeled it, we have a model of it. But we need to take it from a model to to to to not just a a church for ants, but a church that's at least three times that size so we can fit people in it. There's some vague movie references or another one of my things, guys. And and and and and and so we we we need to do that. We've modeled it. Matter of fact, he talked to the leaders first and they went out to people. I did the same thing. We've we've had a plan. You know, he talked about his conversation with the king. We've had some leaders in this church that have been having conversations with the king of kings for a couple years now and looking at where god's been leading us and praying over it and planning. And I went back to our leaders and and and and was very specific. What we had is is our specific plan is we need to build and and we need to raise at least $5,000,000

over the next two years. That's a minimum goal. We'd probably would be better off to blast past that. And and but $5,000,000,

and and we need to do that with our pledges that that are coming up this week, next week, and our first fruits offering. However much we can front load it. That's what we're asking. But I want you to know we modeled it first. I went to the leaders. I've already shared if you've been here in the last few weeks. I went to those leaders in our church, some of the core families, the staff, the elders, some leading families, and basically about 3% of this church attendance.

They have already anted up and pledged a little over $3,400,000 towards this. That's 68% of our minimum goal by 3% of the people. So what would happen if now you guys will join in? If you'll say what the people do, hey, let's do this. Let's get this done. You know what? They could say let's get it done,

but then they had to pick up the shovels and they had to get to work. We need the same thing. I'm going be very specific. We not only model, I need to ask for you to commit to this. That's why you were given one of these, and then you can go online and get it. It's a pledge card. I need you to make a personal commitment.

A personal commitment. A pledge so we can do this.

Because that's what I'm saying. It's going be scary. It's going to be hard, but I'm going to ask you guys to sacrifice. I'm gonna ask. It's it it it it's gonna it might be painful. I might and and and you might go, don't know where I'm gonna get it from. Maybe it's don't go to Dutch Bros for a while or something. Make cheap coffee at home or or whatever. You know? It's amazing how you know you know how I got so many steps? It wasn't just I gave up my life. I found thousands of steps that were just sitting out there.

You know what it was? I spent a lot of time on the phone. I coached some church planners. I had about three hours on the phone this last week. All I did was this. I walked around. I get about a thousand steps every ten minutes.

6,000 steps an hour. Three hours on the phone. There's 18,000 steps. When I'm watching a show that's not recorded, I can I I walk around during the commercials instead of just staring at my phone? Thousands of steps right there. That's what I'm asking us to do. To look into your life and say, hey, where can I find some resource that I didn't even know I had?

And maybe I need to cut something back. I had to go to bed earlier because I had to get up earlier to get started on the day. That's a personal commitment. I'm trying to do what Nehemiah did here. Your leaders have stepped up big time, including myself. And now I'm asking you to do what we've already done.

We've modeled it and now I'm asking for it specifically. And just one more time, if you've been here the last three weeks, I know you're probably sick of seeing this video. How about this? The quicker we get this building built, we don't have to look at the video. We can actually be sitting in the real thing.

Wouldn't that be cool? That would be cool. But we also know a lot of you are sewing because some of you haven't seen it yet. This is our specific plan of what we need the money for. Here's what we're gonna be doing.

Hi. I'm Dave Sutherland, the executive pastor at Rock Point Church. I'm excited to share some information with you about what's going on here at Rock Point. Now, you've heard that we've been growing. You've heard about the courage campaign. Now what is that all about?

I'll tell you a little bit more about it. So one, we have grown tremendously over the last few years. Going into summer, we actually went over 3,400 people. Not only that, in 2017, we were the fifteenth fastest growing church in The US, number one in Arizona.

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

all sorts of activities, events. We're using that building to its maximum. Not only is Rock Point growing, but the community around Rock Point is growing. Queen Creek currently has 44,000 people in it. They're projecting growth to 70,000 people by 2026. Not only that, but Santan Valley currently has a 105,000

people in it. The town of Gilbert has 230,000 people in it. 60% of them are unchurched. Another exciting thing is the town of Queen Creek has approved the development straight to the south of us. It's called Box Canyon. It has about 3,700 homes in it and which equates to about 13,000 people.

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

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

Those lobby doors are gonna try to disappear as much as possible to create that indoor outdoor feel. The worship center will have between thirteen and fourteen hundred seats.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That's cool.

That's what we need to do. But it's gonna take everyone to personally commit. And that's what I love about Nehemiah chapter three. Because remember last week I ended with I said, hey, there's something beautiful on the other side of courage.

