SPEAKER_00: It has been a fast three years, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: How many of y'all know time flies?
SPEAKER_00: So thankful for what God is doing in the life of our church, three years old, to see all the things that He's done so far.
SPEAKER_00: Just this year alone, we've baptized 186 people this year.
SPEAKER_00: I love it.
SPEAKER_00: I love that, I love that that is just one year, that in the life of our church over three years, we've baptized over 450 people.
SPEAKER_00: And every time we baptize someone, it is a sign on the outside.
SPEAKER_00: It is a picture of the kingdom of God coming alive right here among us.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just so encouraged by what he's doing.
SPEAKER_00: And I've titled this morning's message, if you're ready for it, see it, own it, and build it.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, that's not a title, those are your three points.
SPEAKER_00: You're right.
SPEAKER_00: See it, own it, and build it.
SPEAKER_00: For those of you who were here a little over a year ago, you know that in the life of the church, the church has doubled in the last 365 days.
SPEAKER_00: And you know that because the wall 365 days ago was right here, and all y'all got left behind.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm so thankful for what it raise your hand if you're new to the church in the last year.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, give it up for him.
SPEAKER_00: Raise it high.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: Seeing what God can do and um just watching him move in our midst is exciting.
SPEAKER_00: It's encouraging today.
SPEAKER_00: My heart is this it's a little bit of a vision Sunday and a little bit of a message, and I'm gonna do my best to combine them together because how many of y'all know I can't just give vision?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we could stand up here all day and talk about what would happen in five years, but if we would have gone back three years ago and I had done that, none of that would have happened.
SPEAKER_00: We would be where we are today because of where the Lord wanted to take us today.
SPEAKER_00: So my heart and my hope for today is that as we talk about the vision in the life of our church, that you would know this, it actually has nothing to do with the church as a building, the church as an organization, and everything to do with what I believe God wants to do inside of you.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just vision for a gathering, it's a vision for your life and for your heart.
SPEAKER_00: As we celebrate these things, it they're just testimonies of what God can do in such little time.
SPEAKER_00: In our three years as a church, we've already given over$200,000 away just to church planners, just to people just like we were three years ago, who said, Hey, I have a vision and a dream in my heart.
SPEAKER_00: I believe God wants to lead a new church in a place, and we've been able to come behind a church planning organization.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we've had four or five church planners come in, but to see what God can do, not just in our place, but in other places.
SPEAKER_00: That's what that's what excites me.
SPEAKER_00: As we celebrate these moments this morning, though, I want to encourage us with something more than just a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Who's thankful for a few moments you've had in your life?
SPEAKER_00: I'm thankful for the moment I had my kids, I'm thankful for the moment I got saved.
SPEAKER_00: I'm thankful for the moments, but our heartbeat behind today's vision talk is this that this wouldn't just be a moment, it would be a movement.
SPEAKER_00: That this wouldn't just last right here for us, but that actually a next generation church is a church where it's not just the kids that are in the room today, it's the people who will come after us that because of your faithfulness and your giving and your serving and your investing and launching this church, we believe God is going to do things for generations to come.
SPEAKER_00: And as we celebrate that, my heartbeat and my hope is we would understand a little bit of how God has worked among his people.
SPEAKER_00: I've been telling our team lately that when you look back to the Old Testament, you had the Hebrew people, God's chosen people, and they were slaves in Egypt for over 400 years.
SPEAKER_00: How many of y'all have ever been a hard place in your life before?
SPEAKER_00: And I don't even have to tell you today the kind of prayers you pray when you're in a hard place.
SPEAKER_00: And in that hard place, here's what they're praying for.
SPEAKER_00: They're praying for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: God, would you deliver us?
SPEAKER_00: God, would you rescue us?
SPEAKER_00: God, would you take us out of this place and put us in our next place?
SPEAKER_00: And they began to pray for that, and so here's what God did.
SPEAKER_00: God supernaturally, through Moses, delivered them out of slavery and brought them up to the Red Sea.
SPEAKER_00: And every time they got to the next thing, they began to wonder how they were gonna make it out of that place.
SPEAKER_00: And as they're staring at the Red Sea, we know that Moses puts his staff out in the water and the Red Sea parts and they cross through on dry land walking.
SPEAKER_00: What's up, Nemo?
SPEAKER_00: How are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: And the waters fold up over the Egyptian armies.
SPEAKER_00: That if God did something back then, it must be because he wants to do something right now.
SPEAKER_00: And if God's doing something right now, it must be because he wants to do something tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: That God didn't just deliver them out of Egypt so that they could stand on the banks of the shore of the Red Sea and their life be taken from them.
SPEAKER_00: If God did a supernatural move in their life then, it's because he wants to do a supernatural move in their life now.
SPEAKER_00: They get through the Red Sea and they wander around in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: And they're wandering, and as they're wandering, there was no Chick-fil-A, there was no Texas Roadhouse, bless God.
SPEAKER_00: They needed a manna from heaven of their own.
SPEAKER_00: God didn't part the Red Sea so that they could die of hunger in the wilderness, did he?
