Don't Settle Here I 2025 Vision Weekend I Pastor Kendrick Vinar

What if settling for "good enough" is actually holding you back from God's best? Drawing from Numbers 32, Pastor Kendrick challenges us to avoid the trap of spiritual comfort, like the tribes who chose to stay east of Jordan rather than claim their full promised inheritance. Through remarkable growth in 2025—over 1,200 new guests and 323 lives transformed—Grace Church demonstrates what's possible when we keep taking bold steps of faith. Ready for an adventure in 2026? Join a transformative journey of discipleship, expansion, and deeper prayer as we refuse to settle for less than God's vision. Don't miss this season of new beginnings!

📖 Key Scripture: Isaiah 43:18-19
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Join us next week for another life-giving word from Grace Church of Chapel Hill!

Transcript

I just love hearing those stories of lives changed and really ties into what we're gonna be talking about today, which is we call this Vision Weekend. And it's really one of my favorite weekends because this is what we do real simply. We're gonna look back and give thanks to the Lord and honor him for his goodness and his blessings to us this year. You know, it's interesting. Jesus healed one story where he healed 10 lepers, but only one of the 10 came back and said, thank you.

And I don't know about you, but like, that always challenges me. I go, lord, I want to be the one that comes back. And we want to do that today is kind of come back and thank the Lord. But then we also want to look forward. Lord, what do you have for us in the future and what are you saying to us and what vision do you have for us?

And so that's what we're going to do today. Now, in looking back, we're going to talk through some numbers, some stats and stuff like that. But I want you to know this a little bit like that video right there. We are at Grace Church. We like to say it this way.

We're an everyone church. And it's in two sense, Every one and everyone. Okay, what do I mean by that? Jesus said he would leave the 99 for the 1. And God cares about the One.

And really, let me just say this. That's what it's all about at Grace Church. We're focused on the one. Between services today, someone came up to me and just shared kind of what he's going through in his marriage, and he's going through some tough stuff. I just, I said, email me.

I said, we'll do everything we can to help you. I was really touched. I mean, I wasn't in my notes, but I was like. I said, I'm in to help you best I can. We'll throw the whole kitchen sink at it.

All we can do. We will try to help. Let me just say this. It's all about the One. And it takes every one to win the One.

Like, we're better, stronger together. What we can do together and what we've done by the grace of God is nothing that any one person can do. It's really the beauty and the power of community. It's the church, the ecclesia, the gathering of God's people. We get together and we move in one direction.

It really is a miracle that we do that right? And that we're able to do that. Like that is supernatural role that's supernatural, does not happen beyond someone's. The individual pieces added up. It's powerful.

It's an everyone church, that everyone matters to God, and we make a difference one person at a time. And it takes every one of us. Cause let me just tell you this. Systems don't change people. Y' all know that.

Like a system, a process, a church in some sense of an entity. Like, at the end of the day, it's all about people, y'. All. It's one person at a time. And that's what really people help people.

God uses people to change people. And I just want to say this. I am so proud of you, and I love you as a church, because I hear by God's grace, over and over. I came into Grace Church, and I tell you what, people were so friendly and made me feel comfortable, made me feel welcome. I got invited to a small group, and, you know, we were talking in staff meeting the other day, and someone was talking about this new person, and someone on staff went, meant this, said, you mean Stephen?

And it was like, yeah. And it actually became a little theme. I said, you mean Stephen and Zeb. And I said that. I said, zeb and I, we're stealing that from you because you mean Stephen means this is.

It's all about the one. It's all about the one. And that's true in all of our lives. And so we want to make a difference. We want to making the impact 1%.

And by God's grace, it's, y', all, it's working like God. Like, Like God's got the. The gospel works. And, And Jesus said, I'll build my church. And, and, and, and, and as we do life together, as we love one person at a time, care for one person, believe in one person.

Every single person that comes to church, we are gonna love you unconditionally, wholeheartedly. We're gonna be true to God's word and all that, but we're gonna help people take steps. And, and, and, and. And then it just starts. Like, Holy Spirit gets working, Something whoosh happens, and then you start winning.

And let me just tell you, here's the challenge. This is what we're gonna talk about today. The challenge is once you start winning and things are going well, it's easy at some point to settle and say, hey, things are going pretty well. Let's just do that again. Let's just play it safe.

Let's just rewind and play. Let's just stay comfortable. Let's not take any risks. Let's just roll out our 2026 vision statement, which is this. Don't screw it up.

Isn't that inspiring?

There's just a natural momentum. Things are kind of happening. And so we can just sort of like kind of keep it going, play it safe. Y' all know there's a life cycle in organizations, businesses and churches. And just say this today's message.

