WEBVTT 00:00:00.959 --> 00:00:01.600 Amen. 00:00:02.160 --> 00:00:04.080 Ah, well, good morning again. 00:00:04.320 --> 00:00:05.519 If you're just joining us. 00:00:05.679 --> 00:00:06.719 What a good morning so far. 00:00:06.799 --> 00:00:08.240 Wasn't that baptism incredible? 00:00:08.400 --> 00:00:09.919 How awesome is that. 00:00:12.240 --> 00:00:17.920 The idea of a soldier about to depart, but having already won the greatest battle that there is. 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:18.960 I mean, that's that's incredible. 00:00:19.039 --> 00:00:21.600 So I'm so glad that we could all share that this morning. 00:00:21.760 --> 00:00:26.879 Um, a few weeks ago, we kicked off 2016 with this series that we've started called More. 00:00:26.960 --> 00:00:28.160 And the premise is really simple. 00:00:28.239 --> 00:00:29.760 We want more out of life this year. 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:31.600 That's not us being greedy. 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:38.079 That's not us coming from some place of discontentment, that we're not content with what we've been given. 00:00:38.159 --> 00:00:43.200 But there's something about us as people, isn't there, that just naturally believes there's more. 00:00:43.520 --> 00:00:45.840 I mean, you don't get to a certain point in life and go, well, this is it. 00:00:45.920 --> 00:00:47.119 This is as good as it gets. 00:00:47.359 --> 00:00:48.479 It's all downhill from here. 00:00:48.560 --> 00:00:49.679 It's never going to be better than this. 00:00:49.759 --> 00:00:53.039 And if that's ever been a thought that's crossed your mind, that's a lie. 00:00:53.439 --> 00:00:58.399 Because God put something in us that makes us as people desire more. 00:00:58.880 --> 00:01:03.200 Something in us that makes us always think about and believe and hunger for more. 00:01:03.280 --> 00:01:04.640 And I believe that's very simple. 00:01:04.719 --> 00:01:08.799 I believe that God put that in us because there is more and he wants us to have it. 00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:11.920 Jesus said it this way in John 10, 10. 00:01:12.239 --> 00:01:18.239 He said, I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of. 00:01:18.560 --> 00:01:31.920 God came to this world over 2,000 years ago, not just to save us and rescue us from the power of death, Jesus came to give us more life than we could ever experience without him. 00:01:32.319 --> 00:01:36.319 And so it's good for us to desire more because there's more. 00:01:37.120 --> 00:01:43.040 Couple weeks ago we talked about having more of God in our lives, how the one thing he wants us to have more of, more than anything else, is himself. 00:01:43.200 --> 00:01:50.400 And we can live this year, 2016, experiencing more of his presence, more of his power, more of who he is than we've ever imagined possible. 00:01:50.560 --> 00:01:59.120 No matter your past, no matter where you are today, there is no limit on the amount of God you can experience. 00:01:59.439 --> 00:02:00.480 He wants you to have more. 00:02:00.640 --> 00:02:02.879 Last week we talked about more breathing room. 00:02:03.200 --> 00:02:15.439 How we want to have more room to breathe in our lives, less stress, less anxiety, less worry, and more room for the joy and the love and the passion and the peace and the goodness that God wants to fill us with. 00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:16.560 We want more breathing room. 00:02:16.639 --> 00:02:18.560 We want to make room for more. 00:02:19.120 --> 00:02:30.000 And I told you last week that we were gonna talk today about how to have more growth, how at the end of 2016 we can be better people as individuals, personally, we can be better at the end of this year than we are today. 00:02:30.080 --> 00:02:33.360 And I wasn't lying to you, we are gonna talk about how we can have more growth. 00:02:33.439 --> 00:02:35.199 We're gonna talk about that next week. 00:02:35.439 --> 00:02:37.680 Today needs to be a little bit different. 00:02:38.639 --> 00:02:40.240 See, we're we're a family. 00:02:40.400 --> 00:02:42.159 That's what I love about this group of people. 00:02:42.319 --> 00:02:45.439 This is not an organization, it's an organism. 00:02:45.680 --> 00:02:48.240 This is a living, breathing family. 00:02:49.039 --> 00:02:51.919 You guys, I've known some of you for 10 years almost. 00:02:52.080 --> 00:02:54.000 It's about a third of my life. 00:02:54.800 --> 00:03:03.759 Some of you, maybe you're new, maybe you know it's only been a couple years or or even a few months and three years, four years, but no matter what, if you're here right now, we consider you family. 00:03:03.919 --> 00:03:08.400 And and one of the great things about family is we get to celebrate life together. 00:03:08.639 --> 00:03:10.159 We get to live life together. 00:03:10.319 --> 00:03:13.520 We get to celebrate the highs in life. 00:03:13.680 --> 00:03:16.639 We also get to walk through some of the lows together. 