SPEAKER_00: He brought them out into the wilderness because he was up to something.
SPEAKER_00: He was doing something in there.
SPEAKER_00: And so, how many of you know all of these moments started to grow into a movement?
SPEAKER_00: They got through the wilderness and God didn't bring them to the wilderness so they could die of hunger.
SPEAKER_00: So, what did he do?
SPEAKER_00: He took them into the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: The place that he had promised their people long ago.
SPEAKER_00: That God is faithful to complete it.
SPEAKER_00: So he's bringing them into a place.
SPEAKER_00: But how many of you know just because it looks good doesn't mean there's not still hard days ahead.
SPEAKER_00: Just because there's a promise didn't mean they didn't have a battle to fight.
SPEAKER_00: And so when they showed up in the promised land and there's giants in the land, they start to ask themselves a question: Is this it?
SPEAKER_00: Is this the end of the road?
SPEAKER_00: Did he bring us out here all of this way just to die?
SPEAKER_00: And the answer was no.
SPEAKER_00: That if God did all that he did before, then what must he do today?
SPEAKER_00: What can he do tomorrow?
SPEAKER_00: I want to paint this picture for you because it's this idea that with a supernatural moment, you have an opportunity to give birth to something more.
SPEAKER_00: With a supernatural moment with God in your life, it always has the potential.
SPEAKER_00: It's pregnant with the opportunity for God to do immeasurably more.
SPEAKER_00: As I prayed this week over the life of our church, that's exactly how I feel.
SPEAKER_00: I feel like we are a church, a group of people, the Hebrew people, God's chosen people.
SPEAKER_00: And we've come to the place where we're saying, God, you did this, what's next?
SPEAKER_00: God, you did that, now what's next?
SPEAKER_00: It's the idea that God works in moments, but he also has this opportunity before us to do something that lasts, to do something that makes a difference and an impact.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, how many of y'all know I married out of my league?
SPEAKER_00: Put your hand down.
SPEAKER_00: I remember for a long time after I got married that I would tell people, I got married.
SPEAKER_00: You know, like, and I would celebrate.
SPEAKER_00: What was I celebrating?
SPEAKER_00: I was celebrating the fact that I just pulled the biggest prank or biggest one over on her that she had no idea what she was getting, you know?
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm celebrating the fact that we had a very special moment.
SPEAKER_00: I would tell people there was all this amazing food we paid all this money for.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't even get to eat it.
SPEAKER_00: But I was there.
SPEAKER_00: I I I was recalling a moment.
SPEAKER_00: And I was thinking this week because we've been married almost 15 years this year, and and I'm as I'm recalling it, I realized something.
SPEAKER_00: I no longer tell people about my wedding day.
SPEAKER_00: Somewhere along the way, I stopped talking about my wedding day as a day that I got married, and I started telling people the story of we're still married.
SPEAKER_00: I stopped celebrating the moment.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because it was never designed to be a moment that we spent all of our money and and performed our vows.
SPEAKER_00: It was never designed to be a moment, it was designed to be a life.
SPEAKER_00: It was never designed to be a moment, it was designed to do something more.
SPEAKER_00: And as we go as a church, I think that's exactly the place that we are.
SPEAKER_00: At three years old, the Lord is not just saying, Look what I've done.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is saying, look what I'm getting ready to do.
SPEAKER_00: That if God can do this in three years, what's he gonna do in 30?
SPEAKER_00: That if God can do this in a short amount of time, what are the things that he has next?
SPEAKER_00: Now I know every good vision talk comes with a bow and a good sermon illustration.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have any of those for you today.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have five points about all the things we're gonna do in the next five years because here's what I really believe.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that the greatest key to our moving from a moment to a movement is the very thing that it took to get from steps one to step two, and that is this.
SPEAKER_00: Are we listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_00: Are we following the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to be thankful for what he has already done, but I'm not going to build a platform around it.
SPEAKER_00: And we're not gonna stand there and say, look, this is amazing, us four and no more, because here's what I believe: that if God was doing something, he was setting us up for something more.
SPEAKER_00: And if that's true of us as a church, here's what I want you to know today.
SPEAKER_00: That's true of you in your life.
SPEAKER_00: That if God brought you in, if God saved you, if God healed you or restored you, I love how many of y'all love their testimony videos.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, I didn't stand in front of the camera, it's scary.
SPEAKER_00: I know these people are crazy, you know?
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I believe: that every one of them has a story.
SPEAKER_00: And that story is not the end.
SPEAKER_00: That that story is not the finish line of just look what God has done for me back then.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what we choose to believe as the people of God.
SPEAKER_00: That if he did it yesterday, he can do it today.
SPEAKER_00: That if he walked with me then, he can walk with me now.
SPEAKER_00: And how many of you know that's the hard part about following Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Is it not just a moment in time, it's an everyday decision and choice.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, I chose you yesterday because you chose me first, and today I'm gonna choose to follow you again.
SPEAKER_00: And tomorrow I'm gonna get up and I'm gonna go at it again.
SPEAKER_00: But if you're anything like me, you get to these moments and time in your life where you can't see it.
