Rebrand Announcement (2nd service) - Pastor Brad Neuschwander (August 30, 2026) | Life Bible Church

Welcome to the Life Bible Church podcast. We

want to thank you for joining us today, and we

hope you find today's sermon impacting as you

listen to it wherever you are in your daily walk.

To find service times and watch messages online,

see our website at lifebiblechurch .org. Now,

enjoy this week's message. Would you turn to

your Bibles to, I'm going to pray in a bit here.

I'd like you to turn to the book. of Ezekiel,

Ezekiel chapter one, Ezekiel chapter one. Heavenly

Father, we come before you this afternoon. Lord,

we want to make sure, Lord, that our hearts are

open to hear what the Spirit of God is saying.

All through your book, you said, he who has an

ear, let him hear what the Spirit of God is saying.

Lord, you take the scriptures, you breathe on

them, Lord, as you cause the scriptures to come

to life, Lord, as it is truly Jesus is the word.

Lord, you highlight them now to us. You remind

us of your word and you cause us to walk in the

surety of your truth. Lord, we thank you that

you are the living word. We thank you. Father,

that you sent your son, we thank you, son, that

you sent the Holy Spirit. And now we ask, Lord,

feed us, strengthen us, encourage us. And Lord,

as today is a special day, Lord, as we celebrate

and begin to celebrate 25 years, Lord, let the

vision that you have given, Lord, this place

for people, for ministry, for salvations, for

the reach beyond our little community to the

world. Lord, continue to breathe on it. In Jesus

Christ's holy name, amen. Thank you, Tim. Appreciate

you. I told him first service, he's not near

as beautiful as my wife, but anyways, he's a

good piano player, so we thank you, buddy. All

right, well, I have the incredible, honor of

bringing the word and it's always every Sunday

that I'm as the main feeder here I mean we have

other great preachers here but as the senior

leader it's always an honor to open the word

of God and to teach and to preach and I consider

it a huge not only blessing but a very important

thing that we revere God's word. This morning,

I have a unique task of trying to, not only as

I gave the exhortation, which had scriptures

in it this morning, I'm gonna build and kind

of bring you along the journey with Jenny and

I, Pastor Jenny and I, of the 25 years. We've

got an incredible month planned for 25 years.

Now, this happens about every five years and

year five and tens, we celebrate the anniversary

in very special ways. And we started doing that

our very first, our very first kickoff as we

pioneered 25 years ago, we started with a barbecue.

And I thought, you know, Old Testament was filled

with a lot of barbecue. And in the New Testament,

we were told to rise, kill, and eat. So hallelujah,

I just mixed the two together with barbecue and

eating. And so we've kind of figured that, you

know. we have a theme in the church that is to

widen the body of Christ and we'll do it spiritually

and we'll do it physically. So every year come

our anniversary time, we try to do a great barbecue.

This year, we, because of the river bank issue

and the loss of the bank and trying to get all

the property back and it's coming together. Thank

God. Come on, can we give the Lord a great big

hand? Thank you, Lord Jesus. Brother Calvin and

Nick and a bunch of Matt Eads, just different

guys that have come along to help with the project.

And then in addition to our contractors that

have been coming in, man, what was a bad scenario

for three years is now turning the corner and

God is doing some wonderful things. We've got

more to go. And of course, they keep finding

little things along the way. And I'm like, Lord.

No more finding bad things. It's just give us

good things. But anyway, we are gonna take the

picnic barbecue again and we're moving it to

Pioneer Park in Brownsville. So that means on

the 13th of September, we will not be having

church here at the building. We'll take both

services, early service and this service and

all the other services and we will do it one

service at the Pioneer Park. We will have a barbecue.

I told Pastor Trent, he gets the honor of doing

it. the barbecued chicken and Pastor Derek is

overseeing the barbecued tri -tip. And so we

are gonna just, we're gonna have beef and chicken

and corn on the cob and we got ice cream and

all sorts of good stuff. And all of that we are

doing to celebrate God's 25 years of his goodness.

That won't cost you anything. That's all part

of just what we've budgeted and prepared for

to celebrate the Lord's goodness. And if you

think about it in the, Even though we are in

the New Testament, some of the cool things that

God did was three times a year they were to save

up and be ready to meet together and to enjoy

great food in his presence. So we're going to

kind of just take a little slice of that on Sunday

and enjoy that. And my job this morning is kind

of prepare you for what is going to take place

over this next month. And so we're starting today.

There's a couple of things that we want to get

you up to speed with what the Lord is doing.

I've been, over the last three, three and a half

years, I've been really asking the Lord personally,

especially with this riverbank. It kind of threw

me, the whole thing, because I was in the journey

of asking the Lord, okay, Lord, what's the next

season? We're over halfway of what you've shown

me. When we first pioneered, we've I don't know

whether you realize it or not, but those of you

that are fairly new to Life Bible, we moved five

different times to be in this building. It started

out in my, as we. kind of send -off service from

the church we were in to Pioneer. We started

meeting in my parents' house for the first two

or three weeks with a little team. We had a team

of 14 that came out to plant a church, and then

we met about five weeks, five, six weeks at a

little country school that I went first through

eighth grade in, and my daughter went first through

eighth grade. My dad was the first. First grade

class in that little school and it had shut down

and annexed and we met there for about six weeks

and then we moved again as the church kept growing.

We rented on Sundays and Wednesdays the Seventh

Day Church of God there on Diamond Hill. They

allowed us to rent that building for about three

and a half years and then we moved into another

school building just south of Harrisburg about...

three and a half miles South called Wyatt school,

which was a double the size of what Harris was.

And we, we rented that school for almost 12 years.

