Sermon

This is Our Moment - Difference Maker

Real Life Church KC Podcast

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  1. Hey, good morning, Real life Church.

  2. Awesome to see you this morning. I just want to invite you to

  3. stand to your feet today. We're going to kick things off

  4. with just singing to our great, great God.

  5. We're going to sing to him. And yeah, we could get those

  6. hands going today. I just want this to be an

  7. atmosphere of praise this morning.

  8. All right? It's all about him.

  9. This is our testimony. Come on.

  10. I saw Satan fall like lightning. I saw darkness run for cover.

  11. But the miracle that I just can't get over my name is

  12. registered in heaven I believe. I believe in signs and wonders.

  13. I have resurrection power. Yes I do.

  14. Still the miracle that I just can't get over my name is

  15. registered in heaven. My praise belongs to you

  16. forever. Let's sing it.

  17. This is my testimony. From death to life.

  18. Because grace rewrote my story, I'll testify.

  19. By Jesus Christ the righteous, I'm justified.

  20. This is my testimony. This is my testimony.

  21. Amen. Join us in singing.

  22. Come together, sons and daughters, bought with blood and

  23. washed in water. Sing the praises of the Spirit,

  24. Son and Father. Our God, we'll finish what he

  25. started. Yes, our God, we'll finish what

  26. he started. Oh, this is my testimony from.

  27. Death to life. Because Grace rewrote my story,

  28. I'm testified by Jesus Christ the righteous.

  29. I'm justified. This is my testimony.

  30. This is my testimony. All right, Kai, just tell you

  31. this morning, if there's air in those lungs and he's not done

  32. with you yet, let's sing it out. If I'm not dead, then you're not

  33. done. Greater things are still to

  34. come. Oh, I believe if I'm not dead,

  35. then you're not done. Greater things are still to

  36. come. Oh, I believe.

  37. Come on, Sing. If I'm not dead, then you're not

  38. done. Greater things are still to

  39. come. Oh, I believe.

  40. If I'm not dead, then you're not done.

  41. Greater things are still to come.

  42. Oh, I believe. Come on.

  43. Real life Church. I want you to to declare this.

  44. Come on, this is my testimony from death to life.

  45. Because grace rewrote my story, I'll testify.

  46. By Jesus Christ the righteous, I'm justified.

  47. This is my testimony now. I'm alive.

  48. This is my testimony from. Death to life.

  49. Because grace rewrote my story, I testify that Jesus Christ the

  50. righteous, I'm justified. This is my testimony.

  51. This is my testimony from death to life.

  52. I've got a reason to sing today. Come on, real life Church, was

  53. this your testimony today? We let it here.

  54. Come on, let's praise him. Come.

  55. On, come on, give Him a shout of praise in the house today.

  56. Hey, that is our story. We are living proof of His

  57. goodness and His faithfulness. And because of that, let's build

  58. our life on Him today. Declare this song.

  59. Worthy of every song we could ever see.

  60. Worthy of all praise we could ever breathe.

  61. Worthy of every prayers we could ever breathe.

  62. We. Live for you.

  63. Jesus, the name above every other knee.

  64. Jesus, the only one who could ever say, worthy of every breath

  65. we could ever greet every year. Holy, there is no one like you.

  66. There is none beside you. Opening up my eyes in water and

  67. show me who you. Are and.

  68. Fill me. With your.

  69. Heart and leave me in your love to those around me.

  70. Worthy of every song we could ever sing.

  71. Worthy of all praise we could ever breathe.

  72. Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe.

  73. We live free. Jesus, the name above every

  74. other name. Jesus, the only one who could

  75. ever say, worthy of every brethren could ever breed.

  76. With every room all we live free room holy.

  77. There is no one like you. There is none beside you.

  78. Open up my eyes in wonder and show me who you are and fill me

  79. with your heart and leave me then you love to those around

  80. me. Holy, there is no one like you,

  81. there is none beside you. Open up my eyes and wonder and

  82. show me who you are and fill me with your heart and leave me.

  83. And you love to close around you.

  84. Montrose different this time today on my

  85. own upon your hope it is of the foundation.

  86. I will win my trust he will not reach a game.

  87. I will win. My I upon you is of the

  88. foundation. I will avoid my trust.

  89. In you. And I will not be shaping only.

  90. There is no one lie, there is none beside you.

  91. Open up my eyes and wonder and show me who you are.

  92. To clear me with your heart and knee.

  93. Being in love to those around me.

  94. Holy, there is no one like you. There is no.

  95. The world is all the foundation I will put.

  96. My trust in. You and I will never be.

  97. I'll never be changing. You.

  98. Were. The word at the beginning, the

  99. one with God, that the Lord Most High, your hidden glory and

  100. creation is now revealed in. You.

  101. Our Christ, what a beautiful name it is.

  102. What a beautiful name it is, the name of Jesus Christ my King.

  103. What a beautiful name it is, and nothing compares to this.

  104. What a beautiful name it is. The name of Jesus you didn't

  105. want without us. So Jesus humor.

  106. On heaven your sin was. Great, your love was greater and

  107. what could I say, boring us. Now.

  108. What a wonderful day. And it is.

  109. What a wonderful. The name.

  110. Of Jesus Christ, what a. Wonderful.

  111. Name it is. There's nothing.

  112. Compressed to this, what a wonderful.

  113. Name. It is the name of Jesus.

  114. What a. Wonderful.

  115. Name it is the. Name.

  116. Of Jesus. How could you love to sing love?

  117. To sing who you are, death could not hurt you.

  118. The heavens. Are worrying the praise of the

  119. world rain for you? Are rose to life to have.

  120. What a powerful. Name it is what a powerful name

  121. it is. The name of Jesus.

  122. What a powerful. Name it is nothing.

  123. Can't stand against what a powerful.

  124. Name. It is the name all sitting out

  125. today. You have no rival.

  126. You have no rival. You have no rival.

  127. Yours is the Kingdom. Yours is the glory.

  128. Yours is the name of the Lord. What a powerful name it is.

  129. What a powerful. Name it.

  130. Is the name of Jesus Christ my? What a.

  131. Powerful name it is nothing can. Stand against what a powerful.

  132. Name. It is the name of Jesus.

  133. What? A powerful.

  134. Name. It is the name of Jesus.

  135. What a powerful the name of Jesus sing.

  136. Worthy is your name. Jesus lives that you deserve to

  137. praise, and worthy is your name, worthy is your name.

  138. You deserve the praise, say Worthy is your name.

  139. Again Worthy is your name, Jesus, You deserve the praise.

  140. Worthy is your name. Worthy is your name.

  141. Crazy world is your name is worthy Lord, Because what?

  142. A beautiful name it is. What a beautiful.

  143. Name it is. It's just the voices.

  144. Name. Of Jesus Christ.

  145. What a beautiful name it is. Nothing compares to this.

  146. What a beautiful name it is. The name of Jesus.

  147. What a beautiful name it is. The name of Jesus and.

  148. Amen. Let's give it up for God.

  149. And what a beautiful name. I want an opportunity just to

  150. give worship back to God this morning and recognize the power

  151. in his worthiness. And man, just the beautiful name

  152. of Jesus. But when you call to him,

  153. there's nothing more beautiful than knowing that you can rest

  154. in the power of God. So can we give it for God one

  155. more time this morning, man Amen.

  156. Amen. Hey, I want to welcome you guys

  157. here today. I want you guys to know that we

  158. have a ton of new people with us again today online and in

  159. person. Let's show those guys some love.

  160. Give them a round of applause, and thank you so much for

  161. choosing to gather worship with today.

  162. Hey, take 30 seconds to greet somebody around you.

  163. You guys can go ahead and catch a seat as you catch a seat,

  164. you're getting ready to sit on something awesome.

  165. It is our connection card. If you call Real Life home, We

  166. love it when you fill this card out.

  167. Let's know what's going on in your life.

  168. We see what you guys right week in week out, we pray over them.

  169. So whether it's a praise or a prayer request called Real Life

  170. home, please send those in. We'd love to get it from you if

  171. you call, if you're new or newer with us here at Real life, this

  172. is this is for you as well. And I'm going to make this

  173. promise to you. We're not going to ask anything

  174. else from you today except this one simple thing if you're new

  175. with us to introduce yourself. And we would just love to send

  176. you us more information about real life, who we are, why we

  177. exist, why we're here every Sunday and throughout the week

  178. throughout the city. So again, thank you so much for

  179. being with us. And we're here through through

  180. on Sunday and throughout the week because we believe that

  181. we're a church on a mission. And that mission is to see

  182. people far from God discover their real life and purpose in

  183. Jesus. And simply, all that means is

  184. this is we know that it's easy to go through this world and get

  185. screwed up, get messed up, get beat down.

