Vision Sunday

This podcast is presented to you by Pastor Jason Burns and Access Church in Lakeland, Florida.

For more information, visit Access.tv.

Let's get to work today.

Today is Vision Sunday, everybody, and I'm so excited you are here.

Got a lot of vision to share with you, but let me say this up front.

If you came today expecting a really, really good sermon, I've got bad news for you.

It is not a good sermon.

In fact, it's not really a sermon at all.

Come back next Sunday if you're like, I need a good sermon.

Come back next Sunday.

Today, here's what we're gonna do.

Today I want to talk to you about you.

They don't talk about us.

Then I don't want to talk about future us.

This will make sense in a moment.

Let's talk about you and then us and future us.

You ever had that experience where you're like on your phone and it'll do that thing that's cruel.

It'll show you like pictures, it'll say, five years ago today, and you see your kids and they were so little and cute, and you look at them now and they're like little demons.

Has anybody had this experience?

You like missed that time?

Well, this week I was on my phone and it said two years ago today, and it popped up some pictures that brought me so much joy.

Two years ago, my wife surprised me for my 40th birthday and sent me and one of my best friends, Pastor Ryan, to Iceland.

And it was amazing.

It was so cold, it was snow covered everywhere.

We hiked snowscapes, ate all kinds of weird food.

We climbed mountains that were covered in snow.

It was just an amazing trip.

One of the highlights for me was there was this day where we went to a volcano that had a glacier on it that had snow or ice caves on top of it.

And they said every few years the volcano explodes and it sends the glacier like 15 to 20 kilometers in the sky.

Now, I don't speak metric, but that sounds like a lot.

It sounds fun.

I was so proud of myself.

I climbed up on top of it.

I did a handstand on top of a glacier, on top of a volcano.

Why did I show you this?

I just wanted you to know your boy still got it, everybody.

I can still do this, okay?

But one of the reasons that we wanted to go, the reason it's on my bucket list, was I've so desperately wanted to see the northern lights.

Has anyone in the room seen the northern lights with your physical eyes?

All right, I hate all of you.

I really wanted to see them, and we didn't see them, everybody.

And so we go and we took a northern lights tour.

I'm the whole thing was probably a scam.

The whole thing was just we get in a bus and we drive, and we drive to a place, and on the way, they said this, they said, if you look out to the right, you can see the northern lights.

And here's a picture.

Like, maybe that's the northern lights.

I kind of sort of saw them, but not really.

But here's what I remember them saying.

In the bus, they said, we want everyone now, we're about an hour out from where we're going.

Turn your phones off, like off off.

Don't look at the screen, don't look at the lights.

In fact, close your eyes for 10 minutes.

Try not to look at the street lights around us, don't look at the lights of the headlights coming in.

Because what happens is your eyes are so polluted with other light that you can't see the thing you're here to see.

It's possible for you to be so polluted by all the stray light that you don't see the thing you were created and you're here to see.

I wonder how many of us that might be true of us spiritually.

It's like there's good things in our life, but it's like the good things distract us from the great things God has for us.

It's like we can't really see the plan, the path, the purpose God has for us.

In Scripture, but one of my favorite verses, in fact, this is the central verse for vision in the Bible.

It's not in the book of Proverbs 29.

It says, where there is no vision, the people perish.

You understand this.

Where there is no picture for your life, you can't see where you're going.

Another translation of this verse says, where there is no vision, people cast off restraints.

They get a case of the so what?

Doesn't really matter, doesn't really make that much of a difference.

This word vision in Hebrew is an interesting word.

It's the word kazaun, kazaun.

It sounds like it sounds like um cow zone, like the food.

You know, I'm kind of getting hungry, but it's not that.

This literally means a dream, a revelation, or a vision for your life.

Let me say this to you: you need one.

Otherwise, you will float through life aimlessly, eeking out an existence.

You need a vision for your life, and God is the one who is the vision giver.

All through scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, there is this picture of God that He wants to give you a picture for your life.

The book of Acts, I love this.

Acts chapter 2, says, in the last days, God says, I will pour out my spirit on all people.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And if we were to finish that verse with an assumption, what would you assume would be the result of God pouring his spirit out on people?

That more people would come to church, that more people might give, that more people might like follow Jesus, or more people might find joy.

