Built To Last - Week 1 - Damon Moore - April 19, 2026

This is the City Place Church Podcast.

Here at City Place, we build dreams, ignite faith, and establish leaders that win the lost for God's kingdom.

From wherever you're listening, we hope that you are empowered by the message.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So city Place, you're 10 years old and there are pastors who are sending greetings.

So Pastor David Weir, he is one of the church overseers.

We, um, Ty and I, we are under.

Spiritual authority should anything happen to Ty and I, there are pastors that would come in and care for City Place Church.

And then, uh, pastor De uh, ARD, uh, he's part of the Potter's House of Dallas.

Um, Bishop TD Jakes, well, he's retired now, but, uh, pastor Ard and I, we were in a cohort with Bishops Jakes when we were, when we were in our thirties and, uh, and, uh, just became really good friends.

And so, uh, they wanted to just send a greeting.

To let you know that they are cheering us on, uh, for what God wants to do.

And so throughout the year, we said that we were gonna turn this 10 year party into a whole year's party.

And, uh, you're gonna be hearing more and more of just encouragement from, uh, the impact that you're making literally around the US but also around the world.

How many of y'all are glad? If you're a part of City Place, glad to be a part of a church that is not standing still.

But it's doing something new.

And so, uh, if you have your Bibles, go with the Joshua Chapter 24.

Joshua 24 · chapter mention

This morning I woke up with this song, Tasha Cobbs sings this song that says, I'm getting ready.

Okay, great.

Amen.

All right.

You know it, it's on your playlist.

Uh, but there's this, there's this line where she just says, I'm getting ready to see something I've never seen.

And I felt like, as I was waking up this morning, that song just kept echoing in my heart.

I'm getting ready to see.

Something I've never seen.

You know what? That's tough when you haven't seen it yet to start declaring.

I'm, I'm getting ready to see something I've never seen and I felt like I needed to encourage you that no matter your waiting period, no matter what you've been asking of the Lord, you're getting ready to see something you've never seen.

And our heart posture has to remain in expectation, not in disappointment.

Our heart posture has to remain in expectation and not in disappointment.

How many of y'all can believe that you will get a chance to see something you've never seen? David said it like this.

He said, I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

You're getting ready to see something you've never seen.

Can we pray for the word this morning, father, in Jesus' name.

We just thank you that as we get ready to move into.

Uh, your word today.

God, I just pray that you'll speak clearly.

I pray God that you'll speak with the authority that your word has and that we'll all be on the edge of our seat and grab hold of something that will shift in our heart, in our spirit.

In the mighty name of Jesus we pray.

Amen.

Joshua chapter 24, how many of y'all were here last Sunday? Thank you guys.

Joshua 24 · chapter mention

I know that was short and sweet.

How, how many of y'all were here last Sunday when Bonnie Joe Daniels was here preaching with me? Did you enjoy that, that soul check.

And so, uh, she said something last week that kind of catapulted this Sunday.

She said that one of the ways that we would continue to make sure that our soul is healthy is to recognize that we've been built to last, not to be broken.

And this morning the title of our, our conversation's gonna be, uh, that we're built to last.

We've been in a study of the book of Joshua, and we're not going to leave that, even though as I share about the vision for building and we dream about the building, I'm gonna bounce over to first Corona Chronicles here, uh, soon.

But I'm gonna take us to the end of the book of Joshua because as I was studying and preparing, I felt like the end of Joshua's life gives us a glimpse of his mentality once God started speaking to him.

About moving from cautious to courageous.

That's our focus for the year.

If you haven't been here city Place in 2026, we're moving from cautious to courageous, and I want you to listen to this moment.

The setup is, is that Joshua is about to die and he is setting up the people so that as they continue on without him, they move to all that God has for them in the current season of their life and not just focus on what he had done, but to keep it sustained without him.

This moment of their life wouldn't be built on the leader that was leading them, but they, that they were cemented in their own relationship with God.

Not just focused on the promises that he's given them, but the personal relationship that they have with the Lord.

You good? That's the context.

Broken down in just 30 seconds.

Here's what it says in verse 14.

Now, therefore, this is Joshua speaking to the people.

Fear the Lord serve him in sincerity and in truth.

Put away the gods of your fathers served on the other side of the river and in Egypt.

Serve the Lord and listen to the boldness right here.

I love this.

And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you'll serve, whether the gods which your fathers serve, that were on the other side of the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.

And this is where we gonna springboard.

But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

That's it.

I got more to be, but I'm gonna stop right there.

He looks at the people and he says this.

He says, now listen, in one season of your lineage, your family chose to serve other gods.

