Rick Warren - The Beginning of a Miracle

You're going to make me cry. Have I told you

lately that I love you? Yeah, I do. Okay, sit down,

sit down. You were so tired of applauding for me,

I know. I love you too. Anybody else? No, I'm kidding,

come on. As you know by now, today is my

last message to you as your senior pastor for 43 years.

It has been my privilege, been my privilege to love you,

to love you, to pray for you, to serve you,

to encourage you, to be at the bedsides, to be

at the gravesides, to be in the counseling when you're

going through a tough patch in your life, and to

teach you. And during these 43 years, I have preached 6,500

plus messages, sermons, and studies. But in this first or

final or last farewell message, I have decided out of

all of those 6,500 messages plus that I want to

share with you to repeat and re-preach the very first

message I preached to start this church word for word

43 years ago. One of the values, purpose-driven values that

we hold onto here at our church is begin with

the end in mind. Whatever project you're starting, begin with

the end in mind. That's called being purpose-driven. You know

your purpose in advance. And we knew from the very

beginning what kind of church this was gonna be. We

didn't have a single We had no money, no members,

no building, nothing, but we knew what God wanted us

to do and we announced it at that very first service. Now,

the message you're about to hear today illustrates this value

of begin with the end in mind because I wrote

this message and I preached this message only one time

in 43 years, the very first service. It was on

March 30th, 1980, a week before Easter in the little

theater of Laguna Hills High School to about 50, 60

people who showed up for that trial run dress rehearsal service.

The very next week was gonna be Easter Sunday, 1980.

It was gonna be our first public service. And I said,

let's just go down to the high school and work

out all the bugs so next week it looks like

we know what we're doing. 60 people read that little

letter that I'd sent out and showed up. And as

I looked out on that group of 60 people, almost

all of them were strangers to me. I didn't recognize anybody.

They didn't know me. I didn't know them. They didn't

know each other. It was just 60 people who'd shown

up in response to a letter that I had sent

out to the community saying, we're starting a new church.

So as I preached this message to them, that very

first message, I was defining the type of church we

were gonna be to total strangers and nothing existed. It

was just being spoken into existence. We didn't have anything.

There was no church when I preached this sermon. It

was the start, the very start. And those strangers, those 50,

60 people, many of them had never been in church before.

Somehow my letter got through to them. They thought, well,

I might try that kind of church. And over the

next several months, I baptized 60 of those people. So

keep that in mind, that as you listen to this message,

I'm speaking to strangers about a church that doesn't exist.

And most of them don't even know the Lord. Now,

in the first months of that new church in 1980,

one of the young couples that I had the privilege

of leading to Christ were named Dave and Jenny. And

Dave was so excited to come to know the Lord,

and he just felt free and forgiven, and really was

so full of gratitude, he wanted to do something, say

thank you to Jesus, say thank you to his church.

And since he was a carpenter, he decided to build

me a pulpit. Today, I'm standing behind that pulpit, okay?

And I used this pulpit for the first 15 years

of our church when we were without a building, and

we moved around to 79 different facilities in the first

15 years. We said, we're the church, if you can

figure out where we are, you get to come this week.

And so this pulpit moved wherever I went. Everywhere that

Rick went, the pulpit was sure to go. It followed

him to school one day, school one day, and good girl,

all right, good girl. And I actually pushed this pulpit,

we put it on wheels, when 6,000 people walked from

Chebuco Hills High School over to this new property on

the Lake Forest campus and we put this on wheels

and I pushed it at the head of a parade

of 6,000 people and we retired this pulpit the day

we moved into this worship center that we're in. So

this week, the message I wanna share with you, my

last message is very, very different. And after I pray,

I'm gonna teach the original first message that I gave

45 years ago. But I'm not gonna preach it to you,

thousands of people. I'm gonna preach it as if I

was preaching it to that original group of 60 strangers

in a little theater. So for you to get the

full experience of this message, for you to fully understand

the impact of it, I'm gonna have to ask you

to use your imagination this weekend. And first, I want

you to imagine there's no Saddleback Church. You don't know

anything about it, you've never heard of it, because it

doesn't exist up to this point. It hasn't started yet. Second,

I want you to imagine that you're sitting with 50

strangers in a high school theater years ago, and you

don't know anybody, and you certainly don't know the guy

who's talking. Okay, imagine that. Third, this is the biggest stretch,

imagine that I'm 25 years old. What's so funny about that?

I don't get it. They laughed every time I said that,

I don't know. All right, so let's pray. Would you

bow your heads? Father, may you once again use these

words that you gave to me to start this church.

May you use them now to launch the next generation

of our church family. God, you're the same wonder working

God that you have always been. And we trust you

in Jesus name. Amen. Welcome to the very first service

of Saddleback Valley Community Church. You are making history today.