  186. And really, that's not what we're meant to stay.

  187. We're not meant to be laying on the ground on our knees.

  188. We're meant to come before God and have purpose, be on mission.

  189. And that's what God's got for you today if you don't know

  190. that. So we're off.

  191. We exist just to get people connected back to God and we get

  192. to see these awesome stories of people receive Christ week in

  193. and week out. So we're so excited that you're

  194. with us today and on mission. So that leads us in.

  195. We're kicking off a new series called Difference Maker.

  196. So for the last eight years, we've had the opportunity, the

  197. joy of being on mission with God.

  198. And what that mission has done is we've seen hope and

  199. transformation brought to so many people's lives.

  200. And that happens week in, week out.

  201. And over these last eight years, it's been so cool just to see

  202. God do that. But today we're stepping into a

  203. new season, something we feel like God's called us to do.

  204. And, and, and in this season, we are going to lead into our next

  205. step, our next step of faith. And it's not about a facility,

  206. it's not about a building, it's about a movement.

  207. And so today I want you guys to buckle in and open your hearts,

  208. open your minds to what God has for you in this season.

  209. For the next six weeks, we're going to allow God just to to

  210. clear obstacles out of our way. We're going to ask God to do the

  211. impossible. And like every beautiful story,

  212. whether it was the Exodus and in the Old Testament, God calling

  213. his people to a mission and a purpose or whether it was the

  214. early church in Acts, a coming together with 1 accord for a

  215. purpose. Today we are going to take that

  216. next step as real life, as a gathering to do what God's

  217. called us to do here. And we're all going to be called

  218. to be difference makers and to reach that next generation and

  219. to see the stories that are coming in the next, in the next

  220. year years coming forward to see each souls transformed.

  221. So once you guys take this opportunity, look up Pastor Sean

  222. with the broken arm as we kick off Difference Maker.

  223. Good morning. Good morning, good morning.

  224. Have I failed you already? Check 121020.

  225. Oh, no. Oh, there you guys are tricking

  226. me out today. You see how they did that?

  227. They said broken arm. Man, we see you put them in the

  228. hotspot. So well, good morning, guys.

  229. You might be, you might not know, like, man, what happened

  230. to Pastor Sean? I'd like to say it was something

  231. really cool like a bicycle kick or some kind of like, you know,

  232. Roundhouse kick. And I save somebody's life.

  233. I've been joking with people that I've just may offend the

  234. mature generation, but I keep joking.

  235. I turned 40 and my rotator cuff tour.

  236. Come on somebody right. And if you're older, you're

  237. like, no, that's, that's not works, man.

  238. But I tore some along the way. And I finally said, Hey, it's

  239. time to get surgery. I couldn't lay in a bed.

  240. I could not pull the blanket up. I said, that's probably an

  241. issue. And I'm 40, so let's get that

  242. taken care of. But I want to say thank you guys

  243. for the prayers for the support. Some of you guys have reached

  244. out and sent gifts or food or gift cards but I can feel your

  245. guys prayers and honestly I'm doing really well.

  246. Probably exceeded expectation. I was dreading like all sorts of

  247. stuff and I've been feeling 100%.

  248. Haven't had pain meds and it's a couple days past surgery 2 weeks

  249. ago. You probably just slowed me down

  250. a little bit and the team is trying to slow me down.

  251. I love you all. I know you care for me but I'm

  252. feeling good. So thank you guys for the

  253. prayers and support. Just keep praying.

  254. It's going to be a little bit of journey so kind of hanging with

  255. it but I'm excited. Can I celebrate a few things

  256. before we jump in the day? Can we do that?

  257. Couple things. One, thank you guys for those

  258. who are going out and sharing the gospel with people are far

  259. from God. Not just biting people here, but

  260. going out on mission. I feel like the world's a little

  261. chaotic with all the politics, the assassination, Charlie Kirk

  262. to so many things and we have just an opportunity to be hope

  263. and to be lights to be salt in our city, in our families, in

  264. our community and to share the hope of Christ.

  265. So say thank you guys doing that because people are coming to

  266. Christ because of you guys. Your people are showing up to

  267. youth group to kids to here on Sunday morning.

  268. People last week we had two people come to Christ because

  269. someone went out and shared the gospel and brought them in.

  270. So give up for that. Amen.

  271. So not just not just God working people coming, but God working

  272. through you to share. Amen.

  273. That's that's a secret sauce. And so be be cognizant of those

  274. conversations and relationships that are around you.

  275. I would be a miss not to thank two people in particular this

  276. last few weeks that have held down the Fort have done a

  277. fantastic job sharing God's word.

  278. Can you guys give it up for Barry and Logie Logie Logan.

  279. That's for not viewing me, buddy.

  280. Logan Hardy. Give it up big for them.

  281. Next time he'll mute me faster. So anyway, I thought last week

  282. was was just excellence upon excellence.

  283. If you were here last week talking about fasting, that

  284. message was 10 out of 10 for Logan.

  285. Being a second time ever up here preaching from a platform like

  286. this in a stage like this, I would give that a 10 out of 10.

  287. It wasn't just like here's some information.

  288. It was something that he lives out something that he believes

  289. in deeply. It is full of passion and the

  290. Spirit of God was moving. You guys feel the spirit of God

  291. last week. You feel a conviction last week.

  292. You feel like man, I I can do this.

  293. And so to keep Logan's words true from last week, he says he

  294. can hold you guys accountable, right and someone holds you

  295. accountable. I mean, how many guys be real

  296. honest. You say, hey man, last week I

  297. actually fasted show of hands. Keep him up dude, that's

  298. awesome. Go God, Amen.

  299. Oh God, come on, give it up. For those guys who fasted, don't

  300. be like shy about that. And if you didn't, guess what,

  301. you can start, Amen. It's not too late to start.

  302. I would encourage you guys to continue to fast if you did it

  303. last week And you know, for some of you, it's like maybe really

  304. unimpressive, like I fasted and life got hard or I fasted and I

  305. was really hungry, but nothing really changed.

  306. But I would encourage you guys. There's something significant

  307. that happens when you fast. It's basically saying my eyes

  308. are on Jesus, I'm trusting God, I'm depend on him.

  309. It's not made to be easy, Amen. And it's it's this lost

  310. spiritual art. And so I want to encourage you

  311. guys to continue to do it. And I talked to some of you guys

  312. that reached out and were like, hey, I've never fasted, what

  313. should I do? I'm like, hey, take that 12

  314. hours. Just pick a day a week and some

  315. sun up to sundown. Refrain yourself from food and

  316. just twitch your eyes on the Lord.

  317. And some of you guys have, I know numerous people did that.

  318. How many guys are first time fasted ever?

  319. Last week, Show of hands 123. OK, three or four people.

  320. That's awesome. Give it for those guys, Amen.

  321. That's a huge step, a huge step. And some of you guys been

  322. fasting. It has been a long time.

  323. I know some people came there new last week and there was just

  324. a word for them and had been a long time say faster.

  325. They said, Lord, I really get back to I need your presence.

  326. And so they fasted and some of you guys are routine of fasting.

  327. You just like that's part of my lifestyle.

  328. It's my habit, that's my my spiritual habit, It's my

  329. practice. And you guys just encouraged

  330. like in big ways last week. And so I was going to share a

  331. little bit just as a way of kind of wrapping up that thought on

  332. fasting about the power of fasting, really how it leads in

  333. the spiritual moments. And you find us all throughout

  334. the Bible. Matter of fact, I encourage you

  335. maybe get on ChatGPT or Google and just say, give me the times

  336. for people fast in the Bible. You're going to find there's 70

  337. instances in the Bible or people fasted and they're just life

  338. changing, just amazing stories, these holy moments.

  339. And so if you need God's presence, you've got people like

  340. Moses who fasted on Mount Sinai before they had the

  341. commandments. That's a pretty significant

  342. moment right to receive the the the law of God or Paul and

  343. Barnabas. They fasted before they point

  344. leaders in the church. That'd be a great practice.

  345. By the way, as we bring up leadership, as we send out

  346. missionaries, as we grow disciples is to fast for those

  347. people. Amen.

  348. We want God's will and want God's a sermon as we send people

  349. out. Logan talked this last week

  350. about repentance and renewal. It's about the people of

  351. Nineveh. There's a Gentile nation of

  352. people that are going to be judged by God, wiped the face of

  353. the earth and they tore their clothes and they repented and

  354. God withheld his judgment. Amen.

  355. And for some of us, getting right with God, we need to fast.

  356. Samuel did this and with Israel in First Samuel 7, there's a

  357. verse and it's not necessarily tied directly to fasting, but

  358. it's a great verse for our country and what it looks like

  359. as a response to all things happening.

  360. But Second Chronicles 714, it says if my people are called by

  361. my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face.