00:03:16.879 --> 00:03:18.400 That's what families do. 00:03:19.199 --> 00:03:23.280 And today is gonna be a little bit of both. 00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:26.879 A little bit of a low in some ways. 00:03:28.240 --> 00:03:32.719 But I believe a great, great high as well. 00:03:35.120 --> 00:03:41.919 So our church started in 2005 in a David Buster's, which is very appropriate for his hands. 00:03:43.039 --> 00:03:44.719 We started in 2005. 00:03:44.800 --> 00:03:53.599 I didn't even live here yet, I was in Kansas City, Missouri, but uh, but God was was doing some great things even then to bring me here. 00:03:54.159 --> 00:03:57.360 It's been the greatest honor of my life to be part of this church. 00:03:57.840 --> 00:04:04.000 And our church was started by two incredible people, two people that I would call my spiritual mom and my spiritual dad. 00:04:04.319 --> 00:04:15.199 Two people that have taught me more about who God is, what he's like, two people that gave me an entirely different target for my life than I ever had before. 00:04:15.360 --> 00:04:23.680 Two people that showed me how much of God a person can experience and how much of God a person can display in their lives to other people. 00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:28.079 Those two people are Steve and Susan Craig, and we love them so much, they're amazing. 00:04:29.120 --> 00:04:31.920 And on Friday, Susan passed away. 00:04:33.279 --> 00:04:41.920 And uh I know for some of us that's a punch in the gut. 00:04:42.240 --> 00:04:47.199 Maybe you weren't aware of the fact that for the last year Susan's been battling cancer. 00:04:47.439 --> 00:04:55.279 And man, one thing about Susan, if you know Susan, when I say battling cancer, I mean battling it, because Susan never goes down without a fight. 00:04:55.600 --> 00:04:57.360 I've never seen her lose an argument. 00:04:57.600 --> 00:05:03.600 Okay, so she fought with prayer, she fought with with chemotherapy, with everything you do. 00:05:03.759 --> 00:05:07.439 But on Friday at about one o'clock in the morning, she went home. 00:05:08.240 --> 00:05:12.000 Some of us have been aware of her situation. 00:05:12.399 --> 00:05:14.240 We talked about it a few months ago as a church. 00:05:14.319 --> 00:05:17.680 You've been praying, you've been sending your thoughts and your regards. 00:05:18.319 --> 00:05:29.279 And even though you're semi-prepared for something like this happening whenever someone you love has such a serious condition, it doesn't prepare you for the moment that it happens. 00:05:29.360 --> 00:05:32.560 It doesn't prepare you for this. 00:05:33.680 --> 00:05:38.160 And for some of us, for some of us, we're we're maybe people that have never met Susan. 00:05:38.240 --> 00:05:46.319 You know, Susan and Steve stepped back from leading this church directly about two, two and a half years ago, and maybe you've only been coming in the last two years or the last year. 00:05:46.399 --> 00:05:55.759 And like I said a minute ago, we've grown by right at a thousand people in the last in the last year and a half alone, so there's a good chance you might be someone that doesn't really know Susan. 00:05:55.839 --> 00:05:58.000 But here's the thing: you need to. 00:05:59.120 --> 00:06:02.399 In fact, even if if you're here for the very first time, you picked a really good day to come. 00:06:02.480 --> 00:06:04.720 You picked a heavy day to come, for sure. 00:06:04.879 --> 00:06:12.319 But you picked a really good day to come because if you want to know what this church is about, you really need to know what Susan is about. 00:06:12.560 --> 00:06:14.000 Because there is a lot. 00:06:14.079 --> 00:06:18.079 I mean, there is a lot of Susan in this place. 00:06:20.160 --> 00:06:25.199 So if you can get your mind around Susan, you'll understand how a lot of things work here. 00:06:25.279 --> 00:06:28.000 You picked a good day to learn about this church. 00:06:29.519 --> 00:06:33.920 The series that we're doing right now, more, Susan's the inspiration for this series. 00:06:34.319 --> 00:06:53.120 I'll just come out and tell you, it was it was you know Christmas time, and my mind was on Christmas, and my mind's on a new baby that's coming soon in our lives, and and there's a lot of things going on here, and so I was really focused on the holidays, and and then I had this moment of panic, like I usually have, where I'm where I'm nearing the end of a series and I haven't quite figured out what the next one's gonna be, and so I kind of go, God, what's it gonna be? 00:06:53.199 --> 00:06:54.000 God, you gotta help me. 00:06:54.079 --> 00:06:59.759 And and I had this sudden memory of a story that Susan used to tell. 00:07:00.079 --> 00:07:03.920 And I don't know if it was God giving me that or me thinking a lot about Susan as I was. 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:05.279 It's probably a combination of both. 00:07:05.439 --> 00:07:12.000 But it's a story that Susan used to tell about more and how to how to have more of God in your life. 00:07:12.079 --> 00:07:13.040 And the story goes something like this. 00:07:13.199 --> 00:07:17.680 Susan grew up in church, like maybe many of us did, but the church she grew up in was not like his hands. 