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Give me that Mountain | Pastor Brandon Beals | Venture Church

Venture Church

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  1. I'm gonna get the timing down of turning this mic

  2. on right. I have a new mic, so welcome to

  3. Venture Church. I gotta be honest. During worship, I was

  4. standing right up there, not because I wanted just to

  5. stare at you, but because it was so amazing seeing

  6. this floor full of people and also a balcony full

  7. of people and super fun.

  8. Glad you're here.

  9. You might not have heard, but if you haven't, I'll

  10. fill you in. I just had my left shoulder replaced,

  11. so I'm not wearing a sling now. To give myself

  12. some mobility, I will wear a sling in the lobby

  13. so you don't hug me, even though that didn't stop

  14. people from doing it after the first service, or patting

  15. me on the shoulder.

  16. I was told that I'm only.

  17. Allowed to lift something as heavy as a coffee cup,

  18. so I took a microphone waited against a coffee cup,

  19. so I think I can use my left hand to

  20. hold the mic and not.

  21. It'll be in my pocket.

  22. But if I stick it in my pocket, it's not

  23. because I think I'm cool and want to do that.

  24. It's because I'm trying to guard it. When you came in,

  25. you should have received one of these cards. If you

  26. did not, please wave and hopefully we have more than

  27. one usher prepared to give them to you. They will

  28. give them to you. I want to ask everyone to

  29. buy your heads, close your eyes. I want everyone to

  30. repeat this prayer after me. Everyone say, Dear Jesus, speak

  31. to my heart, change my life in Jesus' name.

  32. Amen.

  33. This is vision Sunday Adventure. This is where we talk,

  34. we focus our hearts and our minds on the next year.

  35. Pretty much from the moment that I got saved, people

  36. started telling me I was a leader. So I was

  37. sixteen years old and had to carry the weight of

  38. leadership since I was sixteen, and at the time I

  39. didn't realize how uniquely separated from my peers that made

  40. me immediately, But within the realm of people that are leaders,

  41. I'm even more of an anomaly because I am what

  42. people refer to as a visionary leader.

  43. My staff describes it this way that.

  44. If you talk to PB, he always views everything at

  45. a thirty thousand foot level, like I always am looking

  46. at the big picture, imagining the big picture that I

  47. oftentimes am not seeing what's happening on the ground because

  48. I'm only seeing the big sure, and that's the way

  49. my brain operates.

  50. Now.

  51. The struggle when you're a leader is you really have

  52. a struggle between two things. You have this sense of

  53. destiny and purpose, and it is countered by fear. What

  54. I have discovered is there's always lots of reasons to

  55. not do something. There's always lots of reasons to start

  56. the diet next month. There's always lots of reasons to

  57. not start the business. There's always lots of reasons to.

  58. Not go back to school.

  59. There's always lots of reasons mostly driven by fear, mostly

  60. driven by the.

  61. Cost to not move forward.

  62. And there's only really one reason to move forward with something.

  63. And the one reason to move forward is because there

  64. is this deep sense of purpose and destiny. Now, I

  65. really struggled whether or not I was actually going to

  66. go through with this shoulder replacement. I ended up doing it,

  67. but there were a million reasons to not do it,

  68. and honestly, every single one of them was driven by fear.

  69. I've thought, first off twenty twenty six for venture.

  70. Is going to be awesome.

  71. We have been working all of twenty twenty five gearing.

  72. Up for today, and I don't want to miss any

  73. of it.

  74. And whenever you have a major surgery, you don't know

  75. how long the recovery is going to be so many

  76. factors about it that are out of my control.

  77. Like I don't know how long I'm going.

  78. To be on pain medication because I can't preach on

  79. an oxy codone. Some of you think that would be

  80. pretty funny, but my wife wouldn't find it amusing. There

  81. were many things, like I didn't know how long I

  82. was going to be in excruciating pain. There's a million

  83. reasons to not do something, and there's really one reason

  84. ultimately to go through. It's a sense of purpose and destiny.