All of those things might be true, but I want you to see the fulfillment of the promise of what happens when God's spirit is poured out.

God says, I will pour out my spirit on all people.

And he says, Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.

All three of these age groups, they get a picture, a renewed picture from God of their life when God pours his spirit out on them.

You were created to have a picture for your life.

Even Aristotle, the brilliant philosopher, said, Our souls never think without a picture.

You need something that your life is pointing towards.

The first verse we read, we read from the King James Version, in Eugene Peterson's paraphrase called The Message, he says this of the same verse.

He says, if people can't see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves.

But when they attend to what he reveals, they are the most blessed.

Can I tell you my goal for you as your pastor?

I want to help lead you to a place where you go to bed every night feeling the most blessed, where you feel like your life matters and you're doing something that has substance that will ripple into the future and make a difference for generations to come.

I just know after pastoring for so many years that so many people they go to bed every single night feeling like, well, that was just another day.

It just eked out another existence.

In 2004, in the Athens Olympics, which were a special version of the Olympics because it had come back to Greece where the Olympics started.

That there was all the competitions, but there was one competition where everyone in the world knew that they were competing for second place.

They were competing for the silver medal.

It was this gun shooting competition.

And there was an American named Matthew Emmons.

He was a stud of a marksman.

He won everything he won every competition he went to.

And the expectation that he was would win the gold medal like going away, it would be easy for him.

Here's the competition he was in.

It was this three-point shooting thing where you hold the gun in three different positions and you shoot from 50 meters away.

And after two rounds, he was in such a lead that all he had to do was hit the target anywhere and he would win the gold medal.

That's how much of a lead he had.

Here's what I've come to learn about these guys.

It's not as easy as just pointing and shooting.

These guns that they use are so sensitive that if they pull it the wrong way, the gun will kick just a little bit, throwing their shot off target.

So people like Matthew figured out if they can slow their heart rate down to a slower cadence, they can literally pull the trigger in between heartbeats so there's less of a chance of there being a kick to the gun.

So Matthew lines up.

All he has to do is hit the target.

He lines up, he steadies his heart rate, pulls the trigger, and hits a bullseye.

Right, I mean, right in the bullseye.

And it's this incredible moment, but it's incredible for all the wrong reasons.

This was his face after that shot because he hit the bullseye, but it was the bullseye on the wrong target.

He went from gold medal to bronze in a moment that it should have never happened.

And I've seen this face in hundreds of people over the years that have come to talk to me.

I've seen this face from people who have said things like, Well, I thought college was gonna be this, but it's turned into this.

I thought marrying this person would be this bullseye, but it's really, I just missed the mark.

I thought my career would be going a certain direction, but it's literally fallen apart.

And I've heard this story over and over and over again.

And here's my point.

As your pastor, I don't want you to hit the wrong mark.

I don't want you to live a life that hits the wrong bullseye.

D.

L.

Moody, this brilliant Christian mind, he said, our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at something that really doesn't matter.

And look, listen to me, I want your life to matter.

I want your life to make a difference.

I want you to be so consumed by the plan and purpose of God for you that it arrests your sleep at night.

I could summarize it like this everyone ends up somewhere, but few people end up somewhere on purpose.

I want to help you get to the vision for your life.

How do we do that?

That's talking about you.

Let's talk about us.

You see, I really do believe that God gave us a vision for our church.

That when we accomplish this vision together, it helps you and your friends and your family and your neighbors and the people in your life.

It helps them to hit the bullseye for their life.

Let me show it to you, and it's really simply four steps.

Number one, we want you to know God.

Number two, we want you to find freedom.

Number three, so that you can discover your purpose, so that we can cross the finish line together, which is that your life would make a difference.

We talked about you, you need a vision for your life.

Let me talk to you about us as a church and how these partner together.

The first thing is this we want every follower of Jesus to really know God.

We want every person in our city to know God.

What does this mean?

It means that we gear our services so that every time we gather, whether it's here in this room, whether you're joining us anywhere around the world through Church Online, whether you come to Access Youth on Wednesday nights, we want your kids to experience this.

We want every single person who experiences our church to leave every time we gather knowing God a little better.

Let me tell you what this means.

It means if you've been a Christian or a follower of Jesus for 50, 60, 70 years, or you came in today and you don't even own a Bible.

