Unleashed (You Matter More Than You Think) | The Wild Work of God

Hey, great to see everybody.

Happy Sunday morning.

How are you?

Doing okay?

All right.

Good to be in the room with you.

Um, I wanted to just mention this morning as we get going that uh I was uh the other day, I was driving down the road and I heard this song.

I heard this song that uh, you know, I don't know, you ever have like a moment where you you hear something or you smell something and all of a sudden you're just transported back in time.

I went back to uh Highway 44 in Northern California on a hot summer day with my parents in the car.

And this song just, and it was a very happy, like it was a happy flashback, you know?

And it's funny how those little moments can just take you back somewhere, or sometimes I'll smell something, and it just again transports me to a whole nother time in life, something that was very positive.

Uh, and I'm just like, wow, like I always have I always have this one very certain smell that takes me back to my great-grandparents' house when they were having these feasts, and you know, it was just this big family like reunion thing.

And so there's these there's these little things that sometimes can move you.

In fact, uh I was looking this week at something called the butterfly effect.

The butterfly effect was something that uh a guy in the 1970s was watching the weather patterns, and he he decided that he noticed it it was little things that created big things.

So eventually he named it the butterfly effect, and his analogy was a butterfly flapping its wings can cause a tornado halfway around the world.

And uh, you know, the the point is that if a butterfly does flap its wings, there's an effect of that, right?

So a little tiny, just a little tiny movement of wind, which then impacts something next to it, and that has a chain reaction, and it just builds and it builds and it builds, kind of like an avalanche, right?

And I just want to say that as we get into the last message of this series, you're more important than you think.

Your life is more important than you think.

Your actions can have an impact.

The things that you do, you may think I'm just a tiny butterfly and I'm just flapping my wings.

Yeah, and you're creating a tornado of God's love halfway around the world.

And that's what can happen.

And we're in this book of Acts through this series, the wild work of God.

God does wild, wild things.

And many times, wild works of God start very, very small.

Very, very small.

Big stuff always starts small.

Yesterday I was driving in for our Saturday night service, and I came a little bit early, and I noticed something weird, and which was that um there was a bunch of stuff already set up that's not normally set up.

Like there was somebody here working early, and I went up to this gentleman and I said, Was this you?

And he said, Yes.

He said, I just had some extra time and I just wanted to come in and I just wanted to get to work.

This guy set up some stuff that, you know, isn't even his job description, isn't even on his radar, but he wanted to serve and he comes and all of a sudden my mood brightened.

I mean, I I always I was like, wow, I think we're ready for tonight.

I think that like this is this is gonna be really good because there's extra help going in, there's extra work, somebody's paying attention, you know, and and then that impacted my mood, that impacted my spirit, that impacted my optimism.

Because one person decided to come in a few minutes early and set out some cones in the parking lot and a sign on the street that said West Side Community Church.

And I was like, whoo, let's go, you know?

And sometimes it's those little things, you may you may think, my life doesn't matter.

You may think, I don't, I'm not one of those spiritual giants.

I just, I don't know.

God can't do wild work through me, he can do like little tiny baby work through me.

But little tiny baby work can become wild work if you let it.

And we're gonna talk today about how that works.

In fact, uh, through this series, Acts 1 through 6 in the New Testament, Acts is this book in the New Testament that's like the the history of the early church.

It's like how God unfolded the wild work uh that swept the world.

And if you read the book of Acts, you see it swept the world.

And we've talked about how God promised, Jesus said in Acts chapter 1, stay in Jerusalem until I send my spirit.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

The apostles listened and they stayed, the disciples listened and they stayed.

And then he said, He's coming, and then in Acts chapter 2, God sent his spirit.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

If you want to go back and listen to how that happened, we explain it.

You just read the book of Acts and find it out.

But God sent his spirit in a powerful way, and God was moving and wild work was happening.

Acts chapter 3, miracles are happening.

Acts 3 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 4 and 5, there's all this resistance.

Acts 4 · chapter mention

We talked last week about being undiscourageable, because even if there's resistance in your life, even if there's opposition, that greater is he who's in you, the Holy Spirit, than he who's in the world.

