Expecting More 2026 | Sunday Series.

Hallelujah.

Amen.

So everybody feeling good?

Ready for that new year?

Man, I really am.

I'm super excited because God really declared some things to us over the last few months.

And like timing is everything.

Timing is everything.

And we might not see it the way that God sees it.

Obviously, he's God.

So we might not see it the way that God sees it, but his timing is perfect, man.

And so we uh we got into this end of the year, and I kind of was thinking about New Year's Eve, and I don't do resolutions.

New Year's resolutions are quitted, are failed by February 1.

70%.

So you hit the gym hard January 1, I think 31 days, and then you quit for the rest of the year, and you never go back to the gym.

You hit your diet hard and then you quit.

It doesn't change anything.

And so instead, what I always do, what we do with our kids is we talk about goals.

What are your goals?

And maybe in those goals, it's well, I need to change this about myself, or I want to change this about my life, or or whatever it may be, but we talk about goals.

And the thing about goals is they normally typically are more likely, it's it's scientific, they're more likely to come true if you write them down.

If you just speak them out, they're like, you know, they're out.

And that's all they are, just out.

And so when you write them down, there's something that happens in your brain chemically that says, I gotta come.

I gotta do this.

And you look at that, you should write short-term goals.

It could be short as by Friday, I need to get this done.

Monthly goals, yearly goals.

You want to write those goals and you want to start attaining those goals.

No, if you don't, it doesn't mean you fail.

That's not what that means.

That means keep working.

I write a list every night.

Here's what I need to do tomorrow, because if I don't, I'll forget everything that I'm supposed to do.

And then come two o'clock, I'm like, wow, I didn't even start my list.

I just started doing other stuff.

And so I write it, and then as it goes on, I just drop whatever I got done for that day.

It's not a must, must, must, must, must unless it's at the top of the list.

The ones that towards the bottom of the list, they can carry over to Tuesday.

They can carry over to Wednesday, no big deal.

But I write goals for myself so that I can be intentive about what I'm doing.

I don't just wake up and go, whatever happens, happens.

Because then a lot of things are gonna happen.

And so New Year's Eve, we throw parties, we watch the parades or the shiny ball drop.

My son gave us some really great sacks about New York's ball drop.

Everybody's in diapers because once you get there at like 10 a.m.

in the morning, you cannot leave.

And so the people in the front, 10, 15 rows, they're stinky.

And so that was good info.

But if you really look at what we're doing, what we're celebrating it is, it is this obsessive obsession with change.

We're just obsessed with it.

And so we spend the last day of the year excitedly waiting for the first day of the next one.

And we make plans, we project what we're gonna do.

We spend all this energy looking forward to the new year, but we don't take the time normally to reflect on the last year.

And here's the great thing about reflecting it's not to be stuck in the past.

You don't want to always be looking in the mirror, but it's to see what God has done.

It's to see God is faithful, He's shown himself to me time and time again through 2025.

So I know he'll do it again in 2026.

And so we want to reflect on the on and also on the things that you're leaving behind, on the things you need to let go.

And so there's a tension there.

We're desperate for change, but at the same time, we're kind of like terrified of it.

There was this church that I came on as the worship pastor, and the there was a pretty big team.

There's like 20 something, 25, 26 people on this team, all these musicians, these singers, and everything.

And when I came in, I don't typically, we're just cover bands.

Okay, I didn't write those songs, so we're just doing someone else's music.

And normally everyone just does it the way the radio does it, not me.

So I I have written my own songs.

I have toured as a musician, and so I don't just like it to be just the same way everybody else does it.

And so they freaked out.

Why are you changing all the songs?

Same songs.

Well, we're doing this, we're doing the same exact song.

Well, normally you sing the bridge five times, you only sing it three times.

I think it's gonna be a pick.

I I don't think anybody is gonna leave here disappointed we sing it three times or not, five times.

And people started falling off the team.

Why?

Terrified of change.

And I kept hearing over and over, this is the way we've always done it.

Yeah, that's not a good method.

This is the way we've already always done it.

Listen, we need to change, we need to adapt.

We need to constantly be learning and growing.

That's physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.

We need to adapt.

And so it's kind of like this roller coaster.

