TEAM CONFERENCE: Rich Wilkerson Jr. - Day 2

Welcome to the celebration church or window podcast.

We are celebrating to windows and we hope you are encouraged by today's podcast.

Would you mind showing him the biggest celebration podcast?

Hey, come on if you love Jesus out there on this Saturday morning.

Can you go ahead and get the King of Kings?

Come on, the Lord of Lords.

Let's give over the shadow phrase today.

This is impressive.

I'm not gonna lie.

Saturday morning.

You're automatically going to heaven, amen.

I mean you're here on the real Sabbath today.

And I'm just excited, really honored to be here.

Do me a favor, before you sit down, maybe high-five two or three people.

Just say I'm so happy you're sitting in my vicinity.

I feel like that was the Lord's will.

I just I feel so blessed to be near you.

Amazing.

I'm good, brother.

I'm gonna get you back up here really quick, though.

You're probably my favorite pianist.

That's a that's a that's a tricky word to say, by the way.

My favorite pianist I've ever met.

Is that what they even call him anymore?

Or ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for the pianist today.

Gotta be careful with that one, the pianist.

But, anyways, he is uh amazing.

Hey, can we put our hands together and just thank God for Gray City?

Can we just I just I this is just like really, really cool to me.

Like, if you cut me open, like one of my favorite things in the world is talking to this group of people, which is you right now, which is church builders and church leaders.

And I just thought it was awesome that uh Celebration Orlando uh started five years ago this September.

Vu Church started four years ago this September, and Gray City started four years ago, if I'm getting it right, Chase, wherever you are, I think this coming September or August as well.

I just think it's awesome that you got three different churches here together, joining together, uniting, saying, Let's build the church.

The devil's not afraid of a big church, he is very afraid of a united church.

And today, regardless of what you see right now in the present, I think something bigger is going on.

When you get three churches working together to say we actually want to see the church of Jesus Christ move forward, I think the best really is yet to come.

And maybe today it's just a seed in the ground of what is about to happen.

And I just want to thank you and commend you once again for taking time to be here on your Saturday.

I don't take this thing lightly whatsoever.

And it was Zachariah said, do not despise small beginnings.

And although this room might not be packed with a thousand people, all we need is a seed for us to actually see a harvest come about.

And I thought last night Don Shree's message was so fitting, especially for us as individuals.

Uh, but because this is team conference, I want to talk today a little bit to the team of Celebration Orlando.

I have been following your story since the day that you guys were birthed.

Uh Pastor Stovall Weems is one of my heroes in the faith.

What celebration is done in Jacksonville, but now around the world, is no small thing.

And you need to realize that you're a part of something great.

But of course, when Josh and Becca came and started this church, they've been friends of ours for the last probably eight years in ministry.

And Pastor Josh is someone that I would chat with probably at least monthly, just talking about the challenges, uh, the celebrations of church leadership and going through that.

And I know right now here at Celebration, there's transition taking place.

And rather than just kind of not, you know, touching it, rather just speak to some of the stuff in the room a little bit.

I so appreciate the lead pastors that have been installed here, Pastor Keith and Megan.

In fact, can we just go ahead and give them a big round of applause?

Just like I don't like I don't know if you realize the sacrifice they are putting right now on their family.

Not because they're in it for an opportunity, but because they actually believe in this thing called the church.

They're not showing up here today for an event.

They got on an airplane yesterday, flew from DC to be here because they appreciate and they believe in what God is calling us to do here in Orlando.

And I I just I honor them and I honor the entire team that's here today.

And I just felt as Dante was speaking last night that the Lord gave me a word that was right here for you guys.

And this is not something that I would go preach at a conference.

This is something I think that is fitting for the season that you are in right now.

Because I know when things like this happen, transitions, like in transitions, we can kind of get feelings happening.

Um, my older brother, he pastors a church in Tacoma, Washington.

And for many years we were on the staff together with my dad's church.

Uh, it's called Trinity Church in North Miami.

And he has a wife.

My wife is Dawn Tree.

You met her today.

She's beautiful and she's blonde.

And my brother, he has a wife.

Her name is Ashley, and she's beautiful and she's blonde.

And um, I remember my brother's always got like a new like hobby going on, and so he got into motorcycles for a little bit.

I'm not really like a risk junkie.

There's better ways to die than a motorcycle, praise God.

So um, not for me, okay.

And so uh I'd never got a motorcycle, but my brother he would go ride in motorcycles, and people at our church all the time, they would come up to me like, Hey, I saw you and your wife on your motorcycle yesterday.

I'm like, No, no, no, that wasn't me.

You know, that was my brother and his wife.

You know, that was not me.

And I was talking to my brother one time, I said, Joe, I said, uh, I said, What's the scariest thing about the motorcycle?

And he said, you know, to be honest with you, Rich, the scariest thing that I've learned is that when I'm riding the motorcycle with Ashley on the back, the scariest thing is when we're taking a turn.

That if my wife, if she doesn't lean into the turn with me, that the bike it can actually start to wobble and it can become very, very shaky ground.

We have to actually lean into the turn together.

And it just gave me a bit of an idea of sometimes when we're in transit transitions, are like there's a turn taking place, and you can take the turn and get through it quickly and safely and get to the other side and get to your destination further, faster, or you can lean in the opposite direction and it starts to create shaky ground.

And I want to talk to the team today.

