Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Well, good morning. Good morning. Christ Church, it's so good to see you. Thank you. Thank you.
[00:00:08] Man, what a beautiful Sunday morning. It is nice to wake up to some sunshine.
[00:00:15] And it's good to see your beautiful faces today.
[00:00:19] And we are gonna continue our study through the Book of Nehemiah. It's just kind of. Everyone has mentioned this is such a special time in our church and such a special season. And I hope you see that. I hope you feel that.
[00:00:36] And Nehemiah has been kind of preparing us to just keep taking the next steps that God has for us. So we're gonna dive into that. But let's pray.
[00:00:47] Father, thank you so much for this awesome church family.
[00:00:52] Thank you for the blessing. It is to know you and to serve you and, Lord, as we just look and prepare for the future. Prepare us and our hearts. And Father, we pray. All that you want to do, Lord, your name would be glorified and your kingdom would come. And we ask this in the great name of Jesus. Amen.
[00:01:14] Well, as Tina mentioned, we're doing our final celebration service at this campus or at this location, June 15th. And as that date's been approaching, it's kind of made me, like, go back and reflect, you know, from day one until today.
[00:01:34] And we started this campus 12 years ago. Here.
[00:01:39] Yeah, in this location.
[00:01:41] And I've been here since that first Sunday.
[00:01:46] And what's cool about it is that when we started, it was March of 2013.
[00:01:53] And Allie and I were getting married June of 2013.
[00:01:58] So it's a big year for us.
[00:02:01] And what's been so powerful, just as I think back, is, like, so much of my life is connected to what God has done here.
[00:02:10] You know, we had all three kids.
[00:02:14] And, like, so much of my life and what God has done, it just all feels like very intimately connected. Cause since we were married, you know, we've kind of been all in to do the best that we can. Cause we felt God calling us to this, you know. So since the beginning, Saturday nights look different for us.
[00:02:35] If you wanted to hang out, it's not probably gonna happen on a Saturday night, you know. Cause we're gonna get to bed, we're gonna come as rested as we can, ready to go.
[00:02:45] And what I found on this journey is that every part of it, that I felt like I was giving something up to serve God.
[00:02:57] God gave me far more in return in every seat. Cause this has been.
[00:03:04] Not the journey hasn't been easy, but it has been completely worth it. You with me on this. And now, as we're at this stage in our church's life.
[00:03:16] It's so meaningful to me because I see the hand and blessing of God in so many areas through this church, in my life.
[00:03:26] Like, I've tried to give my best to this church, but this church has given far more to me through this process.
[00:03:33] God has grown me so much. Now, I know you're thinking, there's still a lot to go, and you're right.
[00:03:40] But this has been such a growing and worthwhile experience.
[00:03:45] I'm so thankful for the way this church loves my family and my kids.
[00:03:51] My kids love coming here.
[00:03:54] They love it.
[00:03:56] And that's because of the love that you show.
[00:04:00] In fact, sometimes when they're being bad, we threaten that they can't come.
[00:04:05] We're like, you know, you keep it up. You're not going to church now. You know, it's an empty threat.
[00:04:14] You're going. You're a pastor's kid. You're going, like, listen, that's just how we do life, you know? But they don't know that.
[00:04:22] But they. It's so meaningful. And.
[00:04:26] And I hear them at home say things about God that he lives in our heart. And I, Like, I know where you got that from. You learn that at church because there are people that love you, that pour into you. And just as a dad, there is nothing more important to me than their faith.
[00:04:47] And this church is helping to grow and nurture that faith. And I'm so thankful to you, church, and I'm so thankful to be part of this journey. And just as I've been reflecting back, like, man, it's been awesome to see God work in so many people's lives. And I'm so grateful. But I'm personally just so grateful for what he's done in my life, in my family's. And all this through being part of this adventure. And so as we are just turning a corner and opening up a new chapter, hey, there's challenges ahead, friends, right?
[00:05:24] It's gonna require sacrifice.
