The Blueprint

Open your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 11. Meet me at verse 1.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1. I believe too, Drew. Hebrews 11, verse 1.

Hebrews 11:1 Hebrews 11:1

I've got a word from God for you today.

And the writer of Hebrews says, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for,

the evidence of things not seen. Why don't you read that with me? Ready? Read.

Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

I want to talk to somebody this morning that has a dream.

You have a vision.

But you feel stuck. You feel like you're in the status quo. You're working a

nine to five, but you're tired of working nine to five.

When you were younger, you had big aspirations.

But as you've gotten older, those things have weighed down.

I want to talk to someone today that has lost their hope. They feel forgotten.

Maybe you even feel like God doesn't even consider you anymore.

And this scripture tells us faith is the substance of things hoped for.

Faith is the evidence of things not seen.

Now that word hope is an intense, earnest expectation of something good. Hope is good.

Hope is different than a wish A wish is just kind of I wish it rains I wish

it doesn't You have really no intense Ornest expectation But hope is a blueprint,

Hope is a dream Hope is a vision Hope is what keeps us going.

But faith is the substance of things hoped for.

And so if you have a dream, you have a vision, you have something in your heart

that you want to do, you can't do it without faith.

Faith is the undergirding material to a structure.

Let's say you want to build an edifice. You want to build a building.

The undergirding material to that building would be faith the foundation,

is necessary and the deeper the foundation and sometimes the foundation takes longer to build,

because if your structure is tall you need a deeper foundation and some of you

are trying to figure out what's taking so long you're just building the foundation

because you got an edifice that's going to go up higher than you ever anticipated.

And so never despise small beginnings, never despise times that you feel tired.

You're just going down before you go up.

And when we built our house, the foundation, babe, felt like it took forever to build.

But once it got built, everything else went up pretty quick.

So we're working on the foundation. Faith is the foundation to a hope that you

believe, But it's the undergirding material of a structure or an edifice.

Now, in a journey, faith would be, watch this now, the pursuit of hope.

The proof of desire, listen to me now, is pursuit.

You can say all day long that I believe something. You can talk all day long about vision.

You can share all day long about your dream.

But the proof of desire is pursuit.

I want to lose weight. Where is the pursuit of the hope that you have?

The proof of desire is pursuit because faith is also the evidence,

the proof of things not seen.

And a lot of us sometimes say that we're believing, but we're not pursuing anything.

We're saying I have faith, but I don't have any action with that faith.

I want to give you an illustration and example. Right here, I have a water bottle.

And let's say that I have not taken a drink for three days. All right,

so I'm about to die, Sterling, of thirst. I haven't had water in three days.

And someone hands me a bottle of water.

And I can look at this bottle of water and say, I believe if I drink this water, I shall not die.

Don't that sound good? I'm dying of thirst, though.

I believe if I drink this water, I shall not die. And some people say, amen, amen.

And then you might get dignified, I believe if I drink this water,

I shall not die.

And then fall over dead.

Because believing that you should drink the water doesn't help you. Drinking the water.

Faith is acting on what you believe.

Faith is an act. Faith says, I've got to pursue. I've got to move towards it.

And so if I don't want to die of thirst, I can't just believe if I drink the water.

I've got to drink the water. Somebody say, drink the water.

And so there is a blueprint that each and every one of us has that the Lord has given us.

Just consider for a moment the dreams that you had as a child.

Just think about some of the visions, some things that you want to do.

And some way or another, you got in debt, you started having to work,

and now you got to pay these bills.

And now you're in a job that you don't like. you're doing things you don't like,

and you're stuck because you're in this rat race, and you have let go of your dreams.

You've let go of the vision that God has given you because you became part of

the matrix, and you feel like, you know what?

There's no hope for me. How many people are committing suicide today?

Even millionaires. So money don't stop you from committing suicide say amen

to that oh if i just had more money uh you could still be suicidal.