And as I look out on your faces, I realize

that none of us know each other, but I'm filled

with gratitude and I'm filled with joy and I'm filled

with expectancy because today, is the beginning of a miracle.

And you are not here by accident. A thousand years

before you were born, God knew that on this day,

March 30th, 1980, you would be sitting in this Laguna

Hills High School Theater witnessing the launch of a brand

new church. I want you to know that even though

I don't know your name, God does. And I began

praying for you about nine months ago And I believe

that God wants to use you to impact Orange County,

Southern California, and eventually the world in ways that you've

never imagined. God wanted you here today for this very

first service of Saddleback Valley Community Church. Now to launch

this new place of worship, I chose a text from

a very small book in the Bible called Zachariah. Here's

a quick background. During Israel's war and captivity by the

Babylon Empire, the temple in Jerusalem was totally destroyed. And

after the Israelites were allowed to return home, God encouraged

the governor of Judea to build a new place of worship.

That's what Zachariah is talking about. And I believe that

God's instructions to those people over 2,500 years ago can

apply to the launching of this new congregation today. So

let me read it to you. Zachariah chapter four, Verses

6 to 10, it says this. This is God's word.

You will succeed. Look at this. You will succeed, not

in your own power, not in your own strength or power,

but by my spirit, says the Lord. Nothing, not even

a mountain will stand in your way. Zerubbabel, who is

the priest, is laying the foundation of this temple and

he will complete it. So, do not, look at this,

do not despise these small beginnings. For the eyes of

the Lord rejoice to see this work begin. Now, I

want you to notice five facts from these verses. First,

building a new place of worship can be done not

by human strength, but only by God's power. It cannot

be done by human power strength. We're gonna need God's

spirit to strengthen us in building a new house of worship.

Number two, a solid foundation, he says, has to be laid.

They're laying the foundation. And the size and the strength

of the foundation is gonna determine the size and strength

of our church for decades to come. Number three, we

are not to dismiss how small our beginning is. He says,

don't despise small beginning. This small group here today, it's

no indication of how large this church family is gonna become.

Number four, God is happy and he's rejoicing to see

this work begin. He's smiling from heaven. And finally, Number five,

God guarantees our success if we rely on him and

follow his instructions. He says, you will succeed. Now, some

of you might be thinking, should a church even be

interested in success? So let me speak to that right

up front on this first service. First, God doesn't sponsor flops.

And God tells us that his church is, quote, the

body of Christ. which means it's a body, not a business.

It's an organism, not an organization. It is alive and

all living things grow. Growth is the evidence of life.

If you're not growing, you're dying. Colossians 2.19 says this,

under Christ's control, his whole body is nourished and held

together and it grows as God wants it to grow.

It is God's will for this church to grow. It

is God's will that every church be healthy and growing.

But second, if you're asking about should a church wanna

be successful, let me define success. Success is not size.

Success is changed lives. You'll hear me say that a

thousand times in the years ahead. Success is changed lives.

We will focus on health, not growth, Because if you're healthy,

growth is automatic. I don't have to command my kids

to grow. They grow if they're healthy. Now you may

have heard people say, well, God has not called us

to be successful. He's only called us to be faithful.

And I'd say, you haven't read your Bible because it's

only half correct. God has called us to be both

faithful and fruitful. Faithful and successful. The Bible term for

success is fruitfulness. And repeatedly throughout his ministry, Jesus says

that he expects us to be fruitful, to bear fruit,

not be merely faithful. Faithfulness is not enough. God expects fruitfulness.

So we're never going to apologize for expecting to be

fruitful and successful as a church family. In fact, Jesus

says this in John 15, verses 8 and 16, you

John 15:8

bring glory to my father. You wanna bring glory to Father?

Here's how you do it. You bring glory to my

Father and you show you're my disciples. You wanna prove

you're really a follower of Christ? You show you're my

disciples by bearing much fruit. Notice that word, much fruit.

God wants a big family. He says, I chose you

and I've called you to bear fruit, fruit that will last.

And I want you to notice from that verse, Jesus says,

God expects me and expects you and expects this church

to bear much fruit. So that's what we're going to

believe God for. Even more important is that God promises

and God guarantees your fruitfulness in life if you follow

certain instructions. So today, in this very first message, I

want to explain specifically five things we're going to do,

what we're going to do in order to ensure the

fruitfulness of our lives and this church for the years ahead.

And I've titled this, The Five Reasons This Church Is

Guaranteed to Succeed. Now, as you decide today on whether

or not this church is for you in this very

first service, I wanna give you our biblical blueprint for

a fruitful or successful church family. And I hope at

the end, you're gonna wanna join us because it's going

to be quite an adventure. Number one, The first reason

this church is guaranteed to succeed is this, because doing

God's word will be our foundation. Doing God's word will

be our foundation. The only legitimate foundation for any church

is the Bible, God's word. And building on any other

foundation is gonna guarantee failure. But God makes many, many

promises about his word. Here's one of them, Isaiah 55, 11.

