How Did We Get Here?

This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God.

For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.

You can have a seat.

Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for this day.

This day was a long time coming.

This day was always in your heart.

And it was you put it in the heart of some faithful people in this church that worked hard.

And so there's a lot to be excited about today, God, but let nothing exceed our excitement about you.

Reel us back in anytime we move away from sincere and pure devotion to King Jesus.

Teach us how to be stewards of technology, not slaves to it.

Teach us how to be creative, not cute, to be faithful, not manipulative, simple, not spectacular.

Let us never forget that you're not seeking great worship, but you're seeking true worshipers, those who worship you in spirit and truth.

And now, Lord, increase our capacity to worship you because of what you teach us from your word today.

Increase our understanding of the centrality of your presence, the consistency of your provision, and the necessity of gospel progress.

We pray all this in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open up to 1 Kings chapter 8.

1 Kings 8 · chapter mention

First Kings is the book in the Old Testament, kind of about, I don't know, about a half inch from the very beginning of 1 Kings chapter 8.

1 Kings 8 · chapter mention

We're in a series called the M-Word, which we're going to take a pause from today, and we'll pick up and finish actually next week.

It's not every Sunday that you open a new sanctuary.

And so I've been looking in the Bible and kind of seeing where they kind of opened new sanctuaries and what they did.

I want to take my cues from that today.

And by the way, let me introduce myself.

My name is Neil.

I'm the lead pastor here at Grand Park.

If you're our guest today, let me say that you're welcome.

You're always welcome.

We believe the Bible would place a high high priority on the Bible.

But this is what we don't do.

We don't believe that the Bible is like a club or a weapon that you beat people with and make them feel guilty.

We believe what Jesus said.

He said, You'll know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

So our desire is that you walk out of here today a little freer than you were when you walked in.

If that makes sense, say amen.

And so I'm going to read a long passage from 1 Kings chapter 8, and I'm going to answer the question: how did we get here?

1 Kings 8 · chapter mention

How did we get here?

Because in institutions, organizations, and organisms like the church, it's good to stop every once in a while and just ask yourself, hey, how do we get here?

You're going to get sideways with your wife or your boyfriend or your girlfriend sometime.

And if you want to break the impasse, ask this simple question.

Hey, in your opinion, how do we get here?

And then prepare to get lectured for 30 minutes.

But anyway, no, you should ask the question, how do we get here?

Because if you get the wrong answer to that question, then you give glory to the wrong thing.

You hear me?

If you get the wrong answer to that question, you give glory to the wrong thing.

We don't want to give glory to the wrong thing.

So, how did we get here?

I've been emailing you for, I don't know, years, 10 years or so or more, and I've been pounding these three words.

I want to show you in the Bible where they come from.

I'm not very creative.

I get all my ideas from the Bible.

So let me just read 1 Kings chapter 8, starting in verse 1.

1 Kings 8 · chapter mention

Then Solomon assembled the elders.

Let me just give you the context.

Hang on a second.

Now, they have been living, they've been worshiping God in what's called the tabernacle, which was like a tent.

It was like they would set up a tent with poles and sea sea cowhides, and it was very temporary and movable.

And they're transitioning from the tabernacle to the temple, this permanent structure, this building that they built, just to worship God in.

And this is what the Bible says.

Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the fathers' houses of the people of Israel, before King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion.

And all the men of Israel assembled to King Solomon at the feast in the month of Ethanim, which is the seventh month.

And all the elders of Israel came, and the priest took up the ark, and they brought up the ark of the Lord, the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the tent.

The priest and the Levites brought them up, and King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel who had assembled before him were with him before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered.

And then the priest brought the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord to its place in the inner sanctuary of the house, in the most holy place, underneath the wings of the cherubim.

For the cherubim spread out their wings over the place of the ark, so that the cherubim overshadowed the ark and its poles.

And the poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the holy place before the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen from outside, and they are there to this day.

There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets of stone that Moses put there at Orab, where the Lord made a covenant with the people of Israel when they came out of the land of Egypt.

And when the priests came out of the holy place, a cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.

And then Solomon said, The Lord has said that he would dwell in thick darkness, and I have indeed built you an exalted uh house, a place for you to dwell in forever.