[00:05:26] It's not gonna be easy. But here's what I believe in my bones.
[00:05:31] It's worth it.
[00:05:34] And what God has for us is good.
[00:05:39] And what the times where we sacrifice. As you're thinking and praying about giving a pledge, I know, you know, it feels like a sacrifice, but.
[00:05:49] And it will be. But also know this. There is no one more generous than God.
[00:05:56] And whatever we give to him comes to life in a different way. I don't know how to explain it better than that, church, but this is all worth it. And so I'm thankful to you, and I'm thankful to be at this point, and I'm excited for what God has for our future.
[00:06:13] And as we think about this, this quote has been coming to mind. I wanna share it with you. It's one of my favorite quotes. It says, this change is hard at first.
[00:06:23] Messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end.
[00:06:28] And I found that to be true in life. How about you? Like anything worthwhile. Hey, it's gonna be hard to get going.
[00:06:36] It's probably gonna be even harder in the middle of it.
[00:06:40] Like, why did I take this new job? What was I thinking? You know, why did I? You're gonna be. But at the end, it's gorgeous. And it's the messy middle that I wanna talk about today. Because that's where we can get lost.
[00:06:56] That's where we can give up too soon. And that's where we find the book of Nehemiah. They're in the messy middle today. So we're gonna look at Nehemiah, chapter four.
[00:07:07] And in chapter four, here's just to catch you up to speed. They have started rebuilding the ancient wall of Jerusalem. It had been destroyed for 100 years, but it was part of God fulfilling his promise to his people and bringing them back home and, you know, allowing them to have a new life and relationship with him as his people.
[00:07:33] And so this wall getting built was a big part of the process. And so they got it going. It's been an amazing way to see them start, but now they're right in the messy middle. And here's how it's going. It says this, chapter 4, verse 10.
[00:07:50] In Judah, it was said, the strength of those who bear the burdens is failing.
[00:07:57] There is too much rubble.
[00:08:01] By ourselves, we will not be able to rebuild the wall. So here's how it's going.
[00:08:08] Not great, right? They're starting to get tired. They're starting to look at this project and kind of say, like. It's like when you do a home renovation project. You're like, I thought this was gonna be one weekend. It's been eight months.
[00:08:22] Amen.
[00:08:23] I thought this place was better off than it was. This is too much work. What did I get myself into?
[00:08:29] And then verse 11. And our enemies said, they will not know or see till we come among them and kill them and stop the work.
[00:08:37] At the time, the Jews who lived near them came from all directions and said to us, not one time, not two times, not three, not four, not five, but 10 times.
[00:08:50] So they were on them. You must Return to us. Stop doing this work. Come back to us.
[00:08:56] So in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, in open places, I stationed the people by their clans with their swords, their spears and their bows. I looked and arose and said to the nobles, to the officials, to the rest of the people, do not be afraid of them.
[00:09:16] Remember the Lord who is great and awesome and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives and your homes.
[00:09:29] So this is what I call the messy middle. Here they started the work. It's been hard to get it started, but they started.
[00:09:36] And now they're doing it, but they're in the middle of it and they're discouraged and they're tired.
[00:09:41] And what we see in the book of Nehemiah is there's actually people that are harassing them and plotting to stop them.
[00:09:49] So they got a lot of things working against them. And in the midst of this, Nehemiah brings some much needed advice and direction to them. And today, I just wanna focus on two things from this is, number one, in the messy middle, learning to recognize the resistance that we will all face.
[00:10:09] See, when God calls you from here to there, before you get there, you gotta go through the messy middle.
[00:10:19] And in the messy middle, you're gonna find resistance. Some of it is outside of you, but most of it will be inside of you. You with me? And we gotta learn to recognize it for what it is so that we don't let it stop us. You with me?
[00:10:36] And then we have to learn a game plan to move forward. And Nehemiah gives them a game plan. So I only got two points for you today.