He says this, My word comes out of my mouth

and it will not fail. It will not fail to do,

that's called success. It will not fail to do what

I intend for it to do. It will accomplish everything

that I desire and it will succeed in the purpose

for which I sent it. God promises that anything built

on his word is gonna succeed. He says, it will

not fail. And friends, I trust this book. Now, let

me go a little bit further on this. Every true

church believes God's word, teaches God's word, studies God's word,

even memorizes God's word. But what's gonna be different about

Saddleback Valley Community Church is that we're gonna focus on

putting God's word into practice. We're going to do God's word,

not simply study it, not simply teach it, not simply

quote it, not simply memorize it. We're going to focus

on doing God's word in this church, not just studying.

That's a little bit different. You see, in the Great Commission,

the last instructions that Jesus gave before returning back to heaven,

he said this, teach them to do everything I have

commanded you. Not teach them to know, not teach them

to study, not teach them to remember. He says, teach

them to do. We are to be doers of the word.

We are to do it. If you're looking, I'll just

be honest with you in this first service, if you're

looking for a church where all that's required is that

you just come and sit and listen to nice Bible

studies every week, friends, this isn't the church for you.

Because we're not just gonna study the word, we're gonna

do it. The Bible was not given to increase our knowledge.

The Bible was given to change our lives. Sadly, a

lot of churches just keep people busy studying the word

of God, one study after another, thinking that's all that

God expects. But they never really do it. They don't

do anything in the community. They don't do anything around

the world. They don't make a difference. They're just studying, studying, studying.

James chapter one, verse 25 says this, don't deceive yourselves.

Don't deceive yourselves by just listening to the word. In

other words, I come to service after service, I listen,

I think I'm growing. And he says, no, if you

keep looking, it says, do what it says. Do what

it says. If you keep looking steadily into God's word

that sets you free, and if you do what it says,

and you don't forget what you heard, then God will

bless you in all you do. We're talking about why

we want to succeed and why God has guaranteed it.

He says, we're gonna do the word of God. God's

blessing comes from doing what God says to do, not

merely listening to Bible messages. Let me give you an example.

Imagine if I said I wanted to lose weight and

to show how serious I was about losing weight, I

go out and I buy a book on weight loss.

And every day I faithfully sit down in my lazy

boy chair and I put my feet up to read

and study another chapter on weight loss. And I find

it so inspiring that I can't wait to get back

for another session. Now, of course, I get my can

of Coke and my chips and dip while I'm reading

and maybe a candy bar in case I'm really hungry.

And every day I faithfully study that weight loss book.

And I really enjoy it. I enjoy reading it and

studying it and I actually underline and highlight my favorite

passages that inspire me in that weight loss book and

maybe even memorize a few sentences. But is that going

to make me any more healthy? Is it going to

change my life? Is it going to transform me? No.

But a lot of church members deceive themselves the same way.

They think that simply going to church, listening to the

word of God means they're growing. They are not. At

this church, we're gonna focus on applying God's word to

our lives, actually doing it. That's why if you watch

in the days ahead, you'll notice that I put a

verb in every point of my message, why? So that

on Monday, you can practice what you heard on Sunday,

that you can be a doer of the word, not

a hearer only. And this is going to be different

than a lot of other preachers. Joshua chapter one, verse

eight says this, think about this book, It's God's word.

Think about this book day and night so that you

learn to do everything written in it. You getting the

message here? He says, then you will prosper and you

will succeed in whatever you do. Why is this church

gonna succeed? Because we're gonna do the word of God.

Now in the years ahead, you're gonna hear me say

this many, many times. You only believe the parts of

the Bible you actually do. Do you believe in tithing? Yeah.

Do you do it? No. Then you don't believe it.

Do you believe in witnessing? Yeah. Do you do it? No.

Then you don't believe it. Do you believe in forgiving

your enemies? Yeah. Do you do it?

No.

Then you don't believe it. You only believe the parts

that you actually do. You know, at the conclusion of

Jesus' teaching, whenever he was teaching, he would often say, now,

go and do likewise. Every one of Jesus' sermons were

aimed for an action. So will mine at the Saddleback

Valley Community Church. Jesus made this promise in John 13, 17.

Now that you know these things, you will be blessed

if you do them. You don't get blessed by knowing

the word of God. You get blessed by doing the

word of God. So the very first reason this church

is gonna succeed, looking at all those verses we just

looked at, is because doing God's word will be our foundation.