On the other side of the river.

You gotta read all of Joshua.

We'll get there at some point this year.

He said on the other side of the river there was a disconnect.

But now since you on this side of the river and we don't have options, don't you dare turn back to a previous season when the Lord your God is in front of you.

But then he gets real bold, he goes, but if it's evil to you to serve the Lord, you decide.

But as for me.

My house, the way I built this thing is when I'm gone ho, ho, they gonna serve the Lord.

Like he let them know that you won't even see me anymore.

But as for me and my family, it's a non-negotiable because the way this thing has been built, it's been built to last.

I know you might look and go, what was that all in there? See, Joshua lets us know that regardless of whether he's here or not, he's already cemented his family in their relationship with the Lord.

And by the time you finish reading the text, you go to verse 15 and 16 and 17, the people are like, oh no.

There is no way that we're going back to where we came from.

Just as you have said, so shall we do, we will serve the Lord.

And so there's this cementing, not just of Joshua, because if you've been with us for a period of time in Joshua chapter one.

Where we spent the majority of the time, we said that God is gonna give you and I vision for ourselves, and then God's gonna give us vision for other people so that they can walk in the fullness that God has for them.

And then God's gonna give us vision for his house.

All of our purpose and all of our destiny is going to be impacting somebody else.

God is always gonna put something in us that's not just gonna benefit us, but it's gonna impact somebody else.

And by the time Joshua is about to go and meet the Lord, he says, my family is secure.

And so should you this morning.

As we talk about being built to last, I want you to think about right now in your life.

If your foundation is cemented or if it's a little shaky.

Y'all good? Good.

See, I realized that in one simple declaration, he reveals how his life was built over the last few weeks.

City place.

We've had a verse.

Joshua, chapter one, verse nine.

I don't know if we have that, if you can put that up.

And we've just made this as a simple declaration because.

We've said that if God is moving us from cautious to courageous, then we wanna feel this thing.

And so every single week we've been quoting this verse by simply putting our name in front of the verse as we quoted it together.

And we would say something like this, Damon, have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous.

So on the count of three, I want you to put your name in front of this verse and I want you to yell it out.

And I want you to hear yourself declare what God declared to Joshua.

Are you ready? One.

Two, three.

Damon, have I not commanded you? See, when we get to Joshua chapter one, we are in the beginning of Joshua's leadership.

God tells Joshua, Hey, I just want you to know I'm building you, and you don't have to worry from every single angle, I've got you covered.

He tells him, I've got the land for you.

I just want you to know that I will protect you.

No one will be able to stand before you all the days of your life as I was with Moses.

I'm going to be reflected upon you.

And then he starts.

Telling him, now you be strong, you be courageous.

Don't be afraid.

Don't be dismayed.

When you get to verse eight, he's like, now listen, let me tell you, the secret sauce to your success is that you will root yourself in the book of the law day and night.

And if you will follow the book of the law which Moses had written out the commandments of God, then you will observe it all the time and then your ways will be made process.

When we get to verse nine, God then says, just to make it clear, this is not some sort of option.

I am commanding you now to walk in courage.

I'm commanding you to walk fearless because I'm with you.

Without me, you gonna falter, but with me, you're strong.

So from that conversation to the conversation bookend in Joshua 24, God said it first and then by the time we get to the end of the story, Joshua's like, I just want you to know from God saying it the first time, my family's been rooted in his promise.

We're not coming out.

We've been built to last.

And it's all because he rooted himself in his relationship with the Lord.

There's some things here that I wanna pull out.

As we talk about this journey from being cautious to courageous, but building it to last, we said that God will meet us in our comfort.

We said that a few weeks back, we said, God meets us in our comfort.

And normally the first moment where God meets us in our comfort, our first step is a little cautious God.

Okay, I, I'll take the step.

I'm not sure where you're gonna lead me, but I'm gonna go and we said that as we begin to move from our comfort, we, we had a little, a little grid and a little slide.

We said, when we move from our comfort.

We start taking a cautious step, but it's the connection to Jesus.

It's the connection to the Father that allows us to progress in our growth in our discipleship.

That cements us in our relationship with the Lord.

We said that we have to be connected.

We can't just walk on our own, but we have to be connected.

And we are in John 15.

Jesus said, I am the vine.

You are the branches.

If you abide in me and remain connected to me, you will bear much fruit.

And we said that it's the connection that every phase of our growth, getting to courageous, we have to be, uh, connected to Christ.

So we said that we'll go from being cautious to consistent, then we'll move from consistent to being committed.

And every step of the way, there's that connection going back to Jesus.