00:07:17.759 --> 00:07:23.360 And I don't mean just the music style and the casual dress and the authenticity and all that kind of stuff. 00:07:23.439 --> 00:07:24.959 This church is really unique. 00:07:25.439 --> 00:07:29.920 Even amongst churches that are kind of in style like this, there's something unique about his hands. 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:33.279 So I'm not just saying that that she didn't grow up at his hands. 00:07:33.360 --> 00:07:36.800 She grew up in a very, very, very different church culture. 00:07:37.040 --> 00:07:46.399 And she believed in God, the God of the Bible, but but the God she grew up to believe in, the God she was told about, was not a very enjoyable God to be around. 00:07:46.720 --> 00:07:55.040 He's a God that mostly cared about the rules, your ability to follow those rules determined the way he felt about you. 00:07:55.120 --> 00:07:58.959 And so, as many of us may have experienced, you just grow up guilty, right? 00:07:59.279 --> 00:08:00.879 You grow up with constant guilt. 00:08:01.040 --> 00:08:01.839 Want to be a Christian? 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:03.360 You want to feel guilty every day? 00:08:03.519 --> 00:08:05.519 Doesn't that not, you know, join the church. 00:08:05.600 --> 00:08:06.959 That's how it used to be. 00:08:08.720 --> 00:08:13.040 But see, there's this amazing thing that Susan and a lot of us have grabbed a hold of. 00:08:13.199 --> 00:08:16.079 The Bible says that Jesus is the exact representation of God. 00:08:16.319 --> 00:08:19.600 So Jesus was not God trying to reshape his image. 00:08:19.680 --> 00:08:22.160 This was not God rebranding himself. 00:08:22.560 --> 00:08:22.879 Okay? 00:08:23.279 --> 00:08:25.759 Jesus was not God in a good mood. 00:08:27.519 --> 00:08:33.600 Jesus is the clearest picture of God that we will ever have because he just so happens to be God. 00:08:34.720 --> 00:08:42.720 And so if we want to know what God is like, we look at Jesus, and Susan recognized the fact that the God she grew up being told about didn't resemble Jesus very much. 00:08:44.799 --> 00:08:49.600 And so she she felt in her heart that there has to be something else. 00:08:49.840 --> 00:08:55.759 And so she and Steve, pretty early in their marriage, they kind of went on a journey to discover more about God. 00:08:55.919 --> 00:08:57.840 They kept believing in God. 00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:03.279 They just knew that what they had experienced, it was not all that they could experience. 00:09:03.360 --> 00:09:06.639 And they started to go to different churches and learn different things. 00:09:06.799 --> 00:09:10.799 And that journey found them at this church was very different than what they had grown up. 00:09:10.960 --> 00:09:17.440 And it was a church that was all about freedom, and it was a church that actually believes that a supernatural God can do supernatural things. 00:09:17.679 --> 00:09:24.000 And so the Holy Spirit can speak to you and tell you things that you would never know other than him telling you. 00:09:24.240 --> 00:09:33.120 And one day they're at this church and this man was speaking, and this man had a reputation for hearing from the Holy Spirit, and they're kind of sitting in the back, a little bit nervous. 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:39.039 And this man stops and he looks in their direction and points toward them, and he says, God has a message for someone sitting over there. 00:09:39.120 --> 00:09:41.679 And Susan, she's like on pins and needles. 00:09:42.559 --> 00:09:43.679 Her eyes are wide. 00:09:43.840 --> 00:09:52.320 If you grew up believing in the very guilt-driven God that a lot of us may have grown up being taught, you go, Oh no, what's God gonna tell everyone in this room about my life? 00:09:52.559 --> 00:09:52.879 Right? 00:09:53.279 --> 00:09:55.679 I'm about to be exposed, you know. 00:09:57.200 --> 00:10:02.240 But the man just said, God wants you to know there's more. 00:10:04.799 --> 00:10:06.559 And Susan burst into tears. 00:10:06.799 --> 00:10:07.600 She lost it. 00:10:08.960 --> 00:10:20.399 Because see, what that man didn't know, what he couldn't have known, what no one around her knew was that for years, for years, there had been this thought in the back of Susan's mind that was so clear. 00:10:21.279 --> 00:10:24.799 It was as if a voice was saying this to her over and over again. 00:10:24.960 --> 00:10:27.279 And she knew it had to do with her understanding of God. 00:10:27.440 --> 00:10:34.559 It was this phrase that was just repeated over and over again for years and years in the back of her mind, and the phrase was simply this there's more. 00:10:34.879 --> 00:10:40.559 And so when that man spoke that, Susan, she knew that was for her. 00:10:40.720 --> 00:10:45.919 That was the that was the words, those were the words that she had heard year in and year out. 00:10:46.000 --> 00:10:46.559 There's more. 00:10:46.720 --> 00:10:59.840 And from that point on, Susan's life was all about getting more of God, but then taking that more that she had and giving it to other people. 