Not just hearing it, not just knowing it, not just

studying it, doing it. Now, here's the second reason we

are guaranteed to succeed as a church. Because fulfilling God's

purposes will be our plan. Doing God's word will be

our foundation. Fulfilling God's purposes will be our plan. We're

not gonna grow this church on our plans. We're gonna

structure everything around God's purposes. Proverbs 19.21 says this, Many

are the plans in a man's heart, but it is

the Lord's purpose that will prevail. We all have all

kinds of plans, but he said it's only the Lord's

purposes that prevail. To prevail means to succeed. It means

to triumph over obstacles. It means to be victorious over barriers.

It means to be successful. The word says that we

will prosper and we will succeed when we do God's purposes.

My life verse is to follow David's example because I

think it's a definition of real success. Acts 13, 36

says this. David served God's purpose in his generation. That

is so simple and that is so clear. To me,

that's the definition of a successful life. He did that

which never changes, served God's purpose, But he did it

in a world that was constantly changing in his generation.

He did the eternal in a contemporary way, in a

relevant way. He did the timeless in a timely way.

He served God's purpose in his generation. Then he died.

Who wants to stay around here afterwards? That's what our

church is gonna do. And it's the second reason we're

guaranteed to succeed because God's purposes are gonna be our plan. Now,

I don't have time in this first message to explain

God's five purposes to you. I'm gonna do that in

future messages. But the first church modeled God's five purposes

in Acts 2. Jesus reports on how he did the

five purposes with his disciples in John 17, and Paul

explains them in Ephesians 4. But they're best summarized, the

five purposes of God, in the five verbs of the

great commandment and the great commission of Jesus. If you

don't get anything else, you just get the great commandment,

great commission, you're gonna be a great Christian. So here's

the motto of this brand new church as we announce

it on our very first Sunday. A great commitment to

the great commandment and the great commission will grow a

great church. A great commitment to the great commandment and

the great commission will grow a great church. I'm gonna

unpack that in detail in the weeks and months ahead.

But this church is gonna succeed. It's guaranteed to succeed

Because doing God's will will be our foundation and fulfilling

God's purposes will be our plan. And number three, because

trusting God's promises will be our confidence. Trusting God's promises

will be our confidence. You know, one of the most incredible, amazing,

mind-shattering statements of Jesus is in John chapter 14. And

John 14 · chapter mention

I'll be honest with you, friends, it's hard to grasp

and comprehend what Jesus is saying here. It's literally mind blowing.

Because in John chapter 14, verses 12 to 14, Jesus

John 14:12–14

says this, I tell you the truth. In other words,

Jesus said, I'm not putting you on, this is not

an exaggeration. I tell you the truth, Jesus says, anybody

who trusts in me will be able to do even

greater works than what I've done, hello? will be able

to do even greater works than what I've done because

I'm going to the Father and I will do whatever

you ask in my name, that's prayer, so that I,

the Son, may bring glory to the Father. You may

ask me for anything in my name and I will

do it. Now, when I first read that verse, I

think how in the world could anybody possibly do greater

works than Jesus? What was he thinking? What was he thinking?

He was thinking about the power of prayer. You see,

when Jesus was here on earth in his physical body,

he was limited to one place at one time. He

could only be in one place at one time because

he was in a physical body. But now in his

spiritual body, the church, Jesus can do miracles and transform

lives in a million places at the same time. That's

the greater works. He says, because you're gonna be able

to pray and ask. That's why God challenges us to

think bigger and dream greater and risk more in faith

than we could ever possibly imagine. Ephesians 3, verse 20

Ephesians 3:20

challenges us here on this first day of this brand

new church, challenges us with a vision expanding fact. Here's

what Ephesians 3, 20 says. God, by his mighty power

at work within us, is able to do far more

than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of,

infinitely beyond our highest prayers, our desires, our thoughts, our hopes.

I don't know about you, but I'm a pretty big dreamer.

God says, Rick, think of the biggest thing you could

ever dream or hope or ask or imagine, and I

can top that. What Paul is saying here in this

verse is, let the size of your God determine the

size of your goal. Don't base your vision on what

you think you can do. Base it on how big

you think God is and imagine what he can do.

We're gonna go for God's vision. So today, in front

of this very small group of people who we don't

even know each other yet, I'm gonna go way out

on a limb and I'm gonna stay in faith a

vision that God has given to me. It's a vision

that as I've prayed and prepared over the past year

for this church, God gave me this dream and I

wrote it all down. You know, everything that exists in

the world starts with a dream. Nothing happens until somebody

starts dreaming. So here's the dream that God has given

me that caused me to move here 12 weeks ago

to Southern California to start this church family. Let me

paint you a picture, a vision of Saddleback Church in

the future. It is a dream of a place where

the hurting, the hopeless, the discouraged, the depressed, the frustrated

and the confused will find love, acceptance, healing, hope, forgiveness, guidance,

encouragement and support. It is a dream of sharing the

life-changing good news of Jesus Christ with hundreds of thousands

of residents in South Orange County. It is a dream

of welcoming 20,000, yeah, I said it, 20,000 members into

the fellowship of this church family, loving, learning, laughing, and

living in harmony together, modeling God's love to the world.