I want to talk to the servant leaders, the volunteers, the heartbeat, the heart and soul, heart over hype.

I want to talk to you today about learning how to lean into this turn properly.

That if we'll lean into it, I promise you we're gonna come out bigger, better, stronger.

We're gonna actually steward the church, and we're gonna see ourselves doing something that we never could have thought or imagined here in Orlando.

The best really is still yet to come.

Amen.

Oh, come on, can we just clap like there is 2,000 people?

Can we clap like there really is a revival on the way?

All right, let me just read one little verse, and I've got more verses, I promise you.

But um, I want to read just one.

It's really short.

It's from 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 58.

1 Corinthians 15:58

We got a whole lot of our team here with us today.

Um, a bit of our stories, we started, uh we're three and a half years into our church.

This September will be four years, but Don Sree introduced these guys last night.

But these are some of the key families that helped us start our church.

Um, like I'm saying, four years ago.

The Tumas, the Freemans, the Daventas are here.

And every year we take a moment before we even start the church to get away as a team and we pray and we seek God.

And every year there's sort of like a theme that's given to us.

We feel like that I'll share with our team a vision about, hey, this is what we feel like God's saying this year.

And I remember when we first started the church, it was like, we're gonna be better at 70.

That was our big phrase.

Like, we're gonna actually have a long-term vision that when we're old, let's be better when we're old.

And then the year after that was like, we're called to carry the culture.

And then one year it was like, make space.

And this past year, the phrase that we landed on was this idea of standing firm.

And this is what the apostle Paul says in chapter 15 of verse 58 of 1 Corinthians.

He says, Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm.

Everyone says, Stand firm.

Let nothing move you.

Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

You know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

That's such a good thing for us to hear on Saturday.

Because even this morning when you're getting up, you're like, man, is this worth it?

You know, like, should I do I really need to be there tomorrow after this weekend?

Some of you are gonna be tempted for loading, like, man, I just gave my whole weekend to church.

Do I really need to show up tomorrow?

That's that's exactly how we think.

You know, it's like, man, I just gave him Friday and Saturday.

Do I really need to do Sunday now?

Yeah, the whole point of Friday and Saturday was to make Sunday better, okay?

Like, let me just let's just talk about it, okay?

So there's always this temptation, like, is my labor in vain?

In fact, let me be the first, I feel that way sometimes.

Does it really like does this really matter?

And sometimes you just need an outside voice to come in and say, what you're doing matters.

Please hear me that like your labor is not in vain.

When you're actually serving God with your full heart, surrendered over to Him, not one moment is wasted, not one moment is in vain.

It's actually towards building God's house, and God's house lives on far after we're gone.

And this phrase, stand firm, this is not the first time it shows up in the Bible.

It actually shows up first time in the book of Exodus.

It's that beautiful story of Moses when he gets to the Red Sea, and the Red Sea's in front of him, and the Egyptians are behind him, and everyone's freaking out and going, No, I guess it's all over.

I guess we left slavery to step out into the God dream, to step towards our prosperity and to step towards our promised land.

And I guess here we go, the Red Sea's gonna kill all of us.

And Moses he cries out to God and God says, What are you doing?

Move on.

That's that's honestly God's word.

He's like, just move.

Like we're going, God, we're stuck.

He's like, move.

And so Moses goes, Hey, everybody.

If we'll stand firm, God will deliver us.

That's this moment when he lifts out his arms and the Red Sea parts.

In leadership and in church building, we know we were called out of something.

So five years ago, God called us out of Jacksonville to start something here in Orlando.

And this isn't gonna be the first challenge.

There's gonna be many more challenges.

There's gonna be many more obstacles like Red Seas that are gonna show up.

And if we're not careful, we'll just sit around and we'll complain about the obstacle.

I guess it's all over.

I guess we should just quit.

I guess this whole thing's not gonna work out, but God's gonna say back to you, move on, move forward.

And then the word of the Lord is stand firm.

If we'll stand firm, God will deliver us.

Friends, what is the point of taking ground if you don't know how to stand your ground?

And some of us in this room, we need to understand that God is calling us to take the city of Orlando, but if you can't stand the ground that He's given you right now, it makes no, there's no reason whatsoever of moving forward.

And so this idea that Paul, once again, now to the church in Corinth, he is saying, come on, stand firm.

Your labor is not in vain.

Don't quit now, don't grow weary now, don't grow weary in doing good.

Stand firm.

And the phrase that I have for us today as we're talking about this transitioning and moving forward is this little phrase, stay the course.

Look at your neighbor and say, yo, stay the course.

Come on, you know the people on your right and your left.

So look at the other neighbor, the one that you I don't know why you didn't choose that that one first, but who cares?

It's cool, we'll forgive quickly.

Just say, yo, I need you to stay the course.

Look, be someone behind you, say, look back, just turn around.

It makes it more awkward.

Just stay the course, uh all around, stay the course, stay the course, stay the course.

Now point at yourself because we're always telling people what to do, you know?

Say, come on, yo, stay the course.

Stay the course, stay the course.

That's what I want to talk to you about.

Stay the course.

And it comes from this idea of standing firm and this idea of consistency.

Stay the course.

That phrase stay the course, it's a it's a war term.

And it was first used in battles when uh one side was facing major opposition.

The phrase would come from the general stay stay the course.

No matter what, don't give up, meet the goal, continue to move forward, continue to progress.