00:11:00.960 --> 00:11:15.679 And the reason that we're all here today, the reason that we know each other, the reason I get to look at this amazing group of people every Sunday is because Susan refused to keep the more that God gave her to herself. 00:11:16.559 --> 00:11:25.440 And she made it her life's purpose to take that more of God that she received and give it to anyone and everyone who desired more. 00:11:25.600 --> 00:11:29.679 We're here today, because Susan Craig got more and gave more. 00:11:29.840 --> 00:11:31.679 That's why this church exists. 00:11:32.320 --> 00:11:33.759 A little caught for that. 00:11:37.919 --> 00:11:40.720 And I love, I love how God is good. 00:11:40.879 --> 00:11:42.000 He knows what he's doing, right? 00:11:42.159 --> 00:11:52.240 There's sometimes that we doubt that a little bit because life doesn't go according to plan for us, and so we start to sort of go, hey God, I don't know if you're paying attention or not, but I have some suggestions, right? 00:11:52.320 --> 00:11:54.159 We've all done that to God. 00:11:55.600 --> 00:12:04.960 He knows what he's doing because to give Susan Craig, if you know her, to give Susan Craig the word more is very appropriate because Susan is a lot. 00:12:05.519 --> 00:12:10.240 Like Susan is more a lot of things than anyone I've ever known. 00:12:10.480 --> 00:12:14.799 Susan Craig is more opinionated than any human being I've ever met in my entire life. 00:12:14.960 --> 00:12:16.720 And I'm married to Megan. 00:12:17.120 --> 00:12:17.440 Okay? 00:12:18.960 --> 00:12:20.639 And that's saying a lot. 00:12:21.679 --> 00:12:32.720 So I have this memory of probably three or four years ago, maybe even a little longer, I can't quite remember, but but Megan was asked by Susan to sort of re-invigorate our nursery. 00:12:32.960 --> 00:12:42.159 To redo it, to redesign it, redecorate it, change the structure, create a curriculum, just do all this stuff to take our nursery from at the time something that was good and make it into something great. 00:12:42.240 --> 00:12:45.440 And that is how the garden, which is what we call it now, that is how that came to be. 00:12:45.519 --> 00:12:59.279 It was Susan and Megan working together, and it was this incredible, awesome, stressful experience because Susan moves at like a thousand miles a minute, and she was gonna get things done, and Megan was just along for the ride, and she'd never experienced something like that. 00:12:59.440 --> 00:13:03.200 And I remember this one day, they were they were both here in the building, and I was looking for Megan. 00:13:03.360 --> 00:13:08.240 And so someone told me, oh, Megan's with Susan, they're in one of the nursery rooms, they're picking out paint colors, okay? 00:13:08.480 --> 00:13:15.200 And so I walk into the nursery to look for them, and I come into the room, and sure enough, there they are, and they're they're picking out paint colors. 00:13:15.360 --> 00:13:29.840 Susan had gone to Lowe's and gotten sample little batches of paint, different colors of blue, and they had taken those sample sample jars and they had put a little bit of this blue paint on the wall, a little bit of this one, a little bit of this one, so they could look at it on the wall and make a decision. 00:13:30.080 --> 00:13:38.720 And you might be thinking, as you're picturing this moment in your mind, that there were five different versions of blue on the wall, or maybe ten, if they're really out of, you know, if they're crazy or something like that. 00:13:38.879 --> 00:13:39.679 But no, no. 00:13:39.919 --> 00:13:42.000 It wasn't 10, it wasn't 15, it wasn't 20. 00:13:42.080 --> 00:13:46.320 I kid you not, there were like 39 shades of blue on the wall. 00:13:46.559 --> 00:13:49.279 I mean, it was just this just blue. 00:13:49.600 --> 00:13:51.679 All shades of blue on the wall. 00:13:51.840 --> 00:13:54.480 And the crazy thing is, Susan did not like any of them. 00:13:54.720 --> 00:13:55.840 She didn't like one of them. 00:13:56.000 --> 00:13:57.600 And so she's she's talking to Megan. 00:13:57.679 --> 00:14:09.120 I'm in the back of the room watching this, she's talking to Megan, and she's saying things like, Well, if we take this blue and make it like 15% lighter, let's take this one back to Lowe's, make this one 15% lighter, let's take this one back to Lowe's, let's have them make this one 10% darker. 00:14:09.200 --> 00:14:14.960 And I'm in the back of the room going, like, Susan, if you make that one 15% lighter, it's just gonna be that color that you already have on the wall. 00:14:15.039 --> 00:14:20.720 And if you make this one 10% darker, it's gonna be this color because you have every shade of blue that exists on the wall right now. 00:14:20.960 --> 00:14:28.879 And I'm thinking about this poor person at Lowe's that to start had to mix 37 different colors of blue into tiny little sample jars. 00:14:28.960 --> 00:14:32.399 And now we're taking these back to them, saying this one needs to be 15% lighter. 00:14:32.559 --> 00:14:34.480 She is inventing new colors of blue. 00:14:34.559 --> 00:14:35.440 That's what's happening. 