  362. That's what fasting is all about, seeking the face of God

  363. and turn from the wicked ways. Then we'll hear from heaven and

  364. I'll forgive their sin. Now what their land some of you

  365. guys are looking for healing in your soul, healing in your

  366. family, maybe healing some relationships in our country.

  367. It happens through prayer and fasting.

  368. Amen. It doesn't happen somewhere

  369. else. It happens right on our knees

  370. and this one just stuck out to me as a story of victory and

  371. breakthrough. This fasting proceeded one of

  372. these one of the greatest victories you find in the Bible.

  373. There's a man named Jehoshaphat somebody say Jehoshaphat.

  374. If you never heard of Jehoshaphat, you're going to

  375. learn about today real quickly. I'm not going to go.

  376. I don't have time to preach the whole piece of it, but Second

    2 Chronicles 20 chapter mention

  377. Chronicles chapter 20, if you get a chance to read it through

  378. 21 it it's on fire. Matter of fact, this king of

  379. Judah, he's kind of backed in the corner.

  380. There's three armies that are coming after him to besiege him.

  381. They're coming down this rule of this, we call it like a Canyon

  382. or a gorge. And there's massive armies and

  383. they're outnumbered, their backs against the wall.

  384. And so he asked all of Israel to come to the temple.

  385. He says we're going to have a fast and it began to fast.

  386. In the middle of the fast, he stands up, He declares there's

  387. three paragraphs. You find the Bible of this

  388. amazing truth of God. And he says, we don't just serve

  389. the God that is in heaven, we show the God that is here, that

  390. rules the nation's, is in charge of every single person and every

  391. nation in the world. And he ends his prayer with

  392. something we all can relate to. He says, we don't know what to

  393. do, Lord, but our eyes are on you.

  394. Amen. If you're wondering what to say

  395. when you fast and you pray, I would encourage that would be a

  396. really good thing to say. Lord, I don't know what

  397. direction to go, but Lord, I'm trusting you.

  398. There's a man named Zachariah. The word comes to him, he's a

  399. prophet, and he says of this to the people of Judah.

  400. He says the battle is not yours, The battle is actually Gods.

  401. Amen. It's a spiritual battle and the

  402. most significant thing happens in Scripture.

  403. And if you've never seen this, this is going to break your

  404. heart for the power of God because these men, they said

  405. you're none of you are going to die.

  406. Matter of fact, none of you have to fight in the battle.

  407. All of you are going to go out, but no one's going to fight.

  408. And the Lord's going to fight your battle.

  409. And so you're going to go up the next morning, you're going to go

  410. to this edge of the gourd, you're going to meet the enemy

  411. and God's power is going to come unleashed.

  412. And so as they go, that next morning, they do something just

  413. so unorthodox in war. They start to sing and they seen

  414. God's praise and they seen God's worship.

  415. And they say, give thanks to Lord our God, whose love endures

  416. forever. And it says the men raise their

  417. voices loud. Amen.

  418. I mean, that's a different type of warfare.

  419. And the Bible says this, and it's so significant.

  420. It says as they worshipped, God raged war.

  421. Think about that. Their worship was fighting the

  422. battle, and what God did is he had those enemies.

  423. There's three enemies, and they begin to ambush each other and

  424. to lose trust in each other and to fight each other.

  425. And the time the Israelites worship their way to victory,

  426. they showed up to the edge of the gourd.

  427. There's not a single person left alive in the enemy, a single.

  428. And there's hundreds of thousands of enemy soldiers

  429. dead. It took four days for the

  430. Israelites to pick up all the plunder, all the weapons and the

  431. food and the horses and the Chariots.

  432. That's the power of God, Amen. Some of you guys didn't know

  433. today when you sang those 3 1/2 songs that we call it last part

  434. there, right? The tags and everything that

  435. you're waging war in a battle. So we had no idea that God was

  436. battling for you when you worshiped, Amen.

  437. And often times you look out and say we can't do it.

  438. It's not possible. But the Lord's in the battle,

  439. the Lord's already, the battle is already won, Amen.

  440. And that's just what we're leaning into.

  441. There's just something special about fasting.

  442. Remember that was all about fasting.

  443. They fasted and the Lord won the battle.

  444. Like there's, there's just some things only come through

  445. fasting. You see this with Esther.

  446. She, she fast with the Jews and for three days just for the

  447. divine favor of a king to save the nation.

  448. David fasted when his child was sick.

  449. Ezra fasted the morning of the unfaithful's of God.

  450. He brought the word of God back to the nation of Israel.

  451. We had a season of that in our church.

  452. I felt like we just brought the word of God back right to the

  453. forefront of our church. Jesus fasted for 40 days as he

  454. began his ministry and Satan tried to tempt them and twist

  455. the word of God. They were the church fasted and

  456. prayed before sending out missionaries.

  457. Nehemiah fasted and confession before God for rebuilding the

  458. walls of Jerusalem. The Church of Antioch fasted

  459. before they sent out missionaries had breakthroughs

  460. in their church. And there's something special

  461. Jesus says about fasting in Matthew 928 and it says this.

  462. It says when he being Jesus had come into the House of disciples

  463. asking probably why could we not cast it out?

  464. Why couldn't they cast out this demon?

  465. They were trying to and they couldn't cast out the demon

  466. there. Sometimes they couldn't heal

  467. people. He said to them, he said, this

  468. kind can come out by nothing but prayer.

  469. And what's it say fasting? What this verse means to me is

  470. that there's just certain places that you will never go to and

  471. you'll never unlock without fasting.

  472. There are certain levels, there are certain places in your heart

  473. that will never be turned over to God without fasting, that

  474. there are certain keys that will not be used to unlock different

  475. areas in breakthroughs in your family.

  476. Some areas of repentance, some areas of restoration from areas

  477. of healing, some areas of hope. There'll be some areas in our

  478. church that won't be changed. There may be revivals that are

  479. stopped. Their souls aren't saved.

  480. There's repentance that needs to happen.

  481. The glory of God can can come into our house with pure hearts,

  482. just like David and these people that fought after God.

  483. There's just certain things that only happen through fasting.

  484. Amen. And so ultimately we are selling

  485. ourselves short of what God has for life if we're not on our

  486. knees in prayer and fasting. I think for us in this season of

  487. our church, there's something special that we're asking God to

  488. do. This whole difference maker.

  489. You guys got the booklets right and you maybe heard about this.

  490. Some of you guys, we've been planting seeds for quite a while

  491. now, maybe 6 to 8 months. Our Difference Maker initiative

  492. is about finding our first permanent space.

  493. It's about creating the opportunity to say yes to our

  494. first permanent home. But when you hear this, the

  495. temptation is this is about a building.

  496. This is about money. And I want to encourage you from

  497. day one, sentence one, this is about faith.

  498. It's about faith. This is not just about

  499. generosity or building. It's about faith.

  500. It's about all the stepping out together in faith of what God is

  501. asking us to do, Amen. You know, some of you are like,

  502. man, I don't have a lot of means to to give to this and I don't

  503. know how we're going to get there.

  504. Kind of encourage you. It doesn't take a lot to be

  505. generous. You don't have to have a lot to

  506. be generous, Amen. You know, sometimes a man's

  507. don't have a lot. It's like, what do you have in

  508. your hands God can use? Amen.

  509. You don't mind asking to give something you don't have?

  510. I know so many people, man. If I won the lottery, man, I'd

  511. give to the church. Come on, somebody, right?

  512. And if you do, praise God, Amen, we'll use it, right?

  513. But if you don't, don't sell yourself short because you may

  514. not have what this person has or what that person's has.

  515. But you can't have faith, Amen. You can't give with faith.

  516. We all can do that. We all can fast, Amen.

  517. It takes zero money to fast, Amen.

  518. Like if anything, prayer and fast when we're fasting in this

  519. season, lean in and ask God for divine favor for, for a

  520. breakthrough. We, we need those people to have

  521. the ability to fund the mission. Sometimes in the Bible, it's

  522. pretty cool that God even uses enemies.

  523. He even uses the things of Satan to pay for the things of God,

  524. Amen. Sometimes he makes the world pay

  525. for it. Sometimes it's divine favor from

  526. somebody who doesn't even love Jesus, but they just love us.

  527. I mean, I'm just telling you, God can do what he wants to do,

  528. Amen. The question is, do we believe

  529. he can? Do we trust He can?

  530. And so by faith, I don't want anybody to say, oh, I'm excluded

  531. or like, well, that's cool. I'm excited to see what they do.

  532. No, I think all of us play a part of this story, all of us by

  533. faith. And we activate our faith.

  534. I believe God activates his power.

  535. Amen. And so this is the season we're

  536. leading into. Some things only happen through

  537. fasting, through faith. And so you guys get the

  538. booklets. Everybody holds your booklet up

  539. real quick. Yeah, booklet.

