Vision Sunday

Heat up here. Well, good morning. How you doing today? >> Morning. >> Oh, that sounds great. Your worship sounded great. That sounded great. Hey, if we haven't met, my name is Pastor Jackie. I'm the lead pastor over the collective of churches that call themselves Cross Church, of which Phoenix is a vital part of. And so, I'm thankful to be here today. If you have your Bible, open it to Acts chapter 13. And we're kind of stepping away a week early from the Nehemiah study uh before we start a new series next week to talk about vision. I've been going around all of our locations sharing about the vision of Cross Church. Uh vision is as you know very very important. It's important in almost every sphere of life. You have to have a vision for your family. You have to vision have a vision for your work life, your career, your business, if you're a business owner, uh your school, if you're a teacher, administrator, uh your children. Got to have a great vision for your kiddos. Uh if you're on a sports team, uh vision helps. And so, we're talking about vision for our church and also for you as an individual believer today. Uh the scripture says that where there is no vision, the people perish. And I think that's true of great sports teams. When they run out of vision, they begin to lose. It's true of great businesses. When they lose their vision, they lose sort of their badge of uh honor, their reason for being. And it's especially it is true for a church. Uh but the real question when we think about vision, we're going to all things vision this morning. Uh where does where does vision come from? Uh where do we get our vision? Do we get it from the hookah lounge down the street? Do we get it from the end of the bar at Applebee's? Do we get it from a gripe session in the parking lot of the church? Do we get it from a TED talk on YouTube? Uh where does vision come from? And certainly we as believers and as a church believe that vision comes from the Lord that it become it comes uh directly from God's word. uh through this series of Nehemiah, which we just uh uh finished, we we saw that there was an occasion after the wall was constructed, that uh Nehemiah told Ezra the priest, he said, "Bring the book. Bring the book." And so, as we think about vision today, we want to bring the book. We want to look in God's word and find his vision for our church and for our lives uh individually. So I want to direct you to Acts chapter 13, just the first three verses of that chapter, which if I were to close my eyes and try to imagine the kind of church that I want cross church to be, it's Acts 13. It is the church at Antioch. As a matter of fact, of all of the verses and passages and all the Old and New Testament, Acts 13 is really my life passage, my life verse, if you will. Let's read it together. It says, "In the church in Antioch, there were certain prophets and teachers. Barnabas, uh, Simeon called Niger, Lucius ofSirene, Mania, who had been brought up with Herod the tetriarch, and Saul. Uh, five interesting names. Two of which are the only ones that we know anything really about, uh, are Paul and Barnabas. But there were five different guys that that were gathered together in leadership in this church. And this Bible says that while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart from me for me Paul and Barnabas for the work to which I have called them." And so after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them out. Three quick things about this text as we think about vision. First of all, I'm thankful that it starts with the church. It starts with the church. The Bible says in verse one, in the church at Antioch, uh I I want you to know that I'm I'm pretty big and robust on the church. Uh I'm convinced that the greatest institution or organization that the world knows anything of is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I know in our culture that's not very popular. I know in our culture, in our world, people tell us that the church is yesterday's news. And some people will even say the church is on its way out. And when they say that, they are speaking biblical truth, but they don't know it because Jesus has called the church out. Jesus has sent the church out. And one day soon, I pray Jesus will come again and take the church out. And so when somebody tells you uh tries to throw shade on the church and say the church is on its way out, say absolutely. He has called us out. He sent us out. and one day he is going to take us out. I was thinking uh recently about the church and my relationship with the church. I've come to understand that all of my greatest experiences, most of them have happened inside or around a church. Uh my parents didn't go to church when I was a young kid up until I was in about the sixth or seventh grade. They they didn't go to church, but they they sent me uh to vacation Bible school for free child care, right? And uh I went I had wonderful memories of going to vacation Bible school uh as a young child. When my uh grandfather died and we moved back to our family farm in in Oklahoma, my cousin, my second cousin, several years older than me, old enough to drive, started coming by and picking me up and taking me to church. And when she sh wasn't able to come, uh, Nobel Len, the bus driver of the local Baptist church, came by and picked me up on a bus. I was a bus kid years