It is a dream of growing people to spiritual maturity

and their full potential through the discipleship of Bible studies

and small groups and retreats and seminars and tools to

help them grow in Christlikeness and fulfill the purpose of

their lives. It is a dream of equipping every member

for their own ministry through our church by helping them

discover their gifts and talents that God gave them. It

is a dream of sending out our members by the

thousands on mission to every continent and empowering every member

for their personal life mission in the world. It is

the dream of training church leaders and missionaries all around

the world. And it is the dream of starting at

least one new daughter church every year of this church's existence.

It is a dream of at least 50 acres of

land one day on which we will build a large

regional church campus with beautiful yet efficient facilities, including a

worship center seating thousands, a ministry center that provides a

space for counseling and prayer and all of our ministries

to the community, classrooms for Bible studies, training and outdoor

recreation areas, and all of these facilities will be designed

to minister to the total person spiritually, emotionally, physically, socially,

And they will be set in a natural park environment

with inspiring garden landscapes that refresh the soul, including beautiful

flowers and green lawns and trees and picnic areas and

sparkling fountains and pools for baptizing. We want people to

feel relaxed when they come to our church. Now today,

I stand before you and I state in confidence assurance

that all of these dreams will be realized Why? Because

they're inspired by God and they're for his glory Now

you need to hear me say this clearly my confidence

is not in myself Not at all. It's in the

promises that God makes to us in this book if

we follow his instructions So when people say who do

you think you are? We have to say, it's the

wrong question. What matters is not who we think we are,

what matters is who do we think God is. In

2 Corinthians 3, verse four and five explains how I

feel about this. We are confident of all of this

because of our great trust in God through Christ. It

is not that we think we can do anything of

lasting value by ourselves. Our only power and our only

success comes from God. So let me review. This church

is guaranteed to succeed because doing God's word will be

our foundation. Fulfilling God's purposes will be our plan. Trusting

God's promises will be our confidence. And number four, because

depending on God's spirit will be our strength. We are

going to stay totally dependent on God for all this

to happen. Now, in the Bible, the word for total

dependence on God, you know what it's called? Humility, humility.

Humility may be one of the most misunderstood words today.

Humility is not demeaning yourself or belittling your gifts. or

pretending you're not talented at something. In fact, that could

just be fishing for compliments and that's false humility, which

is a sin. Humility is not denying your strengths. Humility

is being honest about your weaknesses. And humility is being

totally 100% dependent upon God. James 4, 6 says this,

God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.

Anytime I am prideful and anytime I think that I'm

self-sufficient without God, that I don't need God's help, at

that moment, God says, I'm on the opposite side of

God and I'm gonna lose that battle every time, guaranteed

to lose it because your arms and my arms are

too short to box with God. Every time I'm prideful,

God is going to oppose me. But every time I

live by faith in total dependence on God, God, you've

gotta do this then God gives us his grace. And

when I get God's grace, then God can do so

much more than I ever think or imagine or dream

of or risk. Did you notice in that verse it says,

God gives grace to the humble? What is grace? Well,

grace is when God gives you what you need, not

what you deserve. Literally every good thing in our lives

comes from God's grace. It's all of God's grace. Grace

is the fact that God already knows every stupid mistake

I'm gonna make in life and as pastor of this church,

and he still chose me. And grace is the fact

that God knows every mistake you're gonna make in your life,

but he still wants to use you too. This church

is gonna be built by flawed, imperfect people. That's grace.

Here's another promise of God. 1 Peter 5, 6. If

you humble yourself under God's mighty power, he will lift

you up in his own good time. We're responsible for

the depth of our ministry. God is responsible for the

breadth of it. And over and over and over and

over and over in scripture, our loving heavenly father says

he wants to bless us if we'll just trust him.

Instead of trusting ourselves, instead of trusting our feelings, instead

of trusting what other people in society and culture tells us.

Proverbs 3, 5, and 6 is a great example of

true humility and humble dependence. It says this, Proverbs 3, 5,

and 6, trust in the Lord with all your heart.

Do not depend on your own understanding. In everything you do,

put him first and he'll direct you and crown your

efforts with success. That's why this church is gonna succeed,

because we're gonna do what that verse just says. You know,

we typically think that you have to be strong for

God to use you or to bless you. You have

to be really strong, then God can use you. But actually,

God uses our weaknesses as much as he uses our strengths.

