“This Is Vision” by Pastor Daniel Floyd

Welcome to Gateway Churches Podcast.

Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.

Hey, welcome to church, everybody.

Come on, let's put our hands together for Jesus one more time.

At every location.

Come on, right there in your living room by yourself.

So glad you're in God's house today.

Do you want to say hello to all of our campuses, everyone joining us online or on demand later in the week?

Of course, our gateway gatherings and our prison campuses.

You are not a project, you are family to us.

And so we're grateful for you.

And then, of course, everyone here for the first time or the first time in a long time.

Come on, every location.

Let's put our hands together for those who are with us for maybe the first time or it's been a minute.

We're just really glad that you're here.

Beginning a very important series today, and it's going to go for the next uh well, five weeks total.

And so I want you to be here every week because today is simply the 30,000-foot view.

And then we're going to dive a little deeper each week into the series.

And so make sure that you are in the house because we are setting the course for the future of our church in this series.

And so so important that you're here.

And uh, we just love how God is moving.

I do want to say a special shout out because some of our campuses are in overflow every week.

And so God bless everybody that sets an additional seating.

Thank you for still showing up.

We are working to make more room for you, and uh, we promised you that.

Yeah, put your hands together.

All y'all in comfy seats in the room.

Give some love to people that are in the overflows across our church life.

Um, we're beginning a brand new series called This Is Us.

Today's message is entitled This.

If you're the note-taking type, write this down.

If not, write it down anyways.

Um, the title is This Is Vision.

So we're gonna begin by talking about this is vision.

Let's pray together.

Holy Spirit, speak to us.

We need you.

Our hearts are open, our minds are open, and we believe your word has the power to change us.

May we never be the same.

May we never be able to unsee what we see in your word today.

And we pray this in Jesus' name.

Everybody said, Amen.

Amen.

So for about a year now, um, in different environments, uh whether it be coffees or lunches I've had with leaders or campus visits, where literally we have had conversations with thousands of our church family, um, or in an email or in a hallway conversation, I've been asked this question over and over.

It's a repeated, continuing question.

Pastor, what is your vision for Gateway Church?

And I haven't answered that question.

Because I have a core belief that may surprise you is that as the pastor, I don't get to invent a vision for God's church.

Yeah, you can clap about that.

Now, of course, I believe and have vision for things like the future and expansion and seven-day-a-week outreach centers that we could then raising the next generation, and and we need to remodel some things, y'all.

We got some dated carpet and things.

We need all that, yes.

But I'm talking about the core purpose of the church.

I'm talking about that core thing because here's the reality is that this isn't our church, it's God's church.

It's God's church, and he's building his church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

So our job is not to figure out what is our vision for God's church, it's to say, God, what is your vision?

What is your purpose?

And then we're gonna join you there.

How many of you know that asking God to join your mission is kind of backwards?

But whenever we get on his mission, then guess what?

Miracles happen, lives are changed, communities are transformed, and the gospel advances.

And so today, this is my prayer, really, is that you would sit in the eye doctor's chair and I would go, one, two, three, four.

One, two.

You know what I'm talking about?

I just did this a few weeks ago because the eyes are aging.

And then all of a sudden, what happens is that you you look at it and go, wow, I didn't realize how blurry those letters were before I got the one and the two, and I figured out the right mixture.

Are y'all following me?

And here's what can happen to us is that the purpose and God's purpose and God's mission for our life over time can become a little blurry.

And so I'm just wanting us to have a revelation of what the word tells us, and then let's all determine we're gonna jump in on what Jesus wants for his church.

And if we do that, then we will make a big difference in the communities around us.

If you believe it, say amen.

You know, vision is a powerful thing.

I hope you have vision for your life.

Some of you have vision for your businesses, you have vision for different areas, division for your parenting.

I hope you do, because vision uh gives guardrails.

You know, the Bible says that where there's no vision, people cast off restraint.

Well, the way it's saying is where there's no revelation from God.

It doesn't mean just a self-help book of like you need to have vision.

But no, the word vision in Proverbs 28 is a revelation, a revelatory vision.

It's it's what God is doing.