By the way, I'm giving y' all two applications today. Like, the whole time. If you can keep, like, two things tracking in your head, think me, my family, if you're married. And then we can think Grace Church. But it really applies to all of us.

And what can happen is this when we're young, when we're starting out, you're starting a business, starting a church, whatever. You're kind of entrepreneurial, take a risk. Like, maybe if you God doesn't show up, this thing ain't happening. You know, and it's exciting and it's fun and it's risk taking. It's bold faith, and it's trust the Lord.

And then what happens is your business gets going, you have some success, your church gets some wins or whatever, and you go, okay, well, now we have something to lose. We have something to protect. Let's just play it safe. And let me just tell you this, y'. All.

That's what happens in organizations, businesses, churches. And if I may say, it can happen in your life and my life, where we just say, hey, I'm just gonna settle. I'm gonna settle in right here. And what I wanna do is I wanna share a story with you from the Old Testament about settling. And what we're gonna do after that is then make application to our personal lives.

And we're gonna make application to Grace Church. And the story comes from numbers, chapter 32. Numbers, chapter 32. Might be kind of fun for you to go back. I'm gonna read a couple verses, but you might wanna go back.

You might enjoy going back, reading the whole story. Cause the whole chapter's on this story. And let me give you the context. You know, God's people, Joseph ended up with, you know, his brothers, and the 12 tribes, you know, ended up in Egypt, they end up enslaved 400 years. Moses delivers God's people out of Egypt, and then they go wander in the promised land for 40 years.

Eventually, Moses dies and Joshua becomes the leader. And God's called Joshua to lead God's people into the promised land. Well, they have a couple of nice little victories. Okay, and in numbers, chapter 32, this is where we are Joshua is the relatively new leader. They had two nice wins.

And they're just east of the Jordan river, looking out over the promised land. And this is what happens. Numbers 32 says this. The Reubenites and Gadites. Now, the Reubenites and Gadites, you'll say, who are they?

It's actually two of the 12 tribes. You know, there was Judah and Reuben was one and Gad was another. So the Reubenites and The Gadites are two of the 12 tribes, and they're all traveling together, right? For 40 years, all right? About to go into the promised land.

So the Reubenites and Gadites, who had very large herds and flocks, saw that the lands of Jazer and Gilead were suitable for livestock, which was where they were camping, okay? And so they said, this land's suitable. It works. It's solid, it's doable. Pretty good, okay?

So they came to Moses and Eleazar the priest, and to the leaders of the community. They said, hey, Ataroth, Dibon, blah, blah, blah, people's names. The land. You like that. Just saved myself, you know, having to spell things phonetically in my notes.

The land the Lord subdued before the people of Israel are suitable for livestock. And your servants have livestock. Now look at. Here's their. This is their request.

Next verse. If we found favor in your eyes, they said, let this land be given to your servants as our possession. Do not make us cross the Jordan. I mean, here's the Jordan. There's the promise.

Just let us stay here. We don't wanna cross the land. This land here is our inheritance. We're good with this. It's suitable, it's good enough.

Got some issues. Whatever. We're gonna go with what we see. We're gonna go with what we know. Let me pull up a map and show you what this looks like for you.

See, here's the Dead Sea is down in the south, flowing from the north is the Sea of Galilee down to the Dead Sea. And the Promised Land was over here where Jerusalem is. And, you know, we could give you a lot more details, but Gad and Reuben, they said, we wanna settle here on the east side. We wanna settle here. And Moses, you can read it in numbers 32.

I'm not gonna read you all the verses. He calls em out like, hey, what y' all thinking? You know, we all been, you know, they spent 40 years traveling together about to go into our promised land. And now y' all are gonna, like, discourage everybody else from stepping out in faith and doing what God's called them to do. And I think ultimately, Moses goes, like, I think he.

He knew this is your plan, not God's plan, and I want God's best for you. And he tries to kind of press them. And the Reubenites and Gadites go, hey, like, we're good. We'll help them get into the promised land. But we want to come back here.

We just want to stick with what's suitable, with what we know. We want to just stick with what we have right here. Now, let me just tell you this. I think y' all can see the parallel. The same can be true for you and me, can it?

That you get some wins under your belt, you get some success, and you go, pretty good suitable. It's doable. Like, don't make me cross the Jordan. Don't make me take a risk. Don't make me step out.

Don't make me go to the next level and, like, become a leader, you know, of a small group at church. Or don't make me get uncomfortable. Don't make me, like, I like to just kind of hang here. And let me just say this. I think that's inside of all of us.

And there's a measure of, like, where we're comfortable. We repeat something. Part of that's good, but part of it is we just get settled and we just think, this is it. And when you're young or you're entrepreneurial, starting a new business, starting a new church, whatever. Like, when I was young, you know, I graduated from college, I was teaching math and physics, coaching basketball.