00:14:35.679 --> 00:14:38.799 Okay, and that's that's Susan. 00:14:38.960 --> 00:14:44.000 She was right though, she was right because man, when she was done, it was it was beautiful. 00:14:44.159 --> 00:14:44.879 And it still is. 00:14:44.960 --> 00:14:59.360 I mean, you walk back there, and and I just want you to know if you have children in the nursery, every single shade of every single color you see was handpicked and debated about and argued over by Susan because she is the most opinionated human being I've ever known. 00:14:59.440 --> 00:15:04.799 She she had strong opinions and she was not afraid to stand for those opinions until everyone else agreed with her. 00:15:04.879 --> 00:15:05.840 That was Susan. 00:15:06.720 --> 00:15:08.000 That was Susan. 00:15:08.320 --> 00:15:11.840 Susan is more fascinating than anyone I've ever known. 00:15:11.919 --> 00:15:13.039 She's not just more opinionated. 00:15:13.120 --> 00:15:14.720 Susan is, it's so fascinating. 00:15:14.879 --> 00:15:17.600 She is the most fascinating person I think I've ever been around. 00:15:17.679 --> 00:15:19.039 And many of you know this. 00:15:19.279 --> 00:15:22.879 One conversation with Susan would have you hooked. 00:15:23.200 --> 00:15:27.519 You would just stop and say, I need to know more about this person. 00:15:27.679 --> 00:15:28.559 I need to understand them. 00:15:28.639 --> 00:15:33.679 I need to find out what makes them operate the way they operate. 00:15:34.080 --> 00:15:35.679 Susan was so fascinating. 00:15:35.759 --> 00:15:37.039 You could just watch her lead worship. 00:15:37.120 --> 00:15:39.600 She stood right here and she led worship so many Sundays. 00:15:39.679 --> 00:15:42.080 You could listen to her talk about God, and she'd always do this thing. 00:15:42.159 --> 00:15:43.120 She'd go, you know what I mean? 00:15:43.200 --> 00:15:43.679 Here's the thing. 00:15:43.840 --> 00:15:44.320 This is her. 00:15:44.399 --> 00:15:45.519 Here's the thing, right? 00:15:45.759 --> 00:15:46.879 Here's the thing. 00:15:47.440 --> 00:15:50.480 You can listen to a message she gave, it's way down at the bottom of the podcast. 00:15:50.639 --> 00:15:52.559 Here's the thing, probably 48 times. 00:15:52.639 --> 00:15:54.399 And here's the thing, and here's the thing, here's the thing. 00:15:54.559 --> 00:15:55.679 That was Susan, right? 00:15:55.919 --> 00:16:00.080 She would just, but she would talk about God in this way that would draw you in. 00:16:01.039 --> 00:16:03.039 She's so fascinating. 00:16:03.600 --> 00:16:05.279 Mesmerizing, captivating. 00:16:05.440 --> 00:16:09.039 A few months ago, we took Lily, who's not even two years old, to see Susan in the hospital. 00:16:09.120 --> 00:16:11.679 We dropped off all those thank you cards you guys filled out for her. 00:16:11.759 --> 00:16:13.120 Those, those blew her away. 00:16:13.200 --> 00:16:14.480 Thank you for doing that. 00:16:14.960 --> 00:16:16.639 And we were only there for 30 minutes. 00:16:16.799 --> 00:16:18.799 30 minutes in a hospital room. 00:16:18.960 --> 00:16:22.080 We were trying to mainly keep Lily from pulling on things and unplugging stuff. 00:16:22.159 --> 00:16:24.639 You know, that's nerve-wracking with a little baby in a hospital room. 00:16:24.720 --> 00:16:28.159 And we're there and we left. 00:16:28.399 --> 00:16:35.440 And it was it was really amazing because in that 30 minutes, Susan made such a giant impression on Lily. 00:16:35.840 --> 00:16:37.440 It's unlike anything I've ever seen. 00:16:37.600 --> 00:16:42.559 Susan was wearing a hat and she had a blanket wrapped around her, and Lily calls blankets night nights. 00:16:42.639 --> 00:16:43.440 That's what she says. 00:16:43.519 --> 00:16:44.720 She's night nights. 00:16:45.279 --> 00:16:53.279 And for the next two, three weeks, every single time Lily would see someone wearing a hat, she would point at them and say, Susan. 00:16:53.759 --> 00:16:56.080 And she would put hats on in our house and look in the mirror. 00:16:56.159 --> 00:17:00.000 She likes to do dress up and stuff like that, and she would just go, Susan, Susan. 00:17:00.159 --> 00:17:02.720 She would point her hat and touch it and say, Susan. 00:17:03.519 --> 00:17:05.039 We've been around so many people. 00:17:05.119 --> 00:17:08.400 There are so many people that Lily has been around for 30 minutes and that's it. 00:17:08.559 --> 00:17:12.160 And she's never walked away imitating that person. 00:17:12.400 --> 00:17:15.279 No one's ever left that kind of impression on her before it. 00:17:15.359 --> 00:17:19.759 And even this week we were talking at home and Megan stopped and looked at Lily. 00:17:20.160 --> 00:17:24.640 And keep in mind this was three, four months ago, and if you're not two, three or four months, that's a big chunk of your life. 00:17:24.799 --> 00:17:27.200 That would be like me asking you, hey, you remember 20 years ago? 00:17:27.279 --> 00:17:28.400 Whenever, right? 00:17:29.440 --> 00:17:32.799 Megan stopped and said, Hey Lily, do you remember Miss Susan? 