Called to the Unknown

Um, we have amazing neighbors that continue to like kind of drop hints about FBC.

Like, come check out FBC.

And finally, over just over a year ago, we decided let's start like our mission of just trying out different churches.

And FBC was the first one, and we came and it we didn't try out anymore.

Think like the dialogue that it has allowed shape our family.

Like when our children go to the children's ministry, like afterwards, just the conversation of like, what did you learn?

Like what concepts were um being taught.

And like, even I remember Arden after his football game this last weekend was like reading the story of Kane and Abel.

And it was just like amazing to like talk about that and be able to have dialogue.

And I just I love that it's definitely like allowed our family to just grow close.

My kids love walking with me to church and walking home from church, so it's just like such a great time to again talk about the message or talk about what we've learned.

Sometimes we have like the Spotify playlist of our worship songs going as we're walking.

But I think having a church like this in any community would be a huge asset, like being able to walk or be a short distance away, just being close enough to weather walker again, have that short drive, have those intimate moments with family, um, to connect with people that you you are surrounded with day in and day out throughout the week.

Like you said, I mean, the the opportunity for somebody to be able to have their community be where their church is because that's that's a huge help.

You know, I mean it can grow and it can keep growing, because that's the goal.

Well, I'm getting older, and I realize all of us are getting older, but when I say that, I just mean I'm getting older and I'm starting to like feel it.

Um obviously the physical signs of aging in my life are becoming apparent for me.

So, for example, I'm going gray, and I'm going gray far more rapidly than I would have hoped for at this point.

Um, now for a while there, I was actually totally fine with it.

You know, a little salt and pepper is kind of cool.

Um, I kind of feel like for a little while there I had like the George Clooney vibe going on, you know what I'm talking about?

It's great.

Uh I'll take that.

But at this point, the gray in my head is now beginning to overtake my head.

So each and every day I look a little less like George Clooney and a little more like George Washington, probably.

But it's fine.

I'm fine.

We're all fine.

Either way, I we expect the physical signs of aging.

What I'm even talking about more than that is that I'm noticing there are other signs of my age in recent days.

The older I get, for example, the more set in my ways I become.

Some of you perhaps know exactly what I'm talking about.

That tends to happen with age.

I mean, I know what I like, I know what works for me.

And apparently at this stage of life, I've decided that there are certain things where it's like there's no reason to mess with that.

Uh, for example, if I go to a restaurant, I'm rarely these days really adventurous when I go to a restaurant trying new things.

And maybe you probably understand that, or you get that.

I mean, why take the risk?

I could spend$25 on something I might like, or I could spend$25 on something that I know that I'll like, right?

So just give me the usual.

That's kind of my mantra.

Give me the usual.

Or if I get a haircut, every time I get a haircut, the barber always says to me, All right, what are you gonna do this time, boss?

And I always say, just give me the usual.

Like at this point in my life, there's not gonna be like a new cooler Joe, right?

I'm not gonna like change the look or like I'm not gonna bring in a picture.

I'm not doing that, right?

Just give me the same thing.

Give me the usual, give me the same haircut I had three weeks ago, just I'll be a little more gray this time.

That's my that's my thing.

Uh for me, I like the usual.

And perhaps some of you are in the same boat.

We like things that are familiar.

We like to be comfortable, we like things that are predictable, we like things that are safe.

And the older I get, the more I like knowing what to expect.

I like to know where I'm going and how I'm gonna get there.

And there's nothing inherently wrong with that, but there's something, at least for me personally, I'm realizing that I need the reminder of occasionally.

You see, sometimes faith doesn't give us what's usual.

Sometimes faith doesn't give us what's usual.

Sometimes God calls us away from what's familiar and he puts us in places that are not always the most comfortable or predictable or safe.

And this morning, we are going to get a glimpse of a story, a first-hand glimpse of what happens when God calls someone into something uncomfortable and when they actually respond with faith.

So this morning, if you want to see what I'm talking about, I want to invite you to open your Bibles with me to Genesis chapter 12 this morning.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

Genesis chapter 12 is where we're at.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

If you're new here this morning, if this is your first Sunday, welcome.