And i want you to stop saying if i win the lottery you ain't never gonna win

the lottery let me just tell you true,

that's luck and god says i got more precious promises than that to supply and

take care of you oh if i win a lot i would do this and that what you're doing right now.

So the proof of desire is pursuit.

Faith is the pursuit of hope.

Listen to me, church. Faith is the pursuit of hope.

Walking by faith. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 7 says, For we walk by faith, not by sight.

2 Corinthians 5:7

Not by our five physical senses.

Not what Pookie and Ray Ray talking about. Not what Mama Niamh's saying.

We are walking by what we believe and not by what we see.

Say that. Say this out to me. I walk by faith.

Now, how do we walk? One step at a time. And I do that by faith.

I have a goal. I have a dream. There's a vision, and I'm going to obtain that vision by faith.

I'm not going to be distracted by what I see, what I hear, what I touch,

what I taste, what I smell.

I'm going to continue to walk one step at a time by faith because the proof of desire is pursuit.

Do you have a dream today?

Let me ask you this question. What are you pursuing?

If someone were to look at your life, could they tell what you are pursuing?

And I want to talk to somebody today that feels like giving up.

You don't want to pursue anymore. And this story that I'm going to share with

you today is something that I believe will minister to you.

We started the church, we've been in July of 2011 with about a handful of folks,

in a band room in a stinky, smelly middle school.

The AC worked sometimes and sometimes it didn't. And we moved from there to,

another band room at Butler High School.

And then we moved into a rental facility, an industrial building that we turned into a church.

All of these steps have been by faith.

If I was looking at what I see, I would have never continued pastoring.

Because you know how you are. Sometimes you want to show up, sometimes you don't.

Sometimes you want to give, sometimes you don't. Sometimes you want to serve,

and sometimes you don't. So if I was looking to you, I'd have been doing something

else. I was looking to the Lord.

Because the proof of desire is pursuit. Say that.

The proof of desire is pursuit. What are you pursuing?

And so around January, some of you heard the story. I'm going to tell it again.

Actually, I'm going to always tell it. So just get used to this story.

January, maybe 2020, right around COVID, the Lord spoke a word to me.

That was March of 2020. the Lord spoke a word to me. He said, ownership.

Now, you remember during that time, things were closing down.

A lot of churches were getting kicked out of their rental facilities.

And thank God that we had a really good landlord because we were renting.

And he said, man, we got you just whatever you need. You don't have to go anywhere.

But a lot of my friends were getting kicked out of their places.

And the Lord spoke to me, he said, ownership. So if you own something,

you know, they can't kick you out say amen to that,

we need to stop renting and start owning who am i talking to in here it's time to stop

renting and it's time to own you know one of the one of the i got to get into

my business acumen right now but one of the biggest wealth building tools you

have is purchasing a home.

I thank you for the enthusiastic clap back there my brother.

And we don't, there's a lot of reasons why we don't do that.

But I want you to start pursuing that. If you're renting here today,

start pursuing a purchase of a home.

Well, it's expensive out there. I bought this building when it was expensive. Amen.

You can do it because the proof of desire is pursuit.

What are you expecting? What are you hoping for? You got to go for it.

Don't worry about the circumstances. is you walk by faith and not by sight.

And so the Lord dropped this word in my heart, ownership. Somebody say ownership.

Deposit in my heart. And I started talking about ownership all the time.

We've got to own something.

And then around 2022, we're renting this facility.

And I heard the Lord speak to my heart. He said, the landlord's going to sell

the building, prepare to exit. That's what I heard. The landlord's going to

sell, prepare to exit. What does that mean? That means get your money right.

Say amen to that. Get your money right, prepare to exit. And so we begin to prepare to exit.

And we started a Exodus Project financial fund because we are preparing to exit.

And I want to remind you, a lot of these times as a pastor, I'm not up here doing this by myself.

We're all doing this together. And I want to remind you of this.

You're not, when you give and you participate and serve, you're not just doing it for me.

You're doing it for the Lord.

You're serving the Lord. Say amen to that.