The courage that makes a personal commitment, a sacrificial type of commitment to what god's doing, there is something beautiful on their side and it's not this building. It's you guys. It's people.

It's what God called us to do is to point people to him by loving them like him and we need more room to do that, especially our youth and our children's areas. And and and that's the beauty and that's what's great about chapter three is it shows these people just personally committing.

These are the same people that had not built the walls for years and years and years and years and years. And there's stories near with one guy's building with his daughters and think he failed his whole life, but now he's got daughters and now they're doing it. They're like reclaiming a legacy of faithfulness,

a legacy of courage, a legacy that'll lead to something beautiful. Matter of fact, because they rebuilt these walls, it was part of God's plan to reestablish Israel, which it led to a guy named Jesus coming along. You realize they rebuilt the walls. That's why we're sitting here. That's part of God's plan

and what he does and there's something beautiful on the other side of it. And a matter of fact, there's this beauty of a legacy too if you learn to to to to for it. I just want to read I can't read not read the whole chapter. I just want read two verses

out of chapter three. It says this, next to them, because it's just lining up where people work on different stuff, were Melitaiah from Gibeon, Jaden from Maranath. If you're ever wondering, this is where I got my son's name.

Right out of this verse. We don't know anything about him. We don't know where Maranoth was. They have no idea where ancient Maranoth was. All they know about him is he faithfully helped build this wall.

He's just a guy that's known. He's he's forever man. I I took my son to this passage many times because Nehemiah, I got it out here because it's for a couple reasons. One, it's one of my favorite books of the bible. Two, we were looking for bible names for my kids that didn't sound all bible and Jaden was was was what sounded kind of cool. It's actually become kind of a popular name, not spelled this way though.

But but but we we picked and I showed them. I go, Jaden, be like this guy is just what he's known for is just being a faithful man. For twenty five hundred years he's been in scripture remembered for faithfulness. And I told him the same thing I asked myself often. When I think about what I'm doing with my life,

I often wonder if this was gonna get recorded as part of biblical history. Is anything I'm doing gonna put me in that? Is anything I'm doing with my life gonna put me in there?

And I've challenged him with that. Right from here, he says he's just this this and it's just as simple. He's just this guy that helped rebuild it. And it says the the people from Gibeon and the people from Mizpah, the headquarters of the governor of the province west of the Euphrates River.

Next was Uzziah son of Heraiah, a goldsmith by trade, and also worked on the wall. Beyond him was Hananiah, a manufacturer of perfumes. These are just everyday people.

They all had different jobs and different things, and and they were just guys that they just worked on the wall. And it says they left out a section of Jerusalem as they built the Broad Wall. That's the part that these guys worked on, the Broad Wall. And I'm telling you, when you see these sections, it's really cool because I've been to Jerusalem a couple times, and and I've got to see and a lot of the walls are up there. They're they're different era walls, crusade era walls, but but there was a a section that they unearthed a few years ago that's from this time period. So I'm not just this isn't just some fairy tale story, folks.

These people really built this wall. Matter of fact, I got a short video. It's really quick. It shows a piece of the wall, and I tell you, and the reason it's quick is they moved so fast through all this history that Josh

and I filmed this. They left us behind and started to leave, and we were gonna be lost. I didn't know where they were going, so we had to do this quick, but at least lets you show an actual piece of the wall that was built in chapter three. Watch this.

Okay. Whenever you're ready. Hey. This is really, really cool. It's quick. We're we're behind. I have to catch up, but right there, you can see the little remains. This is one of the only place that they have

they unearthed part of the wall from the first temple period, meaning that's the wall that Nehemiah built. Right there, that's part of that wall. Ain't that awesome? Yes.

You know what's more awesome? You know what section of the wall that is? That's the broad wall.

That is the part of the wall that Jaden of Maranoth built. My son's name, the legacy I handed him, he was there with me. He got to see an actual pile of rocks that a guy that he's named after twenty five hundred years ago stacked for the glory of his Lord. That is the beauty on the other side of courage.

That's why I'm asking you to make a personal commitment. One that's going to cost. One that's going to mean you're going to have to sacrifice because we I want you to experience that because that's why I think God asked us to do these things. The question is will I make that courageous personal commitment? Will I do it?

And more importantly, what does it really take?