We're glad you're here.

And if you're new and you brought a Bible, great.

Uh we open the Bible every Sunday here.

That's a great pattern to have.

If you didn't bring a Bible, we got you covered.

Uh, whether you're new or you've been here forever, we got you covered.

There's a Bible in front of you.

You're welcome to use that.

If you don't own a physical Bible, take that home.

And normally, this is the part in the service where I explain how to find the book we're talking about.

Super simple today.

It's the first book of the Bible.

Genesis is where we're at.

Genesis 12, as you're turning there, I want to let you know we are beginning today a six-week series.

This series is called Multiply, and throughout this series, we're gonna look at the life of Abraham together.

And this is an important series for us because for the next six weeks, not only are we looking at the journey that Abram went on, or Abraham, but today it'll be Abram, not only are we looking at that journey, but I believe today we're gonna be inviting everyone to be on our own journey of faith as we explore this series together corporately as a church.

And so, as many of you know, we believe God has been opening the door for us to multiply into new locations so we can expand the reach of the gospel.

And so, if we're gonna take this step as a church family, it's gonna require more than simply just talking about it, right?

At some point, we need to take action.

And so it's gonna require faith, it's gonna require sacrifice, and it's also gonna require generosity.

And so throughout this series, we're leaning into that and we're leaning into generosity, not simply so we can raise the necessary funds to launch in a new location, but so that way we can be challenged to have the gifts that God has given us and to steward them for God's purposes.

And so that's what we're gonna be leaning into for the next six weeks.

And I wanted to give you that lay of the land up front.

I also share that with you because I want to encourage you, if you call FBC your church home, I want to encourage you to be with us through this series and this journey.

There'll be other opportunities to get plugged in and involved.

I'll share that at the end of the service.

But I want to encourage you to do that because if we're gonna take these steps of faith as a church, it's gonna require all of us playing our part uh to carry out what we believe God is calling us to do.

And so uh just thank you for being here.

I hope you join us each and every week and join us throughout the series.

So you should be in Genesis 12.

Let's get ready to dive into our passage today.

As I mentioned, this is the story of Abraham, although it's Abram for our purposes today, because later on in the story uh he gets his name changed to Abraham.

So Abram, uh, we're gonna look at the beginning of Abram's journey today.

But before we jump into that, I just want to take a quick moment to give you some context because we're in chapter 12, and in the first 11 chapters of the Bible, we have some foundational background information that sets the table not only for the story of Abram, but really for the story of the entire Bible.

So if we can just real quickly visit that, I'll move fast.

But I would like to begin this message by talking about number one, the prologue.

The prologue.

So if any of you have like a novels that you like, especially if it's like a big epic, oftentimes the opening section is like a prologue, it's introductory material that sets up the story.

But that's really what the first 11 chapters of Genesis are.

And so let me just move through this pretty quickly for you.

In the beginning of our Bible, we're introduced to the fact that God is the one who created everything, he set everything in motion.

God created all things in the beginning words of the book of Genesis.

He creates the heavens and the earth, he creates the sun, the moon, the stars, right?

He creates the seas and he fills them with fish, he creates the skies, he fills them with birds, he creates the land and he fills them with every kind of living creature.

And at the end of the sixth day, God, at the pinnacle of creation, uh creates the best thing.

God creates humanity.

And the reason I say it's the best thing, the reason I would say it's the pinnacle of God's creative work is because there's something about humanity that's unique and no other creature is like it.

We as humans have been made in the image of God.

This is what scripture says.

God made man in his image.

That means we were created to reflect and represent God here on the earth.

And so every single human being who has ever lived has been made in the image of God.

That's that's something that's a status we've been endowed with inherently.

And so God created humanity, and then he gave humanity a purpose and a task at the very beginning.

God said to humanity, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.

And so God gave from the very beginning this task to humans to fill the earth, to spread out, to multiply, to spread out across the face of the globe, to rule over creation as God's ambassadors, as his image-bearers, so that his glory might cover the dry land as the waters covered the sea.

