Continue The Work | 08-23-26

Well, you guys, you guys go ahead and be seated, please.

We have a special, special guest with us today.

As most of you know, uh, we've been talking about it.

Uh, but this is the first time he's been here at uh our launch, uh, Pastor Matt Washington, who is a great, great friend, a great pastor and leader of the body of Christ.

Uh he's also one of our elders, one of our governing elders at River Life and I get to serve as one of his elders at Legacy Hills.

We planted Legacy Hills Church in Denver a few years ago.

But on our launch was their second anniversary, and so he had to be there celebrating that, or he would have been here with us.

Uh, but he's here today, and so I just want to say a couple of things uh about Pastor Matt.

I first met Matt when we were launching the Gateway Prosper campus.

Actually, I take it back, I first met Matt and Jade in a living room uh where James and Betty Robison were ministering, and it was a bunch of James had it on his heart.

He wanted to meet with some young couples, some young ministry couples.

And so I don't know, there was maybe 30 or 40 young ministry couples in this house, and uh James and Betty just sat there for hours and poured into us, and it was amazing.

And I got to sit next to, we sat next to Matt and Jade, and even back then we learned that was probably 2017 or something like that, and even back then we learned that they had a church in their heart, but they were stewarding the assignment to be at Gateway, and they stewarded it so well.

Uh they were pastors at the Dallas campus together, both Matt and Jade.

Uh, and then in 2020, we launched the Gateway Prosper campus, and um, I was drowning in responsibility at that game.

They had put way too much on me.

But we were gonna take care of it, we were gonna handle it.

God was gonna be faithful, we were gonna have grace, it was gonna be okay.

Uh, but I was in meetings going, y'all are crazy.

Y'all are gonna kill me.

Y'all are gonna try to kill me.

And um, and then I remember one meeting, uh Pastor Matt Lankenow.

He said, Ben, I've got good news.

I got a call from leadership.

And do you know who Pastor Matt Washington is?

I said, I do.

Uh he said, Well, they're sending him to our campus to help us.

And I said, Praise God.

Thank you, Lord, thank you, Lord.

Uh and so Matt came and he did an amazing job helping us launch ministry and launch that campus and uh incredible church, it's an incredible, fruitful church today.

Uh his mark is still there, but we really became brothers and got to know each other.

And when it came time for God to send him out to plant Legacy Hills, he asked me if I would serve as one of his elders, which I was more than happy to do.

Uh it's been one of the greatest honors and privileges uh of my life in ministry.

And so we we did that almost three years ago.

You're coming up on three years.

And so uh what I love about Matt is number one, he's just a great man.

He's a great man of integrity.

He's loved the Lord since he was a youth.

Uh he's got a great, great testimony of how God's been faithful to him, and he's got a great testimony of how he's been faithful to God.

And I don't know many people with the integrity, the character, the leadership ability, uh, but also a very anointed uh preacher of the gospel.

And so we're so excited to have Matt here.

We wish Jade could be here, but she's holding down the fort with all the kids uh and doing doing her thing uh over there.

And I'm sure Legacy Hills is is well cared for this morning in your absence.

You've he's led very well.

He's one of the I actually told him I was like, you need to preach more at Legacy Hills, actually.

He has so many people that he's empowered and raised up to uh preach there, and he gets to take chunks of time where he just seeks the Lord and and prays.

Uh but I am honored to call you friend and brother, and thank you for coming in today.

I'm excited to hear what the Lord has put on your heart.

Y'all please welcome Pastor Matt Washington.

You guys know you have a good pastor, don't you?

Pastor Ben, Pastor Melody, they have been such a blessing to me and Jade.

Pastor Ben is the big brother I didn't know I needed.

I mean, I knew I didn't have one, but then I met this man and I'm like, I I just need to get around this guy even more.

You know, he talked about Gateway Prosper when the Lord sent us to Prosper, and I got to know Ben and hear some of the story of the vision that God had put in his heart years ago.

I watched as he stewarded a dream for a very long time.

Now many of you know that story and how long he stewarded this dream, and they they together just held this baby of a church in their hearts.

But some of you might be new and you might not know the context, but I want you to know this people who are faithful to the Lord in private will be exalted in front of others in public.

Amen.

And so what we're seeing in this church is just the beginning of God lifting something up because it's not about Ben and Melody, it's about people who God trusts being faithful.

So He will take them and He will take you as far as He can imagine if we're obedient.

Amen?

All right, well, I am so excited to be here.

Let me just tell you a little bit about my family.

My wife Jade and I have been married for just over 14 years.

We got married as sophomores in college.

And when we met in college and we were talking to some people about getting married, I noticed that everyone under the age of 50 was like, don't do it.

Graduate college, get a career, do all the things.

And then the older the people were that I asked, I remember talking to this old sweet lady, and she's like, Oh, honey, you just married the girl we got married when we were 16.