And it's funny, like in a battle setting, that language makes so much sense to us.

Yet somehow in life, and especially in leadership, it's like we're not expecting for obstacles.

We're not expecting for challenges to happen.

Yet, if I know one thing, I know this is that it's not a question of if, it's a question of when.

Storms happen, challenges take place, obstacles show up, things we weren't expecting to happen.

Yet we're called to stay the course.

It's amazing if you're prepared for something, how much better you can handle it.

Like it, right?

You know what I mean?

Like it's one thing, like Mike Tyson said, everyone's got a plan until they get punched in the mouth.

I love that, right?

Like, we all got our plans, and whoa, okay, I wasn't ready for that one.

That's how life is.

But the more and more we as leaders can brace ourselves, standing firm, putting both of our feet down, ready for the challenges.

When life takes its best shot, we're saying we're not gonna move backwards.

We're gonna hold our ground and we're gonna believe that God is going to deliver us.

Come on, somebody, make a little bit of noise.

Stay the course, stay the course, celebration Orlando.

Stay the course, Grace City, stay the course, Vu Church.

It's not about one church, it's about the church of Jesus Christ.

We're just stewarding this thing that God has given us.

This isn't our thing, this is his thing.

We're called to stay the course.

I think the scripture we all know as church leaders is that Psalm 92, it says, He who's planted in God's house will flourish.

He who's planted in God's house will flourish.

I've always taken that scripture not just from a challenge to our church, but I've taken it as a challenge for me as a leader.

That if people are planted at Vu Church, they should be flourishing.

So my role is to help them flourish.

And you as leaders, you should be looking at the people on your team and saying, can people flourish under my leadership?

Can people become all that they've dreamed of becoming with me as their leader?

There's a term and the term in uh in planting, in uh landscaping, Dantri, what's the word that you took in college?

I'm gonna say it wrong.

I always try this so hard.

Dantry took a course in uh ornamental horticulture.

Say it one more time.

Ornamental horticulture, which is the study of plants.

This is a very deep teaching today, by the way.

Write that down.

Ornamental horticulture.

And so, anyways, was that tongues?

Absolutely.

Where's the interpretation?

Okay, um, I remember Dodge, she like she like took this course in college and she'd come home like all covered in dirt, and she'd like to have a shovel.

I'm like, oh my gosh, woman, you are crazy.

And so she was she would always teach me stuff.

And one of the things that we learned about while she was taking that class was this thing called transplant shock.

The scripture says he who's planted in the house of the Lord will flourish.

I think some people they just think they don't understand the difference between planted versus being transplanted.

Transplant shock means that if you uproot a plant so many different times and replant it, eventually it won't flourish, eventually it won't grow, eventually its leaves will wither.

And so many people go from relationship to relationship, they go from job to job, place to place, church to church.

And we keep saying, Oh, I'm planted.

And no, just because you're in for a moment doesn't actually mean that you're engaged and connected and doing life.

It's actually only when you get planted that you're saying, you know what, I'm staying the course.

Come hell or high water, come challenges and obstacles, come enemies behind me and red seas in front of me.

I'm not backing away from this thing.

You want to see your life flourish, it's gonna require you to stay the course.

Not to be transplanted, not to get up and go, but to stay the course.

If we're gonna see Orlando one to Jesus, it's gonna take volunteers and servant leaders that when the transitions come and when unexpected things happen, and when leaders that we thought we'd always be with, something else gets led that way, that we say, you know what?

God bless you.

I love you, I'm always for you.

Never gonna get a negative thing out of my mouth, but I gotta stay the course.

I know what God has called me to, and if he's called me to it, his grace is gonna get me through it.

I wish I could get a witness at 1019 on a Saturday morning.

Who knows what I'm talking about?

This isn't your thing.

This isn't my thing, this is his thing.

We're gonna stay the course.

This is this is one hurdle, there's gonna be many, many more.

So I just wanna, this is gonna be real simple.

I want to give you three ways that you stay the course.

Super basic.

I'm sorry I'm not totally preaching today, Keith, but I just feel like this is where I'm supposed to go if that's okay.

And so cut the tapes, it's getting serious.

If you grew up in like real church, that's when like when pastors were gonna say something that you're like, I don't think they were prepared to say.

They're like, I don't want this recorded.

Like, who was gonna is like CNN listening to your church services?

Chill out, bro, you know.

That was the always the best Sunday night services at my church.

Cut the tapes, I want to say some stuff.

What?

Like, it's my grandfather, there's like a hundred people in the room.

My dad my grandpa's like, cut the tapes, I'm gonna say some stuff.

What?

Sorry.

I entertained myself.

Cut the tapes.

Three three things I just want to I want to I want to share with you about staying the course.

How do you say the course?

Number one, write this down today.

If you're gonna stay the course, you have to be more committed to staying than you are leaving.

And it's like so basic, but like it's just so you gotta hear this stuff.

And this is not some weird, manipulative, like codependent.

This is about you in your life, and you can add this up to every facet of your life.

The power is always in the stain, the power is never in the quitting.

And so staying the course, like the first thing, like, okay, if I want to stay, if I want to be a person in life who stays planted, if I want to be a person like Paul who says, Stand firm, my labor is not in vain.

If I'm gonna be a person who's gonna flourish, who's gonna grow, who's gonna see a harvest, how am I gonna do that?

Well, I gotta train my mind first and foremost that I have to be more committed to staying than I am to leaving.

