The Numbers We Trust

Good morning.

Welcome, welcome to Freedom Church.

Glad that you're here.

My name's Jason.

If I haven't had a chance to meet you yet, we're grateful that you're here.

I'd love to meet you after service, by the way.

If this is your first time, second or third time, I know it's that kind of that season.

We're either coming back to church, we've kind of been out for a little bit, schools right around the corner.

But I know there's a lot of you that are new to the community as well.

And so you're you're kind of finding a home church, and you maybe you've been here a few times, and I'd love to meet you after service out in out in the lobby.

But um well, as always, we're we're always grateful that you're here, especially if you would carve out some of your time on a Sunday and spend it with us.

This is the best welcoming committee that we have right here.

Would you put your hands together, everybody?

Just welcome all those who are here for the first time this morning.

This is uh it is a unique season.

All the kids are crying and all the parents are happy because school is right around the corner, and um, I'm in, I got lots of kids, so I'm happy.

And no, my kids aren't in this service.

I can say whatever I want now.

Okay, but uh no, that that's that is the season that we're that we're in.

And we just came out of a series uh talking all about work, and uh we're preparing to go into um a new series called Freedom.

I'll tell you more about that toward the end of our service today.

But uh this is uh we're we're a church that's kind of that's made up of community groups.

In fact, you know, we we gather on the weekends to learn, but we say that the heart of like real life change happens in the context of groups and happens when you get to know other people.

And so we meet here during the week, but we also we try to do our best throughout the year to facilitate focused seasons where we gather in each other's homes and together with with the people next to you.

And so um, you're gonna have that opportunity here, and we're we're gonna talk more about that.

And that's the that's kind of the season that we're that we're going into.

Today's gonna be a little bit unique.

I I um I I kind of want to I want to do something a little different.

It's something that we we we we probably just don't do enough of.

And and I want to take some moments and I and I want to I want to recount a little bit, recount what God has done in us, and in our lives, in our church.

You know, there's a there's a tension that exists inside of the life of a Jesus follower.

And and for some of you, you've been following Jesus for some time and you know this already, but for others of you, this is new to you.

You're you're new to the Christian life, you're new to the Bible, new to following Jesus.

And you and one of the things you're gonna learn is that is that there's this there's this tension between my resources and God's record.

There's a there's a di there's a tension between that, like this idea of like maybe what God is leading me to do, and and and not knowing what's ahead, and then trusting that that God, like the stories I heard, or the time he came through for me in the past, or that God is actually does keep his word, like that's a there's a gap there oftentimes.

And so there's a tension.

What am I gonna trust?

My am I gonna count my resources or am I gonna recount God's record?

I mean, this is this has been my story.

Um I have I have lots of stories like this.

Um, I probably have more stories than I'd care to recall where I kind of went following the Lord, kicking and screaming a little bit, you know, and God's asking me to do some things, and and I'm like, that sounds dumb.

That can't be the Lord.

That's the different spirit, not the Holy Spirit, you know, one of those things.

And and it's and it's and it is the Lord.

And and so, you know, I was thinking just in preparation of this, I was thinking about some seasons of Bethany and I's life where we've kind of we we took some steps that that were really hard because there was a gap between what my resources said and then what we believe God was leading us to do.

I remember when I had just got out of the Navy and we moved to Oklahoma and and I wanted to go, we felt like I need to go back to school.

And and so, but we were also like started a family.

I had my my oldest was born right when I was in the Navy, and then we wanted more kids, and and then I took a job where I was making like sixteen dollars an hour.

And um, you know, for some of you, you know, some of you you're a little farther along in life than me, and you're going six, you're kind of scoffing at 16 bucks an hour.

You're like, try sixteen thousand dollars for the year, you know.

And I started my family, you know, some of you I know, but for us, that was there was tension there.

It was like, what are we gonna do?

I mean, we we we there were things that we just didn't do in that season.

We had, I mean, a lawn chair was part of our living room furniture, okay?

That's that's where we were at, all right.

And and so there's a tension.

And and by the way, it was also like we wanted to prioritize one income.

Like I it was Bethany wanted to be home with the kids.

I wanted her to be home with the kids, and so we made this decision, and that was hard.

That was that was a that was there was a lot of tension there.

My resources, God's record.

I remember I remember when we took a step into full-time vocational ministry.

And I, you know, for us, this this isn't everybody's story.

Not everybody who does this has to do this.

It doesn't, you know, this is our story.

But that that job I was making$16 an hour, a few years went by, and now I was making pretty good money.

And then and then we were still having kids, and we were about to have our third, like we were just a month or two away from having our third, and it was like we're gonna step into full-time ministry, but that came with a 50% pay cut.

My my resources, God's record, the tension, you know, on the on the outside looking in, and maybe somebody did say this to me, you're an idiot.

What are you what are you thinking?

You know, and but that's that's often how it goes.

There's a tension there.

I remember when we moved here.

I remember when Bethany and I moved here to Wills.

We moved here about six a little over six years ago to plant a church, plant freedom church.

And we were all excited, we had all these visions, but I don't know if you remember that time.

It was like there was a lot of other things going on, like COVID.

And you know, back then everybody told you you were an idiot if you did anything, but not least of which moved to a new city and where we didn't know like how how are we gonna make money.

It was like, well, we got some ideas, but you know, it's a little bit unsure right now.

Uh what are we gonna, you know, how's it what's the what's the what's it gonna look like when we get there?

I don't really know.

You know, we're we're just kind of going for it.

And and um, yeah, my my resources, God's record.

Are you seeing this?

Like this is just this is part of what it looks like.