SPEAKER_00: You can't see the picture.
SPEAKER_00: You get to these moments and times where you're like, I don't know if I can be all in because this is harder than what it looked like.
SPEAKER_00: I've been telling people, they've been asking about uh the art church in Magnolia, some pastor friends, and and I tell them what God is doing, that it's the Magnolia miracle.
SPEAKER_00: Because listen, most people in in when they start a church, the first three years, they lose all their hair.
SPEAKER_00: I had a benefit.
SPEAKER_00: I had already lost mine.
SPEAKER_00: Most people that tell you that starting a church is so much work, and I'll sit around the circle and I listen to their testimony, and here's what I'll I uh my heart is just bleeding over to say, yeah, and it's so much fun.
SPEAKER_00: Because this story and this testimony is full of fun.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because God's the one writing it, because there is a story to be told.
SPEAKER_00: And so this morning I want to ask you, do you see it?
SPEAKER_00: And and I'm going back to how we started the church.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, this is a message, I don't repackage my message, but there is multiple parts of this message that we preached on August 20th, 2023, on our very first Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: And if it was true then, it's true now.
SPEAKER_00: Uh my kids brought this to me this week uh because uh their memory verse this week came out of Nehemiah chapter 4, verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: You want to hear their memory verse?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm gonna give it to you.
SPEAKER_00: You ready?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna do the actions too, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I get real nervous now.
SPEAKER_00: I preach all the time, but this makes me nervous, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Those who carry the load put their weapon in one hand and a tool in the other.
SPEAKER_00: You like my little action to remember it?
SPEAKER_00: Those who carry my kids are going around the house.
SPEAKER_00: My son takes it to a whole nother level.
SPEAKER_00: He's five.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Dad, wait.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Why?
SPEAKER_00: He said, I gotta get my sword.
SPEAKER_00: All week long, my son has been reminding me what God has been trying to tell me all along.
SPEAKER_00: And he runs to his room and he runs around the house like he's slaying dragons with his sword.
SPEAKER_00: And every night as we're having this battle, here's what the Lord is impressing on my heart.
SPEAKER_00: Clayton, don't put the sword down.
SPEAKER_00: Clayton, don't put the tools in your hand down.
SPEAKER_00: Because when you partner with the Lord with a tool in one hand and a sword in the other, wherever he's going, you're going.
SPEAKER_00: I want to tell you that Nehemiah was how we started the church.
SPEAKER_00: And Nehemiah's story is this.
SPEAKER_00: In 586 BC, Babylonians took over.
SPEAKER_00: They destroyed the temple, they destroyed the walls of Jerusalem, they took the people of God into exile.
SPEAKER_00: Now, how many of y'all would wake up that day and think, this isn't what I had planned?
SPEAKER_00: This isn't what I had going for myself.
SPEAKER_00: And for 40 years they're in exile until somebody bigger and badder comes and takes over Babylon and they get permission to go back and to begin rebuilding the temple.
SPEAKER_00: And 40 years later, they rebuild the temple.
SPEAKER_00: Now, how many of you know three years is a short amount of time because it took them 22 years to rebuild the temple.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because they're using the sword in their hands and the tools in their hands and they're rebuilding and they're rebuilding.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah steps on the scene another 70 years later.
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about a period of time of about 130 years.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't know how many of y'all plan on living until you're 100, but this is a long time.
SPEAKER_00: And in this story, here's what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: They rebuilt the temple, but they never rebuilt the walls.
SPEAKER_00: And Nehemiah steps on the scene and he looks at the picture and he says, There's work to be done.
SPEAKER_00: He celebrates the fact that there is a temple, but he he is grieved by the fact that the walls are still laying on the ground.
SPEAKER_00: And what I love about that story is the Lord was reminding me this week the life of our church.
SPEAKER_00: We're in the same boat, we're wearing the same shoes.
SPEAKER_00: And that is this that there is still work to be done.
SPEAKER_00: That when we think about what God has done, we celebrate what he has done, but we look forward to what he is doing.
SPEAKER_00: And the way that we do that is we take the heart and the posture of Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah could see things that nobody else was seeing.
SPEAKER_00: How do I know that?
SPEAKER_00: Because the walls had laid on the ground for 130 years.
SPEAKER_00: And yet it was Nehemiah that had a heart to say, God is birthing something in me.
SPEAKER_00: I see something that my neighbors aren't seeing, and I'm gonna do something about it.
SPEAKER_00: And in Nehemiah chapter 1, verse 3, we read our scripture for today.
SPEAKER_00: It says this.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah's heart begins to break for this.
SPEAKER_00: And verse 4, he says, As soon as I heard these words, I sat down and I wept and I mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: What's happening to Nehemiah in this moment?
SPEAKER_00: His heart is becoming burdened for the things that burden God's heart.
SPEAKER_00: When he looks and he sees the condition and the disrepair, his heart says, That's not right.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, he wasn't just looking with his eyes like everybody else.
SPEAKER_00: Something inside, he had what I had a pastor tell me when I was 15 years old, is called a holy discontent.