That's what God set in motion for humanity to do, but it doesn't take very long in the biblical story for us to screw it up.

If you're familiar, after those first two chapters, we get to chapter three, and there in chapter three, Adam and Eve, instead of listening to the voice of God and ruling over the creatures, they listen to the voice of a creature and try to make themselves like God.

Adam and Eve rebel, they listen to the serpent, and in the blink of an eye, just like that, when they eat the forbidden fruit, everything changes.

Sin enters the world, and with sin comes the curse, and suddenly God's good creation becomes marked by brokenness and shame and conflict and pain and toil and suffering and death.

And then if you move on past chapter three, things don't get better.

In fact, they get worse.

You get to chapter four, and now sin begins to come to its climax and apex, where the sin is so great that there's a man named Cain who kills his own brother Abel.

Then we go from there to the story of the flood, and then we see that sin permeates everybody because it says there about the people at the time that every inclination of the thought of man's heart is only evil all the time.

That's the flood narrative.

And then we get to chapter 11 and we get to the Tower of Babel.

There at the Tower of Babel, if you remember, God had told the humans there to spread out, to multiply, to fill the earth, and to rule it in order to glorify God's name.

But it says there in the text that instead of spreading out and bringing glory to God's name, they come together, they build a tower, and they try to make a name for themselves.

That's what Genesis 11 says.

And so ultimately what God does there is he scatters the people across the face of the earth, he confuses their language, and in this moment, if you really look at the story of humanity and the task that God gave him, it begins to kind of feel a little bleak, doesn't it?

In fact, there's in many respects, if you look at the opening section, you might presume that this is a story with no hope.

But you see, the truth is you don't want to miss out.

Despite all that begins to spiral, God's plan for humanity he never abandons.

In fact, in Genesis chapter 3, in the very moments that humanity fell into sin, God makes a promise in that section.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

The promise centers on this that one day God will raise up one who will come from the woman, an offspring of the woman, will rise up and he will crush the serpent's head.

In other words, despite humanity's rebellion, God has a rescue plan.

And when we get to Genesis chapter 12, what we see is God in a remarkable way takes a step forward in carrying out that rescue plan because God begins to call a person and he begins to speak to a person.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

Of all the people scattered across the earth, God calls one man, and perhaps most surprisingly, he calls him from one of the most unlikely of places.

And that now sets up our story in Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

So now that we've seen the prologue, the background, let's move into our passage.

And the first thing we're going to see is number one, the prompt.

The prompt.

And notice what the text tells us.

Now the Lord said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land I will show you.

Now, before we look specifically at what the Lord is saying to Abram, before we look at that, I want to begin just by looking at the fact that someone in this story, in this narrative, is the initiator of all things.

Who is the one who initiates all this?

God.

The Lord is the one who initiates all this.

Notice how Abram doesn't begin searching for God.

No, God comes to Abram.

Now, this is amazing, and it's amazing specifically because of all the people on the earth, God would choose this man to speak to.

That's significant.

Here's why.

If you look at the end of Genesis chapter 11, we're introduced to Abram very briefly there, and we're told that Abram came from a place called Ur of the Chaldeans.

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

Now, Ur, there's some debate as to where Ur actually is.

Some people think it's further north.

This is the most dominant view.

Ur is a place in a city in southern Mesopotamia.

It's part of a re- the region known as Babylonia, where the Tower of Babel was, where later on Babylon itself was.

And so he's from a place that's already marked by wickedness and evil, right?

That's where Abram's from.

But then later on in the biblical story, we discover when Joshua looks back and revisits the story of Abram, Abraham, Joshua begins to say that Abram and his family, they lived on the other side of the river, the other side of the Euphrates, and he says that there they served other gods.

In other words, Abram is not this righteous guy who really wants to please and honor the Lord.

He's not raised in a Christian family or a home that worships the God of Israel.

No, quite the opposite.

Abram is raised in a family of idolaters.

He's worshiping other gods.