  85. I want to show you a picture. I love this picture.

  86. This is when the foundation for this building was laid.

  87. I asked the architect give me an idea of where

  88. my pulpit will be on this foundation, and he said

  89. it'll be right around here. So I got a sharpie

  90. and I got on my hands and knees, and right

  91. below where I knew someday I would be preaching from

  92. on a regular basis.

  93. I wrote Joshua.

  94. Fourteen twelve, and that verse says, give me that mountain

  95. that you promised me on that day. I want to

  96. tell you the story of where that came from. Once

  97. you grab your Bible's turn to numbers, chapter thirteen again.

  98. If you didn't bring your Bible, the words will be

  99. behind me on one of these screens.

  100. So let me give you the setting of what was

  101. taking place.

  102. So, the Israelites had been slaves in Egypt for four

  103. hundred years. For four hundred years, they were united in

  104. their sense of purpose and destiny. They together and by

  105. the way, there was now how over a million Israelites

  106. in captivity in Egypt.

  107. And they had a common purpose and goal be free.

  108. And through this miraculous Exodus where God does unbelievable miracles.

  109. You read about it in the Book of Exodus, God

  110. delivers them from Egypt. And the entire time they are

  111. holding on to a promise. And this promise is that

  112. someday you are going to be your own nation.

  113. Someday you are going to have a land that is

  114. your own.

  115. And the Lord described this land to them as a

  116. land flowing with milk and honey.

  117. Now what does that mean.

  118. It meant that the land was going to be fertile,

  119. that you would plant crops, and crops.

  120. Will grow that the land is going to be blessed.

  121. And so for four hundred years in slavery, they held

  122. on to a singular purpose and goal, freedom occupy the

  123. promised land.

  124. Now God delivers them. Now they are about to.

  125. Step into their destiny and purpose.

  126. And I always view it this way.

  127. You get the impression that they are standing on the threshold.

  128. That word threshold means gate, it means door where you

  129. enter something significant. In front of them was the promise.

  130. In front of them was the destiny and purpose. And

  131. that's where numbers thirteen, verse seventeen takes off. Moses gathered

  132. one leader from each tribe of Israel, there were twelve,

  133. and he sent them in to scopeout and spy out

  134. the land that God had promised them.

  135. So when Moses sent them.

  136. To explore Canaan, he said, go up through the Nagev

  137. and into the hill country. My favorite thing is they

  138. knew that God had promised the land, but they didn't

  139. know anything about it. I mean, it had been four

  140. hundred years. All they knew was Egypt. So listen to

  141. how little they knew about this promise. He said, can

  142. you go see whether or not people live there?

  143. I don't even know if there's people there.

  144. And if there are people, are they strong or are

  145. they weak? Is there few or is there many? Will

  146. you check out what kind of land it's like? Is

  147. the land good or bad? Are there towns there? Are

  148. the cities walled or fortified? My favorite part is he

  149. starts saying, how's the soil?

  150. Is it good or not?

  151. And then he goes on and he says, this will

  152. give you an idea how little they knew about this.

  153. They were just holding on to a promise. And he says,

  154. will you tell me if there's any trees there? They

  155. didn't even know if there were trees there. And he said,

  156. do your best to bring back some of the fruit

  157. of the land. So these twelve leaders from the twelve

  158. tribes of Israel go into this land of promise, this

  159. place that is the purpose and destiny.

  160. And then verse twenty five.

  161. At the end of forty days, So they explored it

  162. for forty days. They returned from exploring the land. Now

  163. be the other nine hundred and ninety nine thousand, nine

  164. hundred and eight of them good at math? And could

  165. you imagine they were waiting for these twelve to get back,

  166. because everything over the last four hundred years had led

  167. to this. They wanted to hear what is our purpose, like,

  168. what is our destiny all about?

