Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Our dear heavenly Father, you invite us to be dangerous for good.
[00:00:11] You invite us to be your partner in making the world better than it would be without you and the church.
[00:00:23] And I pray that we could hear your invitation.
[00:00:27] I pray that we would be willing to partner with you and strike a blow for good in the world.
[00:00:35] And I pray that your spirit would inspire that ambition within us. In Christ's name, amen.
[00:00:44] About 850 years before Christ, a young man was plowing.
[00:00:55] He had a pair of oxens and a large wooden plow.
[00:00:58] And he was plowing a family plot.
[00:01:04] And about halfway through the field, the day of plowing, when he turned the plow and looked to the opposite side, he saw an old man standing over there.
[00:01:19] And the closer he got to the old man, the more it became obvious that he was wearing a prophet's robe.
[00:01:29] And the old prophet was staring at the young man at the plow, very hard.
[00:01:41] The young man didn't know what to think.
[00:01:48] That's unpleasant, isn't it?
[00:01:53] The young man didn't know what to think.
[00:01:58] But to plow straight, you have to concentrate.
[00:02:03] And so he finished the afternoon and plowed the field.
[00:02:08] And on the last furrow, the old prophet walked over to him, took off his robe and threw it over his shoulders.
[00:02:21] It was a symbol that the old prophet was inviting the young man to be his disciple.
[00:02:32] The old prophet was the famous Elijah.
[00:02:36] And the young man plowing was the soon to be famous Elisha.
[00:02:42] And Elisha spent time with Elijah learning to be a prophet in the last days of Elijah's life.
[00:02:52] And one day Elijah said to don't put that up yet.
[00:02:57] One day Elijah said to Elisha, stay here. I'm going to another village.
[00:03:08] And Elisha said, wherever you go, I will go.
[00:03:14] And they made it to the village. And again Elijah said, stay here. I'm going to another village.
[00:03:23] And Elisha said, wherever you go, I'm going.
[00:03:28] A third time, Elijah said, stay here. I'm crossing over the Jordan river.
[00:03:34] And Elisha said, if you cross the river, I cross the river.
[00:03:41] And they walked out into a wilderness area on the east side of the Jordan river.
[00:03:48] It was a place that people very rarely went. There was nothing there.
[00:03:56] And Elijah said to Elisha, I want to leave you a blessing.
[00:04:02] What is your request?
[00:04:05] And Elisha said, I want a double portion of your spirit.
[00:04:12] And Elijah said, you've asked for a hard thing, but if you're with me, when the Lord takes me, me, God will grant you a double portion of my spirit.
[00:04:25] And they walked farther into the wilderness.
[00:04:30] And suddenly, the most unusual thing appeared.
[00:04:36] A fiery chariot and fiery horses. I don't take it that they were literally on fire. I take it that they were bright and radiant.
[00:04:47] There was something divine about them.
[00:04:50] And the chariot swung low, as the old song says, and Elijah stepped on it, and it carried him out of sight. But just before he went out of sight, he dropped his robe and Elisha picked it up and put it on.
[00:05:17] He probably was a prophet for somewhere around 45 years, but he also grew old.
[00:05:26] And the author of two kings tells us, when Elisha was old and dying, King Joash came to visit him.
[00:05:39] If you read the kings, Joash was not a good man. He had been a selfish, sinful, idol worshipping bad man.
[00:05:49] But he came and visited Elisha, and we saw Elisha laying on his deathbed.
[00:06:00] He said, my father, my father. The chariots of Israel and its horsemen.
[00:06:07] Ironically, that was the very thing that Elisha had said 40 some years ago when Elijah was taken.
[00:06:22] It is a symbolic way of saying, you are to Israel more than an army of horses and chariots.
[00:06:35] And Elisha looked at King Joash and he said, I want you to put an arrow on your bow.
[00:06:47] And Elisha said nothing.
[00:06:52] And Joash drew an arrow out of his quiver and knocked it on his bow.
[00:07:00] And then Elisha put his hands on top of Joash's hands, and then he said, shoot that arrow out the window.
[00:07:17] And he shot the arrow out the window.
[00:07:20] And Elisha shouted to the best of his ability, the arrow of victory. The Lord's arrow of victory.
[00:07:33] And then he said to King Joash, I want you to pull all the rest of the arrows out of your quiver.
[00:07:41] And he pulls all the arrows out of his quiver. He says, now beat them on the floor.