SPEAKER_00: Write it down, a holy discontent.
SPEAKER_00: My question this morning is this if we're gonna get to where we're going, then it starts with a holy discontent.
SPEAKER_00: At 15 years old, I remember a pastor telling it to me like this.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Nehemiah had a holy discontent.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, when he saw what he saw, something in his spirit was not right.
SPEAKER_00: His spirit said, That's not okay.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't going to work.
SPEAKER_00: It's a holy discontent is this idea.
SPEAKER_00: It's that what frustrates heaven starts to frustrate you.
SPEAKER_00: It's the idea that when you wake up in your home and there's a lack of peace, you say, something about this isn't right.
SPEAKER_00: This is not the way heaven intended.
SPEAKER_00: And so something inside of your heart as a mom and a dad says, peace has to come to our home again.
SPEAKER_00: There's a holy discontent birthing inside of you.
SPEAKER_00: It's the idea that when you get in a fight with your spouse and there's disunity.
SPEAKER_00: It's not that you just know that it's wrong, and it's not just that that's not what you wanted to do or how you wanted to say it, it's that there's something deep in your spirit that knows this is not the way God intended for me to live.
SPEAKER_00: It's the hunger inside of us that says at times in our life there has to be more to the life that I'm living.
SPEAKER_00: There's this holy discontent, and when I was 15 years old, I'll never forget it because the message that I heard when I was 15 is the reason that our church of Magnolia is right here, right now today.
SPEAKER_00: Because I remember him talking about a holy discontent and God dropping a seed in my heart that says, It's not okay for people not to know me.
SPEAKER_00: It's not okay for people to walk around and live a life of bondage.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord says, I have more.
SPEAKER_00: What is it?
SPEAKER_00: It's a holy discontent that begins to grow.
SPEAKER_00: And he said it reminded him of Popeye, not the chicken.
SPEAKER_00: The sailor man.
SPEAKER_00: You remember him?
SPEAKER_00: I'll never forget him.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Popeye would get to this place where is it Bruto?
SPEAKER_00: Is Bruto picking on olive oil, right?
SPEAKER_00: And you remember the story, and you remember all these altercations and things that they would get in, and what would Popeye say?
SPEAKER_00: He'd say, I just can't stand no more.
SPEAKER_00: It's the idea that something inside of him is saying, I'm not okay with the way that things are.
SPEAKER_00: I want to tell you the life of our church, listen, we're building something right now.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is building something in our midst, and it starts with what you see.
SPEAKER_00: Well, preacher, that's your job.
SPEAKER_00: Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, it's not.
SPEAKER_00: Well, preacher, you're here to do the ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Nope, nope, nope, nope, I'm not.
SPEAKER_00: It starts with what the Lord says when the people gathered together get a heart for the things that break God's heart, here's what begins to happen.
SPEAKER_00: Something can be built on the other side.
SPEAKER_00: And Nehemiah had a holy discontent.
SPEAKER_00: I see what I see, and I'm not okay with the way that it is.
SPEAKER_00: So Nehemiah says, I'm going to do something about it.
SPEAKER_00: So, what does he tell the people around him?
SPEAKER_00: He says, Pick up a sword in one hand to fight off anyone who would come against us and put a tool in your other hand.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because there's still work to be done.
SPEAKER_00: The question today is this What is the picture that you see?
SPEAKER_00: What is the picture that you see?
SPEAKER_00: As I think about this, I'm reminded I went to uh I made the one of the worst decisions of my life one day when I went to IKEA.
SPEAKER_00: If you know, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: My wife and I for a while had been um working on our closet.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't have many organization things in our closet.
SPEAKER_00: It was starting to get out of control.
SPEAKER_00: And and so we had been looking, but I'm cheap.
SPEAKER_00: How many of y'all like it?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, let's go.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and I said, Look, this is our closet.
SPEAKER_00: We don't need to buy a nice dresser, nobody's gonna see it but us.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, Fine, we'll go to IKEA.
SPEAKER_00: And so we went for IKEA for a day because we had nothing better to do, and 12 hours later, I came out with two dressers.
SPEAKER_00: Now they don't tell you this when you're buying it, but you get to the end and you realize the package you chose comes in 5,000 boxes.
SPEAKER_00: We loaded up those boxes in the back of our car and we get home and we we take it out and we set it in our living room, and and as we set it in our living room, we go and and and I opened it up and I grabbed the instructions and I said, Not today.
SPEAKER_00: I left the box right in the middle of the living room floor.
SPEAKER_00: I walk into my bedroom and get in bed.
SPEAKER_00: My wife comes over and says, What are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: I thought we were gonna build it and do it all tonight.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Baby, I still want to be a Christian by the end of the night.
SPEAKER_00: The next day I get up and I go to the living room and it's still there.
SPEAKER_00: I open it up a little bit more, pull out a few more pieces, realize there's no way in the world this thing will ever do what the instruction says it will do.
SPEAKER_00: So I leave it there for a day, and my strategy is this I wonder if she'll say anything about it.
SPEAKER_00: The next day I come by and she hasn't said anything about it.