Whenever people can't get their eyes focused on what God is doing, then they cast off restraint.

But when there's vision, when you're doing what God wants you to do, the Bible says, then you are blessed.

And it would be awful to live our life giving our energies to the wrong thing.

It'd be awful to live our life by the wrong scoreboard.

I think that would be awful in your personal life, that that the scoreboard of your life that you get to the end of it and you go, wow, I won, but I won at the wrong thing.

And it would be awful as a church for us to stand before God one day because to much is given, much is required.

And to stand before God one day and he goes, You did a lot of great things, but you were looking at the wrong scoreboard.

D.

L.

Moody is attributed to saying this.

We don't 100% know, but it he gets the credit.

Our greatest fear should not be a failure, but it should be at succeeding at something that really doesn't matter.

And so, what really matters to Jesus as it relates to his church, as it relates to us?

What mission is he inviting us into?

And I think it's very clear all throughout the scriptures.

We're going to start in Matthew chapter 28.

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

If you're with me, say amen.

Matthew 28, here's what Jesus said.

He came to them and he said, All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.

So I've been given authority, and with this authority, here's what I want you doing.

I want you to go and make.

Everybody say it with me, every campus, go and make.

We're supposed to be making disciples.

And we're to make them where?

Not just in DFW, not just in Jackson Hole.

Shout out, Jackson Hole.

Not just in Wyoming, not just in the state of Texas, but we're supposed to make them in the nations of all nations.

And we're to baptize them.

He's talking about water baptizing there in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you.

So there's a training mechanism to this.

And surely I'll be with you always to the end of the age.

We like to cherry pick this verse and go, don't worry, God's with you to the end of the age.

That promise is attached to us being on his mission, which is disciple making.

You got to read it in the context.

He says, I'll be with you when you are on my mission, and my mission is to make disciples.

Now, if Jesus says it once, we should listen.

If he says it five times, we should really listen, right?

I'm not going to read all these.

I just want to show you that in Mark, he says, I want you to preach the gospel to all creation in all the world.

In the book of Luke, it says he told them, This is written, I'm going to suffer.

And uh after that, repentance and the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, and it'll start in Jerusalem.

In Luke, he says, This, you are my witnesses of these things.

I'm going to send you what my Father has promised.

And he says, But stay here until you receive power.

I'm going to come back to that.

And then in the book of John, he said again, he said, Peace be with you.

He goes, I must, as the Father sent me, I'm sending you.

And with that, he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit.

So there again we see the power of God needed for the mission of God.

In the book of Acts, he said to them, It is not for you to know the times or the dates the Father is set by his own authority.

Time out.

They were arguing about when are you returning and when is he coming back?

And he said, You're focused on the wrong thing.

He says, You're going to receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.

And here's why: to be my witnesses.

And I want you to start in your own hometown.

And then I want you to take it to the nations, and then I want you to take it to the end of the earth.

This is what I want you to be about.

Here's what I want you to see.

Listen to me, church, lean in.

The first mention of the Holy Spirit in the life of a New Testament believer was not so we would feel good.

It's so that we would go make disciples.

The power of the Spirit of God in your life is for the purpose of empowering you to go witness of the gospel of Jesus Christ and build disciples.

Now, I am not a cessationist, and if you don't know what that means, it's a theological term that means people that don't believe the gifts aren't for today, like the gift of tongues and healing and prophecy and those different things.

I am not that.

I am a continuationist, which is a word that means if it happened in the New Testament, I believe God can still do it in the church today, 2,000 years later.

And so if it happened in Acts, I want to see it in Gateway.

Can I get a better amen?

But I want you to notice prophecy and all those things wasn't the first reason the Spirit was given.

The first reason the Spirit was given was so that we would have power to make disciples.

Because Jesus is all about making disciples.

The word disciple there means learner, but not in the classroom setting, it means in the apprentice setting.

So it's someone that slowly over time is so following Jesus that they look more and more and more like him.

That were on the heels.

There's a wonderful book that calls the dust of the rabbi.