  540. Perfect. OK, encourage you.

  541. There's a space for your name. Come on.

  542. Somebody reminds you of high school, right?

  543. Put your name on there. All right, because I know we

  544. have some of these. Get left behind.

  545. We'll hold on. Hold on to hold on to them for

  546. you. But put your name on the top of

  547. there. I'd encourage you to read

  548. through this booklet. This gives you all the details

  549. of what this is about, why we're doing it, why now, What's at

  550. stake? What's this one?

  551. Fund all the different details. There's a lot of great answers

  552. in the FAQ, but bring it with you every week.

  553. Put it in your Bible. Take it, take it next six weeks,

  554. bring it back. There's a place where sermon

  555. notes we're actually going to be on page 17 today doing our first

  556. week of difference maker. It's called this is our moment.

  557. And there's a place to take notes.

  558. Amen. Who knows?

  559. You get closer to see than having you take notes, Amen.

  560. So just take some notes, write them down, bring it back next

  561. week at the bottom of every section of notes you'll see AQR

  562. for our you version and you can follow along with with the

  563. outline for the message today and just bring with you.

  564. OK. And so I'm excited for what God

  565. is going to do. You have a committed car.

  566. Just hold on that. We'll talk about that later on.

  567. We're not going to collect it today.

  568. By the way, if you're freaking out, you see that thing, OK,

  569. that's not going to happen. I want share my heart and

  570. passion for this actually got a great chance.

  571. We shot a video. Amen.

  572. You can scan that QR on the front of the booklet.

  573. It'll take you to our website. You can watch the videos.

  574. We're going to be updating all sorts of stuff on there, but

  575. it's a lot on already and you can learn all about this.

  576. But I'm going to just share with our video of our heart and

  577. passion for difference Maker, kind of get your head around it,

  578. what we're doing while we're doing it.

  579. And so we're going to play the video.

  580. Hopefully it goes good because another restart purpose in a

  581. little to go thumbs up maybe. OK, cool.

  582. All right, let's check it out. Real life family and friends.

  583. Today we stand in a unique moment in our story.

  584. Eight years ago, we stepped out in faith to launch real life

  585. church. And God has shut up in

  586. extraordinary ways. Real life, you already are

  587. living proof what God can do through ordinary people and his

  588. surrender to his plan. We've seen marriages changed,

  589. families changed, and eternity changed and countless people.

  590. And I believe with all my heart that God is not done yet.

  591. There are prodigals in our city and around the world that God is

  592. calling home, and this is an incredible harvest on the

  593. horizon that we can play a part of.

  594. And today, just like 8 years ago, we once again are in a

  595. place we have to write the next chapter in our story.

  596. But here's the problem. Prodigals lost.

  597. People need somewhere to come home to need somewhere to

  598. belong, somewhere to grow and people to believe in them.

  599. And listen, we've been portable for eight years, and being

  600. portable has been huge. Blessing Willis Be Real has his

  601. limits. And for instance, in our kids

  602. ministry, it's tough to turn an elementary school into a sacred

  603. life, giving space for children to encounter God.

  604. The distractions are literally around every corner.

  605. We also can't host things like kids camp or summer VBS because

  606. we simply don't have the space. In addition to our youth group,

  607. it's on the verge of outgrowing our Hope Center.

  608. There's a space where teens are playing Nightscore in the air

  609. and there's a worship team rehearsing at the same time.

  610. It's amazing, it's beautiful, but it is absolutely chaotic.

  611. And for adults, we would love to host marriage conferences.

  612. We'd love to have weddings and dream team celebrations.

  613. And the love, love, love to have a life giving, state-of-the-art

  614. worship center to invite your family and your friends to

  615. experience Jesus and share the gospel around the world.

  616. As much as we love being portable, the truth is every

  617. purple situation has a shelf life.

  618. It has a time frame. And that's why after much

  619. prayer, planning, discerning and leadership, I believe God is

  620. calling us to secure our first permanent home.

  621. Our vision is to purchase a facility somewhere between 15

  622. and 20,000 square feet. Places like the OfficeMax, the

  623. Walgreens will allow us to double our capacity and give us

  624. room to grow. A place where ministry happens

  625. 24/7. A place where we have.

  626. Long term presence in our city and it tells our neighbors and

  627. tells the world that we are here to stay.

  628. It's a place for inviting culture.

  629. The designated kids space where the kids eyes light up and they

  630. walk in and everything points them to Jesus.

  631. It's a space for youth, for conferences, for weddings,

  632. camps, worship, rehearsal, and most importantly, disciple

  633. making. And yes, no more set up and tear

  634. down. I heard everybody say Amen.

  635. Even our mail could finally be delivered to our church home.

  636. This isn't about building a monument.

  637. It's about building a movement. It's not about a facility.

  638. It's about creating a launchpad for the gospel, a hospital for

  639. the hurting, and a home for prodigals.

  640. Psalm 78 says it best. It says we will tell the next

  641. generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, His power,

  642. and the wonders He has done. That's what the space

  643. represents. It's a place where the next

  644. generation hears about and learns to follow Jesus.

  645. So here's the vision of the next two years.

  646. Our Difference Maker Initiative aims to raise $1.9 million, now

  647. 900,000 that is simply continuing to fund our ministry

  648. fund already. It funds everything you already

  649. like and love about real life. It's not going anywhere.

  650. But the additional 1,000,000 position us to say yes to an

  651. opportunity when God opens the door for a first permanent

  652. space. But here's the most important

  653. part. Our primary goal is not a

  654. financial number. It's asking for 100%

  655. participation. We want every person, every

  656. family who calls real life home to help write the next chapter

  657. as a difference maker. So what does that mean for you?

  658. I'm simply asking you to do three things.

  659. One, let's celebrate the moment. Right now.

  660. We're on the verge of something amazing with the lead the way of

  661. making a difference in thousands and thousands of lives,

  662. including your own family, your friends, and your neighbors. 2

  663. Commit to hear from God. Ask him, What does faith look

  664. like in me in this season? How May God be calling you to

  665. grow in generosity and trust? And three, consider becoming a

  666. difference maker with us. Take time to pray.

  667. Ask God what would he have you to do to help reach this goal?

  668. Friends, family, the ability to say yes to our first parent

  669. space. Be the true difference maker for

  670. us, not just for us, but for you, for your kids, for our

  671. city, and for generations and generations to come.

  672. So I'm simply inviting you to pray, to dream, and to consider

  673. how you can be a part of writing the story because your faith,

  674. because your generosity. We can change people's forever,

  675. and that's the bottom line. That's what it's all about.

  676. There's no other place I'd rather be than with you leading

  677. on mission in this season. Will you join together with me?

  678. I invite you to take time to pray and to see God and join us

  679. together as a difference maker in pursuit of our first

  680. permanent home. God bless, guys.

  681. Come on, let's work, Barry. I like I get used to this.

  682. Get to work, Barry. Man, what a special moment.

  683. Our church. Amen.

  684. It's kind of like that watershed moment, like God's ask us do

  685. something so big and so, so audacious.

  686. Like it goes against every piece of human nature.

  687. Like the fruit is out on the limb.

  688. Amen. Like what's this?

  689. What is the fortune favors the bold like, like that we step out

  690. on faith and just do something together that's just audacious.

  691. And this will be the biggest step of faith outside of

  692. launching this church. So I keep saying it's the most

  693. important series I've ever preached because we're leaning

  694. into a season where we're just stepping out.

  695. Like there's one of the seasons, Lord, I don't know how we're

  696. going to get there, but Lord, we're trusting you like your

  697. eyes are on you want to follow you.

  698. And I believe in every generation.

  699. There is a there's just a moment where like God just asked us to

  700. go all in. There's there's a maybe once in

  701. a generation type of moment. You think about the first eight

  702. years of our church, it's been amazing, Amen.

  703. I mean, we have almost 500 people commit their life to

  704. Jesus that we know about, have indicated to us and the first

  705. eight years of our church, that's amazing, Amen.

  706. That's eternal difference. That's like it's being attorney

  707. with 500 more people that we know about.

  708. That's not generational or people have gone out or anything

  709. else. I get the impact of ripples,

  710. right? But what is the next eight

  711. years? We saw 5000 people come to

  712. Christ. We saw 10,000 people impacted.

  713. Like what if we left something behind for our kids in the next

  714. generation to stand on, to stand on our shoulders and take the

  715. gospel further, farther and faster than we did?

  716. You know, in the Bible, you see these generational moments and

  717. there's a moment found in Numbers 13 and 14 and you're

  718. going to see this, this situation where the Israelites

  719. are, are liberated from slavery. They've come through the 10

  720. plagues that Pharaoh is basically bowed his knee, let

  721. him go, then changed the mind. He chased him down through the

  722. Red Sea. God parts the sea, crushes the

  723. armies and they're wandering in the wilderness and they say they

  724. would take about 6 days, which is really sad.