[00:07:48] And Joash beat the arrows on the floor three times and stopped.
[00:08:00] And Elijah, I'm filling this in, reading between the lines, Elijah said, you idiot, you should have struck five or six times, and God would have given you complete victory. But because you only struck three times, you will only win three victories over your enemy, Syria.
[00:08:32] In this story, I see something of the nature of God.
[00:08:39] God wants to win in the world, but he chooses to do it with partners.
[00:08:48] Do you understand this? God wants to win in the world.
[00:08:53] It is his desire for this place to be much better than what it is.
[00:09:00] But in his divine plan, he has decided that he will win with partners.
[00:09:09] And if he can find a partner who will strike only one blow, he'll strike a blow with that partner, he can find a partner who will strike three blows. He'll strike three blows with that partner.
[00:09:23] If he can find a partner who says, I will be on your side and the rest of my life, you can count on me to show up and strike a blow for good. Then every year of that person's life, God is going to be doing something interesting and miraculous through their lives.
[00:09:46] The question is, do you want to be an arrow of the Lord's victory?
[00:09:53] Or have you organized your life around a different principle?
[00:10:00] I wonder what will be the most important thing you ever do with your life?
[00:10:07] I hope that you have some ambition to do something significant in the cause and the kingdom of Jesus Christ.
[00:10:17] I hope that you can't be content to simply drift through life, accumulate some stuff, get a comfy chair that you can kick back in and watch reruns. I hope there's something in your heart that says, if God is looking for someone to be an arrow of his victory, I want to be in that quiver.
[00:10:49] If anywhere in your heart you have something that whispers, I would like to be something significant with God. Our church mission speaks to how you can do that.
[00:11:04] If you want to strike a blow for good, our mission tells us how to do it. First it says, we want to demonstrate the excellence of Jesus Christ.
[00:11:16] If you want to make the world around you better, then come up with creative ways of saying to your family and friends, Jesus Christ is excellent. You ought to give him another chance in your life.
[00:11:35] Say to someone, I have found that there is someone who is better and greater and more beautiful than everything that is ugly about me. He has promised to save me from everything that is ugly about me.
[00:11:55] And I'm sure he would do the same for you.
[00:12:00] He's not only an excellent savior, he is a wise guide.
[00:12:04] I want to trust the guidance of Christ in everything.
[00:12:09] I want to always. When he whispers to my heart, I always want to say yes. And in saying yes, show in a new and fresh way the excellence of Jesus Christ in the world.
[00:12:22] I also want you to know that Jesus Christ is excellent because he gives us the most excellent promise you'll ever get.
[00:12:29] You will never get a better promise than I go to prepare a place for you that where I am, there you may be also. You will never get a better promise.
[00:12:43] If you want to be part of God's team, start looking for ways in your life to show the people around you the excellence of Jesus Christ.
[00:12:56] If you want to be on God's team, then find a place in the joy of ministry.
[00:13:04] God is looking for partners. He doesn't want you to serve him in a way that that makes you miserable and grouchy. There are many things you can do for Jesus Christ that don't make you annoyed. Find one of them. If what you're doing now makes you annoyed, you're in the wrong spot.
[00:13:24] There are beautiful things you can do. There are things that would call out the best in you. There are things that would inspire you and the people around you.
[00:13:35] The joy of ministry is about making my christian life meaningful.
[00:13:42] What are you doing that makes your christian life meaningful and rich? Just showing up here once in a while and listen to me shout for 40 minutes, that's not going to make your christian life rich. Your christian life is going to be empowered. When you start saying, I'm organizing my life to do meaningful things with God.
[00:14:06] I'm organizing my life so that some of my time every week goes to see that Christ is served and people's lives are made better.
[00:14:19] We believe in the adventure of faith. I've tried to talk to you about it in many different ways.
[00:14:26] I like the word quest.
[00:14:29] It's an old word about going on a crusade. I like the idea of questing with God.
[00:14:39] I like the idea that every day can be some kind of adventure in the service of Jesus Christ.
[00:14:51] If you've read about the middle ages, there were knights who rode around Europe doing good things.
[00:14:59] I like to see myself as a knight of Jesus Christ, riding around the world on a motorcycle doing good things.
[00:15:10] Okay.
[00:15:12] Okay. Can you envision your life having adventure in it that is connected to your life in Jesus Christ?