And then we said, ultimately, if we're committed and we're connected, then we'll become courageous.

All of this is taking place in Joshua's life when we meet him again in Joshua chapter 24.

Joshua 24 · chapter mention

He has cemented his life in his relationship with the Lord.

Therefore, he's not coming out because every step of the way where God's calling him closer, or every kingdom that they had to conquer, he had to spend more time with the Lord.

Every step of the journey he was building it to last.

He wasn't just building it to check the next kingdom off or to check the next accomplishment.

He was like, God, because you are doing what you're doing.

I'm drawing closer and closer to you, and I realized that you're the ultimate answer and pride.

So when God is pulling you and I closer, and he speaks to you when you're comfortable and you're moving a little cautious, but then you're deciding that you're gonna move out in faith and you see him doing more, don't get distracted by what he's doing, focus on the one who's doing it.

It begins to cement our connection to him.

It cements our relationship with him.

Therefore, we look less at his hands and more at his heart.

Still to last.

There's a spiritual rhythm that God's trying to do something in us, and so often it looks like he's only showing us his hands when really he's showing us who he is and his heart.

I know that's a lot when you're like, we only read a verse and we said this.

We said, everyone has to take a step in their, a courageous step in their journey.

Why? Because God's heart is, he wants lost people found.

Y'all heard this before.

Have you've been here? He wants lost people found.

He wants found people free.

He wants free people equipped and equipped.

People mobilized.

It's the one reason why in Joshua chapter one, he doesn't just stop by saying, Joshua, guess what? You and your family will get everything.

I promise.

No peace said, actually, Joshua, you're gonna lead others.

As your family's getting their promise, you're gonna lead others into their promise.

Everything that God will do in you will have a benefit into someone else's purpose as well.

So you and I will have to live life.

Selfless.

So we said clarity of vision comes in pursuit.

We said, never discount the process that Jesus wants to take us through.

And I realize that as we get to the end where Joshua says, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

There's a verse in Psalms 1 27 that brought it all to light.

Here it is.

It says this in verse one.

Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build.

Unless the Lord God's the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.

It is vain for you to rise up early in the morning to sit up late doing all that extra work that you brought home to eat the bread of sorrows, and look at what it says for He gives his beloved sweet sleep.

Like, unless the Lord builds it, you working in vain, but I gotta get this report done.

Therefore I will sacrifice family time for this report.

Unless the Lord doesn't mean you won't do it builds the house.

You will labor in vain as you try to build it.

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

He's the one that's been building it, and I'm just telling you right now, we've been built to last.

If we make space for what the Lord wants to do and allow the original designer to also be the architect and the builder, then when we look back over our life, you and I will be able to say, as for my family, kids, or no kids, being an aunt or an uncle, as for me and the thing that I put my hand to, they will serve the Lord.

Because I didn't focus on what I was trying to accomplish.

I let the builder build.

I took what he said.

I believed it.

I ran after it, but I didn't run after what he was doing.

I ran after one who was doing it.

So now I can stand firm knowing that after me, this train's gonna keep going.

Can I ask you a question? If.

And, and I'm not trying to be morbid, but if today was the day, would you be able to say that the thing that's been in your hands, that it'll move forward in how the Lord wants it to move forward? Is, is is what you are building right now, would it last or would it fade away without you? Unless the Lord builds it? We laboring in vain that build it.

Y'all good? Did that sound really sad when I said that I wasn't trying to be sad, but it's the truth, right? So here's here.

Here's a couple of things to write down in your notes.

And this may or may not be in here if this life God gave us is to be built to last.

We have to think eternal and generational.

If this life God gave us is to be built to last, we have to think eternal and generational.

Josiah, can I have a one of those message notes right there? Appreciate it.

We have to think eternal and generational.

That's how God's thinks.

Thinks he's thinking eternal and he's thinking generational.

The other thing that if we're gonna build this thing to last, it's gonna require courageous devotion.

We're gonna have to be sold out to the king of all kings and the Lord of all lords.

You and I are not going to be able to build a life that lasts.

Without 100% devotion to the father.

We can't be so timey.

Sometimes I'm in, sometimes I'm not.

Sometimes I spend time with him.

Sometimes I'm too busy.

Sometimes I believe he can.

Sometimes I just don't want to believe that he can.

Sometimes I'm in my small group, sometimes it's not my season.

Sometimes I go to church.

Sometimes the church doesn't really need to gather because the church is in all of us.

Sometimes.

Sometimes, like, what if we just said, I'm gonna live a life of complete and courageous devotion to the father, and I'm gonna let him build something that's going to last Joshua.