If I told you to turn with me to the book of Psalms and you know immediately where it is, or if you've never heard the word Psalms in your life, we want every person who comes to know God a little better as a result of being here.

Now here's what I want to say to you.

Sometimes knowing God is intellectual, sometimes it's taking a step of courage and faith.

I want to challenge some of you to take a step that maybe you should have taken a long time.

It's the step of baptism.

Let me explain to you why.

If you've been around our church, you know baptism is celebration.

Two weeks ago we had baptism.

I didn't have a voice after church that day from preaching and then screaming my guts out for all the people who got baptized.

Baptism is a public declaration of a personal decision to follow Jesus.

In 1 Peter, it says this.

1 Peter 3, in baptism, we show that we have been saved from death and doom by the resurrection of Christ.

It's that public declaration.

Not because our bodies are washed clean by the water, but because in being baptized, we are turning to God and asking him to cleanse our hearts from sin.

Something powerful and profound.

Something supernatural happens when you're baptized.

And for some of you, you've allowed many excuses to cloud your judgment.

For whatever reason, you thought, well, I'm an introvert.

I don't like the attention being on me.

I really feel like my salvation is my thing.

It's me and God.

No, no.

It was never just you and God.

It was meant to be shared and celebrated by the world.

Ask any person who's been baptized.

It is one of the most profound encounters you'll ever have in your life.

It's not just being immersed in water.

You take a shower or a bath every day.

You do that every day.

Something powerful happens when you come out of that baptism, and I want that for you.

You'll know God and experience Him in a different way.

We want everyone to know God.

Number two is we want everyone to find freedom from what?

Your issues.

You've got issues.

You do.

And if you don't think you've got issues, that is your issue.

Like everybody's got some issues, right?

And here's the truth.

All of us have some blind spots in our life.

All of us have some things about us that no, we can't see, but other people see.

Who do you have in your life that loves you enough and cares about you enough to walk with you through your issues?

So you can find freedom from the habits, the hangups, the hurts in your life.

Who do you have in your life who loves you more than your issues and says, I'm with you?

Have you ever had this experience?

You ever had a day where it felt like your world was falling apart?

You got that terrible phone call, you got that bad diagnosis, and you run into someone at work and your heart is literally in a trillion little pieces, and they say, How are you?

And you're like, Good, I'm good.

You're lying through your teeth, and you tell them you're good, but your heart knows the truth.

You're hurting.

You ever had this happen?

We are conditioned to hide.

We are conditioned to believe that if you truly knew me, you couldn't possibly love me.

Can I tell you that is a lie meant to isolate you?

You were created for connection, for community.

This is the reason that one of the things we do as a church is we do access groups.

Because I love rows.

I love that people listen to me talk in rows.

It's fun, but that's a one-direction conversation.

You need people that you share your life with, that you take the mask off and stop pretending and you're honest with.

Why?

Well, first John says that we confess to God, and when we do, he's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

But the book of James says that we confess to one another so that we find healing.

Some of you have confessed to God over and over and over again, and you find yourself always retreating back to those places of hurt, those places of hangups, and those places of addiction in your life.

You'll never find freedom until you find people that you can share it with who are committed to loving you as you in turn love them.

We want you to find freedom.

Number three is we want you to discover your purpose.

This is your why.

Why do you exist?

Why does your life even matter?

David said this, I love this in the book of Psalm, Psalm 139.

He says, For you created my inmost being.

You knit me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Your works are wonderful.

I know that full well.

He says, All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Let me say this to you.

You may have been an accident to your parents, you may have been unplanned by them, but you were never an accident to God.

God knew, according to Ephesians 1 and 2, that before the foundations of the earth were laid, that the world was going to need you and he needed you to live out your purpose.

How do you discover your purpose?

Thank you for asking.

As a church, we have a plan for this.

Every one of the things we do has a plan for it.

How do we help you discover your purpose?

Well, here's what how?

Every single first and second Sunday of every single month, we have an event called our next steps class.

There is literally one happening right now in a room over that direction.

It's two steps, step one and step two.

Step one is happening today, step two happens next week.

If you haven't done it yet, you can literally come back and you can go to step two first, and then you can go to step one next month.

The order doesn't matter, it's the heart that matters.

Let me say what the steps are.

Step one is we want you to find a church that's home.