  169. Tell us?

  170. They were waiting anxiously, and here's the report verse twenty six.

  171. They came back to Moses and Aaron and all the

  172. Israelite community, and they reported to them, to the whole assembly,

  173. and they showed them the fruit of the land, and

  174. they gave Moses this account. They said, we went into

  175. the land in which you sent us, and it does

  176. flow with milk and honey. They said, Moses, this land

  177. is more fertile than we ever imagined. This land is

  178. full of abundance God's promise for us.

  179. It's amazing.

  180. His purpose is incredible, Our destiny is great.

  181. This Moses, this land is the dream Church.

  182. The tension for you and I comes from a sense

  183. of purpose and destiny, but it's countered by the fear,

  184. the cost.

  185. When you take a step of faith. What is it

  186. that drives you?

  187. Are you driven by an overwhelming sense of purpose and destiny, or.

  188. In the end, does the fear drive you?

  189. So they describe how amazing this land is, and then

  190. they say this verse twenty eight. It's amazing, but I

  191. hate butts. I hate it when I have an idea

  192. and I go to someone on my exec team and

  193. I say, will you explore this? And they come back

  194. and they say, pbe amazing idea, And then I brace myself.

  195. Because the butt is coming.

  196. Let me put it this way, anything great you will

  197. ever want to do always has a butt. If you

  198. ever want to try anything significant with your life, there

  199. will always be a butt. Because anything we're doing, anything

  200. worth having, there is always a cost. It is always

  201. amazing to me, especially whenever I mentor young leaders where

  202. they didn't realize there was a cost associated to their dream.

  203. They thought I'm gonna go plan a church and then

  204. thousands of people would show up because they set up

  205. an a frame sign. They didn't know. You gotta raise money.

  206. You got to teach people to give. You gotta realize

  207. really quickly, because just about every church planner has a

  208. dream of starting a church with people like twenty five

  209. and under. People that are twenty five and under are

  210. awesome and full of energy. I love you, but you

  211. collaboratively give one hundred dollars a month. You don't even

  212. give collaboratively enough money for me to turn on the

  213. lights for five minutes here. But you have this dream

  214. that everything is gonna happen. There's always a butt and

  215. so they say the land is amazing, But the people

  216. who live there are powerful. Their cities are fortified, and

  217. they're large. We even saw giants there, he said. But

  218. this promise and destiny that God has for us, it

  219. is amazing. But it's not gonna be easy. It's gonna

  220. take time. There's gonna be a cost. People are gonna

  221. get mad. If we do this. We will lose people

  222. along the way. We are gonna face opposition. Do you

  223. live your life driven by a sense of purpose and destiny.

  224. The reality for you is that nothing comes easy. People

  225. will oppose you. There's always going to be huge elements

  226. of faith and trust. I look at this building and

  227. I I tell everybody this building is it is a miracle.

  228. Like I know what it costs to build this building.

  229. I know what it costs financially. I know what it

  230. cost in stress and anxiety. And I know all the

  231. people that we lost along the way.

  232. Now I know the cost now in the end.

  233. When I was here yesterday touring some of our key

  234. leaders in our church through the building, and I was

  235. just seeing them gush over this, and I was thinking,

  236. you know, the cost was great, but we did this

  237. because we believe that the future is going to be greater.

  238. We did this because there was an overwhelming sense of

  239. purpose and destiny. Now a lot of people they can't handle.

  240. They can't handle the opposition, they don't want the cost,

  241. they don't want to deal with. We take a huge

  242. offering at the end of twenty twenty four, assuming that's

  243. all the money that we needed to raise.

  244. I did too.

  245. I didn't know I was gonna have to come back

  246. three months later and say, hey, by the way, just kidding.