ago, and he would bring me to church in a bus that probably shouldn't be on a road anywhere, but me and a bunch of other kids were being carried to church. It was in church on the back row, the First Baptist church in small rural Asher, Oklahoma, that I heard uh my friend Billy Don Fowler, who I'd played high school baseball with, share his personal testimony. And the first time in my life, I realized I didn't have a story like Billy and I needed to give my life to Jesus. And was on a Sunday night in a church that that happened. It was in that same church years later uh after they'd built their brand new building uh that me and my wife stood in front of that assembled crowd and were the very first people ever to be married in that new church building. It's still standing and we're still married. So I fig I count both of those as wins and uh yeah give it up for her. She she needs all the encouragement she can get. Uh but it all that happened in a church. It was in a church that I was called to ministry and it's been in a church that I've met some of my best friends in all my life. I I am high on the church. I do believe the greatest organization or institution that the world knows anything of is the church of Jesus Christ. And I want to say this to you, the church today. There is nothing that God will ask his church to do that we cannot do through his power. Let me say that again. I'm going to circle back later because it's very important to the topic today. There is nothing that God will ever ask the church to do that we cannot do through his power. Let me give you some verses to prove that. Greater is he that is in us than he who is in the world. Amen. >> Let me give you another one. I can do and you can do. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Can I get an amen? >> A and Jesus, the Lord and founder of the church said, "The gates of hell itself will not prevail against the church of the Lord Jesus Christ." So I'm saying to you, there is nothing that God will ever ask his church to do that we cannot do through his power. But having said that, I also want to say to you that God isn't obligated to work through any particular local church. God is not obligated to work through us. You see, it is not our right, but it is our privilege to be able to be used by God in whatever capacity he deems. And if we aren't yielding to him, God will simply just move on and use someone else. that happened all the way through the history of the church. We thinking about we are thinking about missions this morning and vision and the epicenter for the missionary movement of the church originally was not Antioch in Acts chapter 13. It was Jerusalem in Acts 1 through3 where God's started his church in Jerusalem. But by the time you get to Acts 13, the epicenter for the missionary movement of the church has moved. Why? Because the church at Jerusalem turned internal. It began to focus on their own felt needs more than the needs of the world around them. And so what did God do? He simply moved on. And he moved on to Antioch. But it might surprise us even though this is my life verse. I want our church to be like the church at Antioch in chapter 13, but not later. Because later on liberalism and higher criticism begin to infect the church at Antioch even and God moved on. Where did he move to? Well, most theologians believe that the epicenter for the missionary movement moved down the road to Ephesus. And Ephesus, God used mightily. Paul loved the church at Ephesus. He cried bitter tears on the shores of of Ephesus when he sailed from there to go to Jerusalem and eventually go to Rome to be martyed. But God didn't always use the church at Ephesus either. If you go back to the end of the New Testament, you find that the New Testament commentary, Jesus's own commentary on the church at Ephesus is that Ephesus left its first love. And so God moved on. God moved the center of missionary activity. Most church historians believe it eventually landed in Constantinople, but liberalism and higher criticism infected that church. And so God just moved on. He moved on to Rome. I've visited Rome. It's one of my favorite cities. Beautiful, wonderful fountains and and church steeples everywhere. But God didn't stay at Rome forever. Rome began to elevate other things above the scriptures. And so what did God do? He just moved on. He moved on to Germany of all places, became the epicenter for many, many years of the missionary movement. Some of the greatest theologians that we still study today, came from Germany, guys like Martin Luther and Dedric Bonhaofer, just to name two. But higher criticism and formalism infected the church there in Germany. What did God do? He just moved on. He moved on to England and England began to be infected by higher criticism and liberalism. And so God moved on. And I think most uh myologists would tell you that the epicenter over the last oh 10020 years for the missionary movement has been the church in America. But don't just think that God will always use us. As a matter of fact, some may say that God's already moved on moved on to places like India and South Africa where where many many people are coming to faith in Christ. Now, what I'm saying to you is God is not obligated to work through us. And the real question for cross church as we enter into a new initiative and a new season of our life is will God move on from us or