I don't know if you're like me when I was little.

I loved roller coasters.

I lived in Dallas, and we did the Texas Giant, which is like the highest at the time, was the highest wooden roller coaster in the in the world, and it just beat the snot out of you for uh five minutes, and you get out feeling like woo-hoo! But it really was like when you put your feet on the ground, like, oh, praise Jesus.

You know, so I that that's kind of how we go through life.

And maybe for you coming into this new year, you're mourning a loss from last year, or maybe you're celebrating a win, or maybe if you're honest, you're you're just kind of dreading the challenges that you see are coming on the horizon, and you're a little anxious about all of that.

And so we want to look at a few passages today that remind us of one thing that changes everything.

Our constant, even through our exhausting state of change, our constant is God is with us, and that has to be our focus and our priority.

In the middle of the new, there's always the constant, and that changes the way that we see the upcoming year, 2026.

So, Matthew 28, 19 and 20, Jesus is talking to the disciples here, and he says, Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you, and surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.

These are actually the final words of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew.

It's the promise that as you go about the mission, you're not doing it on your own or on your own strength.

I'm there with you.

And then Romans 8, 37, 39 through 39 says, No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So Paul is addressing people under intense pressure.

He's trying to encourage them.

You're not alone.

God is with us.

And that's kind of like the ultimate God is with us verse because it argues that there's not a circumstance out there, whether it's legal or financial or personal, that can separate or distance, put distance between us and him.

He is there with us.

And then we have Hebrews 4.16.

It says, Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

We often treat the idea of God as with us kind of like a picture.

It's there, it's pretty to look at, but doesn't really do anything.

And so we think of him as this like passive observer, kind of watching from the sidelines as we just kind of struggle our way through life.

But that's not the God of the New Testament.

That's not at all how they talk about God in the Bible.

He's not a spectate, he's active, he's an engaged king.

He doesn't just stand by when you hit your limit.

He is literally meeting you at the limit with the help that you will need to get past it.

And the best part is that he isn't waiting for you to get it all together before he moves.

He's standing by, ready to provide active grace at the moment that you need it most when you realize you can't do it on your own.

And so, James, if you haven't read James, I'll be honest with you, it's a great read.

It's a hard read.

It's it's how to follow Christ, how to how to be a Christian, living in very hard times.

And so James 1:16 says, Don't be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters.

James 1:16

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all he created.

So James wraps up this one section in uh chapter one by pointing us toward a truth that is is can sometimes be hard for us to wrap our our minds around, but he reminds us that God never changes.

He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And he has provided something we're all looking for: a firm foundation, something you can stand on that will not shake, that will not waver, that will not move, something you can ground yourself and center yourself around, Jesus Christ.

And so we all love the Bible talks about good gifts that God gives us, and we all love that.

We love the wins, new opportunities, the blessings.

When James is saying that because the giver is better than the gift, we should approach him with open hands.

And the reason is because when you approach with open hands and you're open, you're acknowledging this reality that earthly things, the things that we everyday stress about, the stuff we celebrate, they all fail us.

They're not gonna last the temporal.

They're here for a moment, they're gone the next.

All these things we depend on.

And so as we step into this new year, you have a choice.

You'll hear a lot if you come to Mercy Church often, that you have a choice.

And the reason is because God has given you free wealth.

There are churches out there that say, no, it just happens.

God either chooses you or he doesn't.

That's funny because John 3.16 says that he sent Jesus, his only son, so that all, all and they have not only 144,000, all.

So we all have the opportunity.

What are you gonna choose?

So you have a choice, 2026.

You can spend the next 12 months trying to protect and hold on to what you have, or maybe even desperately chasing the next big idea or next big thing for yourself, or you can live with freedom, and that freedom comes from standing on a foundation that doesn't matter and depend on Jesus Christ.

Because when we stand on God's word, we stand on his foundation, we know that he is always faithful to his promises.

We actually get to participate in what God is doing on earth.

We get to be a part of his work.

We get a work for goodness, we get a fight for justice, and we get to create beauty.

Not because we're trying to earn something or prove to him we're worthy, it's because we're standing on something that's already been done.

He's already won the victory for you.