We eventually bought it. We rented it for about

seven years and we bought it from the school

district. We, we had everything we did with that

school. We did temporarily not knowing whether

or not we would get kicked out of it or not.

So we did everything we did for those seven years,

the first seven years of rental, because we had

a a 60 day lease that was it and so everything

we did we always had to do thinking what would

happen If in 60 days, the school board called

or they decided to sell it to somebody else.

And so we built the sound systems and all of

the stuff inside that gymnasium that we could

take off the walls. We could take out of it.

We could clear out. And honestly, when we did,

we took almost everything that we had put in

there and we used it as we came then when this

property opened up. And so we celebrate what

God has done for 25 years, but I want to take

you through, for those of you that are new to

Life Bible Church, I wanted to take you through

because you haven't, actually haven't been on

the journey with us the whole time. We're thrilled

that you're on the journey, but we want you to

understand some of the things that God has spoken

to us and has brought to us by, if you will,

by the word of the Lord that we have responded

to. We set out this year to actually, the elders

had asked us in an elders meeting, they said,

would you please compile most all of the prophetic

words that were given over the last 25 years,

any recordings or special meetings, would you

compile that so that we can have a copy of the

recorded words over the 25 years? Well, that

was a big task. And we have had several people

working on that for a year now. There was over

almost 100 different words that have been spoken

over this church over the last 25 years. And

it's amazing when you, Jenny and I just began

to get some of the recordings. It's amazing the

things that have been accomplished that were

prophesied before it ever happened and that we've

walked in and God has done. And so that's gonna

be part of the journey. One of the weeks coming

up. So we'll have. This weekend that we're gonna

unveil a couple of things that you're gonna see

something new that the Lord is doing. We got

next week that we'll have communion service and

God's gonna reveal a couple of things or some

more. Maybe you're gonna hear some words. The

following week is our barbecue. The next week

after that, I've got a friend that is coming

down to minister to us from Portland. He pioneered

a church years ago in Chehalis, Washington. Actually

pioneered a church and then added a second campus

in the rural area there. and then came back,

became one of the pastors at City Bible Church

with Pastor Frank. Then through the transitions,

pastored alongside and eventually now the last

couple of years just received the Manor House

Church in Portland and how God has actually had

to use him. His last two, three years has been...

Pretty big journey as a church of 80 years. You

know, when you've been a church for a long time

and a congregation, sometimes God has to breathe

fresh fire on it. Sometimes you find things that

were there that shouldn't be there. And they've

had to clean out some of the Bible college infrastructure.

They've had to redo some stuff. And the fresh

fire of God's presence is being caught again

by the congregation. thrilled to see what God

has done through Daryl and Michael. And they're

going to be with us the third weekend in September.

And then the last week we take our normal conference.

We have two conferences a year that we do. Specifically,

sometimes we end up having three, whether we

have a marriage conference or a women's conference.

But this year, always have two bookends. We start...

fall with a our waypoint conference is kind of

a marking that's why we named it that way it

was named after the little spots in the runway

where the waypoint is where the airplane catches

the target of the of the runway to know the waypoint

of how to how to take off and we named that conference

that that's always our fall conference and then

In the winter, as we cross into February, right

before the Super Bowl, that's my end date just

to keep in mind, right before the Super Bowl,

we do our Life Conference, and that's our beginning

of the year conference to kind of set the theme

of what the Lord is saying for the new year.

And so in Waypoint Conference, after we've had

all of these celebrations, we're bringing in

one name that's been a friend of mine that I've

been around the world with, literally in India.

and in Africa and in various nations of Africa.

Dr. Jan Venter will be with us. And together,

I'm putting him and Jim Hockaday together. Both

of them operate. Jan's, many of you, how many

have heard Dr. Jan Venter before? Wow, okay,

less than half of you. Okay, his, how I met him

was. through a variety of relationships. His

testimony is that he actually was dead for 20

minutes and he came back to life. He broke 47

bones in his body. He fell from a, actually was

working on a roof like this, only it was a little

higher. He was a pastor at a church in South

Africa and he was working on a church on the

roof and as they were laying the purlins and

spreading out the tarp over the top, one of the

person pulled and he lost his balance and he

fell and he landed on the concrete face first.

And it was there that they prayed for him. They

found no breath in him. And they called the ambulance.

The ambulance came, checked him, put a sheet

over him. And they said, call the morgue. Well,

as the elders, they called all the elders. They

came and prayed for him. This happened within

the course of about 28 to 30 minutes as they

prayed around and over him. All of a sudden,

they saw the sheet. They had rolled him over.

They saw the sheet move. And they freaked out

because they were praying for resurrection, but

they didn't actually believe it. How many know?

How many know that you can pray for healing and

things sometimes and just know you're supposed

to, but then not really have an expectation that

God's going to actually do it. And so the ambulance

was so freaked out when they came in that one

of his arms wasn't broken, but they didn't strap

his arms in when they put it in. They broke his

other arm when they put him in the ambulance

on the way to take him. And he has a whole journey

on that. But I got to... Go to several places

with him. We did crusades in South Africa. We

did crusades in Swaziland and various places.

Him and I have been in India. I've been to India

multiple, multiple times, but it's the only place.