will we choose to move on with God? Starts with the church and then we see the called look in verse two it says uh while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting the Holy Spirit said set apart from me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. deep spiritual moment occurs uh in Acts chapter 13 here. I love this passage. I love the fact that they gathered for just a regular worship service much like we have gathered for today. And while they were worshiping, while they were praying, the Holy Spirit spoke. And I love that. It is my prayer that every service that we have here at Cross Church Phoenix and any other of our locations that that we would gather to worship and that the Holy Spirit would speak to your heart and to my heart, that he would call out the called. And some of you this morning, God's going to do just that. For some of you, you've never given your heart and life to Jesus. It's either in the room or watching online. You have never given your heart and life to Jesus. And the Holy Spirit could just speak like he did to me as a teenage boy in the back row of the First Baptist Church in Asher, Oklahoma. As I heard Billy Don Fowler's testimony, the Holy Spirit could speak to you and today could change your life as you are called by God to become a follower of Jesus Christ. Others of you are already followers of Jesus and God's spirit may speak to you and he may call you to a deeper commitment. He may call you to be sent out like he did bo Paul and Barnabas or Saul as he's referred to in this passage. God's spirit may be speaking to some of you today to make a dangerous decision to be a radical follower of Jesus Christ. I'm confident that's what he wants our church to do as a collective of churches and individual locations like here at Phoenix. God wants to speak and God wants us to answer and God wants us to make a difference wherever we may be for the cause of Christ. Speaking of difference, I think thirdly about the consequences. In verse three, it says, "After they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them out." What happened as a result of that? Just normal worship service. Here they are just gathered up. They got their donuts. Uh I I I've been trying to eat better, but I ate two donuts this morning. I'm sorry if you didn't get one. I got two. It was good. But I'm preaching twice, so I needed two. Um they were just there. They got their donuts and their coffee and they found a chair and and the Holy Spirit was speaking and God said, "Set aside Paul and Barnabas." What happened after that? They sent them. Where did they go? Well, if you know anything about your New Testament, you know that they left there. They made three, possibly four missionary journeys if you count Paul's trip to Rome, which I do. And they started churches. They started churches like we started this church about 10 years ago like uh churches have been started all over the US. They started churches in places like Ephesus and Philippi and Corenth and uh other places all across Asia Minor. And as a result of that countless thousands, dare I say millions of people came to faith in Christ. And you and I are sitting here in large part because of what happened in Acts chapter 13. The deep consequences of you and I listening to God when he speaks could have deep consequences in your family, your children. If you don't know Christ and you give your life to Christ today, think about this. probably because of that decision, your children are going to come to faith in Christ. Your grandchildren and great-grandchildren may come to faith in Christ because you did today. Or God's calling you to a a a deeper level of commitment in ministry either inside or outside the church and the countless thousands of people that will be affected by you putting your yes on the table. And so that's from the Bible. Let's just talk a little bit as we try to contextualize our vision today. The future of Cross Church hinges on three things. An understanding first of all of our history. Now, I like to say that history is his story. Amen. With a capital H. And I'm confident like myself, you could look back over the history of your life and just see the fingerprints of the father on your life and brought and that he has brought you here today. I'm also confident that is true of our church. Crossurch has a deep history and all of that is his story. I came to pastor uh 13 years ago, Cross Church in Surprise, which is now uh multiplied out to be uh six locations here in Arizona and uh three in uh Southeast Asia. And when I came here 13 years ago, I had a little understanding of the history of the church even at that time. It it wasn't called Cross Church then. It was called Palm Vista Baptist Church. Matter of fact, when this location launched, it was originally called for just about 6 months to a year. It was originally called Palm Vista Baptist Church, Phoenix. Uh, and I knew the guy that started the Palm Vista Baptist Church in Surprise. Uh, small world. We were living in the same town. I was pastoring Oakrove Baptist Church in Cushing, Oklahoma. And a guy by the name of Marvin Kale was the pastor of the First Baptist Church there in Cushing. And I was visiting my friend in his office one day and he said, "Hey, Jackie, I haven't told very many people and I'm going to announce it to our church this Sunday though that I am resigning from this