And so God gave, we pray at the end of each year, and Brooke kind of spends her time in prayer.

I spend my time in prayer, and then we do together and we come together.

And what does God put on our heart for ourselves and for Mercy Church for 2026?

And God gave us two words.

He gave Brooke the word expect.

And as I've been praying on those and thinking about them, I see her word expect and my word more as separate, expect and more, and then as together, expect more.

And expect, if you look up the definition for expect, it is regard something as likely to happen.

Believe that something will arrive soon.

And so to me, this is talking about your faith.

Are you living your life in faith, or are you just waiting for that next bad thing to happen to you?

Hebrews 11:1 says, Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

Hebrews 11:1

That's why when you ask God for something on Monday, Tuesday, you don't have to wake up and ask him for it again.

You thank him until you see it walk down.

You might have a broken leg by Friday, but God's working.

His timing is perfect.

He's working it out, and so we don't live like the world lives.

We have a good father, and he wants good things for you.

We have to live as though the things we believe for have already been done, and we're just waiting for them to show up.

It's already happened.

You can praise him and we can thank him for what he's done.

Matthew 7 11 says, if you then, though you are evil, know how to get give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him?

Jesus is using simple math here.

If you, with all your flaws and your humanness, you want to give your kid nice things and good things, why do you assume that God is trying to hold out on you?

He's a good father.

He's inviting you to expect a how much more kind of goodness.

How much more will God do in me, through me, and around me in 2026?

So the question then becomes, what are you expecting this year?

Maybe you've never really expected God to move.

Maybe you've never really depended and leaned on and trusted his word to wait and see how's he gonna do it.

I want to encourage you.

Now, I'll be honest, there's some requirements here.

Whatever your prayer is, whatever you're believing for, whatever you're declaring, it has to line up with the Bible.

We are not name it, claim it type Christians around here.

I can't just walk out and say, I want that five million dollar building because it's gonna cost a lot to maintain.

So I don't want it.

But there are people that'll say, Oh, the Bible just says whatever you believe for.

Yeah, in his will, according to his word.

Yes.

So you can't just go, whatever you want and just ask for it.

And God didn't do it, he failed me.

It's gotta line up with his word, it's gotta line up with with the Bible.

And and here's the thing about that is that God responds to his word.

It's literally says that his word will not return void.

So if you know, if you look in the Old Testament, you look at Moses, it's kind of uh it to me, it was kind of insulting until like I got older and realized what was happening.

Moses would go and be like, But Lord, you said you were gonna do this for those people.

You can't turn on them now.

And it's like, I did.

Why?

Not because he was dumb and he forgot what he was gonna do, because he responds to his work, he responds to his work.

If you if you don't declare his word, if you if you don't depend on his work, if you aren't trusting in him to do anything, whatever's gonna happen is gonna happen.

And that's really not a way to approach life because we are are expecting God to move at all times.

And so what family member are you believing and expecting to come to know Jesus this year?

What relationship are you expecting God to heal this year?

What financial hurdle are you expecting God to help you overcome?

What are you expecting?

And God is faithful and he has shown himself to be faithful.

He could have given up on us a long time ago.

I've done enough junk in my life for God to go, whoop, yeah, I can't help you, but you made your bid.

But he didn't give up.

He created a path for us to know him, and he restores that path over and over all throughout the Old Testament, and then he seals that path by sending Jesus.

But when you believe on Helm, you have salvation, it's a free gift.

You accept, you take, you receive, and you walk out and you live in, and you declare him as Lord and Savior of your life.

And it doesn't matter how you responded or acted towards him, he is a forgiving God.

It says that he will take your sins, throw them into the deepest, darkest ocean, never to be thought of again.

That's a good that's a good father.

And so he's ready, he can handle whatever you've gone through, whatever you're going through.

He is a God of more than enough.

And when you come to church, you should be expecting him to move.

When you show up, you you should be expecting something.

I I want to I want to receive something from God today.

It's not not just you're coming to like just get something.

We want to bless God, we want to honor him, we want to worship him, but we want to receive from him as well.

And the expectance should be I want an encounter with the Holy Spirit.

I want to, I want to move in my life.

I want to hear his word and have it transform my heart.

What are you expecting?