Everywhere I go with Dr. Venter, you have to

actually face death down. He is always... on

the edge. And so he preaches that way. I probably

get more emails frustrated with people not liking

his personality and style. And so remember, if

you want to send me an email, it's pastorscott

at lifebiblechurch .org. Anyways, he's a no -nonsense

guy. He comes from South Africa. He's had 45

years, 50 years in ministry. I will tell you

that if he just, the way he ministers, he just

goes for it. His relationship with the Lord is

pretty straightforward. And Jim Hockaday is no

different. He was actually, if you say, well,

who is he? Well, he was Brother Kenneth Hagin's

intercessory prayer minister at... Rhema Bible

College. And so when they would get out of classes

in summer or out of school and then have practicums,

Jim would be teaching them at the college how

to operate in the gifts of healing. And so Jim

and Jan have never actually met, even though

they have. cross circles around the globe. This

will be their first time together. So I'm kind

of interested to see how that's going to go,

to be honest with you. But I will say this to

you, that everybody has a different flavor in

the body of Christ. We don't have the market

on all of it. Amen. Does that mean we have to,

listen, God had 12 tribes of Israel. They were

all considered Israel, but they had different

things that they were known for, even though

they were all Israel. I find it important that

when I find men of integrity and I find men who

love Jesus and men that have been in ministry

for years without failure. that the gift and

graces of God that brings in them, God gives

real genuine deposits to the body of Christ,

that we should want that, right? Now, Jesus said

something very unique. He said that wisdom is

personified by all its children, meaning he was

showing the difference between John the Baptist

and Jesus. Remember, they were saying, well,

John the Baptist came with, camel hair garment

and eating locusts, you know, and kind of out

in the desert and was kind of a wild man. And

everybody thought he was a radical, a radical

zealot. And then Jesus came and they said of

Jesus, well, he, he has eats and drinks with

sinners and he, he just welcomes too many unsavory

people around him. And Jesus said, listen, wisdom

is justified by all of her children. Meaning

what? Listen, these guys are going to Act a little

bit different than me. Now, some you'll say,

man, I come to this church, how much more in

your face can it be? A little bit more with these

guys. In the fact of they know what they know

that God has given them and they carry the fruit

of the manifestation of Christ's healing power

that's in their lives. It's a gift. The Bible

talks about, in 1 Corinthians 12, the gifts.

of healing. Read it. And you look in the Greek,

it's not just one gift. There's multiple gifts

of healing. It's more than one. And so we're

bringing several streams of guys that carry the

gift of healing that operate in it, which means

what? We're going to, for conference sake, this

is the longest conference we will have done.

It means that we're going to start, normally

we start on a Thursday night, but we're going

to start on a Thursday morning. Why? Because

every morning session two times per morning,

Thursday morning, Friday morning, Saturday morning,

we are going to focus on a healing school, meaning

atmosphere, meaning more on the education side,

meaning that Jim and Jan will each have a session

in the morning and they're gonna teach on principles

on how to receive from the Lord a healing, how

to keep healing, how to stand in faith in healing,

what happens if symptoms come back, how to stand

in that purpose. All of those things are going

to be gone over and we're doing that, for y 'all.

Why? Because we want you to understand how God

works in this gift. We don't get to see it a

lot. And each time I talk to them, I mean, Jan

just got done. I talked to him this week. He

goes, Brad, you're not going to believe this.

He goes, well, you'll believe it. You're supposed

to believe it. He goes. I had an 80 -year -old

woman come to a meeting. He goes, you know, I

like praying for all people, but I like praying

for the younger ones. But he says, I pray for

the older ones too. He said, I'm getting, you

know, I hate to think I'm gonna be in a few,

you know, five, six years gonna be close to 80.

But he said, this woman came up in a wheelchair

and he goes, I'm just thinking, Lord, is she

about ready to go home? And he said, we started

praying in the meeting and he started praying

and she said she had a broken foot and she had

a sprained ankle and she had some other things

and she couldn't stand, she couldn't walk. He

goes, we got her up out of the wheelchair and

we had her stand. He said, I'm telling you, I

just prayed my best prayer. I know it wasn't

me. He said, the power of God hit her. She started

jumping up and down. He goes, she left that wheelchair,

pushed it out of the way. She started running

back and forth on what was supposed to have been

a broken foot. And at 80 years old, he goes,

I, she goes, I'm thinking she was ready for football

on the football field. She was, she was ready.

He goes, I am watching miracles take place. constantly

this year. It's like it's gone up a whole nother

level. And Jim said the same thing. I'm excited

what God's going to do. I encourage you to bring

friends. So morning sessions will be more healing

school. Evening sessions will be praying for

the sick and they'll be preaching what they feel

is the word of the Lord. And I've given them

freedom to do that. They'll be with us for the

weekend as well. So the full September is going

to be busy. Now I've got a half hour to kind

of tell you. what I believe God has been speaking

to me and the journey. So you all right? Okay.

So in 2001, when we pioneered, when Jenny and

I came out to Harrisburg, and there's a whole

story on that, but I can't for sake of time.

We had been pastoring for about six years here,

and we had just moved into the leased building.

on Saturdays and Wednesday nights. And we decided

to get away. That would have been in 2002, just

early spring. It was like March of 2002. And

we went to the coast for two nights just to pray

and wait on the Lord and see what the Lord would

say. And I'd never had anything like this happen

before in my life. There's been a lot of first

time things in God. But as I was praying, I had

left the motel room. I told my wife, I said,

listen, I'm gonna grab a cup of coffee and I'm

just gonna take a walk down the road that leads

to a beach. And I'm just gonna just spend some

time just walking the beach and praying. And

I grabbed my coffee and I grabbed my coat and

I had a windbreaker for rain if it was there.

And this is 2002 and I'm praying and just kind

of waiting on the Lord, asking. And all of a

sudden, as I was walking on the beach, all of

a sudden I was not walking on the beach anymore.