Now, when you serve me, watch this in this pastoral row, you are serving the

Lord, but you're not serving me.

You're serving the Lord. You got to remember that. Sometimes people are like,

well, I didn't give today's offering because pastor don't need the money.

No, it ain't about what pastor this is all of us together.

Amen. This is our this is the house the Lord has given us. Say amen to that.

That wasn't a hearty amen. I said, say amen to that.

There we go. And so I didn't mean to say all that, but somebody need to hear

that. About you back there and that back there. No, I'm just playing. And so.

I heard in my heart.

Prepare to exit. And so we begin to financially prepare to exit.

Well, two years later, landlord comes to me and he says,

I'm selling the building and I knew it already though because I heard it two

years prior I'm selling the building do you want to buy it and he offered me

a great price well in the natural,

man that's probably what we need to do we can we have the money we can buy this

building maybe that's what we need to do he put a little cherry on top he said

I'll drop a hundred thousand dollars off the price.

Ooh, yeah. Something like, maybe, maybe.

That devil will try to trick you.

I said, Lord, this might be the Lord, you know.

I prayed about it. The Lord said, nope, this is not your building.

I told you to prepare to exit.

Prepare to exit. And so, at that point, and when you, the proof of desire is pursuit.

We had a realtor. Somebody say a realtor some people I'm looking at moving have

you do you even have a realtor I'm gonna get on y'all today I'm gonna do some

big things have you opened up a bank account I'm gonna write a book have you wrote a sentence.

All these things we thought we were going to do, and there's no proof of the desire.

And so we got a realtor. We began to look. And in the natural,

it was really hard to find something.

We're looking, and we're looking. And then I had a man, a black man.

He said to me, black people can't buy church buildings.

I know you're looking, but black people can't buy church buildings.

Guess what I did with him? Hung the phone up.

I said, I got to go. Because I don't need to hear that mess.

And he lied because look where we are right now.

I don't talk to buffooneries like that. I don't have time for that.

I'm trying to build something.

Amen. Some of you have to shake some of your friends. you're trying to fly and

they got the bottom of your leg trying to hold you down it's time to cut them somebody say cut them.

I was about to say something else, but never know how I'm out.

All right, let me keep going.

So, we getting, I was told by my realtor, I was even told by his realtor,

that don't worry about the building that you're in now.

It's going to take forever to sell.

And so the prior builder we're in, that man's not going to sell it.

And you got more time than you realize. Okay. Except when I got a call from

the man, he said, I didn't sell the building.

And so we had an agreement, he and I, that a six-month lease,

if he sells early, the new owner could not kick us out.

But if we bought a building early, we couldn't leave sooner than the lease ended. I agreed to that.

So at this point, there's a lot of pressure. Somebody say pressure.

There's a lot of pressure because he sold the building. and now we have to be out.

And I didn't know where we were going. And so we're looking and we're looking

and we're looking. Now, the first building that we saw was actually the building

that you're in right now.

We saw this building. Matter of fact, Steve, you'll see him running around. Steve sent me a text.

And I had told the congregation, if you see anything, let me know.

Let's put our reel to the work.

And Steve sent me a text saying, I found this building and it's for sale.

And he was talking about the one we're in.

So I call a realtor and he says, no, it's not for sale yet. I don't see anything.

And then like an hour or so later, he calls him back. It is for sale.

So the time Steve saw it was the exact time it went for sale.

The exact time.

It wasn't even out yet. An hour later, our realtor saw it. And he's like,

do you want to see it? And we said, yeah, the very next day we showed up here.

And we were one of the first ones, I believe, to look at the building.

And we knew right away, this is ours. And I had a lot of work to be done and

so on and so forth. But we just knew this is our building.

So we came in with an offer that was significantly less than they were asking.

Somebody say negotiations.

All right. So it was significantly less. And if you know one thing about me,

I don't like to be ignored.

They ignored it.

Thank God I had a patient realtor. He's like, just just be patient.

I want to be patient. They ignored me. This is real money we're offering.