SPEAKER_00: So I took that box, I taped it up, and I put it right back in her car where it belonged.
SPEAKER_00: And it went straight back to IKEA, and we got our$40 back.
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00: What's the deal?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the deal is there's a picture on the box, but it didn't look anything like the picture.
SPEAKER_00: What's the deal?
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't gonna own the responsibility to put that thing together.
SPEAKER_00: What's the deal?
SPEAKER_00: The deal was I wasn't willing to build it.
SPEAKER_00: And so it went right back to the place in which it came.
SPEAKER_00: Here's my burden for us as a church.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to be a church that can't see the picture on the box.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to be the church that when you open up the instructions and don't understand, says, well, let's just tape it all back up and send it right back to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe he'll send someone else.
SPEAKER_00: See, I want to be the kind of church that says, if this is the job that the Lord has laid before us, then we will see it, we will own it, and we will build it.
SPEAKER_00: If that's not at the heart of who we are as individuals first, then we will never be that as a church.
SPEAKER_00: We can stand up as a church, we can put whatever value we want to on the wall.
SPEAKER_00: We can put whatever we want on our website.
SPEAKER_00: But if it's not in the fibers of who we are to be a church that says, God, I see what you see, I'll own the things you tell me to own, and I'll build what you tell me to build, then we'll never get to the place that the Lord has destined for us.
SPEAKER_00: As a church, that's where we start.
SPEAKER_00: So my question is, what picture do you see?
SPEAKER_00: Because the Lord has given us as a church a holy discontent.
SPEAKER_00: I know I look nothing like Popeye.
SPEAKER_00: But I know this.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need spinach.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00: I need a vision from the Lord about how he sees things.
SPEAKER_00: And I know that it is not just a phrase on the wall, it's a scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews chapter 11, verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: By faith, Noah built an ark for the saving of his household.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, Noah could begin to see what God was seeing.
SPEAKER_00: How?
SPEAKER_00: Because God told him.
SPEAKER_00: It's not because he was smart, it's not because he came up with it on his own.
SPEAKER_00: But listen, Noah was living in a day and age where everybody was doing everything but following God, and Noah said, I'm gonna be different.
SPEAKER_00: Noah followed the Lord, and the Lord spoke to him, and the Lord gave him an assignment, something to own, something to see that nobody else could see.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine with me for just one moment the people that are ridiculing Noah as he's building a boat in a place where there is no water?
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine with me for just one moment the conversations that he had, but yet he had the determination and the strength and the power of the Lord to say, I don't care if you don't see it because I see it.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care if you're not gonna own it because I'm gonna own it.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord has given it to me.
SPEAKER_00: And what did he do?
SPEAKER_00: He built a boat that saved his household.
SPEAKER_00: The holy discontent of the church is this that God is as much in the business of saving souls today as he was the day Jesus crawled up on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And our heart and our passion and our burden as a church is we won't stop until the boat is built.
SPEAKER_00: We won't stop until Jesus comes back.
SPEAKER_00: There's a holy discontent in there.
SPEAKER_00: And before you think it's just about people raising their hand and saying yes in a service, I want to tell you it's not about a moment, it's about a movement.
SPEAKER_00: So what does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: That means salvation looks a lot of different ways.
SPEAKER_00: That means that God doesn't just about the only thing that he's about is about you going to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: He's also about your life right here, right now.
SPEAKER_00: He cares about you.
SPEAKER_00: Which means he wants the salvation of your home.
SPEAKER_00: There's a peace in your home and marriages restored, and he wants you to have confidence in your walk with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He he wants to make you whole.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the holy discontent of our church.
SPEAKER_00: That we want to help you build a stronger faith, a stronger family.
SPEAKER_00: We want you to have stronger friendships of people who love God and can encourage you and support you.
SPEAKER_00: And ultimately, here's what we believe: that just like Noah, God is doing something more than we can see.
SPEAKER_00: We're building a stronger future together.
SPEAKER_00: And as we do that, here's the reality of this: that other people get on the boat with us.
SPEAKER_00: We do a grocery giveaway every month.
SPEAKER_00: Bless people in the community with groceries.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because we believe they don't really care about how much you know until they know about how much you care.
SPEAKER_00: And our heart is to be here as a blessing to people in our community.
SPEAKER_00: That it's not just about packing sardines in the middle of these walls, it's about taking it out there.
SPEAKER_00: And so, what do we do as a church?
SPEAKER_00: We give away groceries.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because we believe it's the love of Jesus meeting people in the meat of one of their greatest needs.
SPEAKER_00: And a couple began coming to church from grocery giveaway.
SPEAKER_00: And last Sunday I stood up here and said, I talked about getting your life right with God.
SPEAKER_00: And they came down front at the end and they tapped me on the shoulder and they said, We're ready.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Ready for what?
SPEAKER_00: They said, We're ready.
SPEAKER_00: They said, We've been living together for 20 years, and the Lord has laid it on our heart in the middle of your message.
SPEAKER_00: I squeezed her hand and I let her know, now is the time.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna make it right with God.