Why?

Because there's always a reason to leave.

I wish someone would have taught me this a long time ago.

And the reasons to leave are always they're always clearer typically than the reasons to stay.

I just, this is like, this is relationships.

Don Sheree was preaching at our church a couple months back, and she was preaching and she was giving this illustration, and people liked it.

I wasn't sure how I felt about it, but she was talking about marriage.

And she said, you know, when Rich and I first got married, people would come to me and say, you know, Dawn Sheree, marriage is really hard.

And she would say, Oh, I know marriage is hard, but I love him.

She goes, then like you're you're you're four and five.

Um, you know.

I would say, you know, you know, marriage marriage is hard, but I but but I love him, you know, I love him.

She goes, but around year 12, it's like, you know, marriage is hard, but I love him.

I was like, this is not encouraging to me whatsoever, you know, like but she's actually absolutely right.

See, I I I wish I could say that the longer you go, the easier it gets.

Not really true.

Usually the longer you go in something, the more complicated it gets.

It doesn't get easier, you get stronger.

It doesn't get easier, you get better.

As I've grown as a leader, things that tempted me to quit and give up, yeah, some of that stuff, like I've just I've grown, I've matured.

But as I grow further and deeper in this thing, there becomes new reasons and new excuses and new temptations.

What I have to force myself to do is I have to be a person who says, you know what?

I want to be more committed to staying than I am to leaving.

I want to find more reasons to stay.

I gotta look for the reasons to stay in this marriage.

I gotta look for the reasons to stay in this job.

I gotta look for reasons to stay in this relationship.

I gotta look for reasons to stay engaged in this moment because there's always gonna be a reason to leave.

There's always gonna be a good feeling of go, I'm I'm I'm out.

Look, that's this is it's easier to quit.

Quitting is always easier.

But but quitting doesn't produce.

What you're looking for.

I just wrote down some basic.

This is just church stuff now.

I think this is helpful.

Common reasons people choose to leave.

Isn't this fun, man?

God bless you.

Common reasons people choose to leave.

I'm not feeling it.

The longer I go in ministry, the more and more I realize that most people, not you, because you're here on Saturday, but most people are making all of their church decisions based upon feelings.

I'm serious.

They still think the presence of God is a feeling.

I wasn't feeling worship today.

I don't really.

You weren't feeling worship?

Like we weren't worshiping you.

But I wasn't feeling it.

Like I wasn't, they didn't sing any of my songs.

They're not your songs.

Like, I'm sorry, like, my God, like, this is not a concert for you, you know?

Like, it's a concert for him.

Like, like, like, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not feeling the word.

You're not feeling the word.

Like, okay.

Do you feel all the medicine you take?

Go ask a cancer patient how they're enjoying chemotherapy right now.

Like, you're not supposed to always feel what's going on.

Like, I don't, there's a lot of days I go to the gym.

Oh my God.

I've never felt leg day in my entire life.

It's quite the opposite.

We're talking about growing, we're talking about building our faith.

We're talking about becoming more like Christ.

Christ considered himself nothing, that he became a man and a servant, that he died on a cross.

But we're still in the church world in 2019 defining everything based upon a feeling.

So so many people leave because I'm not feeling it.

Let me just encourage some folks today.

If I know one thing about feelings, here we go.

Feelings change.

So whatever you're feeling this morning, I'm inspired.

Okay?

Give it till about 5 p.m.

tonight.

You might not be inspired anymore.

I'm feeling discouraged.

Wait till 5 p.m.

tonight.

You might be on the highest mountaintop you have ever been on.

Like it changes.

So good or bad, please do not make every decision based upon that.

We're better than that.

We're smarter than that.

We're going to stay the course.

Feelings are going to come and go.

If I had to preach every sermon based upon me feeling it, half the time I'd be at church and half the time I'd be at home in bed.

Because I have all sorts of crazy feelings.

I'm not feeling it.

I think this is a poor reason to quit.

I think your feelings they change.

Common reasons people leave.

Offense.

This whole thing, like church, Dante was so beautifully talking about it.

It's about people.

That's what's so cool about your church and Gray City and even Vu, is that well, Gray City, now they're like really mature, they own a building or something.

It makes me sick, to be honest with you.

Let's pray for them, honestly.

Spirit of pride, honestly.

So much success too soon, my God.

Let's pray for them, honestly.

Like people, they minute, we just manipulate stuff, you know.

It's like that was God's blessing.

No, no, no.

It was man's pride.

Um like what I love about our churches, like, and this is this is the positive, there's a lot of negatives attached to it too, but like we have to load into places.

Like it forces us to be the church.

Like today, like we're all we're this isn't, you know, we don't own this, this is a school, if you didn't know.

Some of you're like, really?

Yeah, this is a school, public school.

Um, but like it's about the people, like it's organization of people and mobilizing people.

And it's like literally like the old testament with the tabernacle was was mobile, like it got moved around, it was tense, people had to set it all up.

This this mobile church thing's a very biblical thing.

But it reminds us, like, there's and if there's people involved, there's gonna always be opportunity to hurt one another.

So it's not like a question if like if I'm gonna let somebody down on my team, I'm going to let everybody down on our team at some point.

And everybody on our team is at some point gonna let me down.

There's gonna be opportunities to be offended.

But if you can grow as a leader and if you can say, I'm more committed to staying than I am to leaving, I'm gonna get ahead of the offense.