And then the king turned around and blessed all the assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel stood, and he said, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who with his hand has fulfilled what he promised, and with his mouth to David my father, saying, Since the day that I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house, that my name might be there.

But I chose David to be over my people Israel.

Now it was in the heart of David, my father, to build a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

But the Lord said to David, my father, Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart.

Nevertheless, you shall not build the house, but your son, who shall be born to you, shall build the house for my name.

Now the Lord has fulfilled his promise that he made, for I have risen in the place of David, my father, and set on the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised, and I have built the house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, and there I have provided a place for the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord that he made with our fathers, when he brought them up out of the land of Egypt.

Verse 22 says, Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands towards heaven, and said, O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth beneath.

Keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to your servants who walk before you with all their heart.

You have kept with your servant David, my father, what you declared to him.

You spoke with your mouth and with your hand have fulfilled it this day.

Now basically, we read all that because God goes on record to say, I am going to make promises and I am going to keep that promise.

Now I want to begin by asking you a weird-sounding question.

If you went home from lunch today, God forbid, your house was on fire, and you had time to run in and grab one thing.

Think about what you would grab.

I doubt you would grab the flat screen TV off the wall.

Okay?

I said in the last service, you might grab a photo album, and they all went, What's that?

Yeah, I know you got it stored in the cloud now, but a long time ago they printed pictures on paper and there was a company called Kodak and it was very successful.

No more.

No.

You see, this is what happens when the people of God, they're transitioning from this temporary tent where they worship God into this temple.

And by the way, it took Solomon, a little background, took Solomon seven years to build a temple, and he waited 11 months to dedicate the temple because he wanted to dedicate it in the seventh month, the month of Ethanim, because it's the most holy month on the Jewish calendar.

It's the month where Yom Kippur happens, the f the festival of booze.

And so he waited 11 months.

And what's the first thing he does?

Well, the first thing he does is he focuses on the presence of God.

I've been writing you emails for over 10 years now saying, pray these realities, pray these words with me, presence, provision, and progress.

And that's what I want you to see in the text today.

The first thing he does, the house is not on fire, but the temple is built, and the first thing they do is focus on the presence of God.

They go and they get the Ark of the Covenant.

Now, if you're not familiar with Bible stuff, that's okay.

It doesn't mean you're stupid.

It just means no one's ever explained it to you.

The Ark of the Covenant, if you saw Indiana Jones, the first one, say amen.

It's not quite like that, by the way.

You know, it is a box, and it's the presence of God.

This is where God dwells, and you don't trifle with that.

You don't go up and put your hands on it, and they had rings on the side.

Just think of this two-foot by four-foot box with rings on the side, and they would put poles in there, and they would carry it with poles because God's like, hey, don't put your grubby hands on me.

My holiness cannot be thwarted.

And so they're carrying on these poles.

The first thing they do, the temple's done, we're gonna dedicate it.

What is the first thing we do?

We want to ensure the presence of God because this is a historic moment in Old Testament history.

They're going from tabernacle to temple.

Now, bonus rail material in the New Testament, they go from temple to body.

This is why the Bible says, and you hear this a lot, what's my body, I can do what I want.

The Bible says contrary.

First Corinthians 6 says, or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit within you?

So, what's the big deal about the presence of God?

Why is it so important?

Two reasons today.

Number one, God's presence is an indication of God's pleasure.

God's presence is an indication of God's pleasure.

When you're mad at somebody or you're put out with somebody, the first thing you do is get away from them.

God's presence is an indication of his pleasure.

Secondly, God's presence distinguishes us as God's people.

God's presence is the thing that distinguishes us as God's people.

There are a lot of humane organizations and organizations in the world that are doing good things, but only the church of the Lord Jesus is what God's presence.

This is what distinguishes us from everybody else.

It's all through the Bible.

Let me just show you a passage back in the Old Testament, Exodus chapter 33.

Exodus 33 · chapter mention

Uh, God was He led His people all the way.

Now, by the way, it repeats in here, I won't point to it, but it repeats there a couple times since you left Egypt, since you left Egypt, since you left Egypt.

This is where God got the people out of captivity where they were slaves.

He leads them all the way into the promised land because God promised them that, and God is a God that keeps his promise.

But in Exodus 33, God is sick of them.

It's like you go on a family vacation, it's an 11-hour drive, about hour number nine, dad is out of Jesus, and you better get these kids.