It's bold about the fact that, hey, as for me and my house, this thing has been built to last.

A couple of thoughts y'all.

I came across another verse in Matthew chapter seven, where Jesus said this, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock.

The rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew beat on the house, and it did not fall for it was founded on the rock.

Like if we're gonna build it to last, you and I are gonna have to think eternal and generational, but we have to have a courageous devotion that says, your word is of value to me.

Like when I'm reading scripture, I'm not just reading a good book, I am literally experiencing the life-giving message from the father.

And I have to grab hold of the word and I have to apply the word, and as I apply the word, my foundation gets stronger.

Have you ever been knocked off of a faith pursuing goal? Only to start doubting midway.

Like I can't tell you how many times, like in this pastoring journey, I really was like, God, I just don't know if you will.

I don't even know if you can.

Sounds funny preaching this morning, doesn't it? But I wonder if those seasons of my life I was just doing instead of being with the one.

So Jesus says, Hey, the foundation is here, y'all.

I wrote this down.

So where will my, 'cause we talked about our soul, where, and this is not in your notes, maybe it is.

Ha.

Where does my self and my soul sit when I embrace every word of the father? Where will my soul and where will I sit when I embrace the word? And I, and I was thinking, and I was reading, and I was like, wait a second.

If I embrace his word, I will sit rooted and secure.

I will sit rooted and secure in his word.

When I embrace his word, when I, when, when I think about Joshua.

In Joshua chapter one, he took a promise from God, follow the promise of God.

When we get to 24, he's like, Hey, just ask for me and my family.

We will serve the Lord.

We're not coming out.

We rooted in what he said he would do.

We saw what he said he would do.

Now we trusted what he said he would do.

Now as I'm about to end, I just want you to know the day ain't coming out.

They're rooted and they are here.

So write this down and then we'll bounce over to First Chronicles.

If we're gonna build something to last, we're gonna have to partner with God.

Bonnie mentioned that last week.

She said that if our soul is gonna be healthy, we have to take responsibility in partnering with God.

If we're gonna build something that last, we are going to have to partner with God.

So you and I are gonna need to be intentional to build spiritual first.

Write that down in your notes.

We're gonna have to be intentional to build spiritually, first spending time with God.

We will not be able to grow doing life from a works mentality when it's the spiritual side that God is calling us to you.

Also, I was, I was studying and uh, I realized that throughout scripture there are men and women in scripture that God called.

To do courageous things.

And then there were men and women in scripture who, from one encounter built their life on a promise of God and encounters with God.

And one of my favorite people in all of scripture is David.

I love David so much that I named my first child David, like, because there's something about David that he was a broken man.

He wasn't a perfect man.

David did some jacked up stuff and God would say, man, he's after my own heart.

What really, David, you? No, it's because David's heart was cemented and rooted in his relationship with the lawyer.

David would go and act out.

He would commit adultery.

He would count the wrong number of people and then he would be like, oh my God, I'm so sorry.

I totally was doing my own thing.

Totally made it about me.

And then he would be like, God, I am so sorry.

He, David would be corrected and wouldn't act out.

He would just be like, you got me.

I know better.

I, I knew better, but, but it just got it, it just got in the way.

I'm sorry, Lord.

And so David would constantly run back to the father and I realized that David had this courageous devotion.

And when I was reading one Chronicles 28, just for a time, I'm not gonna read it all, but I'm reading, uh, one Chronicles 28 and David is about to die.

And I'm like, wait a second.

I just got through reading Joshua 24.

But the context was different.

In Joshua 24, Joshua is charging the people to stay rooted in their relationship with God based on what they had already experienced and to keep moving forward, to not be distracted by other gods that they had experienced for themself.

They had experienced helping build other people.

When we get to first Chronicles 28, David is talking about building God's house and he's talking to the people and he's talking to his son.

And he is displaying y'all.

You have to read it.

This whole chapter is all about this devotion that God, that, that David has to God's house and he starts saying stuff like this, and I want you to write this down.

I want you to write this down because I won't be able to go through all of it.

But like he gives us this example.

If, if we're gonna build things to last, what could it look like if we're gonna build things to last, this is one of our focuses for the year.

Like we have to be intentional about building the one.

Like we have to be intentional about impacting the one because David has this conversation and it says something like this.

It says that David got in front of all of the assembly and he was speaking to the leaders of thousands and he was speaking to the leaders of hundreds and he was speaking to stewards of his cattle and possessions, and he was telling them all that was on his heart.

And y'all, as I was reading this, I felt like the Lord was like David didn't just get his own.

David was really intentional.

Them about impacting one y'all.