There's gonna be opportunities where someone's gonna hurt me or say something or do something that I don't agree with.

But I understand that offense only builds a fence around me.

Are you hearing that?

That offense, what it does, it builds a fence around you.

So when you get offended, your world gets smaller.

When you get hurt by someone on your right and your left, you're like, oh, I'm gonna get them back.

I'm not talking to them.

No, no, no.

You just lost a friend, you just lost an ally, you just lost a resource towards your future.

You're not hurting them, you're hurting yourself.

People leave churches all the time because they get offended.

With millennials in 2019, people get offended.

I don't know, they got offended.

They don't even tell you they're offended, they just leave, you know.

We have to be people that are stronger than that, that we're communicating.

What's going on?

Do you know how I feel?

No, I don't know how you feel unless you tell me how you feel.

Come on, you know my heart.

I don't know your heart unless you tell me your heart, you know.

People leave because they get offended.

Wrote this one down.

People, unmet expectations.

Unmet expectations.

I was expecting this.

I was expecting this.

You have to manage your expectations.

Did somebody did somebody give you a false expectation, or was that you that gave yourself a false expectation?

I'll serve at Celebration Orlando, but I'm telling you, I am supposed to be a worship leader there.

Did somebody tell you you were gonna be a worship leader there?

Or is that an expectation you created in your head and that you were fake serving, meaning that you were acting like you were serving because you really wanted to get on the platform, but really you were just behaving a certain way because you're hoping to get promoted.

You never got promoted, you're like, oh man, now I'm really disappointed.

No, that was you.

Own that.

You gotta own it.

Oh man, I just feel so used at my church.

But you prayed last year, God use me.

You just it's hard following your expectations.

What, what can you imagine God and have like, I'm so confused, you know?

I'm sorry for all the theologians, God can't be confused, you know.

But like that's what you pray, that's what we prayed for.

I'm just so I'm so tired and so used.

Like, I don't like I I gotta be careful because I can do that.

That's like God, I I asked God when I was 17 years of age, God, use me.

Put me in front of kings, put me in front of people of influence.

God, help me be a part of a revival.

Well, like, if you open up the Bible, the expectation for a revival is gonna be prayer and work.

Oh, I feel like I'm being worked so hard.

Rich, that's what you asked for.

Isn't it crazy how we can start actually getting to a place in life that we're complaining about the things that we once prayed for?

Don't, don't, unmet expectations.

You gotta manage your expectations.

Nobody else can do that.

Unmet expectations lead to disappointment.

And if you live disappointed too long, you will start to live discouraged.

And if you live discouraged for too long, you will live defeated.

And there's nothing worse than a leader who's looking at life through the filter of defeat.

If you're defeated today, you can't take anyone into a victory.

You can't help somebody flourish in life if your filter is I'm defeated.

No, I'm not a victim.

Nobody owes me anything.

Jesus gave me everything.

I have got a bright future.

There's a promised land that awaits my life, and you can jump on board because we're moving forward.

We're gonna stay the course, we're gonna move into the things that God has called us to do.

Come on, somebody, give me a little bit of help up here.

Common reasons people choose to leave gossip.

I don't have time to go into it, but my goodness gracious, read read Paul's letters.

Like, gossip is right next to Orgy's.

I know, like, geez, okay, you know, like like it's right there next to like the list of sins.

He's like, because in community, people talk about each other.

I'm all about gossip.

If you're saying the right stuff, Jesus gossiped about people, but when Jesus gossip about people, he's always talking about who they could be.

He's always blessing them behind their back.

If someone catches you gossiping, hopefully you're gossiping in the right direction.

See, when you gossip, it says less about that person and it says everything about you.

You think that you're helping somebody else understand that person's character?

No, we're hearing what your character is all about.

And people leave because that they gossip and stuff gets said.

You gotta fight against that.

You gotta choose right now.

When you're at home in your group and someone's going, yo, this is super weird with church, and where'd this guy go?

And I don't know about this new pastor.

You better be very, very careful with the words that come out of your mouth.

No, no, no, I trust this person.

Yeah, yeah, that's usually an excuse for you to say whatever the heck you want to say.

Don't gossip.

Like, it's all over God's word that that's absolutely incorrect behavior.

And it produces leaving instead of staying.

What does commitment to staying look like?

All right, number one, you look for the good, not the bad.

So even today and your debriefs, I don't know how you guys do stuff, but like, what was what look for the good before you look for the bad about today?

Look for the good about tomorrow before you look for the bad about tomorrow.

That's gonna produce a heart to want to stay.

Number two, you choose to celebrate what's working instead of criticizing what is missing.

This is big.

Like, before I talk about what's missing, there's always gonna be something missing.

What is working?

Something's working at Celebration Orlando, something's working in the kids' ministry right now, something's working in the welcome team or in the parking team.

I'm not saying there's not stuff missing on the parking team, I'm just saying something is working there.

There's a guy there, there's a girl there.

Let's celebrate that first.

I always talk to people that are married, you know, like you gotta start to celebrate your partner for what is what they are doing right.

You're like, Rich, you don't know my husband.

Like, he don't like he don't wake up ever until at least like 9.30.

All right.

When he wakes up at 9 30, he's saying, Oh my god, you're amazing.

There's a bunch of men that never wake up, and you woke up before 9 45.

Oh my god, my husband is the man.

Start praising something before you criticize it.