They ignored it and ignored it and ignored it.

But the proof of desire is pursuit, and we've got hope. This building is our hope.

We're pursuing it. They're ignoring us. And finally, they tell us that they

have went under contract with another buyer.

That crushed me for like three days because I thought this was our church.

And they went under contract, and I thought, man. And Stacey,

the woman of faith, she said, the building is our building.

And I said, she has lost her mind.

She doesn't understand how business works.

She said, it's our building. I said, I don't think I understand.

It's under contract. She said, I don't care what it is.

It's our building. I was like, well, see, actually, like, let me explain.

Like, they had an ask, and someone accepted it. They're under contract.

That means they're going to buy it. She said, I don't care.

And I said, don't leave now, babe. And so...

So I said, okay, it crushed me. I've learned some things through this process.

It crushed me for a couple of days because I really thought it was it.

But you don't ever, listen, you don't ever get to the promised land in one or two days.

Matter of fact, if you look throughout the books of Exodus, it took them 40 years.

Now, they had a lot of reasons. There's a lot of reasons why it took so long.

They were grumbling and complaining, et cetera. But it took a while to get there.

And so we moved forward, and then we found some land.

Perry, our realtor, said, there's some land. Why don't we look at land?

Well, at this point, I'm looking at anything. What are we going to do?

We find some land. The land looks like something we're going to purchase.

We're negotiating. We're looking at paying cash for the land.

Praise God. Let's get this land.

And as soon as we get the land, the people in this building call Perry,

our realtor, and say, it's back on the market.

Wow. Stacy kind of knows what she's talking about I said baby it's back on the

market and she says I told you.

And so we upped our Alford just a little they said nah that's too low,

we're gonna move on well we started looking at this land and I don't know if

you know this but build it ain't for the faint-hearted we We got quoted,

we're talking about a small building.

Three million dollars minimum.

Minimum, which could just go up because it might take more than 15 months minimum to even build.

Well, I started doing the math. I'm thinking, Zage about to graduate from high

school. By the time we get in that building, we can't do that.

We turned it down and we're just trusting God, walking by faith and not by sight.

And we're hurt and we're disappointed. Can I be transparent with you?

Lord, have you forgotten about us? Did you really tell us to exit?

You remember what the serpent said to Eve in Genesis? Did God really say?

That's the temptation you're going to hear for the rest of your life.

Did God really say?

Did he really say? And so, disappointed. it.

I had to be careful because I was almost getting into some depression. What are we going to do?

What are we going to do? Well, I get a call out of the blue.

I go to a pastor's meeting in town. It's about 15 or so pastors gather.

And the guy that leads it says to me, why haven't you come for a while? Because I hadn't been.

He says, what's going on? Where you been? I said, well, I love taking my children to school,

and the meeting happens while I'm taking them to school so I'm gonna never be

able to make it he says what time can you make it,

and I told him the time I can make it five minutes later he sends an email blast

out to a hundred pastors in town the time has changed,

it is now the time I said so I turned to my wife and I'm like now I have to go.

I didn't know he's gonna do that,

But the Lord is doing something. I go to this meeting.

I just shared. They asked me to share. I hadn't been in a while.

Why don't you share a little bit? I shared a little bit. I told them about our situation.

They were getting ready to move out of our facility. We don't know where we're going.

But we got to move. And as I'm talking, a pastor, and he was just here.

He had to get back to his church.

He interrupts me. How dare he?

He interrupts me. and he says, don't worry about where you're going to go.

You're coming to my church.

Yes, amen to that. Well.

I'm like, man, that's awesome. Twelve other pastors sitting there didn't say

nothing. They just going to let me go to the street, I guess, right?

So afterwards, he said, let's talk afterwards. So I ended up talking to him.

And he says, yep, while you were talking, I just heard in my heart,

True Life is going to meet at our church until they find their building.

And I said, well, do you need to talk to anybody about that?

That's a big, that's a big. He said, I ain't got to talk to nobody.