[00:10:43] I got a very short sermon lined up.
[00:10:46] Why do you always laugh when I say that?
[00:10:49] But two points. Number one, let's talk about the resistance. Well, here's the first. Resistance. They say that, man, we're tired.
[00:10:58] We're tired. We're doing it. Now, keep in mind that this was a big wall and they had to move big rocks.
[00:11:07] And I don't know if you've been out there doing yard work since the weather's been nicer, but you're like, I'm gonna weed the bed, I'm gonna mulch, I'm gonna do. And you're like, oh, man, it's only been 20 minutes. I'm tired. Anybody?
[00:11:23] You made it too. God bless you.
[00:11:25] But, you know, you get in the middle of it and you start to get tired. And when you're serving God in the way that he calls you, you're gonna get tired, you're gonna get fatigued. And that's where they are. And when we're in that spot, we start to question the importance of the work that we're doing.
[00:11:51] And I've been reading a fun book. It's by this guy named Cameron Haynes. He's like a big hunter, but he's also an endurance athlete. And this guy, he's insane. Like, not in kind of an inspiring way.
[00:12:08] And I think that, like, sometimes God has people in the world that just, like, their life changes the categories of what you think is possible. You know what I'm saying?
[00:12:19] So he talks about some of his stories, but one of the things that he did was he ran 267 miles in this race.
[00:12:28] Did you hear that? 267.
[00:12:32] But get this. On a broken foot.
[00:12:36] Yeah, continuous. Yeah, continuous. Yeah.
[00:12:41] This just, you know, and I'm complaining about going up the stairs. You know what I'm saying? It's just like, there's some people that are like, okay, maybe what you think are your limitations aren't your limitations. You with me on this? Like, usually there's more gas in our tank than we think there is.
[00:13:00] Usually we're like, it's on E. And the Lord's like, no, you still got half a tank.
[00:13:05] Keep going.
[00:13:06] And this is where they're like, we're fatigued. But then their fatigue, then it leads to discouragement. It takes one step further, and they look around and they say, the rubble is too much.
[00:13:22] We can't do this.
[00:13:25] Because when you're fatigued and then you get discouraged, it distorts how we see reality. Have you noticed that? Don't make any decisions when you're discouraged.
[00:13:38] Wait till you come out of it. Wait till you get back to a. More Eat right. Because it distorts our view of reality.
[00:13:48] When we first started here at this campus, there was a guy. I love this guy. His name was David. And he. We would, like, be in meetings, like, trying to, like, you know, figure out some remodel thing that we wanted to do or something like that. And everybody would kind of be like, oh, it's not possible. And he would say this line. He would say, if they got to the moon, we can do this.
[00:14:14] And he had, like, a Southern accent, just the way he said it was awesome. So, like, we'd be like, oh, you know, we're trying to remodel this wall. And everybody would be like, oh, it can't be done, yada. He'd be like, if they got to the moon, we can remodel this room.
[00:14:29] And I thought that Was kind of inspiring. You don't seem inspired by it. It's funny, every time I've tried to say that since I heard him say it, it has the same effect, just falls very flat.
[00:14:42] But I loved his attitude. He's like, no, listen, we can figure this out.
[00:14:48] And discouragement always says, no, it can't be done. One commentator said this. He says, nothing has hurt the church more than pessimism.
[00:14:58] And I think that's so true.
[00:15:00] Nothing has hurt. He said, pessimism has hurt the church more than atheism.
[00:15:07] And I think that's right. Sometimes as Christians, man, we gotta have a mindset that says, look, if God is real, we can figure some things out.
[00:15:17] If God is at work in us, and if God is calling us, then there's a way.
[00:15:24] We just gotta find it.
[00:15:26] And so they faced discouragement, and then the last thing that they faced was fear.
[00:15:32] And that's when those people are coming to them and they're saying, hey, come back.