The idea of disciples with rabbi in the New Testament church was that, or the Old Testament idea is that they stayed on the heels, that they got the dust of the rabbi.

That's what we want, the dust of Jesus all over our lives.

That we look more and more and more like him.

So he didn't say go and make converts, he didn't say go and make crowds.

He said go and make disciples.

And so, what is a disciple then?

Well, I'm gonna give you the Daniel definition.

I'm sure there's better ones out there, but I like to put it on the bottom shelf, everybody, so all of us can eat.

Amen.

This is what a disciple is.

Simply someone who is moving, that's the important word, to deeper and deeper levels of commitment to Jesus and to the thing he's building, which is his church.

He said, I'll build my church, the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

So a disciple is someone who's moving.

In other words, if you're not continuing to progress, then the question is, are you continuing to be discipled by Jesus?

We never reach a place in our walk with God where we've reached the pinnacle of our spiritual growth.

I have arrived.

No, we've never arrived.

Because discipleship is this journey of us becoming more and more and more like Jesus, which how many of you know that become more and more like him?

It is one step after another step after another step.

Whenever Owen was born, our oldest, um, I remember Tammy and I, you know, you're doing all the firstborn things, right?

I mean, you sterilize the bottles.

If a pacifier falls on the ground, you have a backup that's clean, and you know, by the third one, you just lick it and then put it back in their mouth.

It's the gospel truth, right?

But whenever Owen, you know, when they're little, the first one you want them to start walking like all the first, you just think it's amazing.

So you like take their hands, you know, and you're trying to help them walk, and they pull up, and then all of a sudden they're walking more, and then they get mobile, and you're like, oh wow, now I have to baby gate this entire house.

I didn't, it was so much easier when they were immobile, right?

So then Faith came along, she started pulling up.

I'd set her down, pull up.

So I was like, I don't know if I want you mobile, right?

I saw a meme the other day and I thought, this is great.

It had a dad sitting in a chair with baby gates all around him saying, Maybe we've got it wrong this whole time.

I was like, that's pretty good.

All the parents of toddlers said amen, right?

And uh, but how many of you know that whenever they begin walking, it's a few steps and then they fall?

And you're like, You did so good.

And then they take a few more steps and then they fall, and you're sending videos to the grandparents, and you're posting it on Instagram, and you're making TikTok reels out of their little first steps, right?

And then they fall, and then they get back up.

And what happens over time?

They get better and better at walking, they get more stability, the muscles grow.

Why?

Because they practice step after step after step after step.

Can I tell you something?

It's a beautiful picture of discipleship.

Because any of you that have been walking with Jesus for some time know that you took a few steps and then you fell down, and then you got back up, and hopefully you had somebody in your life that was like, You're doing good.

It's okay, keep going.

And then you took a few more steps, and then you may have fallen down again.

And then you took a few more steps, and then maybe you took a couple backwards.

And maybe you thought you were further along, then you ran into that person, and that anger came up again, and you're like, Whoa, where'd that come from?

I got some more steps I need to take.

And this is the journey of faith.

No one accepts Christ and is fully mature the next day.

Just like no child learns to walk one day and is running the next.

Because it is step after step after step.

So here's the deal: if you've been walking for Jesus for a long time, you know that's true.

Because if you look at your life, it's a series of steps where you became more and more committed to Jesus and more and more committed to the thing he's building, which is his church.

Amen, everybody.

And so, what are these steps that we need to help people?

Yeah, let's clap for that.

Let's clap for that.

You of you okay.

So, what are these steps that we need to help people take?

What we as a church, we need to clearly, unmistakably be intentional about helping people take a next step.

And I think there's four steps that we see that obviously this is 30,000-foot view.

You gotta come back next week if you want to go a little deeper in this, but I'm gonna give you the 30,000-foot view, and and within these categories, there are there are thousands there's there's never-ending steps that we need to take in growth.

But I think there's four I want to show you that we see over and over in scripture.

I'm gonna give you two passages to show you this.

But number one, I believe that God wants every person on the earth saved.

Okay, make sure I'm in the right church.

I was like, we need to write a new message if we don't believe he wants everybody saved.