Your weaknesses are part of God's plan for your life too.

They can bring honor to God too. And throughout history,

God has always used weak people, physically weak, emotionally weak,

mentally weak, spiritually weak. God has always used people, but

they were humbly dependent on God. You see, if God

only used strong people, a lot of us would get

left out. And if God only used perfect people, nothing

would get done in the world because there are no

perfect people. This church is gonna be built by ordinary

people with ordinary weaknesses. And what's gonna matter is not

our strengths and weaknesses, but our attitude of humbly depending

on God for strength. Another promise that I've been holding

on to for months is this one here. I love this.

Job chapter eight, verse five to seven says this. If

you look to God for help, and you seek his favor,

and you keep yourself pure, and you live with integrity,

God will rouse himself on your behalf. And though you

started with little, look around, you'll end up with much.

Whenever we needed a verse to start us out. Though

you started with little, you'll end up with much. That's

a promise of God I'm claiming for Saddleback Church. As

you look around today, we're starting with not much. We

don't even know each other yet. But you and about

50 other people took a gamble to show up at

a new church. And I honor you for being a

risk taker because that's what it's going to take to

build this church. It's what pioneers do. They take risks

in faith. They don't do the safe thing. Safe people

didn't show up at this service. So I honor you.

Now I imagine some of you are probably wondering, Rick,

how long are you willing to stay here as pastor?

It's a legitimate question when I'm challenging you to sign up.

So I wanna publicly announce this at our first service

of Saddleback Church. God willing and by his grace, I

publicly commit to you to giving the next 40 years

of my life to reaching and growing the people of

this church family. Now I know it's not gonna be easy.

Nothing great is ever accomplished without opposition, without barriers, without criticism,

without difficulties. I'm counting on these to be there. But

Philippians chapter one, verse six, is a promise that we're

gonna build this church on together. It says this, I

am confident of this, that he who began this good

work in you will carry it on to completion until

the day of Jesus Christ. That's what we're counting on,

the promises of God. So let's review, this church is

guaranteed to succeed for five reasons according to God's word.

Because doing God's word is gonna be our foundation. We're

not just gonna study it. We're gonna apply it in

our lives. Fulfilling God's purposes will be our plan. We're

gonna be built on the purposes of God. Trusting God's

promises will be our confidence. We don't put confidence in ourselves.

Depending on God's spirit will be our strength. And finally,

number five, this church is guaranteed to succeed because loving

God and people will be our attraction. Loving God and

loving people will be our attraction. You know, as I

study scripture, the Bible tells us that everywhere Jesus went,

he attracted large crowds, not little crowds, big crowds. Those

crowds grew so big they were called in the Bible multitudes.

What attracted so many people to Jesus? And how does

a Christ-like ministry today attract crowds? What attracted people to Jesus? Well,

three things. He met their needs, physical, emotional, spiritual. Number two,

He taught them in practical and interesting ways. The Bible

says they were fascinated by how he taught. They said

nobody taught like this guy before. But most important of all,

Jesus loved them. Love is what attracts. Growing churches love

and loving churches grow. You know, for the past 12 weeks,

I've been just going door to door in Southern Orange County,

just talking to people. talking to people in this area

about their lives. And you know what I discovered? That

behind the doors of all these beautiful homes, there are

a lot of lonely people. People are looking for love.

It's all in the wrong places. But if we as

a church family genuinely love people, we'd have to lock

the doors to keep people out. We want this church

to be famous for its love not anything else. I

want people to say, that's the church where you go

if you need love. They love you there. God repeatedly

tells us over and over that love is the most

important ingredient for the success of anything. Look at these verses.

1 Corinthians 16, 14 says, everything you do must be

done with love. That's pretty clear, everything. Colossians 3, 14,

love is more important than anything else. Pretty clear. Ephesians 5, 2,

be full of love for people, for others, following the

example of Christ who loved you and gave himself as

a sacrifice to take away your sins. You know, friends,

I've learned that you can fake love for a short time,

but you can't fake it for long term. People figure

out pretty soon, pretty quickly, if you really love them

or not. One of the reasons love is so important

is because it is the key to endurance. If you're

not doing what you do out of love, you're not

going to last at it. Love keeps you going when

you feel like giving up. And there will be many

hard spots in the years ahead for this church. But

1 Corinthians 13, 7 and 8 says this. Love never

gives up. Love never loses faith. Love is always hopeful.

Love endures through every circumstance. And love never dies. In

other words, if you love, you're going to be a success.

Love never fails. Notice that God says that if what

you are attempting is done in love, it cannot fail.

So regardless of the results, if what you're doing is

being done out of love, you are already a success

because love never fails. It was love that motivated Kay

and me to move here 12 weeks ago to start

this church. It was love that our little group of

15 people hand addressed and hand stamped 16,000 letters that

we mailed out to start on Easter Sunday next week.