church and I'm moving to Surprise, Arizona to start a brand new church." That was 30 years ago. And uh honestly the only thing I really remember from that conversation is what kind of fool would move to a town named Surprise? I live in Surprise now. But God has moved during the history of our church. Uh our church has gone from a couple hundred people 13 years ago. I I saw that we had almost 1,600 people in attendance uh this past weekend. And God continues to move. And during that, one of the most significant things that has happened is the multiplication of locations all over Arizona. Uh I love coming here because Crossurch Phoenix was the first baby of Cross Church Surprise. All right. And uh it's been such a wonderful joy to see how God has moved in this place over the years. Uh when we came here about 10 years ago, this building did not look like it looks like today. Trust me. Uh the director of missions for our association asked me if we would be willing to come and start a new work here. We did. And when we did, uh we gutted this whole building. I was actually a part of the demo crew and the paint crew that painted the walls in this building. That's why we keep the lights low so you can't see all of my uh errant uh paintbrush strokes. But I also remember working outside and and moving gravel and pulling weeds because there had been like six or seven churches that had tried to meet in this building prior to us getting here in the year and a half prior to us getting here and all of them have failed. You're a success story of what God's grace can do. Remember I told you there's nothing God asked his church to do that we cannot do through his power. And since then we've started locations in Cornville, Arizona. A little known fact, Cornville is one of the few places in Arizona where you can't grow corn, but it's everything else. It's what the name you would would uh cause you to think of. But I remember in the first year of us opening up Cross Church Cornville, they p baptized 12 people on one Sunday in a creek in lower Oak Creek, not Sedona. All right? We ain't Sedona. We're we're lower Oak Creek people. And 12 people were baptized. There was about eight people that we inherited at that church. So more people were baptized on one Sunday than almost double than what they had before we got there. And then we opened up Cross Church El Mrage. It's just doing phenomenal. Some of you there for our vision night the other night at Cross Church El Mirage. It's doing so well. We're having to build a new building for them. They're in two services, soon to be three. And uh that church was gifted to us. It was formerly called Sunset Baptist Church. Now, if you're into naming rights for a church, sunset is not the best name. Sunrise, okay, sunset, not so good. The sun had set on that work. And there was zero people in there. And they're celebrating this morning. I can't be there because I'm here with you. They're celebrating their 2-year anniversary of that church with over 200 people in attendance. And now we're set to start two more locations in 2026. Uh, one of our elders, L. Herinstein, has put his yes on the table. We're sending him out. Uh, he left Surprise to go to Elmarrage and help them launch that, and now he's going to mayor. He and his family's already moved to there. We've already gotten keys to a building there. And we're going to be starting work and launching very, very soon. Uh, Cross Church mayor and then back to El Mrage. Uh Javi Hernandez, one of our members there is felt called and he's going to start an Hispanic church, Eglacia de la Cruz, roughly translated cross church there in the building at Elmarrage and God's just moving and it's so wonderful to see. And every single story we've told is his story. It's not ours. You couldn't have convinced me to come 13 years ago if you had told me I had to start all these churches, uh, build buildings, all of that. But God has been at work and we're thankful. And so part of understanding the vision I want to unpack is understanding our history, but another part of that is understanding our reality we live. And when I say our reality, I want to pan out a little bit and and say not just the church's uh reality or cross churches reality, but the reality of churches all across North America. We live in a day and time where at epidemic proportions, we are seeing churches close down all over North America. All of the churches that I just mentioned that we have started are have started in buildings of churches that have closed. As a matter of fact, we were having a meeting with some key leaders in Cornville. Uh we met at a restaurant in Cottonwood. I can't remember the name of the restaurant. Something uh something brewery. Our executive pastor picked that place and we had an open bar. It was a lot of fun. I'm teasing. Um but um I looked around during that meeting and there were pews uh outlining the the walls of the meeting room and began to dig a little deeper and I realized the the brewery that we were meeting in for this leadership meeting used to be a church and that's happening all over the country. Never in the history of my ministry, pastor for 40 years, over the last 10 years, I've seen this phenomenon happening where people coming and handing keys of buildings to us. And this is happening on our watch. Lights are going out all over North America. And when you think about the