Because I'm gonna pull this car over and whip them, whip you, honey, whip everybody, okay?

This is where God is, and God is just like, I uh I cannot hear it one more time.

And he says to Moses, hey, listen, you guys can have the promised land, but you can't have me because y'all have been knuckleheads for so long.

I want to kill all of you.

That's in the Bible.

This is the kind of leaders you want.

Moses stood before God and said, You know what, God, don't do that.

God extended the Abrahamic promise to Moses.

He said, I'll make you the father of many nations.

And Moses would rather his people experience the presence of God than him be popular.

And he said, No, God, that and not only that, but these nations around here, if you kill all these people and you could, all these nations around here will think wrongly about you because you're you're not a God that just flies off the handle and kills people when they do the wrong thing.

Aren't you glad?

Let me ask that again.

You're not a God that flies off the handle and kills people when they do the wrong thing.

Aren't you glad?

Because there'd be none of us in this building right now.

Of course not.

Yeah, so it happens.

This is what Moses says to God.

Exodus 33, starting in about verse 13, he says, Now therefore, if I found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight.

Consider too that this nation is your people.

And he said, My presence, God said, My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.

And he said to him, If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here.

For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people?

Is it not you going with us so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?

If you're kind of wondering why you haven't moved forward in your life or gotten the promotion at work or whatever, maybe it's because God's presence isn't going with you.

And you should just slow down and ask yourself, because Moses says this, he says, hey, God, what's gonna make us distinct from everybody else?

What distinguishes us from the Salvation Army, the Red Cross, uh, YMCA, great organizations doing great work.

The Bible says, for us as the church, the thing that's fueled us, and us is this church, Grand Parkway, the thing that's fueled us to this day is the presence of God.

It's not a person, it's not a preacher.

Uh, because it's easy to confuse giftedness with presence, and let's not do that.

Okay?

Let me say that again.

It's easy to confuse giftedness with presence, and let's not do that.

Now, Marcy and I had dinner with some folks that are new to our church this past week.

Delightful, enjoyable.

And while we're there, and I'm gonna say this carefully because he's in the room right now, I thought it was hilarious.

The man said, I'll tell you what, I really love Leo.

He's my favorite preacher I've ever heard.

Sitting right there, I'm here, he's right there at the table, and he's just like, I mean, I don't want to hurt your feelings.

It didn't hurt my feelings.

That affirms my HR capacities, okay?

I probably make more money as an HR consultant than I do as a preacher.

And I was like, and I thought it was great, and by the way, I believe that we have gifted men and women on our staff.

Lindsay, gifted, Clyde, gifted, Marcy, gifted, Wade Burgess.

If you hear ticking today, that's not a bomb, that's Wade Burgess.

Wildly gifted.

He was down here yesterday with a chisel cleaning stuff off the concrete floor.

So I was like, bro, go home.

Well, I don't want people to see something that's messed up.

This isn't perfect, this building isn't perfect.

We as a people aren't perfect, it's a great match.

Imperfect people meet in an imperfect building to worship a perfect God.

It's a great thing to do.

Now go home.

He's like, I sit in the parking lot.

I said, Why don't you pull it out?

Because that sucker's gonna circle back around and come back in there and work some more.

For the record, you tell me to go home once and you ain't seeing me ever again.

I am out e, okay?

Now you say, what do you did confuse giftedness with presence?

Let's don't do that.

I learned a very tangible lesson about giftedness versus presence.

Before I became the pastor here, I used to travel and preach all over the country.

Uh I was one year I was speaking at the Colorado State Youth Evangelism Conference.

And the conference organizers, they would call me like every week and give me an update.

And I was like, oh, we're finally about three weeks out, they said, two or three weeks out, they said, Hey, we're sold out.

We got 6,000 students coming.

It's gonna be awesome.

And I said, okay, listen, I just want God to show up.

Because if it's 6,000 students in me, which and God's not there, we are in deep, deep trouble.

He goes, Okay, I just want you to be ready.

I'm gonna be ready, okay?

And so I get there, I fly in, there's posters everywhere.

All over.

I stop at a restaurant, there's a poster there.

I get to my hotel, there's a poster there with my big old big head on there.

This isn't the forehead, this is the five head, okay?

And I had hair back then.

And I'm I and I'm just like, oh my gosh.

