GRIT 2024

Now I couldn't help but to reminisce this past week over the last year,

and I want to tell you something. Last year, twenty twenty three was

a defining year for the Church of the Crossing, one of the most defining

years in our history. Actually, we think through this some of the major

steps we took as a congregation. We are in the launch team phase of

our Spanish ministry that's going to launch in March. Check out this small little

clip from their worship service like two weeks ago. Check this out. They're

having so much more fun than you. You know, every once in a

while I'll see somebody in the English services go like this, and then I

realized they lost their contact. And but they're having a great time praising the

Lord, and they're bringing like all those people you see, that's just people

that they've gathered like out of nowhere, and so pray for them. March

is the official launch, so they're heading towards that. Also, we launched

a neighborhood market, which has served over seven hundred families in need just this

year. It's been an incredible step of faith. And let me tell you

something. You guys raised the money for but we really had this goal of

making the neighborhood market something that was full of dignity and love. That way,

when people walked in, they knew that they were just loved on,

that we've given our all just to serve them. And so you need to

understand something. Feed America is over kind of the food banks of America.

Okay, And then they picked state partners. The partner for Food America,

our feet America, excuse me, is Gleaners for Indiana. So then we

want to partner with Gleaners because it gives us access to so many other things.

So there's a lot of interviews onside visits. When Gleaners came to church

the Crossing and they brought their whole team in the report back to me was

a few of them got very choked up when they saw the excellence, when

they saw all the things that we had done to bring love and dignity and

to bring products that are not in normal food pantries, and just the extravagance

because we want these people there are our neighbors. We love on our neighbors,

and so that was a powerful moment and they even few of them said,

we haven't seen anything like this in the state, and so that just

really made me my heart just that was our goal to just love people in

extravagant ways. Also, we launched ministries this past year to young women who

decided to keep their baby instead of aborting them, and we threw them big

baby showers, which was awesome. We also launched a legal aid ministry that

literally changed lives, freed people up, change their lives, change the trajectory

of their lives, and the history of their families changed because of that.

Also, our youth group took a big step and launched four six and there

was actually the adults who said, we'd like to hang out in fourth graders

and it me tell you, greate fruit. So fourth through sixth grade and

these kids are bringing their friends. It's a huge step of faith. That's

awesome. Also, so over our five services and our children and our youth.

In twenty twenty three, we added a couple hundred new members to our

church, spread out through all of these ministries. And I tell you what,

there hasn't hardly been a week all year in twenty twenty three that a

family didn't come up to me and say we've decided to become members here.

Now. It was kind of weird. When I was gone for vacation and

COVID and people came up and said, oh, we don't know you,

but we've decided to become members here as long as you don't blow it those

first couple sermons. So, I mean, even when I was gone,

the church was growing because you know what, it's not about a personality here.

It feels about a personality here. I would lead worship, I would

do the announcements, and I would preach every week. No, this is

about a church. This is Church at the Crossing. I'm just one of

the servants here, okay. And so you guys are doing an awesome job.

And I tell you what, it looks like. It's going to be

a banner year for our children's ministry. We have a tremendous amount of pregnant

women in our church. And let me tell you something. If there's one

commandment that our younger families love, is the first commandment to be fruitful multiply.

And it's like, you know, whatever, you know, even if

they don't obey any other commandment, be fruitful and multiply. We got that

down, I think I heard the other day. I think we got five

babies coming in May, like, that's insane. So Jordan's you know whatever.

Their ministry is growing through unique ways and I just love it and think

about So there are some big steps we took, but also spiritually we grew

this year. Our worship nights became powerful and watched this room fill love with

people who wanted to come out and extra night of the week just to worship

the Lord, to seek the Lord, to draw closer to the Lord,

to experience more of his love. Our prayer teams, man, they grew

in their faith this year as they minister to people. And let me tell

you, they just what they did was they just you know, gave more

of God's love to every person they met as they prayed for them. But

here's the cool thing. A lot of people were healed. I'm gonna be

very honest. There was a couple of people that we thought we were gonna

do their funeral by the end of twenty twenty three. It looks like they're

gonna live for a long time. God touched them. God healed them.

