John 12:37-43 | Ambition for Your 50th Anniversary | Dave Harvey

Good morning, folks.

You can go ahead and have your seats, please.

I want to extend a special welcome to any of you that are new here this morning.

Uh I am something of a guest, though I've been here a number of times before, but I get an opportunity to welcome you.

My name is Dave Harvey, as Scott mentioned, and I have just been so eager to come back to be with you, not only because of the catalog of memories that I have of being here and warm experiences.

And not only because our our chief of staff, Ryan Sarpaulis, who uh is the chief of staff of Great Commission Collective and serves with me there and does a fantastic job, but he serves this local church too as an elder.

So that's another reason I get excited about being here.

I get to be here on your 13th anniversary.

Welcome to Adolescence, by the way.

Oh my goodness.

But also because this morning I get to tell you just how how grateful I am to the elders of this church and to you as well for supporting Scott in the decision to replace me as president of Great Commission Collective next year.

Now that may sound strange to you, but uh I took this role over seven years ago.

I was 59 when I took the role.

When you take a role and you're 59, you're immediately thinking about a successor.

And uh and so I I remember coming in and beginning to get to know different different pastors, and and as soon as I got to know Scott, I began plowing Scott into every cohort I had, just being able to get as much time as possible.

And I can honestly say to you that as the board went through the process of evaluating, Scott was always my first choice.

Scott was the man I was praying for.

He was the one that I was hoping, he was the one I was advocating for because of, because of, because I had been here first, so the qualities of this church, sitting with your eldership, I just thought I I want this church to be able to have that kind of influence throughout a global church planting network.

But then also I got to know Scott.

You know, his his character, his vision, his humility, his gospel-centeredness really is only exceeded by his wife, Erin.

And you and you have made now, as a result of this decision, a huge investment into the future of a group of 167 churches at present working in 18 countries that now sponsoring 25 church planters.

And we just started 13 church planters this month, so add them to that.

And that's a unique role that you are going to have.

And also, in addition to that, gosh, you've made me very happy.

And so thank you very much.

And if I choose nothing else this morning, I was looking forward to coming here and saying that to you.

So thank you.

Um, you can open up your Bibles to John chapter 12.

John 12 · chapter mention

Where I'm gonna read in just a second, beginning in verse 37.

Because today, on your 13th anniversary, I want to talk to you about another anniversary that you are by the grace of God going to have.

I want to talk about your golden anniversary, which gold is the gemstone of the 50th anniversary.

So I want to do a message this morning titled Ambition for Your 50th anniversary.

Now, I want to I want to acknowledge that every time I stand in front of a group of Christians and I mention that word ambition, there is a kind of nervous edge that enters the room.

I mean, honestly, if you want to lock up a prayer meeting, just ask them to pray for you that God would give you more ambition.

You might as well ask them to pray that your Powerball ticket hits, or ask them to give you a ride down to the bar afterwards because you want to do vodka shots, because it lands on people in the same way.

Because we immediately think about ambition in negative terms.

We immediately think about ambition as something that that corrupts the soul.

When you think about it, without ambition, churches aren't planted.

Without ambition, businesses aren't started.

Without ambition, books remain written.

Without ambition, there will be no 50th anniversary for Doxa Church.

So there's got to be something more to this.

There must be something else.

But to understand that, I think we have to engage our minds on the subject of glory, which is why I've asked you to open up to John chapter 12.

John 12 · chapter mention

I'm going to begin reading in verse 37.

Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him.

So that the words spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled.

Lord, who has believed what he heard from us?

And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

Therefore they could not believe, for again Isaiah said, He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they see with their eyes and understand with their hearts and turn.

And I would heal them.

Verse 41.

Isaiah said these things, because he saw his glory and spoke of him.

Nevertheless, even many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees, they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue.

For they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

Let's pray together.

I pray as we look at an ambition for the 50th anniversary of Doxa, that you would help us to understand how this passage, loving the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God, applies to that end.

And I pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So there's a town in the nation of Wales called Hay on Why.

Why is a river, Hay is the town, Hay on Why.

Hay on Why is this remarkable little Welsh town that has earned a unique international reputation as being a center for buying and selling used books?

It's remarkable.

Like within one square mile of the town, there is like 37 used bookstores.

The castle in the middle of the town has been converted into a used bookstore.

So I've got a friend Pete, and Pete had been traveling to Hayon Wife for years with one singular goal.

He wanted to find a copy of Lectures to My Students, written by Charles Spurgeon, that was signed by his wife, Susanna Spurgeon.