Well, when I fly into the Denver airport, I go down to the baggage claim, and I'm standing there, some kids walk by, and one of them kind of kind of turned and pointed, like, oh, and I just thought they probably seen me on the poster.

And I just kind of gave them a little head nod, like, what's up, what's up?

Uh and it went from two to five to fifteen to fifty to sixty people.

Adults started joining in, pointing.

And I was kind of here, and they were like, there.

And have you ever been stared at and tried to act like you don't know you're being stared at?

And so I'm kind of like glancing over, like, oh, that number's getting bigger.

This is creepy.

Finally, a girl walks up from here to the front row, holds up her camera, and does, and I just thought, I'm gonna bless her with a full frontal.

I just turned and went, and she went, excuse me, could you back up?

And for the first time in like six minutes, while I'm just glorying in reputation, okay, and and and giftedness, I I was like, oh, and I look, and Billy Joel was hiding behind me.

I just looked and he grabbed me, he goes, Don't move, don't move.

And I was like, he a short little man, and I was like, uh, uh, okay.

Hey y'all, leave Billy alone.

He's like, Man, I usually don't fly a commercial, but I couldn't get my private jet.

And I said, I got the same problem every weekend, Billy.

I understand.

I got my suitcase and I walked to the rental car thing, just kind of and clear as the bell, the Holy Spirit said, see, let's not confuse giftedness and personality and reputation for presence.

And this is what God's people said.

It's what we as a church ought to be about the presence.

That's why we pound these words.

It's not a theme or some novel thing we bought from a marketing company, it is a biblical reality.

If you do not go with us, God, don't take us up from here.

Are you willing to succeed beyond where God's presence takes you, or is God's presence the priority in your life?

Second thing we see in the text is just provision.

Provision.

Let me give you a definition for provision.

It's it's God doing what's in his heart and God's people being faithful with what God has put in their heart.

Very simple.

It's provision, is God doing what's in his heart?

And God's let me just stop right there.

You know that God's got things in his heart for you, right?

So often we talk about God like he's some hacked off school principal that knows that you skip school and you were out smoking weed by the buses, and he can't wait for you to show up and he's scanning the crowd for you because he's gonna get you.

No, God relates to you out of his heart, not his head.

He has things in his heart for you.

If you if you ever get in bed and you're like, my parents had I should pray.

I don't know what to pray, just pray this.

Oh Lord, I want to experience everything you've got in your heart for me.

I want to experience everything you've got in your heart for me.

Because then you move from fearing God to enjoying God, to walking in this sense of wonder in relation to God.

And so provision is God doing what's in his heart and God's people being faithful with what God has put in their heart.

You see this principle all through the Bible.

Nehemiah chapter 2, a guy named Nehemiah goes out, Jerusalem is in ruins, the walls are torn down, the city's been ransacked.

Nehemiah 2 · chapter mention

God tells him, Go back and reveal.

He gets him a little donkey and goes riding around the city at night, and he surveys the wall and he comes back.

And about verse 12, he says, This, I not yet told anyone what God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem.

Now you say, What why the big deal?

Verse 17 it says, Now it was in the heart of David, my father, to build a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

But the Lord said to David, my father, where it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart.

So there were things in David's heart that God put their vision that he didn't get to experience.

And the reason he did not get to experience it was because he sinned with a woman named Bathsheba.

He was unfaithful and he got her pregnant out of wedlock, had her husband killed.

You're like, dude, it's the first Sunday in a building.

Why are you talking about this?

Be happy, clappy.

Stay with me.

David has an affair with a woman named Bathsheba, gets her pregnant, has her husband killed to cover his tracks, okay?

Some of you are like, okay, this is starting to sound like my life a little bit.

Stay with me.

Has her husband killed to cover his tracks?

Takes her as his wife like he's all noble, and then God sends a prophet named Nathan to confront David and say, You're the man, bro.

You're the one I'm telling the story about.

David repents, God restores him and forgives him.

Bassheba gives birth to that baby, and that baby's name was Solomon, who built the temple.

Here's what I'm saying.

Out of your mistake, God can always bring greatness.

Just because you screw up, God doesn't go, okay, I'm gonna put you on the shelf with the broken toys that are 50% off.

Stay there and be glad to have it.

No, that's not the God of the Bible.