SPEAKER_00: And right here, while y'all were scurrying on out to your car, they're getting married.
SPEAKER_00: On the spot.
SPEAKER_00: No wedding planner.
SPEAKER_00: It's great, and it's free.
SPEAKER_00: And I can do as many as you want right here after service.
SPEAKER_00: Because here's what we're celebrating.
SPEAKER_00: In their heart, they knew what the Lord was asking them to do.
SPEAKER_00: They could see something they couldn't see before.
SPEAKER_00: And they said, it doesn't matter if it's been 20 years, because listen, how many of you know it's not about where you've been or what you've done?
SPEAKER_00: It's about what God wants to do right here in the now, in the next, and they made it right before the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That's our holy discontent.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not just us as a church.
SPEAKER_00: What does God want to do in you, in your family?
SPEAKER_00: So start asking yourself the question, what picture am I seeing?
SPEAKER_00: And you might start thinking, well, I don't know how God sees things.
SPEAKER_00: I got a place you can find it.
SPEAKER_00: It's called the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: As you begin to read his word, here's what you're gonna do.
SPEAKER_00: Your heart is gonna begin to align with his heart.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna begin to see things not the way you see them, but the way that he sees them.
SPEAKER_00: As you spend time in prayer, listen, I know sometimes you're like pastor, this is what you're supposed to say, you say it all the time.
SPEAKER_00: But listen, as you say, spend your time in prayer, it's not just a discipline.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just a box you check, it's not a ritual, it's not just a rhythm that you have, it's a relationship that grows.
SPEAKER_00: And the more you spend time with him, guess what happens?
SPEAKER_00: The more your eyes open, the more you can see things.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, I want you to value this above all else.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because your family needs it, your spirit needs it.
SPEAKER_00: God wants to show you things that the world is not even looking at.
SPEAKER_00: But when you stop and spend time with him, here's what happens: he will start to show you things you couldn't see before.
SPEAKER_00: And one day you'll look up and you'll say, I don't know how I got here, except that the grace of God led me there.
SPEAKER_00: Three years ago, it looked like our family wasn't gonna be together.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, I love my spot.
SPEAKER_00: Because all y'all are looking at one place, but I'm looking at all y'all.
SPEAKER_00: All y'all, I'm from Texas now, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Listen, listen.
SPEAKER_00: And when I look out here on a Sunday morning, as many people as I can know, I see testimonies.
SPEAKER_00: Last service on the third row, right here, was a family that moved from Missouri.
SPEAKER_00: And as I'm preaching this, I'm thinking, they moved here from Missouri to go to M.D.
SPEAKER_00: Anderson.
SPEAKER_00: And how many of you know they needed a vision?
SPEAKER_00: How many of you know they needed the help of the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: God has held her hand for three years.
SPEAKER_00: She was given four months to live, and she's still here.
SPEAKER_00: And because a group of people said yes to something they could see that God was showing them by launching the church, she had a home away from home in her darkest hour.
SPEAKER_00: This is where God elevates us.
SPEAKER_00: We're not just celebrating what he has done, we are also allowing him to elevate our position.
SPEAKER_00: The second thing is own it.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta see it and you gotta own it.
SPEAKER_00: As I think about Nehemiah, here's what he says in Nehemiah chapter 1, verse 11 his heart was burdened for what was burdening God, and he says, Now I was cupbearer to the king.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah is really proud of his position.
SPEAKER_00: You may not think much of it.
SPEAKER_00: His job, his position, his assignment to the king was to drink his drink before the king did, to find out if there was any poison in it.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about any of y'all, but I wouldn't celebrate much with that.
SPEAKER_00: But it was a noble, prestigious position.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because he had close connection with the king.
SPEAKER_00: Not gonna allow anyone who might who might come under anyone to get in the way.
SPEAKER_00: Some of y'all like, I love that position.
SPEAKER_00: He was drinking wine all day just to make sure the king would be okay.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah was proud of his position, but here's what he says: I was cupbearer of the king.
SPEAKER_00: So in chapter 2, verse 5, he said, and I said to the king, if it pleases the king, and if it's your servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah to the city of my father's graves, that I may rebuild it.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, he didn't just see it, he owned it.
SPEAKER_00: This is my time.
SPEAKER_00: I'm right before the king.
SPEAKER_00: I have a position in life that I can do something about this holy discontent.
SPEAKER_00: And the king in verse 8 granted me what I asked for, for the good hand of my God was before me.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah took his position as a cupbearer.
SPEAKER_00: And he understood something about God.
SPEAKER_00: That God can use whatever position you're in in life.
SPEAKER_00: Any person who could proudly say, I'm a cupbearer to the king.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care what other people think.
SPEAKER_00: I know this that my position on this earth is not as much about my position on this earth as it is about my position in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And he took his position in earth and turned it as an opportunity for God to do something for the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I'm not just here by chance, I'm not here by accident.
SPEAKER_00: And Nehemiah raised his hand before the king and said, My father's homeland is still in ruins.
SPEAKER_00: Would you allow me to go back and the king granted him what he asked for?
