Ready for the Harvest

Do any of those signs of reluctance show up in our church? We have the problem sometimes of falling into the trap of being cynical, always criticizing, always comparing, never content with where we're at. Are we complacent? Are we comfortable with spiritual mediocrity? Are we blending in with culture instead of standing out for Christ? Because here's the truth. A reluctant church will never be a harvest ready church. A reluctant church will never be ready for the big things that God is bringing. [Music] But for all of us today, we are excited. And if you have your Bibles with you, flip over to 2 Corinthians chap 13. And here's what's so exciting. Over this past year, 35 of the last 43 Sundays that have happened here in 2025, we have been studying through the book of 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians. And today, we wrap them all up. All right? And maybe you hear that, you're like, I did not come to the other 34 Sundays, right? You're like, you got some work to do. No. Um, I'm going to summarize really for you today kind of where and it it works perfectly in this passage of kind of how Paul pours into us and kind of gives a really a bow to this church. And here's what I love about this through these letters. These these are 35 weeks that we have taken to go through these two books of the Bible, but it's written to one church in one place, but has the same kind of impact for us today. that as he's poured in the apostle Paul to the church at Corenth uh we have been pouring in through God's word into cross church and it's allowed us to ask questions about where god leading us ask questions about how god is shaping our personal lives how god is shaping the life of cross church as a whole and we started this journey in first Corinthians and we kind of asked this question and when we pose this thought that we saw through this book is that in a fractured world we live in a very fractured ed world today and in a fractured world just like the church at Corinth faced that we need a church that is faithful and focused and we pose this to our church of how do we as Christians and as cross church become faithful and focused and a few of the things that emerged out of that to kind of be our guideline I like to know if I'm winning or losing all right I like to have a scoreboard in front of me when I look at the scoreboard when I watch all my Arizona sports teams we're usually losing. We're not going to talk about yesterday. All right. It was pretty ugly. All of them. Um and the Dodgers won. It was just like salt in the wound. Uh it was the worst sports day that could ever be. But when we look at the scoreboard of our church, how are we faithful? How are we focused? We gave a couple measurements and metrics. As we said, we want to be a church that is spiritually hungry. And we say we will know we are spiritually hungry when we are gathering together at a higher rate at at a bigger number when we are attending more of our Bible groups. When we are pushing this line together and when we compare this season to the season of last year and this fall here's what we've seen is our attendance overall has increased by 6 and a half%. And and here's the crazy thing about that. All right, you can don't clap yet. I got some more stuff I'm going to say. All right, I'm going to put some I'll tell you when to clap. I'll queue you up for it. And that's through a giant transition, right, where we changed uh our leadership in myself stepping in here. Specifically in that, our kids ministry, we've grown by 30% in our kids ministry. All right. Our Bible groups have seen an 11% increase. Though those each week gathering together in homes and on our campus outside of Sunday is we have seen God move in this incredible way. But we said, "We don't just want you to be spiritually hungry. We want also want you to be radically humble. And we we talked about here is seeing God as taking less of our own stuff. And we want to be generous with our time and our resources. When we talk about our time, uh here's one of the things I'm most excited about. Our volunteerism, our serving in our ministries has increased by 26% since last year. All right? And let me tell you something. I I tell my staff all the time. The more people that serve inside a church, the bigger that church gets because it leaves room for more people to come in and experience the love of God. When we talk about giving our our resources is we have the largest camp giving that we ever have for our fundraiser which lead to our largest group and we're on track for the cross collective to have our largest giving year of that in the history of our church. And all this leads to our last metric we talked about is we want to be spiritually hungry. We've done that. Wouldn't it be radically humble? We've done that. And we want to be uncomfortably hospitable. And you've seen throughout this year all those little pingpong balls on that wall where we said, "What would it look like if we invited people into our house and into God's house by putting ourselves out there and welcoming people into the mess of our lives. And we've got to visually see how that thing is filling up. And some