generational impact of that, when a light goes out in a community, what would happen if this church if the lights weren't on here today? What would happen? Some of you have come to faith in Christ in this church. Some of you, your children have come to faith in Christ in this church. And I don't want to question the sovereignty of God, but would they have come to Christ if we hadn't been here? Would you have come to Christ if we hadn't been here? That's our reality that all over North America churches are closing. But also we we need to understand not only our history and our reality but but our responsibility. I have a mentor coach that uh worked with me for years and we worked together an organization called Church Boom which uh coached pastors and rescued churches. And for a season I head headed up the uh church rescue initiative of that national organization. And he would say in talks and it always just got me. He said these churches are closing and this is happening on our watch. not when our grandparents or great-grandparents or great greatgrparents were in leadership in the local church. It's happening now. And he would say, put a foot in the ground. I want to put a foot foot in the ground this morning as well and say, "Not on our watch." as much as possible. Cross church is not going to be just about the congregations we already started and the people that we already have, but it's about making sure Jesus is being made known in places where the light of the gospel and the light of churches is going out. I was preparing to preach this morning. I was walking back down through the hallway uh before any too many got here and there was some uh there was a couple trying to fix a light in the hallway and I'm like let's keep the lights on. That's my sermon today. Let's keep the lights on. I've jokingly said that Cross Church has adopted the Motel 6 slogan. We'll keep the lights on and I pray that we will. I believe that's the call that God has given to us as a family of churches to make sure generationally the light of the gospel stays on in in urban communities, in suburban communities, in rural communities all over our country. And that's where today comes in. I want to introduce you to um what I believe will be the most challenging and most strategic initiative that Cross Church has ever taken up in its 30 some odd year history of being a church. And when I say that, I I I think that's saying something because it's not like we've been sitting around on our hands doing nothing. Uh but I believe the future is going to challenge us personally and corporately in a way that no other initiative that we've taken on will. And so you say, "What pastor, what initiative are you talking about?" Well, we're calling it Let's Go. Let's go. And let's go is a two-year disciplehip campaign designed to deepen your faith. And also, it is a two-year capital stewardship campaign designed to raise $7 million over the next two years. And some of you just swallowed your chewing gum. But remember what I told you earlier. There is nothing that God can ask us to do that we cannot do through his power. Can I get an amen? >> Amen. >> There is nothing I'm giving you another chance. If there is nothing that God asks us to do that we cannot do through his power. >> Amen. >> Gosh, got to do it three times. There is nothing that God will ask us to do that we cannot do through his power. Amen. >> I was just going to stay there until you got it right, but you got it right. All right. Thank you. Appreciate that. You're like, "Man, does that mean we can go to lunch now?" Uh, almost. We're getting there. And so, what we're trying to do, and I don't want to get lost on the dollar figure because I think the spiritual development aspect is ever as much as important or perhaps more important. It obviously is the nail that precedes the hammer here. The Apostle Paul when he talked about giving said in uh Philippians 4:17, "Not that I'm looking for a gift, but I'm looking for what may be credited to your account as we enter into this season of focusing on raising resources and raising up people." By the way, those are the two things that we have to do to meet the challenges out there. We have to raise up people, new staff, new pastors, new leaders. We do that through a a regular residency program. We've got uh 10 15 people right now in our residency program this year. We're raising up leaders, but also we have to raise up resources. I I told you about all the uh stories of churches that we've started. I didn't tell you about the ones we we didn't start, weren't able to start. There's a church building sitting empty in southern New Mexico in Silver City. big building we didn't take. We said no to. There was a church building sitting empty in Tempe that we said no to. There's a church building north of Wikcinberg and one in lower Buckeye and another one up the 17 that we said no to. He said, "Pastor, why would you say no to those?" Because we either we don't have the person raised up or we didn't have the resources to pull it off. Now, I know you're smart people. you understand that it takes both to grow a church. It takes good leaders and it takes adequate resources. Uh all of the wonderful things we see in this facility, they they came because people sacrificially gave so that we could enjoy uh these beautiful stained concrete floors and wonderful paint on the walls. It's