If we will impact one, we don't know if that one will impact tens, fifties, hundreds, or thousands.

All we have to do is we have to be focused on impacting one.

When God starts doing something in our life and we're building our life, we can't be selfish and go, I arrived.

We have to go, man, what did God put in me that I can put in someone else that would cause them to build someone else? He's speaking to all of these people and it's like, and they're leading thousand.

And they're leading hundreds, and this one's leading this area, and this one's leading that area.

David starts pouring out his heart as he's starting to share that God wants to build a house.

Here's the last thing and then we'll finish here.

I don't want, I want y'all, I, I want y'all to feel like, oh, Lord, we didn't fill in all these blanks.

The Bible says that in verse two that David begins to share.

The fact that God had given him a plan to build, uh, or that he had a plan to build a house for God, he starts saying, man, I had this plan to build God a temple or, uh, and, and, and it was gonna be magnificent.

And the Lord spoke to me and said that you're not going to build it.

Your son Solomon's going to build it.

He says, the reason why is 'cause you are a warrior.

And he goes on to say, and God gave me all the plans.

God gave me the plans for the walls.

God gave me the plans for the furniture.

God gave me the plan for the portico.

God gave me the plan.

And this is what David says.

And I know I won't build it, but I know that this generation will, and as I was reading, I felt like the Lord wanted me to encourage it.

If we're gonna build, we have to live as we live every single day with an open-handed mentality that the thing that God begins to birth in us is not just for me, is for someone else.

It took me back to Joshua 24 as he's like, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

It's like everything that we've been building is so that the generations will know.

I will tell you this though, that when you go further ahead in Joshua, it says this, in the first few chapters, it says, there arose a generation after Joshua and the elders died, who didn't know the mighty acts of the Lord.

David in Chronicles decides that he's not gonna let anything die, whether it's for the people, whether it's for the purpose of others.

Or whether it's for God's house.

If you and I are gonna build something that's going to last, we need courageous devotion and we're going to need this heart posture of God.

I'm gonna live open-handed and God I'm gonna partner with you city place.

Over the next few weeks, we're gonna be talking about how we're gonna build life.

We're gonna talk about building ourself to last.

And then I want you to target.

I want you to target May the 24th.

It's gonna be Pentecost Sunday.

Pentecost Sunday is 49 days, 50 days after Jesus rose from the grave when the Holy Spirit falls.

I feel like the conversation that we've been having since Easter, God has been speaking to our heart.

God has been speaking to our soul to focus on him, and God's gonna build us up to run.

Towards all of his purpose and destiny.

But he doesn't want us to do it from a position of being selfish.

He wants us to do it from a being in a position of being selfless.

God wants to build us to last.

Are y'all ready to take a good journey? Y'all are quiet this Sunday morning.

Everybody's like, you're writing down these notes, man.

Writing down these notes.

So we're gonna build this thing to last, but we're gonna be open-handed.

Now.

Can I spend a few moments and can we dream a bit? Can, can we dream a bit? So we've had a, um, a conversation about our courageous steps.

We said that there's two things that the Lord's asking of us this year to be courageous.

One, we would impact the one, I think we had, uh, 80 something people serve on Easter last Sunday.

I forgot to thank you all by the way.

Thank you for giving of your Sunday serving one Sunday sitting one Sunday.

Thank you for impacting the one.

Here's the thing about impacting the one.

We don't just, we're not just asking people to serve on special holidays.

We need people ready to serve every single Sunday throughout the week as we impact more people.

I was doing some numbers y'all.

So far this year we have had, let me see, 75 people say yes to Jesus.

Ain't that crazy? And we've had 16 baptisms.

But here's the thing.

Here's the thing.

For the one, for the one on a Sunday morning, only 13%.

Of the couple of hundred people that come serve on Sunday, do you know what that means? That means that there's a potential that one of the 75 might slip through the cracks if we don't have that person there to catch 'em so that their house can look back later and say, we will serve the Lord.

Now there's an opportunity for all of us to not just receive on a Sunday, but to go, Pam, you know what? I'll hold the door for you because we just don't know what God will use.

And so I'm inviting all of us to serve.

I love the fact that we were serving in our community.

We got opportunities.

But Sunday mornings, who there were so many hands up this Sunday morning, man, what if it was you or you that walked with that person in their growth? We got opportunities.

The second thing is we said that we, God was calling our church to acquire a property, and I don't know about y'all.

We've been in a portable situation for 10 years.

Somebody say, that's too long.

Look, y'all like, I don't know.

I'm just playing.

The Lord knows what he's doing.

But we said that we would begin to believe the Lord for a permanent location here.