I was like, was it even legal back then?

And she's like, Oh, it was, it was.

And and so I just thought that was so fun, just hearing the older generation say, Go for it, do it.

And so, yeah, we've been married for a little bit now, and we have three kids.

My youngest is three months old, so we have two boys, we have a three-month-old daughter, and a month ago, my wife found out we're pregnant with number four, so there's just something in the water in Denver.

Um, so we uh we've been happily leading our church, Legacy Hills, and uh, we're coming up on three years as a church family.

We it's amazing.

The the type of people that God is bringing, um, the families that are there.

We've had so many children born in the church, and so I'm like, all right, we're just gonna grow this ministry one baby at a time, and we're having fun doing it.

I've talked to the husbands, they all agree.

They said it's really fun growing this church.

So, well, I thought I'd start out just by telling you a story.

I can relate to some of the pain and the agony of church plants.

Did you lose my mic?

I just stepped out of range, maybe that's what it is.

Um, so so when we were leading up to our church plant, we relocated to Colorado in uh basically January 2023, and we knew we had nine months to figure out how to start a church.

We had never been a part of a church plant in that way before.

Uh we had seen church done on a grand scale, but we were about to be in the trenches, and it didn't help that as soon as we moved to Colorado, my wife found out she was pregnant, and the way she found out is she was just sick and irritable all the time.

Can anyone relate to that?

And so I ended up doing a whole lot more than I thought because I thought I was gonna share some of the workload with her, and that's just not how it played out.

So I tried to think of everything possible that was needed to start a church.

I knew, hey, build teams and buy the right equipment and plan in advance, and we got down to about a month out.

And I had dinner with another church planter in the area.

They had been leading their church for about four years, and he kept harping on carts.

He said, What are you doing to transport all the equipment to the kids' classrooms and the auditorium?

And I was like, I don't know, we'll put it on a dolly, we'll get like a little flat cart, we'll just start stacking stuff up.

And I kid you not, he went on for an hour telling us how important these carts are.

Now, if you're not a part of the setup or teardown team here, you don't know what I'm talking about, probably.

Those of you who were here at 7 a.m., you know how beautiful and big and heavy those carts are, but how much of a lifesaver they are.

So these carts are nice and and they have the shelves and you put everything in there and you get to be organized.

So for my organized people, this is you.

This is you love it.

And we did not have those.

So when he was like, What are you gonna do?

I was like, I don't know.

I mean, how much is it?

And he said, It's about$15,000 to get these carts.

And I was like, Yeah, we ran out of money about six months ago, so I don't know about that.

But I thought, okay, maybe the Lord will provide, maybe, right?

So I get online and I try to put in an order for some carts.

Well, the price point was more than I thought.

It was actually$17,000.

And then when I called them on the phone, they said, Oh, well, actually, the ship time is gonna be about two months before we can get these to you.

And we're a month out from our first service.

So I just ruled out having carts all together.

So I had this idea.

Okay, I'm efficient, I'm frugal, let me go to Costco, and let me just buy some shelves because I have some in my garage, and I think I can build a shelf and then just screw on some plywood around the sides, and then I'll get real fancy, y'all.

I'll get real fancy, I'll get on Amazon and I'll buy some casters, I'll buy some handles, and I I didn't have doors on them, so I just bought some bungee netting that you put on a truck bed, you know, to keep all the boxes from flying out.

And so I built these carts by myself, and I did recruit a guy or two, but you know, they they helped a little and then they left, and so it was by myself in my garage.

But that's church planting, right, Pastor Ben?

You just you do it wherever you can.

And so we built these carts.

I saved about$12,000 and I felt accomplished until week two of our church came along, and I got done preaching, and the team was tearing down, and I'm meeting new people, first-time guests, and somebody comes up to me and they said, Did you see the cart that got destroyed?

And we had been joking about the carts for a while, but this person was not smiling when they said it.

And I was like, Come on, what are you talking about?

What do you mean destroyed?

And they're like, Everything went everywhere.

And I'm like, let's not use extreme language.

What happened?

And they said, So you don't know.

I said, No, I don't know.

I thought you were joking.

And they said, come with us.

And so I walk outside.

Well, we had this concrete sidewalk that was, you know, pretty sloped, and next to it was this retaining pond.

But it's Colorado, we're in a drought, and so there was no water in it, but it was pretty steep.

And one of the young guys, young adults that was with us, he was pushing this cart all by himself.

And I made the mistake, I didn't realize portable carts shouldn't have all four casters that can rotate all the way.

Only two should rotate all the way, the other two should just stay straight.

Well, I bought the wrong ones.

And so he was trying to push this thing while looking back and talking to a friend, one hand on the cart, and he lost control of it.

It fell over, slid down into this little retaining pond area, and completely shattered.

I mean, it was a Costco shelf with some plywood around it.