[00:15:27] What is going to be the adventure of your life? I hope it's more than going for a hike in Hawaii. I hope there is something in you that gets stirred up and says, this is an interesting life. And every day, if I have my eyes open, I have the opportunity to do good. I have the opportunity to make a difference. I have an opportunity to lift someone up. I have the opportunity to forgive someone, to inspire someone. I'm on an adventure of faith with God.
[00:16:03] This adventure of faith requires you to grow into your full potential.
[00:16:08] Why live a half life?
[00:16:13] Why not live a complete and full life where you are adventuring through life and day by day you're learning new things, you're developing new skills, and you bring a better self to everything you do.
[00:16:33] I want to talk to some of you who can be inspired.
[00:16:40] Early in my christian life, I wanted an adventure with God.
[00:16:47] I said, I'm willing to do hard things with you.
[00:16:51] Can I tell you I have no regrets about all the hard things I've done with God.
[00:16:58] You know where I have my regrets? When I wimped out, when I could have given my best, when I could have prayed, when I could have tried harder, when I could have built a better team.
[00:17:12] And somehow or another, I just let the moment go.
[00:17:16] Those are the times of my life. I look back on and go, why did you do that?
[00:17:23] I believe that there are people who are sitting here today that God can say, I want you on my Navy SeAL team. I'm looking for people who will do hard things with me in the world, and I want you to learn how to be one of those people. Church.
[00:17:42] I'm not done doing hard things with God. I've just barely begun. I don't know what his next adventure is, but I've got some hard stuff left in me. And if you can be inspired by that, God only knows what good thing you're going to be able to do in being his partner.
[00:18:08] Finally, we believe if we're going to do good in the world, we have to be generous.
[00:18:14] We believe in a lifestyle of generosity.
[00:18:17] Let me share this with you again. Please. Don't tune me out yet.
[00:18:22] I'll give you a piece of pizza after church if you don't.
[00:18:27] All right.
[00:18:30] You do understand that the way the world is structured to do good is expensive.
[00:18:41] But guess what? It's expensive to do bad.
[00:18:46] They didn't build Las Vegas because people are cheap.
[00:18:52] It's expensive to do bad.
[00:18:58] The question is, do I really want to be living this life with God?
[00:19:07] Or would I prefer to make God secondary in my life so I can have the economics to do other things that I. That I would rather do?
[00:19:20] Can you hear me, church? I'm saying I. In my heart, I've made up my mind. I'm going to do great things with God.
[00:19:28] And that means I'm going to be generous with God. Because you can't do great things on ten cent meal tickets. Church. If we're going to do great things, we have to see ourselves as God's economic partner.
[00:19:44] That means we need to be thoughtful givers. We need to be cheerful givers. We need to be generous givers. If we're going to be making the world a better place, it has to include our willingness to trust God and be generous.
[00:20:02] Now, I know what you're hearing in the back of your mind. If I'm generous, that means I can't do this and I can't do that. That is the biggest lie the devil will ever tell you. Our Lord Jesus Christ himself promised give and it will be given unto you good measure, pressed down, shaken together and overflowing. That's a promise from Christ.
[00:20:23] And if I can't believe Christ for that promise, then how am I going to believe him for the promise of eternal salvation? If I can't trust him with a few dollars, how am I ever going to trust him with my eternal soul?
[00:20:38] I believe if we're going to be God's partner and we're going to strike a blow for good in the world, every single one of us have to be generous. Because in that generosity, God does incredibly good things. I could just give you a list of the incredible good things this church is. The world is becoming a better place because of the generosity of this church. I just don't have time to do it this morning. But if you'd like to talk about it, I'd be glad to give you the list.
[00:21:11] I want to return to the image of shooting an arrow.
[00:21:18] It is the business of the one who shoots the arrow to aim it and shoot it correctly.
[00:21:28] But it's the arrow's business to fly straight.
[00:21:32] Do you know what I believe God shoots every arrow correctly.
[00:21:37] You know what I also believe? We bend and twist.
[00:21:41] We bend ourselves out of the trajectory that God shoots us.
[00:21:48] I want to be an arrow that shoots straight at what God wants done in the world.
[00:21:58] Do we stop too soon?
[00:22:02] Do we have in us what was in joash?
[00:22:06] Strike the floor with the arrows he struck three times and quit too soon.
[00:22:13] I know some of you, there was a time in your life when you walked with God and you were getting things done. Your life was rich and meaningful. You were a part of something important that God was doing in the world.
[00:22:30] But something happened, and you weren't willing to hit the arrows on the floor anymore.