I do remember, I do remember the first Christmas after we had launched Freedom Church, well, a little about five and a half years ago, that very first Christmas, uh, which just says, Money was tight with a capital T, okay?

Tight, and um, and we got that first Christmas rolled around, and some pastor that I hadn't actually ever met personally saw my name on a list over on the other side of the country.

Oh, we planned a church in North Dakota.

I forgot that was even a state.

And so then he uh so he sends he sends us a personal check that that Christmas so we could buy all of our kids Christmas Christmas presents for that Christmas.

Ain't that amazing?

It was just like one of those moments where like there was a there was a gap, but yet God was kind of in it and he and he and he saw us.

I think about you know, we wanted more kids.

For us, we had three kids, first three came really easy.

We just thought about being pregnant, and Bethany was pregnant.

It was amazing.

I just thought that's how it worked.

I was like, yeah, careful, don't talk about kids, you're gonna end up pregnant.

And then that's we just thought that's how it went.

And then we're like, let's have more kids, and then it just didn't happen that quickly.

And it wasn't like we waited forever.

Some of you, there's some of you in the room.

You you did wait or you are waiting, and it's been years.

And so it's not like it wasn't years for us, but it was over a year, and we were a little bit like, What is what is going on here?

And it was a bit, it's like we knew we we thought we were supposed to have kids, but it wasn't happening, and and so it's like, what am I what am I trusting here?

There's a gap between my resources in in God's record.

I'm gonna give you a story this morning.

Uh, I call it uh this a census and a song.

A census and a song.

It's a story, it's a it's two different stories about a guy named David.

And um, if you're not familiar with David, he's a he's king of Israel, he's considered a super righteous man, a righteous king, not because he gets everything right.

In fact, if you know anything about it, or if if you if you're not familiar with the story, he does some really egregious things in the Bible.

I mean, truthfully, that he does things that probably 100% of us in the room would go, that disqualifies you from your position moving forward.

You're no longer qualified to lead moving forward.

And yeah, yeah, he does these things.

And yet the Bible, he's really looked at as this like righteous character.

And he's looked at this because not because he got everything right, but because he was he was he was contrite, he was humble, he was eager to repent, he he was willing to get low.

Like this is what made him a righteous person.

And so there's this, there's this sort of story, okay?

And the the first one is the is the census.

This is first chronicles chapter 21.

1 Chronicles 21 · chapter mention

1 Chronicles chapter 21.

1 Chronicles 21 · chapter mention

And give you a little bit more context, the this is it's recalling these these stories in King David's life.

King David, yeah, he's a king, he's a poet, he's a he's a musician.

The guy's a warrior.

And when I say warrior, I mean like that he's a man.

He he's just not, he's anointed by God, and he just takes God at his word.

The things that he did in the Bible blow your mind.

Are you just like, my goodness.

I mean, he gets challenged to kill, he gets excited about it.

He's like danger, it's like he he's just unswayed by this.

He's a this guy's a man's man.

And so it's recounting this, these stories that that happened.

And in the chapter before, it's talking about all these giants that were slayed.

You remember that story?

David and Goliath, right?

He's he sets a precedent.

That's what David does.

He sets a precedent for slaying giants.

And and so he was the first one to slay a giant, and then all these other these other folks start start slaying giants.

By the way, that in itself is is a lesson.

Like there's there's something in that.

Like there's things that seem impossible until somebody does it, and then like anointed by God, and it's like, well, my goodness, maybe it's not as crazy as as we thought it was.

Let me tell you, this is a true story.

We moved here to plant freedom church.

This is honest to goodness truth.

I sat down with somebody, very influential.

I bet you every person in the room would know who this person is, is very influential on our community.

And I sat down with this person and he said, Well, what are you what are you hoping to do here?

And I told him, I said, This is what we're planning to do.

We're gonna plant this church, and this is what we see is gonna happen.

And they, okay, okay.

And this is uh it was a very serious conversation.

And he looked at me and he goes, Well, I'm gonna shoot straight with you.

He says, I estimate in the last 10 years about 35 other attempts to do to do what you're doing.

He goes, and they all failed.

I'm not really sure why you think you're gonna be any different.

I was always good and the truth.

I was like, Well, thank you for that encouragement.

That's wonderful.

I'm gonna take that with me right now, you know, as I lay my life down for this, you know.

But guess what?

Here we are.

Here you are.

Here we are.

This do you see this?

It's it's happening.

You know what I believe?

I believe because that's what he said was true.

It it has been a very difficult road for 10, 15 years of people trying to plant churches in this community, and there's a lot of people that have come and gone.

There's a lot of churches that didn't that were here for a year, a year for a few months, and they're and they're just but memories.

And most of us don't even have memories of them, they're just gone.

Do you know what I believe is gonna happen over the next 20 years?

I think you're gonna see new churches as as this community grows.

I think more churches are gonna be planted.

I think you're gonna see incredible people coming to Jesus in droves.

It's worth clapping for.

It's a big deal.

And I you know what?

And it's not because, oh, well, the the special people got together and we finally made it happen.

No, no, no, no, no.

It's because God's hand is on something here.

There's an anointing here, and God's building something and he's breaking through, right?

Okay, this is what's happened.

So David slays some giants.

Now other people are slaying giants, and it's telling about all these great victories.

And then it skips here to to chapter 21.

And look at this verse.

It says, After all these victories, it says Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.

Okay, now when you read this, what I what I find for most of us when we read our Bible, it feels like ooh, it's super spiritual.

But then we have to go live our lives.

And it's like, I don't really know.

Satan rose up against Israel and incited David.

It just sounds so you know, you know what I find?