Watch as that thing starts to turn around.

Speak life to it, find something to celebrate.

Number three, you determine that frustrations are indications for you to step up.

You know, you know what?

You know what like is a pet peeve for me in leadership is people who just bring me problems.

People that can just observe what's not right, what's not cool, what's not good.

All right, I'm all about honest evaluation as long as you're a part of being the solution to say that frustration is actually an indication of what God has called you to solve.

But it's not my fault.

Oh, but if you are a leader, you would understand that just because it's not your fault doesn't mean that it's not your problem.

Every problem at Voo Church is my problem.

I don't think I caused all of them, I caused some of them.

But I have to own the idea that even though it's not my fault, it still is my problem.

Some of you, you're frustrated about something right now at church.

Like tomorrow you're gonna come and you're gonna be frustrated about something.

I don't know what it is, but you're gonna be frustrated about it.

Rather than just sit there with your arms crossed and there's nothing we can do, why don't you look for the opportunity to lean in and say, Let me be the solution to that situation?

Number four, you see problems as platforms for God to show off.

We all want God to do miracles in our church, but we forget that problems are a prerequisite for miracles.

So if you don't want problems, that means you don't want miracles.

And the miracle story of what God is doing in your church is always starts off with the problem in your church.

It always begins with what you don't have and how he fills in the gaps.

So for us down in Miami right now, we don't own buildings and we're loading in.

And rather than just complain about that, we're looking for the miracle story within the load-in teams, within the setup, within all the obstacles and opposition we have faced in Miami.

We're believing that God is gonna tell a story that those problems actually turned into a platform for God to get all the glory through his story called Voo Church.

Come on, somebody, give God some praise today.

I want to be more committed to staying than I am to leaving.

Stay the course.

Look at your neighbor and say, Stay the course.

All right, number two, write this down.

I'm gonna hurry up.

I'm done in the next eight minutes and 58 seconds.

Here we go.

I got a sermon to write for tomorrow.

It's like stupid pastor jokes, sorry.

Sorry.

Number two, it's really dumb.

It's really dumb.

Number two, this is my favorite.

Be willing to submit your preferences to your purpose.

Okay.

So, how do you stay the course?

It's fun to amen.

It's not fun to live out, okay?

Um if you're gonna stay the course, you have to be willing to submit your preferences to your purpose.

What does it look like to turn into the transition?

What does it look like to lean into Keith and to Megan right now?

It's you submitting your preferences over to the purpose of this house.

So there's a new directional leader in Orlando.

And so he might have some different ways of doing things than the leadership before.

And so, if you're so stuck on what was done before, you're gonna miss the turn.

You're gonna miss us being efficient and effective, you're gonna miss us getting there quicker, you're gonna miss us getting there healthier.

And what you have to do is you just have to be an honest, upfront, confronting leader to say, you know what?

I'm gonna actually have to submit my preferences over to my purpose.

And like we get this hopefully in a lot of areas in life.

Like in marriage, once again, like when Don Shu and I got married, we both had to submit some preferences over to the greater purpose of our marriage.

I remember we moved in together.

Like, dude, I had to get rid of some stuff.

Like my Michael Jordan's wing poster didn't make it into the living room.

I still think that was a bad call on her part, but hey, that's fine.

But then there's like there's like more serious stuff.

Like when we got married, Don Shree was from Shreeport, Louisiana.

We went to school together in Tennessee.

She was a southern belle, and we felt called, or more so, I'm really being honest, I felt called to move back to Miami to serve at my parents' inner city urban church that was really just getting off the ground.

And Don Sheree, not out of a word for God for her, but out of love for me, submitted her preference over to our purpose and she moved to Miami.

Like, I love whoever that is, thank God for you.

Yeah, we're still married, making babies.

Um I'm just saying, like, like, like, you gotta like, if you ask her, was that her preference if she's being honest?

Probably not, but it has served the greater purpose of our lives.

And this is how church life works.

Like, we have preferences, and sometimes we get so stuck in our little individual way that we miss out on the big picture.

I want to try to say this with a sensitive heart, but like the team is always more important than the individual.

Hopefully, you can I I wouldn't probably give that language on Sunday, but I'm hoping that you can see this here.

That like that, like a great team.

Yeah, I know it's made up of individuals, but we have to have a heart that the team is greater than the individual.

Like, like me always kills we.

It just does.

And so many churches, they can never step into who they're called to be because everybody's got a preference, and everybody's opinion and everybody's preference, it is actually colliding and conflicting, and because they can't get under leadership and say, you know what, we're gonna die to our preference so our purpose can live on, they never become what they're called to be.

It's like we we just have to see this.

Like everybody in this room, this is super simple, probably has a favorite color.

That's like that's like a very general, you know, basic.

Yeah, I've got my favorite color.

You know, Dauntre loves yellow, and you might love violet, and fuchsia.

Where's the fuchsia?

Like, I don't know.

Like, in fact, let's just find out real quick.

On the count of three, because you guys are very rambuctious, I want you to shout out your favorite color as loud as you can.

Ready?

One, two, three.

Okay, so let's start out again because that wasn't very loud, or it wasn't loud enough for me to understand what you said.

But on the count of three, everything you have, ready?

One, two, three.

Okay, this is fun.

Um, I'm gonna give you one more shot at this, all right?

Because I want to make sure that we're very clear, as loud as you possibly can, ready?