And then we have the second word, the one God gave me, and it's more.

Brooke's word was expect minds more.

And I feel there's two sides to that more.

One, the first is I want more of God.

And say, Oh, well, that's easy.

You're a posture.

Listen, I'm a human, I'm a person.

There are still things that I try to figure out on my own, try to do by myself.

And even as I I preach a message and go, oh yeah, that was for you.

Like, I don't know who you thought you were talking to, but that was you, man.

Go back and listen to Monday.

And I do.

And so I want to be closer, I want to know him more, and I want to depend on him more.

I don't want to hesitate and wait to depend on him.

I want to immediately depend on God.

I want it to be my first response.

I want my first response to be, but God's gonna do something.

Because there's a sense of excitement and expectancy for God to move.

And when your heart is clear and it's open for him to lead the way, he will.

And then the second part of that more is he wants more of me, which in turn means he wants more of you.

I want to surrender more to God than ever before.

I want to give in more.

And so we all say it, we're we're in like a church service, or we're somewhere in the car and we hear this worship song that we're listening to, the music at the time, and we think, Oh, I just want more of God.

But we want to be closer to him, we want to know him, we want to be that person who depends on him when things get sideways instead of just like white knuckling it through the whole week.

But the thing is, we usually skip over the part that we skip over, is we don't realize it's going to require more from you.

And so we want the closeness, but we don't want the surrender.

We want the dependence without the sacrifice.

With in the kingdom of God, that's not how it works.

That's not how it works.

We're always saying, Oh, we're waiting, we're waiting on God.

It might just be he's waiting on you.

It might just be he's waiting on you.

I I and if that's just for me, that's just for me, praise the Lord.

But I know in my life, sometimes it's been like, hey, get out the way, bro.

So I can move.

Keep saying you want this to happen, and then you get in the way.

Just like step over a second, let me take care of it.

And so the reality is that this part makes us kind of a little uncomfortable, but your capacity to experience God is directly tied to your willingness to surrender to God.

Your capacity to experience God is directly tied to your willingness to surrender to God.

If you want to know him more than ever before, you're gonna have to give him more of yourself than ever before.

That's control.

You're gonna have to let Jesus take the wheel.

You're gonna have to let him have it.

You you cannot fill up a cup that's so full of you.

If everything you see is just you, your situation, your job, your relationships, your house, your school, your car, your bills, your, your, your, your, your.

All that you talk about is your, where does God fit in?

Is there any room left for him?

And so if you're serious about the more, you have to be serious about less of you.

If you want more of his presence, you have to be willing to sacrifice your preference.

It's a trait.

It's going to cost you something.

It's the only way to get where you actually want to be.

Surrender.

And so here's how I I in my prayer time I feel God's saying it to me, but he I felt like he was telling me, I want to do more in you, and I want to do more through you.

I just need you to let go of a few things.

So then our question becomes, where is God asking you to give more?

And I'm not just saying like financially, although he might be asking you to do that.

That's between you and God.

But what I'm talking about is in the more that when I think for Mercy Church in particular, for you, what area of life do you need to give to God this year?

What have you been holding and keeping for yourself and not letting him be?

He wants 100%, not 90%.

He wants one heart, every bit of you.

And so each and every single one of us has a call on our life.

And I used to freak out when I was a kid when I was shear that, because then I would think, oh my gosh, that means I have to go into full-time ministry and I have to move to Africa and we live suffering for Jesus.

And I had a notion to come to church.

And I just it used to stress me out.

I had to move across the world.

But the call is actually to advance the kingdom of heaven on our to spread the gospel.

The book of Acts starts as the story of the early church.

Basically, they're trying to figure out how to do what Jesus asked them to do.

And what he asked is pretty straightforward.

Acts 1.8, he says, You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

And we might look at that and go, Yeah, that's for the apostles.

But here's the thing: the they didn't win the Roman Empire completely over all Gentiles, the whole world all during that time.

And they didn't do it by just shouting and standing on a soapbox.

We need preaching, we need to spread the gospel, people need to know the word of God.

But how it's going to actually happen, and what you'll see if you read through Acts is that they were intentional about interpersonal relationships.

They spend time with each other.

I know we went through COVID and it freaked everybody out.