[00:22:37] You stopped too soon.
[00:22:40] Some of you know a time in your life when what you were doing and serving God was meaningful, rich and important.
[00:22:47] But somehow or another, you've stopped living that way.
[00:22:52] And now you remember what it was like to be on God's a team.
[00:22:58] But you also remember something that made you stop.
[00:23:03] And you're at a stalled place in your life.
[00:23:08] I'm asking you to take the arrows out of your quiver and pound them on the floor again. Don't hit just once. Don't hit twice. Hit 510. 15 times. Who knows what God might do if you would reconnect with him in a meaningful way?
[00:23:27] This paragraph of this story ends by saying, now, hazel, the king of Syria, oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz. Listen listen.
[00:23:40] But the Lord was gracious to them and had compassion on them. And he turned toward them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and would not destroy them, nor has he cast them from his presence until now.
[00:24:01] I would like you to see that the God who is asking us to be his partner has character qualities that make it easy for us to be his partner.
[00:24:21] Three character qualities are listed.
[00:24:24] The Lord is gracious. He's compassion, compassionate, and he turns toward us.
[00:24:33] When I look at my life and when I look at this church, the Lord has been gracious to us.
[00:24:40] The Lord has treated us better than what we deserve.
[00:24:44] Let me share some ways he's done that. He's been gracious to us through people.
[00:24:50] I believe some of the, some of the.
[00:24:54] Okay, I know some of the nicest people I've ever met come to this church.
[00:25:01] I know we've had some ugly people who came here and God helped them go to a different place.
[00:25:10] Blessed be the name of the Lord.
[00:25:14] God has been gracious to us. Look around at the nice people who comes to this church.
[00:25:21] Say hello to somebody.
[00:25:24] You're going to meet a beautiful soul.
[00:25:27] God has shown his grace to us by bringing good people to this church.
[00:25:34] Ah. And you're one of them.
[00:25:38] God has been gracious to us as an organization. We have the best staff now we've ever had.
[00:25:44] God has been gracious to us as a ministry. Listen, we are doing ministries that other churches can't dream of doing.
[00:25:53] We have adopted an orphanage in Uganda. We're feeding people. We have love week coming up. We have all kinds of support groups. God has been gracious to us in the ministries that he has created here.
[00:26:09] God has been compassionate toward us.
[00:26:13] The greatest compassion God ever showed to me was when he said, I will forgive your sins through Jesus Christ.
[00:26:23] The day I understood that I couldn't ever make it right myself, God helped me to understand that I didn't have to make it right myself. Christ had already done it for me.
[00:26:38] God shows us his love in that Christ died for us while we were still sinners. When I was at my absolute ugliest, God's love toward me was the richest. And Christ died for me so that I could be reconciled to God.
[00:26:59] Not only did he save me out of his love, he sanctifies me out of his love. God is at work in my life every day, making me a better person.
[00:27:09] I want you to look at me right now. I'm the worst I'm ever going to be. God is going to make me better tomorrow. He's going to make me better the next day. He's going to make me better the next day. And the same thing can be true for you. Out of the riches of his compassion. God wants to be at work in every single one of us, making us better.
[00:27:30] He is a great partner because he always treats us better than what we deserve. He is a great partner because he loves us with a great compassion. He is a great partner because he always turns toward us.
[00:27:45] Did you fail this week?
[00:27:49] Do you have a failure that's rattling around in your heart or in your head?
[00:27:55] That failure makes you feel differently toward God.
[00:28:01] But can I tell you, it doesn't make God feel differently toward you.
[00:28:06] Can you hear this?
[00:28:08] I want you to remember that Jesus told us this beautiful parable of the prodigal son. The prodigal son made a big failure.
[00:28:17] That kid made a huge mistake.
[00:28:23] But when his father saw him walking up the lane, he jumped off the porch and he ran down the lane. He threw his arms around him and kissed him. And he said to the servant, get this boy a better robe. I want a finger on his ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Listen, God turns toward us. He is a great partner because when we fail, he turns toward us and renews us and restores us and gives us another chance.
[00:28:58] God is a great partner because when we are confused, he says, follow me.
[00:29:06] He turns toward us and says, follow me.
[00:29:10] I don't have to do this alone.
[00:29:13] The battle is not to the swift, it's not to the strong. The battle is the Lord's and those who will stand with him will win.
[00:29:26] Now, could I.
[00:29:30] Could I suggest, if your heart is saying, yes, I would like to do something with God.