And in this environment that there was, I'll be honest, just a little bit of, like, unhealthy dysfunction. And there was, like, this discussion at the teacher's lounge about there's some fear being fired, you know, and people getting let go, you know, And I was kind of going around, and I remember I said this to everybody. I'm like, what are y' all talking about? I said, God got me this job. Only God can fire me.

I'm not afraid. I'm just trusting God, you know? And, you know, I sounded all bold and tough, and maybe there's a little bit of faith in there, but I was also, like, 22, making $17,000 a year. I had, like, nothing to lose, really. I mean, and the other teachers, like, they got families and they've been there and they're making more money.

And see, once you've got more to protect, like, what are you gonna do, like, repossess my 1980 Honda Civic? Like, it was like, I just didn't have much to risk here, you know, like. But let me say this. In our lives, you make some progress, and it's good. It's a blessing of the Lord.

But at this one point, you think, hey, maybe. Maybe at this point, I should just play it safe. Now, I don't believe in being reckless. I don't believe in being foolish following the Lord. Let me say grace, Church.

We're very wise. We're, you know, like all that. But let me tell you something.

Playing it safe isn't safe.

Y' all know that. Playing it safe actually isn't safe.

And God calls us to continue to take steps of faith. And if you're gonna fulfill your purpose, if you're gonna get into your promised land, then God will continually ask you to take steps of faith to risk. Like, you don't outgrow it. You don't go, well, you know, like, I'm in my 50s now. I'm pretty good.

I've taken some chances. I've taken some risks. I can kind of just mail it in from here. But let me just tell you this. It's not all the time, but I'm telling you what, God will lead you to the Jordan, and you look out and go.

And part of you will say, I don't want to cross the Jordan. Don't make me cross the Jordan. Don't make me take a chance again. Don't make me be vulnerable again. Don't make me risk it again.

I don't know if I want to step out. Like, I'd rather stay in the boat. I'd rather stay in the boat. In fact, I like to go on a cruise in the Caribbean and just eat and eat and eat on the boat, you know? And Peter was in the boat with Jesus, right?

And sometimes it was like, I'll just stay in the boat with Jesus and go on a cruise and let me just sort of cruise coast. And let me tell you this, y'. All, Let me tell you this. You don't outgrow taking risks and taking chances. Jesus will invite you.

Want to step out of the boat? Want to walk on water? Hey, Abraham, I know you're old. Are you willing to sacrifice your son? Hey, Esther.

I know you spent your whole life and, Esther, you climbed to this position of authority, but would you risk at all?

I mean, she was comfortable. She arrived. It all came together. And I'm just telling you, you see in scripture, over and over and over and over, God calling his kids to keep trusting him, to keep stepping out, to keep following to keep. To stay on the adventure.

And if you want to fulfill your purpose and walk into your promised land, you gotta keep stepping out and trusting. Because this is what they said. Listen to what they said. We don't want to claim the Reubenites and Gadites. Down a little further, verse 15.

We don't want to claim any of the land on the other side of the Jordan. Can I just note this notice? It didn't say, we don't want to claim any of the promised land.

They just said, you know, that land on the other side of the Jordan.

We would rather live here on the east side and accept this as our grant of land, as our inheritance. And let me tell y'. All, Let me just tell you this. When I read this, this is what hits me. I read this, I went, if you read the whole chapter, you know what you realize?

They talked themselves into believing and thinking that this was their inheritance to settle on the east side.

You read the whole chapter, you really. They were convinced that this was their inheritance. They were convinced this was it. They just settled. They just said, hey, this is suitable.

We'll accept this. This is pretty good. I guess this is as good as our marriage gets. I guess this is as good as it gets in ministry. I guess this is as good as it gets with my kids.

I guess this is as good as it gets in life. This is as good as it gets spiritually. This is as good as it gets at church. This is as good as it gets. Fill in the blank, y'.

All.

I'll just accept it. Let me tell you this. Staying on the east side was their plan, not God's plan. Ultimately, they experienced spiritual drift. You'll see.

They experienced isolation from the rest of God's people. When they were attacked. They were the first ones to be deported into exile 146 years before. Judah was like. And then, listen, God loved them.

God didn't abandon them. But here's what I'm trying to stir you up. Y' all feeling a little bit of. This is what I'm feeling. I'm just sharing the love with what God's been teaching me.

Because I realized, listen, at Grace Church, we'll apply it to Grace. We've been winning, we're doing well. We didn't have a good year. I'd say, y', all, we had a great year. We're in a really good place.