I said, okay, I know what I'm working here right here. So he said,

no. He said, when you want to come look at it, just come look at it and see

if it'll work for you. I said, I'm coming right now.

What am I waiting for? so we drove on to his church and a beautiful edifice

400 seat auditorium absolutely gorgeous he says you can use it I said let's talk money,

how much he said nothing.

Nothing. You come here, you use this facility, and we will charge you nothing.

I said, wait a minute. I was born at night, but not last night.

He said, no, no. He said, we want to be a blessing. When you were telling your

story, it dropped in my heart, and we want to be a blessing.

I said, well, listen, give me six months.

Because I sensed in my heart that we were not supposed to lease something else.

Now, we could have went somewhere and leased, but you remember I had the word

ownership. Say ownership.

Now, it sounded like the wise thing to do is to go lease something,

but the Lord spoke to me and said ownership.

And so, you know, we talked about maybe leasing, and Perry was like,

you know, every lease out there is at least five-year commitment. it.

But I don't want to wait five years. So, Pastor Luke and Joy Church gave us

the opportunity to give the Lord a little more time.

Sometimes you got to give God some time.

God is not on your same timetable. Did you know that?

He doesn't even operate in time. He operates outside of time.

We're the ones that get so pressured and in a hurry and get upset and depressed

he's outside of time and so I was like going to Joy Church Sunday at 3 p.m.

Who goes to church Sunday at 3 p.m.

I see your hands I see your hands back there yeah yeah yeah we could have done

Saturday night or Sunday at three and I was like we're not doing Saturday night

because I may not make Saturday night.

But Sunday at 3, and someone asked me, Jesse asked me here, he was like,

what about football season? I said, thank God it wasn't football season.

We would have still came to church, though. Sunday at 3 p.m.,

and we're meeting, and people are coming, and we're having fun.

And it's been exciting, and we're in our wilderness season. I believe it was

our wilderness. We exited our facility.

You don't go from your exodus to the promised land directly.

I was talking to a friend of mine on the phone. I told him that,

man, we're struggling finding a building.

He said, now, you know, the children of Israel didn't go straight from Egypt

to the promised land. I said, Lord, I didn't want to hear that, man.

I'm trying to get from A to B. He said, now, you kind of got to go through the wilderness.

And we think the wilderness is a bad thing, but it's really not.

It's a place where all your needs are met.

It's a place where you get new vision and you get new direction and you learn

more about yourself that you didn't know.

You know, you don't grow in comfortable environments.

Let me say it again. I know you want to be comfortable. You want your blanket.

You want to get curled up, eat some Doritos, and this is life.

That's not how you grow. You grow fat, but that's not how you grow.

That's not how you grow, okay? You grow in uncomfortable situations.

And so we're in the wilderness. Our needs are being met.

God's taking care of us. We're growing. People are being added to the church

in the wilderness. Glory to God.

And we're pressing forward, believing God, doing everything we know to find

a building. And at some particular point, I started breaking out in a lot of pimples.

Just being honest with you, I started getting worried. Can I be truthful with you?

Started breaking out on some pimples, okay? And if my back and my neck start

hurting, I already know. I'm stressed out.

Some of you need to know your indicators.

And you're grown. You might as well figure out what triggers you.

When your legs start hurting, why does that leg start hurting?

Oh, shoot, because I'm worried about something.

Amen. The back of my neck was hurting. I kept having to get daily massages and

stuff. I said, no, I got to cast the care.

And so Perry don't know this. He's in the building today. I said,

I ain't taking Perry's call no more.

I said, I need a break. And then Lord gave me a word. He said,

you're not going to find the building.

The building's going to find you.

Come on, say amen to that.

The proof of desire is pursuit.

Walking by faith is the proof that you will obtain what you hope for.

And so we're walking by faith.

He called a couple times, and, you know, we're seeing some raggedy places.

But, you know, we're looking, right? We're searching.

He called. I didn't take his call. He called again. I didn't take his call.