Now, if that sounds strange, let me give you some context.

Susanna Spurgeon was bedbound for about two decades.

But from her bed, she still wanted to serve her husband and serve her local church, so she started a ministry called the Book Fund, where she would collect funds and then she would send her husband's books to leaders all over the world.

But before she would send them out, she would flip open the cover and she would write inside of it, Mrs.

C.

H.

Spurgeon.

And my friend knew, my friend Pete knew, because they had gone out all over the world that if they're going to turn up anywhere in the world, they're going to turn up in Hay On Y.

And so he knew that he needed to look there.

And I remember him telling me the key, he would say, Dave, is you got to be patient and perseverance and have a keen, you know, my my friend Pete like fancies himself like the Indiana Jones of used books.

I don't know.

But so there I'm standing with him, my first time ever in Hayon Why.

And as Pete is standing there, we're in the theology section of one of the used bookstores, first time ever.

And as he's narrating for me his quest over the years and talking about how just recently he heard one of them had come in through one of the bookstores and left.

And we're standing in the theology section, he's sharing with me.

And I just for a moment I break eye contact with him, I look over his left-hand shoulder and I turn my head a little bit.

And sure enough, on the bookshelf there is lectures to my students.

And so as he's continuing on, I just in one, I just I reach over his shoulder, I pull it down, I flip it open, and right there is Mrs.

C.

H.

Spurgeon.

And I'm looking at this and I'm thinking, oh, this is gonna be good.

And and uh and and and and Pete Pete was utterly astonished that that happened, which I would later explain to him that Pete, you gotta understand that Americans can achieve in moments what it takes Brits years to accomplish.

But what stayed with me about that story was the idea of Pete's search.

You know, he spent years looking for this because he valued it.

The object of his search was worth it, which illustrates, I think, a fundamental human drive, but also one of the primary points behind this passage, which is we chase what we love.

We are pursuers, we go after the things we value.

Okay, now just for a second, let's just push that aside, leave that hanging suspended.

We're gonna come back to that, but let's return to John chapter 12, where Christ, this is a section in the Gospel of John where Christ has become quite the happening.

John 12 · chapter mention

I mean, he's entered Jerusalem amidst the cries of Hosanna, and blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

And there are two groups that are regular fixtures, they're in orbit around the Lord at this point.

There is, of course, the twelve, and then there's the second group that's repeatedly called the crowd that was with him when he raised Lazarus from the tomb.

And group two is described first in this way in verse 37.

Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him.

And so this group, part of this group, were unbelievers who saw the power of God through the person of Jesus Christ, but did not believe in Jesus Christ.

And that's, you know, that's a bad thing.

But we're about to be introduced to a second group that's even worse.

Because in verse 42, here's another part of this group.

Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him.

So the other group did not believe in him, they believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees, they did not confess it because they did not want to be put out of the synagogue.

So, so just think about this.

The Pharisees could put them out of the synagogue.

So they did not confess Christ.

And by the way, if being put out of the synagogue, if that just seems like a like a like a cop-out to you, you have to consider that for them to confess Christ meant that their families would be stigmatized, their income would be affected, the disapproval of the entire community would be stamped upon their existence for the rest of their lives.

I mean, my decision for Christ was like a raised hand at the end of the meeting.

It had nowhere near this kind of cost attached to it.

But here's the grabber.

Here's the grabber.

God kind of restrains our instinctive sympathy for them by flipping the lights on their true motives.

Because there's a passage after verse 42 that explains why they feared.

And this is how it's read, for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

So, yeah, in verse 42, we learn, oh, they're fearful.

They're struggling with fear, they're struggling with understandable fear.

They'd be put out of the synagogue.

It would affect their entire lives, it would affect their families.

But but we're not left there because God pops the hood, and we get to see the real engine of their motivation.

And this is what it was.

They loved the glory that comes from man.

Their fear camouflaged a deeper drive.

And it was something they they loved.

They loved glory.

The glory that comes from man.

So here it's interesting.

Here, God supplies a window into the hearts of people who believed in Jesus, but could not fully follow him or conform to him.

Why?

Because of something they loved.

And what they say, what it says they loved was glory.

Now, when glory is used in Scripture, it describes, when it's used vertically, it describes the splendor and radiance and magnificence of God.

But that's not what these guys are after.

These guys are after a horizontal version of glory, which means esteem from one another.

It means their standing in the community.

It means the honor and praise they swapped with each other.