So we had baby diapers and wipes and toys just going all over the grass, and we did not have a backup plan.

So now my original idea of let's just get a dolly and just stack some stuff up in boxes, like that's what we resorted to.

And so I just want you to know I know that church planting is a grind.

I know it's a lot of work.

I see you, all right?

I see you.

You're not alone.

And can we just honor everyone who gets here each week to set all of this up?

I was snapping photos, the efficiency of this team.

I was just blown away.

Well, I want to read to you a passage this morning out of Philippians chapter one.

This is Paul's introduction in this letter, and I find it fitting because this is the very same sentiment that I have toward you.

Starting in verse 3, Paul says, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion.

Can y'all just say that with me?

Will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment.

Now, praise God, I have not gone to jail yet, uh, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.

For God is my witness how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.

I have been so longing to spend this time with you.

Since Pastor Ben invited me to come on this date several months ago, I have had it in my calendar and I cleared everything out because I was not gonna miss a chance to come and be with family.

I have been praying for you guys for a long time.

And I appreciate that you, many of you, have been praying for us and my family and our church.

And this is amazing.

This is a great moment where we get to come together and be reminded that while you guys are sowing seeds here, you have friends and you have family and ministry that's in Colorado, and we're doing the same thing.

We're contending against the culture, we're investing into the next generation, we are sacrificing and we are pouring ourselves out for a good thing.

But Paul says, I am confident, I believe this, I am fully convinced that he who began a good work in you will see it through to completion.

So let me ask you this.

What would you do if you knew you wouldn't fail?

What would you do if you knew you wouldn't fail?

What would you do if you knew that the plan that you had was going to succeed?

As a church, what would you do?

If we fully believed that he who began this church would see this thing through to completion?

What would we be willing to do?

How many people would we be willing to pray for?

How high would we increase our expectation of what God is going to do in and through this church because he started it and he will see it through to completion.

The Lord gave us a word when we planted Legacy Hills Church.

It came out of Matthew 16 in a moment of quiet time.

Jesus is speaking to Peter and he says, You are Peter, and on this rock, on this revelation, on this truth, I, and we see this word again, will build my church.

And the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

When the Lord says, I will do something, nothing that proceeds out of the mouth of God will ever return void.

And so if God is declaring these promises that I'm doing something here, I've created a vision, I've given that to a couple who's been faithful to steward it, and I'm going to bless the faithfulness and obedience, because while I can do anything that I want, I choose to do it through people who will steward a vision.

And so I came here to tell you this morning that he who began a good work in this church, in these leaders, and in your lives, he will see it through to completion.

So when I stepped into church planting, I heard a word over and over and over, and now I've just adopted it as my own.

And it's the word pioneer.

Not the brand of speakers, but a pioneer of somebody who's willing to pave the way.

A person who is willing to go before anyone else goes, a person who can see something well in advance.

Well, I want to tell you this: you are pioneers.

How do I know this?

Because you said yes to a small little church plant in Salina, Texas, before it became much.

In the early years, in the days in the beginning, where others might not be able to see it, you see it.

You believe in the vision before other people buy in to the vision.

And you sacrifice so that others one day can celebrate.

So we're coming up on the one-year anniversary next month, and there's gonna be a celebration, and it's gonna be fun.

I heard there's a little party going on as well.

Uh, if you don't know about the party, you just asked Pastor Ben.

Is that open invite?

Can I come back for that maybe?

I don't know.

I have to check the weather.

It's uh it's a little hot.

It was 86, so that's a high this morning in Denver, and it's 105 here.

So I will be getting back home soon.

But listen, not everyone is a pioneer.

Not everyone's a pioneer.

So um, as you guys are evaluating what this season of life looks like for you, as you're evaluating this church, as you're evaluating and assessing, like, am I in the right place?

Am I in the right season?

Am I doing what I'm supposed to be doing?

You might be tempted to look to your left and look to your right and say, I feel like a minute alone.

I feel like maybe all my friends are doing this over here.

I feel like I have some other options.

Maybe I could have pursued that.

But listen, when you're a pioneer, there are seasons where it feels lonely because not everybody can be a part of it.

Not everybody's willing.

Not everyone, not everyone can prophetically see what you see.

And so the byproduct of that is that there will be people who say no when everything inside of you has said yes.

And you might be tempted to actually begin questioning yourself.

Am I a little bit crazy?

And you are.

You said yes to a church plant, you are a little bit crazy.

But that's a good kind of crazy, that's a faithfulness kind of crazy, that's a stewardship kind of crazy.

And it's the crazy people in the early years they get to celebrate in the decades to come when you say, I was a part of that.

If any of you grew up and your dad was in construction and you're driving down the road and he slows the car down and he says, Hey, hey, look over there, see that building?

Yeah, I did that.

Maybe he was a plumber, maybe he worked with HVACs, and you see that?