  725. We know the whole story to go from the edge of the Red Sea to

  726. the promised land. And they're, they're standing in

  727. this like this moment of precipice, like looking into the

  728. promise that God has given them and the Moses and Aaron, they

  729. begin to contemplate a plan like what should we do?

  730. And they decide to take one person from every tribe and do

  731. some recombinants, right, like reconnaissance, like going in

  732. and saying, what's this about? And is the food good?

  733. Like is there, it does a fields ripe with harvest.

  734. Like where's the cities at? How how many people are there?

  735. Are they big? Like they have numbers, they

  736. have weapons. What's the situation?

  737. Draw us a map. I don't know if that was a good

  738. idea, but I look back at the story, right?

  739. Because for some of them, there was 10 of them that saw all the

  740. obstacles and their vision stopped.

  741. They saw the problems, that they saw the giants, they saw

  742. opposition, and they came back and they got everybody together.

  743. And this is what it says in Numbers 13, verse 26, it says

    Numbers 13:26

  744. they came back to Moses and Aaron, these spies, all 12 of

  745. them, and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the

  746. desert of Proran. And there they reported them and

  747. the whole assembly showed them the fruit of the land.

  748. They gave Moses this account. We went to the land which you

  749. sent us. And it does flow with milk and

  750. honey. They were stoked about that.

  751. Here's the fruit. It says there the Grapevine was

  752. so large they put it between two people on a big stick and it

  753. could barely carry it, it was so big.

  754. They were excited about what the promise of land looked like.

  755. Verse 28 it says but somebody say but, but there's always a

  756. but in there. But the people who live there

  757. are what? Oh, they're powerful, man.

  758. They're strong. And their cities are what?

  759. Yeah, they're fortified. There's they're strongholds.

  760. It's going to be hard to get in. And they're very large, these

  761. cities. And we saw even the descendants

  762. of Anoch there. And Anoch is like a it's like

  763. the Nephilim. These are giants.

  764. These are like people, angels that mix with mankind.

  765. If you don't know about it's it's amazing story.

  766. I encourage you to to look it up.

  767. But this is like Goliath. You guys heard of Goliath?

  768. OK, He would have been one of these giants that we talked

  769. about. So it's a city full of these

  770. people and the Malachites living to give.

  771. They drew a map and the you can see them on the ground, maybe

  772. drawn on a sand or drew it up on paper.

  773. Wherever they had, they said the Hittites and the Jebusites,

  774. Embrites, they live over here in the Hill Country, is Canites

  775. that live right here near the sea along the Jordan.

  776. And they gave this bad report and 10 out of 12 were paralyzed

  777. by fear, that their fear stopped the vision.

  778. And for so many people, their vision exceeds to the point of

  779. which it's extinguished by the 1st obstacle or opposition.

  780. You know, they say if you want to kill a vision, give it to a

  781. small mind. They say if you want to kill a

  782. vision, just give us somebody that faith.

  783. And for so many people, like you're so scared to share their

  784. vision because somebody else will step on it and this would

  785. happen. These 10 begin to step on the

  786. vision and they didn't see God's promised land.

  787. They just saw land. They didn't see this was God's

  788. area to go into anymore because the the obstacles were too big.

  789. It's almost like they're talking Moses out of God's plan.

  790. But listen, there was two guys that actually saw God's plan.

  791. One name was Caleb. You guys remember the name of

  792. the next guy, Joshua. How many guys know Joshua had

  793. another name before it's called Joshua.

  794. I learned this it was crazy. His name is Heshua believe that

  795. and Moses changed his name to Joshua and Joshua and Caleb went

  796. in the land and they had a different vision.

  797. They saw beyond the obstacles. And so in the middle of this

  798. meeting, which I love these type of people that stand up for

  799. what's right and Numbers 1330. This is what it says and then

  800. Caleb would be on the screen. Then Caleb said what?

  801. Caleb, what do you do? He, he silenced them.

  802. They're all complaining. You guys been in these meetings,

  803. right? We're just going off the rails.

  804. They're chasing carrots and it's faithless.

  805. It's godless. It's whatever it kills like

  806. enough. Be quiet, listen up.

  807. Probably maybe the other words. I don't know.

  808. And he got their attention and he said before Moses and he said

  809. we should go up, take possession of the land for we can what?

  810. Certainly do it. And he was right.

  811. Amen. He was right.

  812. It wasn't blind faith like he's not dumb faith.

  813. He believes the living God, Amen.

  814. He believes the same God we talked about earlier.

  815. They were, they worship that wars were being fought on their

  816. behalf. The same God that David stepped

  817. on the battlefield and said, I serve the living God where no

  818. man in the entire country would stand up for anything.

  819. This little untrained shepherd boy said, well, God's in it,

  820. Amen. And this is what Caleb and

  821. Joshua, they stood up and said, no, no, no, this, this is God's.

  822. He already declared we're going in and we need to go.

  823. That's the thing about Caleb and Joshua.

  824. I see him as difference makers. I see him as difference makers

  825. in our generation because this is something very unique.

  826. They saw what everyone else saw, but they're willing to do what

  827. no one else is willing to do. And you think about difference

  828. maker, they see the same thing. They see what everybody sees,

  829. but they do what no one else does in faith, by faith, by

  830. faith. See, some people just saw a

  831. land, and these people saw future.

  832. They, they, they. Saw beyond like, oh, there's

  833. giants, oh, these thieves are fortified.

  834. Oh this, it's this, this can be really hard to do.

  835. And for Joshua and Caleb, they went back and said, well, we

  836. just saw God destroy the Pharaoh's army literally 6 days

  837. ago. By the way, technically, if

  838. that's what it would have taken 6 days ago, we saw the miracle

  839. of God and now we stand there and say, well, God can't do

  840. this. 10 people saw giants and two people saw God's promise.

  841. It's amazing to me that so many people can stand at the same

  842. thing and see things completely differently, Amen.

  843. Bone by faith and won by fear. And a difference maker is

  844. somebody that doesn't let fear have the final word, Amen.

  845. If you ever make a decision by fear, that is not from God.

  846. God has given us the power over fear.

  847. He's the power of sound mind and strength, and the same power of

  848. the race used in the dead lives in US.

  849. And so if you're doing something out of fear, that is not from

  850. God, Amen. And for so many of us, we're

  851. operating in the under the radar of fear.

  852. And this is what happened is 10 people spread this news numbers

  853. 13. It went on in verse 32, just

  854. after the last verse we said it says they spread among the

  855. Israelites. A what, what's it say?

  856. A bad report. You know, if you want, if you

  857. want to kill a church, give it a bad report.

  858. If you want to kill a church, have a meeting.

  859. After the meeting, stand in the hallway, cross your arms and

  860. talk about how terrible it's going to be If you want to kill

  861. a church. I've been to churches like

  862. that's I, I try to kill the meetings, by the way, Amen.

  863. Like you say, what needs to be said when it should be said.

  864. And if not, you're done with it, Amen.

  865. Because there's so many bad reports, because so many people

  866. like, man, I have the faith to do this.

  867. And these people gave a bad report and it created fear among

  868. the people. They said this is the, the land

  869. we explored. They said the land that we

  870. explored devours those, then now it devours them like it's just

  871. going to crush you. All people we saw there are

  872. great size and we saw the Nephilim like these descendants

  873. of Annex like these. These people are mixed with

  874. angels. They're they're massive.

  875. And we've seen like grasshoppers in their own eyes.

  876. And we looked the same to them. We're powerless, we're finite.

  877. This is impossible. There's no way.

  878. And this is where their faith stopped.

  879. And this is what I love about Joshua and Caleb.

  880. And you know, you have to ask yourself often times when you

  881. read the Bible, like what have you been with the 10 or the two

  882. right? Like, to be honest with you,

  883. probably more likely to 10 because it's human nature.

  884. Like these people, Joshua and Caleb, they do not have their

  885. name mentioned, the Hall of Fame of Faith, but Jericho's

  886. mentioned the Hall of Fame of Faith.

  887. And who led that battle? Caleb and Joshua, Amen.

  888. Like these are men of great faith to simply believe God has

  889. called us to this moment, like he didn't lead it, lead us this

  890. far to let us die, Amen. He wants us to step into the

  891. promise. And they saw beyond the

  892. obstacles. They saw something that was

  893. amazing. You think about the promised

  894. land and for them to look out and maybe Joshua and kill, but

  895. they saw new homes. Maybe they saw their kids

  896. running around in the pastures. Maybe they saw a field just full

  897. of food. And they thought to themselves,

  898. you know, it's four or five cities that make some great

  899. cities for us to live in. Those are great.