He called. Is this all on the same day?

He called again. I said, hey, Perry. I wanted to say, what you want?

He said i got some good news what you're doing i said well i'm sitting here

i've got a couple meetings today what's going on he said well,

the building that you like this building it's not under contract anymore because

it went under contract for a second time.

Twice stacy turns to me he's like it's not going to close it's our building,

i said okay i said listen babe let me talk economics with you,

one time okay you know two times she says I don't care if it goes on the contract

10 times that's our building say amen to that,

she was operating on a level of faith that I was unfamiliar with okay,

and I said okay and she's like don't worry and she she kept looking look it's

still on the contract I said I know it's because it's gonna to close.

I looked again. It looks like, Devon, it looks like it may not be under contract. Listen, call Perry.

Don't call me. I don't want to hear nothing else about the building because

that thing is gone. Okay? Two times?

Call back. Perry said, I got some good news. They called back and they said,

tell True Life this building belongs to them. Wow.

And we'll take their last offer. Hallelujah. Glory to God.

Hallelujah. Well, I called my board and they look at it. I said,

what do we do? And they're like, what do you mean, what do we do? Say yes.

And I said, okay.

Now, when you're walking by faith, you don't always have the know-how to know what to do.

You don't always have your chips in a row because you're walking by faith and not by sight.

Well, at this point, we didn't really even have a bank to back us.

Now, we had been looking for banks, and we had one particular bank.

They changed our pre-approval number 19 times.

I mean, they went from you can borrow X, and then it dropped a half a million,

and then it went up. And I said, they lying to us.

But thank God for them because it got us going. The first number they gave us

was a really high number. It got us going.

By the time I talked to them again, they didn't cut that thing in half.

I'm like, the money ain't dropped.

Why are you cutting it in half? We made a mistake.

I said, I'm done with you. But I should have been done with them because the

first time they sent me a pre-approval, they had somebody else's name on it.

It wasn't even Devon Alexander. It was Peter Parker, you know.

And so I said, I should have considered that. I said, we're done with that bank.

So now we're under contract with no bank.

I didn't advise y'all to do that. I got to do what the Lord's telling us to do.

Thank God we had a spirit-filled realtor who was like, God's going to do this

thing. I said, he's going to do it.

And he negotiated something that allowed us some flexibility.

And so we went to bank number two bank number one's number was up down and round

daily it was changing what you could get and dropping by five hundred thousand

dollars each time i talked to them,

and so i said can't work with them bank number two said,

we can we can give you a little bit i mean they barely give us what we could

have got to buy the other building i said okay Anyway, bank number three said, how dare y'all call us?

We are not loaning you nothing. You're not ready to buy nothing.

They were offended that we even called them.

I waited a week for that response, too. They were supposed to get back with

me, and yeah, we tried. We can't offer you nothing. What? What?

Bank number four said, we can get you halfway.

We can get half of it. If you come up with the other half, we'll get the half.

That's all I needed to hear. Say amen to that.

If you can get us halfway, we'll get the other half. So we started a new home

campaign. Now watch this.

I want you to see this Provision doesn't follow vision Listen to me I used to

say that all the time I've changed it Provision follows movement.

You can talk all day long about a vision. How many of you know people that sit

around at your office, they got vision. I'm going to do this,

I'm going to do that, I'm going to do this and that.

And they ain't done nothing. They ain't never done nothing.

They can't even cook a good meal. But they got all these lofty goals and dreams.

With no pursuit. Once you start talking about the vision, it's time for you to pursue it.

And as you pursue the vision, God will begin to provide. So we made an announcement.

We said we are starting a campaign. Now, once I got under contract,

a generous family, kingdom-minded family, says to me, I see you got this building.

You like this building? Is this the one? I said, this is it.

We've been waiting for this. Okay.

My wife and I have talked, and we want to start a matching funds campaign.

Now, I had never personally done one, but basically, a matching funds campaign

means whatever dollar is given, they would match a dollar up to a certain amount of money.