of you aren't even putting in ping-pong balls when you're hosting people at your home or you're dragging them to church." And here is where I've seen that over and over is not just those balls, but every one of those is a story. And as I get to talk to people, I'd be like, "Well, my neighbor invited me. My co-worker invited me. This person invited me and had that impact on their life." And here's why I say all that is because when we look at First Corinthians, we have been a faithful and a focused church. But as we've moved on to second Corinthians, Paul challenged us to a deeper level of how do we make sure we are not just a faithful and focused church in the midst of a fractured culture, but how are we ready for the harvest that God is bringing? Meaning, how are we not just continuing the pace we are, that's great. But when God does something big in our communities, when God does something big in our state, when God does something big in our country, when God starts to shift culture, are we ready for it? And through the lens of this book in 2 Corinthians, we've talked about moving from reluctance to readiness. Because here's the deal is I think often we can be a faithful church and we can be a focused church but sometimes we get caught up in the busyiness of our stuff. Sometimes we're being a good church member and we're going to church each week. We're serving. We're giving and those are all great things and we continue to do those things. But how do we also be ready for the big stuff that God is bringing? And as Paul begins to plant into the church at Corenth, as he is wrapping up all these writings he's had to them, all these visits he's had to him, he's getting them to understand, hey, you have done all these things so well. You've made all this progress, but how do you not be reluctant to jump fully in when God opens the door? And here as we continue down this road over these 35 weeks that we are wrapping this up, as we dive into this final chapter, we're going to see what a ready church looks like. And we're more importantly, we're going to ask ourselves, are we ready as the church of cross church? And are we ready for the big stuff that God is bringing? In 2 Corinthians 13, starting in verse one, this is what Paul says. He says, "This is the third time I am coming to you." He says, "Every matter must be established by a testimony of two or three witnesses." He says, "I gave a warning when I was present the second time, and now I give a warning while I am absent to those who sinned before and to all the rest. If I come again, I will not be lenient. They're like, please don't come again. Right? He's setting them up for that. Verse three, he says, since you seek proof of Christ speaking in me, they had questioned his authority. They said, he is not weak in dealing with you, but powerful among you. For he was crucified in weakness, but he lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you, we live with him by God's power. Verse five, test yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves or do you yourselves not recognize that Jesus Christ is in you unless you fail the test? You see, as Paul starts to close this letter out before he shows us if we are ready, church, he gives us a warning. And the warning he gives is he's in here. He's giving signs of a reluctant church. Check out verse one again. He says, "This is the third time I'm coming to you." Paul's coming back. And and again, he he's coming for the third time. And he's not coming on a friendly visit. He's coming for some correction in the life of this church. And he continues in verse 22 and three. He says, "Why is this correction needed?" He says, "Because I warned you before that those who sinned and I've done it while I'm gone that this cannot keep going." He he's not being lenient towards their sin. And and while they're questioning his authority, you can almost hear the frustration in Paul's voice. He's like, "Hey, we've talked about this before. You should be further along." He's like, "But like all of us, we are just like the church at Corinth. Sometimes we go back to make the same mistakes we did before." But here's where this kind of all builds to is he's like, "Hey, when I'm coming, there will be consequences." And in verse 5, he says, "You need to test yourselves to see if you are still in the faith." He says you need to examine yourselves if you are still in the will of God. You need to see if you are on the right track. Paul basically says you have become so busy questioning me and my authority, doubting my messages, doing all this. He's like, but maybe you have been so busy in getting wrapped up in life that you need to test yourself to see if you're really ready for what God is going to do in your life. Recently, my wife uh we are coming up on one year of being in our home and and she we went into a new build and it's been great. We're doing final inspections and stuff after a year. I'm telling them to fix everything I broke throughout the year and pretending like it was broken at the beginning, but she's like, "I want to redo our laundry room." And I've avoided the conversation. I'm like, "Oh, sounds good." And then I walk away cuz I know