I am convinced that God hears the cries of his And I'll be honest every

single week when I come into worship and I look up on this stage and

I see white, black, Arabic and Latino on this stage. It does

something incredible in my heart because when I look on the stage, I go,

oh, there's heaven. There is heaven right there. And let me

tell you, the talent and watching them become friends and come into relationship is

just such a beautiful thing because here's what we want to do. We want

to help bring heaven usher heaven here on earth. Now. One of the

last big steps we took this year, okay, was in a world divided

over sexual ethics, Church of the Crossing produced and we published. You can

go check it out on our online or we always have the document out in

the lobby. But we publish a deeply biblical and traditional Orthodox theology that cleared

up any questions and can fusions that we might have for about what the Bible

teaches about sexual ethics and sexual purity. Here here's why. Because we don't

want the world teaching our kids what it means to be sexually pure, or

we don't want the world to teach them about sex at all. We want

our children to learn about sex from the counsel of God and the infallible Word

of God. And so yeah, even after we've launched this document, the

other Church of Gods are now adopting this, and even the Indiana State Ministries

of the Church of God has adapted and adopted ours as a standard for the

Church of God and the State of Indiana. Because one thing we're going to

do here at the church, we are going to stand up for what we

believe is biblical. Even in the most as we are graceful and kind,

we will not falter from the Word of God. So yeah, we took

some steps this year. A lot of those steps were fun, but almost

every step we took took some grit, okay, because almost every step you

take, you know, when you go to a food pantry, well,

you know, some people might not agree with that. Or you take working

with ladies who decide to keep their babies some people you know are are pro

choice in the community. And then even looking at sexual ethics, you know,

taking some big steps to drawing some lines. That's gonna make some people

mad. But we gotta take these steps because it's not about me. It's

not about us, It's about us reflecting the glory of God and becoming His

church. The church that he designed, and it's our job to walk in

that. So when we do this and we decide to take these steps,

it's not gonna be easy. It takes people of grint. And so today

I want to remind you. Last year I interview introduced us all to the

concept of grit. And here's what I'm gonna do today today, the big

goal, the big challenges. I want us to renew our commitment to being

a people of grit for God's kingdom, to being a people of grit for

God's kingdom. I'm calling you. I'm not just calling you to say hey

here, you know, I just want you to be faithful, come to

church every week. No, I'm talking to you about what type of person

I want representing our church, by what type of church we are. And

let me tell you, and if we're gonna move forward and reach the vision

that God's called for, it is gonna take some grit. Now, let

me give you my personal definition of grit. Grit is doing what it takes

to get what matters done. It's just doing what it takes to get what

matters done. If we look throughout the Bible, we see Joseph he was

thrown into slavery, he was abandoned by his family, He was beat up,

he was left for dead, he was lied on. He spent many

years in prison. But Joseph withstood it, and he was a man of

grit to fulfill his calling. Think about Moses. Moses walked up before the

most powerful man on this earth and he says, let my people go go

lost his life like that David, when he found out that Goliath was challenging

the people of Visual David grabbed a rock and he says, man, how

dare you talk about my brothers and sisters, and how you are not going

to run your mouth about the living God, my lord man. He picked

up a rock and he knocked that giant on his hind end. Think about

Jesus. You talk about grit. Jesus knew for three years in his ministry.

At the end of his ministry, he ended with horrific torture and execution,

and yet he made step after step after step towards Jerusalem, and he

endured the punishment. Jesus was a man of grit. And think about Paul.

Paul. Everywhere he went he got beat down, but he'd never stopped.

So when we look the people who actually make a difference in the Bible.

We look at people who are the heroes of the Bible. Every single

one of these people. They're people of grit. They don't wand they don't

cry, they don't back down. They're not all about their comfort, they're

not all about taking the easy route. They are people who say, God,

my life belongs to you. Whatever you want me to do, I

will do it with your help. And that's the type of people I'm calling

you to be because we're not going to accomplish the goal that God has given

our church to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ in our community if

we are not a church filled with people of grit. So today I want

to look at the original man of grit, or the og whatever you want

to do it. We go back and this is the first person we truly

see living a life of grit. His name's Noah. Let's look at this

the Lord in Genesis chapter six. This is before the flood. This is

at the beginning of creation and the world. And it says the Lord saw

how great the wickedness of the human race have become on earth, and that

every inclination, everybody say inclination. We're gonna get back to that minute.