You see that tall building over there?

Oh, I put that up there.

And there's something that you remember because you were there when no one else wanted to be there.

You were there when it was 105 degrees on a Sunday morning in Solana, Texas.

You were there, and there will be memories and there will be monuments that we will put up in our spirits where we remind ourselves of God's faithfulness, but he wants to remind you today of your faithfulness when you've said yes when other people have said no.

In your marriage, God wants to recognize your faithfulness.

He wants to recognize that you fought the good fight, that you endured through the difficulty sometimes.

Amen?

That you went the distance.

In your business, in your faith, in your friendships, when we stay the course, God blesses and he honors those who are faithful.

And so I just want to recognize you today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Because you are leaving a legacy.

You really are.

Well, when we planted the church, a few months prior, all I knew to do, we kind of got similar to when you're leading up to a wedding day where you've done all the planning you know to do and you run out of money.

And so it's like, okay, we just wait.

Okay?

So this is where I was.

Now I should have probably been worried about the carts, but I wasn't.

So I'm just waiting and I said, Lord, what can we do?

And naturally, pray, right?

Okay, that's like the default answer.

Just pray.

And so we were just praying and praying and praying that God would bring people.

And there was part of me that was like, He's absolutely gonna do it.

And then there's another part of me that's like, but what if nobody shows up?

Like, that's a real feeling in a church planter.

And when we started our services and we started meeting some of the families that the Lord was bringing, what really struck me was how many people came up and said, We have been waiting for the Lord to bring a spirit-filled Bible teaching, passionate, charismatic, full of the Spirit church to our community.

We were praying for it.

Now, what I know is there's lots of other great churches, but for some reason what they were needing hadn't come yet.

And God was reserving in their hearts a church family that would.

One day come and be for them what they needed.

Well, about a year and a half ago, I was in the lobby, and this was one of the weekends I was not preaching.

I love preaching and I love resting, okay?

So I tried to take some time off.

And so one Sunday I just wasn't preaching.

And so in the middle, in the middle of worship, I just walked out, used the bathroom, and as I was coming back in, I saw a young man who had been to our church off and on.

And I just said, Hey, how are you doing?

Now that's the nice way of saying, It's been six months, man.

Where have you been?

So I just said, How are you doing, brother?

It's good to see you, man.

And when I said that, he stopped.

He just had a hesitation in his step, and I watched his eyes start getting watery.

And I told myself, okay, this is one of those moments you can just say, Oh man, it's hard to be you.

Uh or you can lean into it.

And so I said, Man, it seems like you're going through something.

Do you want to talk about it?

And he was kind of looking around.

I realized he didn't have anybody with him.

And so we went down in the hallway.

I didn't tell anybody on my staff that I was gonna not be in service.

So I was just hoping no emergencies popped up.

And I take this guy down the hallway and we find a seat and we talked for an hour.

And he just began to share with me all of the difficulties in his life.

He had relocated to Colorado, which is already a very transient area where we were.

He had a relationship that he thought was going to turn into a marriage and he was broken up with.

His relationship with his parents back in South Dakota was in shambles, his business wasn't doing well, and he was at one of those places, and maybe you've been there, where you've looked at everything you know to do.

You've tried everything you know to try, and nothing seems like it works.

And so as we were talking, I just said, Man, who are you going through life with?

Do you have any men in your circle that can just encourage you, just check on you, make sure you're not totally going crazy?

And I tried to make it, you know, a little lighthearted because he was just taking it down.

I was like, oh man, I can't go into that depression with you.

And I just started encouraging him.

And I said, It sounds like you're going through this alone.

Here's what I can tell you.

Not that all of this stuff goes away, but I can tell you that you won't be alone.

I can tell you that there's some people in that auditorium just down the hallway that want to come alongside you, who want to contend with you, who want to encourage you and lift you up.

But even more importantly than them, Jesus wants a relationship with you.

He wants you to know that he is with you, that he is for you, that he can redeem and he can reconcile and he can take what the enemy has brought in the form of destruction and turn ashes into something beautiful.

I did not know the extent of this conversation for this young man.

In that moment, just me praying over him that he would have a thriving relationship with God.

Two weeks later, he told me that was when he gave his life to Jesus.

And I was like, Really?

I thought you were already saved and you were going through a hard time.

And he's like, No, man.

I was I was just trying to figure it out, and faith was at the lower part of my priority list, and I realized, like, I can't do this without God.

I can't do it without God.

And so he ends up getting baptized shortly after, immediately starts serving, starts clearing his calendar, and he's one of those guys, I'll be there for setup at 6 a.m.

every Sunday morning.

And I got to watch for over a year of this young man come alive, beginning to blossom into who God had called him to be.

And I remembered this.

Matt, you prayed for these people.

You prayed for them before you even knew a name, before you had a face, you prayed for them.