[00:15:37] Get out of this. And Nehemiah says that they came to them 10 times, and basically they were saying, hey, we. We're afraid of the attack that might come our way. So we've gotta get out of here. We gotta get out of this place, and we've gotta abandon our post.
[00:15:56] And they had to face that obstacle. Fear and fear will call you to abandon the post that God has for you. You with me? They were right where God wanted them, but fear was calling them away from that.
[00:16:15] And that's what it does in our life, as God wants us here. But then that voice of fear is saying, no, come over here. And we have to learn to recognize what it is and not give into it. We were on our porch this week on one of those nice sunny days, and I've told you that we've got a geese problem in our neighborhood.
[00:16:38] And there was a few weeks ago that Allie was taking the kids to the mailbox, and there was, like, a nest there, and one of them came at him. You know how those satanic birds operate.
[00:16:52] And so, you know, and this is not the first time that this has happened.
[00:16:57] And so our girls, they don't like geese.
[00:17:01] And I get it. I don't like them either. And so, anyway, so that's kind of their view on geese. And we were sitting at the picnic table, and there were two geese like a football field away, super far. And all of a sudden, Abby, my middle daughter, she was like, dad, the geese, they might come after. I'm like, babe, even if they came after us, you have 15 minutes to get away from them. I don't know if you see those things waddle around. They're not super fast.
[00:17:30] And she was just like. She was just super scared.
[00:17:33] And so I said, all right, well, let's go inside. But I don't know if you have little kids, but, like, my kids, when we go outside, they bring every toy possible that they can outside.
[00:17:46] And so they had all this stuff. So I said, all right, let's go inside, but first clean up your stuff and bring it in.
[00:17:55] Which I think is a reasonable request. Parents. Amen. I mean, in theory, this is a reasonable request.
[00:18:02] And so then as soon as I said that, she just made a beeline inside and she said, dad, I'm afraid of the geese.
[00:18:11] Well, I'm afraid you should be more afraid of me. Go pick up your toys. You know.
[00:18:17] But it didn't really work very well.
[00:18:20] I ended up picking them up and bringing them, but she abandoned her post.
[00:18:25] Go pick up your toys.
[00:18:27] These killer geese, they're not gonna get you.
[00:18:31] I don't know. It's a stretch of an analogy, but just go with it.
[00:18:36] But fear will run us off from the calling that God has. That's what I'm telling you. And you gotta see it for what it is, and you gotta recognize it, and you have to resist it.
[00:18:48] Because God's calling is always going to lead us through things that make us afraid, things that challenge us so that we rely fully on him. So first we have to recognize the resistance and we have to name it. We have to say, all right, I know what you are. You're discouragement.
[00:19:09] And I'm not gonna listen to you. I know what you are. Your fatigue and I'm gonna go take a nap. I know what you are. And your fear.
[00:19:20] And following you is not going to be the way that God has for me. And then Nehemiah sets a game plan, and let's just look at this real quick, he says first.
[00:19:34] After all this, he stations the people together.
[00:19:39] That's step one. When you're in the messy middle, you need to rely on the strength and the prayers and the wisdom of others.
[00:19:50] We need each other.
[00:19:52] See, what I found to be true, unfortunately, is that so many times when life challenges us, we get more isolated, away from others.
[00:20:04] But the truth is, the greater the challenge, the stronger community that we need behind us. You with me on this?
[00:20:12] You usually don't feel like getting it, but that's when you need it the most. And what I found about community is that it's better to Create it in your life up front so that you can more easily access it than try to find it when you're in the messy middle. You with me on this? It's easier if it's already there and it's already at work.
[00:20:41] And one of the big things that we're gonna emphasize in this next year is the importance of life groups of community, of getting together, of learning, of growing, because we need each other. In fact, we're gonna start at the end of this month. Can we put that men's event picture on there? We're gonna start a men's once a month group where we're going to go just out to dinner, have a little.
[00:21:08] A picture is worth a thousand words.
[00:21:13] Brothers, have I captured your heart right there.