Every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.

Now check this out. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings

on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said,

I'm gonna hears what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna wipe from the face

of the earth the human race I have created, and with them the animals,

the birds, the creatures that move along the ground. For I regret

that I have made them. But thankfully we have verse eight in the Bible.

But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. So God,

he looks out of his creation, the early stages of his creation. Here's

what he sees. They plunge into being murderous people, violent people, lustful

people, evil people. Their whole existence was wicked. Corruption was the norm,

Hatred was commonplace. War was on the menu. But here's the thing

I want you to think through history. Okay, anytime we have a corrupt

society, society is typically fixed in three or four ways. Laws, commands,

a dictatorship or a king, or a government. God looked at the

wickedness of these people, and he realized laws are not going to fix them.

A king's not going to fix them, A government's not going to fix

it. Now why why? Now, let's go back to that word inclination

of the heart. Okay, here's what I want you to understand, that

inclination of their thoughts. That word inclination, when we translate it into the

Hebrew, means the forming of their thoughts. And this word forming comes from

the potter who is forming the clay into what is going to become another words,

as their thoughts are forming, as their brains are developing, as they

were growing up. Everything that is being formed within their mind and their consciousness

and their subconsciousness, wants and desires and craves, evil laws, commands,

kings and governments. That's not going to change that. Now, you've got

to ask the question these people who become full of lust, debauchery, wickedness,

hate, and violence. So the actual question is, man, how

do they get so bas so quick? Like this is early Earth, early

human population at least, how did they get bassed so quick? Well,

the answers have to be opening of the chapter. Let's look at this Genesis

six says when human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters

were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans

were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. The Nephilium were

on the earth in those days, and also afterward when the sons of God

went to the daughters of humans and they had children with them, and they

were the heroes of old men of renown. So what we see here is

sons of Gods are angels, however youone to interpret it. They're marrying and

hooking up with these women who are born of the earth. So here we

are welcome to one of the most controversial scriptures in all of the Bible.

Now for me, you know, over the years I have you know,

belonged to this interpretation or this interpretation of this, and so I'm going to

tell you if you don't agree with my interpretation over the next few moments,

perfectly fine. What I'm going to do is, as of late, I'm

just simply going to the most traditional orthodox of what I would call the simplest

explanation. It's the explanation that they have through centuries of the Old Testament the

New Testament and the Early Church. And so here's how I interpret this passage

and why evil was so rampant on the earth during this time. So let's

go back in the beginning. Am and Eve were created, and what does

it say in Genesis. It says that God walked with them in the cool

of the day in the garden. So we see that God is walking with

humans. But then we see Satan, who is a fallen angel, is

here in the garden of Eden in physical form. So right there here,

from the very beginning, we see that God and fallen angels are in their

physical form, not God spirit, but at least the angels that were falling

are in physical form on this earth. And so we see here that these

these angels who had rebuilting against God, who wanted to do their own thing,

did not want to fall the ways or the commands of God. They

are here on this earth. And as they're here on this earth, they

start to look at the women of this earth. They find them beautiful,

and so they start to take them as wives and have children with them.

Okay, now here's what's going on. As they marry these women and have

children with their women, these demons who are walking the earth. They are

forming the thoughts of every children, every child, and every generation. Okay,

that's why again, commandments, rules, kings, and government's not going

to change them because every thought in them is coming from the demonic world.

And so as they're growing up, Yes they fight, Yes they're evil.

See, it's all along this time. Let's look at this. We saw

this earlier. It says the Lord saw the great wickedness of the human race,

and they had how wicked they have become on this earth, and that

every inclination or the forming of their thoughts of the human heart was only evil

all the time. So these demons, these fallen angels, were influencing the

world, forming their minds through the influence of people to do evil. And

again, at the very heart of it was a rebellion against God. And

so God said, don't lie, but the demons would say, you know

what, sometimes you need to stretch the truth. God said, don't murder,

and they said, well, sometimes murders necessary. God said, hey,

sex is for the marriage bed only. They're like, we know,

why limit yourself to that? Hey, God said, you know, love

one another, and they would say, you know what, why do that

when it's so satisfying to hate. And this goes on and on and on.