And today we're gonna be wrapping up this series, and I'm I'm calling today unleashed, because God wants to unleash his wild work in your life.

And as we're kind of, as a church, we're sort of on the edge.

I always think about times like this.

We're kind of like looking over the edge, going, I think there's a new season coming.

There's a new season coming.

Next weekend is our big day.

There's a new season coming.

It's fall, and people are starting to get back into the routines and back into the rhythms.

We always see that there's a lot of spiritual receptivity in the fall because there's a little more focus in people's lives.

And so we're having a big day next weekend.

And if you don't know this, we have a big move coming up.

So many wonderful things.

And, you know, we're kind of on the edge of this, and I want you to be ready for it.

I want you to be ready when God's wild work starts happening, that you won't be surprised, that you'll be totally available to Him, and that you'll say, I can, I can be used by God for wild work.

I can be used by God for that.

And we'll make ourselves available for it.

So are you ready for this?

Okay, let's do it.

We're gonna read Acts chapter six, verses one through seven.

And if you don't already have your notes out, grab them.

Welcome if you're online.

We're really, really glad for everybody who's joining us online today.

But I want to read Acts chapter six, verses one to seven to you.

So it says it says this.

But as the believers rapidly multiplied, say that with me, as the believers rapidly multiplied, they were rapidly multiplying, it says there were rumblings of discontent.

Uh-oh.

We thought this was gonna be good news.

No, there's rumblings of discontent because the disciples were rapidly multiplying.

We're gonna talk about what was going on there.

The Greek-speaking believers complained about the Hebrew-speaking believers.

Can you believe that?

Christians complaining?

Can you believe that?

Saying that their widows were being discriminated against in the daily distribution.

So, verse 2, the twelve called a meeting of all the believers.

They said, We apostles should spend our time teaching the word of God, not running a food program.

Ooh.

Again, we're coming back to that.

And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and are full of the spirit and wisdom.

We will give them this responsibility.

So, just a quick recap.

Church is going crazy, blowing up.

Lots and lots of things happening.

People coming to Christ, being baptized, understanding that they've got God's Holy Spirit in their life because they believed in Jesus.

He's working now wildly through them, miracles are happening.

We talked last week the the the power structure of the existing world is being upended by this movement of Jesus, was creating a lot of resistance.

But all this is actually adding fuel to the fire, and God's wild work is getting stronger and stronger and stronger.

And then it gets to the point where it's chaotic.

And that's always a time to notice what God wants to do.

And so now they're going, hey, there's some people that need to step in.

You know, rumblings of discontent are only a signal of God's good and wild work, but it's also a signal that we're inviting more people to step in.

You know, inviting more people to step in.

And it says, Everyone liked this idea, verse 5, and they chose the following: Stephen, a man full of faith in the Holy Spirit, Philip, Procurus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenus, and Nicholas of Antioch, an earlier convert to the Jewish faith.

These seven were presented to the apostles who prayed for them as they laid their hands on them.

Something you might not notice, just the quick reading, is that there was a clash between the Jewish believers and the non-Jewish believers here.

And the clash was really about what they perceived as favoritism.

And anytime somebody's needs go unmet, they have to learn how do I interpret this moment?

Your needs are going unmet.

How do you interpret that?

You could interpret that being like, they're ganging up on me.

You know, this is favoritism.

Or you could interpret that by saying, it's utter chaos because God's wild work has outgrown the structure that we've been working in.

And so that's what they decided to do.

Is let's let's realize what's going on.

The structure's not working anymore.

And so we've got to address the structure idea.

And then it said that they chose some people.

What's interesting is that if it was a favoritism thing, they wouldn't have chosen the people they chose because most of the people they chose had Greek names.

So they put people in very important positions to solve a very important problem who were actually the outsiders.

And I think that's absolutely fantastic.

And it says in verse 7, so God's message continued to spread.

The number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish priests were converted to.

Wow.

Okay, that's a lot to just kind of go through.

Basically, there was a problem and they went to fix it.

And uh we're gonna see how they did that.

But I really was thinking about our church because we're kind of, again, on the edge of something brand new that feels fun.

You know, God's brought us an opportunity to move.