I wish that none would perish but all come to repentance.

He wants everybody saved.

The people that vote like you and don't vote like you.

The people that live in your neighborhood and the ones that live in the neighborhood you never move into.

The ones that have the education you have, and the ones that never had the ability.

He wants everybody saved.

Red, yellow, black, and white.

They are precious in his sight.

He wants everybody saved.

Come on, can I get a better amen?

All right.

But that's not where we stop.

We don't stop at being saved.

People have to be pastored.

Because there's some, just because you accept Christ doesn't mean you've dealt with all the issues of your yesterday.

Doesn't mean you've dealt with the hangups and the habits and the sin patterns.

And yeah, in a moment God can free you from some things, but how many of you know that our walk is like an onion?

You peel back a layer, and then there's another layer to peel back, and there's another layer to peel back.

And you've got to be pastored through those things and discipled through those things.

And then He doesn't want you to stop at that, but wants you to be developed.

Why?

Because you have a mission, you have a gift and you have a calling on your life.

I don't know if anybody's ever told you that.

But you're like, well, I don't, I can't go into that.

I'm not asking you to join the staff of the church.

That is not the goal, by the way.

The goal is that you'd be mobilized into that boardroom you walk into every week and live out Jesus in front of them.

And that when you walk into Starbucks and that when you walk into your school, that living in your dorm room, that you would be on the mission of Jesus, that you would be developed, that we're in the developing business.

Why?

So that you can be mobilized to go make a difference in the world around you.

This is what God wants for you, and we see this over and over and over.

And this is one of those things I'm hoping that you see today that you can never unsee.

Because I think once you see it, you'll start reading scripture and go, there it is again, and there it is again, and there it is again, and there it is again.

Because from the children of Israel to the New Testament church, God's been wanting this for his people.

It's my core conviction.

I'll show you Exodus chapter six.

Are y'all with me so far?

Okay.

Exodus chapter six, verse six.

This is what um God tells Moses to say to Israel.

He said, He said, I want you to tell them I'm the Lord, and there's four I will statements.

And matter of fact, for if you just want some extra things to write down, these four I will statements are connected to the four cups that they would drink in the Passover Seder.

It says, I'll bring you out.

So he's bringing them out of Egypt from under the yoke of the Egyptians.

The second one is, I will free you from being slaves to them.

So there's a bringing out, and then there's a freeing.

I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.

And then number four, I'll take you as my own people, and I will be your God.

Then you will know that I am the Lord your God who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.

So four I will statements.

I'm gonna bring you out, I'm gonna save you from being under slavery to the Egyptians.

But then watch this, he has brought them out, but then he goes, But now I've got to free you.

Because just because you got out of Egypt doesn't mean Egypt got out of you.

And they were 400 years of slavery, so generation after generation after generation after generation only knew a slave mentality, and so he had to get Egypt out of them.

And don't think you're not any different.

I'm your friend.

Just because you said yes to Jesus doesn't mean that all the Egypt stuff from your past is out of you.

Doesn't mean that the generational curses that have been handed down from generation to generation are out of you, and you've got to do some deep work sometimes to get free from the things you gotta be pastored.

So you gotta be saved and you gotta be pastor.

But then he says, I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and mighty acts of judgment.

The word redeemed there is this idea, it's that he's gonna restore you back to what you were originally intended for.

One scholar said that whenever God was saying this, it's as if he was hearkening back to the covenant that he made with Abraham and what with that Abrahamic covenant to go, I'm gonna bring you back to that place, what I originally intended for you.

Can I tell you something?

Before the Garden of Eden, before the fall of man, God had an original intent for you.

You had a purpose in the earth, and he is redeeming you back to that thing.

He didn't just redeem you so you get fire insurance and go to heaven one day.

He redeemed you because you have a purpose to accomplish.

And you've got to be developed towards that purpose.

You've got to discover that.

You have a spiritual gift and you have a personality and you have life experiences that God is all working together for the good so that you can make a difference in the world around you and live on this mission that He's given us.

This is, let me show you a New Testament passage.

It's Paul praying his desire for the church in Colossae.

He says, This, he is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.