And so God comes to Abram and speaks to him.

He's the last person you would expect from that place and from his family and from his background, yet, nevertheless, God calls him.

So don't miss the beginning of Abram's story.

It's the same as our story, it starts with grace.

If for some reason you presume today that you are who you are in Christ because of some inherent goodness in yourself, that God saw how lovely you were, and that's why you're wrong.

If you're in Christ, our story begins with grace.

The same is true of Abram.

Before Abram ever takes a step toward God, God moves toward Abram.

And then notice the command, the prompt he gives him.

He says this go from your father's from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land I will show you.

When I was younger and more adventurous, when I had far less gray hair and uh 21 years old and less set in my ways, I had an experience where I left behind my country and my kindred and my father's house, and I went to a place I'd never been before.

I spent two years in England going to Bible college.

Now, at that time, that step in my life was significant.

It was massive.

It was the biggest thing I had done in my life at that point.

I moved thousands of miles away to a totally different country.

I'd never been there before on the other side of the Atlantic.

I felt a real distance, but I tell you that because I never really felt fully detached.

I didn't feel like I was disconnected from my family, and there's reasons for that.

Now, at that point, surprisingly, I know some of you might think, wow, there was a time like this, I didn't have a cell phone.

So I moved overseas without a cell phone, but we had email, so I would email my family.

Uh, once a week, I would use the dorm phone and call home.

And then I also came home at Christmas break and on the summer, summer break.

So while I was gone, while there was certainly distance, for me, there was never truly separation or detachment.

I say that because for Abram and his world, this is totally different.

For him, this is 4,000 years ago, and traveling from Ur to Haran, eventually to the land of Canaan.

That's over a thousand-mile journey in the ancient Near East.

So there's no emails, there's no phone calls, right?

There's no, certainly no flights home.

When God tells Abram to leave behind his country and his kindred and his father's house, he's asking him to virtually leave behind everything that's familiar in his life.

This is not some little trip that Abram takes, right?

No, what's happening here is he's being asked to leave behind his old life forever.

It's not like you take this trip and he goes, Oh, you know what, I don't really like it here.

I'm gonna go home.

It's not that kind of journey.

Once you go, you're gone.

And so this is what we see here.

He's being asked to leave behind his old life forever.

And so obedience to this command, this prompt, it would mean forfeiting your identity, your security, your comfort, your support, your community, your inheritance, your control.

The truth is, this for Abram would be incredibly costly.

And let me remind you when we take steps of faith, it's costly.

And so here is the command that God gives to go.

But here's what makes it even more remarkable.

Notice what God says.

He doesn't even tell Abram where he's going, he says, Go to the land, I'll show you.

Think about that for a minute.

If God was like, Abram, here's the map, here's where you're gonna go, here's where your house is, right here, right?

Isn't this kind of nice?

We've got this set up for you.

No, God doesn't do any of that.

He says, Abram, go.

And when we get there, I'll show you where you're supposed to be.

Think about that.

Think about how wild that would be.

That's incredible.

God called Abram to go to a place he had never seen, and God said, Hey, if you go, I'll show you.

That's incredible.

We see it doesn't end there.

God continues speaking.

And so now that we've seen number one, the prologue, right?

That background, the first 11 chapters where sin begins to spiral, but God has a rescue plan, and the first step toward that rescue plan is Abram.

Now that we've seen number two, this prompt, God calls Abram to go and leave behind everything he knows to embrace a new life somewhere else where God will show him.

Now we're going to move into the section where God continues to speak, and we see number three, the promise.

God begins making good and precious promises to Abram.

Notice how it begins.

He says, This And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so you'll be a blessing.

I'll bless those who bless you, and to him who dishonors you, I'll curse.

And in you, Abram, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Now, the technical term for what we're reading here in theological circles, this is the Abrahamic covenant.

It's the covenant or promise that God makes with Abraham.

God's making promises.

Now, as we read through the story of Abraham, these promises are reiterated, but they're expanded upon and clarified and restated on multiple occasions.