He's been bringing many, many people to faith in Christ, not just at this church, so you know, our city's experiencing spiritual renewal.

And it's fantastic.

And I'm constantly talking to friends, pastors of other churches, people who are working in ministry stuff, and we're all seeing and saying the same thing that God is working now in wild ways.

And uh, and so we have to be able to respond to it.

Like, could we individually say, God, I want to be unleashed and be a part of that?

I want you to use me in a powerful way.

I want to be a part of that.

Well, here's what I want to do today.

I want to give you this passage in 12 words.

Is that okay?

12 words, I mean, there's gonna be more words than 12, um, but I'm gonna do 12 really important words, and I'm doing three at a time.

And so you know, I'm gonna be basically thinking about my son Caleb today.

And here's why.

Because Caleb is sitting right over there, and Caleb feels this call to pastor, okay?

And has since he was 15 years old, even before that, if you ask me.

Melissa and I were like, we totally agree, this is definitely true.

Uh, and so many of you have already been so um encouraging to Caleb as he's been up here to preach, as you've watched Tim lead.

And and so I'm thinking about it this way: if I could only say 12 words to somebody who's gonna pastor a church, these are the 12 words I would say.

Because the church is such a special enterprise, and it's you, right?

I mean, we are the church.

And so here's what I think we learn from Acts chapter 6.

Acts 6 · chapter mention

The first thing is this is expect growing pains, okay?

Write that down in your notes.

Expect growing pains.

I mean, if if if God's gonna do wild work in the world, then we should expect growing pains.

Because it's wild, it's uncontainable.

We've talked about that.

This is like God's wild work is crazy.

It's it's uh unforeseen sometimes.

I mean, it comes upon you by surprise.

He shows up and does miracles sometimes.

If you let him.

It says in Acts 6.1, I'll just reiterate, but as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent.

I mean, imagine what would happen if you had a teenager and they invited some friends over, and you didn't know they were coming, and so you didn't have food prepared for them, but they came and they came through like locusts, you know, through your cupboard small.

I'm I'm speaking from experience.

You're like, we had three gallons of milk in the fridge.

Where did that go?

You know?

Um that that this is kind of the sense of what was going on in the early church is that there were more needs than there were resources, and it was confusing.

Here's the thing is that these kind of problems are just evidence of life.

We had a problem on Wednesday night.

Wednesday night we hosted something called Unite Youth, which was fantastic.

It was a regional gathering of students, middle and high school students, who were here for worship to worship and learn.

And um, we knew that it was gonna be full, we just didn't know it was gonna be like that.

It was insane.

It was wall to wall every square inch.

I tried getting in this room.

I had to like push people aside to sneak in the back and see what was going on.

It was one of those moments, like there were people in the lobby, the the courtyard was full.

I mean, it was, I don't think I've ever seen that many people in this place at one time.

And it was fantastic.

You know, these were students going, we won.

Jesus.

It was absolutely fantastic.

But it creates problems, right?

Parking problems, capacity problems, pizza problems.

I mean, there was all sorts of problems on Wednesday night.

And I wanted to point out that there's different kinds of problems.

There's this thing called the sigmoid curve, it's also called the bell curve.

I think of it as the life cycle curve.

It's like anything starts out and it and it goes through.

There's this natural life cycle that an organization or a or a church or a group of people goes through.

And it goes like this, right?

It's like starts out, gets exciting, grows, and then it hits this peak right here.

And a lot of times right here is where people start to sense the problems because you've gone through the the explosion of growth, and now you start to feel a little bit of downside.

And this is where complaining happens.

And this is where we have to interpret the the complaints.

Like, what is what is going on?

The unmet needs, how do we interpret that?

Um, and I'll say it like this this side is is life, right?

This is the life side.

This is the death side, because this is where organizations die.

Movements, people, groups, whatever.

And we as a church, we've we've been through this, and we hit this point, and we realized, you know, we've squeezed the lime.

If you've been around for a while, we've squeezed the lime, we've done everything we can to figure out how we rearrange things and add services and all that kind of stuff, and we realize now God's just opening a door for something new.