And it'd be very easy to say, I accept this. I feel pretty good as an organization. Let's just rewind and play it. Let's just not screw it up. Let's just keep it going.

Like, do we really wanna step out? Do we really wanna, like, risk it? Let me tell you the answer. Cause heck, yes, we do. Cause playing it safe isn't safe.

And really, there is an allure to comfort. There's an allure to safety. There's an allure to I'm just gonna stay comfortable and stay with what's known, stay with what's predictable. But actually, let me encourage and challenge you is that Jesus is out on the water, not in the boat. And sometimes we.

You've got to. From time to time, no matter how long you've been walking with the Lord, I'm telling you, God will bring this around. And I'm not talking about being reckless, not being crazy, whatever. But I'm telling you, and you'll know, like, we can settle, don't settle. And God will stretch you to sacrifice, stretch you to believe, stretch you to try something new.

Stretch you to step out in your leadership, stretch you to use a spiritual gift, stretch you to build a new relationship, stretch you to go on a missions trip, stretch you to get out like you get out of the country. And see, I don't know. Y' all buckle up. But at some point, he's gonna stretch. You and me, we don't graduate from trusting.

Don't settle here. Don't settle here. Even when here's a good place. Here's a good place. And again, I think the good place is the trap.

Now what I wanna do is apply this to Grace Church for a few minutes. Y' all feeling the love a little bit? I don't know about you. I'm feeling the love. I'm feeling the discomfort.

I'm feeling the ugh. Because I know this is timely. I think for a lot of us. Us can probably. Maybe every one of us could apply to some area of our life.

Now, let me just say this. At Grace Church, if I can give you a quick updates, A few. A few updates, like, by God's grace, this is a little family talk here. We're doing really well. God's been good.

God's been good to us. Let me. Let me. We always. We talk about reaching people, building lives.

Reaching people, building lives. We keep track of three things for reaching people. Guests coming to hear about Jesus. Do you know how many guests now? And we put all of our numbers together.

Alamanson, Chapel Hill, one church, two locations. We had. Check this out. How many families or singles came, not only came as a guest, filled out a card and turned it in. 1,275 so far this year.

Yo, that's a lot of people. That's a lot of guests. Check this out. Of those, 323 people gave their life to Jesus Christ. Now you can really clap.

Come on, y'. All. And 144 people were baptized and declared their faith publicly. Let me just briefly. One of the pastors sent me this, a story about Dylan.

And Dylan first visited Grace Church in October. Y', all, it's November right now, okay? This is October. He came in carrying a weight of a long battle with addiction. A battle that often left him feeling less than and unsure if he would ever truly belong anywhere.

But from the moment he walked through the doors, something unexpected happened. He was met with love. He told us, quote, I didn't feel looked down on. I didn't feel like I was less than. Y' all took care of me and helped me get set up to do the right things.

Something came alive in Dylan here. He sensed God inviting him to take a clear step of obedience and faith. A few weeks after visiting, Dylan took decided he wanted to publicly declare that he was following Jesus. He said, if you follow Jesus, you'll never go wrong. And he was baptized on October 26, confident, joyful, and ready for a new start.

And from there, the transformation just continued to grow. He went in, he jumped into Growth Track. He wanted to get a Bible and read God's word. He came home and there's a package waiting for him at his house from Grace Church with a welcome gift of, of a brand new study Bible. He said this.

The timing couldn't have been more perfect. God knew exactly what I needed, y'. All. It's all about Dylan.

There's 323. See, every number has a name. Every name has a story. And I wish we could do 323 stories for you because every person matters to God and it's really a big deal. Let me keep going.

Average attendance in 2025 is 2,026 people came and worshiped the Lord here every weekend, building lives. Growth Track.

Let me pull this up. If you would pull up that growth track in 2021. Sometimes people go like, is that number good? You know what I'm saying? So four years ago, we had 205 people go to growth track to step one.

And just four years later this year, we've had 543 people, more than double. Isn't that amazing? It's a lot of people coming. I love this connection. Step two, pull up.

Step two we had step two. 155 people came just four years ago. This year, 377. Again, more than double step three. In 2021, we had 64 people go through like it's six weeks.

It's not just one drop in six weeks. Small group. We love step three. Super powerful. 334 people went through step three this year alone.

Amazing. Pastor Adam here in Chapel Hill, he kind of coordinates our small groups. I said, hey, I've never thought of this before. I said, give me a new number. Not how many people are attending small groups.

Cause we kind of tracked that. But I said, you know, how many small groups did we have in 2025? Was there 50? Was there 80? Was there 100?

Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, how many groups throughout the year, not people, but like different groups did we have? And y', all, this honestly surprised me. He said, I can count up every single group. 326 different small groups.