Here's what's really cool.

Here's what's really cool.

Um, in December, we were asking the Lord for a semi-permanent location, and I'm happy to say that we don't have a name yet, but let's just make one up that we've been using City Place hq.

We have a 2200 square foot.

Our office and warehouse location to where groups are already starting to meet, groups are already starting to gather.

I heard, I heard this little whisper that they are, uh, planning exercise classes in the summer.

I'm like, I can't believe that I'm helping motivate people to get health.

You know what I'm saying? Ah, right.

And so, so listen, they, we've already had couple small group in there.

Our students met there on Friday.

So what I'm saying is, is that the Lord is starting to do some things.

But we're gonna need more help to, to, to capture the one.

And so God is doing that.

And then we started dreaming about our, our permanent location.

And several weeks ago we talked about, well, what would it look like if we dreamed together? I don't know if y'all have those slides.

Like, what, what would happen if we started dreaming together? We said, y'all see that, that look good, don't it? Jarrell, Jarrell.

You gotta wave Jarrell.

Come on.

You weren't here, Jarrell, we said, we said, what would it look like? There's, there's a slide.

Um, it says God's house.

Will you put that up? God's house.

We're believing the Lord for a permanent location.

That'll be seven days a week, uh, a seven day a week campus that will allow for our community to come in and to be ministered to.

We're talking about things, not just that's gonna be worship, but classes.

We're talking about business leaders coming in.

We're talking about seminars.

We're talking about whatever the Lord sees fit, but we want a seven day a week facility.

Now here's the thing.

We don't know if we're going to acquire, we don't know if there's a season when the Lord will have us build.

But here's what we do know is we do know that the Lord is called, uh, calling us to move from cautious to courageous.

In our preparation, Taisha was sharing a story with a group of people that she was sharing how.

There was some facilities over the last few years that we had seen, but we just weren't ready for.

And she was sharing how the Lord had begun to stir in us that we should no longer hope for a miracle.

We should plan for one.

You know what I'm saying? We should plan for one.

And several weeks ago we started showing you these pictures and this is just a dream.

We're just believing that God will give us a 10,000 square foot.

You can leave it right there.

Community, uh, property where our community would come in.

And that it'll benefit all of our community, but also literally people all around the world.

And so over the next season of City Place Church, we've got two focuses.

We're gonna impact the one, and we're gonna need all of us to be a part, and then we are going to be walking into within the next few years, our permanent facility.

You wanna hear more about it? You wanna hear more? You good? You got a little stamina.

Got a little Sam who, who, who gimme 45 more minutes.

I'm just playing.

Look at that.

Look at just testing your heart again.

Testing your heart again.

So here, here, here's the thing, and as we study First Chronicles, there's a conversation that David has with his son and he's having it with the people.

And he says, say, listen, we've done everything we can to build God's house, but I won't do it.

He says, I'm gonna give everything that God gave me.

I'm giving it to you to build.

And he says, there's been resources that I've set aside.

There's been plans that I've set aside and my devotion to God's house won't change.

He says, in fact, I want you to pray about consecrating yourself, community of people to join us on the journey.

So on one hand, we want to impact the one, and on the other hand, we want to impact a permanent location to where, guess what? When all of us are gone, they'll look and go, man, city Place is still going.

They've been around for X amount of years.

They're impacting people.

They've impacted thousands.

And so here is the journey that we're gonna be taking over the next two years.

We're gonna be taking the courageous journey, we're gonna be taking the courageous journey, and it's gonna be one where we're moving from cautious to courageous.

Here's, here's the question that we've been asking ourselves.

What could God do through our bold, courageous step of generosity? One that will transform lives, build legacy, create a place to worship and establish a permanent home for city place.

In our community, we've been asking God, what would, what would it look like if we all took one step together, one crazy, consistent or committed step together to see what you would do in our city and what you would do in our community.

Here's the thing, God, y'all, there's a church that we see.

How many of y'all have heard us talk about the church that we see? Filled with an atmosphere of worshipers, thousands of people gathering together.

Multi-campus is doing ministry throughout the week and in the schoolhouse to the boardroom, and we doing missions in our city and all across the world.

Well, we're already doing some of those things, but can you imagine if there's a place that's seven days a week in our community where people don't just drive by an empty parking lot and goes, oh yeah, we should try that church.

But they be pulling in going, man, life happens at that location.

That's what we're dreaming about.

That's what we're talking about.

So what's required? What's required is all of us taking a simple next step.

So here is one of our faith goals.

One of our faith goals is this, is we want 100% of city place church in our families growing in the gift of generosity.