And in Acts chapter 6, they had done everything they could, and they and here's what happened right here is they responded in a way that gave them a new life cycle curve.

Acts 6 · chapter mention

They they reinvented.

And that's really important because you can either have life problems or you can have death problems.

And churches can have life problems or death problems, and your faith can have life problems or death problems, right?

So your marriage can have life problems or death problems.

And your business could have life problems or death problems.

You get to choose which kind of problems you have based on the response that you bring.

And I'm thankful for the example that we have from the apostles of a very wise response, you know, when they decided we're going to have life problems.

We're going to insert and inject a new curve so that God can continue to work.

We're not going to shut it down because it's too hard or complicated.

We're going to open it up.

And there's a way we're going to do that that's going to invite more people in.

The bottom line is that the no, the old structure can no longer carry what God is doing.

That's what was happening here in Acts chapter 6.

Acts 6 · chapter mention

And why I'm saying this to you now as a church is because we've been in this series, which I've called a mission mountain series.

You'll learn more about the mountains a little later.

But for those of you who've been maybe looking for why you're on earth and having your purpose, this has been really for you these last six weeks.

To help us go as a church, what do we prepare for?

As a follower of Jesus, what do I prepare for?

How do I get ready for what God wants to do in my life?

And in this case, I think we we learned that God wants to unleash you fully so that we as a whole movement of God across the world are ready for what He wants to do next.

That's a very exciting time.

There was this guy who had a boy, and I'm gonna summarize his story.

He had a baby, him and his wife, and they named him Lance.

The boy was born in the hospital, and they were so excited, they'd been waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting.

And he said uh that he was very excited, and and he said that some of the joy of the moment went away when he got called into the business office of the hospital and had to pay the bill, you know, because he's like, wow.

He goes, We we were so excited to have a baby, we realized how expensive it is the second that I got called into the business office.

And then he goes, then we got the baby home, Lance was his name.

And he said, and and it was just man, it was just nonstop fun and excitement, but then there was always these diaper bills and the daycare bills, you know, and then there's the school bills, and then there was the uniform bills and the bills and the bills and the bills and the food bill and all this stuff.

And he goes, and then he became a teenager.

Oh my gosh.

Clothing got more expensive, you know, all of these things.

And he said, and then he started driving.

Oh wow, you talk about more expenses.

Now the car insurance and the gas and then the repair bills for the car and all that, and then we're thinking about college and there's all these expenses and expenses and expenses and expenses.

And then he said, and then one day Lance died.

And he said, I realized after we buried Lance, we never spent another dime on it.

He said, I realized that it is a living expensive.

He said, That's why I will always belong to a church that needs money.

I will always belong to a church where there's lots of needs.

Because that's where there's life.

And I'm grateful, along with you, that we're in a space and a place right now in our world and in this community where there's so much opportunity, there's so many unmet needs, we're swimming in them.

But it's a sign of life.

And we're responding by asking God to help us through this like he helped the early church.

All right?

Number two in your notes, find solutions together, Caleb.

Find solutions together.

I'm talking to Caleb, I'm talking to all of us.

I'm talking to Caleb.

One, expect growing pains.

Two, find solutions together.

This was their impulse, and it worked.

It was so, so God given.

Their impulse was, we have to do this together.

So it says in verse two, so the 12 called a meeting of all the believers.

They they wanted everybody to get together so they could go, like, what's going on?

And I love this because it was so important for them to think, hey, let's really hear from the ground what's happening, and let's make sure we're reaching out so that we we get you know the deal.

And they had, again, they had people of all levels.

And the apostles, you might have heard them say this.

They were like, hey, it's not right for us to shift our focus and run a food program.

We should be focusing on the word of God in prayer, which brings up, I think, an interesting dilemma.

Okay, let me talk about this for a minute with you.

I'm gonna flip this over.

I'm gonna write something else on here.

Um, you have on this in this passage a kind of uh a contrast.

It's like the word versus food.

All right, so two types of needs.

And the apostles were like, we shouldn't move from here to this.

And so it makes you you go, like, okay, well, which one is more important?

If they're saying that's not worthy of our time, it almost sounds like.

They didn't say that, by the way, but they said, We need seven, we need seven people.