[00:21:16] Now you got to pay for your own steak. But it'll still taste good.
[00:21:22] It'll still.
[00:21:24] It'll be sweetened by the conversation.
[00:21:27] But we, we need each other, friends, and we need each other through this time as a church and just through this time in our lives.
[00:21:38] And so we wanna try to create more opportunity for that and more ways to do it. And so the Nehemiah, the first thing he does is he says, hey, go into your family.
[00:21:49] Now, sometimes your literal, your biological family can be a great source of community. But sometimes the community that God brings will be your spiritual family, will be your brothers and sisters. Not by your DNA, but by the blood of Christ.
[00:22:08] And we need each other. And then here's the second thing he says. He says, all right, so come together and bring what you have to help. Their swords, their spears, their bows.
[00:22:21] Bring what you have, what your skill is, into this fight, into this calling.
[00:22:31] And I love that. There's a great scene. There's this book called Gates of Fire. It's one of my favorite books, and it's about the ancient Greeks armies and the Spartans and stuff. It's really cool. But there's this one scene where this character named Zio, he's a young boy and his dream is to be a Spartan warrior.
[00:22:52] That's his dream.
[00:22:54] But he gets captured by an invading army and they torture him and hurt him. And one of the things that happens is his hand gets messed up through what he went through.
[00:23:08] And that's such a big deal because he realizes he will never be able to become a Spartan warrior and hold a spear, which is essential. And so it's not only his hand being messed up, but it's the death of. Of his life dream.
[00:23:24] And while he's like lamenting this, there's this Figure that shows up in, like, gold armor.
[00:23:31] And he has this beautiful, powerful bow.
[00:23:36] And he's standing before Zio. And he says this line. He says, I've always found the spear to be a rather inelegant weapon.
[00:23:47] It's such a cool. It's such a great scene. And what he ends up becoming then is this great archer.
[00:23:54] But it was that vision where he realized, I can't do this anymore, but I can do this. And here's what I think happens in life.
[00:24:04] We can so easily focus on the gifts that we don't have.
[00:24:09] We can so easily focus on what we can't do for God. We can so easily focus on ways that we can't serve.
[00:24:20] But do you know, what matters is focusing on ways you can is allowing God to use you in the ways that he can use you, that he's gifted you, that he's called you.
[00:24:35] Don't worry about what you can't do. Worry about what you can do and bring it to the fight, to God's calling. As we prepare for this transition, man, I'm asking all of us to step up in some way.
[00:24:53] Cause we can only do all this together.
[00:24:57] Number one, I'm asking you to pray, to ask God's blessing and God's favor and God's help.
[00:25:05] This is only done by him and through him and for Him.
[00:25:10] And I know many of you, you are prayer warriors.
[00:25:14] And I'm asking you to pray.
[00:25:16] Some of you, I'm asking you to step up and serve for the first time.
[00:25:22] We're also gonna be starting. A lot of people ask me about this, but we're gonna be starting a setup team as we're gonna do some takedown and setup, and that's a great place to start.
[00:25:36] And one of the cool things about being part of that team is the community that comes with it.
[00:25:42] When we were in North Ridgeville, everybody talks about this. It required a lot of setup and takedown. But so many people have told me they miss the community, the conversations, the friendship that came from that.
[00:25:56] There's something about being involved in that kind of thing that brings us together. And so if you're interested in that, you can sign up at the back and let's just help keep taking the next step. And then I want everybody to pray about this pledge campaign and to pray about giving again.
[00:26:18] There's been an amazing core of generous people in this church, and they've got us to where we're at.
[00:26:25] But our church has grown.
[00:26:28] And many of the people that are here, you weren't even here the first time we started talking about this. And I want you to pray about not what you can't give, but what you can and most importantly, what God puts on your heart. Again, we're not here to manipulate. We're not here to guilt trip. But I do want to invite you to prayerfully consider and to fill out that pledge card and turn it in.
[00:26:57] And what we're doing is. Is worth it, and God will be glorified.