SPEAKER_00: I want you to know this this morning that God wants you to see something maybe you haven't seen before, but he also wants you to own it.
SPEAKER_00: He wants you to hold on.
SPEAKER_00: How has God positioned you in life to do the things that he's asking you to do?
SPEAKER_00: Now I know if you're anything like me or a lot of people in this room today, you might disqualify yourself.
SPEAKER_00: The first thing out of your mouth might be, well, I'm only an electrician or I only work at H E B or I'm only a mom or I'm only a dad.
SPEAKER_00: And the first thought in our heart can be to disqualify ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: The second thing, maybe it's not about your position.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you think I'm not good enough.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you think I don't know enough of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, well, I don't know all the answers.
SPEAKER_00: I I haven't ever even prayed for someone.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to let you know today you're the exact kind of person God is talking to this morning.
SPEAKER_00: That you can own whatever it is that God has set before you.
SPEAKER_00: And when you do, listen, God will do more through you than you could have ever imagined.
SPEAKER_00: The heartbeat of this church, church statistics will say that 20% of the people do all the work.
SPEAKER_00: That 20% of the people in the life of a church do all the work.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about just sweeping the floors, and I'm saying it comes to giving, it comes to serving, it comes to any involvement in the community.
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to know that's not the heart of this church, and that's not who we are or what we are.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I believe from day one, we've been a part of a generous church.
SPEAKER_00: It's just this supernatural movement.
SPEAKER_00: We've raised a million and a half dollars to buy this land and refit this building so that we could grow into it.
SPEAKER_00: And look, what happened?
SPEAKER_00: Well, this is people who say, I want skin in the game.
SPEAKER_00: I want to own what God has before me, and they watch what God can do through them.
SPEAKER_00: So, my question for you this morning is this God is calling you to own something.
SPEAKER_00: What's he calling you to own?
SPEAKER_00: It's not a new boat.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I like to look a lot.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what he's doing: he's rewriting my picture of what success looks like.
SPEAKER_00: I had a pleasure several years ago of sitting down with a gentleman.
SPEAKER_00: I was a youth pastor at the time, he said, Can I take you to lunch?
SPEAKER_00: I said, Are you buying?
SPEAKER_00: And he said yes.
SPEAKER_00: I said, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00: Because what youth pastor doesn't want free lunch?
SPEAKER_00: And he began to tell me a story.
SPEAKER_00: We talked, we had a good lunch, and came time for the ticket, and he said, I want to tell you something.
SPEAKER_00: He said, You know, I didn't come for much, and he said, but when my father passed away, he gave me the inheritance, it was his very humble home.
SPEAKER_00: And I took that money and I began to invest it and build businesses, and the Lord has really helped me be successful.
SPEAKER_00: He said, But can I tell you one of the greatest successes of my life?
SPEAKER_00: I said, What was it?
SPEAKER_00: He said, My kids.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: He said, Well, when my kids were teenagers, they went to a Christian camp.
SPEAKER_00: And when they went to a Christian camp, God got a hold of them because listen, when you get teenagers and adults away from their everyday distractions, they can encounter the presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: He said, My kids had an encounter with God, and my family has never been the same since.
SPEAKER_00: Of all the companies, all the things I've ever done, that's the best thing that's ever happened to us.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, I just I wish that I there was a way that I could do something for other teenagers.
SPEAKER_00: And I was a youth pastor.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Oh, you can.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Well, I would like to help.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I invited you to lunch.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I'd like to help.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Okay.
SPEAKER_00: I said, we have an outreach, and we're gonna invite, I said, there's probably gonna be about 800 to 1,000 teenagers are all coming to one place for two reasons a free t-shirt and free Chick-fil-A.
SPEAKER_00: I said it costs$5,000.
SPEAKER_00: I said, but watch this.
SPEAKER_00: Every time we do this, hundreds of teenagers turn their lives over to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You want to be a part of it?
SPEAKER_00: I said, for$5,000.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, No.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, oh.
SPEAKER_00: And uh he said, I was thinking something else.
SPEAKER_00: I said, okay, well else, I don't, that's all I got, you know.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, well, we're offering scholarships to these kids for this deal.
SPEAKER_00: And and he said, he said, how much?
SPEAKER_00: I said 20,000.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, I said, do you want to be a part of it?
SPEAKER_00: He said, he said, no, something else.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I can I can do that, but something else?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, uh you gotta see what God sees.
SPEAKER_00: God had been working on my heart.
SPEAKER_00: We had gone to camp, but we weren't able to afford going to camp with as many teenagers as we had because the cost was astronomical.
SPEAKER_00: And so many of our students couldn't afford to go to camp.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't want to offer something to everyone that we really couldn't afford to let everyone be a part of.
SPEAKER_00: And so I remember sitting there because I just had the conversation with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, it would take$130,000 for us to take these kids to camp.
SPEAKER_00: I said, How how can we scholarship these kids to go to camp?
SPEAKER_00: And here I am sitting having lunch with this guy.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Well, this is gonna sound crazy, sir.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Try me.
SPEAKER_00: I said, We want to take these kids to camp because we believe when they go to camp, they can hear from God and God can change their life.