  247. And I knew once I did that. I knew, people,

  248. by the way that didn't give the first time were

  249. gonna be even more mad the second time, which I

  250. always found ironic. You didn't give the first time? Why

  251. are you mad that we're trying to take an offering

  252. for the second time? But that happens nothing when it

  253. comes to the purpose and destiny that God has for

  254. you will come easy. Some of you, you're like, I

  255. need to go back to school, but I can't afford it.

  256. You'll never be able to.

  257. Can I give you a reality about college? It doesn't

  258. get easier and cheaper next year. It doesn't fit more

  259. conveniently in your schedule when you're thirty, I the cost

  260. doesn't get easier. It's always there. I give you have

  261. felt compelled to start a business that is your sense

  262. of purpose and destiny. If you cannot move forward until

  263. everyone is on board, every eye is crossed, every eye

  264. is dotted.

  265. Painkillers, Nah, just kidding.

  266. If you have to wait till every eye is dotted

  267. and every tea is crossed, you will never do anything

  268. because it'll never happen. There is always going to be

  269. this huge element of faith when you try something big

  270. for God. So the people are like, we.

  271. Can't do this, this is impossible.

  272. But Caleb, one of those twelve, says this verse thirty.

  273. He silenced the people before Moses, and he said we

  274. should go up and take possession of the land. We

  275. can surely do this in a clear sense purpose and destiny,

  276. even when it doesn't make sense, even when the odds

  277. are stacked against you, And oftentimes that comes from a

  278. vision that outlives you. It comes from accepting that not

  279. everyone is going to survive the journey, that you will

  280. ultimately lose people along the way. But the sense of

  281. purpose and destiny overcomes the fear associated with the step

  282. of faith. And by the way, it doesn't mean there

  283. isn't fear. There's always fear.

  284. Any of you.

  285. Watch that Netflix special yesterday where the insane person climbed

  286. the building in type A and we got to watch

  287. it live. Seriously, raise your hand if you watch that.

  288. I sweat through my entire clothes. I'm on a tech

  289. string with my family saying this guy's an idiot. This

  290. is the stupidest person I've ever seen. And he doesn't

  291. he have kids, doesn't he have a wife, and his

  292. wife's being interviewed and he will stop periodically and answer

  293. questions because he got these all miked up. And he's

  294. free soloing to the top of like the eleventh tallest

  295. building in the world, and he's talking about how windy

  296. it is and all of this. My favorite thing about

  297. it was I at first thought, well, this guy he

  298. has a screw loose, like he doesn't have a fear button.

  299. And then he started talking about, oh, I'm afraid always,

  300. and he's talking about this as he's climbing this building,

  301. how fear is there? And he said, I have to

  302. take fear, and he said, and I have to shove

  303. it down and move forward in spite of fear. And

  304. then he made this statement, and I thought it was

  305. so like it preached. He said, as soon as I

  306. stop having fear from doing something this dangerous, he said,

  307. I will stop doing this. He said, because fear is

  308. what causes me to move forward slowly, to make sure

  309. that I'm methodical in everything I do, to make sure

  310. that I train appropriately. He said, I always have fear.

  311. But in the end, purpose and destiny went over. Well,

  312. what happened with the Israelites. Caleb's trying to cheer them on.

  313. We can do this verse thirty one. But the men

  314. who'd gone up. I want to point out that these

  315. men had gone in together, and they all gone in together,

  316. united around the same purpose and destiny, the same goal.

  317. We want to occupy this land. But what drove them

  318. was different. They said, we can't attack those people. They're

  319. stronger than we are. And they spread among the Israelites

  320. a bad report about the land they'd explored. They said,

  321. the land we explored, the bowers, those living in it,

  322. and all the people there of great size. We saw

  323. giants there, And they made this statement. It said, we

  324. seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we.

  325. Looked the same to them.

  326. Ultimately, what was driving Caleb was a sense of purpose

  327. and destiny. He took the fear and he shoved it down.

  328. But for the rest they were driven by their fear,

  329. and by the way when people are driven by fear,

  330. they justify their fear by spreading it amongst other people.