00:17:33.279 --> 00:17:34.240 And Lily said, Yeah. 00:17:34.400 --> 00:17:36.319 She doesn't say yes, she says yesh. 00:17:36.559 --> 00:17:37.920 So Lily said, Yesh. 00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:39.839 Um, hat night night. 00:17:41.440 --> 00:17:49.279 She she just remembered Susan because Susan is more fascinating than anyone I've ever known. 00:17:49.359 --> 00:17:50.720 She she just did that to people. 00:17:51.680 --> 00:17:56.559 Susan is more generous than anyone you'll ever hear about. 00:17:57.519 --> 00:17:59.200 And there's so many examples of that. 00:17:59.359 --> 00:18:01.519 This this building, it's a big one. 00:18:01.680 --> 00:18:05.039 It's a big, a big display of she and Steve's generosity. 00:18:05.119 --> 00:18:07.680 And if you're new, you don't maybe know the story of how this got here. 00:18:07.759 --> 00:18:08.880 Here's the way it usually works in church. 00:18:08.960 --> 00:18:13.759 I have friends who are pastors all over the country, and and I'm the the way it usually goes is this you start a church. 00:18:13.920 --> 00:18:20.079 Either you start a church out of another church, maybe it's a church plant, or you and a bunch of friends get together and you're like, hey, let's start a church. 00:18:20.240 --> 00:18:26.240 And you begin a church either in someone's home, or if you have a good bit of people, maybe even a couple hundred, you rent a place. 00:18:26.480 --> 00:18:31.200 You go rent a school that's not being used on Sundays, or you rent a movie theater and you meet there. 00:18:31.279 --> 00:18:35.759 And if you grow and it becomes successful, eventually you get to this point where you need to rent a bigger space. 00:18:35.920 --> 00:18:41.119 And if you grow and maybe you're a thousand people or something like that, then you go, oh, we need to build a building. 00:18:41.200 --> 00:18:42.799 We need to own our own building. 00:18:42.960 --> 00:18:43.839 That's a big step. 00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:52.720 And so you create this big giving campaign and you get everyone to give, and you wield a giant thermometer on the stage every Sunday, and you go, hey guys, the thermometer is not at the top yet. 00:18:52.880 --> 00:18:54.720 We gotta get it to the we gotta build a building, right? 00:18:54.799 --> 00:18:55.680 That's how it goes. 00:18:55.920 --> 00:19:01.200 And that's fun and that's exciting, and everyone gets involved, and it's it's it's awesome, but that's not how this got started. 00:19:02.079 --> 00:19:08.240 God told Steve and Susan that they were supposed to start a church, and so they bought an abandoned Kmart. 00:19:08.880 --> 00:19:10.720 Because, you know, people do that. 00:19:11.519 --> 00:19:14.000 This used to be a Kmart, if you didn't know. 00:19:14.400 --> 00:19:22.319 They bought this property and they began to renovate it, and they built this before his hands even existed. 00:19:22.720 --> 00:19:25.839 When his hands church first started, even at Dave and Buster's, this was already being built. 00:19:25.920 --> 00:19:27.359 This was already, they were all in, man. 00:19:27.440 --> 00:19:36.400 They were committed the very first Sunday that they ever got together in here, there were like 200 something people in this building. 00:19:36.640 --> 00:19:39.200 They're like, well, I hope it's that field of dreams. 00:19:39.279 --> 00:19:41.359 If you build it, they will come, kind of thing, right? 00:19:42.559 --> 00:19:45.279 And and you need to understand, they spared no expense. 00:19:45.440 --> 00:19:48.400 I mean, Susan liked nice things, okay? 00:19:48.559 --> 00:19:51.920 If you know Susan, she had high standards. 00:19:52.319 --> 00:19:55.279 And so I'd been in the lead role for maybe about a year here. 00:19:55.359 --> 00:20:01.279 Uh, and Brian, who leads our facility team, came to me one day because we're we're approaching 10 years in this building, which is really exciting. 00:20:01.359 --> 00:20:04.240 But just like in your home, when you hit the 10-year mark, things start to break. 00:20:04.400 --> 00:20:10.000 And so Brian comes to me one day and he says, Justin, there's a faucet in one of the bathrooms that is no longer working. 00:20:10.160 --> 00:20:12.960 And I don't really usually get involved in discussions about faucets. 00:20:13.119 --> 00:20:17.039 So I was kind of like, all right, let's we should probably fix that. 00:20:17.200 --> 00:20:18.960 And Brian said, Well, here's the thing. 00:20:19.119 --> 00:20:22.559 Um, you know, it doesn't just need a new battery because it's one of those automatic faucets. 00:20:22.720 --> 00:20:31.039 Um, he said, I I looked up the serial number on that particular faucet, and replacing it, it's four, it's a$400 faucet. 00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:35.519 And he said, Now I found another one that looks almost the exact same, and it's$60. 00:20:35.839 --> 00:20:36.720 Which one should I buy? 00:20:36.880 --> 00:20:39.039 And I said, Well, that's a tough decision. 