So that's so you can reach your highest potential.

So, number one, it's him we proclaim, that's the gospel, that's saved.

Admonishing, the word admonishing is a very unique compound Greek word that actually means to put into your mind.

In other words, there's some new thinking you've got to have, which means you've got to remove some old thinking.

It's Romans 12, 2.

Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

So the word of God needs to literally put into your mind some new ways of thinking that give you freedom.

Why?

Because your transformation in your life comes through the transformation of your mind.

Are y'all getting this?

Then he says, we got to teach them.

Why?

Because you've got to be developed.

And so you need teaching with all wisdom, so that why?

So you'll be fully mature.

Fully mature doesn't mean that you can quote everything in the Bible.

Fully mature means you are on the mission that Jesus has you on the planet for.

And that is why you've been empowered, circling back to Matthew 28, to go and make disciples.

So, all throughout scripture, I hope you can't unsee it now.

I hope whenever you sit down and you read Luke, where Jesus came to the Temple and he's and he pulled the scroll of Isaiah out and he began to read.

You'll see the same four things there.

And whenever you look at the Great Commission, you'll see the same four things.

Go into all the world, preach the gospel, baptize them.

They need to be pastored.

They need to know the next steps.

And do it all around the world.

Teach them.

So that why?

So I'll be with you so you can go and make disciples.

Do y'all see it?

Are you seeing this?

I'm trying to go one, two, three, four.

Alright, I'm gonna give you a bonus one from the New Testament.

It's one of my favorite.

It's the prayer of the Apostle Paul for the church in Ephesus.

He said this I ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory, here they are, to make you diligent and discerning to know Him personally.

Once you saved.

Your eyes clear and focused.

He wants them focused and wants them clear.

How many of you know that you can't have clarity for your future if you're clouded by the bitterness of the past, the sin of the past, the issues of the past?

He says, I want you to get clear and focused.

Why?

He wants you to be pastored because you need some freedom in different areas.

All of us need it.

Tammy and I joke all the time.

We're just like, we're doing our best as parents, but at the end of the day, they're going to need some freedom.

Come on, how many are you thankful for the grace of God over our parenting?

Okay.

All right.

Focused and clear.

Why?

So that you can see exactly what he's calling you to do.

Because you have a calling.

And you'll grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life that he has for you.

What is this glorious way of life that he has for you?

It's living on the mission that he's given us as believers.

And so I want to give you in the next few moments how we're going to say it here.

The language for how we're going to say it here.

And I just didn't think that save, pastor, deploy it, that didn't wasn't something you'd put on a t-shirt and inspiring.

And here's what I also discovered, because in all the conversations I've had with people that have been here five years, ten years, fifteen, twenty-five years, is that gateway at its best was helping lost people get saved, saved people get pastored, pastored people get developed, and developed people mobilize.

And so this isn't Daniel's new vision.

It's always been God's vision.

And when we're doing that, his hand is on us.

And when we're not doing that, he's like, y'all keep having church.

Are you with me?

So I didn't come up with this language we're going to use.

I actually put hundreds of people into focus groups and says, here's what God wants.

Figure out how we say it, that is easy to remember, and that you can know it.

So I'm going to show you that, and then I'm going to break each one down.

Are y'all with me?

It's a big day, everybody.

It's exciting.

All right.

Somebody asked after the first service, why didn't you share this a year ago?

Like, I needed to spend a year just listening, learning, and loving.

That was my whole goal.

So we're going to say it this way.

Here's the purpose is to lead people, because we're active participants, we're not passive bystanders, to do three things to know God personally, to grow in faith, to be pastored, to be developed, and then to live on mission.

To live on mission in your business, to live on mission in your school, to live on mission all around you.

Because here's the deal.

The world was turned upside down in the book of Acts because of a group of people lived on mission.

And I believe that our communities can be turned upside down in the best of ways for the glory of God if all of us determine this isn't the church's mission, this is mine.

I want to help people know God personally.

I want to help people grow in faith.

I want to help people live on the mission of Jesus.

And if we do, I believe we'll see lives change.

Do you believe that?