But for now, let's focus in on the promise that we have here in Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

So notice what God begins to say.

Let's walk through it section by section.

He says, first of all, I'll make you a great nation.

Now that's a huge promise, but that's even more significant when we understand the background of who Abram is and what his lifestyle is like.

If you look at the end of Genesis chapter 11, the very last thing we're told is Abram's wife, Sarai, was barren and they had no children.

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

So this means, think about this for a moment, for him to become a great nation, that would suggest that he has a multitude of offspring, that his family becomes so large that it becomes a nation of people.

That's something that you would expect if you're able to have kids.

Abram can have kids.

His wife is barren, they have no children.

How will this come true?

Humanly speaking, there's no way for this promise to be fulfilled.

But let me remind you of something.

God's promises are not limited by our circumstances.

I'm gonna say it again.

God's promises are not limited by our circumstances.

What seems impossible for us is not impossible for God.

And perhaps some of you need that reminder this morning because you're looking at something going on in your life, and you're looking at the circumstances that are swirling around, and you're going, No, there's there's no way I can make it through this.

You're looking at the obstacles in your life, the limitations you have, everything that's standing in your way, and you're concluding, well, there's simply no way forward.

It can't happen.

Beloved, can you just hear me for a moment?

God is not limited by the things that you're limited by.

God has no limitations.

I share that with you today because if there's something that to you is insurmountable, I would encourage you to take it to the Lord in prayer.

With God, nothing is impossible.

We we hear that again and again and again.

And for you in your own life, maybe your circumstances, they seem Far too vast for you.

Nothing is impossible with the Lord.

If God makes a promise, in fact, He will accomplish it.

And so this promise, even though it seems like there's no way this can happen, God makes the promise to Abram and God will fulfill it.

We can trust that.

So God says, I'll make you into a great nation.

Notice what God says next.

I'll bless you and I'll make your name great.

Now I want to pause there for a second.

If we're remembering that the text and what we already looked at and the backstory, the prologue, something should fire off on our brain in this moment.

This should sound familiar.

Remember the Tower of Babel?

What happened?

In Genesis 11, people gathered together, they built a tower, and they said, Let us make a great name for ourselves in that passage.

You see the contrast?

At Babel, the people tried to make their name great.

But here with Abram, God says, No, I'll make your name great.

What we see here is that Abram's not having to grasp for his own greatness on his own terms.

He's not having to manufacture this.

God promises for Abram what the people at Babel tried to seize for themselves.

God says, I'll make you into a great nation of people.

I'll make your name great.

I'll bless you, Abram.

But not only that, I'll bless you so that you can bless others.

Catch that for a moment.

We don't want to gloss over that.

God blesses Abram to be a blessing.

If you were with us in the Ecclesiastes series, you remember that in that series, all the things that you and I possess are gifts from the Lord.

I don't care if you're a really hard worker and by golly, you labored for years and years and years to get the things you have.

That's a good thing.

You're commended for that.

The Bible certainly recognizes that, but in the book of Ecclesiastes, it tells us, well, anything you have is ultimately a gift from the Lord.

It ultimately comes from his hand and it's a blessing.

And those gifts are meant to be enjoyed, but those are also are meant to be stewarded well.

Because you don't get to take those things with you.

And so we've been blessed, we've been given gifts so that in turn we can bless others and live generously.

That's a biblical principle of generosity.

I don't want to lose sight of that as we're walking through this.

And then notice what God says next.

He says, I'll bless those who bless you, him who dishonors you will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

If you thought this was a little promise, notice how here at the end of this section it's magnified even more.

All the families of the earth will be blessed through you, Abram.

So what begins with one man extends to the entire world.

That's incredible.

And what's cool about this is we can look at this promise and go, wait, wait, how on earth is this covenant to Abram a blessing to all families of the earth?

We know the answer to that because we know in the New Testament it unpacks exactly what that means.

Thousands of years later, when the New Testament was written, it looks back to this promise and it shows us where the promise of this blessing culminates.