[00:29:40] Yes, I would like to partner with God.
[00:29:44] I want to suggest six specific things, and you might capture these to think about them. One, make use of the divine nature in small and great things. Don't have anything in your life that you say, this is too small for God.
[00:30:05] Don't have anything in your life that you say, I'm not going to bother God with this.
[00:30:12] I want to turn to God in everything in my life, the small things and the great things, the everyday, common things, I want to say to God, I'm partnering with you.
[00:30:27] When I put gas in my pickup truck, I want to be God's partner. And if there's somebody there that God wants me to say hi to, I want to say hi to them. If there's somebody there that God wants me to encourage, I want to encourage them. I'm not just putting gas in my truck. I'm on an adventure with God in small things and great things.
[00:30:52] I also want to say there ought to be things that are so challenging in our lives that we feel desperate with God.
[00:31:00] I want to every day have something to talk to God about that I'm in over my head and I'm desperate for his help. I don't want to get myself living in my comfort zone where every day I say, hey, God, I got it taken care of today. Go help somebody who needs it.
[00:31:17] I want to be in the adventure. So every day I'm saying to God, I am desperate for your help today. If you don't help me today, I will fail.
[00:31:29] Two, accept his superior wisdom to say yes and no in our lives.
[00:31:36] I like it when God says yes.
[00:31:40] I don't like it when he says no.
[00:31:44] I hear myself saying to God, but what about this? But what about that?
[00:31:50] I feel like that 6th grade kid who's trying to talk their parents into something they know their parents won't ever agree to.
[00:32:02] Dear God, come on, just this once.
[00:32:07] When I partner with God, I have to accept his superior wisdom.
[00:32:14] And if he says no to me in my life, he's saying no because he has something better and I want to trust him for the better. Church three have an unshakable confidence in God. Do you believe God is a winner?
[00:32:33] I don't mean I'm not asking you that religiously. I mean in your inner self. Do you believe God is a winner or do you believe that?
[00:32:44] Well, in some things God is a winner, but in other things, he's kind of out of touch. Church God is a winner. I have confidence in God in every aspect of my life.
[00:32:58] I believe he's a winner. I believe he has a long track record of being a winner.
[00:33:03] I believe he is wise to be a winner. I believe he is strong to be a winner. I believe he is good to be a winner.
[00:33:10] If you have confidence that God is a winner, then it is just a whole lot easier to do things with him.
[00:33:19] If you have a secret fear that God is going to get you out in the middle and drop you and make you do it yourself, you are never going to live the adventure of faith.
[00:33:32] Four.
[00:33:34] If I really want to be on an adventure with God, I need to study the nature of God.
[00:33:44] I was watching PBS yesterday and they had a rerun of planet earth Africa and all the different habitats in Africa.
[00:34:01] People got themselves in big trouble when they were exploring Africa because they didn't know what they were getting into.
[00:34:08] They walked out of a savannah into a swamp that was 100 miles long and they weren't ready for it. They hadn't learned the climate. It's a lot safer to travel through Africa now than it was in the 18 hundreds because people have studied and learned the nature of the climate.
[00:34:27] Could I tell you, God is worth learning about.
[00:34:32] There is more to God than the Sunday school stories you've heard.
[00:34:37] There is more to God than the rumors you've heard about him. There is more to God than the cliches you've heard about him. I really believe your christian life would be enriched. You would be willing to try things you would have never tried before. If you could just prompt yourself to do a little daily investigation into what is God's nature. Who is he? How does he relate to us? What does he like and dislike? What does he bless, and what won't he bless?
[00:35:14] Five.
[00:35:17] Contemplate the ways God has already blessed you.
[00:35:24] Every time I think about how good God has been to me, I feel the impulse to serve him better.
[00:35:36] I'd like to share this.
[00:35:38] When I found this property in 1998, it was just a big open field and we had been looking for two years for property.
[00:35:55] I can remember the surge of gratitude I had in my heart. I knew God was going to give us this property. It was exactly where we needed it to be. It was the amount of land we needed. It fit our vision. I knew God was going to do this. All right.
[00:36:16] Now, there were a bunch of circumstances that said this is never going to happen, but here we are. All right.
[00:36:22] When I think about that blessing, I also think if God has already done that for us to get us here, why wouldn't he bless us to get us there?