And let me tell you some when we think about that culture where they're

so influenced by demons, where they're basically saying, hey, do what you

want to do, it's not much different than a today. Right, isn't

our culture changing? Is hem? I ever heard the phrase live your truth,

do what feels right for you, do what's best for you, whatever

makes you happy. Happiness is now the idol of America. And so we

find ourselves in this culture today where people are doing whatever their heart's desire.

And let me tell you something, it's not too far off from the heart

of the people in the day of Noah. But then we go to the

Early Church. So today and Noah's times aren't the only times we've had attitudes

like this. We go to the early Church. Think about the Apostles when

they first lost a church. Four years after Jesus resurrected. Who comes on

the throne as Emperor of Rome a guy named Caligula. Anybody here heard of

Caligula? Yeah? Really nice? Listen. Caligula was about as evil as

they came. He insisted on people worshiping him as a god. He was

a pervert part excellence. He was a hedistic man, He was a murderer.

He was as evil as they come. So as the church is launching,

the fourth year of the Church of God, launching into this earth after

the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have this emperor who is the

most messed up deviant ever. Guess what that influences society. The society follows

their leaders. And then we look over just a few more years down the

road and they get another emperor. His name is Nero, and Nero decides,

you know what, I'm just gonna have fun with Christians and I'm just

gonna kill Christians for sport. So in the early Church, we look at

we got Curricula and Nero ruling the world. And so as the church is

starting, as the church is going out there, they have to scatter because

they're gonna be killed, because you have these people in power who are pure

evil. Even in almost any other society, they look at the sins of

Caligula and Nero, and almost any other society in history would say, all

right, boys, that's a little too far. You guys are pretty sick.

So we have today where we have people who are just saying, hey,

do whatever makes you happy, do what you want. And by the

way, if everybody doesn't agree with you, just hate them because they're you

know, they're persecuting you. So don't get in away of my sin.

Then you get to the early Church and look what's going on. Man,

they are just filled with evil and they're taking it all on. But these

two times have nothing compared to the day of Noah. You have these demons,

these men who are influencing all of society, and it gets so bad.

So check this out. Here's what God said. The Lord said,

I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created.

Society was so bad, there's no fixed it. Yeah, thankfully he

found one that was faithful to him despite what was going on in the rest

of the world. And it says in verse eight, but Noah found favor

in the eyes of the Lord. And so what did God do. He

set a timer. He set a timer for one hundred and twenty years.

Say Noah, I'm gonna give you time to raise your children, get them

married, and take several decades to build an arc so that your family can

be saved. Now, a lot of people read the scripture. Let's look

at this, It says the Lord. Then the Lord said, my spirit

will not contend with humans forever, for their mortal their days will be one

hundred and twenty years. A lot of people have interpreted that scripture to mean

that we won't live for more than one hundred and twenty years. But when

you re look at it, what it's really saying as God says, I'm

not gonna live with these people forever. I'm gonna give them one hundred and

twenty more years and then destruction comes. Now, why did he give one

hundred and twenty years one to help Noah get ready? But also, even

when the world is full of evil, he's still a graceful God, hoping

that any would repent and turn to him. But none of them do,

and here we go. Even Peter makes comments about this. Peter jesus right

hand man says, hey, for if God did not spare angels when they

sin, but cast them into hell and committed them to the pits of darkness

reserved for judgment, and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah,

a preacher of righteousness with seven others. When he brought a flood upon

the world of the ungodly God brought judgment and he started over all right,

let's look at this. Here's what happened. Genesis six. God said to

Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth

is filled with violence because of them. And behold, I am about to

destroy them with the earth. Make for yourself an arc of gopher wood.

You shall make the arc with rooms. Now I love verse twenty two.