What is it gonna take for me to truly follow through and make this kind of commitment? Well, I'm gonna let Jesus's words tell us that. Jesus made it played it out really clearly in a in a struggle in his own life because he's God but he's also a man. And and in in chapter 12 of John, he was predicting his death

which the disciples were a bit confused on because they thought God came to just always give us the stuff that makes us happy. They they were pretty convinced

that Jesus is gonna come and get rid of all our problems, primarily Rome. And then when he made it clear he wasn't doing that, most of Jesus' disciples left them. When they realized, oh, wait. This is a personal commitment. It might cost sacrifice that Jesus isn't just the God that gives me happy fun things all the time. He calls me to something greater.

And look what he says in verse 24. He says, I tell you the truth. Unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone.

But its death will produce many new kernels, a plentiful harvest of new lives. He was trying to explain why he was going to die. They were going to be confused, he says, hey, if I'm that kernel of wheat, if I don't die and plant it, no one else has a chance. There's no life. I have to die to bring life.

But then he includes us. People that if you know Jesus, if you put your faith in the God who died because he loves you so much, he died for you. And he says this. He goes, those who love their life now he says those, so he's including all of us. Those who love their life in this world will lose it.

Meaning if all you're hanging on to is what you think was gonna make you feel good all the time, eventually you die and it's all over. You're gonna lose it. He goes, but those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity.

Meaning if I invest in what God's built me for, if I invest in these eternal things, it's gonna last. There's a beauty on the other side of courage. But then look, Jesus

says this. He goes, anyone who wants to serve me must follow me because my servants must be where I am and the father will honor anyone who serves me. You can't say I love Jesus and then ignore what he's asked you to do.

But then look what he says. He reveals his own heart, which is this is I love about the word of God. And I love how much Jesus loves us and he chose to take on the nature of a man also. So he could feel like we feel. Because look what he says, now my soul is deeply troubled. Should I pray father save me from this hour?

He almost says it as if he's saying, should I? And that's what a lot whenever we're challenged, especially something like this, I'm asking you to financially sacrifice. I am. And if you do it right, it's gonna cost something. And autism is like, I can't do that. That's gonna be too painful. It's too scary.

Jesus knows he's gonna give up his entire life. He's gonna die a horrible death for us. And he says, should I ask God to keep me from the pain?

You realize Jesus can relate to if you're scared right now of what I'm asking us to do, if you're making up reasons, if you're and usually you're either gonna get fearful or angry. And anger is usually a result of fear. Like, you're gonna make it about this. Just want my money. This one. You're gonna fight this and it's gonna you're gonna be the only one that misses out.

Understand the Lord who's asking you to do this has asked the same question. He's there. He says, hey. Should I ask God to keep me safe? And a lot of us that's what we do. We cave in and say, God keep me safe. Our prayers are all about keep me from any pain. Well, know bad pain is not good,

but the pain that leads to the victory of God's story and me being a part of it, that's something different. And Jesus answers his own question, which what I think is the same answer for us. He says this, but this is the very reason I came.

Father, bring glory to your name. His answer was, should I ask God to let me out of this tough road? He goes, no. You know why? This is why I came. This is my mission. This is what I'm here for. And you realize if you're sitting here breathing oxygen,

God loves you enough. He built you for a purpose, and there's a mission. He wants you to be a part of his body, the church. He wants you to point people to him by loving them like him. He wants you to bring glory to his name through worshiping him, and he wants to give you an eternal life that goes way beyond just getting the things of this world that you're so afraid of missing out on if you commit to this.

And he's saying, I can't not do this because this is what I came for. And I go, guys, what what God's asked us to do is rock point. It's what he put us here for. It's what we're here for. This is not the distraction. This is the thing. This is it. It's not to get 10,000 steps like I just did. It's

what he brought us here for. We need to have the same answer. You know what he's saying here? This is the answer. If you are ever gonna have a courageous faith in anything in your life, not just talking about this campaign,

but anything else in your life. If you're ever gonna live the courageous faith and experience the beauty that's on the other side of that, you're going to have to have a death to self experience. Plain and simple.

That's why I think God asked us to do these types of things that doesn't just make the money rain from the heavens,

Especially in our culture. The number one way that he can challenge you and I to have a death to a death to self experiences, I want you to sacrifice financially. Because most of us, everything about self involves money.

And so this is a moment that if you're gonna experience it, you're never gonna truly experience what God wants for you. I don't care how many times you come to church. It's have I had that personal commitment that I've said, Lord, I'm gonna die to myself

and I just want to go after what you made me for. I want to go after what I was built for no matter how scary it is because that's what courage is. Because if you're not scared, it's not courage. That's what Jesus is challenging us to do. That's what we have an opportunity to do.

