Seeds That Outlive Us (January 17, 2026)

What if the real measure of success isn’t what you complete, but who you equip to carry it further? We open up about legacy, surrender, and the hard pivot from chasing applause to planting seeds that feed people long after we’re gone. It’s honest, a little funny, and deeply practical—especially if you’re a parent, volunteer, or leader wondering how to make your work matter beyond a season.

We talk about the trap of accumulation, the lure of recognition, and why God often invests not just in what He can do through us, but in what He wants to do after us. From Abraham’s obedience without a map to Moses’ faithfulness without finishing, we explore how Scripture reframes outcomes: God values obedience over results and faithfulness over finish lines. That lens changes how we build ministries, how we place volunteers, and how we practice excellence without ego. It also changes how we prepare the next generation—by bringing kids into the sanctuary, teaching them to sit under the Word, and modeling repentance, resilience, and responsibility at home.

You’ll hear unfiltered stories about parenting through ADHD, laughing at a billboard moment, and learning when to move and when to wait. We dig into church culture—why accountability matters, why comfort can dull conviction, and how to avoid losing teens at 18 by forming them for worship long before they “graduate.” The heartbeat of the conversation is this: delay is not denial, surrender is costly, and obedience today creates impact tomorrow. We don’t need credit; we want fruit—good fruit that nourishes families and communities we may never meet.

If you’re ready to shift your vision from temporary to eternal, from personal wins to generational blessing, this one will challenge and encourage you. Listen, share with a friend who’s leading or parenting in a tough season, and tell us: what one step of obedience will you take this week? Subscribe, rate, and leave a review to help others find the show.