We hope it's here, but if it's not here, no problem.

I know all the pastors in town.

I'm more committed to helping you grow in your relationship with God than I am our church growing.

I really want you to grow in your relationship with God.

Step one is about discovering if this church is for you.

Step two is about you.

It's about discovering your unique talents and abilities and giftings.

We believe that God wove a unique tapestry together when he made you.

And when you discover why he made you, and then you use that why to make a difference for other people, that's when your life comes into full clarity, full color, and full focus.

So what does it mean?

It means I want all of you to take a step.

And if you haven't taken a step towards jumping into our next steps class, please pull your phone out right now.

Go to access.tv slash info.

You can register.

We want this for you.

We want you all to take a step towards Jesus.

Here's the fourth step, and then I'm going to talk about how we do this together.

Number four, this is the this is the goal line for me.

This is how I know our church is winning.

It's when our people understand that their lives are not just about them, but they understand that they were created to make a difference.

A lot of people, their whole life is it's over and over and over.

It's the same routine every single day.

And at the end of the day, they go to bed and they say, Well, that was another day.

Look at me.

I don't ever want that to be your story.

I want every single day when you go to bed for you to lay down and say, That's it.

That's how you live a day, that's how you live a life of purpose, that's how your life matters.

That's my hope for you.

Look, look what Jesus himself said in John chapter 15.

John 15 · chapter mention

He said, This is to my Father's glory that you bear much fruit.

God wants you to live a fruitful kind of life, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

I have told you this so that in so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

His desire for you and his desire for me was that we would live fruitful kinds of lives, the kind of lives that literally echo into the future and consistently make a difference with our lives.

One of the things that I say about our church very often is I say that you are the most irrationally generous church I've ever met.

Generous means you're generous with your giving, but you're also generous with your time.

You're generous with the way you serve, because our church figured out somewhere along the way that it's really not about us.

It's about using our lives to make a difference for others.

Solomon said this in Proverbs chapter 11.

Proverbs 11 · chapter mention

He said, The generous will prosper.

Those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.

What if this was God's idea for you?

What if you lived a life of extravagant, ridiculous generosity that was literally used by God to make a difference in our church, in our city, and around the world?

You need a vision for your life.

Our church has a plan that if you'll just trust us and go with us on the journey, we believe you'll discover it.

Let me say it like this: if you'll give God one year of all in, one year of all in, serving, giving, getting yourself involved, getting in community in an access group, going through the next steps class, getting in a serving group and serving with other people, it'll change your whole life.

I'm so convinced of this today.

Tell people, give God one full year of going all in.

And if it doesn't change your life, I'll help you find another church and I'll go with you.

Like it's a big deal.

We believe it.

So here's what I want to end with today.

Today's Vision Sunday.

And I just want to end with sharing some vision of what our church can do together as we give sacrificially together.

You want to make a difference with your life?

You want to live a life that kind of keeps on living even after you're done living?

We call this legacy.

Legacy is it's really important.

I want you to notice the design of this this year.

There is a ripple effect to this year.

Why do we do this?

It's because we really believe that when we live a life that thinks about our legacy, we're thinking about what about my life will keep rippling into eternity.

The way we say it is this it's what will you do that will outlive you?

That when your life is dead, buried, and gone, what about your life will keep on living?

So here's what we do.

Every year I like to present you some vision.

These are some things that we can do as our church continues to give sacrificially.

I want you to understand before I tell you all this stuff, I'm not asking you to give.

I'm asking you to ask God, say, God, what would you have me to do?

And then just be obedient.

Just do that.

But here's what I want you to understand: God is the one who sets the vision.

We get to set the pace.

God sets the vision, we set the pace.

What does it mean?

It means we're going to do all these things.

We can do all of them next month if our church ponies up and gives like crazy.

If it takes five years, it doesn't matter.

Like God sets the vision, we're the ones who set the pace.

So all I'll ever ask you to do is to pray about it.

Now, all of our legacy, all the money that we give, it goes out to change the world.

And it goes to these five lanes: local, national, global, next generation, and expansion.

Let me kind of give you some highlights.

When you came in today, you should have been given a booklet that says legacy.

I don't have time to go through all of it.

These are not all that we're going to do this year.

These are just some highlights of what God can do through us as we give together.

The first one is here locally.

We want to change our city.