Provision, provision.

Too many people act like you gotta persuade God to provide, like he's some filthy moralizer that's up there in heaven going to God.

I love saying no.

What if God's favorite thing to say to you is yes?

But you can't be trusted with the yes that God wants to give you because you've calibrated your soul to know.

The Bible talks about God's ability, his desire to provide.

Uh let me demonstrate this for you.

If you're a mom or a dad and you've ever said no to yourself to say yes to your kids, say amen.

That's just the nature.

Y'all all said amen.

Somebody over here went, amen.

Like absolutely stinking lutely.

Yes.

Now you won't get that until you have kids of your own.

Here's what the Bible says: Jesus is trying to explain to people how generous God is and what the Father's heart is.

He says this in Matthew 7.

He says, ask and it'll be given to you.

Seek and you will find.

Knock and it will be open to you.

For everyone who asks receives.

And the one who seeks finds.

And to the one who knocks, it will be open.

Or which of you?

He can tell at this point, they're kind of like, say what?

And Jesus is like, okay, changing gears here.

Or which one of you?

If you have a son, he asked him for bread, you give him a stone.

Or if he asks for a fish, you will give him a serpent.

If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him?

Now, he's not saying that your parents are evil.

So don't get in the car today and go, huh, oh, you though who are evil, take me to lunch.

No, no, what he's saying is compared to my goodness, your mom and dad are evil.

That's what Jesus is saying.

He says it uh with different words in a different place.

Luke chapter 12, verse 32.

Luke 12:32

He says, Be of oh, be of good cheer, little flock.

It is your father's pleasure to give you the kingdom.

Be of good cheer.

Fear not, little flock.

But it is your father's good pleasure.

Pleasure, not just his pleasure, his good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

This is the Father's heart when it comes to revision.

So ask yourself, what has God put in your heart?

Because once God has put something in your heart, it won't let go, it won't leave you alone.

Matter of fact, the more you experience provision, the more you believe God for provision.

Let me say that again.

The more you experience, you gotta have episodes and incidents and experiences in life where God provides and you're overwhelmed because that calibrates your heart to believe God.

Now, let me demonstrate this from the text.

In verse 15 and verse 20, the same word is used and sword fulfilled.

Look at verse 15.

He says, This.

He says, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who with his hand has fulfilled what he promised with his mouth to my father, to David, my father.

He said, basically, he has fulfilled what he promised with his mouth.

And then in verse 20, he uses the same English word.

Verse 20, now the Lord has fulfilled his promise that he made.

Now, the Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew.

The New Testament is originally written in Greek.

They were translated into English, and nothing was lost along the way.

Okay?

Why do I tell you that?

Here's why.

Because the word fulfilled in verse 15 and verse 20, it's two different Hebrew words.

Remember, I said you got to have an experience with provision, and the more you experience provision, the more you just believe God for provision.

Verse 15, the word fulfilled is the Hebrew word malay.

Malay, it means this to fill full.

Look at me.

God made a promise and God filled it full.

He kept his word.

It's like, oh wow, that is incredible.

Verse 20, it's a totally different Hebrew word.

It's the Hebrew word kum, and it means to be fixed, proven, and established.

In other words, in verse 15, he did it.

Verse 20, we can count on him to do it.

It's been fixed, established, and proven that God is a God who keeps his word.

Ask yourself this question today.

Have you had enough experiences with God's provision to change the way you think about provision?

Have you had enough experiences with God's provision that changes the way you think about provision?

Like when I first started here, my first Sunday was uh April the 3rd, 2006.

All we had was that building over there and about six acres.

Uh and and and it did not go well in the beginning.

If you're new to our church, somebody this morning said, Do you think these new people have any idea what it was like?

I said, No.

And nor should they.

My first Sunday, there were 238 people total attendance.

Babies, children, youths, adults.

I came in about eight weeks later, my secretary was crying.

I'm like, what are you crying for?

There was 131 people, and people are leaving, and they're saying it's your fault.

Well, it is my fault.

It is my fault.

And I'm not trying to make people leave.

I'm just trying to, I'm just trying for us to get to a healthy place so we can build with a healthy foundation.

It's like, okay, so in eight weeks, I grew it down, and the next week more people, I grew up from 238 down to about 125.

Yes, yes.

That amen right there, she was here.