  900. Four or five cities for us to have.

  901. So when the enemies come after us and gods on our side, they

  902. can't come in. Amen.

  903. Like this be a great place to have generations grow up.

  904. This is a great pace of peace after you've been slaves for 400

  905. years, that we can step into this land and have a future

  906. here. Amen.

  907. That's faith, Amen. And I think about for us As for

  908. me as a pastor, especially like what this next season looks

  909. like. And for me, what keeps me up at

  910. night is not the anxiety of stepping into a building

  911. initiative. It's not the anxiety of like,

  912. let's raise a lot of money, right?

  913. Let's work with architects and engineers and let's work with

  914. cities. Come on, somebody, right?

  915. Let's do all the stuff and let's lose some hair on the stress.

  916. Like I've done buildings before, right?

  917. But that's not what keeps me up at night.

  918. What keeps me up at night is the excitement of the future of our

  919. church. Amen.

  920. Like I was sitting with my my boys back here and I got a

  921. chance to pray with them before I came up here.

  922. And it's just like, man, it'll be so amazing for my kids not to

  923. have to go to church and grow up with the burden of being

  924. portable. Amen.

  925. It would be great not to pass that on.

  926. I don't want to pass on debt or struggle to my kids and for them

  927. to be able to show up and just plug a guitar in and lead

  928. worship with Jesus and not to worry about if COVID or whatever

  929. whim of something, the government's going to say you

  930. can't meet and we could be in a space and say, no thanks, we're

  931. going to keep meeting, Amen. We're going to keep doing the

  932. things of God like not to be worried, like, well, maybe we're

  933. not going to be in the space. If the dynamics change or

  934. politics change, the freedom for my kids to boldly book in the

  935. gospel and the word of God will continually go forward and our

  936. community and that we wouldn't have to take activity and energy

  937. as staff members and leaders in our church to be portable and to

  938. meet. There is so much energy and

  939. effort. I bet half of our energy and

  940. effort for any event goes into making something portable.

  941. Like we're probably going to run out jokingly about run out of

  942. difference maker mugs a day. If you run out, there's more

  943. coming next week. Amen.

  944. But we couldn't get enough here. Like, the car is full, right?

  945. Like we just strap on the top of the Ford Explorer to get more

  946. here. Amen.

  947. Like there's just a wait and a burden.

  948. Then thank God for it. Amen.

  949. We're not. We're willing to do it.

  950. Some of you guys were trying to shut me down this morning.

  951. Like, your arm's broken. You can't move.

  952. You know, you're I'm, I'm not like frail, OK?

  953. But it is a burden to do it. But I dream of the future.

  954. Like we could have a marriage conference.

  955. Do we need a marriage conference?

  956. Amen. Come on, somebody.

  957. Some of y'all are not here to admit that because the marriage

  958. is going crazy. I'm just telling you, like, we

  959. need a space for our kids to show up.

  960. And it's like, oh, look at the awesome scuba wall.

  961. Whoa, yellow. You know, like, we need to have

  962. something where the kids walk in and they're excited to come on

  963. Sundays, be awesome to up the ante and have some fun.

  964. Right. Like, it's just, yeah, just this

  965. is just so repetitive and it's the status quo.

  966. It's eight years, man. Like, we have to have the faith

  967. and the boldness to say we're not doing it for the eight

  968. years. We're not going to keep doing

  969. it. Amen.

  970. Now, the trick about the Israelites, which is really

  971. interesting to me, is they're in a desert.

  972. It's anything but exciting. It's anything but comfortable.

  973. And they're still like, I don't know if I can go into the

  974. promised land. And for us, we're portable.

  975. And to be honest with you, unless you're like carrying some

  976. major weight or something, you might be really comfortable with

  977. this. Like it's, it's nice.

  978. Got a lot of cool people, man, It's fun.

  979. I'm your worship pastor. I love everything.

  980. And it may be more difficult for us to step out on faith than

  981. even these Israelites, but we should Amen.

  982. It's this guy be like kind of a oh, oh moment today.

  983. Like we just can't keep doing this.

  984. Like we've got to be ready to say yes to an opportunity and

  985. there is opportunity and God can open doors and give divine

  986. favor. If you're praying and fasting,

  987. man, you pray for divine favor, Amen.

  988. You pray for divine favor that people can resource this vision,

  989. pay for divine favor. People own these properties for

  990. developers that have lands. We have these connections and

  991. conversations a lot, and we just need one.

  992. Yes, I'll ask 100 people and I'll take 99 years.

  993. I'll get one. Yes.

  994. Amen. Hi, Tom.

  995. We raise $1,000,000, we get close to raising $1,000,000.

  996. I will call every person who owns commercial property down 58

  997. Highway and around this town and I will, I don't care if it's for

  998. sale or not. I will call them and I ask them,

  999. is the Lord put in your heart to let us use your space?

  1000. Amen. Why not?

  1001. Why not? I'm not ashamed.

  1002. The Lord's in it. He's calling us.

  1003. There's something here for us and somebody's going to say yes

  1004. by the grace of God, Amen. So pray for that.

  1005. Pray for God to move. The question is that can we do

  1006. this? Because that's what these 10

  1007. spies ask themselves. Can we do this?

  1008. They said, no, no, no, no, no. The question is, can God do

  1009. this? Amen.

  1010. And this is what Joshua and Caleb asked a different

  1011. question. Can God do that?

  1012. That's what makes him a difference maker.

  1013. That's why it's all past the obstacles.

  1014. So it's all a different future because they knew God could do

  1015. it. But the tragedy of the story of

  1016. #13 is they missed their moment. It's it's one of those moments

  1017. like, Lord help me not to be this generation.

  1018. They missed it. They didn't go on the promised

  1019. land. And what's really crazy about

  1020. the story you may not know is that they actually tried.

  1021. They tried to go in after they're builded by fear.

  1022. They couldn't. And then God said, you're going

  1023. to wander for 40 years, one year for every day, yet spies in

  1024. that, in that promised land, you're going to spend one year

  1025. in the wilderness and every person over the age of 20 that

  1026. said no, that was faithless is going to die in the wilderness

  1027. except for my 2 boys of faith over here, these difference

  1028. makers, Joshua and Caleb, they're going in and they did go

  1029. in. And this verse like Joshua 17

  1030. has been sticking on my mind and heart.

  1031. I saw it four times this weekend.

  1032. I was praying. I was taking this long walk.

  1033. I took my brace off. Don't tell anybody, right?

  1034. I took this long walk and I just kept getting Joshua 17.

  1035. Just be strong and be courageous just back in my mind over and

  1036. over and over again. And that's what these guys were.

  1037. They eventually win the promised land.

  1038. But every single person. They didn't have faith.

  1039. They tried to have faith, but it was, it was really fear.

  1040. They feared the giants and then God gave them judgement and they

  1041. feared God and they tried to go in on their own without God's

  1042. power and they were ran out and into the wilderness.

  1043. It was too late for them. It was too late.

  1044. And I also encourage you, it's going to take all of us to play

  1045. part of the story, all of us in faith.

  1046. Amen. None of y'all are going to write

  1047. the same gift, right? And we shouldn't, but we can

  1048. have the same level of generosity, but we all can have

  1049. bold faith, Amen. We all can have bold faith.

  1050. We all say Lord's in this, God's in this, we can do this, we can

  1051. step out. We should be a light to our

  1052. city. I'm excited.

  1053. Then we put down roots in our city where people go, Oh, hey,

  1054. they're they're like a real church.

  1055. And then we know we know we're real, right?

  1056. But people don't believe in us yet, right?

  1057. They're like, Oh, you're portable.

  1058. Are you that I see some signs, you know, you feel how many guys

  1059. came because you saw a sign by the way, saw like a a a there's

  1060. a put your hand up real high, just real high.

  1061. If you came here with a sign 123 some awesome, awesome people.

  1062. Y'all saw a sign and our signs are up for five hours a week

  1063. here and we start putting out the street our our signs and

  1064. yards. By the way, if you don't have a

  1065. yard sign, there's eight people that said, thank you, Jesus,

  1066. there's a yard sign Amen. But wouldn't be cool.

  1067. Like if you put up a building and he had a sign.

  1068. Everybody drove by. There's a space.

  1069. It's like, what's that? Oh, that's real life Church.

  1070. Ohio. I had a real life church.

  1071. Is that where you at? Kentucky.

  1072. Where's Kentucky Trail again? Oh, yeah.

  1073. I remember it was used to be go down by.

  1074. What's the Chinese place? What is it?

  1075. No. Yeah.

  1076. China Star. But I didn't like the men that

  1077. mentioned them a lot. Ryan's was the Ryan's.