I find that for the most of us, we we make our we make all the spiritual parts of our lives very natural.

We we we we don't we ignore the fact we don't we don't think of our lives in spiritual terms, even though it is.

We we we don't we think we think in things uh in terms of physical matters and we dismiss the fact that we're actually dealing with spiritual matters.

And so we read this and we go, Satan rose up against Israel and incited David, and we have this like picture of a guy with a pitchfork and a couple horns, and he shows up in David's room and he's like, David, you should take a census.

And you're like, What an idiot! Why would you listen to that guy?

That's not how it works.

You know how it works?

He just came off, he's coming off the heels of incredible victories.

Incredible victories.

Like everybody's scared of him, everybody's scared of his army.

He's not his it's not him slaying giants, it's the people that work for him are slaying giants.

He's feeling good.

Yeah, Satan rose up against him.

You know what it looks like?

It looks like boy, you really got it together.

Boy, look at what you've built.

It's uh you would easily dismiss it as just a very natural moment.

You know what he's doing?

He's going, you know what?

Let's count how many warriors we got exactly.

How big is our army?

How much money do I have in my bank account?

How many businesses have I actually built?

How many, how many kids have I actually raised and then sent out into the world?

What am I doing?

Oh, look at what I've accomplished, look at my career, look at my army.

He takes a census.

Suddenly it's it's not so supernatural anymore.

But make no mistake, it's Satan rising up and inciting him against God.

And so David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan, then report back to me so that I may know how many there are.

Skip down to verse six.

But Joab did not include, by the way, this is how like obvious this was.

This wasn't subtle.

Anybody who had to participate in this could see what was going, what was going on here.

He David is is no longer trusting the anointing on his life.

He's no longer trusting that God's the one going before him.

He's counting because he what he feels good about the numbers.

That's what's happening here, and it's not a secret.

So Joab doesn't include the Levites in the in the Ben in the tribe of Benjamin.

Those are tribes.

He doesn't count them in the numbering because the king's command was repulsive to him.

The command was also evil in the sight of God.

See, there's there's nothing wrong.

There's nothing wrong with counting.

There's nothing wrong with counting.

You know, I do this thing when I'm I got five kids.

A lot of you already know that.

And I always felt like that was a big deal, but now that I live in Williston, I found out it's not a big deal.

You know, I'm just kind of like getting started.

For some of you, you got like seven, eight kids.

I guess there's nothing else to do in wintertime or something.

I don't know, but that's that's what it is.

I can't believe he said that.

Uh and you know, so I do this thing when I when it's time to leave, you know.

I go, I get I go out into the garage and and uh we're about to get in the car and all the kids are supposed to be in there.

So I do this like I can see through the back window.

So I try to count as I'm walking to the driver's door and go, one, two, three, four, five.

But that rarely happens, right?

I never I rarely ever get to five when I do this.

So I get in the car, especially if I'm gonna go a long ways.

If it's a short distance and I forget a kid, you know, it's not that big of a deal.

But if it's a but if it's long distance, you know, you don't want to forget a kid, you know.

So I get in the car and it's like, hey, count it off, you know.

And so somebody starts with my oldest, you know, one, you know, two, and they get down to the fifth one, he don't know anything.

So it's just like some kids got to chime in for him, you know.

Five.

He's in the he's in the car seat, you know.

And and see, and that that that that counting, that's a matter of survival, right?

I'm just trying to keep these kids alive and and present in my home, you know, keep them.

But see, this that's that's not the kind of counting.

See, there's nothing wrong with counting.

There's nothing wrong.

See, you count what's important.

We we all count what's it what's important, we count the things that that matter to us.

That's why when you don't remember your anniversary, your wife's upset with you.

Because it says, I it doesn't matter to me.

That's what it means, right?

Because you count what matters to you, right?

You I you know exactly how much money you got in the bank account, because it matters to you, right?

So we count the things that matter.

There's nothing inherently wrong with counting and seeing David's counting.

And if he was just wanting to be a good steward, I don't think that there's any problem with him counting.

I don't think that's the point of this.

The problem is what he's expecting that number to do for him.

Are you seeing this?

This is the difference.

He's he's expecting this number to give him something.

Listen, what you count reveals what you trust.

You need to get you need to get a hold of this.

What you're counting in your life reveals what you trust.

Here's what it looks like when you're in fear, when we're in fear, when we don't know how the future is gonna work out, when things get ambiguous, when money gets tight, when our kids are going off the rails, when we when we got a plan for our life and something disrupts that plan, and we get all like, oh man, we get in our feels of it.

We start wanting to plan, we want to start hedging, we want to start, we want to, we want to, we want to get ahead of it.

You see, in our fear, we start counting our resources.

Hold on, what do I got?

How much time do I got?

What can I do?

What can't I do?

But see, when you're when you're in faith, when you're in faith, you'll start recounting all those times God came through for you in the past.

When you when you when you're in faith, you'll start recounting God's record in your life.

This is this is how it goes.

You you find yourself in a tight spot, you go, how do I how do I get out of this tight spot as quickly as possible?

But when you're in faith, you go, you know what, I've been there before, they were there before, I I've seen this before.

God has come through there.

I believe he's gonna come through for us again this time.

Do you see this?

What you count reveals what you trust.

And this is the problem with David.

David wanted the number to make him feel safe.

I mean, truthfully, to be really honest with you, this is I think this is a cultural problem right now.

I mean, we have a lot of young, a lot of young men and women, a lot of young adults out there who are putting their whole lives on hold because they've they've they've bought into this lie that says that somehow you're gonna get your whole life together.