It has been love that caused us to use our

personal credit cards to finance this whole thing. All the

preparations for today, the advertising, the building rental, the nursery

equipment and everything else, we put it on our credit cards.

We're not doing this for ourselves. It's because we love

Jesus and we love people. You know, years ago, I

heard a story about the famous Christian Bishop Fulton Sheen.

And Bishop Sheen was visiting a leprosy colony somewhere overseas

filled with poor people suffering from all kinds of skin diseases.

He came up to a man lying in the dirt, dying.

And the man was naked except for a cloth around

his waist. And the body of this man was covered

with open sores, oozing with pus and liquid. And it

was pretty revolting and disgusting. But Fulton Sheen leaned over

this poor man to talk to him. And as he did,

the chain that he was wearing, that was holding the

cross he was wearing, for some reason that chain came unlinked,

it broke, and the cross broke. around Fulton Sheen's neck

fell into one of the large open wounds on this

man's thigh. Sheen said at first he was sickened by

what he saw. It repulsed him what was happening. It

shocked him. But he said, you know, suddenly I was

overwhelmed with love for that hurting man. And I reached

into that man's oozing wound and I picked up the cross.

That story changed my life. Because when I heard it,

I thought that is the most beautiful description of what

God wants Christians to do. He wants us to go

out into the world where people are wounded and hurting

and suffering and bleeding out into the ugly sores of life.

And he wants us to take up the cross. And

if we don't do that, I doubt our Christianity. Don't

call yourself a Christian if you don't love like that.

So I'm telling you today, this church is gonna be

built on showing compassion to people in pain, regardless of

the cause of their pain. When you find a man

bleeding on the side of the street, you don't walk

up and say, was it your fault? Are you here legally?

You just help the guy. And that's what we're gonna

do in this church. That's love, that's compassion. In the

Matthew 25 judgment, Matthew chapter 25, Jesus says that the

Matthew 25 · chapter mention

one thing we're gonna be evaluated for in that judgment

is this, how we treated other people. I was hungry

and you fed me. I had no clothes and you

gave them to me. I was sick and in prison

and you visited me. I was thirsty, you gave me

something to drink. The one thing we're gonna be judged

for is how we treated other people. And in this church,

we're gonna treat people with compassion. regardless of their hurt

and what caused it. You know, it's so much easier

to stand on the sideline and give advice than it

is to really love people and enter into their hurt.

Walt Whitman once said, I don't ask a wounded man

how he feels. I become that man. Sympathy is defined

as saying, I'm sorry you hurt. That's sympathy. Empathy is saying,

I hurt with you. But compassion says, I will do

anything I can to stop your hurt. And the Bible

says Jesus was often moved with compassion. I will do

anything to stop your hurt, even die on the cross

to stop your hurt. Real love is not words or emotions.

Real love is an action. Real love is something you do.

Real love is a choice. And this church is in

the love business. And we're going to love thousands of

people into heaven. We're going to build bridges of love

between our heart and there and watch Jesus walk across.

So now, having heard all of this, you know the

charter of this new church. You know the constitution. You

know the vision of what Saddleback Valley Community Church intends

to stand for and intends to become. So now it

all boils down to two words. Will you? Will you?

Will you join us in this extravagant journey, this great adventure?

Will you join us in doing God's word as the

foundation of our lives? Will you join us in fulfilling

God's purposes? Will you join us in trusting God's promises?

Will you join us in depending on God's spirit? And

will you join us in loving people the way God does?

As I close, I want to return to the first

verse that I shared with you. Zechariah 4, 6 and

10 says this. You will succeed. not on your own

strength or your own power, but by my Spirit, says

the Lord. So do not despise these small beginnings. For

the eyes of the Lord rejoice to see this work begin.

Amen.

Friends, I've read God's word and I've seen the future.

And I can say without any apology that maybe the

most significant thing you ever do with your life is

join us in building this new church, this new family

of God for God's glory. It will certainly outlast everything

else you do. It's gonna be the adventure of the lifetime.

It won't be easy. but they're gonna be rewards forever

and eternity. And I end with this statement of Jesus.

In Matthew 9, 29, Jesus said, according to your faith,

it will be done unto you. You get to decide

how much God is gonna bless the rest of your life.

Little faith, little blessing, much faith, much blessing, great faith,

great blessing. according to your faith will be done unto you.

You get to decide how much God blesses your life.

What are you expecting God to do in your life?