  1078. That's right. Ryan's go by Ryan's.

  1079. It's down the street from Ryan's.

  1080. That's how we knew by ourselves, right?

  1081. And now we're like, hey, there's that Chick-fil-A.

  1082. Come on. Jesus Chicken pass the Jesus

  1083. chicken. You know, I mean, it'd be nice.

  1084. Just like you have you have visibility to a lost and dying

  1085. world, Amen. And there's just something to

  1086. say about it. And there's late adopters and

  1087. there's people that are like, I'm not in for a portable church

  1088. because I'm not really going to. Is it really going to be there?

  1089. Is it really going to be that good?

  1090. And people wait and they need hope, Amen.

  1091. And we could be those guys. Like somebody's got to put the

  1092. foundation dying down. Nobody looks at a house and go,

  1093. man, what a sexy foundation, man, I love this foundation,

  1094. right? The only time you know about

  1095. foundation has problems, right? And we get to be the people that

  1096. can lay the foundation, Amen. Like that people can build on.

  1097. I love it. That's why I come and serve and

  1098. set up and tear down like you all don't know.

  1099. I come every week, 8 years, I'll be coming every week.

  1100. I'll sweat and set up and I'll do it every single week.

  1101. And you're probably not going to stop me from doing it because

  1102. it's, it's just nobody sees it. But that's what we do Amen.

  1103. And so somebody's got to go first, and that's us.

  1104. That's our generation. This is our time to step in, to

  1105. see past the obstacles, to refuse, to let fear have the

  1106. final word, to trust God's promises more than the fear of

  1107. the cost, to step out with power to enter the promised land, Not

  1108. someday, but today, not 40 years from now.

  1109. So I encourage you to church, let's not settle for the

  1110. wilderness, Amen. Let's not settle for eight more

  1111. years of portable. Let's not settle and say, well,

  1112. this is great. Well, let's not settle and say

  1113. I'm really excited for what God's going to do.

  1114. I can't wait to see how it goes. Let's not settle for that.

  1115. Let's not settle for the status quo.

  1116. Like, wow, we can keep, we can do this.

  1117. I mean, there's got to be somewhere we can keep written

  1118. for eternity, but it's not where God's calling us to go.

  1119. Amen. It's not being idle or

  1120. apathetic. It's stepping out with power

  1121. because of bold faith. I would encourage you.

  1122. Faith isn't just believing God can.

  1123. I think that's where it starts. But faith is actually an action

  1124. word. If you said I have faith in that

  1125. chair and you never sat in it, I wouldn't believe you.

  1126. Faith is taking a step. I want to encourage you.

  1127. There's a moment in time where you have to start marching to

  1128. war. Even though you are heard from

  1129. God, that enemy's going to be defeated.

  1130. There's a time you have to step foot in the promised land.

  1131. They didn't have to send spies in, by the way, probably cost

  1132. them. They probably said, well,

  1133. tomorrow we go, what's over there?

  1134. I have no idea. They probably should have done

  1135. it without counting the costs because you start counting the

  1136. costs and numbers don't math and your power doesn't work.

  1137. It's like this sin census, like David took a census of his

  1138. people. He's measuring his power versus

  1139. God's ability versus his enemy. And today we just step out on

  1140. faith, Amen. Like we just ask God, we trust

  1141. you in this season. That takes a step of faith and

  1142. that's the commitment card you guys have in your in your hands.

  1143. That's that step of faith. That's the actionable piece.

  1144. And no one asked you to turn the end of the day, but I encourage

  1145. you read through it, pray through it, look through and

  1146. say, Lord, what would you have me to give to do to play part of

  1147. the story so we can get in the first permanent space?

  1148. Like what would you have me do? I just pray and just listen.

  1149. Like I don't want you to give a number that I tell you to give.

  1150. I want you to give the number the Lord tells you to give.

  1151. I would encourage you don't sell yourself short too, because it's

  1152. easy to look at the math and say, well, I can really fit this

  1153. in. And that like for us, me and

  1154. Diane, this is the largest checker and write every month.

  1155. Like we don't for us personally, we don't know how we're going to

  1156. actually hit our number, Amen. That's us.

  1157. That's the faith that we have in this.

  1158. But I encourage you, this is going to take bold steps.

  1159. This isn't like a like, oh, wow, this is going to be comfortable.

  1160. This is going to be easy. It's going to take us to look at

  1161. that page and say, Lord, what would you have me really to do?

  1162. Because the reality is, I don't want you to give a penny less.

  1163. The Lord asks you to give, don't you give a penny less?

  1164. But it all comes through prayer and fasting and playing a part

  1165. of the story. It will be honored and excited

  1166. whatever God does Amen. Like we set a goal like we're

  1167. one point 9,900,000 is what we're going to bring in for

  1168. operations ministry funds. So $1,000,000 goes a difference

  1169. maker you know, and maybe if you raise 700, hey, thank you Jesus

  1170. raise 1.2 million, thank you Jesus, Amen.

  1171. But here's what I do ask is that all of us play part of the

  1172. story. All of us write that legacy.

  1173. There's a verse I mentioned the video, but Psalm 78 four and it

  1174. says this, it says we will not hide them.

  1175. So about God's word, we're not hide God's word from their

  1176. descendants or from our descendants, but we will tell

  1177. somebody say tell we will tell the next generation the

  1178. praiseworthy deeds and the power and the wonders that he has

  1179. done. This is what I've been praying

  1180. and fasting for is that that we have a place where we can tell

  1181. the word of God to the next generation and share of his

  1182. praise with the deeds and his power and the wonders that he

  1183. did. And that we can look back as

  1184. leaders, as difference makers and say to the next generation.

  1185. I played a part of the story. I sowed seeds in that season.

  1186. I was a part of the miracle that God did.

  1187. I didn't want to miss out on God's miracle.

  1188. Don't you think about this as we kind of wrap up today in that

  1189. generation. I don't know how many people are

  1190. outside of Caleb and Joshua. Hundreds of thousands of people

  1191. we know for sure could not say this about their story.

  1192. There's only two people in the entire generation for 40 years

  1193. that could say, hey, I saw the promised land and by faith God

  1194. calls to go in. And I was ready and willing to

  1195. go by God's power because I knew he could and that God honored.

  1196. But for the other generation, think about those 40 years.

  1197. What would they have to say themselves?

  1198. Because they knew immediately they tried.

  1199. I wish I would have. I missed the mark.

  1200. I missed it. I operate on my own strength, my

  1201. own power. I started looking at all the

  1202. obstacles. I forgot about God.

  1203. I'm really sorry, guys. And for 40 years it's my fault.

  1204. Then we're going to wander. We have a chance to be those

  1205. two. Amen.

  1206. We have the chance. We do have the chance right now

  1207. in this series that we can say, you know what?

  1208. I'm going to be the difference maker, our generation.

  1209. I'm be the guy by faith that says, you know, I'm not going to

  1210. stay in the status quo. I'm going to step out by faith.

  1211. The news is all about faith, Amen.

  1212. You guys believe God can do it. It's going to be exciting.

  1213. I'm encourage you guys play a part of the story, be praying,

  1214. be fasting, and don't worry about like how we're going to

  1215. get there. Let's just worry that it's God's

  1216. power that gets us there, Amen. Let's do what the Lord has to

  1217. do. Let's humble ourselves and God

  1218. exalts the humble, Amen. It takes a little boy that's a

  1219. shepherd and is awesome to a king.

  1220. Why humility? Joshua and Caleb, are they the

  1221. strongest, craziest words in history?

  1222. No humility, Jehoshaphat, nowhere to go, pinned against

  1223. the wall. What happens?

  1224. He worships his way to win a war.

  1225. That's what we can do Amen. So Father would come before you.

  1226. God be asked. God, you make all of us

  1227. difference makers in this season.

  1228. God, give us faith. God give us wisdom, give us

  1229. boldness. Maybe today you're a Jesus

  1230. follower. Maybe call real life home.

  1231. You're like, you know what? God is calling me to increase my

  1232. faith. God is calling me to be a

  1233. difference maker. God is stretching me like I want

  1234. to be part of the two. Like I don't be the person that

  1235. says, you know, no, I was a part of that season.

  1236. Like I had bold faith that God can.

  1237. I believed he could. If that's you and God speaking

  1238. to you to increase your faith, just lean into his power.

  1239. Just raise your hand high. Just declare it to God.

  1240. I'm going to be bold faith what God can do in this next season.

  1241. God, you see the hands and the hearts.

  1242. God help us to be people. God that desperately needs you,

  1243. that'll be marked by prayer and fasting, especially this season

  1244. and beyond. God that you'd make a way.

  1245. God be here for divine favor. God for maybe people in this

  1246. house today that can move the needle, that we could be able to

  1247. say yes to an opportunity for our first permanent space.