In Galatians chapter 3, the Apostle Paul writes to the church in Galatia and he begins to say that this promise that God made to Abraham, he says that when God did this, he was preaching the gospel beforehand to Abraham.

Galatians 3 · chapter mention

Why does God say this?

Well, because we know that the offspring of Abraham is Jesus.

Through Abraham, Abram, who became a great nation, the nation of Israel, ultimately came Israel's Messiah, Jesus.

Jesus is the promised offspring of Abram.

He is the one who is the blessing to all the families of the earth.

In fact, that's the reason we're seeking to multiply.

Because we believe that Jesus offers the blessing of salvation to the world.

And as we look around those surrounding regions and we see people who are far from Christ, we want to proclaim the gospel to them so they can receive the blessing of salvation that only comes in Jesus.

That's why we prayed for the unbelievers in zone one today.

We have this conviction that Christ is the Savior of the world.

We have this conviction that the offspring of Abraham is the only one who can bring the ultimate blessing to the world.

And he does it through his suffering on the cross, where he suffered, bled, and died to defeat the curse of sin on our behalf, and then he rose victoriously from the dead to defeat the curse of death.

Jesus is the promised blessing to all the families of the earth.

Amen?

Anyone who turns to him in faith receives this gift, this blessing of salvation.

So now that we've seen number one, the prologue, the whole background of God's plan for humanity and how that began to spiral with the promise he made.

And now that we've seen number two the prompt, how this first step and the promise he made was to pick a man named Abram and to call him out of Ur and to bring him to the land that he would show him.

And now that we saw number three, the promises, God promised that he would take Abram and He would make him into a great nation, that he would bless him, that his name would be great, that he would be a blessing to others, that those who bless him would be blessed, those who curse him will be cursed, and all the families of the earth will be blessed through him.

Now that we've seen that, the fourth and final section I want to unpack for you is the response to all this.

And it's the pilgrimage.

The pilgrimage.

And so we don't know all the circumstances.

Maybe Abram was scratching his head going, Wham, this is crazy, God.

You want me to do this?

Maybe he wrestled with it, maybe he struggled in the moment.

We don't know.

But what the text tells us is pretty cut and dry.

God told Abram to go, and what did Abram do?

So Abram went.

He went.

I love how simple it is.

God calls him to leave everything he knows, to leave what's familiar, to leave what's safe, to leave what's comfortable, to leave what's secure, and in response to this, Abram obeys.

Now you might in this moment presume, well, Abram seems like quite the adventurous guy, right?

Maybe he's this young guy, not tethered down to much, and maybe he sees this as an opportunity, and he just goes, you know, hey, I don't know how this will turn out, but it's going to be a wonderful adventure.

Maybe that's the case.

But notice what the text tells us next.

It says this Abram was 75 years old when he departed.

75 years old.

Think about that.

75.

I started this message mentioning that for me, as I'm getting older, as I've grown older, I'm a little more set in my ways.

The truth is, I like sticking to what's familiar and what's comfortable.

I'm not interested in stuff that's new.

Just give me the usual.

Now I realize that my hair might tell a different story, but I want you to know I'm only 42.

This dude is 75.

God calls him to do this at 75 years old.

And at 75, Abram obeys by uprooting his life and going to a place he's never been before.

He responds with faith.

He doesn't know exactly where he's going.

He just begins to follow where the Lord calls him.

He doesn't know what lies ahead.

He doesn't know where God has ultimately called him to go, but in faith, he goes.

He begins a pilgrimage toward this place he's never been before.

Trusting in the God who called him to get there.

And you know, as I think about Abram's story, I can't help but be reminded of our story as a church just a little bit.

If I can share some of that, I've been here for 15 years now.

I have had the front row seat to see the hand of God bless this place and do incredible things.

It's been awesome.

Many of you have been here as long as I have or longer, and you've seen the same thing.

During those years, we've seen God do a lot.

I think back specifically to eight years ago, and that was a unique season in the life of our church.

We were facing a very unique challenge.

We had a problem.

Now people called it a good problem, but nevertheless, still a problem.