All right, let me walk through these three real quick.

Number one, know God personally.

I've learned in my time here, a lot of people know church.

And a lot of people know about God.

There's a difference between religion and relationship.

Matter of fact, Matthew chapter 7, Jesus said this.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

He said, Not everyone that calls to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven.

That's a sobering verse.

On judgment day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, look what all they did.

We prophesied in your name, and we cast out demons in your name, and we set up chairs in your name, and we greeted in your name, and we worked in kids in your name.

We prefer many miracles in your name, and he'll reply, I never knew you.

I never knew you.

Here's why.

Because religious activity doesn't equate to relationship.

The goal was never activity.

Busyness doesn't equal impact.

The goal was not how busy can we get Christians?

How many of you know you're busy enough?

You're trying to keep up with the kids' schedule and the group mees and the group me's and then the 20th group me.

Busyness is not the goal.

Intimacy is the goal.

Knowing Jesus is the goal.

Having a personal relationship with Him is the goal.

And out of that intimacy flows our service to the Lord.

So this is what we need to do is to help people know God personally.

Intimately.

This is why we end every service and we give the gospel and give an opportunity to people to respond to the gospel.

Why?

Because we need to help people know God personally.

We've got to lead them.

That's our job.

That's why He left us here on the earth.

So how are we going to do that?

Because how many of you know that you can have a desire to do something, but if you don't have a system that delivers that vision, then you're never going to get it done, right?

Hello?

If you don't know that, let me tell you that.

If you want to lose five pounds and you keep eating it in and out, you have a bad system.

You need a new system.

The new system is go to the gym, eat clean, burn more calories than you take in, okay?

Are y'all following me?

Here's the system.

Here's what we can do to help create this environment is this we can create weekend experiences that church and unchurch people love to attend.

We can create a weekend experience where if you've been walking with Jesus for a long time, you're challenged and encouraged.

And if you invite a neighbor that's never darkened the doors of the church, they walk away going, I don't know if I believe it all, but I felt known.

And that spoke to me.

Because there's this debate in bigger church circles.

I don't waste time in debates, but it's like we're a discipleship church.

We're an evangelism seeker church.

I thought we were supposed to be doing both.

I thought we were supposed to be reaching the lost and building disciples.

I thought that was part of the discipleship-making process.

Well, we're a word church.

Well, we're a spirit church.

Aren't we supposed to be both?

Isn't it word and spirit?

Isn't it lost and building believers?

Isn't it discipleship and evangelism?

Can't you live in the tension of both?

One of the greatest gifts I got was a professor took me to lunch in my sophomore year of college, and he said, Daniel, he said, you'll do well if you'll learn to live in the center of biblical tension.

And what he meant by that was this: he said, if great scholars have been on other side, two sides of non-essential issues and have debated and they're both brilliant people, he said, then maybe the Bible's somewhere in the middle.

If some are like it's only sovereignty of God and some it's only free will of man, he goes, Maybe it's both.

And if you can learn to live in the tension, you will do well.

Can I tell you something?

We're going to be a church that lives in the tension.

We're going to reach the lost and we're going to disciple believers.

I don't think you have to choose.

I believe a presence-driven church invites the heart of an unbeliever to go, man, they got something I don't have.

I believe when the Spirit of God meets with us and the word of God is presented in a way that is challenging to someone that's been mature for a long time and connects with someone that maybe his first time or first few times in a church, I believe you can have both.

I just believe the Spirit of God is big enough to do it all.

I don't want to limit God.

Come on, can I get a better amen?

All right, number two.

So we're gonna do both.

We're gonna do both.

Preach the word unashamedly.

If you know anything, you should know what you're in.

I'm gonna preach the word.

Whether you like it or not, whether you agree with me or not, whether you amen or not.

If you amen more, it would be helpful.

But I'm gonna be faithful to the book.

But we're also gonna reach lost people.

Hello, somebody.

We're gonna build a church that your children and grandchildren want to come to.

I think that's what we all want at the end of the day.

Yeah.

Number two, we're gonna help people grow in faith.

Help them grow in faith.

Why?