I need you to expect more of this to happen.

Because when you expect it, you'll be looking for it.

Church, when you expect broken people to walk through the front doors of this church on a Sunday morning, when you expect to stop whatever you're doing, you might be greeting, you might be making coffee or folding t-shirts, when you expect that God is going to have divine moments for you where you just see a glimpse of a tear in somebody's eyes and you're prompted by the Holy Spirit, stop what you're doing, pull the person aside, and meet them right here and right now.

The only way Jesus could have compassion on someone and heal them or deliver them is for him to see them.

The only way to see someone is to slow down long enough and expect that God wants to show up.

And so I want to encourage you this morning, the Lord is ready.

He is waiting to see who will be faithful to steward my most prized possession.

My sons and my daughters.

Well, Easter 2025, we had a couple that had come and visited the church, and you know, Easter Sunday, it's it's the classic, right?

Attendance skyrockets.

Every church planter wants to talk about Easter because it makes you feel good.

Our attendance was, I don't know, double, double what it normally was.

And we had this couple come and they brought a couple kids and they just visited the church.

Well, they decided, hey, let's go give that church a try one more time.

So they come back the next week.

When they came back, they went upstairs to check their kids into kids' ministry, and some of our volunteers, and I'm not even sure who it was, but some of them just simply greeted their children by name.

Still to this day, they reference the fact that they saw leaders know their kids, pursue their kids.

And they said, if they're willing to memorize my child's name, this must be a place that's worth being at.

So they were really on the fence.

They're like, I think, I think we're gonna do this.

Like, we're we're considering this church, but we hadn't been in church in a while.

And that week they're driving down Lincoln Road, and we have a building, a beautiful building that we rent on Sundays, just like you guys, and they were driving by, and one of the kids in the backseat says, Oh, Daddy, look, there's our church.

And in that moment, he starts tearing up and he's like, This is where we're supposed to be.

My kids saw it even before I saw it.

I was thinking, like, maybe possibly, but his children, out of the voice of babes, his children began declaring, not that not just this is a church, this is our church.

Can I tell you, they have started serving, he got baptized, he is now a deacon in training.

He's like, I don't know, I'm still kind of a new believer.

I'm like, it's been over a year, and we're getting we're getting warm, we're getting close.

And and he goes back to, man, when your leaders saw my kids, and when you visit us in the hospital, and when you were there for our baptism, you being the church is what changed everything.

It wasn't marketing, it wasn't that people just heard our names, it wasn't because we had been there for 20 years, we didn't have that going on.

But what we could be was what God calls us to be, and that's the church.

You guys, I've I have so many stories.

I told Pastor Ben, I'm just gonna come in with stories today.

We had a woman who had raised kids, had been in a decent marriage for a couple decades, and lo and behold, she finds out her husband had been having an affair through almost all the years that they were raising a family together, and she didn't know what to do.

And so she had heard about this church, Legacy Hills, and after he had taken quite a bit and left, and she's in this empty nester and and single mom, single woman season that she never thought she would be in, she visited our church, and she came three weeks in a row, and I had never met her.

And I was in a season, I was in a series called The Heart of Worship.

Now, Jamie, you would know this song, The Heart of Worship, and that song wrecked me when I was younger.

And so I was like, let me let me preach on the heart of worship.

Well, when I started the series, I had a burden that at the end of the four-week series, I was going to bring our church to do a heart of worship offering.

So we were new, we hadn't really done offerings yet, we were trying it out.

I was like, I don't know, these people are very unchurched, I don't know how they're gonna respond to offering.

And uh so, but I just said, hey, we're gonna, we're gonna pursue the Lord in a deeper way in worship, but I want you maybe for the first time to see your finances as a form of worship.

And so we're not, we're not setting any sort of goal, I'm not telling you an amount.

I just want you to pray and come up with a number that for you and for your family is worshipful to the Lord.

And so I shared a couple stories.

I shared a story about uh one time Jade and I we we wanted to give in an offering, and I came up with a number, and it was a big number for me, and I asked Jade, I said, Well, what do you think we should give?

And she's like, I actually think we should 5x that number.

And I'm like, Are you even doing math?

Like, have you looked at our bank account?

I don't know that that's even an option.

And so, and so we did it though.

We 5x the number that I felt like we were supposed to give, and so we gave this even larger number.

And so I'm just sharing this story.

And at the end of service on that fourth week, the woman stops me in the back of the auditorium and she sh starts sharing her story.

And she says, I've been married for this many years, I raised kids with this man, and and all the while he broke our covenant and he was cheating and lying, and and my life is a disaster.

But one month ago, God brought me here and I didn't know why.

And she said, While you were preaching, the Lord spoke and said, I want you to worship me in a way that you've never worshipped me before.

And so she said, So I came up with a number.