Each group had people, you know, growing. And it's just amaz. Amazing. Amazing. We just had incredible stories from our Freedom Weekend.

Check this out. Our dream team. Just again, just to give you some context, four years ago we had 309 people on our dream team. And right now we have 801 people. Isn't that amazing?

That serve and take care of our kids, that lead our student ministries and meet with kids that lead a small group that do Freedom Weekend and pray for people that lead a missions trip, whatever. Like 801 people are using their gifts and their talents to serve people and for us to be able to make an impact together. Let me run through a couple more quick stats for you kids. Check this out. I think this is amazing.

We had 1,432 unique, different kids showed up and checked into Grace kids this year. And of those, this is amazing to me. 663 came for the first time this year. That's a lot of new kids. Makes you want to hug a kid.

Be a grandpa, baby. You know I'm a grandpa now. All right. 410 first time families. 279 people.

Look at our VBS. We had vacation Bible school this summer. I love this. Go ahead and bring that up. VBS.

Ta da. 368 people kids came to VBS. 247 people served and 41 kids gave their life at VBS. So isn't that awesome? I could go on and on about our Grace students.

We had 346 different students came to Grace students to our Super Series. 176 for the very first time, we used to have 80 people or so would go to camp. We had 196 students go to camp this summer from Alamance and Chapel Hill. It was absolutely amazing. Let me give you a couple updates from our Alamance campus.

You know, we started our Alamance campus just two years ago. And go ahead and pull up those stats on Alamance. Look at this. This is really amazing. January through March, we averaged 289 people coming.

349 in April to June, 360July to October. And we had Sundays in August, September, and October, all with over 400 people worshiping the Lord at our Alamance campus. That is a ton of growth in one year. And I'll show you why. Bring up the next slide, please.

Thank you. There were 308 guest units of people that came and filled out a card at Almance. 59 people gave their life at southeast Almance High School at our almance campus. And 30 were water baptized at Almas. Isn't that awesome, y'?

All? They're winning and succeeding. So let me just give you two quick ones. More. This one's really cool.

You know, we do serve projects. We serve our community. We do derm rescue and habitat, and we clean up parks, and we work with pregnancy, sports, all kinds of stuff. And so again, here's a unique number. Go ahead and bring this up.

We had 1,060 different people go do a serve project. Look around the room, y'. All. 1,060 people went and served at a project. And we did 181 projects through the end of October, y'.

All. Like, there's only 365 days in a year. Like, that's like a project every two days on average. And I just couldn't honor you enough for a church that wants to make a difference in our community and. And is willing to be the hands and the feet of Jesus and to serve people and to care for people.

I mean, one thing I'm so proud of is that, like, if we have a new project at times, but, like, on serve day, it'll be competitive to get into the project. I love it. I think people kind of get mad, like, I wanted to do that project. I'm sorry. You gotta be faster.

You know, I know the Apple phone file sells fast, but you better get in those projects. Uh, anyway, couldn't be more proud of the church for that. Let me give you one last thing. One thing also about impact. We do an advance the kingdom offering every year.

We had 25 big, huge projects, and the advance of Kingdom is, you know, we, we, we give to Grace Church. But then the advance of Kingdom is above and beyond offerings and 100% goes out. We set a goal of raising $820,000 this year. So far, we've raised 753,820. We're 92% of the way to it.

We've done 24 of our 25 projects. We got one project left. And because we came in because of your generosity, we came in with some bonus extra ATK money. And again, that ATK allows us to do things. And we've had several opportunities show up this year.

And again because of your generosity to our advance the Kingdom fund. Check this out. These are all. This isn't our plan. This is our bonus ones.

These are just our bonus projects. I love that. Anyway, thank you. God bless you. I could talk through em all and tell you some really cool stories, but we gotta keep moving.

Okay, here we go.

When you reach people and build lives and care, there's a lot of good that's going on. It does create some. And I wanna talk about this for a few minutes. It does create some challenges from time to time. For example, three areas that churches can be challenged in is.

And this is gonna sound super practical. This is kinda like church, you know, leadership stuff. Parking, seats and kids. Now y' all are the 11:15 crowd. If you come at 11:15 or at 9:30.

Have you ever noticed, I asked Pastor Jonathan, Jonathan, give me some of the numbers. Where are we at? And he said, well, you know, we have 280 parking spots. So when we added on, we like got every parking spot. We begged and pleaded and edged and, you know, like all that we could.

And we got all that we could. Trust me and then a little bit more. It's not like we. Yeah, you all get that, okay? We're in Chapel Hill.

We love our, our, our town. And we got a past. Praise God. It's legal. Okay, the 280 is legal.

Don't go. Tell them it's not legal. Okay, it's legal. We have. So over this fall, the number of cars parked at 9:30 or 11:15 is generally most every week.