They craved it.

They chased it.

You ever hear about, you know, storm chasers?

You know, there's a tornado that's that's blistering through some Midwestern city or in the middle of America, and everybody's doing as much as they can to get out of the city as much as possible.

But then there's this one group of lunatics that are driving as quickly as possible to get as close to the tornado as possible.

Why?

Because they are storm chasers.

Listen, we have all been born glory chasers.

We have an inherent instinct, a genetic instinct that is imprinted on us because of the image of God in man to value honor, to value esteem and respect and admiration.

It's interesting.

This is seen in a whole different way in Romans chapter 2, verses 6 through 8, where it says, He will render, listen, this is a fascinating passage.

Romans 2:6–8

Listen to this.

He will render to each one according to his works, to those who by patience and well-doing, listen to this, seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.

But for those who are self-seeking, notice a contrast being made.

Those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, he will give, it goes on to say, he will give wrath and fury.

Oh my goodness.

I mean, let's just tap the brakes for a second and pause and think about what's being said here.

Try to wrap your brain around this.

Apparently, there's a good way to seek glory that leads to eternal life, and there is a bad way to seek glory that leads to wrath and fury.

Listen, each one of us is born with a God-installed desire for glory.

This is one of the reasons why we are awed by great comebacks.

And when we see exceptional gifts being used, you know, we see an Olympic gym that stick a dismount and clinch the gold, and there's something inside of us that is aroused by that.

We hear William Wilberforce advocating for against the slave trade.

And finally, Parliament passes it, and there's something inside of us that says, yes, that's good.

We want to be like that.

We experience something vicariously in that.

Why?

Because we are wired for glory.

And the point that I'm making is that God doesn't oppose glory seeking, He actually commends it.

The problem is not the pursuit of glory, the problem is where we find it.

Do we love the glory that comes from man or do we love the glory that comes from God?

God has wired us to search for glory.

The key to our future, the key to doxa flourishing in these years ahead is where will we find glory?

Now here's one of the fundamental points I want to make is that we will never understand ambition.

We will never be in a position to rescue it from the clutches of a culture that idolizes it or from a church, the evangelical church that stigmatizes it, and in doing so paralyzes the organ of ambition until we love the right kind of glory.

And so let's just make this practical.

What does it mean to love the right kind of glory?

Well, first, the glory that comes from God is first a person.

Meaning that loving the glory that comes from God means first savoring the one who personified God's glory.

And I'm talking about the person of Jesus Christ.

You know, in the Gospel of John, there's a lot of things going on there when he uses the glory of the comes from God.

There's a fascinating play on words here because Jesus is standing there as the embodiment of God's glory.

It's one of the reasons why in verse 41 it says, Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and he spoke of him.

Hebrews talks about the Jesus as the radiance of God's glory.

So it's not like Christ was standing there saying, you have an unmet need for respect and esteem.

You look to get that filled from men, you need to get that filled from me.

No, no, it's nothing like that.

It's the glory that came from God stands before you, and you value your own glory even more.

Like you can't even see that the glory that came from God, the glory that comes from God is standing in front of you.

This passage drips with absurdity.

It happens again in John chapter 5, verse 44.

John 5:44

He says, How can you believe?

How can you believe when you receive glory from one another, but do not seek the glory that comes from God?

The glory that comes from God is first Jesus.

You know, we hear people say at times, God will just appear to me in glory.

Well, then and only then will I believe.

To which I think the biblical answer is he did.

His name is Jesus.

So to love the glory that comes from God means we love the person of Jesus Christ.

And to love Christ means we value him more than anything else.

We want to follow him and obey him and trust him and share him.

Listen, this This is a defining mark of conversion, that we love the Savior and we want to live for his glory.

I was converted in the late 70s.

I think it was somewhere around 79, 80, somewhere.

And you know, many people know the day and the hour of their conversion.

And uh I think that's really cool, but it didn't happen for me that way.

You know, grace for me was ultimately irresistible, but I resisted to the point of exhaustion.

I mean, really, I think fatigue played a prominent role in why I was converted.

But I remember I remember reading the gospels for the first time as a believer and seeing the holiness of God in Jesus, seeing the love of God, seeing the power of God in his miracles, and it was entrancing.

It was captivating.

He was growing more glorious before me, and I was learning to love him.

Listen, it's how I knew something was different.

Because there was a transformation that had penetrated all the way down into my soul to the level of my affections, and I was drawn toward that more than drawn to partying.