100% of every single person here at City Place Church growing in the gift of generosity.

It's the same faith goal we have with impacting the one.

What if 100% of City Place is impacting one person? Well, what would happen if 100% of City Place says we gonna be generous? Here's how we're gonna do that.

Because you might be like 100%.

If 100% of us are growing in the gift of generosity, that means that we get to take one step wherever we are.

Maybe it's a consistent step.

I can take a consistent step.

Maybe it's a committed step to become a tither, or maybe there's that courageous step to give over and above your tithe, God will speak to you right where you are.

Some of us may be comfortable.

Right now, I'm, I'm not doing nothing.

Hey, God will meet you in your comfort.

Some of you might be like, I've been consistent.

God may call you higher for what we're getting ready to do.

That's between you and the Lord.

But what we do know is that all of us can take a step.

So here's how we're gonna do it.

City place.

We're gonna create space.

We're gonna create space where we're gonna be practically growing in our knowledge of the word of God as we are taking these steps, this is not something where God is wanting donors.

God wants to build disciples.

We wanna build a culture of generosity that will outlast us.

And so here's what city place is gonna do.

We're actually gonna teach from the word of God on finances.

We're actually planning budgeting classes in the summer.

So that we can grow in our personal finance.

There's things that God wants to do for you, God wants to do for others, and God wants to do in his house.

So we are gonna have a growth not just in Kingdom finances, but in our own personal finances.

How many of y'all are like, I would want to grow in my personal finances, you know what I'm saying? And so we've got classes and so we're gonna take a journey together so that every single person here together can take one simple next steps.

So let's get practical.

What would be our.

Faith goal, our courageous goal for 100%.

Here's where we are.

In 2025, there was $517,000 given to City Place Church.

Through your generosity, $517,000 was given to City Place Church, including our seeds offer.

Now, here's the practicality.

Remember I told you 13% of our church serves on a Sunday.

32% give throughout the year.

So we have a church of a couple of hundred, but only 32% of our church gives.

Can you imagine the impact that we would make if it increased just a little bit? If we all took one step? The impact that we can make more missions.

Last year we gave away $41,000 in cash money to missional work.

Can you imagine the spread of the gospel? If we all took one step? One step to create a culture of generosity that will outlast us.

Us and of that 32%, $500 was given or more.

So what that means is, is that if 32% of our church gave $500 or more, that means that they were carrying the load.

There's another 24% that was carrying the major part.

All of us could play a role in our generosity to see kingdom work happen.

Now, some of y'all, I can look at your faces as you're tuning me out some, someone looked at me like I'm not.

Um, so here, here's the thing.

Here's, don't, don't tune me out.

If this is home.

Don't tune me out if we wanna build something for someone else.

I know when you start talking about money, he goes, yep, I knew it.

Here it comes.

They were gonna, no, no, no.

We, we don't wanna be excited about just what others are building when God calls us to build it.

Like, and just so, so, you know, I, I've had, I've had conversations with other leaders in our church and they've been pushing me.

To move from cautious to courageous 'cause this is where our church is going in a new season to where God wants to root us in.

And generosity is something that you have to preach about and talk about.

And so can you imagine what would happen if we all just took one simple next step? Now, here's our big faith goal.

Over the next few years, our big faith goal is $1.5

million over the next two years.

So our first goal is that we want everyone to take.

One next step.

Our courageous goal that over and above our tithing offering is $1.5

million.

Here's what this does.

This allows us to have a down payment.

We believe in paying off our debt.

We, God has called our church to be a debt-free church, but we know that first step.

That first step.

We have to get the attention of some lenders as a young church, but we are already putting in place that we won't be.

A, a, a, a debt carrying church.

We not gonna celebrate this building is 20 million and we still owe 18.

We ain't doing that.

Nope, we ain't doing that.

We already have a plan.

And our faith goal is that within seven years of any property we're debt free.

Okay? So I want you to know that we're not just doing a, we have a plan.

Alright? And so, uh, the 1.5

does several things.

They positioned us to buy the building, retrofit the building, if God gives us one to acquire.

And then it allows us to have the carrying costs for the months ahead while we're per planning and we're moving in and we're not rushing to do this, we're gonna take 2026 to 2028 to do it together.

Why? Because when we look back and we go, man, what did God do? We'll say, well, we built it to last, not just to get a property.

We built it for impact to the community.

And so here's what it looks like.

This is where we currently are.

This is what I love City Place.

Organically, we've already saved $375,000.

Isn't that awesome? So if you look at that, we're closer than what we thought.