And they said, we want to start a matching funds campaign up to $250,000.

Hallelujah. Come on, give the Lord some praise. Glory to God.

I said, praise God. Now, it didn't happen until we started.

Come on, somebody. Who's tracking with me today? Now, where the father sat and

said, one day we're going to have a building.

You know, I see a building one day. You got a realtor? No. But I see a building.

It's going to come. I see it. I see it. Have you looked? No.

You got any money? No.

But it's coming. Don't that sound foolish?

The proof of desire is what? Okay, I got to keep hammering this in until I get

100% of people to finish my sentence.

And so he said, I'll match up to $250,000. I said, glory to God.

Now, we had to get a lot of money because they got to have, we had to get a

lot of money to get the rest. But that's a start. We announced it.

I told our church, we're starting this campaign. we started with zero.

Somebody say zero. And the Lord's hand began to move. And people began to participate.

And we began to believe God. And we end up talking to a pastor.

He said to me, he said, hey, I got a guy in my church. Listen to this now.

He's a banker, but I don't think he works with churches.

I found out that a lot of bankers don't work with churches, but God's got a

great banker for you and great favor for you in jesus name matter of fact i'm

gonna just pause here this couple right here came from midland texas,

they flew to houston to chicago then to charlotte to be with us today amen now watch this.

Ministry is doing well. They're believing God for a building.

I offered in our city, I sent a text blast to about 100 pastors in our city.

I said, hey, come check out this building because 99% of them,

Dave, 99% of them are believing for buildings.

Not one pastor came by to see the building.

Not my friends did, but the ones I sent the text, oh, I'm believing God for

a building. Come see this building. Not one came.

Now, what am I saying? This couple flew three airplanes.

To get in a building to get the image on the inside of them so that when they

go back home, they're carrying an image on the inside of them.

And I heard the Lord say, breakthrough.

Breakthrough in every area of your life. The favor of God is on you.

People are going to help you. People are going to support you.

And that building that's hidden is going to be found now in Jesus' name.

Come on, give the Lord some praise.

You don't come this far playing games. God honors that.

You don't jump on three airplanes to be here to be in a building when you believe

in four buildings. And these knuckleheads around here didn't even show up.

And they're going to see me and say I'm believing for a building no you're not,

okay let me get back to my message all right.

And so, we got started.

Pastor friend of mine says to me, I got a guy in my church. Are y'all okay with this?

Let me ask again. Are y'all really okay with this? Because if you're not,

I'll just dismiss and go get something to eat. Amen.

This is going to help because you're not going to stay where you are.

You're going to another level.

There's another level for you, and you are going to that next level.

You're not going to be stagnant. you're going to another level.

And I'm going to show you how to get there. It's pursuit.

So I'm talking to a pastor and he says to me, I got a guy in my church.

He's a banker, but he doesn't help. He doesn't help churches.

I was like, you don't know that. He goes, well, I don't know that.

But I said, give me his number.

I'm not playing games. You don't know if he helps churches or not.

Because a lot of bankers don't help churches.

And so I said, he gave me his number. I said, let him know. I said,

hey, listen, man. Talk to him.

He said, hey, I heard you got a, you know, you're looking at a piece of property.

I said, we're not looking at a piece of property. We're already under contract.

Glory to God. He said, what? I said, can you move quick?

He said, I can move quick. He said, listen, I help churches and we enjoy working with churches.

And we can move quick. I said, oh, you can. And we got to talking. Now watch this.

This individual went to church with Stacey when they were children, right?

They went to children's church together. Oh, I know Stacey and this,

that, and the third. And we got to talk. He said, don't you worry about nothing.

I said, well, you know what? I didn't cast all that care over the Lord anyway.

I wasn't worried anyway. And so he said, I'll get back with you.

So we got to talking. He asked me a couple questions and sent some numbers, et cetera.

He came back. It was on a Friday at 430.

Asked me how I know because I remember.

And he connected me with another guy. And he sent a text back.

He says, fully approved. Hallelujah.