And so having people in your home is might be a little stressful for you.

I saw a commercial the other day almost through the TV out the window.

The lady they're asking her, it's like Rocket Money app or whatever, and the dumbest commercial in the world.

Sorry, money.

And the girl says, Oh, well, I I use the app because I have a phobia of making phone calls.

It's like you don't, you answer the phone every day.

And so it's I know we've got this fear mindset that has been set into us by the world.

That is not what God wants from you.

You're set apart for the call of God upon your life.

And relationships is the way that it's going to work.

And and the world that the disciples and the apostles lived in during that time in Acts 2 was actually very, very similar to our world now.

It was pagan, it was spiritual, but not religious, and it was by every definition a completely aush.

Completely unchurched.

There were worship of all gods, all kinds of things going on, not many people receiving the message about Christ.

And so how did they do it?

They gathered and they shared.

They made a priority of their life to gather with others and to regularly get together and share with each other.

Tell story.

How was your week?

It's not so hard to go, hey man, how you been?

If you can't do it face to face, you have a phone, shoot a text.

Hey bud, how's the week?

You might get a long response.

They might need some time.

Listen, when people start talking and talking and talking and talking and talking and talking and staying and talking, talking, you're like, holy smokes, they've been talking for four minutes.

I said, How did the thing go?

Now we're talking about well, last year they might just need a little bit of a pen.

They might just need a listening ear.

They might just need a loving person to stop what they're doing and go, You're important to me now.

Relationships.

It definitely worked for the apostles in a culture that was really hostile to the message of Jesus Christ.

And so it might just be the thing that works for us in Greeley.

And each one of us has that same calling, a life purpose.

And your life purpose is not just to wake up and figure out how you're going to pay your bills.

Yeah.

That is not living.

I'm sorry.

That it's a necessity.

You have to pay bills.

But if that's all you got, man, come see me.

I will help you figure out some other things with your life.

Because that is not living.

That is not your call.

Mark 12, 30, 31 says, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

The second is this love your neighbor as yourself.

There is no commandment greater than these.

So the world tells you to that your purpose is to get all you can for yourself.

That's a super limited view of existence.

And it's a super limited existence.

It's very small.

When you die, what happens?

All that junk goes away.

What did you leave behind?

Nothing.

And so we have to live beyond the world's definition of living.

I want to see, man, my whole family come to know Jesus and follow Jesus.

And when I want to see my friends following Jesus, and I care about people enough that I'm willing to sacrifice my time, my own desires, my own wishes of what I want to do with my life to see the kingdom of heaven advance and grow and be declared on this earth.

And so we need a sense of urgency for those that don't know God.

Hospitality and giving of yourself and your time is going to be the most effective way to love your neighbor and fulfill the Great Commission.

You don't need to memorize the entire Bible to help someone find out how they can know Jesus and be loved by Jesus.

It's by living your life in a welcoming, caring, lively way so that we can display the love of God and the model Christ gave us to our neighbors in a concrete way.

I believe God is asking us to expand our thinking.

I believe he's asking for more of us.

And it's going to take some faith, it's going to take boldness, and it's going to take us working together.

Brooke and I were not called to start a church that we could do everything and y'all just watch us get it done.

That's that's not the Bible.

That's not the body of Christ.

And so Brooke and I had the opportunity to go to California a couple months ago and and uh go to Pastor Stomp Rights at Bethel Church.

And this this, we were really expected that God was going to do some things because it's in a brochure and all the things that were happening.

We bought tickets months before, and so we got really excited about it, and some really amazing thing happened.

But one of the takeaways I didn't for whatever reason, this shows my intelligence.

For whatever reason, like the whole brochure was taking ground.

I didn't make that connection until like two days ago.

As as that's what God was not just asking us to go receive from, but that was what God was asking us to go and do.

And as I as I was finishing this message and as I was praying about sharing the news with you guys, I I literally heard God go, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Did you read that sentence?

That's what I'm asking you to do.

And so we're gathering to tell you.

And I just want to I want to give you this email that we got.

When we bought the tickets, the pastor at the conference at the church, Bethel, Bill Johnson, he sent out an email thanking you for buying the tickets.