And then when you shared the story about your wife telling you to five exit, she's like, The Lord told me to five exit.

So she's like, So this I've never given like this before, um, but uh, this is my worship.

And then she says, By the way, my kids have moved off to the East Coast, so um next week will be my very last week that I'll be here.

But I just want you to know this church has meant more to me than you'll ever realize.

And later that week, one of our now elders, he he called me and he's like, You'll never believe it.

We have a$50,000 check that was put in the offering box on Sunday from a woman that I don't even know who that is.

And I said, Well, what's her name?

And he says her name, and I'm like, you know, I talked to a woman after church, and she said that she had given a gift and then 5x did and all that, and and so she gave single-handedly the largest gift that's ever been given to our church, and she had been there five total weeks.

But what God did in those weeks there changed her life.

So she moves on, and about six months later, another woman walks into our church and she's shaking and she's crying, and we're right before service.

I'm getting coffee, you know, doing the pastor thing.

Hey, it's good to see you.

I never say, is this your first time?

I say, How long have you been here?

That way, if they say, I've been here six months, it's like, okay, great.

Because I've made a mistake before.

Hey, is it your first time?

No, I serve on the greeting team.

Remember, you did my wedding last year.

It's like, no, just kidding, just kidding.

So I know not to do that.

So I said, Oh, how long have you been coming?

And she's just shaking and she starts crying, and she's like, This is my first time.

And so I was like, I've got 60 seconds till worship's about to begin.

I can't go down the hallway with her, right?

So I'm not gonna do that.

And she says, Um, I'm going through the most difficult time in my life.

I've been married, I raised kids, my husband has had an affair, he's cheated, and my life is in shambles.

And she said, and a friend of mine, and she said the woman's name, told me, You have to go to Legacy Hills Church.

There's something on that place that if you'll just get there, whatever it is that God is needing to do in you, He's going to begin there.

But you gotta step out of the pain, you gotta step out of the depression and the hurt.

Trust God.

And so she came and I'm talking to her, and now I've got 30 seconds, and she's like, so I don't know what I'm supposed to get, but I hope you got a great message for me today.

And I'm thinking, I'm talking about stewardship and generosity, I don't know how this is gonna relate.

And and she stuck around, she stuck around week after week, and I watched as each week she was on the back row, just tears in her eyes, quiet, shy, not talking to anyone.

And it was neat as weeks passed, she would move up further and further toward the front, and she was smiling, and she was coming to our nights of worship, and I watched as God was taking care of multiple stories.

He's never doing just one thing.

And he took me back to Matt, you prayed for this.

Increase your expectation because there's more hurting people than you can ever imagine.

I could go on and on and tell you countless stories of how God has just been faithful in our church.

And I can encourage you of how God is going to be faithful here.

But I have to remind you that success is going to include some setbacks.

Okay?

Can I just caution you?

In order to see success, you're going to see some setbacks.

I can't get up here and share all the positive, like, wow, look at God stories without also coming in with the, I can't believe that couple left our church stories.

So when we launched our church in September of 2023, we had over 600 people.

I felt like I was the best pastor ever.

I was like, I don't know, I don't know.

I hope they come back.

I preached so great that the next week we had 300 people.

And I was like, I'm just gonna keep going.

This is fire from heaven.

Come on, Elijah.

This is fire from heaven.

The next week, we had 215 people.

The next week, we had 175 people.

And then we have maintained under 200 people consistently since launch.

And that's a great number, but when you compare it to 600, it feels like we did something wrong.

Did I preach too long?

Was it the worship?

Was it because I'm bald?

Like, what was it?

Why did they stop coming?

And I remember feeling the setback of this isn't what I thought it was gonna be.

The expectations were high.

I had belief.

I came from Gateway.

We don't start churches with less than a thousand people, you know?

And and so I had the initial setback, and I remembered hearing God deal with me with this, where he said, What are you gonna do about that?

Not about the people, that thing in your heart that had an expectation that you were gonna see something that you don't see.

Are you gonna sulk about it?

I remember hearing a pastor say that in the early years of their church, he said, I was more worried about who wasn't in the room than who was.

And this was my moment to contend within myself, what am I going to allow to dominate my thoughts?

What I thought things were gonna look like, how big I thought the church was gonna be, just right out of the gate and just explosive growth the whole time?

Or am I gonna trust God's timing?

Am I gonna try to manufacture things or ask people how should I preach and how long should worship go and get everyone's opinion on how we should do this thing, or am I just going to trust God and be faithful?

We had a couple, a family that was with us all through the pre-launch phase, and they were there at everything.

They were a little crazy, not the good crazy, but they were there.

So, and when you're a church planner, you just need bodies in the room sometimes, like, hey, can you push this cart?

That's not really a cart.

Um, will you help us?

And they were they were there every time, and I was surprised, they just didn't seem like the family to be all in, and they were all in, and then week one happened, and we were unloading the trailer at six o'clock in the morning, and I gave direction.