the more I engage in the conversation, the more it's going to lead to the project becoming a reality. I'm like, if I if I talk about this and then all of a sudden if we start talking about paint colors, if we take a picture of it and upload it to chat um and it gives us a thing of how we should redo our laundry room, that's chat GPT for all you know, just in case you weren't following. Um they will redo your entire house. Just send up pictures and then it's going to tell you how to decorate. I'm like, if I know I keep going down this road, it's going to lead to me actually having to do something. So, I've avoided the conversation. And Paul here, he's like, "Hey, I Paul's I think shows us I think something churches fall into the trap of as well is sometimes reluctant to talk about the big huge things God is calling us to do because if we talk about it, then we actually have to do it." And Paul here is going to show three signs of a reluctant church. And I think that he actually sets this stage here, but this is the closing of really two letters in many visits that he's had to the church. So I'm going to use the whole first and 2 Corinthians to make my point today. All right? So it's going to be fun. Uh you can either get to flipping, get to writing notes down, or just follow the screen behind me as we go through this. But three signs of a reluctant church. The first is one that is cynical. Paul kind of starts to build his case in here and actually he he starts this very early on and this is why uh 1 Corinthians was written in the first place but in 1 Corinthians chapter 1:12 Paul writes to them he says I mean that each of you says I belong to Paul or I belong to Apollos or I belong to Cphus or I belong to Christ Paul right off the bat is he saying there's this cynical spirit inside you they were always comparing they were always criticizing they always choosing sides They couldn't just receive good teaching and good leadership. They had to pick it apart. They had to rank the teachers and they had to create factions. And Paul continues to build on this theme throughout his letters in 2 Corinthians 10:10. He he quotes their cynicism. This is something they said to him. He says, "For it has said, and this was about Paul, his letters are weighty and his empowerful, but his physical presence, they're like, "Paul's weak. And his public speaking, it amounts to nothing." These guys were so cynical towards Paul. They're like, "Paul's letters, they're tough, but have you seen him in person? He doesn't look like he lifts, man." That became personal real quick. Were you laughing at Paul or me? I am not sure. there. They were like, "Have you seen his preaching?" They're like, "Eh, it's mid. It's whatever. Paul's not that great." And and these guys were so critical and cynical about picking things apart that it led to some of this reluctance to move forward. Now, as I read this, I'm actually personally convicted as I studied this this past week cuz I am naturally a critical person. And and you think critical and you think bad. I see that as a good thing. God has gifted me with a a spirit of of critical thinking and critical eyes. All right, let me break that down for you a little bit. Is like I walk places and I have a high bar of excellence. So when I see things I'm like that's not good enough. Let's raise it. I want to depict this. And I always think this is good but it could be better. And it's the way God has wired my brain is I'm never quite content. I'm always looking for that more. But here's what I know in my heart is if I'm not careful, the critical gift that God has given me can turn into cynicism if I'm not uh on it, if I'm not seeking him. And and too often, if we're not careful, the criticisms that can be valid, that can help build up can turn into cynicism that tears down and that kills momentum. And Paul is showing us throughout these books that cynicism kills harvest readiness. Cynicism when we are cynical, we're focused on what's wrong. Instead, what of God is doing right. But we also see the second sign is what those that are complacent. In 1 Corinthians 3:13, uh Paul warns them. He says, "Each one's work will become obvious." He says, "For the day will disclose it because it will be revealed by fire. The fire will test the quality of each one's work. Paul said, "Be careful with the way you are building this thing." He said, "There are some that are going to be build with hay and stubble instead of gold and precious stones. And when they are put into the fire of God's standards, they will either burn away or they will be refined to show what God truly has." And in 1 Corinthians 5:12, Paul then has to ask them to examine themselves in this area of whether or not they are complacent. He says this, "For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders?" He says, "Don't you instead judge those who are inside?" You see, there was serious sin in the church at Corenth and they weren't dealing with it properly. They were complacent. They were comfortable. And they were almost had this mindset of that's just the way we do things here. I don't know about you, but when I get tired, when I get overwhelmed, it's very easy for me to get