We want to leave such an indelible impact on our city that if our church disappeared tomorrow, people would be freaking out because we make such a difference together.

One of the things that's been in our heart for a couple years, and we're getting close to it, is we want to take all that God does in our church and we want to bring it into the correctional facilities and addiction recovery centers.

People who are incarcerated, people who are in prison.

We added this idea like we want to figure out how to get our church into the juvenile detention center.

Why?

Because for people who feel like they're forgotten from society, I want them to remember that God didn't forget them and that our church loves them.

I would love to be a part of someone's redemption story.

Wouldn't you love that, everybody?

And we've worked on this for years.

Sheriff Judd is all for this.

We've done everything we can do, and we always get to like second base and then something falls off.

We get to second base and then something happens.

We get to second base, we're like, oh, the technology.

They've vetted us, but it's going to take some resources to get us into this, but this is our heart.

Something else that we want to do is this.

We are a part of an awesome thing every single week called Citiserve.

Citiserve is an organization that we give to, and what they do is they work with large national retailers.

So think Target, Walmart, Sam's Club, Costco, and others.

And they get new stuff that didn't sell, and they get stuff that was returned, but it's in mint condition.

And they literally donate it to us.

We literally call them and say, bring us 10 pallets, and they bring us pallets and pallets of things that people need.

Think furniture, think appliances, think baby things like diapers and baby clothes and baby food.

And they bring it to us by the palate.

And then when needs get brought to us, and I want you to hear this, needs get brought to us every single day.

When needs get brought to us, we get to be the answer, and the answer is yes.

So here's what happens.

This last year, dozens and dozens of times, people needed furniture for their homes.

They were a family in distress, and God knew that they needed it, and we got to be the answer to the prayer.

So here's what we're currently doing we have a warehouse that we pay for, that we stock with all these things that we're giving away.

And when people need business, Stuff, do you know what we do?

We go to U-Haul.

Like those people, we we go to U-Haul so often, they know us by name.

And so we had this thought like, how cool would it be if we could just ramp up our giving efforts?

But to do that, we're gonna need a van.

So our heart is like this year, as you give, we're gonna get a van.

This isn't for us, this is to give so much stuff away to people in our city who are in need, and when we do this, I believe it opens their heart to receive the message of God.

One of the great needs we hear in our city every single week is one of the great needs is people need beds.

Families who are displaced, families who get a temporary apartment and they're just struggling to make ends meet.

And the single thing we hear most over and over and over again is twin-sized beds.

So our heart this year, it's just our church alone.

I'd like to give a hundred beds just from our church that we pay for, that we give to families in need.

We'll deliver them in that van to God be the glory.

Come on, somebody say amen about that.

Isn't that cool?

That's local.

National, we're gonna continue to plant churches.

That's so much fun.

The third one is the global area.

And I want you to know that we build homes, we build homes for widows, we do things like wells, we we do all kinds of education products, uh projects, we do all kinds of spiritual projects.

Because of your generosity, we have now built 17 churches in Kenya.

That's a that's amazing.

That's a legacy, everybody.

I love that.

And last year I announced an initiative that we want to do.

It's very, very expensive, but we're gonna do this as God provides the resources.

It's called a triangle of hope.

A triangle of hope is three buildings.

It's a church twice as big as any church we've ever built.

It's a medical clinic that can do everything except for like major, major surgeries, and then it's a private school that will host 300 children.

All the education part is paid for, and we have found out that the government is so behind this that they're gonna pay to outfit the medical clinic and the school.

We just got to build the building.

You know, talk about leaving a legacy.

You care about everything that in the person's life.

You care about their food, you care about their education, you care about their health, and most importantly, you care about the condition of their soul.

Triangle of Hope does all of those things and it points people to Jesus.

Well, we announced this this time last year.

Because of your generosity, the church is literally built.

We built the church, that's amazing.

Then two weeks ago, we wrote a really, really, really big check, and that will pay for the medical clinic.

So that will be done in the next few months.

We're excited about that.

And so our project this year is as our church continues to give, we'll be faithful to make sure it gets out the doors there.

But we want to build the school, and this is cool.

Like 300 students at a time.

Well, it's Christian education, they won't be indoctrinated by the things of the world.

It's amazing what we're gonna be able to do because of your generosity.

So thank you, thank you, thank you.