[00:27:02] This week was listening to one of the guys who's like the head of Hobby Lobby, Mark Green. And he was just talking about his philosophy on life. And one of the things that he said was generosity is so important to him and to his family. But I love the way he explained it. He said, we are putting our investment ahead.
[00:27:27] See, Jesus says, look, and we know this, all this stuff we can't take with us, but we can make investments with what we have here that have eternal significance.
[00:27:42] And generosity is a way to that, so we can bring that to the fight. And then Nehemiah says this, and he says, and do not be afraid of them.
[00:27:55] He says, as we go forward, fear can't be our operating system.
[00:28:04] We can't live with fear as the way that we navigate through life. I don't know about you, but I hate when there's a new update on my phone.
[00:28:15] Anybody?
[00:28:16] It seems like every update, I'm like, do you update it just to ruin my phone? Cause that's all that things then don't work.
[00:28:24] And so I always delay them as long as I can until they, like, force me to do it. Yeah. Amen. And that's why I have an iPhone 4 still.
[00:28:37] But, you know, what is it? Supposedly, it's bringing a better software to operate. That's what they say.
[00:28:46] And we need a better software to operate our lives in fear.
[00:28:52] If you're a follower of Jesus, you are called to live by faith, to live with a different drive, a different way of looking at the future, a different way of doing the work of God that he has for us.
[00:29:08] Nehemiah says, don't be afraid of them. And he says, remember the Lord.
[00:29:15] That's the key.
[00:29:17] It all goes back to God.
[00:29:19] Remember the Lord. Remind yourself that he is the one who is above all.
[00:29:28] That everything God calls you to, God helps you through.
[00:29:34] He doesn't call us to do something and says, all right, all right, son, you're on your own.
[00:29:39] He walks with us through it.
[00:29:43] He helps us. He provides. He opens the right doors. He closes the other ones. All we have to do is show up and give him our best, and God will do the heavy lifting.
[00:29:56] He says, remember the Lord. Remember who your God is. Remember that this great big God loves you, knows you, cares about you.
[00:30:11] Remember the Lord. Now, what's cool about the Book of Nehemiah is you could kind of say that the theme of this book is not that they remembered God, but that God remembered them.
[00:30:25] That God remembered his promise to his people.
[00:30:29] And even when they forgot him, he did not forget his Word. Here's what I found. Church.
[00:30:37] The best approach to life is you just do what God is asking you to do, and he will be faithful every step of the way. You with me on this? He says, remember, Lord. And then he says, and fight for your brothers, your sisters, your daughters, all these people, your wives and your homes. Fight for these things.
[00:31:04] See, I think sometimes as followers of Jesus, we get caught up fighting against things, not fighting for things. I think there's a difference. Here's what I mean. When you're fighting against things, you're playing defense.
[00:31:21] When you're fighting for things, you're. You're playing offense.
[00:31:26] And I think in the Kingdom, offense is what matters most.
[00:31:32] In the Kingdom, fighting for things puts us off of our heels and onto our toes and in the place that God uses us in the most profound way. And when I think about our church, man, we are fighting for. For things.
[00:31:54] We are fighting for the name of Jesus to be known in more people's lives.
[00:32:01] Nothing makes me happier than when someone comes to our church and they're like, I've never really been to church. Maybe it's been, like decades.
[00:32:10] But then they start to tell me that now Jesus makes sense to them, that they're being drawn to him. Nothing makes me happier than hearing that, because I. I believe that when Jesus begins to make sense in our lives and we see his majesty and we see the beauty of who he is, and we see what he's done for us, it creates this unbelievable domino effect in our lives and things begin to change.
[00:32:43] And I believe that God has us here to fight for that church. How many people just around these areas, as these communities continue to grow and people. How many people are there that God could use to help them see the excellence of Jesus Christ?
[00:33:05] That's what we're fighting for, church.