Because the journey of discipleship is one step at a time.

And how we need to help people do that.

James 5.16 says this.

It says that therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.

1 John 1 9 says, confess your sins to God for forgiveness.

James 5.16 says, I have to get in community with other believers so that I can get healing in my life.

Some of you, you've been forgiven, but you're still wounded.

And it's because you haven't connected in community.

And so what are we going to do?

We already do this, but we're giving a lot more effort to it.

Is we're going to create groups where people can experience community, find freedom, and take next steps.

I'm okay, listen to me.

I'm okay if for a little bit you slip in and out.

You need to be anonymous for a little bit.

But eventually you need to be known.

Eventually you need to not be a face in the crowd.

I'm not trying to build a big crowd.

I'm trying to help you build a big life.

And to build a big life, you've got to get in relationship with other believers.

Tammy and I are in a small group.

I'm not asking you to do something I don't do.

I'm in a small group.

I need community.

I need other believers around me.

I need people that'll encourage and challenge, pray for me, pray with me.

I need a place of community.

I need a place where I can find, where I can take the mask off and go, hey, I need you to know this is really what's going on in my heart right now.

Someone that'll be there, that'll walk.

You need that in your life.

And then you need to take a next step.

Think about this with me.

Like, picture this for a moment.

Come on, every campus.

Lena, picture this for a moment.

What if every group semester, every person in a group just took one spiritual step?

It would be seismic in the life of our church.

If just one, if it was like I've accepted Christ, never been water baptized, I'm just going to take that one step this semester.

Because it's a step at a time.

I've never had a consistent quiet time.

I'm going to start reading my Bible and then praying every day.

Wow.

I've been in a group, but I feel like I'm supposed to lead a group.

Wow.

I've come and I've sat, but I've never served.

We'll start serving.

Talk about the impact, y'all.

Semester after semester, everybody's just taking a step, taking a step.

What happens?

We'll look back and go, wow, we're being disciples and we're making disciples.

We're being disciples and we're making disciples.

Number three is live on mission.

And here's why.

Because according to Romans, we all have been given these grace gifts.

They're gifts that are supernatural.

At the moment you know Him personally, you've been given these grace gifts.

And these gifts are an expression, this is what this verse means, is these gifts are an expression of the grace of God to the people that encounter your gift.

So you think about this.

Some of you are like, I'm not a gift.

No, no, no, listen.

Whenever people encounter the gifts God has put inside of you, they are encountering the grace of God through your life.

This isn't about, we need more kids working, more people holding door.

No, no, no, no.

We're on a mission.

And if greeting someone at the door helps carry down the barrier and makes them film their home so their heart will be open to the gospel because the average person decides whether or not they're returning to your church in the first 12 minutes on the property.

So if your encounter with them and the love that they feel from you and the grace they feel because you were willing to serve helps open their heart to the gospel, and then the message is preached and the seat of the Word of God and the Holy Spirit does his work.

Wow.

We get to be a part of the mission of Jesus.

And I don't know about you, but I want to get to the end of my life and go, I did one thing really well, and it's that I lived on purpose and with a purpose.

I want to be what the apostle Paul said in Acts 20, he said this, however, I consider myself worth nothing to me, my life worth nothing.

My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me.

Man, I want that to be your prayer.

That you finished the race and completed the task because you've been made on purpose for a purpose.

And it is to be on the mission of Jesus.

And I hope you can't unsee it from this day forward.

I hope you see that He wants everyone on the planet saved and pastored and developed and mobilized.

And I hope you never unsee it.

So, how are we gonna say it?

We're gonna help people know God personally, we're gonna help people grow in faith.

And we're gonna lead people to live on mission for Jesus.

Here's what we're doing, everybody.

Know, grow, and live.

Know, grow and live.

That sounds a lot better than say pastor developed.

Told you.

And so I'm asking two things of you.

Number one, where are you on the journey?

Have you stalled out somewhere?

Have you stalled out at well?

I know God and I come on Sundays, but that's we're not really in the life of the, then you need to take a step.

I've accepted Christ, but I've never been water baptized.