A lady came up to me one Sunday with a spiral notebook and a pen, and she said, We have a petition to bring our pastor back.

I said, Here, I'll sign it.

Lord, get me up out of here.

Now, by the way, all of a sudden, and it had nothing to do with me, uh, they were gonna put a hospital right here on this property.

They were selling it for$6 a square foot.

The Memorial Hermit right up there at$59.99 was gonna go right next to that building right over there.

They're dropping it on top of us.

The church is full of people.

We had a land team, and I was not on it.

The church is full of people that are smarter than the pastor.

Amen?

Don't say it so excitedly, you jerks.

Anyway, uh, and so that the guy, the original developer Baliana said, Hey, I'll try to get you at the easement, but we're two weeks from signing.

Two weeks later, the deal fell through out of the blue.

Here's one of the things we had 40 acres over off Madden Road that we couldn't afford.

We couldn't build on either.

It was choking us.

And there's a man in our church, I won't say his name because he didn't he didn't want attention.

He's a geologist retired from shale that asked the developer, he said, Where are you gonna put all your water for that development?

He goes, Oh, dumping Oyster Creek, and he said, It won't hold it all.

We've got 40 acres, that makes a great uh detention facility for you.

And that's how we got this piece of property.

We swapped them straight up.

We were just paying on it.

We weren't even close.

And he gave us this piece of property, and then at the closing, he slides an envelope across the table and says, I want to be a good neighbor.

We open up the envelope and it's a hundred thousand dollar cashier's check.

Yeah, yeah.

So I talk about provision, God was winking at us a long time ago.

Keep going.

And so we had this land, and then we were like, hey, we just need to see what the land's like.

What the we had to take soil samples uh and do core drilling, all this stuff.

And the guy called two days before and said, Hey, I can't get a truck out here because on the front part it was it was not grassy, but about right where we're standing, all the way back.

Well, it dropped off about the front of the porch of the children's building, and it would retain water, and there were weeds over my head.

And the guy said, Hey, if I can't get in a truck in here, we can't get core samples.

And I was like, You just show up, I'll get her done.

So I went to Aztec Rental, rented a brush cutter, and I'm out here cutting brush, and I'm thinking the whole time, what are we doing?

We we were so broke that we weren't even paying the principal on that building, we were just paying the interest and had been for six months.

When I went to dinner with the with the guys that to close the dinner deal, and this should have been an indication, they said, Hey, let's meet at Niners in Pecan Grove, and we'll give you an offer letter.

Niners?

That's where we're going to close this deal.

And we did.

And they slid a piece of paper across the table and it said, We're prepared to offer you a full-time salary of$25,000 with no benefits for the first year.

And I said, You guys are broke, aren't you?

And they said, Yeah, but listen to me.

I'm not saying that for pity.

God doesn't waste anything.

Pay attention to your life and your past.

I grew up in abject poverty, so that didn't scare me at all.

What scared me was what happened when I'm mowing with the brush cutter, and I'm just out here just mowing stuff down.

And I'm thinking, because when you grow up like that, you just think, I just, the next decision I'm gonna make is gonna put me back there.

This is just more failure's gonna come.

And I'm mowing, and I'm thinking, what are we doing?

I mean, we just need to hunker down over here.

Let's sell this land and pay this building off, and blah, blah, blah.

And all of a sudden, I push down a big stand of weeds, and uh, and there's about a 10-foot circle of beautiful, lush, ripe muscadine grapes.

Anyone know what muscadine is?

Say amen.

If you've ever had muscadine wine, say amen.

You people grew up in the country.

Yeah, it's just a little stand of grapes, big purple, beautiful grapes.

And I was just like, my initial thought was like, what?

Who's making wine out here?

And my second thought was, I just was like, and clear as the bell, the Holy Spirit says, see, this is my vineyard.

I'm doing something here.

This doesn't all depend on you.

And all of a sudden it just came up, rising up in me, and I just burst into tears.

I was so overcome with emotion, I was holding on to the handle of the brush because I was still running.

I just sat down in the dirt.

And I just, after a few minutes, I thought, I gotta turn this thing off.

And I just sat there, just snotted myself.

And then this was my thought.

Well, I better get up.

I don't want anybody walking by or driving by and go, hey, there's our new pastor out there crying in the weeds.