really well done, by the way. That is beautiful, beautiful artwork. Yes. I started with the I was going to do a cyine chapel effect in here and Pastor Chad told me we didn't have time, but when I get back around to it, I'll I'll lay on my back and see if I can work on the ceiling. Um, God has been moving and we're thankful for it. But it takes leaders and resources. And that's what Let's Go is committed to doing, raising up leaders and resources so that we can send out our very best. You see, some of you were asking you to leave the church today. You're like, "What did I do?" No, we're asking you to leave the church for good reasons. To be sent out to be that next wave of people that starts a new location somewhere down the street or across the state to be sent by the father to live a scent life. So, here's what we're going to ask you to do. And by the way, on the way out, uh there's a little one-page flyer that uh gives you sort of a 10,000 ft overview of everything. Let's go. And this will be part of that flyer. But on the way out, I want to just challenge you to pick that up. But right now, I want to challenge you to lean into three things we're asking you to do. One, we're asking you to pray. Cross Church has been, is will always be a praying church. We believe in the power of prayer because there's nothing the father would ask us to do that he cannot provide us with in his power. How do we access that? Through prayer. So pray. Some of you are just saying, "Amen." So I get on the next point. I get you. I know. I know where you're going. All right. I I understand your game. Number two, we're asking you to engage. Just to be involved in this, to say a good word to your friends and family. Use the leverage of your influence wisely. Engage. There'll be children's lessons. Next Sunday, we're starting officially. Let's go with a sermon series through Matthew 28:19 and 20 through five weeks through that passage. You can't spell gospel without go. And the great commission commands us to go. And so engage. Your children's uh ministry will be h having material. Your small groups, Bible groups will have material. In worship service, we'll be focusing on this. Just lean into it. All right? Just allow yourself a season. Even if you're a skeptic or a late responder to new ideas, which by the way, I am. I found out I'm a late responder to new ideas when I went to work for somebody else. I now work full-time to for the North American Mission Board. And I'm like, I think I'm just a late responder to other people people's ideas. Are you like that? I'm I respond real quickly to my ideas. But even if you're a late responder to ideas, I'm asking you over the next five weeks just to lean in and to engage it. See where the father leads you. And then unapologetically, we're asking you to give. We're asking you to prayerfully consider over the next two years, how can I sacrificially give either out of stored resources or or monthly contributions. How can I increase that? How can I expand the capacity of our church to take the gospel light where it's being turned off? You know, I think a lot about things sometimes in different ways. I was thinking about Acts 13 the other day. I was thinking what would happen? What would have happened if the church at Antioch would have said no? What if they're there, they got their donuts, they got their chair in the church service and they're worshiping the Lord and praying and the Holy Spirit speaks and says, "I want you to send Paul and Barnabas." And they're like, "Could you take Simeon instead or we don't want to What if they said no? We don't want to send our very best. Paul's the greatest theologian of all time. Barnabas is probably the greatest pastoral heart of all time. We would like to keep them to ourselves. What if they had said no? Well, quite possibly, I think I mentioned this earlier, quite possibly we wouldn't be sitting here today. We wouldn't even know the gospel today. Uh what if cross church years ago would have said no when pastor Bruce Ford came to me and said would you open a build a church up in this building. I don't want to get too melodramatic but I think that might affected some people in this room. I think it might have affected some families in this room. I think it would have affected the community around this building. I drive by this place and I used to see the weeds and and um all sorts of other activity happening on this building that I won't dive into. And I drive by here with a sense of healthy pride. Like look, man, it's a light on the hill. This place is is is not only redeeming people's hearts and lives, it is redeeming literally this community. You're doing that. But what if we'd said no? What if we'd said no to Cornville? Would those 12 people had gotten baptized in that creek? What if we'd said no to Elmarrage? Would over 200 people be worshiping there today and two other churches being sent out from that church this year? Then I think about it on a much more personal granular level. What if you say no? What if you say no to the call of God to give your heart and life to him to be saved today? Not only the ramifications for you and to eternity, but what about the ramifications of your family, your wife or your husband, your children, maybe even grandchildren? What would happen if God's calling you? You're already saved. He's calling you to a deeper level. Maybe maybe you're