Will you do it? When I think of this story,

I'm reminded of something that happened with my dad and I when I was in high school. I was pitching in an all star game and and I had pitched a couple days before and and and we won and now I'm pitching a few days later. So I'm tired.

And and and we're in this game and we were playing like the Diamondbacks. Pitching was good. Hitting wasn't so good. We were winning one to nothing, going into the last inning and we're the visiting team. So I if we don't get any more runs, which we look like we weren't gonna get any more runs, if

I stay in the game, I gotta go shut this game down in a high pitched championship all star game moment in in front of this crowd exhausted

with a one to nothing lead. It was terrifying to me. Matter fact, the inning before I say, hey, dad, maybe someone else could pitch. I started to kinda hint it. Let's get a relief pitcher in here. And then finally going to the last inning, I'm like, hey, can someone else pitch? And I look at the other two guys that are Europe. We're all star team. We have other pitchers. And I go, hey, do any of you guys want to get out there and close this game out? They're like,

no. And I'm like, come on. So then I was mad. I was getting selfish. I was like, I'm angry because I'm like, I don't want to go out there. I was tired. I was worn out, and my reasoning in my head was I've been carrying it all away. I I put in all this responsibility. I am exhausted.

It's hot out. I'm tired. I don't have anything left in the tank. How could I be expected or asked to go out there and do this? So I was actually starting to get upset. And I went over to the other end of the dugout, kind of plopped down as we're about to get the third out and not get any more runs.

And my my dad came over and talked to me. He goes, son, I know you're tired, but let me ask you something.

In the backyard, I used to have a net set up. I'd just go out there and pitch, practice accuracy and moving pitches around, just wind up and throw. And he goes, I'd watch you go out there your whole life since you were little. You'd spend hours out there. He goes when you were standing there,

he goes sometimes I see your mouth moving. I knew you were talking to yourself. What were you saying? You were being the broadcaster weren't you? Yeah. And he goes, what were you pretending? What were you imagining? We're out there going, alright. Well, there's nobody on and

they're up 17 to nothing. This is pretty much mop up duty. All Bush has to do is throw it over the plate and they win the game. No big deal. Is that what you would imagine? And I go, no. He goes, what would you imagine? Bottom of last inning, one to nothing. Gotta go shut the team down or we lose. Yeah.

That's what you imagine. You know why? Because that's what this game is. And I get it. When you imagine these great moments, it doesn't feel anything like it in real life that you imagined it. It doesn't. You don't feel courageous.

You don't feel strong. You don't feel because when you're imagining on the mound, you already know you won. Are you gonna ask that go, he lost. I go, really? Why did I do that to myself? You don't do that. Real life, the other team has something to say about it. And you're afraid.

And he goes, I get it. You're tired. I know. But it's not really that you're tired. What were you built to do? What have you dreamt of? What is your calling in this moment? And he handed me the game ball, stuck into my hand. He goes, go get it. Go out there and get it.

And then he looked at me quietly, didn't want anyone else to hear. Right in my face he goes, I know you're scared. He knew I was just scared. I didn't want to blow it. I didn't want to lose the game. I didn't want to mess up. I didn't want to fail. I I didn't want to be uncomfortable.

And and he says, I know you're scared.

But if you're not scared, it's not. I

know many of you are scared but what did god build you to do? If you're not scared, it's not courage. Father God, thank you Lord. I thank you. Thank you that you you love us so much that you had the courage That even in in in in your nature as a man, you know how terrifying what you went through for us was.

But you did it anyways because you knew the beauty on the other side of courage. And Lord, in these moments, especially in this moment for us as a church, what you've put before us to try to do financially to to build this building. It's terrifying. But you know the beauty on the other side of it, lord.

May we build some walls that leave a legacy like Nehemiah's wall left for my son. Lord, may we maybe gather our families and our kids and they see that we were a part of building these walls. That we can look and show our kids go, hey, god used us to do this. We got to be a part of his victory. Even though we were afraid,

even though we were tired, Lord, there's people in the room like, I'm tired. I'm worn out. This is asking too much. I don't have any money. I can't do this.

Lord, help them to just have that die to self moment.

Help them to see what you really built them to do. Help them to know that even though they're scared, it's okay. Because if you're not scared, it's not courage. That's my prayer for everyone in this room, including myself, Lord, and I pray it all in the mighty and holy name of our Lord and Savior Jesus. Amen.