You're gonna have all the money, the bank account's gonna look the way it needs to, the house is gonna look the way it needs to, your career is gonna is gonna finally be where it's supposed to.

And it's like, oh, now we can go ahead and start making good decisions, like having children and moving on with our lives and building families.

And I'm just telling you, it's it's choking out a generation right now in our culture.

It's like the spreadsheet has become the savior.

We're putting our hope in something.

And I'm telling you, what you count reveals what you're putting your trust in.

And so here's what I want to do this morning as a church.

Can we do this as a church?

I I want us to take a moment because I I let well, I better contrast, I give you one.

That's the census.

Let me show you the other side of the story.

You ready?

Because here's here's David, he's giving a census, he's putting his trust in something, but but see, there's an there's another number to count.

See, if you go five chapters before this story, the census, there's a song.

The census and the song.

This is this is five chapters before chapter six sixteen.

David, he says, no, no, no, he's not saying count the army, he's saying count something else.

Look what he says here.

This is this is chapter 16.

Isaiah 16 · chapter mention

By the way, this is also in Psalm 105.

It's a song there.

But look what he says.

This this is different.

Say the same guy, he's counting something else.

Look what he says: give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name, make known among the nations what he has done.

Like, talk about it.

Tell what God has done in your life, sing to him, praise to him, tell of all his wonderful acts, glory in his holy name.

Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.

Look to the Lord and his strength, seek his face.

That's a little different than what he's doing five chapters later, isn't it?

Look to the Lord and his strength, remember the wonders he has done.

Remember the wonders he has done.

See, that do you see the tension here?

We can we can count our resources or we can recount God's record.

And see, and this is what I want to do with us this morning.

I want to take it's a little bit of a different Sunday morning, but I think I think we have to stop and we have to do these kinds of things.

We have to recount, we have to recall, we need to remember what God has done in our lives because here's what happens when you don't.

God starts doing things in your life and in your community, and we get so caught up in what we're doing week to week and day to day that we and then we wonder, we go, I just don't feel like God's actually moving.

No, he's moving.

We were just failing to recognize.

We're just failing to remember and recall and recount.

So, what what do you say we do what he says here?

Let's make known among the nations, let's tell what he's done, let's remember all the things that he's accomplished in our lives.

There's some really neat things that he's done here, just in our in Freedom Church right here.

I mean, the fact that we're in this space right here is is a really big deal.

That was our big deal.

Do you know how we started?

I have a picture, pull up my picture.

That's the storefront building we moved out of.

That was that was about eight weeks, seven, eight weeks prior to moving in to that building and having church there for five years, and not even in concrete in the back of that thing.

And we were over there going, Oh, there were 35 of us showing up on that first day, wondering if anybody else was gonna show up to church.

That day.

I remember Sundays in that first year where the whole church looked like the first four rows right here.

That's what that was it right there.

You know, no multiple services.

It was just like, my goodness.

I I remember in those early days driving around Williston and and looking around, and uh, and I'll do this today.

I'll I'll drive around with Bethany.

I'll be like, That building looks really familiar.

Why does that building look familiar?

She goes, You tried to buy that building.

I was like, Oh, we did.

I forgot about that.

What about this?

We tried to rent that.

Don't you remember?

It's like, oh my goodness, I forgot about that.

And see, these moments where I'm, you know, I gotta be honest with you, I had lots of moments where I was wondering, like, you know, my resources, God's record.

I am, you know, that's called faith.

Okay.

Uh, how about this?

We got some other stuff too.

We uh way of life.

I know that probably doesn't mean a whole lot to a lot of you, but that was um that was a step three in our in our formation pathway.

If you don't, if you're new to freedom, you don't know what our formation pathway is.

We have an intentional, formalized steps that we want to that we help you go on, take so that you can grow in your faith and grow and and and get plugged into your church.

It starts with intro to freedom, a serve team on-ramp, and then step three is what we call our way of life.

We talked about implementing way of life for almost five years, four and a half years, and we finally did it.

We finally were able to do it this summer.

It's a big deal.

Um, how about this?

Serve team engagement.

I mean, we have we have incredible serve team engagement here.

Now, that might not mean a whole lot to everybody, but but you got to understand in this part of the country, in this part of the country in North Dakota, in Williston, North Dakota, I literally, when we first moved here and we told people we want to plant a church, you know what they told us?

Well, you need to find a new system where you don't have to rely on volunteers because nobody volunteers in this town.

That's what I was told.

That ain't what Freedom Church looks like.

Do you know why?

Because we've got dozens and dozens, well over a hundred people on our serve team that are going, we got a hold of vision for their life.

They've got a hold of what purpose looks like in their life, and they're actively stepping into their purpose.

It's an incredible thing.

By the way, it's still growing and it needs to because there's still more ministry and more people to reach.

It's an incredible thing.

Serve team engagement, VBS.

We did that this summer.

And uh, you know, we we had done VBS last year, but but we we were still, we didn't have our own home.

This year we were able to do it.

We had our own home and and uh our first permanent church home, and it was an incredible thing.

And and it was neat to see all these kids that we got to serve here at Freedom Church and in our community.

But you do you know what was actually even more what actually blessed me more than all the kids that we got to serve here?

It was all the students who wanted to serve kids in VBS.

That you know that that's the kind of culture that we're building here in our church.

In fact, our students, we just we just got back last weekend, we took a bunch of students out to western uh Montana to a student conference.

I got pictures of that too.

So we took a bunch of students out there, yeah, they were camping.

See, see, our student leaders, that's how you know, that's how you know their real deal right there.

They're willing to tent camp, okay, for three nights, I think they were out there tent camping.