Pay attention to this, everybody. Thus Noah did according to all that God

commanded him. So he did. And then it took this guy twenty to

forty years to build an arc. Let me tell you something. This is

hard, back breaking, callous, causing work. For Christmas this year,

my wife is buying me a bigger chainsaw. I love the cutwood, I

love the chofwood. I don't know why, just does something in my soul

and I just love it. And I need a bigger chainsaw. I got

some bigger projects I want to do. And I was up in the Boonies

in Wisconsin last month driving around my buddy, and we see this huge tree

that maybe have been hit by lightning, and it was laying over in the

yard and there's a dude I think he was a mennonit and he is wearing

basically dress clothes. And this guy's got an axe. He's chopping down on

the biggest trees I've ever seen in my life with an axe. I mean,

it was so stunning. I started laughing, and because I'm like,

oh, my gosh, there's a real man. I haven't seen a real

man in my life. Like, Wow, this dude's out there in a

suit, chopping a tree with an axe. Did you know that they sell

chainsaws in Wisconsin? But he had an axe, and this dude's out there

in a suit, and I'm just so it was so fascinating that about an

hour later, when we were leaving, I took two roads over just to

go back and watch him again because I was like, this dude's got an

axe. He's chopping a tree with an axe. This is insane, man,

We don't do this nowadays. And I was thinking about him, and

then I was thinking about Noah. According to the tool that Noah would have

had access to during his time, and it had been stone, Noah went

out in the woods and chop down trees with a stone axe. We've actually

found some of these stone axes, not Noah's, but in history around his

time that they've dug up. Could you imagine chopping a tree down with an

ax and then building an arc about the size of a football field. This

takes decades. This is day in and day out obedience. This is grueling.

And by the way, during this whole time, God didn't have a

little cloud up above him saying I'm here. There wasn't little floods. There

was nothing for forty years. This man looked like a psycho. He looked

like he had mental illness. He was an outcast at his community because he's

out there with a stone rock, chopping trees down and they never even had

a flood or a big rain. But he was faithful. Not only was

Noah faithful to the task and a master builder, but Noah was also maybe

the hardest working man in history for decades. Phone to call God original man

of grit. Now, all right, let's bring this all to kind of

a rap here. I think when I consider art culture, the culture of

the early Church, and Noah's culture, and I look at these, I

think that one thing that translates through each one of these cultures is that the

people and the movements that make a difference all have one thing in common.

They are people of grit. They don't give up, they don't back down,

they don't take the easy road. They're not fickle. And so here's

what I want to do. I want us to look at some of the

characteristics of Noah being in person of grit. And here's what I want you

to ask. Men, women, I want you to ask yourself if you

have these characteristics or if you need to grow in these characteristics. Maybe there's

some of them that are church needs to grow in. Let's look at them.

Right here we go. First of all, let's talk about Noah being

a man of grit. First of all, he fulfilled his calling through grunt

work. He did hard labor, and he didn't complain all right. First

of all, kingdom work can sometimes be grueling. Every Thursday night, did

you know that we have a crew that comes in a little bit early and

they train informed the whole cafe in the Haverstick into a sanctuary. They've moved

couches, they move tables, they move chairs. We all worship and then

afterwards everyone's going home and they reput the place all the way back into a

cafe. That's a lot of work. That's some backbreaking work. And guess

what, in the five years we've been doing this, I've never heard one

complaint. Sometimes Kingdom work was hard on our back. It's physical Number two.

He labored for the good of others. Okay. Noah wasn't gonna live

too much longer, okay, But everything he did was for future generations.

Noah did what he did for you. You are here today because Noah was

a man of grit and he was faithful to God. Everything he did was

for the future generations. That's why I'm always calling us a serving youth ministry

and children's ministry. Let me tell you what the most hero thing anybody can

do this weekend at our church is for someone to change the diaper of some

bit beef eater that's not their own child or grandchild so that a young family

can worship in peace. That's Kingdom love, y'all, that's true Kingdom love.

Next one, he was jeered and not cheered by society, And let's

be honest, people who knew know what they thought. He was crazy.

He's building a ship nowhere near water and they've never experienced fluss. And see,

sometimes your friends are gonna think you're crazy for sacrificially giving up your time,

your resources, and your old sinful habits. Why because corruption loves company,

and a person of grip fallows God even if no one else follows them.