Between 380 and 420. Now help me like Math Guy. That means 100 to 140 cars are parked on the street, across the street, under a tree, in a bush, out in front. I walk by sometimes there's cars parked like right in front of the jerks. We got a great parking team.

God bless our parking team. They do a phenomenal job. But let me tell y', all, that's really a problem. And let me just say this. When you show up to church and if you don't have a place to park, and we actually hired a second police officer to help us with traffic, to help people get out, and we thank you for your flexibility, and I apologize for any inconvenience, but this is a good problem.

I hope you can feel like when you get stuck and it takes you a few minutes to get out, you go, mm, mm, mm. Holy spirit's moving. Okay.

It's a. It's a whole lot better than a ghost town, right? So, anyway, thank you for your flexibility. Now, let me say this. I want to give you a vision, if I may.

Because if you show up at Grace Church and there's not a place to park, and you park under a tree in a bush across the street, and this is your first time here, and then you go into park, put your kids in, and it's like. Like mayhem. Or if you come into and have a hard time finding a place to sit, I don't care how great the worship is preaching the word like, you need a seat.

It's really very simple. But you create a seat, and it helps us reach one more person. Create a seat for one more person. It's really. Listen, we sent 315 people out to Alamance.

You know, some have come back, many, and we've continued to grow there. But let me just say this. When we did that, the Lord just helps us reach more people and build more lives. Now, I want to cast a vision for y'. All.

I love you. I know y'. All. Like, this is 11:50. Girls sleep in, enjoy the Lord.

Cup of coffee. Let me give you one other option. We have a Thursday evening service at 6:30, and it's the exact same service. And let me give you the vision. You come from work, you come here.

You don't have to make dinner. We've got a food truck for you, subsidized, we discount. It's $7. Never $7.50, never eight. And it's seven bucks.

And it's a good deal. And your kids eat for free. If you've got kids. So a family can eat dinner for $14 with no kitchen cleanup and no preparation. Pretty good, Dig.

All right. If it sounds like I'm trying to convince you, well, let me give you one more thing. If you come on Thursday nights, God may love you just a hair more. Now, I know this kind of goes against my. I know normally I talk about unconditional love.

You can't make God love you more or less. But in this one situation, I may change my theology. Just of course, you know, I'm just kidding. I'm just joking. But honestly, let me say this.

If you come on Thursday night or at Sunday mornings at 8am it will help us reach people and build lives. And this is a short term help, particularly heading into Christmas, heading into the new year. Let me just tell you again, it's all the Lord, it's all the Holy Spirit. But just kind of how it tends to shake out is there's people coming that we can reach for Jesus and we want to be prepared. They need a seat and their kids need to be welcomed and they need a parking spot.

So that would help. Just pray and think about that. If you could move to Sunday night, Thursday night at 6:30, don't do Sunday night. No one's here Thursday night at 6:30 or Sunday morning at 8am get up bright and early, get your day going. Honestly, it would really help us.

Now that's a short term. Will help us some. It will help us. But let me tell you this, that only helps us to a certain degree. And let me just summarize months of talking, of prayer, of counsel, elders, pastors, oversight teams, whatever, consulting, like we've done it all.

And more than just being naturally making sense, I believe spiritually from God is that we're really getting close to the time that I think maybe God wants us. And God's gonna open a door for a third campus. And let me just give you the vision. If this is a double, like you wanna reach two people, not one, if three to 500 people, it was as convenient or more convenient to go, let's say I'll just throw out Southwest Durham.

You're gonna reach people here and create a seat there. You're gonna open up space here and we could make a significant impact. And I believe that God, and I'll just say this, it feels like maybe he's even picking up the pace for us a little bit, that I think this might be a step that the Lord's calling us to take. Let me tell you what I think God's calling us to do this year. And it ties into what I just mentioned.

I'm gonna start my sermon now. Number one, I'm just kidding, y'. All. This is really the closing here. This is what I see.

A year of bold steps and spiritual growth. A year of bold steps. If you are taking notes, this is one thing God's called us to do. God's been good. We're in a good place.

But I believe as a spiritual family that let me just tell you this. As you grow older in age, you can keep taking risks and trusting the Lord and stepping up by faith. You can be like Abraham, you can be like Esther, you can be like Joseph. And that can be true for you and me. And I want to say this.

I believe that we can, as a church, not just play it safe, because it's not safe to play it safe. I believe we could step out, we could take some bold steps. And we've been mapping out our whole year. And I'm just saying, not just as like one big church is one big step as a church, but. But I'm talking about grace kids and grace students and grace College and the 50 plus and the Young adults and in our serve projects and in our small groups and in our freedom, like across the board.