lazy and complacent. You know, when you have so many things to do on your to-do list that you do none of it. the the the most appetizing thing when you are super busy is to look at your phone and start scrolling social media instead of doing all the things on your work schedule or on your wife's schedule. Do you guys have those two as well? Right? Maybe just me. But all of us can fall into this trap in complacency when we are not careful. It kills harvest readiness. when when we're comfortable, we stop pressing forward into what God has next and we see the last signs of a reluctant church, a reluctant Christian that all of us can fall into is when we are compromised. In 1 Corinthians 5:6, Paul when he's convicting them and telling them, he says that you're boasting, he says it's not good. He said, "Don't you know that a little leven the whole batch of dough?" He said, ' Don't you know when you tolerate a little bit of sin, it quickly moves through the rest of the body? It quickly infects the other people around you. And in 2 Corinthians 6:14, Paul has to remind them of why this is so dangerous. He says, "Do not be yolked together with those who do not believe? For what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness? What agreement does Christ have with balile? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? You see the church at Corenth, they were so desperate to fit into their culture. And if you were with us for some of these past 35 weeks, one of the things we talked about their culture is they were like an ancient day Las Vegas. And they were so desperate to fit in, to blend in, to be a part of their culture that they were compromising their distinctiveness as followers of Jesus Christ. and compromise. It kills harvest readiness. When we look just like the world around us, why would anyone be drawn to what we have to offer? So, here's my question for us. Has you taken all that information? See, I just caught you up on half of First and Second Corinthians. This is your first time, right? But as we take all of this in, do any of those signs of reluctance show up in our church or up in our personal life? Do we have the problem sometimes of falling into the trap of being cynical, always criticizing, always comparing, never content with where we're at? Are we complacent? Are we comfortable with spiritual m uh mediocrity, with not dealing with sin, of just going through the motions of life? Are we compromised? Are we blending in with culture instead of standing out for Christ? Because here's the truth. A reluctant church will never be a harvest ready church. A reluctant church will never be ready for the big things that God is bringing. You see, once I got past my cynicism of having the conversation with my wife about the laundry room, we began to plan that laundry room project. And then all of a sudden, we did upload pictures to chat GPT and to cloud. And then she did make a Pinterest board of all the things that it could look like. And before we knew it, we were at Home Depot with four kids trying to buy paint and supplies. And I'm like, how did this escalate so quickly? I think we had the conversation on a Friday and she's like, "So, we're going to Home Depot in the morning." I'm like, "What?" Like, I did I agree to this? Um, and now here's the thing is our laundry room is painted. The cabinets are being ordered and I will have them next week. I then got to build these cabinets and then install them and make this laundry room great. Uh, luckily I have YouTube and people in church that know what they're doing and I asked for their free labor. Um, you know who you are if you're in the room. But once I finally got past the reluctance in my life, then all of a sudden things could start to move forward. And too often I think we have this problem in our spiritual journey is we can be reluctant to move forward with the amazing things that God wants to do. And thank God that Paul does not stop the letter here. Thank God that Paul doesn't just leave them with the negative attributes of their church, but he shows them what God is going to do in their future. And he gives them the tools and the resources to get there. And we continue on in verse 6. And Paul writes this of chapter 13. 2 Corinthians 13:6. I have to tell you that because I just went through all of them. All right, we're back in 13. But in verse 6, he says this, "And I hope that you will recognize that we ourselves do not fail the test." But we pray to God that you do nothing wrong. Not that we may appear to pass the test, but that you may do what is right. Even though we may appear to fail, he says, I hope you know that we are pushing on in this journey together. Verse 8, for we can't do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. Verse 9, we rejoice when we are weak and you are strong. We also pray that you become fully mature spiritually in Christ. This is why I am writing these things while absent. So that when I am there, I may not have to deal harshly with you in keeping with the authority the Lord gave me. Listen this, for building up and not for tearing down. As Paul shifts here, he's not just focusing on the negative, not just focusing on what