The Lord bless and keep you.

And so, yeah, honestly, incredible experience for for our students.

You realize this didn't exist a few years ago.

It just didn't, it just didn't exist.

It wasn't happening.

There wasn't a place for students to like play.

Well, it's I remember the early days we had some students.

There's a few, I see you there, Micah.

There's a few of you.

You would hang out in my house, in my living room, and it'd be a few of us.

And that was that was our student ministry.

You know, whatever we were just doing what we what we had and what what we could, and and it worked.

But then we look at what God is doing in our creative, the kind of culture he's creating and the students he's reaching.

And it's a it's an amazing thing to see.

This one might surprise you.

The percentage of men in our church that are plugged into community is abnormal.

It's especially abnormal for this region of the United States.

It's an incredible thing to see the amount of men who are actually willing to go.

Hey, look, and here's the thing: do you know what that represents?

It's a it's a bunch of men who go, they're insanely busy, they have insane work schedules, they have they have unrealistic, they have family obligations, they have their own hobbies, my goodness, they actually want to go do, but they've got a vision for their life, and they go, I think I'm gonna actually reprioritize, and I'm gonna prioritize some other things and start prioritizing some some community.

It's an amazing the amount of men that we have in our church who are who are plugged into community groups.

It's it's incredible.

And then we're doing freedom.

We're doing our whole freedom series and freedom groups this fall, and and um I can't wait to see what comes of that.

Now, I I say all that, and that's all very exciting.

But but here's the thing it's it's not a building for the sake of a building.

It's not it's not a student ministry for the sake of of having a student ministry.

I hope you I hope you see that.

It's not just events for the sake of doing events.

Woohoo! No, no, no, no.

We do we do we we create space so that we can do ministry because ministry is what actually touches people's lives.

Because these are the avenues and the spaces and the margins that God uses to impact other people, to change people's lives, to meet you and me together, to have encounters with Jesus that change everything for us.

I'm gonna tell I'm gonna share some of these stories.

I have a bunch of them.

I have more I could share.

I'm not gonna get into the weeds of the specifics, so I just wrote down a bunch of things that have just happened this year.

Just this year.

And this, see, this is derivative of all of the things I just got done showing you and the pictures in the stories.

This is what comes of this.

You ready?

How about this one?

My my spouse wouldn't even go to church.

This is this year, but now he started following Jesus.

That's an amazing thing.

You know, I always kept my faith and my money separate.

I'm now a tither and a giver.

I've experienced a blessing I can't explain.

Here's a married couple.

They said they're taking a step to lead a community group this fall for the very first time.

That's it, that's incredible.

Here's somebody she says, I went through way of life.

I finally understand what it means to be in Jesus.

I actually understand.

Isn't that amazing?

I actually understand what it means to be saved, to be in to be saved, to be in Christ.

It's an amazing thing.

You're gonna love this.

This is a young guy in our church.

He says, I found a new job, even though it pays less, so I can be more involved in my spiritual family.

Praise the Lord.

Did you hear that?

Yeah, do you do you hear do you hear the priority shifts that are happening in people?

Incredible.

I love, I love these stories.

I get these stories.

We've been doing stories like this for years.

This is this is an amazing thing.

I'm living with my girlfriend, living with my boyfriend.

I got listen, I got so many of them.

I just like put them, I condensed them all together.

I just gotta put them all in one line right here.

Living with my girlfriend, my boyfriend.

I decided to go all in with Jesus.

So I'm gonna stop doing things my way.

I got married.

Let's go.

I'm I love this.

I'm getting married.

I love that.

Let's go.

That's a big that's a big deal.

You know how many weddings I've done in here at the church?

It's like, well, we're sitting down, it's like counseling, but this is great.

What's your living status?

Oh, oh, okay.

Let's get that relationship under the Lord.

It's like, what's stopping you?

I don't know.

They go get a marriage license.

Let's get this.

The Lord bless and keep you.

I now pronounce you husband, wife.

Let's get your let's get your relationship in Jesus, under Jesus, under covenant.

Let's get on the road with Jesus.

You all with me?

This has happened so many times here at Freedom Church.

Incredible thing.

Anyway, I love this.

I used to be overwhelmed with fear and anxiety, but not anymore.

My goodness.

Here's another one.

For years, I didn't have good friends.

I joined groups, and now the closest friends I've ever had are in my church.

Boy, this is one.

We've had a few people like this right here, several.

I started following Jesus this year and I got baptized.

Let's go.

I never prayed before.

Now I pray with my kids.

I love this last one.

I've never prioritized rest or Sabbath, but this year I started to.

Let's go.

Am I trusting?

Am I counting my resources or recounting God's record?

What am I doing?

See, these are these are these are milestone events.

Like these are milestone events that are happening in our in our church, in our community, in many of your lives.

These are these are milestone events.

And and who do I mean we all want that?

We all want it, we all want these these moments and these events, and just go, man, that's a what an incredible moment.

That's great.

Can I I got news for you?

Milestones are not automatic.

This stuff's not automatic.

See, see, it isn't like a few people just kind of showed up and just said, Well, we're just kind of twiddling our thumbs and just hoping that the Lord would show up.

It doesn't work like that.

That's not how God works.

God partners with his people.

And see, and see, things have happened because there was a group of people that said, I'm gonna submit my life to Jesus and I'm going to step into the purpose that he has for me because that's how he accomplishes milestone moments in our families and in our communities and in our church.

But but here's the thing even your purpose is not automatic.

The milestone events are not automatic.

Your purpose is not automatic.

The things that God has called you to and it made you for.

I mean, get a hold of that.