And then he gave a brief description on here's what's about to happen when you show up here in the next month.

So I want to read just half of this for you.

It says, We're gathering for these days to press into the promises that God has given.

We do this knowing that the fulfillment of these promises will ripple outward, impacting the lives of our people, cities, and nations, revealing the goodness and power of the promise keeper himself.

We are those who take risks, being filled with faith and fire, walking in partnership with heaven to see transformation in and through us.

And this is why we have come and must begin with us.

We must encounter his love and power and be filled afresh with his spirit, that others might experience what we have been given.

Our light must shine brightly, that others might come to know his wisdom and truth and be inspired to follow him well.

We are those who are learning to walk in the victory Jesus paid for, that together we would see heaven on earth.

So I believe firmly that God is expanding our impact this year.

What does that mean?

Greater community, greater presence in the community, greater community impact, more people coming to know Jesus, more people deciding to follow Jesus.

And so for us, our mission statement is if you don't already know, it's helping people find and follow Jesus.

18 years ago, Brooke and I went out to lunch with a group of friends.

They're they're our age and they were youth pastors.

We were youth pastors.

And they're like, Man, when are you gonna start a church of your own one day?

Like it's God put that on your heart.

And I was like, Yeah, I mean, I'm I'm young, like I got time, like maybe in the next 15, 20 years.

And we were sitting Thursday night, we're or Friday night, we were sitting out across from this building at night with the kids in the car, and Brooke goes, Do you realize that 18 years ago we were sitting in front of a storefront property in another town in Colorado?

And we said, Oh, that's probably what that was gonna do for us when we start a church.

This has been something God put on our heart and has put inside us, and we've been praying about, thinking about, and and and pursuing for 18 years.

Now, most of that time was just chance saying, I don't want to do it.

But but I finally said, Yes.

Our goal is this shows Greeley that we're here to stay and that we're here to claim that ground and to make God known in Greeley.

It's a bold move, and it's one that we've spent so much time at that conference.

The reality is it's going to cost us.

It's gonna cost us for for anything great to happen, guys.

There's always a cost.

Even Jesus says to the people when He when He calls them to follow me, he goes, Oh ho, time the cost.

Yeah, it's going to cost something.

So we this year, we are going to have to go deeper in prayer.

And people don't just need another sermon, although they need to hear the word of God being declared.

But what they need is an experience of the presence of God.

They need to know that what they've experienced is real, not just something produced by some man, but that God was present and that he moved on their life.

And God is asking us to take this ground back for him.

The city is not the devil's.

I know there's a lot of spiritual things going on out there.

And if you spend some time with us, like on Wednesday nights, we've shared some of the things we've dealt with.

We've had people come in here and try to cast spells on us and do all kinds of weirdo things, but the city is not the devil's.

This is our opportunity to show the city that God is present, God is reigning and in control, and that He loves them greatly.

And so we want to be a part of that move.

When you stand in faith to take ground for the kingdom of heaven, you become an unstoppable force.

Matthew 16, 18 says, On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

So we usually think this is a verse about the church defending itself against hell.

But it says the gates of hell will not overcome it.

Gates are a defensive structure, they're keeping stuff out.

Gates are not attacking us, they're not attacking the church.

The church is attacking Hades.

And the thing that it says here is that we will not be overcome by those gates.

In other words, it can't keep us out.

It can't keep us out.

We have legal authority and ownership from God, from Jesus, saying, I give you all authority.

We just have to walk it out.

And I I had shared with the board and shared with some other pastor friends of mine, they're like, This is this this this is a big step, brother.

Like, yep.

Our only prayer is that God just keep providing.

Just keep providing.

And so there are some aspects, and I'll wrap up here quickly.

There's some aspects of taking ground that I want us to consider.

The first is that if God's not going to go there, then we don't want to go either.

Exodus 33, 15, then Moses said to him, If your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.

How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us?

What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?

And we want to be bold and we want to take the necessary steps and follow in his leading.

We want God's presence with us every single step of the way.

And we've been given that authority, and this is our part of our mission here on earth.

Matthew 28, 18 is very specific.

Jesus says, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Therefore, go.

In other words, everything you need, I give you.

And so Jesus says, I have it all.