Transcript

Rethinking Transition And Legacy

Beyond Accolades Toward Eternal Impact

Parenting, Provision, And Generational Blessing

Maturity, Accountability, And Church Health

Preparing Youth For Lifelong Faith

Obedience Over Outcomes

Vision, Faith, And Leaving The Finish Line

Earthly Treasure Vs Eternal Purpose

Running The Race For Others

Surrender, Delay, And Lasting Impact

Closing Prayer And Commission

SPEAKER_00 0:27

I've been invested in this idea. Actually, it's not really an idea, it's a question that I've been so invested in. I keep thinking about transition and what does that look like? Because I I'm a I'm a firm believer in a secession planning and that you should always have what I refer to as a deep bench, and this is all business talk, but you know, you never know what's gonna happen in life, right? And to have somebody ready to take the reins of something that you're gonna hand off, and I want to be very clear, I'm not talking about ministry right now. Okay, everybody take a deep breath, I'm not going anywhere. But it exists in ministry too, and so my heart has been what does ministry look like long term? And as I was thinking about it and I was praying about it, God said to me, I'm not interested just in what I can do through you. Well, that's what I've always lived for, right? What you're doing through me. And instead, he said he is investing in what he can do after me. And I went, okay, I see you, right? Because God has been preparing us for this new season in which we are currently sitting in. But we haven't fully understood or unwrapped or understood the season that God has put us in. So many of us are thankful to be in this space compared to the other space, right? I'm excited to be here because I don't have to look at that floral carpet. Right? Praise God. It's the little winds, it doesn't have to be anything major, right? It seems silly, but I was excited about what God was moving us into. But I didn't understand what God was truly preparing us for. And he was not preparing us for a new sanctuary with comfy seats and a pretty white piano. That's not what he was calling us to this season for. He was calling us to this season so that he could work beyond us, so that he could work into that future generation that just got up, left this room, and moved into another space, right? And I told you that this year would be so heavily focused on children, you guys would get sick of it, right? We'll be ready to get sick of it because I know that God has called us to think past ourselves and to think into that next generation. And I'm so excited because I know that so many people, people that I know and I love dearly, operate for applause, right? We we want people to, oh, I have the best pastor ever. Listen, you're lying to people when you tell them that. Right? There are better. I don't care what you say about there, are better. You may love me dearly, but I will tell you this. I am not the only anointed person in this house, let alone in the world, right? Now we are here for a season and I can appreciate that, but I don't do it for your accolades, I don't do it for your applause. Some people live for accumulation, right? We want to get all the things that we can get, all of the awards that we can hang on the wall, right? I'll be honest with you, I'm a little bit disappointed in some of y'all. I'm just gonna be honest. I took a video and I couldn't send it because it didn't record the way that I wanted it to. But I spent like seven minutes from the top of Midvale Hill. It wasn't seven minutes, but it felt like it. And I was recording a video while I was driving in the car and I was yammering on about how I know that the the greatest accomplishment in my life will be arriving at heaven and hearing Jesus say, Well done, my good and faithful servant, right? And then, okay, Joe, don't get excited, buddy. Because I'm don't get excited because you're not gonna think this is funny. And then when I you gotta get to the punchline, I get to the bottom of the hill and I go, but this is pretty cool too. And I flip my camera around. Has anybody noticed what's on Macaulay Drive? Only one person in this whole room, a couple of people. I'm on a billboard. What? Right? Coolest thing ever. I was like, I've arrived, right? And then I was like, wait a second, humble yourself, right? Because I'm thinking, I'm I'm bragging that I'm on this billboard. The billboard's gonna burst into flames, right? That's what I anyhow. My work put up a billboard um for my new position and and for lending and whatnot. But I was so excited that that God would have allowed me into that season because I always used to joke with my family, I'm gonna be on a billboard someday, even if I have to buy it and put it up. Right? I just always thought it would be cool, and here it is. But anyhow, some people will live for accumulation of those awards and those accolades. And I want to tell you something, those things mean nothing when you get to heaven, they mean absolutely nothing when you get to heaven. God has called his people to live for an eternal impact, not just for today's accolades, right? So everybody can love you and tell you you did all of these wonderful things in the world around you. But if you don't know Jesus Christ, you don't enter into eternal life. That's that. There's no, you don't get a do-over. You got the shot that you're living right now. This message is going to define and hopefully help us realize what it what it means to outlive the vision for ourselves and to live for the vision for the next generation and for others around us. This is not about temporary success, but about eternal purpose. Because I'm gonna tell you, I have for almost all of my life lived for temporary success. Right? Whatever I can get in this moment, however I can live. You know, my oldest son, he uh he's sitting out there, so he's gonna hear this today. But I was talking to his mom on the phone one day, and he said, she said to me, She said, You know, Aaron asked me one day, how is it that my dad can go through all of this stuff and still come out on top? That's because I'm blessed. I am blessed and highly favored. And if you ever ask me how I've gotten to where I am today, I will tell you just that. Even when God takes it away from me, I will tell you, I am blessed and highly favored because there is a reason he moved me into this season, right? And I don't ever understand, I I don't know that I have ever understood why God is doing what he's doing in my life. I just, I'm like, hey, you are you and I am me, and you are far greater than me, and I trust you with everything that I have. Now, do I panic sometimes? Absolutely. Do I do I worry a lot? Yes. But at the end of the day, when I lay my head down at the end of the night, I know that God has got a plan for my life, and I trust that. But I don't believe that He