[00:36:36] Do you see? If he's already proven that he wants to do good, if he's already shown us how he does good, if he's already gone out of his way to bless us, why would I look at the future and say, why wouldn't I look at the future and say, God has been so good, he's made such a big investment in us, it only makes sense to trust him for this.
[00:36:59] Do you see, six?
[00:37:05] Trust in trust and faith. Serve God as a friend, not a slave.
[00:37:14] I am afraid that too often we develop a non friendly service of God.
[00:37:25] We do something because we feel like we have to.
[00:37:29] We do something because we feel like we're obligated. We do something because we feel like it's our duty. We do something because somebody asked us to and we didn't want to say no. I'm asking for something better than that. I'm asking for you to serve God as a friend.
[00:37:47] I'm asking you to get over the duty, the obligation, the slavery of it all. I'm asking you to develop a friendship with God where you actually find yourself saying, yes, friend, I'd like to do that with you.
[00:38:05] Yes, I would enjoy you. I want to do this with you just because I enjoy your company. I want to be around you when you're doing anything. That's the kind of friend you are to me.
[00:38:17] Church, if we're going to strike a strong blow for God with our limited lives, we have to become friends of God and serve him out of the riches of friendship.
[00:38:34] There's another part of this verse I want to share with you.
[00:38:39] God was gracious to them. He had compassion on them. He turned to them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
[00:38:48] Listen, this is.
[00:38:51] This is 600 years after Abraham.
[00:38:57] More than that, it's 1200 years after Abraham.
[00:39:07] 1200 years after Abraham. Listen to what God is saying. I'm going to bless you for my friend Abraham's sake, who lived 1200 years ago.
[00:39:19] We have a theory in our church. We have a. It's not a theory. We have a guiding principle. It's called the century church plan.
[00:39:28] And in the century church plan, I want us, this first generation, to do so much good stuff. We will still be blessing this church a hundred years from now. Do you see?
[00:39:45] We bought 32 acres of land. Because 100 years from now, you will not be able to buy 32 acres of land here.
[00:39:53] It's not even going to be 100 years. They sold hickory nut and that was the last big piece. You're not going to be able to buy 32 acres anymore. But so we could bless the church in 100 years. We did the extra, we paid the money, and we bought 32 acres.
[00:40:12] I know I've shared this with you before, but the Bible talks about remembering the things God has done. That metal building that you look out over here to the left of our property. We could have bought that building, remodeled it and been debt free. But you know what? We would have given the future? A rusty warehouse building.
[00:40:31] We're giving the future a architectural piece of beauty. This church will be fascinating years to come. It's our century church plan.
[00:40:41] Our century church plan is how can we invest into the kids in our church in such a way that 100 years from now it'll still be paying off? And by the grace of God, we've made contact with a seminary and we're going to be a sponsoring church, and we're going to be able to send kids to get a religious education at a fraction of what it cost anywhere else. In fact, it's going to be less than what it would cost to go to Tri C.
[00:41:16] All right, this is what I'm trying to say. If we do this right, if we will pick up the arrows and we'll strike them on the ground again and again and again, if we will partner with God, if we will be a force for good in the world, it's not gonna just be our generation that profits from it. It's gonna be generations to come.
[00:41:40] 2300 years from now, people will look back at this generation and say, how did they do what they did? And we will live a legacy. We did what we did because we partnered with God, and if you'll partner with God in your generation, you will be able to do great things also.
[00:42:09] I want to strike a blow for good in my generation.
[00:42:14] I want this church to strike a blow for good in our generation. I want the world to be different because we partnered with God. We served him as friends. We engaged at the best of our ability. We lived meaningful and adventurous lives, and God was honored. We became his partners, and we give birth to a future that wouldn't otherwise exist.
[00:42:40] And I pray, I pray that you can hear the Holy Spirit whisper the same thing in your heart. Our dear heavenly Father, I have been on an adventure with you, and I'm so grateful, but I have no sense in my heart that our adventure is over.
[00:43:02] I believe this church.
[00:43:05] We're going to do greater things than we've ever done. We're going to trust you in ways we've never trusted you. We're going to hope in you in ways we've never hoped. We're going to demonstrate the excellence of Christ in powerful ways.
[00:43:19] We're going to engage in the joy of ministry. We're going to live the adventure of faith. We're going to have the wisdom of a lifestyle of generosity, and we're going to change the world we live in, and we're going to create a better world for those who come behind us. And I ask you in Jesus name that you would empower us, enrich us, and inspire us to do these good things in Christ's name. Amen.