  331. Because instead of.

  332. Feeling bad that I'm too afraid to take the step

  333. of faith and go back to school, they want to

  334. justify it to everyone around. They try to get friends

  335. to join them and to agree with them in years

  336. twenty one years of doing this, twenty one years of crazy,

  337. big leaps of faith for this church. And most of

  338. the time, conscientious objectors.

  339. Never speak for themselves. They don't.

  340. I've been talking to a group of people, pbe.

  341. Man. This is the way they feel, I Mike will

  342. tell me who they are. Why I don't. I don't.

  343. I don't want to.

  344. I don't.

  345. I don't want to do that. These people that are

  346. driven by fear.

  347. Want to make sure that other people are afraid to

  348. so they spread fear. In the end, what happened, well,

  349. fear comes you take your eyes off of God and

  350. you focus on everyone else. Those people are great, I'm not.

  351. Those people are big, I'm not. Those people are strong.

  352. I'm not.

  353. Fear causes you to focus, Like when you take your

  354. eyes off of Jesus and you focus on all of

  355. your giants and all of your obstacles, all you realize

  356. is how far you fall short in every circumstance.

  357. And you eventually say.

  358. Something like, and I want to point out what they said.

  359. They said we seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes,

  360. Like when I compared myself to them, I was like

  361. a bug to be crushed. And then when I saw

  362. the way they interacted with us, they treated me like

  363. I was a bug to be crushed.

  364. We can't do it.

  365. Just about every great accomplishment that you will ever achieve

  366. in your life, and there are many people here you

  367. have done extraordinary things, and I think every one of

  368. you that's ever taken a big leap of faith to

  369. pursue a purpose and destiny, you're going to agree with

  370. this statement. When you first came up with the idea,

  371. it started with the I don't even know if this

  372. is possible. I don't know if this is really possible

  373. to do, but it is a willingness to fail trying

  374. because the purpose and destiny is so worth it. I

  375. think I said this in the first service, and I'll

  376. say it now. My Pastor Glenbertow, he has a lot

  377. of I call him glenbertowisms. One of the most famous

  378. glenbertowisms is his response to this statement from people, well,

  379. I'll do it when I have peace.

  380. You heard that one.

  381. Now I'm gonna change careers when I have peace about it.

  382. I'm gonna start the business when I have peace. And

  383. Pastor Glenn says, if you wait until you have peace,

  384. you will never do it. He said, because oftentimes peace

  385. comes months or years after you've walked in the decision.

  386. And then he always uses this example. He said, do

  387. you think Jesus had peace on the cross when Jesus

  388. is being whipped, when he's being nailed to a cross,

  389. when he's asking God, would you please take this burden

  390. from me? Does that sound like a guy who has peace?

  391. He says, No, you act in spite of peace, and

  392. then oftentimes peace comes at the resurrection, like peace comes

  393. later on. What did the Israelites end up doing? You

  394. know what they did what everybody does.

  395. They did nothing.

  396. Rather than take the step of faith to pursue the

  397. purpose and destiny, they didn't do anything. They did nothing.

  398. Their response was fear and discouragement. They followed up four

  399. hundred years of slavery by spending the next forty years

  400. wandering around aimlessly. I was thinking about this, What was

  401. worse four hundred years of being an exile? But at

  402. least in that four hundred years of exile, there was

  403. unity on what you wanted, Like everybody wanted the same thing.

  404. We want to be free. We went out of this place.

  405. When there were prayer meetings, they were united in what

  406. they prayed. Lord, rescue us, free us, save us. But

  407. could you imagine forty years of no direction, no purpose, aimless.

  408. Where is this going? What are we doing?

  409. We seem to like we put up our tents, we

  410. wear out the land that's there, we pack everything up,

  411. We move a million people over here. They did that

  412. for forty years, or they just wandered. Do you know

  413. what happened in that forty years? An entire generation died.