I'd had an open vision. I've never had this before

in my life. I've never had one like that ever

since. Literally. The whole atmosphere around

me was changed. I was still looking at me. I

could tell I was there in body and in soul and

spirit. I wasn't in. In a vision or a dream,

I was there, but my eyes were seeing something

totally different. And as I was walking, I was

walking on a property because I had the ocean

to my left and I had the town to my right, but

none of that was there. All I was seeing was

now a building and I was seeing a river and I

was walking on ground on a sidewalk. As real

as I'm standing on this, I was walking on a sidewalk

and I was coming around a building. I saw a swimming

pool. I saw a motel. I saw a business center.

I saw a restaurant. I saw a gymnasium. I saw...

huge parking lot with long lines. And I, there

again, as I was having this experience, I'm like,

I'm trying to figure out what this is. I knew

the Lord was doing something, but I had never,

this had never happened to me before. And I thought,

man, this must be a truck stop or something.

And I had this encounter and then all of a sudden,

bam, it lifted. And I was back walking on the

beach. Now you need to understand something.

That was 2002. What I didn't know is that it

was this property. But I would not know that

for another 10 years. This property was just,

had no buildings on it. In 2002, it was still

part of, well, originally Morse Brothers owned

it. They used it to pull gravel out of the river.

Then it came to Knife River. And in 2006, it

was bought by some investors. To make it, it

was called River Bend Hotel and RV Resort. They

made 100 RV parking lots. They made the, where

we have the Gen Church was the bar and restaurant

and where the, it was an event center and they

had a little right here where this part is. They

had a little, for the coaches, they had a kind

of a game center and a kind of a lounge. There

was no sanctuary. There was no church buildings.

That did not get built until the end of 2007.

So 2002 in the spirit, I didn't know it. I just

thought God gave me a vision and I wasn't sure

what it was. And I actually had forgot it. And

this complex of RV spots did not even get poured

until 2007. So five years before this place had

any development, God showed me something in the

spirit. Now I didn't know it was this. I just

thought God was showing me something because

we were, in 2002, we were just, we were trying

to just find a place to actually have church.

Over the years, when we left Wyatt, or excuse

me, we left Seventh Day and then to the, then

to the Wyatt campus, we had started developing

plans after we had been in Wyatt for a while

and purchased it from the school district. We

went to, in fact, Jill, it's good to see you

today. We went to Jill's father and asked him

if we could lease to buy 25 acres. And we were

gonna work with the county and try to just add

on to that property, a new sanctuary, and kind

of do what Wyatt was out there and just add on

to the campus, football fields, baseball fields,

expand the school, all of that. And right in

the middle of that, we had... some prophetic

meetings and the word of the Lord came they had

no idea I did not tell them a thing I'm very

I do not tell visiting ministry much anything

about our church or what we've been through in

the last season because I want them if they're

hearing God I want them to have no knowledge

of it we're literally on the stage we're closing

up for the weekend of meetings and they looked

at me they said listen we see that you've been

working on some plans and I kind of smiled and

The eldership was laughed and I said, yes. He

said, God says to throw them away. I said, and

I waited after the meeting. I said, throw them

away. God wants to do something extravagant.

Now you need to understand something. I'm a farm

kid. I was raised five generations from this

area. My background is a Mennonite background.

Extravagant is never in the vocabulary of a former

Mennonite. That is not, you don't just say extravagant.

Why? Because extravagant means expensive, okay?

And we don't do things expensive. We do things

reasonable and what we would call at a very frugal

price, right? And that's a nice way of saying

we're somewhat cheap. But anyways. In that process,

what we had talked about the eldership and we

knew that God told us to expand, but we were

thinking about actually just building kind of

some hay looking barns and build them out on

the inside, but they would just have kind of

a hay shed look to the school kind of gym and

building. And here on the stage in live, they

said, throw those plans away. You're not thinking

according to the mind of God. You've brought

down what's doable in your strength. God says,

throw the plans away, think extravagant. And

that really marked us because that was now moving

us to a place where we would have to go beyond

what we thought was able and move into a realm

of faith that was beyond what this region had

known. And really, because I was born and raised

here. five generations from here, I know what

this region thinks and how they view things.

And I'm like, God, that will make me a target.

Here's the preacher that's spending all the money

on the building. Here's this and here's that.

He said, what did I tell you to do? I know, but

can you reconsider? Just give me the barn. No.

And so in that process, we move forward. We threw

the plans away. We went back to Carl. We said,

listen, it's not gonna work what the county's

saying, what the Lord is saying. We kept looking.

In the meantime, this building got built. It

started operating RVs. And then course of 2000,

late eight and nine, the kind of the economic

thing happened. And this property by the time

it was 2010 was starting to bankruptcy. It went

into bankruptcy and went back to the bank and

stayed with the bank for two years. I had been

on the property. We had leased this building

from time to time to do women's events and men's

events, but we had never thought about it as

a church. And honestly, every time I came on

here, I just thought, oh, it's so cut up and

it's so cobbled and all this RV stuff you can't,

anyway. And so I didn't even think about it.

So I'm laying in bed one night and I can't sleep.