they do wrong, but he's going to give us some signs of a ready church. How do we move from reluctance to readiness? We we see what reluctance looks like. We be honest with where it's at, but then we say, "Okay, if we're ready, what does it mean to be ready both as a Christian and as a church as we go forward?" And Paul in verse 6 kind of shifts his focus. He's not trying to prove himself anymore. He's not trying to show them how they're wrong. Instead, he's praying for their transformation. He He's fighting for the truth, not for his reputation. He's showing that he wants to see God do big things in their life. In verse 9 and 10, I love this. He says, "We rejoice when we are weak and you are strong." He's like, "I pray that you'll become fully mature." He's like, "I'm praying for your walk with Christ. I'm praying that you grow closer to him. I'm praying that your reluctance starts to shed off and you give yourself to him." But I love how he ends verse 10. He says that this authority the Lord gave me was to build up and not to tear down. You see, Paul is writing this because he wants to see this church move forward. He wants to see the things, the dreams, the aspirations that God has given Paul for the church at Corenth. He wants to see become a reality. And he wants to build them up to it and not discourage and tear them down from it. And how do we do that? Well, I think throughout these two letters, Paul gives us three movements towards readiness. The first is we need to define reality. When we look back uh through 1 and 2 Corinthians, they get a lot of reality doses. But one of these we see in 1 Corinthians 3:3, he says, "Because you are still worldly. For since there is envy and strife among you, are you not worldly and behaving like mere humans." But Paul didn't sugarcoat it with this church. He says, "You guys are acting like sinners." He's like, "You guys need to get your stuff together." He says, "You guys need to improve things." And those are important questions for us to ask personally is where we are. Where are we actually in our spiritual journey? And and here's the thing. When we ask those questions, it should not be asked in shame, but it should be asked in joy. Is if we're not as far along the spiritual journey as we hope to be. God's not looking there to judge us. He's looking there to love us, to give us his grace and his mercy and correct us towards being closer to him. But defining reality means we are honest about where we actually are, not where we wish we are. But then he continues in 2 Corinthians 7 or 7:9. He says, "For even if I grieved you with my letter, I don't regret it. And if I regretted it since I saw that the letter grieved you yet only for a little while, I now rejoice." He said, "You gave you this hard feedback, but I'm glad for it because you were grieved, but because your grief led to repentance, for you were grieved as God willed, so that you didn't experience any loss from us." Paul had to write them a painful letter. It hurts them, but their grief led to repentance. And that's the goal of defining reality, not to shame people, but to lead to transformation. When we define reality of where the church at large is today, you look at the church in America today and one of the realities is that for decades we have seen this decline in church attendance, this decline in zeal, this decline in people being bought in and sold out for Christ. And what this has led to is now when we look across our nations, we see churches, buildings that used to be filled with people, we see empty and on the verge of death. There are lights on a hill in our communities, as we see throughout scripture that as we describe a church that are one by one going out, that the light is diminishing because the people are gone. And the reality is that on our watch, in our day, churches are closing their doors every single day. And we need to be honest with that. We need to face that. We need to see the reality of our church at large, but also the reality of our personal spiritual life. But Paul doesn't stop there. We define reality, but we also dream a future. I love this in 1 Corinthians 3:9. He says, "For we are God's co-workers." He says, "You are God's field, God's building." God gives them, Paul gives them a vision. He says, "You're not just a messed up church of messed up people that don't know what they're doing." He says, "You're sinners like we all are, but God has given us a purpose." He said, "You're God's field. You're already for harvest. You're God's building being constructed for his glory." 2 Corinthians 9:8, he continues on this point. He says, "And God is able." I love that. God is able to make every grace overflow to you so that in every way, always having everything you need, you may excel in every good work. He's saying, "You can't do this based on your ability. We are all fallen. We are all fall. We are all sinners just like the church at Corinth. But God gives us the strength for something better." Th this is futureoriented language that Paul is helping them to see what they could become not through their own means but through God's. You see ready churches don't just define a cultural reality. They dream about future possibilities. They cast vision for God wants them what God wants to do through them. They believe that God can do more than they are currently experiencing. 