I'll tell you what God's doing. He's doing what you

expect him to do. Because every time God moves out

of heaven and moves on earth and does a miracle

is because somebody believed. Why does God use me? Because

I deserve it? No, because I expect him to. I

put my faith in his grace. You need to decide,

am I gonna waste my life? Am I gonna spend

my life? Or am I going to invest my life

for something that outlasts my life? The greatest use of

your life is to invest it in that which will

outlast it. This is your decision. Will you? The same

promises we used to start this church are the same

promises we used to sustain this church, which are the

same promises that we used to grow this church from

a handful to tens of thousands. And it is the

same promises that grew this to be a campus, international

church with campuses on four continents. And now, they're the

same promises that will guarantee the success of the next

generation of our church family under the leadership of Pastor

Andy and Stacey. So, I wanna conclude this message with

the same challenge that I gave to those 50, 60

people 43 years ago, but I wanna challenge you. Will you,

will you, will you join Pastor Andy and Stacey? Will

you join them in doing God's word? in the next generation,

not just listening to it. Will you join them in

fulfilling God's five purposes? Not just talking about them. Will

you join them in trusting God's promises? Will you join

them in depending on God's spirit? And will you join

them in loving people and offering compassion to anybody hurting

regardless of the cause of their pain? Will you? Let

me know of it. Will you?

Anybody here? Anybody here? God bless you. God bless you.

God bless you. God bless you. Anybody here? Will you?

Will you?

Will you commit to Andy and to Stacey to do

these things? I... I love you all so much. Let

me just say this. In 1980, God was looking for

just a group of ordinary, normal people with weaknesses and

faults and imperfections and sins who didn't have it all together.

God was just looking for a group of ordinary people

that he could use in an extraordinary way. Guess what?

He found them. And we're all here as a result. Okay,

we're all here as a result. Now, in 2022, God

is again looking for ordinary, normal, average, flawed, imperfect, don't

have it all together people, again, that he could use

in an extraordinary way. He's looking for people who will

say yes to God. Yes, you can use us in

the next generation of Saddleback Church with Pastor Andy and Stacy.

Will you be those people? Will you be those people?

What I'm trying to say to you this weekend is

that God is a multi-generational God. He is the same

God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. And in every generation,

he raises up new voices and new leaders. So I

know without a shadow of doubt in my heart that's

sitting right here in this crowd right now, there are

some young women that God wants to use in mighty ways,

like he used Kay. And I know that there are

some young men sitting here right now, listening to me,

who God wants to use like he used me. So

let me tell you this. There is no greater joy,

there's no greater feeling, there's no greater pleasure in life

than the feeling of being used by God for a

purpose greater than yourself. And as your pastor who has

loved you, I want so badly for you to be

that person in the next generation. The first lap of

the journey of Saddleback Church has been quite a ride, incredible.

It's been an adrenaline adventure rush of faith, taking risks

day in, day out for 43 years. But the next

step of the journey of this church is about to

start and the train is leaving the station. I want

you so badly to be on it. I don't want

you to choose to be left behind. You missed much

of the first lap of the journey. But the best

is yet to come. How do I know that? Because

this church is destined for greatness. Destined for greatness. And

it's going somewhere. Whether anybody else goes or not, it's

going somewhere. It's going great places for the global glory

of God. And it will continue to influence thousands, tens

of thousands of other churches around the world. Because this

church has a destiny to serve the world in love.

So I want you to do this. I want everybody

in your program pull out the communication card. It's real simple,

pull out that card and I want you to write

your name on it. And I want you to write

Pastor Andy and Stacey a three word note. Count on me,

count on me. I'm all in, I'm all in, count

on me. You know, I counted on some people 43

years ago and look what happened. You got blessed because

I counted on some people, ordinary people. and they stepped

up for Jesus Christ and for something greater than themselves.

Now it's your turn. It is your turn to take

a step of faith to bless others. Believe me, friends,

you don't wanna miss what's about to happen with Andy

and Stacey. You don't want the train to leave the

station without you. Because you don't wanna get to heaven

one day and have the Lord say, what were you thinking?

What else could possibly be more important in your life?

I put you in the only church in 2000 years

of Christian history that has sent members to every nation.

The only church that's ever done that. Do you think

I'm finished with Saddleback? Do you think I'm finished with you?

I planned this church to be a part of your destiny.

So I want you to commit today. I'm all in.

Count on me. Next generation. And I and Kay and others,

founders of this church, we're going to be on the

sidelines serving, but we're going to be applauding you as

you take the lead. Let me pray for you. Father,

in every generation. You have used and you have blessed

ordinary people. And today in 2021 and 22, you wanna

do it again. So together today, we are volunteering. We

are saying yes to God. And we will follow Pastor

Andy and Stacy As we begin this next phase of

our journey, we wanna make history together for the global

glory of God. And now Father, in my last message

as senior pastor, I personally pray that you will outrageously

bless every man and every woman making this commitment. today.

Bless them in the name of the Father and the

Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. I love you. God

bless you guys.