is doing it for me. He's doing it for my children, right? Because what my children see in me, I pray that they that they're able to take the good things and grow with that, right? Can I tell you, dads? I'm speaking to you right now specifically. You are what your children are looking up to. I don't care if you've got a little girl, I don't care if you have a little boy, I don't care if you have adult children. I I'll I'll be honest with you, I wouldn't be the person that I am if it weren't for my parents, right? Uh I'm gonna tell you how. When I was a kid growing up, my mom would lock us out of the house until we could tell her her name and her telephone number. Because at the time you didn't have a cell phone, right? You didn't have phone numbers. I know it makes me feel kind of old to some of you folks. I was talking to somebody this morning, it was sis, as a matter of fact. She's like, well, cell phones came out when I was like eight. And I was like, well, I was like 20, so shut up. Anyhow. It makes you feel old real quick. But we had to know those things because if we were ever lost, we would need to be able to tell them what our parents' name were and what our telephone number was, right? I've also told you guys this a million times, and I'll share it for the rest of my life. When I was a kid growing up, I never understood why in November my dad was never home in the evening. My dad would work a day job all day long. He'd come home, he would make supper, he would get in his car and he would leave, and we never understood it. He worked a second job all of those months so he could pay for Christmas for us kids. Do you think that I don't work just as hard because I watched that happen? I was blessed because of the things that my parents did for me. And so I want to bless my children, and I don't mean with material things, right? Because I'll be honest with you, we were poor. We were the kind of poor that ate hamburger helper three times a week. Because it was cheap, right? Fried eggs, but you keep the grease for it with a little. I'm not like it was a different world. I don't want my kids to see that, but I also don't want my kids to grow up to be spoiled, right? And so we have to find that balance. But what they did allowed me to grow to what I am, and I am believing that what I do will allow my children to grow. The beautiful part is it's not just my children, it is the other children that I'm surrounded by, right? And so each and every one of us, whether you have grown kids, no kids, a hundred kids, whatever, you've got to be thinking about generational blessings that go far beyond anything that you know and you understand. This is not about temporary success, but about it about eternal purpose. Genesis 12, 2. Uh, we're gonna do Genesis 12, 2 and 3. It says, and I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. Now, this next line is what I want you to hear. All of the families on earth will be blessed through you, and that is an important part of what we need to understand because God didn't just tell Abraham, I will bless you. He says, I will bless those. Is that right? Go back one. Sorry. Yeah, I stopped. Yeah, I stopped. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, right? That's exciting. I don't want to be famous. I I'm more infamous than I am famous. I had a guy say to me the other day, he's like, Hey, you look familiar. I was like, it was probably the one-ed poster hanging in the post office, right? I make that joke a lot, and then I'm like, that's probably not funny to some people. Some people are probably like, is he serious? Anyhow, he will make us famous. Now, not famous for what we do, but famous for what he does through us, right? That's what he says. But then we will be a blessing to others when we have things poured out upon us. We can pour those things out to other people. Now, I don't know. Have you ever been so blessed you don't know what to do with the blessing? That's a good feeling, right? My family and I, we've been blessed abundantly for years, year after year after year after year. And part of that blessing comes from obedience, right? We don't ever do what we think is right, we do what God has called us to do. And sometimes that's hard conversations, sometimes that's tough love, sometimes that's hard for our family to walk away from things that we love. You know, I don't know, we're going here. Uh, I had somebody say to me one time, uh, they were they were speaking into my life, and and they were, it was scripturally based, and they said that I needed to put away childish things. And and that you know, it bothered me for a long time because I thought, well, it is who I am, right? This is exactly who I am. And then I was having a conversation with some folks this morning about um children with ADHD and different types of um neurological disorders and and how we medicate them. And I remember when my wife and I had to make that decision for one of our children, it crushed us. Like we physically we cried when we made that decision because we didn't want him to feel like he wasn't worthy of our love the way that he was. But when he took that first pill and we realized that he could function in the world the way that he needed to function in the world, we were able to see the blessing in it. And then yesterday, he was sitting at the dining room table and I heard his mom say his name twice. And anytime you say this kid's name twice, and you all know who I'm talking about, but I don't even have to say the name, right? We've all experienced him. I hear his name spoken twice. I immediately come out and I say, Why did your mom say your name twice? And he said, I don't, I don't know. I'm like, she's sitting literally right next to you in the next chair. I'm gonna ask her, you might as well tell me. I don't know. And so I asked her, and she said, I've had to tell him to stop four times this morning, but the exact same thing. He looked at me and he said, I'm just being me, dad. And he wasn't medicated. Do you know how hard that is to hear as a parent? It's crushing, right? But I know that God is doing something through us in his life, even in those difficult seasons, even in those hard times. But I say that because I realize that I'm the same way that he is. In that moment, when somebody says put away childish things, it doesn't mean I can't joke and be myself, right? It says in season, you need to be mature. Like you can't just walk up into the pulpit and make crude jokes. You can't walk into the pulpit and say things that aren't glorifying to God. You can't say those things to the people around you because when you do, the body of Christ deems it acceptable. And then we pervert the word of God. And the minute that we begin to do that, we watch the church start to falter. And when the church starts to falter, then the church starts to fail. And when