We were worshiping at the grove and we were growing.

So what happened was we added more services.

And then some of you remember we were still having problems with parking at first, and so we started parking more and more cars in the grass, and then we started having problems with classrooms.

We had too many young families with kids, and so we started converting our storage closets into classrooms, and then we had a problem with seats in the worship center, and so what we did was we actually put an overflow section in the welcome center, and so people who came in could sit down and watch the service on a screen.

They couldn't even go in to the sanctuary.

We saw the hand of God at work in here, and it was an incredible season, but we knew we couldn't sustain that.

We knew we couldn't continue at that.

And so during that season, we started to pray.

We prayed as a church.

We certainly prayed as leaders, and the more we prayed, the more we sought the Lord together, the more we became convinced that God was calling us to take a step.

Specifically, a step of faith to find a new physical location, to find a new home to gather and to worship.

There was one problem.

We didn't know where he was calling us to yet.

We had no what.

Didn't have a building lined up, didn't know the exact location, didn't have property, didn't have an address.

We simply knew we couldn't stay where we were.

And so in 2018, we decided to take a step of faith and we ran a campaign.

The campaign was called Beyond.

I still think it's the most brilliant name of the campaign.

Here's why.

We knew that God was calling us beyond where we were, but we had no idea what that was or where that was.

We just knew that we couldn't keep doing what we were doing and we needed to find a new location.

And so before we ever identified a new location, what we did was we ran the campaign and we had people pledge.

Those pledges were for a three-year campaign over and above normal giving.

Our church was much smaller, and again, we didn't know what, we just had a why.

We knew we couldn't stay there, we knew God was calling us somewhere else.

And with that church at that time, over a three-year campaign, we raised over a million dollars in pledges.

Now we didn't know it at the time, but about a week or two later, this building became available and we were able to purchase it because of those pledges.

This building that we're in today, that we've seen the hand of God at work here, this was made available because there was a group of people who responded to the calling of the Lord to say, hey, let's step out in faith.

They made pledges, and that's how we're here today.

And now God's blessed us in awesome ways here.

This building we're sitting in right now, we were able to purchase and renovate through the pledge support of many of you.

And that's awesome to think about.

And as I look at that and look at the way that God has blessed us in many respects, I read the story of Abram and I read those connections.

Now I'm not saying our story is just like Abram's, his is very different.

But I do believe that we had to take a step of faith, and the reality is we didn't know where that step of faith would ultimately lead us.

And that's the nature of faith.

I hope you know that.

The author of Hebrews tells us that faith is the evidence of things hoped for and the conviction of things not yet seen.

Translation, if you can see it, it doesn't require faith.

Faith is what happens is when you can't see what's in front of you.

That's what faith is, that's the nature of it.

And that's precisely what the story of Abram shows us.

Abram couldn't see where God was taking him.

Nevertheless, he had faith, and that faith resulted in action.

He simply trusted God and he moved.

And that leads us to our big idea this morning.

Very simply, it's just this faith moves before it sees.

That's what our story tells us.

Faith moves before it sees.

And once again, I think we're faced with a wonderful moment to really begin to live this out.

As I shared, we're at a place right now where, yes, we've seen what God did through beyond.

Once again, we're at a place where now we're looking at what's going on and we're saying, hey, what would it look like to multiply?

We prayed, we've planned, we put as much stuff as we can in place.

But here's where I'm gonna get honest with you.

We don't have all the details ironed out quite yet.

There's still a lot of question marks about exactly what this looks like.

We're working on that, but we don't have all the answers.

We do believe, though, the next step is clear.

In order for us to stop just talking about multiplying and actually to get there, it's time for us to launch into a campaign once again.

And so we're gonna share more about what that campaign is in a moment, but I want to pause for a second.

This is off notes, it's just what I want to share with you because I've sensed this through every service.

There are probably many people in this moment who are like, Pastor Joe, thanks for the message on faith.

I needed to hear that, that applied to my life.

But can I be honest with you?

I kind of like the way things are at FPC.

Like things are going well, I like things the way they are.