And have you ever had the Lord do something where

he tells you something in a riddle? Have you

ever had the Lord do that where he kind of speaks

to you? The Bible says, we read it in Psalms

78, he says, and the Lord does it in parables

or in dark sayings or another place in Proverbs

says the Lord speaks in wisdom in a riddle. I

hear the Holy Spirit speak to me. I'm up at 2

a .m. in the morning and I hear, you'll go through

a gate, it sleeps more than eight. Okay. And

I said, Lord, is that you? What are you telling

me? Again, I heard, you'll go through a gate,

it sleeps more than eight. And we are fervently

looking for property. I mean, honestly, the church

eldership team, we're with realtors. We'd looked,

a big shopping center had gone out on River Road

and we thought, Lord, are we supposed to go to

River Road before U -Haul bought that whole shopping

center? Are we supposed, we started engaging

with various other real estate things about maybe

we're supposed to move. And the Lord was very

clear to me one other prayer time. He said, I

called you out to this. to Lynn County to reach

all three counties. You'll reach Lynn and Lane

and Benton County. You are not to move to Lane

County. So we knew that was out. So now we're

looking for property. I'm going, Lord, there

is nothing. We have tried everything. And then

I get this word, you'll go through a gate, it

sleeps more than eight. The next day, a businessman,

in fact is Monique, It was Monique's husband

that actually called me. He says, I need you

to meet me for lunch. And he called me and her

husband doesn't come to church here yet. So I'm

still praying that. And so in that process, he

goes, what are you doing? I said, well, in what

are you referencing? What am I doing? He goes,

why aren't you buying that property that's been

in foreclosure? I said, well, it's... I did it.

That's not going to be good for the church. How

am I going to fit church with all those RVs?

He goes, listen to me. He goes, I know I'm not

at your church. My wife is. God bless her. But

the reality is, do you know how much money you're

going to have to spend to make some farm property

usable out there? All of the money is in the

ground already. The power's there. The sewer's

there. The water's there. You go look at that

property. Go back to God and see what he says

to you. And he goes, now, there's your prophetic

word. I said, he goes, will you just tell me

that you will do that? I said, I will go look

at it, I promise you. Listen, I gave him a hard

time. I said, listen, Balaam had to listen to

a horse, to a donkey. So I said, if you're telling

me to go, I'll go. And so I was kind of kidding

him, giving him a bad time. And so I called the

elders. I said, listen, I'm gonna, I told the

guy I would go and look and just see, would you

go with me and see if this is the property? And

so we all decided, a few of us that could, we

stepped on, as soon as we came down the driveway,

I felt something. I thought that's interesting.

We got out of the car. And I, it's the feeling

started to get stronger. And I'm like, I don't

know what this is. I've been here multiple times.

This has never happened. And Bob Calhoun, who

was one of the elders at the time and our head

intercessor, I said, Bob, do you feel that? He

goes, yeah, you'd have to be dead not to. I said,

what is the Lord doing? He goes, I don't know,

but his presence is here. I said, I know. So

we started to walk because the sanctuary wasn't

here. And we walked. right along the river, or

right along the, there was a lot more property

back then, along the concrete, and all of a sudden,

I grabbed him, and my arms went, I said, you

guys, do you remember, and some of them hadn't

been at the church in the first, but Bob and

a few others had, I said, do you remember the

vision that I was talking about that I saw that

had a swimming pool and a motel? I'm looking,

I'm seeing the swimming pool and I'm looking

at the, I said, this is it. This is what the

Lord showed me 10 years ago. I think, are you

sure? I said, well, I'm, I'm kind of sure. I

said, it looked different 10 years ago of how

it looks in the spirit. But as I'm walking, we

walked around, I said, these lines are for RVs.

I thought it was a truck stop at the time. It's

actually, RV spots. I said, it has a restaurant.

It's got a swimming pool. It's got a motel. I

said, this is the Lord. There was a gentleman

here, first service. And I knew that he was a

farmer in the area and that he had banked at

the bank that owned this property. And I said,

listen, I know you play golf with different people

at your golfer. Have you played golf with this

one banker? He goes, yeah. I said, would you

introduce me to him? Oh, Brad, okay. I'll introduce

you to him, but it's up to you. Don't bring me

into this thing. If it's God, he's gonna use

you and you talk to him, do your Mennonite thing.

And sure enough, over the course of time, the

Lord did a miracle and we were able to receive

this property. That was the beginning of the

journey. to know that God was walking with us

in the vision of how we would receive this property.

I had no idea in 2002 that this property was

even slated to even be built on, but God knew.

Later, the developers of the property that actually

lost it economically, which was terrible. several

of them were wonderful Christian men. And they

actually told me, they said, you know, when we

dedicated the property, we had our pastors come

out and they kept saying, you know, we see angels

ascending and descending on this property. We

don't know what that means. It's a motel in an

RV place. We see that there's the presence of

God is visiting this place. And they just thought,

well, let's just praise God. Let us be. They

had no idea. of what maybe the end use would

be that was in the purposes of God. Let me say

this to you as we talk about vision from time

to time. You never know what God has planned.

We only see through a glass dimly that what he

starts, he's the author and the finisher. And

sometimes we're part of the journey on the beginning

and sometimes we're part of the final chapter

of things, but it's amazing what God will do.

In the beginning, the Lord spoke to me about

what the vision of this house would be. And he

said it very clearly. He said, the vision for

this church, why I'm having you come out here,

because there was lots of churches. And when

God told us to plant in Harrisburg, I said, Lord,

I don't want to go back to my hometown. You know

how hard it is to pastor in your own hometown.

Why are you sending me here? He said, I'm sending

you here. And here's, we'll put it up on the

screen. To build a Christ -centered church where

God is magnified and exalted, where each person

finds Christ's love and direction for their life

while being trained, equipped, and empowered

to serve the family, the church, the communities,

and the world. Now, I could go through each one

of those statements that the Lord revealed to

me, but one of the big ones was where God is

magnified and exalted. I'll just take that one.

He literally spoke to me. He said, this is a

place that will be dedicated to worship and prayer

and exalting my son Jesus for his glory. The

focus is to be on my kingdom, authority, power,

love, grace, displayed by loving devotion and

allegiance and surrender to my word, my will,

and my way. This will be done by presenting your

whole selves to me in a lifestyle of prayer,

praise, and worshiping God as you honor the Father,

the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And that was one

of the defining things that the Lord spoke to

me, that God would, if we would dedicate this

place to the preaching of the truth and to honoring

him of who he really is, that he promised me

that his presence would come. And without going

into all of them, kind of shifting to where we

need to go, there have been times where the Lord

has opened up for me, just like I had that vision.