the church starts to fail, the church closes. I don't mean this church, I mean all the churches, right? Because let's be honest with each other, it's the season that the church is in. We're willing to accept lesser than the truth in order to be comfortable. We are willing to accept less than the truth in order to be comfortable. There are some of us sitting here going, well, I don't think that's true. You're one of those people. Right? Because I can and it this is something that I learned, and and this I we're not gonna preach my message today. You guys okay with that? We're just gonna, we're gonna let God move today. Have a family member that I love dearly, and uh got hurt by a church that they attended, and and they made this really awful Facebook post about this is why I don't go to church anymore, and they share a post about all of the reasons that they don't somebody else's opinion on why they don't go to church, right? Nobody knows why you don't do something other than you, right? You might agree with their points. Anyhow, they share this post, and I immediately see people start quoting scripture on this post. And I'm like, You're not winning. You are not winning this fight. Why are you not winning this fight? Because you are proving their point that we will abuse scripture to tell you that you are wrong for having emotions, right? And so what I did was I sent a text, I said, Hey, I just want you to know that I know you went through that, and I believe that you felt that way, but I want you to know that those people are not Jesus and that Jesus loves you no matter who you are, where you are, or what you're experiencing today. Yes, your faith is your own, but I tell you, do not forsake the gathering just because your feelings are hurt, right? And then it's time to be raw, it's time to be real. Jesus didn't leave you. You left him. You decided to drink too much. Jesus didn't decide to drink too much. You decided to be mean and hurtful. Jesus didn't tell you to do that. Amen. If we are truly looking at the next generation of the church, we have to be willing to take accountability for ourselves and what's happening in our lives. Amen. And I'll tell you, it is hard to look in the mirror and see all of the things that you have done and not be able to forgive yourself for them. Anybody been there? Hallelujah. I look in that mirror and I think, I said this to my kids one time and I acted that way towards my kids, or I've said this to a complete stranger, I've I've behaved a way that, listen, I'm not making an excuse and I'm not trying to just allow you off the hook, but I tell you, God has forgiven you for all of those things so long as you have repented and turned away from it. Don't hold yourself to a standard that you know you cannot reach. I tell you the same thing about fasting. You know, a lot of people go into fasting and they say, Hey, I'm just I'm fasting, period. I'm gonna do a Daniel fast. That's water and nuts, right? No thanks. Why would I set myself up for failure? Like, I love a good handful of cashews. The Bible tells us man does not live on bread alone, right? No, that's because he lives on Little Debbie. I'm kidding. He lives on the word of God. But I'm saying that I know that that is not for me in season, and I'm not trying to do that to myself. There are people who can do it. Good for them. God bless them. But it is not for me. Why would I show my children that I just do this just to fail? Just to walk away. I'm gonna tell you something. My children have seen me fail. They've watched it, they've watched it unfolded, they have watched me fail them, they have watched me fail their mother, they have watched me fail the world, they have watched me fail God, but they have always seen me stand back up and keep going. I have never, never said enough is enough and walked away. Even in the darkest moments, even in the hardest times, even when I thought there was not hope, I still stood up and continued to press on because I knew, I knew that God was gonna do something good. I knew he was gonna do something good. And I'll be honest with you, I'm still waiting for some of those things because my heart says this is what he's gonna do. But that's my heart, that's not his plan. God's promises are not always personal, sometimes they're generational. I will bless you so that your children are blessed. Right? I will lead you to the promised land so that your children can enter with you. Right? That's what God does for us every day. We choose whether or not to walk in what God has called us to walk in. Abraham never saw the fullness of the promised land in his lifetime, of that promise in his lifetime, but he walked in obedience ever anyway. And why is that? Because vision is not always about what you see. Sometimes vision is about what you believe. Right? Prophetic vision is not always about what you see, sometimes it's about what you believe. I was having a conversation with Pastor Holly last night, and it was a really intense conversation, and I told her this last night. I have a hard time in those conversations with her because she is so much more versed in dreams and in visions, and she'll say to me, I had this dream, and I'm like, I'm speechless because I ain't never had a dream like that before, right? I've never seen anything so real that I don't know how to describe it to somebody. And I was standing there and I said to her, I said, but as fast as it comes, it will go. As fast as it will come, it will go. And I want to, I wanna, I want to speak that into your life today. Because I know that some of us are probably sitting in a place where we don't know what's next and we feel worried or stressed about what God is doing in our lives, or what maybe what we don't think is God, but what God is really doing in our life, I want to tell you that if you are stressed today, as fast as it comes, it will go. As fast as it comes, it will go. Vision always requires faith that will outlive your comfort. Right? I am not comfortable in many social settings. Do you know where I am the least comfortable? In groups of men. Why is that? Because I'm not a man's man, right? I like my dress shoes and my dress pants. Like if I would have been alive in the 1920s, I would have been in my heyday, right? Three-piece suit everywhere I went. Although I always wanted one of those big old handlebar mustaches, but I can't grow one of those to save my life, so I ain't even trying that. But I know that I don't throw, you know, Pastor Roger, this man would go out, jump on a deer's back, stab it with a pocket knife, and ride it all the way home. Right? Like he's a man's man, right? It's true. Look around at the legacy members of this church. That's what they do. You got Al. I mean, this dude's throwing round bales. I couldn't push one with everything I had. I probably couldn't pick it up with a tractor. Right? You