00:20:39.200 --> 00:20:43.680 Um I asked him, I said, Does water come out of the$60 one? 00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:44.640 He said, Yes. 00:20:44.720 --> 00:20:46.000 I'm like, let's let's go with that. 00:20:46.160 --> 00:20:46.400 Okay? 00:20:46.559 --> 00:20:50.720 And I walked away, being like, I'm I started to do math in my head, which I'm not good at, so I quit really quick. 00:20:50.799 --> 00:20:53.680 But I was like, there's a lot of faucets in this building. 00:20:53.839 --> 00:21:02.400 You know, there's bathrooms over here, a lot of faucets, bathrooms over there, the kids' areas, there's bathrooms in the youth areas, there's a lot of bathrooms, there's a lot of faucets, and I'm starting to go$400 a faucet. 00:21:02.559 --> 00:21:04.880 Who on earth would buy$400 faucets? 00:21:05.039 --> 00:21:06.319 And I'll tell you who, it's Susan. 00:21:06.480 --> 00:21:06.799 Okay? 00:21:07.200 --> 00:21:10.160 And just so you understand, this was not a misuse of church funds. 00:21:10.319 --> 00:21:15.200 We buy$60 faucets now, so you know that we're being frugal with what you give, right? 00:21:15.680 --> 00:21:17.599 There were no church funds. 00:21:17.839 --> 00:21:24.319 This was Susan's funds, and I'm pretty certain Steve was not involved in the faucet selection process, knowing the two of them. 00:21:24.480 --> 00:21:38.160 And so this is Susan looking in a catalog, and Susan is saying, you know what, when people wash their hands at his hands, I mean, maybe it's that we're recalled his hands, and she's thinking, hands, water, I want them to have a premium experience as they wash their hands, right? 00:21:38.960 --> 00:21:41.200 And she was willing to pay for that. 00:21:41.279 --> 00:21:44.400 But here's here's the thing about Susan, you just gotta understand this. 00:21:45.039 --> 00:21:50.319 Susan wanted the best, but not just for herself. 00:21:52.079 --> 00:21:56.319 If you were friends with Susan, she was committed to you having the best. 00:21:57.920 --> 00:22:05.680 When Susan and Steve built this building, Susan wanted the best for every single one of you. 00:22:07.680 --> 00:22:09.519 She wanted the best for your children. 00:22:10.240 --> 00:22:12.799 She wanted the best for your teenagers. 00:22:12.880 --> 00:22:14.079 She wanted the best for you. 00:22:14.240 --> 00:22:17.200 She wanted you in this place to have the best. 00:22:17.279 --> 00:22:23.200 And she was willing to spend whatever she could to give you the best. 00:22:23.279 --> 00:22:25.119 That is who Susan is. 00:22:27.119 --> 00:22:31.920 And she was generous financially, but she was even more generous with herself. 00:22:32.319 --> 00:22:40.960 There's so many people that she invested in, so many people that she took in and just poured into and mentored and led and trained. 00:22:41.200 --> 00:22:45.920 I have the amazing privilege of being a man who watched Susan pour into my wife. 00:22:46.799 --> 00:22:48.400 And it changed her. 00:22:48.720 --> 00:22:50.880 She became much more opinionated. 00:22:51.119 --> 00:22:56.799 And like, I mean, there's still a few things where I'm like, hey, Susan, I mean, help me out, right? 00:22:56.960 --> 00:22:58.640 She's already steer her. 00:22:58.799 --> 00:22:59.680 What about compliance? 00:22:59.759 --> 00:23:00.160 Is that a thing? 00:23:00.240 --> 00:23:01.119 Is that, you know, no? 00:23:01.279 --> 00:23:01.599 Okay. 00:23:01.839 --> 00:23:03.519 And now we have nice faucets at home. 00:23:03.599 --> 00:23:05.680 I mean, there's a lot of repercussions for that. 00:23:07.599 --> 00:23:09.680 Susan was unbelievably generous. 00:23:09.839 --> 00:23:10.799 See, she was just more. 00:23:11.920 --> 00:23:13.119 She was more generous. 00:23:13.279 --> 00:23:15.119 She was more fascinating. 00:23:15.200 --> 00:23:17.279 She was more intense and opinionated. 00:23:17.440 --> 00:23:18.720 She was more passionate. 00:23:18.880 --> 00:23:20.079 She was more positive. 00:23:20.240 --> 00:23:27.440 But there is one thing, there is one main thing that I can say standing right here that Susan was more of than anything else. 00:23:27.839 --> 00:23:35.839 One thing she had more of in her life, and one thing she gave more of than anything else, and really than about anyone I've ever seen. 00:23:36.079 --> 00:23:36.960 And that's love. 00:23:39.119 --> 00:23:39.759 It's love. 00:23:41.039 --> 00:23:47.039 One of Susan's favorite verses, and I know this because she said it a lot, was Ephesians 5, 1 and 2, and she loved the message version. 00:23:47.119 --> 00:23:50.160 Here's what it says: Watch what God does, and then you do it. 00:23:50.319 --> 00:23:55.440 Like children who learn proper behavior from their parents, mostly what God does is love you. 00:23:55.680 --> 00:23:58.240 Keep company with him and learn a life of love. 00:23:58.400 --> 00:23:59.759 Observe how Christ loved us. 00:23:59.920 --> 00:24:02.640 His love was not cautious, but extravagant. 00:24:02.880 --> 00:24:07.680 He didn't love in order to get something from us, but to give everything of himself to us. 00:24:07.920 --> 00:24:09.519 Love like that. 00:24:09.920 --> 00:24:14.240 That is the way Susan Craig loved people. 00:24:15.680 --> 00:24:17.200 She did not love cautiously. 00:24:18.480 --> 00:24:20.880 She loved extravagantly. 