So I had a I had a question for you.

It sounds a little bit like a joke, but it's not.

Okay, so a pastor, an intel executive, and a janitor walk into a church.

All right, do you get it?

A pastor, an intel executive, and a janitor walk into a church, who's more important?

I love that.

The janitor.

Probably all of us in real life would say that, right?

The reality is wrong question, totally invalid question, not even a real question.

Because what what we know is that if we're all made in the image of God, we're all a delight to God equally.

That God would look at us and say, You're the supreme object of my creation.

And some of you might even go, well, like, yeah, but but then Christians, even more so.

And the reality is, no.

No.

If you're here and you're not a Christian, you are as valuable to God as anyone else in this room because you are made in the image of God.

You're his supreme creation.

He calls you a work of art.

Right.

So people's value doesn't come from their role.

So important for us to recognize.

That's why we can find solutions together, because we can go, hey, everybody's equally valuable.

Let's hear what are what's going on.

And so when we look at the church as it's you know always going to be going through seasons and sometimes seasons of deep need, the apostles were not saying that's below us.

They were saying that's not our assignment, but it is someone else's assignment.

Let's find those people.

The issue is there's people missing.

There's people that that can be unleashed that aren't unleashed yet.

Let's figure that out.

Let's let's let's figure out how to find these solutions together.

One of the things that I love is that I find this constantly, that the answer is in the room.

Usually.

The answers in the room.

The answers in the room, uh, in your home to solve the problems, the answers in the room in your church to solve the problems, in your group to solve the problems.

I mean, the answers in the community, right?

And I love the story of stone soup.

Anybody ever heard the story of stone soup before?

One of my faves.

We used to have this book, we'd read the kids, and um, stone soup, it's this it's this metaphor.

This guy is wandering through uh the villages in Europe, and he's starving because it's famine time, and he needs to find some food, so he wanders into.

This village, and he's knocking all the doors, going, like, hey, anybody got any food?

Nobody's answering.

They're like, We don't have, we don't want to share because you know it's scarcity time.

Nobody's gonna share.

And so this guy's just like trying to figure out what do I do?

I gotta eat something.

So he has this bright idea.

He says, ooh, ooh, ooh.

What if I got everybody to work together?

So his strategy was that he he called a little meeting in the center of the town and he brought out something and it was a stone.

He said, I have a recipe that you guys are gonna love.

It's called stone soup.

Anybody ever heard of it?

They're like, mm-mm.

He goes, Oh, stone soup, it's the best.

He said, I have this very special stone.

And all we really lack is a pot.

Does anybody have a pot?

So they brought the pot out and he dropped the stone in.

And he goes, This is gonna be delicious.

So he goes, Can we get some water in here so they get some water and it starts boiling?

He's oh, stone soup.

You guys are gonna love this.

The only thing we really probably could use, maybe a little salt and pepper.

Anybody have any salt and pepper?

So somebody goes, Oh, I got some salt and pepper, because that wasn't so much to ask, right?

And he just starts smelling, and then they start to smell the seasoning.

They're like, oh, okay, I'm getting hungry now.

And he goes, Oh, oh, oh.

You know, one time I had this with celery.

It was amazing.

Anybody have any celery?

Somebody goes and gets some celery, and then that's the carrots, and he just goes on and on and on.

And he's like, an onion.

Anybody got an onion?

Because that's how you really make this great.

And it gets to the point where he's like, How about some beef?

And somebody goes, Well, I got some beef.

I mean, it's starting to, you know, now it's starting to sound like something I'd be willing to contribute to because it's turning into something.

And so the story goes that they enjoyed the most delicious stone soup together as a community because everybody was willing to participate just a little bit.

And the thing is that a lot of times you look at what you have to bring and you're like, onions?

What am I gonna do?

Walk into church with a couple of onions?

That's all I got.

And what you don't know is that's exactly what the recipe calls for.

And that's why you're more important than you think you are, because God has already given you what you need in order to make a special contribution, the one that he actually has in mind.

And I want to encourage you that we can find solutions together.

Third thing in your notes, Caleb.

Empower godly servants.

Empower godly servants.

This is what they did.