I said hallelujah. Now watch this. Watch this.

Bank one, dude was up and down and round and round. Bank two said,

you know, we can give you a little bit.

Bank three said, how dare you call us?

Bank four said, we'll get you halfway. But when you are pursuing.

What are you going after? What are you pursuing? What has God deposited on the inside of you?

Faith without works is dead.

Faith without action is useless, inoperative, ineffective. You're going to have to walk by faith.

And as we begin to walk by faith, generous couple says we've got 250,000 on it.

By God's grace, we've raised over 125,000 towards it. Glory to God.

People started sending sending money in from all over. Why? The pursuit.

Now I could have sat and talked cast a vision and sat on my couch and eat some Doritos.

But if you pursue what you hope for God promises that you're going to have it.

It's the evidence. What is the evidence you have a building? The pursuit is.

Are you listening to me without faith it's impossible to please God we think

God is pleased once we get the thing we're pursuing,

God is pleased when you're pursuing what you're believing him for not when you

get it we're pleased when we get it he's pleased when you're pursuing it.

Come on I can get a better amen than that,

So it's all about the pursuit. And so this gentleman said, oh, yeah, fully approved.

Oh, glory to God. Now we're talking about moving, closing up.

We went from, Lord Jesus, we got to raise $800,000.

If I can get some chicken dinners going out and you can get some french fries.

We ain't doing all that. We believe in God.

And we got to man it's coming the deadline's coming but god started providing,

in the movement when you begin to move he'll begin to provide and so we go we

some shenanigans happen before closing because the devil tried to get his ugly head in the way,

but we're gonna close amen we get the clothes in we get the keys we own the

building somebody say amen to that.

This took a year i want it to happen quick i just what's taking so long these

kind of things take time it took a year we saw the building in july of 2025,

we closed may 26th of 2026 it took a year,

throughout the whole process the building went under contract twice we ended

up getting the building for 700 000 less than what they asked for say amen to that,

Pursuit. Somebody say pursuit. I'm trying to get you to get some results in your life.

Stop just talking about it and start pursuing it.

Stop dreaming about it and start going after it.

Stop meditating on it and start

putting some action to your meditation and watch God bring it to pass.

Too many of us are just sitting around just awaiting.

And then what is it? Well, I don't know what the Lord's saying.

Then you need to stop eating some food and start fasting.

Oh, you don't like that, huh? But if you want to hear from God,

you need to cut the food out and begin to fast so you can hear from God.

Like, what are you saying?

And Stacey had a word, and we had a word that this was our building,

and look what the Lord's done.

Now, we're in this building. You're in this building. Today's our grand opening.

We have renovated. It looks wonderful. and the best is yet to come. Hallelujah.

Don't stop. Keep going. Keep plowing. Keep plugging.

Keep pulling. Keep going after what the dreams that God has placed on the inside of you.

Don't quit. Don't give up. You're closer than you think. Who am I talking to?

You are closer than you think. If you'll just keep going. Close your eyes.

If you'll just keep going.

If you'll just keep going, you are closer.

You are closer than you realize. You are just an arm's reach away from what you believe in God for.

That health that you're believing for is just an arm's length away.

You're closer. That bill that needs to be paid can be paid off before you get home today.

You're going to have, open your eyes, you're going to have to keep the blueprint

in front of you and pursue it.

What is it? Pursue it.

Anybody that's got anything done had to pursue it. Nothing fell in their lap.

They had to go after it and pursue it.

And faith is the pursuit of what you hope for.

It's the evidence. What is the evidence that you have it?

Faith, action, pursuit is the evidence. So I want you to ask yourself, what am I pursuing?

What am I pursuing? Could someone look at me and tell what I'm pursuing? What am I going after?

What has God laid on my heart to do?

And ask yourself, am I giving it my all?

Because if you are, God promises, faith works.

And God promises manifestation when you begin to pursue what the Lord has for you.

Did you get something out of today's message?

Put your hands together. This is how you experience true life.