And so, based on my authority, you now have the ability to go.

That's why when we in prayers we say in Jesus' name, not in chance's name, there's no authority there.

God goes, What?

Who?

In Jesus' name.

Okay, gotcha.

There's authority there.

And so we're not moving just for our merit or to say, oh, look at us.

We're moving as a legal representative to the king who owns the whole map.

And so the first thing we want God go before.

The second thing is we will need to trust.

We will need to be able to move without having a negative mindset.

Listen, as the pastor of Mercy Church, I'm going to ask you that as we call you or text you or ask you, hey, can you come help us with this?

Can you come do this?

Whether you can or not, it doesn't matter, but your prayer be positive.

That your words be positive.

You go, Oh, I don't see how you're gonna do it.

You don't need to see how we're gonna do it.

I don't see how we're gonna do it.

But I don't have to.

God does.

All I have to do is be obedient.

That's the great thing about walking in the authority of God.

If you are obedient, and I know that word's hard for a lot of people, but if you are obedient to his word and his call on your life, he prepares the way.

You don't have to.

You don't have to sit there and go, ooh, we need this much more.

How are we gonna do that?

Well, I guess I could sell the chairs, get beanbags.

I don't know what we're gonna do.

Super accommodation.

And so the reality is if you read the Bible, the Israelites had to trust God for everything.

They literally didn't have food, and what they do, he sent manna down from heaven.

And so Romans 10 17 says, Then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

This is where your faith gets expressed.

Not only individually through this year, do you need to believe God for some things, do you need to expect from him?

And do you need to expect more?

And do you need to give more?

But as a body, as a as a church body, we need to have faith that God is gonna move miraculously.

He's gonna do a mighty thing.

Joshua 1 9 says, Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you when you're walking by faith and not by sight, it gives you the ability to let go of the outcome, to let go of the result.

It's not gonna happen the way that you think.

It's not.

That's a good thing.

Your brain is limited.

That's a good thing.

We don't see everything that God gets to see.

We're limited, but we get to let go of the result.

And then we can because God has ordained this.

God is in it, God is opening this door.

We need to depend on God, we need to prepare, we need to trust, and we need to let Him lead the steps and guide the way and prepare the way for us.

And so I just would ask that in this time that you, most importantly, you would be praying for.

There are also, we are beginning our 21 days of prayer and fasting.

This morning we started uh at 8:30.

During the week, it'll be 5:30 or 6:30.

I I know y'all have jobs, I know you have kids, I know you have lives.

I'm asking you to take a day or two.

Find some time in the next 21 days to come and pray.

Pray over the building, pray over what God's doing in through Mercy Church in Greeley in particular.

Come and pray and believe with us and agree with us.

Take 21 days.

And then we're fasting.

Fasting is simple.

What you're doing is you're setting, taking something out, you're sacrificing something for the Lord.

You're depending on God.

I need you to move in this area.

So I'm gonna give this up to see your move.

A lot of people do a Daniel fast, which is they pretty much cut out meat, and which some people will do, but fast something.

Something that is not easy to fast.

If you only have coffee once a week, that's not fair.

Don't fast coffee.

But if you if you drink coffee five times a day, come fast some coffee.

You might not withdraw the first thing.

But but whatever God puts it in your life to fast, fast.

Not just believing for the church.

What are you expecting God to do in your life?

Where are you asking God to move in your life?

And take something and consecrate yourself to God.

Hey, 2026 is going to be amazing.

If you don't know, the sale of Bibles has gone up by 70%.

70% more people are hungry to hear the word of God than in the last 15 years.

Most of those Bible sales have been people in their 20s and their 30s.

So there are those of you in the room that have been going to church a very long time, you're a little bit wiser than some of the rest of us.

We want to lean on we need you in this time of transition to help and push the young ones and to help to inspire and encourage the young ones and to be there to help lead and guide.

Amen.

Does that sound good?

Everybody good?

Sweet.

Awesome.

Okay, cool.

If you have more questions or you want to know more, talk to me or Brooke.

We'll we'll definitely do that.

But I'll ask you over the next 21 days, fast something, give something up, and then also prayer here at the church Monday through Friday, 5 30 to 6 30, Saturday and Sunday.