SPEAKER_00: And they don't have to wait until they're 40 years old to put their pieces back together and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: God can begin building their walls today.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, I'll pay for the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00: And he wrote a check for the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00: What did he do?
SPEAKER_00: He owned what God had allowed him to see.
SPEAKER_00: Now I know what you're thinking.
SPEAKER_00: You may be thinking, Well, I can't write a six-figure check today.
SPEAKER_00: That's not why I told the story.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why I'm telling you the story.
SPEAKER_00: Because it all started with God getting a hold of his life and giving up a picture that he could be a part of.
SPEAKER_00: What's the picture God is giving you to be a part of?
SPEAKER_00: How can you own it?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's serving, maybe that's giving away groceries, maybe that's joining a group, maybe that's giving for the first time in the life of our church.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what it is for you, but whatever it is the Lord is setting before you, will you own it?
SPEAKER_00: And the last one is this will you build it?
SPEAKER_00: Number three is will you build it?
SPEAKER_00: How does the church go into the days ahead?
SPEAKER_00: It goes into the days ahead when they make a commitment to build what God has asked us to build.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody has a part.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah chapter 2, verse 17 and 18.
SPEAKER_00: Then I said to them, You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned.
SPEAKER_00: Come, let us build the walls of Jerusalem that we may no longer suffer derision.
SPEAKER_00: And I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what God has done.
SPEAKER_00: And also of the words that the king had spoken to me.
SPEAKER_00: And they said, Let us rise up and let us build.
SPEAKER_00: So what did they do?
SPEAKER_00: They strengthened their hands for the good work.
SPEAKER_00: They strengthened their hands to build.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, today is not a five-year vision plan or strategy.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, we will add as many services as we have to add.
SPEAKER_00: We will preach as many times as we have to preach.
SPEAKER_00: We'll start whatever groups or whatever ministries we need to start to reach our community.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because God has called us to build.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we do.
SPEAKER_00: I tell it to people like this.
SPEAKER_00: I've heard it like this for a lot of years.
SPEAKER_00: We're not a cruise ship around here.
SPEAKER_00: Clearly, we are in a barn.
SPEAKER_00: Like the flies in this place are so bad.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to let you know that on Tuesday we sit down for our meetings and we can't even stay in the room.
SPEAKER_00: There's so many flies that come in on Sunday from the Ag Barn and the pigs next door.
SPEAKER_00: I got up from a meeting, I said, I gotta get out of here.
SPEAKER_00: But how many of you want to know?
SPEAKER_00: We'll build with all the flies we have to build with to do what God has asked us to do.
SPEAKER_00: If God can do this in a barn, what can He do with people who say, I'm willing, God, to do whatever it is that you're asking me to do in my family, in my home, in my community, in my faith, in my friendships, in my workplace, in my church, for my city, for the world.
SPEAKER_00: It's a heart that says, God, we're just builders.
SPEAKER_00: We're not on a cruise ship.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, I went on my first cruise and they gave you this little band, and I thought that just meant everything was free.
SPEAKER_00: So I got to the end and realized I spent like$600 in Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Pepper.
SPEAKER_00: I got an addiction problem.
SPEAKER_00: A cruise ship says, Come and sit.
SPEAKER_00: It's not an idea of a cruise ship, we're the art church.
SPEAKER_00: It's the idea that we're an aircraft carrier.
SPEAKER_00: That when you come in this place, you start to see things you didn't see out there, and God gives you a vision for things you couldn't see out there, and God restores your vision for things you couldn't see out there, and he gives you the ability to say yes and own it.
SPEAKER_00: So that then when you leave and you go to work tomorrow, you begin to build what he's asked you to build.
SPEAKER_00: And your relationships and your friendships.
SPEAKER_00: So that when you come in here and your marriage is broken and needs some restoration, that you walk up out of here and listen, some of the most fruitful time in your marriage should be on a Sunday afternoon.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because you got a deposit of a vision from heaven that you walk out of here and say, I've been selfish, I've been doing it my way, but no longer.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm gonna own what God has called me to own, and I'm gonna build what God has called me to build.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what it is for you, but I know this that when the people strengthened their hands, Nehemiah looked at the enemy who was coming against the wall, and Nehemiah said, This, you will never get us to come off this wall.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah tells her, we are not coming down.
SPEAKER_00: You can come at us with whatever you want to, but I'm not coming down.
SPEAKER_00: What is a three-year-old church to do?
SPEAKER_00: It's not to create a strategy or a formula or a plan.
SPEAKER_00: A three-year-old church is to come before the Lord and say, Lord, I want to see the way you see, I want to own the things you tell me to own, and I want to build the way you tell me to build.
SPEAKER_00: And today I make the decision.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not coming down off the wall.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm just asking you this morning, am I full of a church right here in this place?
SPEAKER_00: Presence who say, Lord, we're not coming off the wall.
SPEAKER_00: We're not coming off the wall.
SPEAKER_00: If you did all that then, what do you have next?
SPEAKER_00: Father, we come into your house and we thank you for this place.