Next, he wasn't a complainer mos or know what, just got it

done. He didn't want it done for him. He didn't expect the wood

to cut itself. He was a laborer for the Lord. Now it's okay,

Now, I don't want to say that. You can never complain around

here at the church. If we drop your kid in preschool on the head,

that's a legitimate conversation to have with us, Like, hey, would

you mind not dropping my kid on their head? That's a good complaint.

But complaining over preferences. I want this, I want that, I want

that. That's what That's what a baby does. A baby cries when they

don't get what they want, and it's all about them. That's not what

a person of grit does. A person of grit does what's good for the

community. Next one, he was a man of obedience forty fifty years.

He's got the job done. Next he lived by faith and not by sight,

no cloud, no sprinkle. He just lived by faith. Okay.

And let me tell you, some people of grit keep your eyes on the

Lord even when everything around them looks unpromising. And people of grit are trusting

in the goodness of the Lord even when things don't look great. And lastly,

he did what it took to get it done. Man, he had

to be creative. Okay. Imagine gathering all these animals, Okay, thousands

and thousands of animals. Now I spend some weeks out this year with some

bows and some guns. It's trying to get a couple of animals. This

dude got thousands of animals. I don't know how he did it. Unfortunately,

Noah was not a writer and he did not pass us down to hunters.

But somehow this guy built a zoo. I don't know how he did

it, but I'm sure of this. He had to be the most creative

man during that time. So we're talking about this here. He is.

He's a person of grit, and he made things happen even though there's huge

obstacles and setbacks. And that's the type of people we want to be.

So why am I so set on us being a people of grit. Let

me tell you, I want you to hear this from my heart. It

goes all the way back to the pandemic. And I'm watching the American Church

during the pandemic. I believe that for the most part, the church world

shifted to crowd pleasing over the last twenty to thirty years instead of making dyeing

the wold disciples who can handle tough times. I saw the Americans in the

Christian Church fight like crazy, compromise on Moralds. They trusted in the government

more than they trusted in Jesus. People's faithfulness waned at every church because the

church had to make changes and those changes didn't fall in line with people pleasing.

And deep down, as I'm watching the American church all across the nation,

talking to all these other pastors, watching all that's happened, something deep

in my soul, early early in the pandemic hit me, we have got

to make new disciples because the disciples we've been making for last twenty or thirty

years, where disciples were like, hey, you come, we will entertain

you and we're gonna get you plugged in somewhere because we got to keep the

crowd. Man that did not work once it got tough. So that's why

we got to build a different disciple. We got to build people of grit.

We got to build a type of disciple who doesn't bend to the world

or trust in the world. We need to build a disciple who knows how

to weather storms, to tough it out. A disciple who knows it's not

about me. A church that doesn't focus on gathering crowds and keeping crowds through

performance based Christianity. A church that actually gets its hands dirty, you know,

that gets it to their community, knows their community, serves their community,

suffers for their community. A church that loves each other and by the

way, we stick with each other through thick and thin. A church that

doesn't make excuses. A church that goes it stands right before Satan, says

hey, Satan, no more, this is our community, our region,

and no more do you have claim or this. We are now the hands

and feet of Christ. A church that is full of people of grit,

and a church of grit. We've got to make different disciples people, and

the question is are you going to be a part of that? See our

goals become a better church, not a bigger church. And here's what I

want us to do. We gotta judge ourselves by a different standard, not

attendant sheets, not successes. Let's look at the scripture real quick. Here's

how we're going to judge ourselves as we wrap up today. And this is

talking about the judgment day. It says, when a son of Man comes

into his glory with all of his angels with him, he will sit on

his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he

will separate the people from one another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from

the ghasts. And he will put the sheep on his right and the ghosts

on his left. And here's what happens those who are going to go to

heaven. He says, Come, you are blessed by my father. Take

your inheritance the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For

I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty,

and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, you

invited me in. I needed clothes and you clothed me. I was sick

and you looked after me. I was imprisoned and you came to visit me.