So to love the glory that came from God or comes from God means first being passionate about the person of Jesus Christ, who he is, and what he has accomplished for us.

But there's a second application as well, and that is that the glory of God demands our pursuit.

So it's first a person, but it also makes a claim upon us.

The glory that comes from God demands our pursuit.

In other words, to love glory isn't just a feeling.

Because for love to be love, it must involve pursuit.

Now, we've already said that we're wired to pursue it.

Maybe that's confusing because it's like, well, wait a minute, I thought you said we're wired to pursue, so we would naturally pursue.

But no, it's both.

It's it's we are wired to pursue and we must pursue that Romans chapter 2 passage, patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality.

Romans 2 · chapter mention

And if you're here and you're married, you know, you know something about what I mean in this.

In other words, the you know, the the covenant, the marriage day and the marriage night locks the covenant down.

But there's an ongoing pursuit, there's an ongoing seeking that's necessary within marriage to protect the health of the marriage, to enhance the marriage, for you to flourish.

This is why we get away.

This is why we do date nights and give gifts and express affections, because love is something installed, and love is something that is fed.

And it must be fed wide.

See, the problem with the authorities in John chapter 12 is their appetite, what they wanted to be fed on was the praise of men.

John 12 · chapter mention

It was the glory that came from people.

They loved the glory that comes from man because they missed true worth.

They missed what was truly valuable, so they pursued the wrong kind of glory.

Now I know you might be sitting there saying, you know, Dave, interesting.

I thought this message was on ambition.

I had to say all of that in order to lay a theological foundation for talking about ambition because the pursuit of the right kind of glory becomes the basis for godly ambition.

And brothers and sisters, this is a quality that must be restored to the Christian vocabulary.

Listen, we cannot sacrifice ambition in pursuit of humility and set them up as if they're competing with each other all of the time.

Because you know what that does is that creates Christians who are so modest they aspire to nothing.

Oh, look how humble that brother is.

Look how humble she is.

You know, they just sit there on the couch waiting and doing nothing because they're so humble, waiting for the initiative to come from other people, waiting for clarity, because they're paralyzed until they get.

See, that's not humble.

They've just found a way to cloak their laziness with the appearance of modesty.

It's really hard to describe what is lost to a generation of Christians who erase ambition in an attempt to achieve humility.

I mean, you know, there is a certain insanity to this.

We we demonize ambition and then we bid Christians to go and reach the world for Christ.

We we discourage aspirations or or or at least tamp them down because they don't appear modest or humble, and then we expect missionaries and leaders and pastors to emerge within the church.

We expect to be able to play.

You know, I mean, it's interesting.

First, you want to look at how eldership starts, 1 Timothy chapter 3.

1 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

This is how Paul says, okay, right out of the gate, I want to share with you how to identify elders.

If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble.

Like for Paul, this was not a question.

For Paul, right out of the gate, we're talking about aspirations and ambitions.

So we need humble, unashamed ambition for God's glory for the nations within our local church and within our hearts.

And that returns us to Paul.

And that returns us to Doxa Church.

Because I want to talk to you about what this means for your.

I want to talk to you about what this means for your 50th anniversary.

For your mission over these in these years to come.

And I think just one simple point.

I I think it just means that we stoke our ambition for mission.

We stoke our ambition for mission.

In other words, ambition should be inspiring us to explore new paths and new opportunities for the glory of God.

And you know what, even in saying that, I want to thank you because in some ways you are modeling this and embodying this by accepting the fact that Scott's role is changing a little bit.

He remains your senior pastor, but he's also going to be working in a field that's going to be allowing Docsa to be more involved in missions.

So you're already flexing to accommodate that.

But I want you to see what how this worked for Paul.

Romans chapter 15, verse 19.

Romans 15:19

Oh, how I wish we had time to talk more about this passage.

This passage, if you've never read it, just prepare to have your mind blown.

This is what Paul said.

From Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel.

Wow, wouldn't you love to just park there for a little while and talk about what he means?

But this is where he goes with that.

And thus, I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundations.

I mean, just listen, listen in part for the scope of Paul's ambition there.

He wants to go where Christ hasn't already been named.

Paul's saying, hey, my dream here, my dream for how God is going to be glorified in my life through my gifts, it's global.

It's something beyond my own sufficiency.

It's something that to accomplish, I must depend upon God.

One of the things I'm doing right now is I'm I'm converting this uh some of these ideas into a business book.

I've never written a business book.

All my books have been, you know, different target audience, but rescuing ambition for marketplace success.