Clearly, he's a good leader.

And I stood back up, and the Lord's like, hey, this is my venue.

I'm responsible for this.

You just do what I tell you to do.

And I mowed with a totally different momentum after that.

What am I saying?

I'm saying provision.

Provision, provision, presence, provision, and then finally progress.

Progress.

Now, if you're in chapter 8, turn a page and get over to verse 54.

It's a long chapter.

I won't read the whole thing to you, but I will read verse uh 54.

He says, Now, as Solomon finished offering all this prayer and plead to the Lord, he arose before the altar of the Lord, where he had knelt with his hands outstretched towards heaven, and he stood and he blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying, Blessed be the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he has promised.

Not one word has failed of all his good promise, which he spoke by Moses, his servant.

The Lord our God be with us as he was with our fathers.

May he not leave us or forsake us, and he may incline our hearts to him to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his rules, which he commanded our fathers.

Verse 59, let those let these words of mine, with which I have pleaded before the Lord, be near to the Lord our God day and night, and may he maintain the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel, as each day requires.

That all the peoples, this is what we're asking God to do, and this is why we're asking God to do it.

That all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God, and there is no other.

That all the peoples of the earth, you see, again, the way you define progress determines how you go about that.

And so it's important we ask ourselves, what would progress look like?

Otherwise, we settle in and we worship the past and we enjoy the present and we don't step in with God into what He's calling us into as a church and as a people.

This, verse 60, is what we mean by progress.

It's very simple, okay?

What we want, what we're praying for, is that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God and that there is no other.

This is why, if you're visiting today, you need to know this.

This is a very missional church.

Missional, not missions, but very missional, very intentional in how we live, whether we're on the golf course, chopping it up with our buddies, whether we're at someone's house hanging out for dinner, whether we're out at a restaurant with dinner, we're always gonna be intentional with and about the gospel.

It's why next Sunday, Virgil Brown, who's a church planner in Portland, Oregon, is gonna be here.

We support him, and so he's gonna be here.

Uh we'll he we'll interview him briefly in the service, and then we'll have a luncheon for him.

It's why we go to the Extended Stay Hotel over here, because we have some beautiful friends of ours from Afghanistan.

They've been relocated, and we want to be the people saying, Welcome to our city.

What can we do to help you get settled in and find your way?

Okay, it's why we're going back to Costa Rica on a mission trip.

Uh we've had a 10-year relationship with Bart Heather Cardi, who came out of our church, who went on the first mission trip, and then never came back.

I mean, Bart went and stayed, and his wife said, Yeah, we're going back.

We're coming home for a year to fulfill our teaching contracts, sell everything, and go to Costa Rica.

And so there's pastors up on the reservation.

We're gonna send some men over there to teach a book of the Bible.

And so, if you're interested in that, you need to call Brent.

Uh, and then Bart's wife, Heather, gets news and she goes, I want to do a women's conference.

And so we need women, especially if you can speak Spanish, to get on a plane, fly to Costa Rica, and basically love on women uh for about three or four days.

It's why we're also investing out here in Near East Promise.

It's a lady in Rosenberg that feeds underprivileged children.

Look at me.

God is not okay if we open a brand new building and little kids in our city go without food.

Not okay.

Not okay.

Now, if you're visiting, I'm not mad about that, but I was that kid, and so it kind of gets to my heart, okay?

And so they're like, hey, we need some help in our kitchen, and we need a deck out back, and so we need somebody that can design a deck, and I need some rednecks that can swing a hammer, okay?

Some of you can give, some of you can go.

We need both.

Amen.

Why do we do that?

Very simple.

We want all the peoples of the earth to know that the Lord is God and there is no other.

The nations are coming to us.

We're not waiting for COVID to subside before we make progress.

We're not gonna do it by force.

Here's how we're gonna do it by finding our deepest joy and our highest motivation in God.

And so everybody that comes into contact with you is gonna look at you and kind of think, I gotta rethink my joy and my motivation, because clearly you you you you got something there that I do not have.

Now, let me just say this, okay, and I'll be done.

And I'm gonna ask Clyde uh to come back and let's just worship.

Some of my friends are like, hey, are you gonna have a dedication service for your building?

And I said, Oh, we're gonna worship in there.

I'd like to christen it with some worship.