Can I, can I share something else? We, we, we were breaking down the vision and sharing it with other groups of people, and I'm not gonna share it all, but in one conversation with, with one group of people, there was an additional a hundred thousand dollars committed to this already.

You see it? Um, since, since we started casting vision, we've had people say, P pd, we know that y'all wanna do some things in the community.

People have started donating vehicles to City Place Church.

Like, because the vision has to keep moving forward.

And if you've been at City Place, you know that when we have financial conversations, we come around God's word.

And so what I'm saying is that God is starting to tell us to take these journeys and we have to take it together.

And so I wanna invite you to journey with us.

Can you imagine there's a slide up that if all of us took one consistent step, if, if you were just kind of cautious in your giving and you took a consistent step where, let's just say that everyone in this building said that we would just give consistently $50 over the next two years.

If 150 new givers said we would just be consistent while we're learning about the tithe.

We would be halfway to our goal.

If, if, if, if we just said, Hey, you know what, I'm, I'm still growing in the tithe and so I'll just be consistent.

And we gave a hundred dollars.

We would hit our goal in two years.

Actually though, because some people have already committed, we would surplus our goal.

We just we're just saying, Hey, let's serve for the one and then let's also impact the one as we build God's house.

Now you might be like the pd.

I'm already tithing giving.

We have a slide that the team put together.

Now these are slides that the team put together.

We have a building team that has labored before the Lord prayed, before the Lord sought the Lord, and there's one slide that says, okay, well what does it look like if we all ran from a courageous goal to try to get to that 1.5

million? What would happen if our committed became courageous? There's a slide that has some dollar amounts that I want you to see that makes it a little bit simple.

And we had, we, we have a, we have a, uh, one of the gentlemen just really started going and looking at the numbers they had been there and the process of when we were looking at all these properties and they said, well, what will make it simple for where we are to where we can just take a simple step? And so depending on what the Lord speaks to you, if you give $10 a month over two years, your impact eternally and generationally will be a thousand dollars over two years.

Or maybe you want to, so a hundred dollars a month your impact.

Over time is gonna be even greater.

All I'm saying is, is as we take this journey, we won't shy away from the the fact that the Lord is gonna call us to be courageous, to impact the one, and to build him a house.

We are inviting you to journey with us.

Anything can happen if we take one courageous step.

Now, over the next few weeks, you guys are gonna be hearing us talk about it.

Here's the thing.

Um, we're not asking you to do anything today.

We're not gonna take up an offering today.

Now we will have our normal tithing offering as a part of our service, but we're not doing anything today.

This is not a fundraiser.

This is us growing in the gift of generosity and growing in discipleship in our finances.

So here's what we want you to do.

We want you to pray because on May the 17th, during the month of May, we're gonna have a commitment.

Sunday, we're gonna have a commitment Sunday where your family, my family's.

We're gonna pray, we're gonna seek the Lord and we're gonna commit on that Sunday, and then in the fall we'll have our giving Sundays, okay? So you have time to pray and seek the Lord.

For some of you, your faith step will be starting to give consistently.

For others, your faith step is gonna be a committed tither, giving God the first 10%.

And for those of you who are tithing, the Lord's gonna ask you to give above and beyond that.

Here's what we don't want you to do.

We don't want you to set aside giving God the first, the tide so that you can give courageously.

No, we wanna honor the Lord with our first and our best, and then we give over and above.

Sound good? So we're gonna take this journey, we're gonna share more stories on May the 17th.

We are gonna journey together over the next few weeks.

'cause people always ask me, what if I want to give? Now the team will put up places where you can give.

But what what we want you to do is to just pray.

We started having a conversation about vision on the eighth.

And then the 17th of May.

We'll journey together.

Amen.

I know it was a lot of information and I feel I fell 30 minutes short of my time, but hey, listen, this won't be the first time we have this conversation, and I want you to just pray and ask the Lord to do what to do.

Amen.

Can we pray? Father, in Jesus name, thank you for your goodness.

Thank you for your word.

Thank you Lord God, that as we take this courageous journey to impact the one, thank you that as we take this journey to build your house, God thank you that as people's lives are growing, I thank you that you're building the season of our personal life and the season of your church to last.

God, your hand is on every aspect of our life and everything that we say and everything that we do is to bring you.

Glory is of no goodness of our own.

So God, thank you for those that said yes to you today.

Thank you for just this moment, Lord God, to where we can hear the vision that's on your heart.

Make it practical to us as individuals and as families.

In the mighty name of Jesus we pray.

Amen.

Hey, the Lord bless you and keep you, make his face shine upon you.

Lift up his countless to you and give you great peace.

Have a great week.

Thanks for joining us.

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