And passages like this have led me, have pressed me to define how am I going to define ambition?

And the definition of ambition that I'm using is ambition is attempting big things by God's grace for God's glory.

Attempting big things for God's grace and God's glory.

And I had to brace myself because I realized as soon as I include that big thing, oh man, I'm preparing to have to answer for the big things.

Because that can be, in some sense, confusing.

For many people, that can be exciting.

But I think in order to talk about ambition, we have to distinguish it from desire.

We have to distinguish it from duty.

And I want to be clear.

I'm going to tell you what I mean by big things, but I want to be clear what I don't mean.

By big things, I don't mean something spectacular, or something that's always visible, or something that is, you know, a self-exalting thing that's going to distinguish you within your career or within the world in which you live.

Big things become worthy ambitions when they stretch us beyond our own self-sufficiency.

It's those things that move us beyond what we can accomplish on our own through our gifts.

Big things require trusting God with our gifts, trusting God with our limitations, seeing that God could work even beyond our resources, trusting God with the results.

You know, Thomas Aquinas had a word, he called it magnanimity.

Magnanimity.

It's a word that I'm trying to pull forward.

But he Aquinas said, a man is said to be magnanimous, chiefly because he is minded to do some great act.

And Paul says, so so he so how does this apply to Paul?

Paul says, okay, so here's what's been going on.

Um the Great Commission, yeah, fulfilled it over there.

But I'm moving on.

There's more that needs to be done.

Paul acknowledges the achievement of this astonishing dream, but here's what he's not doing.

He's not moving off to the side.

He's not saying, you know what, I'm retiring to other side, Southern California or Southern Florida.

I'm gonna write my memoirs, I'm gonna chill out on the beach.

I think I've deserved that.

I think I'm entitled to that.

No, there's a sense where he's looking for new things, new ways to take, new places to take the gospel.

And and and and and maybe for you this means new dreams, you know, new businesses, new art, new new churches that need to be planted, something beyond my ability that can be done for God's glory.

I'm just so provoked by Paul's ambition.

Does it affect you that way?

Well, maybe let me ask you the question this way.

Are you dreaming at all about how to use your gifts for for God's glory?

About how to use your home to reach your neighborhood?

About how God wants to use doxa in the years ahead to plant churches, you know, all over the city and to have a larger influence than you ever dreamed.

My question is, are you know, are you are you dreaming?

Are you dreaming at all?

You know, I had this, I didn't I didn't sleep for years.

I I I'm I'm 66.

I think for my first like 48 years, uh I I I slept very little, like I would sleep for a few hours, and then I would I would wake up and I would just I would just get up.

And it became a real problem.

You know, you get older and that becomes a real problem.

And and so Kim was always saying, Yeah, you know, you need to get a sleep, you're gonna go to the doctor.

So eventually I got a sleep study, and and they said, Well, you have apnea, which just means you, you know, you snore so loud you wake yourself up.

And and uh and they said, well, here's what here's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna go, we're gonna go into your, we're gonna go into your throat, we're gonna we're gonna cut out your uvula, and uh, and then we're going to uh you know, we're gonna do some other things that'll clear through.

And I'm thinking, I'm thinking, wait a minute, first, I didn't know I have a had a uvula, and now you know I I don't even have time to enjoy it, and you're taking it out.

Um and then I think, okay, but just do what you did, because here's the thing is for all of those years, I don't ever remember dreaming.

And so I had that surgery and I recovered from that period, and all of a sudden I remember dreaming again, and I remember the refreshment that come came from being able to dream again.

And there are some Christians that live in that space, they're just not dreaming.

And and I understand that because sometimes suffering, you know, can stun our capacity to dream, or or experiences from the past can do that, or or fear can do that.

And I think Paul understood, you know, the guy who's talking, the guy who's saying this in Romans chapter 15 is a guy who was beaten, who a guy who talked, a guy who talks openly about his anxiety for all the churches, a guy who who has experienced being stoned and forsaken and persecuted, but he did not use his suffering from the past to paralyze him towards the future.

Romans 15 · chapter mention

He wanted to spend his life for the glory of God.

Well, maybe you're here this morning and you're thinking, well, Dave, I'm I'm honestly and sincerely afraid of ambition.

I don't want it to corrupt me.

I'm responsible for a lot of people, I'm responsible for my family.

I don't want it to take me down.

Paul would say, yeah, me neither.