[00:33:08] We're saying, lord, we want to fight for that. We want to bring the goodness of Christ in ways that people can receive and understand.
[00:33:17] I don't want people to have to come into our church. And like, you know, we speak in such Christian language in ways that they can't even understand what we're saying about Jesus.
[00:33:29] I wanna speak in ways that are clear that no matter what your background is, you can understand the message that he has for you.
[00:33:39] And I think it's worth it to become that kind of church.
[00:33:44] A couple weeks ago, I saw a young kid just right over here in our church, and they were singing a worship song, you know, one of the songs. And he just had his arms raised up like this.
[00:33:56] He's just alone sitting there. And I thought, that's why we do what we do church. That's why what we do matters. Because we're fighting for generations to know and love and serve Jesus Christ.
[00:34:14] And you gotta fight for that church.
[00:34:17] Here's good, good in the world. God wants us to fight for it. It doesn't just happen by chance.
[00:34:26] You with me?
[00:34:28] Unfortunately, the gravity of our world is that pain and brokenness that will happen without anybody doing anything.
[00:34:37] But good happens when the people of God partner in the purpose of God and say, hey, we're going forward.
[00:34:46] We're gonna show up and we're gonna give God our best in doing what he's calling us to do. That's fighting for good. I think as a church man, I wanna fight for the hearts of my brothers, for men.
[00:35:01] Here's what I believe. When men have a passion for God in their hearts, it changes everything.
[00:35:11] When men have a passion for God in their hearts and they live from that place, it changes marriages, it changes families, it changes workplaces, it changes the church.
[00:35:23] So many good things happen. And I want to fight for that.
[00:35:28] I want to fight for God's name to be glorified in a special way through us. That people could come here and their faith could be inspired. They could find ways to serve God that are life giving, that fulfill the purpose that he has for them, that they could live in adventure, faith, all of these things and church. As we.
[00:35:53] As we look to the forward, as we look to the future, God's calling us to fight for some really important things. And this is all part of the journey.
[00:36:03] I don't want to live my Christian life fighting against things.
[00:36:07] One of my favorite stories is Ulysses S. Grant. When he became the general of the Union armies. The Union was getting whooped by Robert E. Lee, the Southern general.
[00:36:19] And so all his staff, they were saying, what's Robert E. Lee doing? What's he gonna do? Is he gonna attack here? Is he gonna move his people here? What's he doing? And finally, Grant got so annoyed with that, he said, I don't care what Robert E. Lee is doing. What are we gonna do?
[00:36:36] And he said, we're not waiting for him. We're gonna bring the fight to him. And I want to be that kind of church that says, I don't care what's happening in the world.
[00:36:45] I don't care where secular culture is going. What are we gonna do?
[00:36:50] How are we gonna glorify God? How are we gonna love people? How are we gonna bring the gospel when our energy is there?
[00:36:59] I think God is glorified in a very special way. That resonate with you? Church and amen. Yeah, that was very forced, but I'll take it. You know, beggars can't be choosers, but church, I believe God has a great future for us, but we just gotta show up and give him our best.
[00:37:26] And I know we've always been a church that's done that. We've always been a church that when God taps us on the shoulder and says, hey, I want you to serve these people.
[00:37:36] I want you to love this community.
[00:37:38] I want you to take this step of faith. Our church has always said yes, and God has always done more than what we asked or expected.
[00:37:49] And as we go in this season, I believe that same thing will happen. Let's pray, Father. Help us, Lord.
[00:37:57] Help us to move through all the challenges, Lord, with faith.
[00:38:04] Help us to move through them with servant hearts.
[00:38:08] Help us to move through them with a spirit of generosity and hope.
[00:38:14] And, Father, I pray in all these things you would be glorified in all these things, Father. Our hearts would trust in you, would get their strength from you, and would get their direction from you, Father. Lord, bless us as we go into this next chapter as a church family.
[00:38:39] And we pray your grace would be upon us and work through us. We ask this in Jesus name, Amen.