Made you on purpose and for a purpose, but it does not happen automatic.

No, no, no, no.

There's something to this.

I mean, the stories that we read here, the the the the the census and the song.

David trusting his numbers and going on a counting spree because he felt feels like the spreadsheet puts him in a place that he feels like he's finally legitimately a king, I guess.

Or the song where he says, I'm gonna recount God's record in my life.

See, the fulcrum of those two stories is David's trust and his willingness to live into his purpose.

Is he going to trust God moving forward?

And it so here's what it means.

You want milestone events?

You want to step into your purpose?

Here's what it means for you.

You have to take the next step.

I mean this.

You have to take the next step.

I I'm you know, I'm gonna be really direct with you.

Not that I'm ever not direct with you, right?

I get accused that you're really, really intense, Pastor, you're a little direct, so I'll just continue.

It's a spiritual gift, so I'm gonna be direct with you.

So here it is.

Too many of us, we're we don't take next steps because we're waiting for it to be convenient.

Can I help you out?

It will never be convenient.

No, no, no, listen to me.

Never.

You you you you've been you show up to church, you you come here, he's just kind of like eh, you're kind of indifferent.

You're like, I'm open to it.

Well, if God was real, he would encounter with me.

You know, I'm here, I'm open.

Like God knows where I'm at, he knows my number, he knows where I'm living, he knows he knows how to get a hold of me when he wants me.

Don't work like that.

You're waiting for it to be convenient on your terms.

It never is, it won't be.

It's never going to be.

It doesn't work that way.

It never works that way.

Do you know why?

Because every one of us has gotten used to living our lives our way.

All of us.

My hands up with you.

We we've all gotten used to living our life our way.

We got our ideas, our opinions, what we think is right, what we think is good, what we think makes sense to us, and we have aligned our life according to that way of thinking.

And see, here's what a next step is in Jesus.

He goes, Hold on a second, I'm gonna realign your life, which means that your life is going this way.

A next step means Jesus comes along by his spirit and he goes, we're gonna change paths just a little bit right here.

Well, that doesn't fit in my schedule.

I don't have time for that.

That doesn't make sense to me.

I don't think that that's important, I don't think that that matters.

I've got enough, my buddy says this, YouTube says that, whatever.

You have all these things and all these excuses.

I'm just God's wanting to realize.

I'm just telling you, it's never gonna be convenient.

It never, it never will.

There next steps have a there's a door.

I I always have a picture in my mind.

A next step always has a door, it's a swinging door, and the door swings both ways.

Okay, so when you're when you're on this side of the door and you haven't stepped through, whatever the next step might be, I don't know what the next step could be.

I got some ideas, it's usually way simpler than you've probably given it credit for.

But before you take the next step, you you there's these these thoughts that come and see, and and and we we have a we have a few thoughts around it.

And the first thought is like we just think, um, it ain't that big of a deal.

Like it ain't that big of a deal.

Like why why does it matter if I take that step or not make that step?

But what does it matter?

It doesn't it it's not that big of a deal.

So we just sort of minimize it.

We uh we we make excuses for how we don't need to take that next step.

We just sort of like meh, it doesn't matter, but then you step through it, you go, okay, fine, I'll do it.

Okay, uh you're like you're fine.

Shut up, Pastor.

I'll find, I'll take the next step.

So then you step through the door.

Now you take the next step.

But but see, now now some other things come up.

You go, but nothing's even happening.

Nothing's even happening.

I I took the step.

It doesn't even feel that important.

It's not even that big of a deal.

It doesn't, it doesn't, nothing's happening.

I don't, I don't feel any different, I don't think any different.

I don't, you know, I'm it's it's not that great.

You know, I feels kind of like feels like it's falling kind of flat.

So you just assume that must be all there there is to it.

Isn't it funny?

I always think it's funny because I've talked to you and I've and I've walked this out with with a lot of people over the years, where it's just like this, let's let's wrestle with our faith, let's wrestle with the hard questions, and then and then it's like, okay, we're just kind of on the fence.

It's like, you know what, I think I'm I think I'm ready to be all in with Jesus.

Great, let's pray.

You know, that's great.

Then we go all the way to Jesus, it's like start taking some steps, and then it's somewhere along the line, it's like a flip, a switch flips, and it's like, first of all, it's like it was too much, and now that we're in it, we're like, it's not significant enough.

The door swings both ways.

It's like suddenly, and suddenly we're not the the step that God has me isn't even big enough.

Oh my goodness! So we gotta go find something else, and we gotta do this, and then we then we give ourselves excuses not to take the little steps that God's taking and giving us because we're too busy running around looking for the gigantic steps that are gonna like be monumental and change the world.

So he's trying to change you.

You know that, right?

Like your next step is about changing you.

Make you more like Jesus.

Now, I don't think it's stubbornness that keeps all of us from taking our next step.

I don't think it is.

I I think for some of us it probably is.

It's a little bit of stubbornness.

We're just kind of like, whatever, you know.

I can see you.

I don't know if you know that or not.

I can see you up here.

I can see you, I can see the stubbornness all over your face, son of you.

I won't point you out, but I can see it.

Anyway, it's funny, it's like, all right, the preacher's blind, he can't see us.

Oh, I see you.

Anyway, okay.

I still love you.

Okay.

I don't think it's stubbornness for all of us.

I I think I think it's inadequacy for a lot of us.

I really do.

I think I think somewhere along the way, either somebody or the voice in your head told you that you gotta be a certain person, that you gotta you gotta accomplish a certain thing, that you gotta be doing this long enough, that you need to know some things, that there's some things you gotta do, there's some things you gotta get to you gotta get together and get in order.