This was the heart of the problem.

They needed some leaders, they needed some people, they needed some people that were serious, some people that were unleashed, they needed some help.

They didn't even call them leaders.

Do you know that?

They called them servants.

That was the word that was in scripture that was used, it was called diakonos.

That's a Greek word.

It means servant, it means ministry.

And it's the same word they used for the word and for food.

They used servant, servant.

This is my role in being a servant, this is someone else's role.

Or you'd say, This is my role, this is someone else's role.

Neither one is more important, they're both equally valuable, but different roles.

Empower godly servants.

They needed seven people.

Why seven people?

I looked at this.

It's because seven people was a common civic council in that time.

So they'd look at a community problem, you know, be like, hey, the streets have potholes, we need seven people.

That's just what they did.

And so they brought it to the they're like, hey, we need seven people.

And everyone's like, well, duh, yeah, you need seven people.

And so they got seven people.

They're like, well, pick them.

You guys pick them.

You know, pick pick seven people.

But but here's the thing it says, and so brothers, select seven men, this is verse three, who are what?

Well respected and are full of the spirit and wisdom.

Like, whoa, man, you just you just raise the bar.

Because I mean you'd think, well, yeah, I mean, obviously.

But really?

Seven men who are full of wisdom in the Holy Spirit, well respected, so that they can put some mac and cheese on a plate?

Yeah.

Because everything matters.

Because everything matters.

When you're when you're representing the Lord, everything matters.

Your character counts.

And God's like, I'm gonna use people who got the character.

Apparently, solving physic physical hunger is a high calling, yeah.

And he they had these steep requirements.

Now, um, something that I think is important to note that they did, and this is so this is so interesting because it's completely opposite of the world.

What's the typical organizational chart in a in an organization looks like?

You got the CEO up top, right?

And you got maybe the people on the bottom, and everything's supposed to trickle down.

How well does that work?

Not very.

So you got a problem, and they're like, oh, ask the CEO what to do.

And he's like, do this.

You ever anybody ever worked at a place where the CEO was solving problems and just handing you the solution, you're supposed to carry it out, and you're like, oh my gosh, she's never even been in this situation.

Why is he or why is she doing they don't even know what they just should ask us?

Which is exactly the way Jesus intends the church to work.

This is where the leaders of the church should sit.

Serving.

That's the posture that a leader in the church should have is to serve, is to go, I don't know, you guys are on the front lines.

You, you, you help, you, you decide.

What, like you tell us what the solution is.

And I think that's such an important thing to recognize is if we empower godly servants, it means that we're giving them the decision-making authority along with the responsibility.

Anybody ever have a job where you had responsibility without authority?

Yeah, there's no fun, right?

You can't get it done.

But if but if you got authority and responsibility, that's when it gets exciting and God can do some wild, wild work.

One of the things that we're seeing happen right now over at our new building is um there is this amazing crew.

I mean, and some of you are on that crew.

How many of you guys have have signed up for the building property team thing, or you've been over to the building?

Anybody been over to the building?

Somebody done a work day, nobody's been over to the building.

I don't even believe you, because I've seen some of you people over there.

All right.

Yeah, I mean, because there's so much good stuff going on.

Um, and and we've got Pat and Charlie leading the charge, and they're doing so much great work.

Can we give them a hand?

Pat and Charlie and the whole crew, just insane, really going well.

I was thinking about something.

You never know what God will unleash through one ordinary yes, okay?

So Pat says, yes, I'll I'll give 50 or 60 hours.

This guy's going bonkers.

This guy's crazy.

He is giving us a full-time job worth of volunteer time with the skills to run a project like this.

It's such a blessing.

We're so, we are so blessed.

And Charlie the same, and so many others the same.

And I was thinking, you know, as a church, we're celebrating uh what God's doing through growth groups.

We have, we have, I just asked last night, what how many growth groups do we currently have running at West Side?

And I heard the number 43 growth groups.

We have 43 growth groups as a church.

I think that's worth celebrating too.

43 growth groups.

Yeah.

And I was thinking, what if every one of those growth groups said, hey, once a month our whole group's gonna meet up over at the building and we're gonna we're gonna get it done.