You can get water baptized today.

It's a step towards deeper and deeper levels of commitment to Jesus and His church.

I come on Sunday, but I've I've never kind of done the group thing.

I don't know about that.

Well, you need to take a step.

Where have you stalled out?

I'm in a group and I've been doing groups for years and years and years.

What are you waiting on?

It's time to lead a group.

You need to take a step.

Well, I've been coming to church and I'm in a group, but I'm just not, I don't, I don't like spend time with God during the week.

It's just kind of a Sunday in a group thing.

Well, you need to start a consistent quiet time with God.

It's a step.

Well, I've never really used my gifts to serve.

I don't want to sign up.

They're gonna, you know, ask me to be here every night of the week.

Busyness is not impact everybody.

I'm not inviting you to be here every night of the week.

I'm inviting you to get on the mission of Jesus, to use the grace gift you've been given in whatever form it's been given to you to make a difference in the world around us.

So, where are you on the journey?

And all I'm asking you, take one step.

Just take one step towards Jesus, one step towards commitment to Him.

And then my second question is this will you make this mission your mission?

Not just on Sundays.

Now you're wanting something else from me.

No, no, I want something for you.

And what I want for you is that you would be a part of fulfilling the Revelation chapter 9 picture, which is every nation, every tribe, every tongue, every language gathered around the throne.

Revelation 9 · chapter mention

I want you to get there and go.

I played a part in so-and-so in the back of the crowd being here.

And my part was I led a small group.

My part was I served in this way.

My part was is I just tried my best to be Jesus in the place I work or in the dorm room that I live in or in the classroom that I teach.

I I lived on the mission of Jesus, not just in the church.

I lived on mission outside the walls of this church.

I want us all to gather around the throne that day and go, We did it.

We joined Jesus in his mission.

And our lives were worth the living.

One, two, three, four.

Is it clear yet?

That he wants lost people saved.

Saved people, pastored, pastor people developed, and developed people mobilized.

We're gonna say it this way to know God personally, to grow in faith, has to be pastored and developed, and then we're gonna live on mission.

And can I tell you something?

This city will never be the same if we do it.

Wyoming will never be the same.

Come on, you receive the word of God today.

Will you pray with me?

Every head bowed, every eye closed at all of our locations, if you can, where you are online.

Maybe you're here today, and when I read Matthew 7 and he said, I never knew you.

The word knew there doesn't mean that he didn't have knowledge of them.

He was Jesus.

What it meant is he did not have relationship with them.

And maybe you're here today.

And you're realizing I don't know that I have relationship with Jesus, intimacy with him, true connection with him.

Or maybe you're here today.

And there was a time, man, when when your heart was all in, but you know now that you've drifted and you're far from God.

Whichever case you find yourself in, I just want you to know you don't have to remain there.

That today can be a day of brand new beginnings, a day of surrender to Jesus.

And so if that's you, and you're like, I want to take that step, that's the step I want to take today, then I want to give you the opportunity to do it.

And it's simply through a prayer of you expressing to God, God, today I make you the Lord of my life.

I ask you to forgive me, make me new.

And he promises that if you'll ask by faith, he'll do it.

So before we pray together, I just want to know who I'm praying with.

No one's gonna come to you or point you out.

But at all of our locations, if you'd say, Pastor, that's me, God's speaking to me today.

I need to take that step.

Then when I count to three, you just shoot your hand up high enough and long enough for me or the pastor at your location to see.

And then we're gonna pray together on three.

One, two, three.

Just shoot your hand up high.

God bless you.

God bless you.

Keep it up.

God bless you in the very back, very, very back wall up in the top.

God bless you.

Incredible.

You can put them down.

Church, will you pray this out loud for with me for the benefit of those who just slip their hand up?

Just say, Jesus, I need you.

I ask you to forgive me of all my sin.

I believe you died for me.

I believe God raised you from the dead.

Today I make you my Lord and Savior.

Thank you for a brand new beginning.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Come on, let's put our hands together for all those who made that decision.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you'd like to connect with us, text Connect to 71010 or visit gatewaypeople.com.

We hope you have a great week.