And so you've used that, you've you've bought into that, and you've just let that kind of be your reason why why you're not gonna take the next step because it's a it's a false sense of humility, it's inadequacy.

And that's just not how it works.

It's just not how it works.

Because if that were the case, if that's what if that's what your spiritual growth hinged on, then I wouldn't be up here.

If that's what your spiritual, if that's what our spiritual growth hinges on, is you getting it right all the time, then a lot of us wouldn't even know Jesus right now because it would have stepped a lot of us from stepping into our purpose, and this wouldn't even be happening this morning.

That's not how it works.

In fact, we read that song.

Recall, remember, tell the world.

Skip down to verse 15.

Look what he says in there.

He got what's the bedrock of all that?

He says this he remembers, talking about God, his covenant forever, the promise he made for a thousand generations.

Here's what that means: it means when you don't, when you're not faithful, he is.

That's what that means.

It means that it means that the the purpose for your life and the things that God has for you, and God moving on your behalf is not contingent on you never failing again.

Some of you have terrible theology.

Either somebody told you this or you just kind of came to this conclusion on your own.

You have this idea in your head that says that if I don't get it right, if I mess up, if I sin, if I don't do it right, if I don't keep my word in this moment, like if I just don't get it right, moving forward, that suddenly it's gonna stop God from actively moving in your life moving forward.

That's a lot of pressure.

And that's just not the case.

When the Bible is clear, when you're not faithful, God is.

When you fail, God doesn't.

And see, it isn't about if you fail because you're going to fail.

Some of you failed as early as this morning, okay?

You're gonna fail.

It's not about do you fail, what you fail, it's about how quickly do you come back to Jesus when you fail.

It's about getting that timeline down, it's about it's about shrinking that time.

I failed back to Jesus.

The problem is for some of us, it takes us like months to come back to Jesus.

Carrying all the shame and all the guilt.

Oh man, I've you feel like you're paying, you gotta pay a little penance.

Oh God, I'm so sorry.

If I come back too soon, it feels like I'm not really sorry, so I'll hang on to it for a little bit.

No.

Come back to him now.

Right now.

How quickly do you come back to Jesus?

See, that's what counts.

That's what that's what counts.

I know for a lot of you, I'm my cards here.

Thank you.

I know for a lot of you, you got stuff going on.

I mean, I'm telling you stories, and you know, 16 bucks an hour, and God came through for us, and I know you want that story.

I know you want stories of God coming through for you, and I know a lot of you you have stuff going on in your life.

You have things that you're praying for and asking God for.

And here's the thing it's like when you're when you're over here in this dilemma of counting your resources and recounting God's God's record in your life, there's a tension there, and the tension is because the math doesn't always line up.

That's the tension, right?

Because you don't have everything you need.

That's the tension.

It's amazing.

And I know for a lot of you you have stuff going on right now and you're asking God to come through for you.

But here's the thing it's like it's often slow, isn't it?

Like I'm waiting.

It's like, okay, sounds good, Pastor.

I won't count my resources, I'll recount God's faithfulness and his record.

That sounds good.

But that feels a little bit slow.

And see, when you're in these moments where you're asking God to do some stuff, sometimes it even feels like you're going backwards.

You know what the real truth is?

You probably are going backwards.

Well, that's not encouraging.

Well, no, that's just life.

That's how life goes sometimes.

I mean, I love these by the way, these are all prayer requests, these are just the physical ones filled out from just this.

This is just this year.

Just this year.

I mean, these are yours.

There's a lot of you that don't fill these out.

And I know you have them, you just don't tell anybody.

This is just this year, and this isn't even the digital ones, this is just the cards and the seatbacks in front of you.

People, you're going through real stuff.

My husband's not following Jesus.

What is this?

Need healing in my life.

My mom and dad are getting divorced.

What the heck?

Oh my goodness.

Yeah.

My husband just told me he wants to leave.

Oh my goodness.

Wow.

Healing.

Trying to trying to navigate my my kids with with my ex-husband right now.

Oh my goodness.

Trying to persevere right now.

I've got some heart.

Oh man, just some heart stuff going on at home right now.

My niece doesn't know Jesus.

I'm just praying for somebody who just went through incredible tragedy in their life.

My kid, my my son, he needs Jesus badly right now.

Mental mental health issues right now.

Struggling to be a mom right now.

This is real life.

This is this is real stuff.

This is what see this is this is counting my resources and recounting God's record.

This is the gap right here.

This is this is what's happening.

And for a lot of you, this is your life.

A lot of you, you have stuff.

You could write your own card and you could put it down right here.

You got your stuff, but it feels slow, it feels like you're working backwards.

Did you do you realize this is the moment where we need faithfulness?

Like this is this is the the when you get what you want, when you want at the time you need it and the way you need it, you don't need any faithfulness.

That's just called getting what you want.

Like the definition of faithfulness is built into the word.

It's like it's not happening on your time.

It's slow, and I don't see it.

And yet I'm gonna trust who am I gonna trust?

Am I gonna trust me or am I gonna trust him?

Am I gonna trust what I'm counting in my resources?

Am I gonna recount his record?

Do you see this?

Like that requires faithfulness.

That requires you and I to keep going, to stay committed, to stay true to him.

And see, and this is what.

Happens because I know for me, I'm I shared some of the stories in the beginning, but I even I mean I'll be really honest with you.

Just for us as a church, I've given my whole life to like be here for for this right here with you.

That's a that's the honest to God truth.

Thank you, Pastor.

And you know what?

I showed you those pictures, that empty building.