We're gonna help get it done.

What would that look like?

Well, if 10 people came and they spent three hours, that's 30 man hours.

If it spent four hours, that's 40 man hours, right?

And uh that per per person.

And then and then you go, uh, I mean per group, and then you go, well, times 43, what's that?

That's 1,720 hours a month that could be invested in the building if every group just said once a month we're gonna go and we're gonna be a part of it.

And then I was thinking, we got 121 people on the property work teams list.

121 people.

If we can push that to 200, and if those 200 people would each say, I'm gonna go two hours a week and invest some time, that's 400, that's 1,600 more hours.

That's 3,120 man hours per month, that's a lot of hours, right?

I mean, we could probably get it done.

How many days between now and Christmas Eve when we hope to move in?

88.

I know this.

And so what's happening is we're going like, man, God could solve this.

How?

Empowering godly servants, letting everybody play, letting everybody be a part of it, asking everybody to be a part of it.

And that's what I'm asking you is just is not to, I'm not saying you do a certain thing.

I'm saying listen to the Holy Spirit, and whenever He gives you a nudge, say yes.

I love it.

You know, you don't have to practice time management with God.

You don't have to be like, God, let me check my calendar.

Let me, I'll, uh, okay, I got your request.

Let me just run it through the filter of what I'm available for.

When it's God, and I'm not saying when it's a pastor, I'm not saying that.

I'm saying it's when it's God.

When it's God, not necessarily, you know, a neighbor or some screaming task.

I'm saying when it's God, and you know it's God, you can always say yes.

You can always say yes.

He will rearrange everything else for you.

So you don't have to be guarded with God.

You can say yes.

Just unequivocally, yes.

And that's what I'm asking you to do today.

Say yes.

He wants to empower you as a godly servant.

Say yes to whatever he leads you to do.

May have nothing to do with anything that we've talked about today, but if it's from him, it's it's it's for you.

And that's the thing that we all got to pay attention to.

Caleb, you ready for number four?

All right.

Stay on mission.

So important.

Stay on mission.

We gotta stay on mission.

It says in Acts chapter 6, verse 7, that because they did all this stuff says, so God's message continued to spread.

Acts 6:7

That's what you want.

You don't want to get caught up in some bureaucratic sideshow.

You know, it's the easiest thing in the world is for the church to be derailed.

Easiest thing in the world is to drift.

As a Christian, right?

Isn't it the easiest thing?

You like you get you like you have 24 hours, you're like, man, I feel so solid in my faith right now.

Wow, life's gonna be good.

And then hour 25 comes and you're like, what happened?

It all just got derailed.

Like, how did that happen?

You know, I got all these requests, and this temptation came my way, and I didn't even see it coming, and now I feel like I'm back at the bottom.

And a church can do the very same thing if we're not paying attention to mission, vision, and values.

And so here we are, stay on mission.

What did they do?

They they saw the problem, they discerned the need, they created assignments, they empowered godly leaders.

And what happened next was the good news continued to spread so rapidly, so rapidly.

Now, you thought it was fast on the day of Pentecost when 3,000 people believed and were baptized, now it's like, oh, you've seen nothing yet.

You've seen nothing yet.

You think reading the book of Acts is exciting?

What about right now?

You've seen nothing yet.

I think if we have that attitude, if we have that faith, if we have that openness, God can do so much wild work.

You know what Jesus Christ Himself said?

He said, You're gonna do greater works than I did.

Really?

I mean, I remember Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.

Anybody in here done that before?

He said, You're gonna do greater works than I've done.

And I think that's our opportunity.

When God's people find their place, his mission moves forward.

That's what we know.

When God's people find their place, his mission moves forward.

And I want to say that I think God has given us a season that's greater than the capacity of the people currently carrying it.

Let me say that one more time.

I think God has given us a season that's greater than the capacity of the people currently carrying it.

It's why sometimes you might be like, this church is is not organized religion.

This church is like disorganized religion.

You know what I mean?

Like this, it's a little chaotic sometimes, but here's why.

Because there's growth and there's life and there's problems, because there's people waiting to be put in the game.

And that might be you.

You're the solution.