  414. Of the twelve people that went into and scoped out

  415. the land that God had promised them, all but two died.

  416. The only two that were still alive were Joshua and Caleb.

  417. But now they're in their eighties. Joshua is now leading

  418. Israel because Moses, the great leader he'd even died, and

  419. Caleb was eighty five. And as that wandering would happened,

  420. they eventually ended up back at that same spot they

  421. were forty years before, where in front of them is

  422. the purpose and destiny. The only problem is the giants

  423. are bigger, the cities are stronger, the walls around the

  424. cities are greater. Now it's even more difficult. I want

  425. to tell you a story. Yuh Di and I started

  426. dating when we were in college. When we were nineteen

  427. twenty years old, we started leading the youth ministry at

  428. her Lutheran Brethren church. Technically, to be honest, she was

  429. the youth leader. I was her youth worker. So we

  430. did this thing together and we started with three students

  431. in the youth ministry, her brother, his best friend, Tyson,

  432. and the girl that lived across the street, Nicole. Before

  433. I tell you the rest of the story, I want

  434. to pause, and I want to say thirty five years later,

  435. we lead venture here and all of our journeys let

  436. us here. Did you know that those three people go

  437. to our church? Is that pretty fun? That was free?

  438. And I didn't know what we were doing. We didn't

  439. have a clue. We never planned on being youth pastors.

  440. The only thing we knew how to do is how

  441. to have fun. So every youth service was basically the

  442. Christian version of a frat party, no alcohol but lots.

  443. Of mountain dew.

  444. And the youth minister grew from three kids to sixty kids.

  445. And we invited one of our friends who was also

  446. a student at Northwest University at the time. His name

  447. is Aj, And we invited Aj to come in and speak.

  448. And so AJ starts preaching to our sixty students now.

  449. And I don't remember anything about his sermon. I don't

  450. remember it being extraordinary. I just remember how he ended it.

  451. And he ended it by doing this. He said, I

  452. want to ask everybody to buy our heads and.

  453. Close your eyes.

  454. He says, if you don't know Jesus, I'm going to

  455. count to three. And when I say three, if you

  456. want to leave this place knowing you are right with Jesus.

  457. By the way you sound familiar, he said, I want

  458. you to raise your hand at the number three, and

  459. he counts to three. I'm sitting in the back, thinking

  460. what is he doing because I don't even saved for

  461. two years, and the church I grew up in they

  462. never did this. And he says, three in our entire

  463. youth ministry got saved that night.

  464. It really is truly what happened.

  465. And I remember sitting there thinking, that's what I want

  466. to spend the rest of my life doing.

  467. I will kill giants.

  468. To fill buildings with people so that I get to

  469. see them make the same decision for Jesus that I

  470. made that changed my life.

  471. Church. I still give alter calls the exact same way

  472. I saw aj do it.

  473. But that provided the clarity that I needed to have

  474. some purpose and destiny for my life. So the Israelites

  475. get back to that spot. They're looking out. The giants

  476. are just if not more intimidating than they were before.

  477. The obstacles are worse, the cost is greater. And we

  478. get to Joshua chapter fourteen, verse seven, and Caleb steps

  479. forward and he says, I was forty years old when Moses,

  480. the servant of the Lord, sent me in to explore

  481. this land. I brought him back to listen to the

  482. words that he uses, because they're awesome. He said, I

  483. brought him back a word, according to my convictions, that

  484. this was the purpose and destiny.

  485. And he said, but.

  486. My fellow Israelites who went up with me made the

  487. hearts of the people melt in fear. I was driven

  488. by a sense of purpose and destiny. But they were

  489. driven by their fear. And because people that are afraid

  490. to do something are too ashamed to deny it on

  491. their own, they always try to get other people to

  492. justify their fear with them.