I don't understand it. I know Philip, when he

got translated, he had no translation training

school that he went to prior to that. God just

did it. And for me, he opened up a vision and

I walked in something. five, six years before

it was ever built, 10 years before I even knew

it was supposed to be us. I don't understand

it. It's the way of God. But over the years,

God has opened my eyes to see things. And I've

had encounters with the Lord. I've had encounters

with his presence. And one of the things that

I've had encounters with multiple times is what

the Bible would call in Ezekiel chapter one.

If you look at it, Ezekiel's ministry started

where he was encountered by the presence of the

Lord. you read Ezekiel chapter one and chapter

10, you'll find out that Ezekiel had multiple

encounters with the presence of the Lord or what

we would call in a Bible term, the mobile throne

and presence of God. Because it's always, you

see it in Revelation chapter four and chapter

five, that God's throne is always surrounded

by living creatures. There's an atmosphere around

the throne. Ezekiel doesn't see revelation in

its fullness. He sees man sitting on the throne,

the ground pavement like sapphire. He sees the

living creatures and the wheels within the wheels.

And he has this experience of these cherubim,

two wings covered their body and two wings they

flew. And as you move through the prophets, you

begin to see that paving stone of Sapphire. Moses

saw it as he sat with the elders. Ezekiel saw

it. Different prophets saw the awesomeness of

God. And they would never see the fullness of

who was sitting on the throne, but the likeness

was like the son of man. And they would see the

atmosphere around. And why the cherubs were so

important was they represented the four faces

of God. And you would represent the face of a

lion, the face of an eagle, the face of a calf

or an ox, and the face of a man. And we would

actually say the gospels take... root after that.

You can see the four faces in Matthew, Mark,

Luke, and John. You can see one was the lion

of the tribe of Judah. One would be that lion,

that conquering overcomer. Another gospel would

have the gospel of a servant representing what?

The ox. It was always the process of sacrifice.

One would have another view, kind of a higher

view, which would be the eagle, which would represent

that prophetic view. Another would have one like

a man representing Jesus, the man. You could

even think that and we structure our worship

even in that revelation model, singing songs

to the one that sits on the throne, to the man,

Jesus Christ, the son of man, the son of God,

as he's betrayed in the scripture, thinking about

the eagle, thinking about God's perspective of

his glory, his honor. And we sing those songs.

We think about the lion, songs that overcome

by the blood of the lamb and the word of our

testimony. And all the way through you can see

it. And Ezekiel has this encounter with the throne

and the atmosphere of the throne that had this

presence that would come with a cloud and with

fire and lightning. And I'm not saying my visions

were like Ezekiel's. My visions are not like

Scripture. Scripture is Scripture. Scripture

is used as context for me to understand some

of the encounters that I've had with the Lord.

But what I do know is that in that process, the

Lord began to highlight to me as I was... asking

the Lord, Lord, reveal yourself of what you're

saying to me. And this was about three and a

half years ago. Cause I was asking him, God,

why does it seem like I've seen your presence?

I've seen some of your glory. Why does it seem

like in certain church settings, we have this

incredible presence of God. That's where I've

seen the activity and you've opened my eyes just

to get a glimpse. And then at other times, I

know you're here. I know you're here in my heart.

Your word says that you're always with me, but

sometimes it's high and sometimes it's not as

powerful. And I was seeking the Lord on this.

Let's say, God, is it us? Is it you? What's the

difference? Why sometimes are you here where

it's almost, we experience it in a tangible level

and other times it's by just. Straight faith

and trust in your word. Have you ever asked yourself

that question? Well, for a pastor, it's important

because I'm a presence guy. I've kind of told

the worship team, here's the rule. Until we break

through in the atmosphere, I don't preach the

word. Why? The word is better received when the

atmosphere has broken through so that people

can receive it. Why would I preach in a hardened

atmosphere when the whole point is to invite

the presence of God so his word actually touches

my heart and their heart? So that's why we contend

for the presence, not in addition to what he's

told me. And the Lord began to speak to me. He

said, I want you to look at Ezekiel again. And

when I looked at it, I realized that verse 12

was kind of the key. Chapter one, verse 12, it

says this. And every way they went, they went

straight forward. Wherever the spirit would go,

they went without turning as they went. Now,

I don't have time to go into the passage. I wish

I did. But basically, everywhere the throne of

God went with the cherubim and with the wheels

within the wheels, God says was straight. They

could go to the side. They could go backwards.

They could go forwards. They could go up. They

could go down. Everywhere they went, the Lord

says, you read it in the scripture, they went

straight. They didn't turn. Because why? They

have four faces. Every direction they go is what?

In accordance to the will of God. It's important

you understand this because we've been teaching

on John chapter four. God is looking for those

who will worship him now in spirit and in truth.

And you have to understand something that before

he got to John 4 with the woman at the well,

he had to explain spirit to Nicodemus in John

3. John 3 is connected to Ezekiel 1 and 10. Why?

What did Jesus say? Jesus said, listen. Unless

you're born again, you cannot see the kingdom

of God. John 3, 3. John 3, 5 through 7 says this.