00:24:22.160 --> 00:24:25.359 She didn't love in order to get something for herself. 00:24:25.759 --> 00:24:30.000 One of the amazing things about the vision of this church is that Jesus is the only person that gets famous. 00:24:30.160 --> 00:24:33.039 Susan Craig's picture and name was never on our website. 00:24:33.279 --> 00:24:34.160 She's beautiful. 00:24:34.319 --> 00:24:36.880 She was never on a billboard. 00:24:38.160 --> 00:24:45.039 This church was always about Jesus, his love, and people, never about her. 00:24:45.279 --> 00:24:51.440 She didn't love in order to get attention, even though her story was amazing and captivating and people would have been like, wow, and enthralled. 00:24:51.599 --> 00:24:53.359 She didn't love in order to get praise. 00:24:53.599 --> 00:24:56.640 She loved simply to give of herself. 00:24:56.799 --> 00:24:59.279 She loved like Jesus. 00:24:59.759 --> 00:25:10.000 And that is very important for us to understand as a church, because if there is one thing that defines us, that defines his hands, it's love. 00:25:11.920 --> 00:25:12.640 It's love. 00:25:14.400 --> 00:25:21.839 Our vision is to love people to Jesus, which means that we are called to love people in such a way that they recognize the love we're giving them. 00:25:21.920 --> 00:25:23.279 It is not normal love. 00:25:23.440 --> 00:25:25.039 It is not the love of this world. 00:25:25.119 --> 00:25:26.400 It's not circumstantial. 00:25:26.559 --> 00:25:30.960 It's not love because, hey, you have something I want, so I'm gonna love you and I'm gonna maybe get on your good side. 00:25:31.039 --> 00:25:31.680 No, no, no. 00:25:31.839 --> 00:25:34.480 It's it's love that just gives and gives and gives. 00:25:34.559 --> 00:25:37.680 It is undeserved and it's unquenchable. 00:25:37.920 --> 00:25:40.240 That is the love that we're called to have. 00:25:40.400 --> 00:25:42.960 We love people to Jesus, and we measure that in a few different ways. 00:25:43.119 --> 00:25:44.240 We want you to get his love. 00:25:44.400 --> 00:25:45.680 We want you to grow in his love. 00:25:45.759 --> 00:25:47.279 We want you to give his love away. 00:25:47.440 --> 00:25:50.240 We don't want you to get his love, to grow his love, to keep his love. 00:25:50.319 --> 00:25:52.319 We want you to get it, to grow it, to give it. 00:25:52.400 --> 00:25:58.319 Because if you can get to the point where you're in a place that allows you to give God's love away, that means someone else gets his love. 00:25:58.480 --> 00:26:01.839 And then they can grow it, and then they can give it, and someone else gets it. 00:26:02.720 --> 00:26:09.440 As a church, because of what Susan did here, because of the love that she put in this place, because you guys got to understand, love is everywhere. 00:26:09.599 --> 00:26:13.119 You're sitting on love right now because Susan wanted you to have comfortable seats. 00:26:13.279 --> 00:26:17.200 When you wash your hands, love is coming through the faucet for crying out loud. 00:26:17.440 --> 00:26:17.920 Right? 00:26:18.160 --> 00:26:21.200 Love is a current that runs through everything that we do here. 00:26:21.359 --> 00:26:36.079 Love is in the worship, love is in our kids' area, love is in the culture, love is everywhere, and love is here because Susan Craig loved passionately and she loved like Jesus, and she made sure that his hands church would be known for its love. 00:26:37.519 --> 00:26:46.640 And I'm I'm forever changed as a result. 00:26:47.599 --> 00:26:50.720 I know that thousands of people are forever changed as a result. 00:26:50.880 --> 00:26:52.960 See, see, here's the thing Susan understood. 00:26:54.640 --> 00:27:01.680 We are supposed to be defined primarily by our love as followers of Jesus. 00:27:02.720 --> 00:27:09.920 Jesus said this in John chapter 13: Your love for one another will prove to the world that you're my disciples. 00:27:10.400 --> 00:27:13.599 Your love will be the evidence that you belong to me. 00:27:13.680 --> 00:27:14.319 That's what Jesus said. 00:27:14.400 --> 00:27:17.279 And see, I grew up in church, but I never really believed this. 00:27:17.599 --> 00:27:22.960 I mean, I believe the Bible, and so if you would have told me or someone would have said, hey, Jesus said this, I'd have nodded my head and said, Oh yeah, yeah, love. 00:27:23.039 --> 00:27:24.000 Yeah, love's good. 00:27:24.160 --> 00:27:30.000 But I didn't believe that love is really the greatest evidence we have. 00:27:30.720 --> 00:27:44.640 The thing that really says to the world that these people belong to Jesus, if you would have asked me, I would have said, Oh, the the righteousness in our lives, like the way we abstain from doing fun things, that is what proves to the world that we're Jesus followers. 00:27:45.440 --> 00:27:46.079 Right? 00:27:46.720 --> 00:27:50.000 I don't watch that, I don't listen to that, I don't drink that, I don't smoke that. 00:27:50.160 --> 00:27:54.240 That's how the world will know that I belong to Jesus. 00:27:54.960 --> 00:27:57.759 It's my righteousness, it's that I live a respectable life. 00:27:58.000 --> 00:28:01.440