It's making a difference, and that's just on top of all the other big projects we get to do, okay?

Now that's that's global.

Next generation is our heart.

I want you to know we're a church that champions the next generation.

If you've ever been to Access Kids, Youth, or Access Young Adults, you know we love the next gen.

They are not the church of tomorrow, they are the church of today.

One of the things that's on our heart is we think we've got a really special church.

And there are so many students that are the future leaders of the church, and we would love to have the opportunity to help teach them, coach them, and train them, and then not to keep them here, but to send them out.

Like how amazing would it be if our church's influence continued to spread as we helped students learn the heart, the vision, the direction, the leadership style of everything we do here.

So I'm here to announce that in 2026, our heart is to launch Access College, a fully accredited college.

It's gonna be cool, everybody.

We'll be able to give college students the same degree that they would get from Southeastern University at a fraction of the cost.

So students that come through Access College won't be graduating with tons and tons of debt, and we're gonna be able to send them out into the future as the future leaders of ministry.

They'll have our fingerprints, they'll have your heart, your DNA, all up in them, and we're gonna send them out to change the world.

That's gonna be a lot of fun, everybody.

All right.

Love it.

Last thing, and then we're done, everybody.

Let's talk about expansion.

I believe God has something so special here.

I love our church so much.

I really feel like if we had a church building twice as big as this, our church would literally just be twice as big because you won't stop inviting your friends and family members.

And I love you for it, everybody.

Here's what I want you to know.

Uh about a year ago, we announced, a year and a half ago, we announced that we were buying a building in North Lakeland.

Well, because of your legacy giving, we've bought the building.

We're working on that thing right now.

And here's, I want to give you some information about it.

Our hope had been to open it this spring.

That's what we announced.

That was the plan.

And I've learned something over the years.

It's that building projects take a lot longer than what they tell you they're gonna take.

And so we have kind of hit a bump in the road.

Let me explain what happened.

Months and months and months ago, we applied for permits.

For the last three months, we've been told any day now, any day now, it'll be this week, it'll be this week.

They lied to us, everybody.

And so we literally just got the permits that we need to finish the construction, the electrical plumbing and some of the construction stuff around the building.

We literally just got this in the last 10 days.

So spring isn't gonna happen, but I'm really excited today to announce that we do have a grand opening date.

It's gonna happen on August 25th, everybody.

That's super cool.

Here's what it'll enable us to do.

We will be able to take our time, launch this thing really well.

This summer we want to hold some events there, maybe a community night of worship there where we come together and we we dedicate that building to the Lord.

It's gonna be amazing what God does.

But can I tell you what I believe is gonna happen?

And I'll even take a step in faith and say, I say this prophetically, here's what's going to happen.

North Lakeland's gonna be awesome, but we're gonna have the same problem there that we have here.

We're gonna run out of space because people are desperate to experience God in a way that we get to experience Him here all the time.

So here's what I believe is gonna happen.

I believe that North Lakeland is going to be the pace setter, and what's gonna happen is over time we are gonna see access church locations all around our area of influence.

Think Bartow, think Auburndale, think Winterhaven, think all these cities around us that are close to us that are not necessarily a part of the city of Lakeland.

And let's take what God does here and let's, if we really care about reaching our city and our area of influence, let's do anything short of sin to reach people for Jesus.

Can I get a good amen from anybody up in here?

It's gonna be fun.

So, one last thing.

Um, as our churches continue to grow, our influence outside of our church grows.

And every Sunday I say, hey, would you put your hands together and welcome those who are joining us at Church Online?

And every week it's hundreds and hundreds, and now it's thousands of people who tune in, whether they tune in live on Facebook or YouTube or they stream us throughout the week.

It's incredible to see as God is increasing our influence.

So one of the things that's on our heart as we continue to think expansion is we in the same way that we have a location in South Lakeland and then North Lakeland, we want to have an online access church location.

What's the difference?

Right now, we just show church.

Church online isn't gonna be a completely interactive experience.

We will have a full-time pastor whose whole job is to pastor the people who come to church online.

We will reach people far from church and far from God.

We will reach people around the world who are serving in the military.

We will reach people in ways that we've never been able to, but as we continue to invest in this, I believe God's gonna continue to expand our reach for his glory.

Quick story about this.