got Harry, you got, and these men are men's men, right? And so I put myself in that position and I'm like, this is not for me. I feel less than. I don't feel worthy. I don't feel like I should be there. And I remember that when God said to me, He said, You are called to be in those circles. You are called to speak life into those men. It is not because of how you dress, it is not because of what you think. You are called to speak life into those men. And I will tell you, I remember Pastor Holly was there, Pastor Roger was there. I got invited to do a devotion at a uh at a four-square event over in Denison, and there are some men's men in those pastoral roles. And I walked in there and I just told them I was like, I am no longer a boy among men, I am a man among men. I have every right to be here. Just and I didn't say it like that, and I didn't mean it like that. My heart wasn't, but I was I was letting them know that God had finally made me realize that I was worth more than what I was of what I was valuing myself. Listen, that's not for me, that's for the next generation, right? Because I have to outlive that comfort. Hebrews 11. Is that what that is? It says, It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave his home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. Can I tell you that is ministry in a nutshell? You go having no idea where you are going. And when I say that, I'm not talking about running a church. I'm not talking about having a full-time ministry like Table Talk, or I'm saying that your life is ministry. Especially if you're raising children right now. Right? Because you should be speaking life into those children. And I'm gonna tell you something, you don't know where those children are gonna go. I have a firm belief, a firm belief, and many of you young adults, I hope that you concur. We keep children in children's ministry until they're seniors in high school, 17, 18 years old, right? And then we give them the boot to big kid church. They are not prepared for this. They get here and they're like, that dude's boring, the music sucks, and I don't want to be here anymore. And then they stop showing up for church. And all of the adults are going, Well, what happened? We didn't prepare that generation for church. We didn't allow them to understand what an anointing was. We didn't teach them how to sit quietly in a seat. They want to be entertained, not taught. They want to be coddled and not corrected, right? It's our fault. We have done this, we have created this church culture that says children don't have to understand what it means to sit. Listen, Emmett sits here every Sunday, arms crossed, he takes notes sometimes. He's not today, apparently, didn't even bring his Bible. That's fine. I'm not holding it against you. I'm not taking notes, I'm not keeping track, right? But there are some people as adults that can't sit through church, right? They gotta get up and they gotta, I'm uh just, I need to listen, I understand. Some of us, some of us legacy members, and I I consider myself one of them now, we gotta use the bathroom a little more often than we used to, right? And I get that, but here's the thing. If you can sit and watch a two-hour movie without getting up and going to the bathroom, I think you can sit through 40 minutes of me yammering on without getting up and going to the bathroom, amen. Right? And here's the thing, I I just I can't I can't understand why that's the culture that we would want to teach our children. They're growing up in church and they need to understand what it is to sit under the word of God, not under a pastor, under the word of God. Amen. Because I will tell you something. Somebody asked a question one time how much authority does a pastor have in my life? You know what my answer was? None. Zero. I don't have any authority in this stinking building, right? I show up and I do what God has called me to do. If you call me and you ask me a question, Pastor Michael, I'm thinking about doing X, Y, or Z, and I uh let me pray about that, but I don't think that's a good idea. And God challenged me with that one just a week ago, two weeks ago. I got a text message that was like, hey, I need you to do this thing, and I was like, mm-mm. Not today, not today. Lord, give me the give me the words, give me the wisdom, give me the strength, because I know this is not you calling me, this is a trap, right? This is a trap, and it's a trap designed to look like it's you doing the right thing. I don't think so. Because doesn't Satan show up with that? Show up with the shiny, show up with the pretty box? Hey, if you do this, this will make everything all better. And then you do it, and for a minute it feels better, and then all of a sudden it's not better, right? Listen, that's what we're doing to the kids today, the church today, they are being spoiled by parents who won't tell them what it means to sit and to listen and to understand what an anointing is, to understand what a move of the spirit is, right? The only way that they learn that is if we teach it to them. So what happens is we lose them at 18 years old, right? They're like, I ain't doing this anymore, and they bounce out. And it's even worse for pastors' kids, right? Because they're forced to be at church four times a week. If we're here, they're here. If the building is open, typically, they are in the building with us. So we lose them until about 25 or 26. It's the English Rumspringer. Sorry. And we lose them because they haven't known what it means to be in church. But we have planted a seed, and what happens is they start to realize that they're missing something in their life. The thing that they've tried to fill with a new car, with a new apartment, with you know, shiny new shoes or whatever it may be, and they find themselves in debt up to their eyeballs or in a bad relationship or hurt because of whatever, and they realize I'm missing God. And then they slowly start to come back. But do you know how hard it is to fix that? And I don't mean for them, all they've got to do is walk in and say, you know, hey, here I am. But for the church, because the hurt becomes so real, the loss and the confusion, it becomes so real that it's hard to navigate. It's hard to navigate with people who have been in the church all their lives, right? You know what develops over time, and those of us who come day in and day out, week in and week out, you know what develops? Spirit of religion. A spirit of religion. We sit here and we think, well, Florence would have never done that. Well, let me tell you what, my last church, that pastor would have never. And it comes down to things like the types of shoes that your pastor wears, the type of car that he drives. He drives a nice car, you pay him too much. He drives a junkie car, he must not be a very good pastor. Right? We gotta find the right