You're the solution so that God's work can continue to spread.

And so my my appeal to you is let God unleash you into his wild work.

We're ending this series today.

We're gonna start something brand new next week.

This has been to equip us so that we're ready.

We're on the edge, you know?

It's like I can kind of hear, I can kind of hear the roar of God's work coming.

I can kind of hear him coming.

I can kind of hear, you know, like when a rainstorm starts.

You ever hear that just like that?

You hear that little gentle, you're like, oh I think it might be raining.

And then it gets a little stronger, and you're like, oh, this might be a downpour.

That's what I think we're we're waiting for right now.

I think God's bringing a downpour, the good kind, that we can be a part of.

And I want to encourage you to rise up and seize your season.

And I don't know what your yes is today, but I have a hunch it's one of three things.

I'll draw them up here, and you're never gonna guess what I'm about to put up here.

You're never gonna guess.

I bet I bet you could never guess what any of this means.

What is this one?

Jesus.

That's the Jesus Mount is the first place.

We say yes to Jesus, to his grace.

Maybe you've never said yes to Jesus' grace.

What's this one?

Community.

We say yes to the people of God.

He invites us to say yes to his grace, but he also invites us to say yes to his family, to be part of his family, not to be alone.

I mean, maybe you're here and you need to join a group, get on a team, get on this project work team.

Then there's mission.

Mission, meaning this is where you find why you're here on earth.

It's you becoming unleashed and getting in the game.

And if you don't know where to go on that, there's so many ways.

I mean, you could you could really step in and make a difference right now.

You could step in and make a difference right now in two ways.

I put some cards on your seat because next week is our big day.

You can invite three people to be here with us next week.

That's huge.

That's huge.

You could be a part of this property work team.

You could help us cross the line in 88 days.

Huge.

What's that gonna mean for our community?

Well, it's gonna, it's gonna be a generational blessing.

That's what it's gonna be.

And so I want to encourage you to just, whatever your yes is.

I mean, I don't know what what it is, but if it's here, it's a yes.

If it's here, it's a yes.

If it's here, it's a yes.

Just yes, yes, yes, yes to God.

You don't have to guard yourself.

It's the right thing.

So would you bow your heads with me and let's pray.

Father, we thank you that you brought us to a place of hearing that we're in a life that you've designed, that we're in a place where you're at and that you're doing wild work and that we get to be invited into it.

And Lord, I pray that we would have the thrill of being partnered up with you in this next season.

Lord, we pray for every person in here and every person online.

Lord, if there's a brokenness in anybody's heart, if there's something that's a need that you need to meet, Lord, we pray right now that you'd meet that.

Lord, if there's somebody who's felt lonely or somebody who's dealing with addiction, Lord, or somebody who's got relationship struggles right now, I pray that you would help and deal with those things.

And Lord, I pray for those who are needing to step into their mission, God, just light their heart up and give them real clear direction from you, not from me, not from their neighbor, but from you, Lord.

And we pray for those who need to step into community.

We know what the answer is.

The answer is in the room.

It's us, it's we.

So I pray that you would bring those barriers down and the fear down and just give the courage to step into a group or to a serving team and just start to have friends and start to be known and start to know others and start to be able to share needs and see you come around like that, Lord.

I pray, Lord, for those who are here today and they're ready to say yes to Jesus.

And if that's you, I'm gonna lead you in a prayer right now.

Because he's ready for you.

You can tell him this in your mind and heart say, Jesus, I give you my life.

Thank you for saving me.

I believe in you, your life, your death on the cross, and your resurrection.

Forgive me of my sins, fill me with your Holy Spirit, lead me, and teach me to follow you.

I ask it in Jesus' name.

Father, we thank you for those who today, right now, are trusting you, like you've just been doing all around the world.

You've been bringing more people to yourself.

And if you're here and you just said yes to Jesus, we celebrate you.

You're part of God's family.

He's forgiven your sins, he's given you a place in his family, he's preparing a home for you in heaven, and he's given you his Holy Spirit so that he can do his wild work in and through your life.

Jesus, we thank you.

We thank you, and we trust you.

We know you're gonna guide us, and we rely on that.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.