What we're talking about this. God, what could we do in 2026 that would get us out of the boat, that if you don't show up, we're gonna sink? I like that thought. That's where it gets fun, y'. All.

Not reckless, not foolish, but faith filled where someone goes, only God could have done that. And I believe that for your life. What if in your life this year God's called you to take some bold steps and some spiritual growth, like some internal, some big people, some growth on the inside. Number two, we really believe this. We're gonna have a year of discipleship.

A year of discipleship.

And this can seem counterintuitive, like I'm talking about reaching people, building lives, teach them to observe all that I commanded you. I believe one of the healthiest, most helpful things that we can do in 2026 that's very timely is go deep in God and become better by the grace of God. Disciples and followers of Jesus. In fact, we're going to start our year going deep with God. We're going to do spiritual growth series campaign, and we're gonna call it Ready for this.

It's really, really super hip and cool. Disciple.

How about that for a curve ball, huh? There it is. Disciple. Okay, we're gonna call it disciple. And we're gonna talk about this.

We're gonna talk about Jesus said, follow me. We're gonna talk. We're going to talk about knowing God's will for your life, hearing his voice, stepping out. We're talking about obeying him and going deep and how do we trust him and how do we grow in our Spiritual life. Let me tell you this, I really.

And Sunday mornings we're going to do the vertical. How do we follow and be good disciples and grow in our. And I'm telling you, like, already thinking, praying, planning and strategizing. I'm feeling stretched. I need to keep growing.

I need to keep stepping out. I need to keep following, surrendering, trusting, taking risks, bold faith. Okay, now we're also gonna do small groups, and the small groups sync up. So on Sunday mornings, we're gonna talk vertically how we are a disciple of Jesus in all those ways that I mentioned. In our small group, we've got six weeks with a video that we've put together for you.

And we're gonna talk about the relationships of a disciple. Because if you wanna be a disciple of Jesus, you cannot be a good disciple and fulfill all your calling alone as an island. God sets us up so that we need community. We need church ecclesia to gather. We need people with us.

And the leaders equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. And the body builds itself up in love. And we're gonna talk about. We wanna build your relationships so that as a disciple, you're gonna grow in a healthy environment of relationships. The strength of your relationships.

The strength. And what do those relationships look like? And how do you draw from them and how do you build them? That's what we're gonna do in the small groups. Now.

We're believing God for 160 disciple small groups. 160 of them. That's a lot. We need probably 40, at least 40 new small group leaders. Now, maybe you've never led a small group at Grace Church.

Let me tell you what it takes to lead a small group. Three things. Number one, you've got to have a TV or iPad or computer. Okay? And then you need the.

What kind of tie do you need? It's called the Internet. WI fi. Okay? And then you go and you hit play.

Okay. And this video plays. And then you get done after the video and you read three questions.

Question number one. And you read it and let people talk about it. Go, thank you.

Look wise. Like, look up. That was very good. And then you read the next question too. And when they finish, go read a third question.

And then after that, put out cookies. Okay, let me summarize. Press play, ask three questions, put out cookies.

Literally, that's what it takes. And we're gonna coach you up. We've got small group coaches that will help you. We're gonna support you, get behind you. I'm praying A bunch of you go, hey, I'll lead a small group.

In that small group, you're gonna grow spiritually. You're gonna build relationships. You're gonna take a step into community that is just super powerful. And this is how we're gonna start our new year. It's gonna be a year of discipleship.

2. It's gonna be a year of preparation and expansion. Preparation and expansion. Let me just briefly tell you this. What I mean by preparation is we're changing our internal structures.

This might seem counterintuitive or backwards so that you. This is what you're gonna feel this year.

It's called a shoulder tap. We're going to shoulder tap a bunch of people because our structures are changing internally a little bit. Same heart, same culture, same vision, all that. But this is counterintuitive. You think as a church grows, you just hire people.

You get the pros to do it. Doesn't work that way. You get the leaders to equip the saints to do the work of the mission. And let me tell you what's going on in 2026. We're.

We're restructuring a little bit, and we're believing that many of you are gonna rise up in carrying spiritual weight and practical responsibility. Spiritual weight, practical responsibility. I'm super excited about this because I think many of you are gonna feel a sense of, like, destiny, purpose, significance. Cause you're gonna say, hey, I was a part of Dylan's story. I got to see Lisa's life changed by God.

And I had responsibility and I felt the spiritual weight of it. And we're gonna do that. And we're also gonna be looking to expand. Lastly, we're gonna have a year of prayer and presence. A year of prayer and presence.

We need to seek the Lord on our knees and pray like never before. We need the presence of God. Moses said this. God, if you don't go with us, we're not going up from here. I so feel that, Lord, if you don't go with us, if you don't go before us, we're gonna wait on you.