Because when the New Testament wants to talk about bad ambition, it calls it selfish ambition, where there's jealousy and selfish ambition, there is disunity and every evil thing, James says.

Selfish ambition is moving ourselves to the center of that glory drive.

But listen, the sin is not in the pursuit of glory, it's in the aim of that pursuit.

The problem is not that we seek glory, it's where we find it.

The problem is not ambition, it's that we love the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

This is my problem.

I mean, I can't believe at times how much I think about myself.

I can't believe at times how much how self-obsessed I can be.

I'm like a I'm like a Dave a holic, or, you know, like constantly, like I want, I want Kim to be Deva logical in all her insights, and I want my family to throw me at Dave Toberfest this month.

You know, I just want it to be about me.

Like I'm at the I'm at the center of my own dreams.

But you know what that is?

That's that's the glory drive turning inward.

It's making myself the center of the glory.

The issue's not the pursuit of glory, it's the aim.

And you say, well, Dave, you don't understand.

We're really committed around here to care and to relationships.

Here, here's what I want to say.

If you're committed to care, you will be ambitious about multiplication.

Because for a local church to be healthy and a local church to thrive and a local church to flourish moving on towards its 50th anniversary, you must have ambitions for something outside of yourself.

You must have ambitions, not simply for the building of the church, but for something outside of yourself.

Because listen, as soon as the church is planted, there is a natural energy that begins to make that church grow inward.

It spins the church towards each other and toward, and that's a good thing.

That's a necessary thing.

It's not a church-sized thing.

But when a church exists only for itself, it becomes insulated and it begins to slide towards a kind of like institutionalism.

You know, institutionalism is when we exist to protect the past and to satisfy those who are employed by the institution.

But we're not existing for the mission, we're not existing for the glory of God.

And the problem with churches that are trending in that direction is they grow sterile.

They don't reproduce.

So for a local church to thrive, it must exist for something outside of itself.

It must exist to multiply.

And that's why mission, that's why your commitment to church planting is so important to getting to that 50th anniversary.

Because your commitment to multiplication, you may not realize this, but your commitment to multiplication is like a megavitamin that protects your church against becoming insulated.

It protects your church against the bending inward and the sliding downward.

And sometimes churches just need to.

I remember going through it.

I led a church for many years, a large church in the Philadelphia area.

Many churches led the, many years led this church.

I remember going through the season where it uh 15, probably 15% of the church left the church.

And there were different reasons that it was happening, and it was just a mess.

And for some reason, reason the people just couldn't kind of galvanize and move forward, and it was messy and confusing.

And I remember getting so bad sitting around with the elders thinking, you know what, things are so bad.

We need to plant a church.

We need to plant a church.

We need the nourishment and the encouragement that comes from that.

Let me give you a great quote.

John Piper once said, listen to this no local church can go without the encouragement and nourishment that will come to it by sending away its best people.

And you've done that.

But there's what I want you to understand is that there is a unique encouragement and nourishment that comes when we have an ambition for multiplication, when we have an ambition for mission, because mission keeps that dynamic of sacrifice in the church.

It stirs dependence upon God.

It opens up new roles, it lifts our eyes to the harvest, it lifts our eyes above our own needs, and it injects a life and a vitality into the local church that comes to it in no other way.

So, can I encourage you on this 13th anniversary?

Don't disregard the encouragement and nourishment that comes to you by the mission things you are embracing in moving forward.

Even the sending of Scott, even though he's not leaving his role or leaving there, but but going deeper into the mission, sending out CV, the things you're doing to go deep in the mission, that's going to help you move in health towards your 50th anniversary.

And listen, if you think my friend Pete from the beginning of my message, if you think he was surprised when I handed him, I gifted him the Spurgeon book with Susanna's signature in it, that's nothing compared to the adventure that God has for leaders and Christians who dare to turn their ambition away from themselves and towards multiplying disciples and leaders and elders and planters and towards God's glory.

Listen, it's why we were created.

It's how we're wired.

It's the pathway to your 50th anniversary.

May God help us not waste our ambition on anything less.

Let's pray.

Lord, we I thank you so much for this church.

I thank you for the way they model, loving the glory that comes from God.

I pray that you would stir each of us by this passage.

And Lord, for those that are paralyzed this morning, for those that are facing things where they believe you're calling them, but they're reluctant to take a step, I pray that you would inspire their faith toward you, to love the glory that comes from God, and to take risks and trust you so that your your mission might move forward, so that the witness of Christ might be that might populate different places and that your name would be glorified.

In Jesus' name.