Actually, I want you know how they launch a ship with a bottle of champagne?

I wanted to get a bottle of champagne and smash it on one of the pillars, and the elders said, You can't do that.

Okay.

Like, nah, I tried.

No, but here's the thing uh this is not, oh, because 15 years ago I sat in an elder meeting, and someone said, When you close your eyes, what do you see for the future of Grand Park?

One of our elders at the time was an engineer, and he went, I don't see nothing, my eyes are closed.

Help me, Jesus, help me.

But guys begin to dream, men begin to say, and we just said, Hey, we want to have the warehouse, we want a place for students, we want to have a place for children, and then we want to have a place uh for us to worship with enough space for everybody.

You're sitting in that vision right now.

Yeah.

And you didn't get here because the elders are creative or smart or whatever.

You got here because of God's presence.

Provision.

When what's in the heart of God meets what's in the heart of man, provision happens in progress.

We've made great progress, but we didn't build this to say, hey, we arrived.

We built this for those who have yet to arrive, for those that are on the way.

Because the Bible tells us this the promise, the promise of the gospel is for us who are already believers, and it's for those who are far off.

So if you're here today and you're like, hey, a friend invited me, said this new church is opening up, but there was free coffee, I'm glad you're here.

Let me say this and I'm gonna be done.

Who's for the preacher being done?

Say amen.

Y'all meet me in the parking lot.

Look at me.

If you think I'm a million miles from God right now, these promises are for you too.

So if you're looking for a church, I recommend this one.

I want to be your pastor.

I didn't mean I want to preach, just preach show on Sundays.

I want to do that.

I want Leo to preach.

I want Brent to preach.

I want you to enjoy all those people.

I want to come to your house and eat your food.

I want to know your kid's name.

I want to come to a little league baseball game.

I take my wife, I call it a date.

It's free.

I'm not lazy, I'm just creative.

The promise is for you too.

Don't exclude yourself from what God created you for, okay?

Let me voice a prayer.

God thinks that the promise is for us that are already in and those that are on the way.

And so we built this building, God, to make room for those that are on the way.

And so, Lord, we just want to uh Solomon stood and blessed the Lord, and we want to close our service by blessing you as well.

So hear us, Lord, as we bless you in Jesus' name, and all God's people said.

Amen.

Amen.

Can you be seated for just a second if you would?

Uh if you're our guest, I want to say thank you for being here.

Look at me.

You're always welcome.

You do not have to get your life cleaned up to come to church, okay?

God accepts you just as you are, and so do we.

We want to love you.

We want to be a presence in your life, okay?

So if you're here today and you're visiting, you're a guest, uh, I would just encourage you to text welcome to that number right there.

Uh that's how we know you're here.

It gives you some information.

You can plug in your information.

If you're old school, you're like, I'd like a card, go to the Welcome Center, which is right on the other side of that wall, and they'll give you a card, you can fill that out.

Uh, we're not gonna jam you up and show up at your house unannounced.

We love you.

And we just want to know, hey, what would it look like for us to be your church, okay?

We have a few things going on in the life of our church.

Uh, but before I show you that video, if you get a guest card and you want to drop, you can drop those wooden boxes by the doors, and for all of you that that uh this is your church, uh, you know that we don't pass an offering plate, uh, we just put a wooden box by the door.

And we believe that God will move your heart.

So if today's the day you worship God through obedience or generosity, that's where you take care of that as well, okay?

A few things going on in the life of our church we want you to know about.

So if you would give your attention to the screens.

Thank you for joining us today.

Here's some things we want you to know.

Virgil Brown will be joining us next Sunday for a lunch after the 1030 service.

Virgil is the lead pastor of Redemption Church in Portland, Oregon, where we partner to plant and help the church grow.

Sign up at grandparkway.org slash events.

Women's Weekend is happening on April 1st and 2nd.

Save the date and look for more information to come soon.

If you're new, text Welcome to 281-626-5707.

This way we can know you're here and get you connected with the life of our church.

If you have any questions about what you heard today or would like someone to pray for you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.

We'd like to conclude our service with a spoken blessing.

And so if you would stand to your feet and hold your hands out if you're comfortable.

If not, hold them out anyway.

May the Lord bless you and keep you.

Cause his face to shine upon you.

May the Lord turn his face towards you and give you peace.

Provision and progress.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.