We're gonna pray, we're gonna trust you. We're gonna start our year with 21 days of prayer and fasting. Maybe we've done this for several years. We start on January 1, 7 to 7:45 every morning. You can watch it online, come into the room.

We've got live worship, short worship, short little message. We got a Bible reading thing that you do. We close in prayer. We pray for. Different topic.

It's the 45 minutes. Bam. Goes like that. It's so fun. Person after person has talked about how starting the year by putting the Lord first has changed their life.

We're gonna start on January 1st on New Year's Day. And actually, this is a little grace church style. We're gonna do 21 days of prayer and, and 20 days of fasting because we're starting on New Year's Day. And last year we did it at like 10am we kind of let people sleep in after New Year's Eve, you know, and then this year it's on a Thursday, so Thursday night service. And what are we gonna do?

I said, well, why don't we just do one big hoorah? We're gonna do a Thursday night New Year's Day, start the year with worship, prayer, kick off the 21 days, kick off the new year. I mean, I'm super. It's gonna be high energy prayer and we're gonna talk about. It's gonna be great.

But then Thursday nights, we always have food trucks, so that's why we're only doing 20 days of fast. We're going to have a parti. It's New Year's Day. I'm not fasting. Y' all can, if you want, whatever, start the next day.

All right, I listen, I'm giving you just because. Let me pray with you for you. Here's my question for y'. All. Let me ask you this question.

Where do you feel like you're. You're tempted to settle? Where maybe. Have you settled?

Where do you feel like.

Like, I think we should all have the humility and self awareness to go My temptation or my. Or maybe where it has happened or it is happening to a degree. I could be like the Reubenites and the Gadites because I could settle in my marriage, I could settle in my prayer life, my Bible reading, my relationship with the Lord. Am I using my spiritual gifts? Am I being a leader?

Am I being transparent with my extended family? As a parent, I could settle in my finances, in my business. Someone come up to me and said, I just realized I. I've settled in my business. I go, that's so life giving. Like, see, it's very personal.

Like, what is it for you? And I really believe one of the healthiest things we could do is to say, lord, here's my life, take my life, take my year. We're coming into Thanksgiving and then we got Christmas. We're getting an awesome Christmas. Y' all bring people back.

It's gonna be awesome. All right, Coming into the new year, 21 days of prayer. We're in this season where we can look back, give thanks to the Lord, also look forward, and this is what I want to pray for you. Isaiah said this. Don't.

Don't focus on the things in the past. Forget what lies behind. Don't dwell on the past. I love that. Don't dwell on the past.

Like you can think about the past. Give thanks for the past, but don't dwell, don't live there. Don't get stuck in the past. Look at the next verse. See, I'm doing a new thing now.

It springs up now. Do you not perceive it? And this is what I'm gonna pray for you right now is, I believe God's doing something new in your life. I believe God's gonna do something new, grace church. It's gonna stretch us, it's beyond us.

We're trusting him, but it's gonna be, here goes. That's true for you. And I love this. Do you not perceive it? See, and I wanna pray that God will give you spiritual eyes to see and to perceive the new thing that God's doing in your life.

How's he calling you to cross the Jordan, not just settle, cross the Jordan, trust him. Next step, let's pray. Father, thank you today for our amazing church, for how good you've been to us. We honor you, we thank you, God, you've been so, so good to us. But I want to pray a blessing right now over every person here that you would help us with a heart of gratitude for what you've done, to not settle, that we would continue to hear you bidding us to step out of the boat, step out on the water, to trust you, to take a risk, to be bold in our faith, to stretch, to believe.

And I pray you would speak to our hearts, Lord, today, over the next weeks, as we enter the new year, that. Lord, maybe there's some areas that you don't want us to accept and just go, well, it is what it is. In my family and my marriage, with my kids, at my work, my finances, my health. But rather, Lord, we get vision, seeing a preferred future. Not our preferred future, your preferred future, God, what you have for us.

Lord, I want to pray for anyone here today that wants to make a decision, to follow Jesus Christ, that wants to surrender their life today because you're 20, 26 will be your best year ever. If it's your best year ever with God. And until you lay down your plan for his plan and become a disciple, a follower, and maybe today God's knocking on the door of your heart saying, today become a follower. Follow me. Surrender your life.

You're not going to know his plan until you surrender to his plan. Ahead of time and really for all of us to pray. Lord, may there be a yes in our hearts even before we know the plan. Here am I, Lord, send me. Be it done to me according to your word.

Lord, I pray that blessing over every person and particularly for anyone today that is surrendering their life and giving their life to Jesus Christ. In Jesus name, amen.