One, two, three.

Okay, I'm gonna be honest.

I have no idea what you said.

What are you guys doing in Orlando?

What's celebration all about?

What do you what do you guys do in the kids' ministry?

So your worship, what are you worship wise?

And just just for the sake, just to for the analogy, so we can just kind of catch a vision here.

And before you like object, I'm just saying the the you know, the best color in the world is blue.

And um, okay, look at the see, look at you're already gonna look like you already, this is already the case study's happening, you know?

Division, you know.

I swear to this, this is a false teacher.

I promise you.

It's blue.

Blue is the greatest color of all time.

And um, but just just for the sake of like, just together on the count of three, let's just all be on a team.

Let's just all say blue.

Okay, ready?

Just because it's, I know, I know it's hard, but like just submit your preference for one second for the analogy.

Ready?

Ready?

One, two, three.

Okay, yeah.

One, two, three.

A little bit louder.

One, two, three.

Watch this.

Just a whisper, ready?

One, two, three.

Whispering in church is weird, okay?

Like, let's be honest.

What's amazing is it's very clear what you're saying, whether you're shouting it or whispering it.

Listen to me.

I do not care about the color, I care about the impact.

And I just wonder how many churches are missing the impact they could have because they're so focused on their preference.

Who cares what the color?

Like, real leaders are like, I don't even care about the color anymore.

I actually just care about the impact.

So, what is it we're doing?

Let's get united, let's get on board, let's all shout the same thing.

Jesus is our message, people are heart.

You are welcome and you belong here at Celebration Orlando.

Come on, somebody, make some noise.

If we're gonna be a church that stays the course, we're gonna have to over and over and over and over submit our preference over to our purpose.

And we can go through a list of things.

It's not just your preference, it's your personality.

It's amazing to me, like people in church.

That's just my personality.

Late is not a personality.

Like, late is not an ethnicity.

I'm so tired of like the stuff that we box ourselves into.

I'm Latin.

You made that.

Who told you that?

You don't know my parents.

Okay, like so.

You're just stuck in original sin, is what you're saying, you know?

Your personality is just a set of patterns, and you can change a set of patterns.

That's who I am.

Well, who you are is not just what you're called to be, you're called to be like Jesus.

Like the gospel means I died.

You ever heard this phrase?

Like you have to be born again?

That's not just Billy Graham didn't coin that, that's actually Jesus.

Speaks to Nicodemus.

Hey, Nicodemus, flesh gives birth to flesh, the spirit gives birth to the spirit.

Unless you're born again, you have no part in my kingdom.

What's he talking about?

He's saying that there is a brand new regeneration process that happens spiritually, that coming to Jesus Christ, I don't care how you were born, I don't care what your proclivity was, what your tendency was, I don't care what your personality was.

But when you meet Jesus Christ, the old man dies and the new man rises up, and I'm living on a mission, and the world is bigger than me.

That's what we're called to.

So quit getting stuck in who you used to be or what you think you are.

Get on board with purpose.

You're gonna have to submit your pride over to your purpose.

You're gonna have to learn how to say, I'm sorry.

Forgive me.

Man, we had a couple weeks ago in the worship you can come up here, otherwise, I'll just go till tomorrow.

But I got a sermon to write, so I gotta get out of here.

But um I'm just wanna be like this is the other like two Sundays ago.

We have one of those Sundays where we have we have an A block and a B block, and so it's like there's a bunch of morning services and a bunch of night services, and we can kind of tell the days and ago, but literally like just the data and the rhythm of like the morning block to the B block, and so the morning block was like pump, and I was like, Oh, this is a great Sunday.

And we were shifted into the B block, which is always my favorite one.

But we're in the 5 p.m.

service, and I'm preaching and teaching, and literally, like I've been in some service, like lightning struck the building.

Where I we should have just done an altar call right there, because everybody would have gotten saved.

We thought Jesus was coming back, like the power went out.

It was like in the middle of my message, like no mic.

It was like people were scared.

And then, like, there's always this moment like in church where it's like, do you just recall the service?

Do you keep going?

You know, and people in the car are like, keep going, you know, but like, I don't have a microphone, you know.

And so it was just back and forth.

It was just it became super, super distracting.

We got through the day, but you know, I just got done, I was just frustrated that we had this flash flood come through and just destroyed our 7 p.m.

service.

Less than half the people were there.

It was like a record-breaking low attendance, and there were distractions in that service.

There was some nine-year-old kid that had gotten in in the 7 p.m.

that was like heckling me from the middle of the room, and so hosts were trying to get to him, and he's like, ah, it was just like, what is happening?

You know, it's like one of those sometimes, I need to quit.

Like, I need a sabbatical.

You know, Rich, you don't have even been doing this for three years.

You don't need a sabbatical yet, but I guess I do.

And so, anyways.

And if I'm being honest with you, I didn't like I didn't like have an outburst or like react to people.

I literally on the inside was just like shut down.

Like I was going through the motions.

Like our team was coming to me, they were our team was amazing, like absolving stuff.

And I was just like, Rich, and so this is what we I'm like, I'm like a zombie, like, yeah, okay, you know.

But the truth of the matter is the day got done and I just went home and I just felt like I had let some people down with my attitude and really my thought process and my intention, my heart is really what we're getting at.

So you know what I had to do?

I shot like six people that night, I'm sorry.

And they were kind of like, for what?