Truly I say to you, unless one is born of water

and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of

God. That which is born of flesh is flesh, but

that which is born of spirit is spirit. Do not

marvel that I say that you must be, and the Greek

rendering is, be born from above. Born again

is actually born from above. John 3, 8 is the

kicker here that ties into Ezekiel 1. The wind

blows where it wishes. Every commentary will

tell you he's not talking about the wind on the

earth. It's what? The wind of the spirit. The

wind of God's spirit goes where he wills, right?

Man does not direct God's spirit. God's spirit

directs where God goes. Read 1 Corinthians 2,

1 Corinthians 2:10

verses 10 and following. It says, only the Spirit

knows the deep things of God and the things of

God. He reveals what's in the heart of the Father.

The wind of the Spirit reveals the will of God.

Notice, the wind blows where it will. You hear

its sound, but you do not know where it comes

from or where it goes. So it is. Can you say

that with me? So it is with everyone who is born

of the spirit. Why is that important? Because

Jesus was saying, if you've been born from above,

you're going to know how to partner with the

spirit of God. Your spirit will want to be led

by the very Holy Spirit and everywhere you're

led will be under his will. Are you there? Now,

this is important because as I was reading that

and asking God, God, why does it seem like there's

highs and lows? And yet all of this process,

all of a sudden, this is three and a half years

ago, I was also asking him, God, it's going to

be 25 years in about three years. We're going

to, we have a big 25 year celebration. What are

you wanting me to do? I mean, is it time for

my transition? Is it time? Should I be looking

for a different pastor? I was starting to think

about when we did last year, we put new elders

on. I was asking the Lord, show me, highlight

to me who you've kind of highlighted that might

be an eldership team in this house to add to

it. And I'm asking all these questions. And as

I'm asking questions of the Lord, I'd been thinking

about Ezekiel. I'd been thinking about John.

All of a sudden, and I I'm sitting in this room

back here. This is three and a half years ago.

All of a sudden, in March, now I know that's

springtime. All of a sudden, this single hummingbird

comes up to the window. And now there are no

flowers. You need to understand. We're back here.

All we have is shrub bushes. There are no flowers.

There are no feeders. There's no nothing. And

I'm kind of just pondering the gaze. I'm looking

at the river. I'm looking at the destruction

of it. I'm looking at the water. Three years

ago, the water levels were high. I'm watching

it. And all of a sudden this hummingbird comes

up and it does this thing back, forth, back,

forth, back, forth. And I don't think anything

of it. And about five minutes it's doing this

thing. I'm still praying and I don't make the

connection about the spirit of God moving in

truth, being guided by what he's doing and getting

the connection. So I come back the next day.

That was on a Tuesday. I come back on Wednesday.

I'm praying and I'm discouraged now about the

river. I've tried Army Corps of Engineers. We'd

reached out to them. We were getting on the phone

with FEMA, see if we could get any help there.

And I am before the Lord and I am pouring out

my frustration with God. And then all of a sudden,

and I'm like, what is this bird doing? And I

honestly, sorry I said this, but I was like,

this bird has got brain damage. There is no flowers

on this bush. There's nothing this hummingbird

can get. And it did its thing. And I'm just,

I'm still not getting. I'm telling you now, I

understand now why God had to lower the sheet

three times for Peter. The third time, the next

day, I'm in the prayer room again and I am complaining.

God, When are you going to do something? How

am I going to do this? This is too much for me.

What are you going to do about this river? This

was not in the plan. You showed me the 40 -year

vision. There was no river taking all the buildings.

Hummingbird comes back. And this time, the hummingbird

catches my attention and... looks directly in

the window and just flies up above the bushes

and looks at me. And for a moment, I had this

thought run through my head. Oh no, I'm going

to be like one of these weird prophetic people

that hears a bird speak to them. And I got a

little scared to be honest with you. I said,

Lord, no. And the bird looked at me, did his

front back thing and moved on. And I heard the

Holy Spirit said to me, he goes, I'm not speaking

through the bird. I've used the bird as a sign.

I spoke to you and I'm saying it again. Reread

Ezekiel one and reread John. Every way I move

is forward in my will. In following me, you must

understand I will always move you in a forward

direction. You might think it's retreat or backtrack,

but it is never retreat for me. I never back

down. I always move forward. Now you need to

understand that. And that's important for our

lives, not just for the church, but for your

life personally, because everywhere God moves

you, remember? Eagle, man, lion, ox. Sometimes

it's service. Sometimes you get a vision and

a perspective. Sometimes it's moving forward

and overcoming. Sometimes it's just about standing

and recognize your limitation and that God must

do what he does. But everywhere he moves you,

just like his presence, sometimes you do it by

faith. Sometimes he comes and he overwhelms you

with his goodness and his experience and his

love. As I'm doing that, and this hummingbird,

I heard the Lord say, now, it's a sign. I want

you to go study what a hummingbird is about.

I go, really? Now you have to understand something.

I'm not like many people that are animal lovers.

I like to eat them. And I enjoy shooting things.

I was raised a hunter. I'm just telling you,

I was raised a hunter kid. I went duck hunting

my first time at nine years old with a shotgun.

I mean, that's just kind of how I was raised.

And we ate what we hunted. And so when God says,

go study the hummingbird, I think, Lord, I can't

eat this thing. Okay. So against protest, I went

and I studied the hummingbird. Now let me give

you, I'm keeping you a little bit past time,

but let me give you why it's so important. Number

one, hummingbirds, their nature is to consume

as much nectar as possible. Meaning they were

designed to get to the very center of the presence

of the flower, the sugary goodness. Number two,

hummingbirds remember every time there was a

place of nectar and abundance and they always

visit that place because they remembered it was

good. Number three, hummingbirds move in all

directions. They're the only one in God's creation

made to do that. They're the single most unique

bird of all creation and their ability to move

in all directions is in proportion to receiving

nectar. Next, they have incredible vision. Not

only can they see, they can see in the spectrum

of ultraviolet light showing the distinctions

of color. Next, they're tiny in size. but they

are aggressive in nature. They will protect the

nectar source and their nests. Number six, hummingbirds

can actually sing. Some sing in some species,

some chatter in some of the species, and some

just squawk. Boy, if that doesn't represent the

church, I don't know what it does. Hummingbirds.

heartbeat up to 1 ,200 beats per minute, and

their wings can flap up to 80 flaps per second.