Then the righteous are going to say, Lord, when did we see

you hungry, feed you thirsty, and give you something to drink? When

did we see you as a stranger and buy you in eating clothes and clothe

you? When did we see you sick or imprison and visit you? And

then the King will reply, truly, I tell you, whatever you did

for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did

for me. Now I think it's crazy for me to expect you running around

town looking for people who aren't clothed to feed to clothe them. If you

notice, he brings everybody together. So I believe that this is a community

judgment. We will be judged as a church for the type of church we're

going to be, And are we going to be the type of church that

are the hands and feet of Christ? And let me just send this whole

passage up with once kind of run on sentence says, when it's all said

and done, what will matter most is not what was said in other words,

not what we or talked about, but what was done with what what's

said? In other words, did we preach the gospel here and then did

we live it out? So what's our Matthew twenty five. First of all,

we begin with our family. We're gonna continue invest it into best children's

minish dream the best youth ministry, group connections, relationships, worship of passion,

prayer, preaching faithfully. See, our goal is to become a better

church, not a bigger church. But then we're going to turn outward and

we're going to fulfill Matthew twenty five in our community. Now, we started

some great things in twenty twenty three, but just let me share with you

that, just like Noah, some things take a long time. But let

me tell you I'm still dreaming of the things that our church can accomplish.

I believe that every kid in our community, there should be no kid once

it comes fall that doesn't have coats, hats and gloves. We can do

that. I believe that we can have a laundry room that really serves people.

May now change mease lives. Laundry is so expensive. Celebrate recovery,

haircuts at the beginning of the year of school, free medical, free physicals,

counseling for free to our community. Oil changes. I would still love

to see just take care of single moms in our community and change for oil.

Thanksgiving, I would love to us for us to get to the point

where we're serving one hundred families around Thanksgiving time, ministry to refugees, art

and sharing parenting courses for our community, ministry to those who are on the

spectrum. I would love for us to have a bus ministry because let me

tell you something. If the parents who are in your twenties and thirties are

not going to church, they're not taking their kids at church, what does

that mean? That means within the next fifteen twenty years, we have two

generations not reach for Christ. Now why is that important? They pretty much

say, if anybody's going to come to Christ, they come to Christ at

eighteen or they don't come to Christ at all. So how do we do

this? We got to be people grit. So let me break down grit

for you real quick. Ready, here we go. People grit or go

getters. They're faithful. They're unless they're sick or out of town, they're

here and they're ready to serve. Number two, they're relational. We go

deep with each other. Number Three, we're invitational. We step out of

our comfort zone. And lastly, we're tough. We don't let little things

upset us and set us back. As I closed today, I had COVID

over the holidays, and I just felt like I was being punished. But

then then some families got me some door dashed. That way, we don't

have to worry about going out and getting dinner. And then Jose Patricia Gomez

from our Spanish ministry, they kept bringing food over. I was eating Tamali's

on Christmas. I never had a Tamali phenomenal, phenomenal tomaly. And I'm

eating Tomali's at Christmas. And let me tell you when they showed up.

And then as I would eat those mills and warm them back up, I

just felt so much love. I felt so much love. I felt loved.

It's a weird feeling. Do you ever you know when you feel loved

like I felt loved. And here's what I want to make very clear today.

Yes, I'm calling you to be a people of grint, but this

grint, if we're just people of grint without love, that could make us

jerks all about the project. No, no, no, we're people of

grit, but it's all motivated by love. Love for Jesus and look around.

I want you all to look around for each other. This is where

God has placed you. This is your family. All right, let's pray

God will come to you today. And here's what I want you to do

right now. Was there an area of the grit that we talked about that

you need to grow in. I want you to go ahead right now and

think about one of the things we talked about that maybe you saw the Hey,

I need to grow in that. I want you to go ahead and

commit that to the Lord and say, Lord, I'm gonna commit to growing

this with your help. Pray that prayer now. Number two, make a

commitment to this body that we are going to be a people of grit that

are part of a church of grit. In other words, we're going to

be there for each other through thick and thin, and we're not going to

be the type of people who just jump ship when anything just kind of perturbs

us. But we're going to be people of grit who stay in and work

it out and work it through so that we can accomplish greater things together.