  1248. God that we can see the future. God, we see the obstacles, but

  1249. God, we see the future. God we see your Kingdom coming.

  1250. God, we see place full of worship and excellence.

  1251. You know, we see souls getting saved, missionaries sent out,

  1252. prodigals coming home, people being discipled, people growing,

  1253. kids being changed for the furtherance of the gospel.

  1254. You know, we see each bold transformation.

  1255. You always see your light shine in your community.

  1256. God, we declare God that there was a promise and you call us

  1257. into God. There's a first permanent space

  1258. you bring to bring us to. So God, give us that faith

  1259. together. In this season, I'll pray for

  1260. one group of people in the house, and that's those of you

  1261. that recognize today that we're all passionate about this.

  1262. So we're real passionate about souls.

  1263. We're real passionate about things of God.

  1264. And he may be the first time in your life you show up to a

  1265. church that has this type of passion.

  1266. And the reason we do is because of Jesus, because Jesus changed

  1267. his lives. He rescued souls.

  1268. And maybe today you recognize that this is this bold faith is

  1269. something you need and it all comes from Christ, that Jesus

  1270. died on the cross for our sins and he's changed all of our

  1271. wrongs for all of his rights. And by that we have bold faith.

  1272. And we are unashamedly Christians living for Christ,

  1273. sharing the good news of the gospel.

  1274. And that gospel maybe came to you today.

  1275. Maybe you saw a sign, maybe somebody encouraged you with the

  1276. gospel this week and you're here today for the first time ever,

  1277. and you're recognizing there's something special about these

  1278. people. I'm just telling you today, all

  1279. this is Jesus, that we've humbled ourselves before the

  1280. cross and said, Lord, we need you.

  1281. God save us. And that's what separates us.

  1282. We're not perfect, but we're forgiven.

  1283. And if you need Christ today and you need forgiveness today, the

  1284. Bible says that, Amen, because the name of the Lord shall be

  1285. saved, forgiven and made noon change and inside out.

  1286. And so if you needed Christ today, I'd encourage you just to

  1287. humble yourself before him. If that's you, you need Christ,

  1288. you just raise your hand high. This place, nobody looking

  1289. around to make it weird. I'm going to call you out.

  1290. You can see your guys's hands, see your hand.

  1291. If you need Christ today, would you just pray this prayer?

  1292. The prayer does not save you, but it's that belief we talked

  1293. about that faith by faith. I saw Abraham was saved by

  1294. faith. We're saved by faith.

  1295. That faith in God just called him by faith and say thank you

  1296. Jesus, that you died across from my sins.

  1297. I believe you're the sinless son of God that died for me.

  1298. I recognize your power. I see your might all through

  1299. this sermon and through the Bible and God, I need your power

  1300. in my life to forgive my sins, come in life and save me and

  1301. make me new that close in Jesus name.

  1302. The church said, Amen. You guys have people raise your

  1303. hand on a building message, Amen.

  1304. That's the power of God, Amen. Give it up for Christ.

  1305. I gotcha, there we go. I mean, what an encouragement

  1306. today. I know for me as well, just

  1307. calling us to bold faith and even the title of this message

  1308. that this is our moment. And some of you recognize today

  1309. that this was your moment to meet Jesus today and you

  1310. recognize that you need him. You raised your hand, you prayed

  1311. that prayer and committed your life to Jesus today.

  1312. We are so excited for you. Let's give them all a hand

  1313. again, if that's you, come on. Hey, we would love to walk

  1314. alongside you to resource you today with a few things.

  1315. If you would just grab that connection card that's on your

  1316. seat. Go ahead and fill out that top

  1317. portion there, but make sure and check that box that says I

  1318. committed my life to Jesus. You can drop those in the giving

  1319. buckets as they pass here in just a few minutes.

  1320. But by doing so just allows us to get you a few things.

  1321. The first one is this. It's a free book.

  1322. We'll drop it in the mail tomorrow, but it's a short read

  1323. called begin. It really will be a blessing to

  1324. you. It's got a ton of resources, a

  1325. lot of information as you're kind of taking that first step

  1326. with Jesus this week. Also, if you prayed that prayer

  1327. and you are right here at Kentucky Trail, as you exit the

  1328. worship center, there is a table to your left there that has some

  1329. red bags. Please grab a red bag as well

  1330. inside as a Bible just for you. A letter from Sean with a few

  1331. other resources that we know will just be an awesome next

  1332. step for you this week. Hey, if you are newer with us in

  1333. the house today, thanks so much for being here today.

  1334. We love that you chose to spend your morning right here with us.

  1335. We really don't want anything from you except for this.

  1336. It's just to introduce yourself to us.

  1337. You can do that by grabbing that connection card, filling out

  1338. your information. You can check that first time

  1339. here box. You can actually take it out to

  1340. the new here booth as you exit just to your right there,

  1341. there's a new here booth. Have a free gift that we would

  1342. love to get to you. Just our way of saying thanks

  1343. very much for being here and we would love to see you back right

  1344. here next week. Wait, I'm going to take a minute

  1345. and just talk about something that I believe truly will define

  1346. the next chapter, a real life church.

  1347. And that's our difference and Maker initiative.

  1348. I mean, over the last eight years, we have just seen God

  1349. move in so many incredible ways. We have seen 500, almost 500

  1350. people commit their lives to Jesus, 500 people whose eternity

  1351. is changed forever. Can we just celebrate that for a

  1352. minute? So good.

  1353. We truly believe that we are just getting started.

  1354. And as we take this step into a permanent space and opportunity

  1355. to say yes to a permanent home for real Life Church, I mean,

  1356. that allows us to minister full time to students, to teens, to

  1357. families, and ultimately to our city because we're believing to

  1358. see 5000 lives changed for Jesus in the next chapter of Real Life

  1359. church. That's why we're asking every

  1360. one of us to start praying. Continue praying, in fact,

  1361. asking and asking God what is bold faith look like for me in

  1362. this season? You can scan the QR code there

  1363. on the screen. Also in your book there is AQR

  1364. code as well that will take you to our difference Maker website

  1365. just to catch the vision to learn more about what this is

  1366. and start asking God, what do you have for me in this season

  1367. at Real Life church? And I want to you to hear my

  1368. heart on this. It is not about a dollar amount.

  1369. It is not about a number truly, it's about 100% participation.

  1370. All of us who call real life church home stepping in and

  1371. saying yes, God, how can we do this together?

  1372. And I also want you to hear this sincerely that we don't want you

  1373. to give a penny more than what God asks you to give.

  1374. But this is a bold faith journey.

  1375. So we also don't want you to give a penny less than what God

  1376. is asking you to give. And so you got a commitment card

  1377. when you walked in the door. We're not turning those in

  1378. today. We do that later in the series.

  1379. So you don't have to worry about filling that out.

  1380. But really, now is the time to pray, to seek to believe and

  1381. dream together that through our faith, through our generosity,

  1382. we'll see thousands of lives impacted and changed for Jesus.

  1383. And so if you call real life home, there are a lot of ways

  1384. that you can take part in generosity today.

  1385. You can scan the QR code that's there on the screen.

  1386. You can text any amount to that number there as well.

  1387. You can drive cash or checking the giving buckets.

  1388. There's a box in the back as well if that is more convenient

  1389. for you. And if you or your family find

  1390. yourself in any kind of immediate need this week, maybe

  1391. it's food or clothing or shelter.

  1392. Would you please reach into the buckets that they pass here in

  1393. just a couple minutes and just grab out any loose cash that you

  1394. see? We really do want to bless you

  1395. and your family. Man, what an awesome day.

  1396. Can we get it for God just to call in our lives to be the best

  1397. of difference makers in this generation?

  1398. And I'm so excited for this next six weeks.

  1399. Hey, I want to let you guys know about a couple awesome things

  1400. coming up. So on Sunday, September or

  1401. September, they were the year ago.

  1402. Man, I'm getting old. October the 26th, we're going to

  1403. have a super Kids Sunday. So your kids are going to have a

  1404. great time at 9:00 or 10:45, whichever gathering they come to

  1405. with wearing their favorite costume, candy, and just a

  1406. message of faith about the real hero, Jesus in our lives.

  1407. And then on Wednesday of October as well.

  1408. So real life youth Halloween party, costumes, talent show, I

  1409. guess, or meet. Hey, Drew, can we do that?

  1410. Can we get in the talent show? We told no.

  1411. It's gonna be awesome. So check out, check it out

  1412. details online or hit the QR code.

  1413. And you guys don't want to miss out on that.

  1414. Hey, if you need prayer for any reason, we'll have somebody up

  1415. here to pray with you either as individuals or family.

  1416. Can't wait to see you guys again next week at 9:00 or 10:45.

  1417. And as always, remember, whoever finds Jesus discovers real life

  1418. and purpose.