in-between vehicle, right? If he carries a Bible that's too nice, he must not read it very much. If he carries an old junkie Bible, what? Can he not afford a new one? It's the truth, and that's what happens in the church. We come here, we get complacent, and we say those things in the car ride on the way home. And who's in the back seat? So be careful what you say to your kids about me. Because I'll tell you, ain't no better truth teller than a kid. Right? It's really terrible, in my opinion, it's really terrible that we allow the children to see the imperfection in us day after day. The same stuff that God has called us to fix, right? We are not perfect, we will never be perfect. But when we put it on display for our children and we allow our children to see the mean and hurtful things that we do, it is a real problem because that generation grows up thinking that is what church is like, that is normal in the church. You know, one of the things that I have I've had to learn is that I will move when God says move. Right? And sometimes that's before everybody else around me. That's God says, hey, I need you to lead the charge on this. The harder part is when he says, I need you to wait. Because I'm not supposed to be in charge of everything. Right? I told Beth when she asked, her and I were talking about the food pantry before it launched, and I said to her, I said, I'm gonna tell you something right now. I will support you, I will help you, but I don't want to run it. I don't want to manage it. It's a lot of work, right? And it's something that I don't have the energy to put into because I'm so invested in other things. I've told the tech team the same thing. Listen, I'm not touching that for you anymore. You guys have to know how to do that because I am focused on Sunday morning service. I want to focus on pouring out what God has put into me for you guys. I don't want to be worried about the other thing. Listen, it's all things ministry, that's how it works, right? At the end of the day, I'm accountable for it. Not just to our denomination, but to God, right? But I don't it our ministry has to be built on trust. You have to trust that I'm looking out for you, and I have to trust that you're looking out for me. Sometimes that's hard, right? Sometimes that's really, really hard. But we have to understand that when God says wait, we wait. When God says move, we move. I will always obey God, even if it doesn't benefit me directly. If God says to me, I want you to bless this person, or I want you to move out of this season into this season, I want you to shift focus from this to that, especially when the focus is on something that I love dearly, right? When he says, No more of that, more of this. I don't like that. But I have to be obedient in order for us to continue to bless the following generation. Uh, we're gonna go to Deuteronomy 34, 4. And it says, Then the Lord said to Moses, This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when I said, I will give it to your descendants. I have now allowed you to see it with your own eyes, but you will not enter the land. Moses led faithfully, and yet he never stepped into the promised land. He led faithfully. But I need you to understand something. Completion, completion is not required in order to be faithful. Completion, that means you don't have to get to the end of the line in order to be faithful because what is faith based on belief, right? I believe that God is good all the time, and all the time that God is good, amen. And if God is good all of the time, then all I have to do is continue to live faithfully, and all of the blessings will be poured out upon those who are meant to be blessed. Can I tell you? I had somebody call me a while back and they needed some help with something, and I was like, I can't personally do that, but I know somebody that can. Right? And as much as I wanted to take credit for that blessing, that wasn't me, that wasn't the person who did it, that was God pointing them in the right direction. That was God moving through that situation. That is a blessing. But see, I didn't see that to completion. Somebody else did, but that doesn't mean there wasn't blessing in it. It doesn't mean that there wasn't blessing. He never stepped into the promised land, yet Moses did not fail. We still consider him a hero of the faith, although he did not enter into the promised land. Why? Because he led faithfully, right? He was obedient. Listen, I'm on a kick this year with being obedient and surrendering, right? Because I'm telling you that the church doesn't survive without obedience and surrender. Not obedience to your pastor, not surrender to church doctrine, to God, and God alone. That is where you will find grace and mercy. I will tell you, I am not very merciful. I don't like that about myself, but I tend to be that way. I tend to look at a situation and say, you promised and you didn't deliver. It's black and white for me, right? How many of us feel that way? If you tell me you're gonna be there, I want you to be there. If you say I'm gonna take care of that, I want you to. If you say four o'clock, I mean four o'clock, right? Now I live with my wife, so four o'clock really means 4 15, but you get what I'm saying, right? Like there's an expectation, and so I'm not very graceful and merciful, but I want grace and mercy myself. It doesn't work like that, church. If you want grace and mercy, you must give grace and give mercy. God values obedience over outcomes all day, every day. All day, every day. If you are obedient to the calling of God, that is better than the outcome. I'll tell you, I wanted children's ministry launched by the end of January, right? And when I say launch, I'm talking like a rocket ship launched, like three, two, one blast off. There's no slow rollout, there's no, but it's not realistic, right? Well, my question is if that's supposed to be the outcome, why are we not there? Well, we're not there because, well, it costs money, first of all, and unless somebody wants to give us a bunch of that right now, it doesn't happen overnight. We have to pray about those things. It's not about the outcome, though, it's about the obedience. When God said that we are going to focus on the children this year and to let the children come unto him, that's our goal, right? The obedience to the to the mission is more important than reaching that final outcome. And we can't speed run anything, right? Life is not a race, it is not a sprint, it is a marathon that we will each finish in our own time, right? Some of us faster than others, but I promise you, God is calling you to a ministry, to a position, and I don't mean um, you know what I mean. He's calling you to a mission, he is calling you to a place where you can thrive. And some of us we just we can't see those callings in our lives, right? God is uh listen, Miss