Why do we need to change anything?

Why not just keep rolling the way things are?

Just give me the usual, Pastor Joe.

Can I tell you I resonate with that, okay, on a personal level?

I like the usual too.

But I want to challenge you with this to consider that I don't think the biggest obstacle in America today to reaching more people is based on a lack of opportunity.

I think it's because people are comfortable.

We often don't like to step out of our comfort zone and do big, hard things for the sake of the gospel, but I want to challenge that notion today.

If we want to expand the reach of the gospel, we have to get comfortable with being a little bit uncomfortable.

And we need to take a step of faith.

And faith moves before it sees.

And so that's what this campaign is all about.

It's taking a step in faith to try to fuel this effort to multiply in new locations.

We have a campaign.

I would love to talk right now, up here more about what this campaign is centered on and share with you all the details.

But instead of hearing me talk about it, I'm going to invite you to listen to me talk about it on a screen because I filmed a video earlier in the week.

So check out this video.

Every community is filled with people who need hope.

People facing brokenness, families carrying burdens, people searching for meaning, purpose, and something they can build their lives on.

And as followers of Jesus, we believe the greatest hope that we can offer is the gospel.

The good news that Jesus Christ died and rose again, that sin can be forgiven, that lives can be changed, and that anyone can be made new through faith in Jesus Christ.

That message, the gospel message, was never meant to stay in one place.

No, the gospel is expansive.

It moves from person to person, from family to family, and from one community to another.

And over the years, we've watched God expand the reach of Frankenmuth Bible Church.

We've seen people come to faith in Christ.

We've celebrated baptisms together.

We've watched people grow as disciples, families strengthened, and lives changed through the power of that gospel.

And increasingly, the people God is bringing to FBC are coming from well beyond Frankenmouth.

Every week, people travel to Frankenmouth from communities all across our region.

They come here to worship with us.

We're incredibly grateful for that.

But we also believe it presents us with an opportunity.

Because when they leave here, they return to those communities where they live.

They go back to their families and their workplaces and their schools and their neighborhoods and their friends.

And all around them are people who desperately need that hope of Jesus Christ.

So we have begun asking an important question.

What if the growing reach of our church could become an opportunity to impact even more people with the hope of the gospel?

What if instead of seeking to bring more people from communities outside of Francamuth here to worship with us, what if we began taking the ministry of our church closer to where they already live?

What if we could mobilize people from FBC and establish new campuses in communities all across our region?

Campuses committed to the same biblical teaching, the same heart for worship, the same strong kids' ministry, the same authentic relationships that we have here.

And the same desire to reach people with the hope of Jesus Christ.

That's the vision behind Multiply.

We want to reach more people with the gospel in communities across our region.

And we believe one of the best ways to do that is to establish new campuses that mobilize our church to reach their community for Christ.

This isn't simply about growing FBC, it's about extending the reach of the gospel.

Because there are people in communities all around us who may never make the drive to Frankenmouth Bible Church.

But what if there were a healthy, gospel-centered church closer to where they live?

What if people from FBC who already live in that area could help establish a church committed to reaching their own friends, neighbors, coworkers, and community with that gospel?

That's the opportunity that we see in front of us.

And that's also why we're launching the Multiply campaign.

Multiply is a generosity initiative that will help prepare our church to take this next step.

Through this campaign, we're seeking to eliminate our current mortgage debt and create the financial capacity needed to launch and support our first additional campus.

Instead of continuing to direct significant resources toward current debt, we want to free those resources for ministry, for multiplication, for reaching people in new communities, because ultimately this campaign is not about paying off our current building.

It's about freeing our church to fund what comes next.

God has already expanded the reach of Frankenweek Bible Church well beyond what we could have ever imagined.

Now we have the opportunity to steward that reach, to mobilize our church, and to carry the hope of the gospel into new locations.

You know, for years and years our vision has been to see people connected, lives changed, and the church multiplied.

Now we believe God is giving us an opportunity to complete that vision, to see the church multiplied.

So what might God do if we were willing to take that step together?