  493. They spread it through.

  494. The whole nation, and it caused the people's hearts to.

  495. Melt with fear.

  496. He said, I followed the Lord, my God, wholeheartedly.

  497. And then he says this driven by a sense of

  498. purpose and destiny.

  499. He says, now, just as the Lord has kept me

  500. alive these forty five years, since the time he said

  501. this to Moses while Israel moved about in the wilderness,

  502. here I am today, eighty five years old. I'm still

  503. as strong today as the day Moses sent me out.

  504. Can you hear your grandpa saying this?

  505. And he says, I am still as strong today as

  506. today that Moses sent me out my favorite part.

  507. I'm just as vigorous to go out into battle now.

  508. As I was then. I get this image. Okay, he

  509. pulls forward.

  510. It's like, I'm just as strong as I was when

  511. I was forty. I could kick your button now like

  512. I could when I was forty.

  513. He throws down his cane and.

  514. He points out the mountain, the purpose, the destiny, and

  515. he says.

  516. Now.

  517. Give me that mountain that you promised me on that day.

  518. Craziest part about it, this is like Hollywood couldn't script

  519. this thing better.

  520. We don't even get to see a battle.

  521. It's like the next time they've conquered Canaan, they're occupying

  522. the promised land, we don't get to hear about some

  523. epic battle. We just see that the promise is fulfilled.

  524. Can I tell you why? Why don't we get any

  525. more detail? Because the battle had already been decided when.

  526. God promised it. The craziest thing about this building.

  527. I had an image of this building when I was

  528. in Modesto, Like all the time I gave into fear,

  529. all the time that we struggled, God knew there was

  530. going to be people sitting in the balcony on this service.

  531. He knew you would be here.

  532. God knows that someday we're going to have an elevator

  533. over there, like God already.

  534. God has already decided this battle.

  535. That's why oftentimes the Lord is saying, focus on your

  536. purpose and destiny. If I've laid this on your heart,

  537. go start that business. If I've laid this on your heart,

  538. go take this step. If I've laid this on your heart,

  539. go back to school. Stop giving in to fear. When

  540. you came in, you were handed this green card. Twenty

  541. twenty six. This is the date that was circled on

  542. the calendar. Now it's circled for us. It's five things

  543. I want you to commit to. I've already told you

  544. what four are. Number one, Let's pray with our family

  545. daily this year. Let's pray that the Holy Spirit will

  546. move in our kids, move in our family. I believe

  547. there is a war over our families. There's a war

  548. over our marriages. Let's pray together. Number two, let's attend

  549. church regularly this year. I want to challenge you go

  550. to church three times a month. If you're traveling too much.

  551. Watch online. They say that the average person that is

  552. committed to church This is the current stat for our nation.

  553. The average person committed attends church one point eight times

  554. a month, less than two times a month. We're not

  555. gonna change the world that way. So let's attend church regularly.

  556. Let's serve regularly. This is your home. Every single person

  557. that's a part of this church should have an area

  558. that you serve and serve faithfully. Find that area that

  559. we're calling this year the Year of Radical service. Number four,

  560. I'm gonna invite my top five. We always challenge you

  561. every year to come up with five people that you

  562. are gonna pray for, pray about, look for a moment

  563. where you can invite them to church. Easter is coming,

  564. Easter is an easy yes for people to come to church.

  565. Your top five. And then finally, the fifth one is

  566. what's your mountain? What are you believing God for in

  567. your personal life? What big dream do you have? What

  568. is deep inside of you that you've been delaying or

  569. dreaming about but you're ready to take the step this year?

  570. What is it?

  571. I want you to perfectly consider it. I want you

  572. to think about it, and then I want you to

  573. write it down. As you're listening to Sean inspire you.

  574. He said.

  575. I was seeing my early phones with a lot of

  576. life before when.

  577. A moment came to stop me all the time.

  578. I spent most of the next ties looking at the xtreemes,

  579. talking about the auctions and talking about sweet time.