A couple weeks ago, we heard a story about a family who joined our church online for a whole year.

They were part of our church, never walked in this building.

The first time they walked in this building was on Baptism Sunday because they were getting baptized.

Come on, don't tell me church online doesn't work.

Don't tell me it doesn't matter, don't tell me it doesn't make a difference.

It literally is changing lives, and we want to invest in the things that God is using to expand our reach to make a difference.

Let me end with this.

In 2023, you were crazy generous.

You gave over and above your regular giving$422,388.35.

Holler, every penny matters, right?

So we prayed about it and we said, God, what is our goal?

Like, what is and all of us, if all of us participate, here's my goal for this year:$750,000.

But how do we get to that?

Some of you look at that and you're like, I can't, I can't, I can't give that.

No one's asking you to.

I'm just asking you to ask God what He would have you to do, and then just be obedient to it.

Can I be really honest?

I don't even care about the number.

Can I tell you what I care about?

I care about participation.

All of us don't, I mean, I mean, it's it's gonna take all of us to hit this number.

It is.

But probably almost nobody in the room could do this all by themselves, but together we can.

So as much of a goal as this is for me, the bigger goal is 100% participation.

Here's how you can participate.

Four times this year, we're gonna invite you to give.

Here's the dates March 24th, June 16th, September 5th, 15th, December 8th.

We'll give you a heads up every single time as these are coming.

Next week, because we've got one in just three weeks, next week we will have a special offering envelope in your in your worship guide.

You can take it, you can prepare to give.

Uh, you can always give online at access.tv slash give, just selects legacy.

Here's my point.

I don't I don't need anything from you.

Just want you to take time over these next couple weeks.

The reason we're telling you about it now is we want you to take time to pray.

The reason we gave you a booklet is I want you to pray and say, God, which of these things would you have me give to?

If any of those things break your heart.

Some of you, you heard something today and immediately you knew you said, I want to be a part of that.

Like some of you want to give, and someday you want to hop on a plane and go to Kenya and you want to stand in the church that you're giving help to build.

You can do that.

Some of you, like God's gonna use you in ways to do stuff like someone might, God might lay it on your heart to write the check for the man yourself.

And you know that every single person who has furniture or diapers delivered to their house, your fingerprints will be on it.

I never want to manipulate you, so here's all I'm doing.

I'm just saying, here's some vision.

You pray.

Ask God what He would have you to do.

Here's what I know that if all of us do our heart, we can literally change the world.

We said it earlier, the design is a ripple and it's on purpose because I believe that what we do and how we give will ripple into the future for generations to come.

I didn't say this a moment ago, but I want to say this.

I'm so excited about North Lakeland.

I really believe we're gonna change a whole region of our city.

Like we're gonna we're gonna leave an indelible difference.

If you want to be a part of it, like we want to send as many people as want to go to go today at 1.30 in this room.

You can literally come back, come back in a couple hours, be here at 1.30 for a meeting.

Pastor Isaiah is leading the team.

It's incredible, the team that's already coming together.

God's gonna do some crazy stuff there.

I'm excited that we get to be a part of all God's doing.

Can I get a good amen from anybody in here?

Love it.

Let me pray for you and then we'll dismiss.

So, God, here's our prayer.

Give us a supernatural dose of courage.

For those of us who feel like we're floating through life with no vision for our life, give us courage to pursue you and your direction for us.

God, for those of us who are here and we just like we just we feel like we've missed it.

Give us the courage to pursue what it means to have a vision from you.

God, I pray for our church that we will never fall off course, that we'll never settle for just doing church and running through the plays and getting just doing it over and over and over again.

But God, my prayers that our church will stay laser focused on the vision you have for us.

God, I want everyone in our city to know you, to find freedom from their issues, to discover their purpose so that they can make a difference.

God, my prayers over these this next year, that you will so bless our church to be a blessing, that as we hear from you, that we'll be faithful and obedient to do what you have us to do.

And God, I pray again that thousands and thousands and thousands of lives will be impacted because we're a part of the big story you're writing.

Some of us we we feel this tendency of writing ourselves off and saying, Well, I'm just a small part.

God, I'd rather be a small part of a big story you're writing any day of the week.

So give us the courage to trust you, to be obedient.

We love you and we thank you.

In Jesus' name.

Come on, somebody say amen.