Paul and Barnabas sitting in the room and God's calling you out. What will be the ramifications negatively if we say no? The bottom line is what we are asking our church to do is sort of dangerous. It's dangerous for us to continue to to extend ourselves financially in order to reach other locations for the cause of Christ. It's dangerous for us to talk about money because people don't like to talk about money. I learned that like week one of pastoring. It's dangerous if God's calling you and and you don't know how you're going to do it, but you know God's calling you to do it. My whole journey into church planting started about 22 23 years ago. Uh, I was pastoring the First Baptist Church in Miami, Oklahoma. It's, if you familiar with the geography of Oklahoma, it's way up in the northeast part of the state. It's almost to Kansas to the north and uh, Missouri to the east. It's close enough that my youngest child was actually born in Missouri. And so, I was pastoring there. It's a great church, great facilities, uh, finances were all good. Everybody seemed to like me, okay? They didn't run me out of town or anything like that. It was just a good place. Some of my dearest friends I met in that church. And we were hosting a revival service. And anybody ever be in a church where they used to have revival? Anybody? Two or three of you? Yeah. A long time ago. Uh they were having revi We were having revival and I'd ask a friend of mine, John Randles, to come and speak. John Randles was uh one of the smartest men I've ever met. Charismatic preacher and evangelist. Uh he was a Greek and uh uh he was a Greek historian. It's just beyond measure. And John was also the game day chapel guy for all the football teams in the Big 12 or the Big Eight back then. if Oklahoma was playing a big game that chapel service that morning, John Randles would fly in from Lake, Texas to be there. And John was in my office and we were just chatting, me behind my desk, him in the chair across from my desk. And I'll never forget this, John's since gone to be with the Lord. Actually, next week I'm going to be sharing uh the platform with his son, Zach Randall, who he and I will both be speaking at the Oklahoma Baptist Evangelism Conference together. And John leaned across my desk and asked me this question that I want to pose to you as well today. He said, "Jackie, when did you stop being dangerous for Jesus?" If he wasn't a lot bigger than me, I would have punched him in the nose. I'm like, I invited you here to preach to my people, not to me. They can have revival. I'm just going to sit right here. And that question convicted me so deeply that in a matter of months I'd resigned from that church, packed up the biggest U-Haul truck I could with all of our stuff and drove the 17 hours from Miami, Oklahoma to Peoria, Arizona to start a church. Just me and my family of four. We stayed there 4 years. The church grew from 4 to 400. And I still hear hear testimonies today of lives that were touched and changed, people that were saved because of that act of obedience. Let me ask you, if the father were to do what he did in Acts 13 in that worship service while they were worshiping and praying, the Holy Spirit would speak. What would be the most dangerous thing the Holy Spirit could ask you to do today? For some of you, that's give your life to Jesus. Watching online or in the room, that's radical. You've never done that. For others of you that have already done that, it might be a filling out a next card. I'm ready to take a next step, pastor. Some of you, it's like, pastor DJ, I've been meaning to tell you this, but I'm leaving the church. Not because I'm mad at you, because I agree with everything that's going on. And I want to be part of a sending team. Could require some training, but I want to get in a residency. I I believe God's calling me to ministry. I believe I need to put my yes on the table today. And you could indicate that uh by that next card as well. Let's bow for prayer. Father, we love you and we thank you for this day. For those watching on online or in the room that may not know you, I pray that you give them the courage to do the most dangerous thing they could ever do at this moment in their life, and that is to say yes to you by simply praying. The Bible says in Romans 10:13, that whosoever shall call on the the name of the Lord shall be saved. And I pray you give them the courage to do that. for others in the room that you're calling maybe wanting to send and much like you did Paul and Barnabas, I pray you'd just speak to their hearts and remind them that there's nothing that you'll ask them to do that they cannot do through your power. And us as a church as we get our minds and hearts around let's go. I pray God that you would challenge us to do some dangerous things spiritually, financially, relationally in order to follow your calling on our life. For we pray in Jesus' name. As we stand in worship, let me remind you, hear this. Go ahead and stand. Hear this. There is nothing that God will ask his church or his followers to do that we cannot do through his power. Amen. I can do all things and so can you through Christ who strengthens me. Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. And the gates of hell will not prevail against the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's worship like that is true. As we end our service,