I said, Hey, we're gonna unload all the kids' ministry stuff, we're gonna set up kids' ministry, then we're gonna come back and we're gonna get the worship equipment.

Well, then I hear, hey, did you did you hear about the dispute that's going on in the parking lot?

I'm like, what are you talking about?

This is week one, this is what kind of dispute?

And they said, Oh, so and so, he said he's gonna leave.

I was like, okay, hold on.

This dramatic language, it has to stop.

We're not in high school.

And so I walk out there and I'm like, guys, what is going on?

And and the husband is having a complete tantrum.

And I'm like, what's happening?

Well, somebody fill me in.

And he said, Pastor Matt, you said that we're gonna set up kids' ministry and then worship.

But they started setting up worship first, and that's not how this goes, and so I'm out of here.

And I was like, Are you serious?

God, is this what church planting is like?

And the worst part was he had two sons that said, But Dad, I don't want to leave.

This is my church.

And he said, Then you can walk home.

And he starts walking to his car.

And the boys start tearing up and they left, and they've never come back.

And I watched another setback.

We've had couples who they they were serving at a high level and they started sharing, hey, I could see myself going on staff one day.

And I'm like, yes, one day, but not today.

And and they were faithful and they were faithful and they were faithful until they didn't get a position and then they left.

And this has been the story in ministry.

We have these very high highs and very low lows where it's just hard to even make sense that in one Sunday service we can be on cloud nine and then we can feel like, you know, we're Elijah who's running from Ahab and Jezebel and doesn't even know what to do.

Like, should I even be doing this anymore?

And so the setbacks are standard.

The setbacks are prone to happen, but we have to prepare ourselves for the times where we will experience the setbacks.

So just as we're setting our minds, church, on what God is calling this house to be.

Whether this is your first week or whether you've been here since the beginning, there will be setbacks.

There will be things that you expect worship to sound like.

There might be messages that you expect to be preached when you want them to be preached.

There might be things that you expect to see week in and week out.

But I want to ask you this: are those your expectations or are they God's expectations?

Because sometimes we will take our expectations and say, Well, if this church isn't doing this thing this way, then I'm out of here.

All the while the Lord is saying, No, I called you here.

I spoke to you, remember?

In that moment of worship, I touched your heart and I told you, this is your house, this is your family now.

Are we going to turn our backs on what God is calling us to because what we're experiencing doesn't line up with our expectations?

But I'm telling you, if you will stay faithful and if you will hold firm to the very things that God is calling you to do, then in the midst of the setbacks, you will see the victories.

You'll have the stories.

But we have to hold on to those stories because the enemy will convince us there are more setbacks than victories.

Maybe in your marriage, you might be thinking there are more setbacks than there are victories.

Maybe in your business, you might say, I didn't think it was supposed to be this hard.

I thought I had all the skills, I have experience.

And you might experience more setbacks than victories.

But if we will allow the Lord to grab hold of the truth and exalt the truth that he has called us, that he who began a good work in us will see it through to completion.

That it's not out of our own might or our own ability that we're gonna see the outcome that we want to see.

It's our dependence on the Lord that even when it's hard, even when people don't show up, even when people that we thought we could call upon aren't there in our time of need, we can lean on God because He's the one who made the promise, not your friend.

Not your mother-in-law, not your boss, because they can't make promises because they'll never be able to keep them.

They're human.

But our Heavenly Father, he makes a promise and he says, I will build my church.

The plans that I have for you will prosper.

Every good and every perfect gift comes from above.

That's for you, sons and daughters.

We have to keep our trust in Him.

We have to remain encouraged through the difficulty that God is faithful.

In Galatians 6, verse 9, it says, And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up.

Galatians 6:9

Some of you are in this room and you're just getting started with river life.

And you see what's going on, you're like, I like this, this is a good place.

That's a fun season to be in because you haven't seen the setbacks yet.

The setbacks are coming.

Some of you have been in this room since.

Since pre-launch, and and you might be feeling the endurance.

You know, the Bible uses this term called long suffering.

I've still yet to hear anybody say, Lord, I just pray you'd give me long suffering.

Would you just help me?

I want to suffer for a long time for your glory.

Never, never.

It's like, Lord, hurry this thing up.

Come on, you're good.

I need you to show me just how great you are.

Uh, because this is lasting a little too long.

And that endurance season is where we have to invite the Lord to say, Would you give me spiritual stamina to keep going?

And then some of you might be in this room and you might be tired.

Whether it's because you've been involved in starting a church, maybe you're tired of your health.

Maybe you're tired with business or marriage.

Maybe you're not sleeping well.

You're just exhausted.

You're just exhausted.

I came here to encourage you this morning.

Do not grow weary.

Weariness is the default.

It is the direction that we grow when we're not growing in the direction of God.