I went and you know, and I did my best to show up week to week and be like, hey, pastor's full of faith this week.

We're gonna change the world.

And you want to know what?

On the inside, I'm going, dear God, nobody's listening.

Nobody's gonna, nobody's listening.

This isn't working.

I'm you know what?

I'm only human.

Maybe I missed him.

I'm okay with that.

I miss God.

No shame here.

And we're not like we didn't cross some finish line, we're just getting going here, but I'm just saying, like you, you, you, you put your life to something, you, you're, you're, you're waiting in the gaps, your your resources don't line up with the vision that you feel like God's given you, whether it's for your family or your career or otherwise.

And it requires faithfulness.

Faithfulness.

I don't know what your stuff is right now.

I I could I could guess.

I mean, I got an idea reading these cards.

Here's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna pray.

I think we need to pray.

Would you just bow your heads with me?

Let's pray.

I'm actually gonna do we're gonna even do something a little different.

Like I said, this isn't even a normal Sunday, so we're just gonna keep it abnormal.

We're gonna keep going with it.

I just I want you to start raising your hand.

Uh, if you've got stuff in your life right now, you whether you wrote a card or not, I don't I don't care.

You got stuff in your life right now.

I want you to raise your hand right now.

This is I got stuff.

My hand's up with you.

Some of you, it's like you got a spouse who's not following Jesus.

You maybe you got laid off recently.

Maybe money's tight right now.

Maybe you're in a new season of life, you're trying to navigate new stuff.

Some of you, you listen, you you're not able to get pregnant.

You want babies, and you it's like, how long is this gonna go on for?

Some of you, you got some older kids, maybe some teenagers, young adults, and they're rejecting your values right now.

You got health issues.

Some of you got some marriage issues right now.

Some of you want to be married.

I don't know.

I we could go on and on.

If you have that's you just raise your hand, keep your hand up, lift your hand up.

Don't be don't be ashamed, be bold.

This is all these people right here, they're with you.

And it requires a moment of trust and faithfulness and counting, counting and recounting his record and not leaning on and trusting our resources all the time.

They don't always align, they don't, they rarely align, but that's what it looks like when we follow Jesus.

And we trust him and we put our faith in him, and then he comes through because it looks like nothing's happening, it looks like things are both going backwards, and then one day you're gonna look up and it's gonna feel like suddenly it all came out of nowhere.

Because that's what it looks like when we follow Jesus.

Jesus, we just start off right now and we just say, We trust you.

We trust you, we trust you when it doesn't make sense, we trust you when when money's tight, we trust you when our relationships look like they're on the rocks right now.

We trust you, we trust your way, we trust what you said, we trust your record.

I'm still waiting, and I haven't seen it quite yet, but I trust that you are you are you are one who keeps his word.

I trust you, and I'm committed to you, I'm committed to doing this your way, I'm committed to following you, I'm committed, I'm all in.

Forgive me, forgive me for wavering, forgive me for for second guessing you, forgive me for for even contemplating quitting at times.

Forgive me for these moments.

I'm all in, and I trust you moving forward.

And we just begin to to lift these up, raise your hands, stretch your hands out toward all these prayer cards as well at the same time.

Let's just pray over all of this, all of our stuff.

We're gonna bring it to the Lord Jesus.

We give you our stuff, we bring it to you.

You see us, you recognize us, you're you're not just indifferent, but you're involved and you care.

I thank you for the plan that you have for each person here, that you see the gaps in their finances, you see the gaps in their relationships, you see the gaps that they're trying to believe for and ask for and wait for, and they're doing their best to be faithful, and you see them and you're aware of it, and you are you've taken note of it.

And I thank you that you have answers for them.

You have answers, you have a way forward, you have a path forward, you have direction for them.

I thank you that there's resources coming to each person's way here this morning.

I thank you that there's breakthrough on the horizon.

I thank you that that that that that what it looks like right now is not the final answer.

I thank you that that the status of our resources, the status of the spreadsheet is not anything for you.

That's not a thing for you.

And so I thank you.

I thank you for answering prayers.

I thank you for healing bodies this morning.

I thank you for healing minds this morning.

I thank you.

I thank you for giving our parents strength and courage to keep going, to keep persevering, to stay faithful, to reject cynicism, to reject bitterness, but to keep going and to stay faithful.

I thank you that you're a God who hears us, you're a God who answers us.

I thank you for your Holy Spirit.

Empower us and fill us.

Pour out a fresh wind, fresh wind of your spirit in each person here as we recall and remember all the things that you have done, that you're the same God yesterday, today, forever, and the things you did is just an indication of what you plan to do moving forward.

Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, Jesus.

Some of you have never committed your life to Jesus, and you need to do that this morning.

And in fact, if that's you, and you've never just gone all in with Jesus, would you raise your hand right now and just say, Yeah, that's me, Pastor?

I want to pray, I want to commit my life.

I see your hand, good job.

Any more hand, good job, hand, hand over there, thank you.

Any more hands, good job, see your hand.

Just make this prayer your own, just in your own way.

Tell him, Jesus, I give you my life.

I believe you died for me.

I believe you died for my sins, my brokenness, all of it.

I believe you took it on yourself, but you didn't stay dead.

I believe you came back out of that grave, out of that tomb, you came back to life.

You're seated at the right hand of the Father, you're at the helm of your church, and I'm committed to following you from this day forward.

I give you my whole life.

I'm all in.

My thoughts, my ideas, my opinions, my way of life.

I give it to you.

I choose to follow you.

Thank you for saving me.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Everybody said, Amen.

Amen.

Come on, church, like you mean it.

Let's put our hands together.

Tell Jesus, thank you.