Now this is the final one. Hummingbirds are unique

in their ability, as God designed them, to stand

in one place receiving nectar as their wings

operate in a figure eight pattern. As the Lord

was speaking to me, after I had studied it and

I was waiting on him, he said, This is why I'm

showing you this. You and this house are to consume

as much of Jesus and his presence as possible.

I made you for fellowship and communion with

him, his word, and his presence. I want you to

keep remembering all of the goodness and recall

every time I've come and visited you in this

next season. You'll need it for what you're about

to enter and move into. Like the hummingbird,

you must move by the spirit in all directions

that I lead you because the path that I'm leading

you will not be straight just through it. I'm

teaching you to follow me to be able to move

in and around what the next season will offer.

Like a hummingbird, continue to be fervent in

spirit of prayer and worship and boldly move

in aggressive faith with kingdom authority to

that which I have promised you. And when I heard

him speak, I just laid my pen down. I said, oh

God, give us that heart. Now, why is this important?

Because the team came to me, I'd forgot just

really quiet for me. And then you can build up

to aggressive hummingbird status. Team came to

me and they said, listen, we have an idea. This

was a year and a half ago. Now this had been,

God had been working on me for about three and

a half years. This river bank has been part of

this process. But year and a half ago, they came

to me as we plan about 18 months out. We know

that as we plan, things can change, but we have

to get stuff on the calendar. And they said,

we have an idea for the 25th anniversary. I said,

what's that? We'd like you to change. the logo.

We've had the logo since you've moved here. We'd

like you to change the logo and get another generation's

perspective. I said, wait a minute. I love that

compass. We're not telling you you have to leave

the compass, but we just think you need a new

design and allow a younger generation to build

the logo. Yeah, you're right. You're telling

me it's old? I'm telling you it's old. I looked

at them. I said, do not give me some woke Cracker

Barrel crap. I literally said that. I said, do

not. If we're going to change the logo, do not

give me that. And they laughed. They said, we

won't. I said, but I need you to incorporate

that compass because God gave me that vision

of we are to pursue true north. He is, the Bible

says he sits on the sides of north. He is the

only one that's true center. So I said, somewhere

you preserve that. They said, well, do you want

fields or wheat or grass seed or river? I said,

we are not doing river. I'm doing enough river

right now. I said, so no river, no fields. I

said, they said, well, how would you describe

the church? So we meet with the people that are

doing it and they're asking all these questions.

How would you describe your church? I said, well,

Pacific Northwest feel, Pacific Northwest colors.

I said, that's why we built the fireplace the

way we did. I wanted it to feel like you went

into a Cabela's, but only God was in Cabela's,

hallelujah. And I said, I want you to feel like

you're coming into a kind of a Central Oregon,

but Pacific Northwest feel with the colors. And

he said, well, what else is it? I said, well,

Tabasco. I said, what do you mean Tabasco? I

said, we're like Tabasco. We're spicy. We're

hot in faith and in fervency. So I said, when

you think logo, think Tabasco. And as soon as

I said Tabasco, to try to give him a reference

point, I said, oh yeah, and the hummingbird.

You want us to put Tabasco and hummingbird in

a logo? I said, I don't know, but I'm telling

you that's the parameters you have to work with.

Tabasco, fervency, and a fighting hummingbird.

Aggressive. So folks, and the Lord spoke to me.

He says, I want you to update your mission statement.

He goes, For years, we've had one verse that's

kind of been our theme. It's been 2 Corinthians

5 .17. And it's an incredible verse. We're going

to keep it, but we're adding a couple more verses

to it. 5 .17 says, if any person is in Christ,

they are a new creation. The old is gone and

the new has come. Right? The Lord spoke to me.

He goes, I want you to include Hebrews 13 .21.

May the Lord equip you. with all that you need

for doing his will. May he produce in you through

the power of Jesus Christ every good thing that

is pleasing to him. And may all glory be given

to him forever and ever. Our new mission statement

for the next 25 years is this, to do his will

by his power for his glory. That's what the Lord

is leading us to, to do his will by his power

for his glory. And there's the fighting hummingbird.

There's the fighting hummingbird and there's

the new logo has a life that's got growth to

it. It's got the compass all behind the pattern

and the diamond pointing the way to God is breathing

on the church afresh, giving direction. Would

you give the creative team a big hand? Would

you stand with me this morning? Do his will in

his power for his glory. Can you say that with

me? Do his will in his power for his glory. I

say that is a fantastic mission statement that

sums up what God wants to do in the next 25 years

for Life Bible Church. And I want us all to be

able to say, Lord, we want your will. We want

your love and your power. And we want you to

receive it. We don't receive it. You receive

the glory for what you would do with flawed vessels.

Amen? Can we pray? Father, in Jesus' name, Lord,

we thank you. We thank you as Trent is coming

up. Lord, we thank you this morning, Lord, for

vision. We thank you for encounters. And we thank

you for your holy word. You've already marked

our days. Now let us walk in them as you've purposed

us to do. We love you and we bless you. Bless

these precious people who will do your will by

your power for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen.

Thank you for taking the time to listen to this

week's message. We are so grateful for those

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