And we will use age, we will use hours worked, we will use timelines to justify why we're tired.

And yet the Bible instructs us to not grow in that direction of weariness.

Because God is calling us to something so significant that requires a level of stamina that most of us haven't reached yet.

You ever tried to run a 5K?

That couch to 5K, there's a reason why they have a plan in place.

But if you have never ran before and you're like, I'm gonna do a 5K, no, better yet, I'm gonna do a half marathon because I'm just awesome.

And you get out there and half a mile in, Matt Washington, you're running and you're like, my heart shouldn't pound that hard.

Breathing shouldn't be that difficult.

And yet, there is a stamina, a stamina that is achievable if we do things the right way.

Church, God is calling this house to do some mighty things for the kingdom of God.

And in our own strength, you will say, that is exhausting.

I don't know if I want to be a part of that.

But can I tell you, God will not call you into anything that he does not have sufficient grace to give you so that you can accomplish what he says, I'm gonna complete in you.

So it's him doing the work anyway.

It's just you showing up and saying, Okay, God, give me more of that grace today.

God, give me more of that grace to get here at 7 a.m.

and set things up.

God, give me that grace to stick with this marriage.

God, give me this grace that I need to run this business to serve these people.

God, give me the grace.

Because if you're calling me to it, then I need to be faithful to show up.

But if I'm not faithful to show up because I've grown weary, then I'll never get to see the fruit of abundance and prosperity that the Lord says is from him.

So it's his invitation to us to continue the work.

It's his invitation to us to say, God, I recognize that you have called me to this.

I didn't just dream this up.

This is hard.

But God, you have called me to this.

May I be found faithful.

I want to invite the worship team to come back up.

And I want to read to you just another verse.

This is out of Nehemiah.

And the story of Nehemiah is really a profound story because you have the Jewish people, the Israelites, that are coming back into the city of God.

They're rebuilding the walls.

And there's some insults that are beginning to happen.

In the midst of their working hard and maybe starting to grow a little weary, there's now accusations made against them, threats made against them, comments of like, you just need to give up.

You're never going to accomplish this vision.

The vision is too big, you're too weak, you don't have enough people, you don't have enough money, you don't have enough time.

Why don't you just stop?

And maybe one of the best responses in all of Scripture, he says, and I sent messengers to those people saying, I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.

Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?

Why do I say that's one of the greatest responses in Scripture?

Because when you recognize that God has called you to an assignment, and when you've committed your life to it.

See, at our church, and maybe you do this too, we use the language of being planted somewhere.

We don't just attend church.

We are planted in the house of God.

Because God has called us to a place to be in a soil so that we can grow, so that all the nutrients that our bodies need, all the nutrients that our spirits need, can be found in the soil if we're planted in the right place.

And so there's a flourishing that the Bible promises in Psalm 92 that if we will be planted in the house of the God, we will flourish even in our old age.

And so when you're called to something, when you are where you know you're supposed to be, even when it's hot outside, even when you're like, these nutrients don't seem like they're giving me all that I need.

Do you think a plant just gets up and leaves because it doesn't think it's getting what it needs?

May we be a little bit more like that.

Like, you know what?

I don't, God, I don't understand why I'm still in this season.

But I've done what you've called me to do.

I've remained planted.

I've said yes to the assignment.

But God, I'm I'm feeling tired.

I'm a little exhausted.

I don't know how much time I have left.

I don't think all the resources are there.

Running out of time.

You're doing a good work.

I want you to hear that.

As a church, you're doing a really, really good work.

In your marriages.

You're doing a really good work.

In your families.

I get it.

It's hard.

You're doing a good work.

Don't stop.

Don't listen to the noise.

Don't receive the distractions as truth.

Cling to your father.

The encourager, the author, and the perfecter of your faith.

He who began a good work in you will see it through to completion.

Do you receive that, church?

Let me just pray that over you right now.

Heavenly Father, God, thank you for the mighty, mighty plans that you have for these people.

God, thank you for the vision and the dreams that you've packed inside of them.

God, thank you for the prophetic glimpses of what's to come that they have been holding on to, showing up week in and week out, day in and day out, doing what it takes, just because they have a glimpse of a promise that you say is from you.

And so, God, I pray that they would have courage to continue the work.

That they would be like the Israelites who are saying, We cannot come down, we cannot stop.

I don't care what the enemy says, I don't care what the distractions look like, we will not stop because we're doing a good work.

Why would we stop now?

And Lord, would you encourage your sons and daughters that the work that they are doing is worthwhile.

This is legacy work.

This is changing the generation's work, this is impacting a city work.

This is changing eternity's work.

This is changing families' work.

This is changing income's work.

This is changing souls.

Let us not grow weary in doing good.

Lord, we thank you that we have the best example in Christ Jesus.

And it's in his name we pray.

Amen.