You know, I'm like, just this is where I was at.

This is what I was thinking during that moment.

And the reason why I'm just telling that story is because like if we're gonna be about a part of something bigger than ourselves, we have to learn how to like submit our pride over our purpose.

Sometimes that means I'm just I'm sorry.

It's one of the it's one of the it's one of the most powerful things you can do as a leader is to apologize, not just to the people above you, but to the people beneath you.

I'm sorry.

Submitting my pride, I forgive you.

I for I forgave you before you said I'm sorry.

That's where Don Shee and I are in a relationship right now.

We're trying to learn how to say, I forgive you before you even get the apology out.

Because forgiveness, once again, it's not about you, it's about me.

I don't want to hold on to that.

I want to live, I want my heart to be free.

I want to live with an open hand.

Staying the course, what does it look like?

It looks like submitting your preferences over to your purpose.

We're closing now.

I know we gotta go, and these guys are gonna sing something beautiful.

But this last one, what does it look like to stay the course?

It looks like this be prepared to trust God's timeline over your timetable.

I remember one time I had a chance to sit down with Rick Warren.

If you never heard of Rick Warren, he's I think the Bible is the best-selling book than his book, Purpose Driven Life, is the second best-selling book in the history of like I think he's sold more than Harry Potter, which is just amazing.

Harry Potter's awesome too, by the way.

But I had a chance, I just gave that moment just for a third false teaching.

I felt like I could really just help you guys in your new season.

Um the emails are already coming in, you know.

Um, Harry Potter, I'm kidding, like I could go back into Harry Potter, you know.

Um, but I remember I got to sit down with Pastor Rick Warren, and so I was there with my notepad, like ready to ask all these questions, like this is Rick Warren.

He built he built Saddleback Church and purpose-driven church, purpose-driven life.

Like, he's this guy's a master.

And I as I started asking all these questions, I'll never forget the first thing he kind of came out of his mouth.

He said, Rich, he goes, I can teach you how to grow a church.

Which no one really even ever says that, you know.

I was like, Oh, you can't, that's what I'm here for, you know.

He goes, I can teach you how to grow a church.

I just can't teach you how to grow a church fast.

What he was saying is, is I'm not gonna teach you how to swell, I'm gonna teach you how to grow.

But if you want to grow, it's gonna take time.

And the problem that he was trying to get at with so much of our generation in this age period is that everybody wants to grow overnight.

But real growth, it's gonna it's gonna take time.

And if you'll be patient and if you'll trust God's timeline over your timetable, I promise you, he's the God who exceeds.

Listen to me.

If God always met your expectation, how could he ever exceed it?

He wants to exceed whatever we've got in our brain.

But I think he's looking for trustworthy servant leaders and trustworthy church builders.

That he can trust us in the seasons where it's not growing, where it's not overnight success.

And if we can do it then, he knows we'll do it when?

When it becomes the thing we see in our mind.

The Vu story in Miami has grabbed some attention that we're thankful for.

It's cool to be a part of the global church, the national church, and get to be a part of these kind of conversations and help inspire people.

And people have come and said, Man, you guys have had a lot of growth, thousands of people in three years and thousands of salvations, and it's pretty amazing what God's done in Miami, a city like Miami.

How'd you do it?

How'd you do it?

And we keep going, we don't know, we don't know, we don't know.

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.

But one thing that I think is important is that when people look at our story and say it's a three and a half story, it's just not true.

It's not a three and a half year story.

I know that's what's on paper, but man, it's a story that began many, many years ago, like 18 years ago, when I was a 17-year-old teenage boy in Australia, and God gave me a vision for my life.

And then I had to make a decision.

Am I more committed to staying with this vision or leaving this vision?

I had to make a decision along the way, going to work for my dad, going to work for a ministry at one point, getting married.

Am I gonna actually live just according to my preference, or can I be a part of something bigger than my preference, and can I stick a hold of the purpose that God has placed inside of me?

But then as you get into life, things don't happen as quick as you want them to happen.

And what's crazy for me, and I want to try to get this into your heart today, is some of the things that I'm just now starting to see happen, just now starting to see happen, 35 years old, are things that God spoke to me when I was 17.

Meaning, I haven't even begun to see a glimpse of the fruit of what he spoke to me at 17 until I'm 35.

And what it encourages me in is that God has a timeline and God is telling a story.

My job is not to dictate it, it's not to write it, it's not to create it.

My job is to stand firm, stay the course, trust him, and I believe that he'll do more than I could have ever thought or imagined.

I think we're living in a revival in Miami.

And even if everybody else disagrees, I'm gonna keep speaking it because I know I heard it way back then.

People say, Rich, how can you get up and preach six services in a row?

Because I used to drive across the state of Georgia when I was 18 years of age in Bible college.

I would drive five hours to show up at a youth meeting, and there would only be six people in the room.

I still used a microphone.

Because I didn't see six people.

I got a word from God that I was gonna be a part of a revival, and I'm not gonna let the room dictate who I know he's called me to be.

Something great is coming to Orlando, but it starts in this room today.

Come on, God, we're gonna be patient on the journey.

God, we're not gonna quit.

We're not gonna give up, we're gonna stay in the course, we're gonna stand firm, and we're gonna watch you deliver us.

Come on, if you believe it, give God a shout of praise in this place.

Come on.

Thank you for tuning in to today's podcast.

For more information about celebration or window, or to get in touch with us.