  580. Ask him wait at sake, cand that this might really

  581. be the reeling house.

  582. It hits you when you get that kind of news.

  583. Oh man, what you do? He said?

  584. I went Scott diving, and I went Rocky Mountain climb in,

  585. and I went two point seven seconds on a bull

  586. named food Man.

  587. Can I know deeper?

  588. And I spoke sweeter and I gave you forgiving this

  589. happen that. I said, someday I hope you would get

  590. a chance to be like you.

  591. Were dying good, he said. I was finally the husband.

  592. It was the time I was. I became a friend.

  593. A friend wouldn't like to have.

  594. All the Sunday going fishing wasn't such an imposition.

  595. I went three times that year. I lost my day.

  596. When I finally read a good book and I took

  597. a good, long hard look what I do if I

  598. could do it all again?

  599. And then.

  600. I went Scott I mean Rocky Mountain time in. I

  601. went two points seven seconds on a bully flum you

  602. and deeper and sports swinger, and I gave you forgiveness.

  603. Happened and I and said, somebody, I hope you get

  604. the chance. Didn't like you were dying like tomorrow was

  605. a kid. You gotta turn in to think about what

  606. to do with it?

  607. What do you do with it? What did I do

  608. with it? But what I do with.

  609. Scott dim In I went Rocky Mountain timming, and I.

  610. Went two points that second hot all their food fat, then.

  611. On the deeper and uh fog sweet and walks.

  612. An eagle as it was and sis Honday. How few

  613. give a change.

  614. To look like you were dying, to live like you

  615. were dying, To live like you were dying, yea to

  616. live like you were talk to live like you were dy.

  617. In just a moment, I'm going to turn you loose

  618. to go take your mountain. But first I'm going to

  619. ask you if you would help me turn two of

  620. our own loose to take their mountain. If you have

  621. not met John and Charlene, you missed out. These are

  622. dear friends a venture, but you're dear friends of mine,

  623. part of my family. You've spent I think six thanksgivings

  624. in my house.

  625. That's not stopping, by the way.

  626. But these are two that have decided to take the

  627. challenge and obey the Lord. And John, who has been

  628. part of our board. If you've ever participated in our

  629. What's Next page, you have participated in his work. He's

  630. made it a huge investment in venture, both of you have.

  631. And they're going to go and take a position as

  632. an executive pastor at a church in Seattle. This is

  633. their last Sunday here, although it's not the last time

  634. you will see them because they live nearby and their family.

  635. But I want to invite you, if you'll stand to

  636. your feet, I want to pray a blessing over you

  637. as you take the challenge to go take your mountain.

  638. But I'm gonna ask you to help me also pray

  639. over our friends who are going to obey the Lord.

  640. And it's hard.

  641. Sometimes it's hard to go and obey, but we believe

  642. that the Lord sends us and he goes with us.

  643. And before us, would you agree with me?

  644. God?

  645. First of all, we pray over the dreams you've placed

  646. in our hearts, over the challenges that have been there

  647. or maybe now just being dropped in our hearts that

  648. we would have the courage to obey you, to go

  649. and take the mountains you've given us, to open our

  650. mouths and share, to make the invite, to share what

  651. you've done in our lives. Whatever it is you've placed

  652. in our hearts, we want to obey. And God, we

  653. stand with our friends now, with John and Charlene, who

  654. are taking a big step in obedience right now, and

  655. we believe you've called them, you've equipped them, you've gone

  656. before them, and you're going with them. And so we're

  657. going to be unselfish and share them, believing God that

  658. we work together on the same team.

  659. And so we pray a.

  660. Blessing over our friends for the investment they've made in

  661. us and for what you have in front of them

  662. to do. It's in your name, we pray as we obey,

  663. you go with us, and we agree together and say amen, Amen, Hey,

  664. when you leave, you're gonna get a map, have fun

  665. exploring the building. Happy grand opening day, Be blessed