Becky, if I could make you the hugger in chief, that would be your job in our church. There's listen, there is nobody I love getting a hug more from than Miss Becky, right? She gives the best hugs. Why does she give the best? I don't know. I couldn't describe why she gives the best. She just does. Okay? All right? If I can give everybody in here a job based on what I see, because the problem is you're looking for what you see as value, not what God sees as value, right? And so we oftentimes we don't see the value in our own lives through the lens of ministries, through the lens of God. Listen, we ain't all cut out to be door greeters. One of the things to be a door greeter is you have to wear deodorant. Is that a fair statement? I'm not trying to be mean, right? But if you are the face of the of the building, you're the first one. You listen, we had you guys almost had a guest speaker this morning. Did you know that? This crowd of people rolled through the door, come in, sat down, started making themselves comfortable. Dave said, I think they're at the wrong church. I said, You find a polite way to ask that question. Turns out he was a guest speaker over at UCF. They'd have been disappointed. Well, I'll let him preach. Anyhow. And then we'll live stream and we'll send it to them. Be like, here, you can play this next week for him. That's not funny. It's not funny. It's not funny, it's just a joke. What was I talking about? Lord have mercy. Greeters, yes. If you are the face of the church, if your job is to welcome people into the building and that crowd of people comes to the building and you're standing out there and holy genes stinking to high heaven, do you think that that feels welcoming to somebody? The answer is no, right? Listen, if you're smelly, that's okay. You can be smelly here. I don't mind. I don't mind. I just don't want you being a door grader, right? I I can find a place for you, but that it doesn't need to be at the door. The thing is, is equally, you don't need people who don't like children in children's ministry. If you don't like kids, you don't work with kids. Now, this seems like common sense to us, right? All of these things seem like common sense, but they're not in ministry. Because one of the things that I've learned in ministry is you can't fire a volunteer. Because some of them keep showing up. Like, hey, I'm not gonna need you on the door anymore. They're there every other Sunday standing at the door. That's sometimes ministry is difficult in that way. We as a church have to do better at accountability and making people understand why there are good and bad things that we do inside of the house, right? We we want all of the things I'm all about spirit of excellence. I love to operate in a spirit of excellence. Everything I do, I want it to look good, sound good, smell good, taste good, whatever, right? I don't want to produce half done anything. I want it to sound right and look right, and that's important to me because I am called into that spirit of excellence, right? The problem is, is then I start calling people alongside me, like, hey, if you're gonna work with me, I need you to, I need you to level up, and then they don't level up and they don't understand why I don't trust them to do. Right? Well, Pastor Michael, why did you do that? Why didn't you have me to do that? It's because you haven't produced in the past, right? And when I say that to you, you're like, Well, you're mean. No. I'm just telling you what you need to know so that you can level up, right? Those phone calls aren't fun for me. When you call me and you're upset and you're like, Well, I didn't get to, why didn't I? Listen. I want you guys to understand what it means to level up. Not for us, not for you, not for me, not for this building, but for the next generation of the church. Because that's what we're supposed to be doing. We know that this is the season that we are in. Hallelujah. Completion is not required in order to be faithful. God always values obedience over outcomes and faithfulness over finish lines. If you teach the next generation to follow God, you did not miss your calling. You achieved it. Right? Thank you, Dale. Appreciate you, brother. Maybe you're the only one that can clap today. I don't know. And everybody else's hands are broken. Maybe we'll teach a class and how to get excited. I don't know. I thought we were in a Pentecostal church, but maybe we became Methodist overnight. I don't know. Anyhow, stop it. Stop it. Jesus has shifted, should be shifting our vision every single day from earthly to eternal. John 6 27. It says, but don't be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval. Are you ready? Jesus has constantly redirected people from the temporary bread to the bread of life, to eternity. He has shifted kingdoms from earthly kingdoms to heavenly kingdoms and from personal gain to eternal purpose. Every turn, Jesus says it's not about you, it's about the kingdom of God. And every turn, that is Jesus' main focus. And yet, so many times we miss it. Matthew 6, 19, it says, maybe, no, I'll just read it here. Don't store up treasures here on earth. Store your treasures in heaven. Where your vision ends, your treasure will follow. If all you're worried about is this earth, that's where your treasures are going to be laid up. Right? And you're going to have all the certificates on the wall. Listen, I work with a lady, wonderful lady. I saw her LinkedIn the other day. How many of you guys use LinkedIn? Literally nobody in this room. I feel it's sort of like do you update it? I have I like only by force. Only when I absolutely have to. It's just it's a platform for businesses and people who are, you know, anyhow. I have one lady I work with, and it's her name, and then it's followed by all of these like four-letter, I don't even know what they stand for. I work with the lady, and I'm like, I don't, what is any of that? Right? All of those certificates can hang on your wall. You can earn the presidential medal of freedom. Right? You can get your picture with the president, you can do all of the things and get your picture on a billboard. You can do all of the things that feel right and feel good and still not enter into the kingdom of heaven. It is possible if you store up those riches on earth rather than those riches in heaven. All right, two minutes. We're gonna speed run. Are you ready? Second Timothy 4:7. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I remained faithful. Paul understood something far more powerful than the church today understands. He understood that he was planting churches that he would not lead. He is planting churches all over that he will never lead. I'll tell you what, he knew that he was writing letters for gen that generations would read, and he is running a race that others will finish. Amen. In all of his writing, he is never pointing to himself, he is always pointing to God, he is always pointing to Jesus. He understood that it was not about him and it was about everybody else. You don't have to live forever to leave an eternal legacy. And when I say eternal legacy, I don't mean they're gonna go, you know what? Pastor Michael did that. I remember when we had our Christmas party here, Ken Groves, known this man for many years. He walked into this building, he walked into this room, he goes, Whoa, I didn't expect this in Ericksville. Right? And I looked at him and I said, God is good. And that was it. I didn't say, Man, we worked hard on this, we had to raise all this money. I didn't do that. I said, God is good because I knew that that in that moment it was not about me. Now he he comes from a Baptist church, so he was like, This was not what he is used to from a from a spiritual background, from a faith walk. And so it was surprising to him to see this. Acts 20, 24. It says, My life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned to me by the Lord Jesus. Now let me tell you something. That is Pentecostal fire. Amen. My life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned to me by the Lord Jesus. Listen, you have each and every one of you have been assigned a work through the Lord, right? You need to recognize it and you need to work towards completion. It doesn't have to be finished by you, but you have to launch it, you have to start it, right? And there are lots of questions about well, what does that look like for me? What does that look like for me? I don't know. You need to pray about it. You need to pray about it because God is the one who is going to reveal that to you. All right, this is my last point. I know we're over, but you're just gonna have to bear with me. God's vision requires. Anybody want to guess? Surrender! There it is. We're getting used to this one, right? Not just dreaming. Our visions will tarry, right? And they'll change and they'll they'll adjust. They'll they'll oftentimes what we want will oftentimes be adapted to what we can afford or what we think God wants in our lives versus what God actually wants in our life. I need to tell you something, and I need this is serious, right? Ready? Are you turning on your listening ears? Isn't that what they used to do in school? You turned on your listening ears, right? I heard a joke the other day, it says, Don't be friends with Chris, because if Chris crossed applesauce, who knows what it'll do to you? Now, that only works for us middle-aged folks, right? Because that's how we sat. Can anybody sit down like that and then stand back up? Can anybody do that? I don't think I could ever do that again. I think I ripped my pants again, but anyhow. Delay, ready? Delay does not mean denial. Right? I need you to hear this. Just because it's not happening today doesn't mean it's never happening. It means it's not happening today, right? It might happen tomorrow, it might happen six months down the road, it may happen 10 years down the road. Just because it doesn't happen today does not mean that it won't happen. Are you ready? This is the big one. Obedience today creates impact tomorrow. Ooh, I'm not gonna lie to you, that was a Chat GPT quote. Here's the reason. I'm just I'm being honest with you, here's the reason. I wrote something similar to that. I was like, man, it's not, it doesn't catch, right? It's not fire. And I was like, chat, help me out with this. And it was like, oh, here you go. Obedience today creates impact tomorrow. Hear me. If you can be obedient to the to the voice of God today in your life, it will create great impact tomorrow. Not for you, for the generations to come. Not just for you, but for the generation for come to come. I want God to use my life for eternal purposes. I don't want him to use it so that I am built up here on earth. I want him to use me for eternal purposes. I want my obedience to bless generations, not just my family, but the families around me. It is my desire, and I think about this every day, and I know this sounds wild, but if I were to leave this church today, what happens to it? Right? You can build anything you want, but to walk away is hard, right? I I think about the the jobs that I have left and the things that I have done there, and then to just walk away, and you always think the worst, somebody's gonna run that into the ground, right? I'm trusting God that all things will be made better because of the work that I have put in and the calling that He has put on my life. I don't, I don't need credit. I want fruit. I want good fruit, right? I want to produce big, healthy fruit that people can eat off of and people can be sustained by. Vision that outlives you will require surrender that costs you. Right? So when it's time to surrender, there will be a cost. I say it every week. I'm gonna keep saying it for probably the next four weeks. I need you guys to understand something. In this season that we're in, we need to repent, turn from our sins, surrender our lives to God so that we can live fully in what God is doing in our lives. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, I thank you for the blessings that have been poured out upon this place today. Father, for for your word that speaks so heavily into our lives. Lord, I want us to all be standing here together, knowing that we have fought a good fight and that we will continue to fight so long as that's what you have called us to do. Lord, that that we are we are building depth on our bench personally, in our ministries, in our lives, Father, that we we may be able to go far beyond anything that our imagination can possibly perceive. Father, we are limited by the body that we are in, but you are unlimited in all of your glory. I thank you for your grace and your mercy, and Father, I pray that each and every one of us can be more graceful, more merciful, Father, that we can bless the world around us. I'm praying for surrendered hearts right now. For those who are sitting in their seats, arms crossed, hard-hearted, Father, speak to them right now in the mighty name of Jesus. In the mighty name of Jesus. Oh, Father. I believe that you're doing a work in somebody right now. That there's a melting of that heart. They're not focused on themselves right now, that they're focused on you, Lord. You're speaking so real to them. Oh, Jesus, thank you so much. Father, we thank you. Lord, bless us as we leave this place. Give us guidance and direction. Allow us to understand the calling in our lives. Allow each one of us to know that we are not washed up, that we are not cast aside, Father, but that we are valuable in the kingdom of God today and forever. Lord, we thank you. We give you praise, honor, and glory in the mighty name of Jesus and the church says, Amen. We love you guys. We'll see you Wednesday night.