10 years ago, Cross Church had this crazy idea that what would it happen? What would it look like if one of those churches whose light went out, a building that became empty? What would it look like if we stepped into that space? What would it look like if we hired a 25-year-old punk kid that worked at Target and said, "Go start a church in North Phoenix with no ministry experience." I don't know how that worked out, but it it kind of is all right. That was me, by the way. In 10 years ago, we started Cross Church Phoenix. As we continued on, a few years later, we start charted Cross Church Cornville. As God continued to bless, we then started Cross Church Elmarrage. All those were former churches. They were buildings that existed. But through the years, it had become nothing. Like there was no people left. There was 10 people or zero people left. And that light in that community that shined so bright at one point had gone out. And God gave the elders, the staff of Jackie, the leadership of this church, a a vision, a a dream of what would it look like if we help less of those lights go out and instead we start new lights that will shine bright in those communities. And you see, God, he he gives us dreams. It's a risk to make such seismic shifts in our church culture and in our personal culture. But we know God provides when we are in his will. When we are jumping on board for what he is doing. We dreamed a future and God shows up what happens in those seasons. But here's the thing is we can define reality. We can dream about where we want to go. But if we stop there, nothing happens. And I think the last thing we see of what is a trait of a ready church that Paul shows us through 1 and 2 Corinthians is we need to design a path. In 1 Corinthians 3:10, Paul writes this. He says, "According to the grace given to me, like a skilled master builder, I have laid a foundation and another builds on it. But each of you is to be careful how he builds on it. For no one can lay any other foundation than what has been laid down. The foundation is Jesus Christ. Paul says when we start to put our hand to the plow, when we start to work, when we start to define a path, it is through the foundation of Jesus Christ. And then we build upon that the church and our passion for reaching the lost and our passion for speaking the great commission. And we keep on adding more and more layers as we do his work. 2 Corinthians 8:10 says, "Now I'm giving an opinion on this because it is profitable for you. You began last year not only to do something but also to desire to it. Listen to this. You've probably heard this. You've probably said this to your kids over the year. Now also finish the task. Your wife has probably said, "Can you finish the project already?" Right? Finish the task. So that just as there was an eager desire, there may also be a completion according to what you have. Paul said, "You started well. You were excited. You had the right attitude. Everything was going the right direction. Now finish the work. Keep going. Keep pressing. Keep putting your hand to the plow. You see, ready churches, ready Christians don't just define reality. They don't just dream about the future, but they design practical paths to get there. They create next steps. They follow through. They finish what they start. This is what we've been doing as a church this past year and through all our history here at Cross Church. We're honest about where we are. We're honest about where we struggle, where we need God to intervene and to show us how to do better. We we we see, we cast vision for what God has next in our lives. And then we design paths to get there. Pass through our Bible groups, through our serving teams, through generosity, through prayer, through being ready for the big stuff that God is bringing. And see how Paul closes out this chapter in verse 11. He says, "Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice." He said, "There should be joy in this. Become mature, be encouraged, be of the same mind, be at peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you." All these are action phrases that there's something to do behind this. Be excited, be joyful, be encouraged, be mature, move forward. Verse 12, greet one another with a holy kiss. We're going to have an assignment on that later. No, I'm just kidding. And he says, "All the saints send you greetings." In verse 13, listen to the beauty of how he wraps this up over these two letters. This last contact he has through letter with the Corinth church. He says, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all." This is one of the most beautiful closings and benedictions that we see in scripture. It shows the trinitarian nature of our God, the father, the son, and the holy spirit. And he says all this, it's not possible without God's hand, without God's blessing, without God's movement before us and through us. And here's the thing is as we look at this chapter and as we just soak in 35 weeks of teaching and I have another 50 minutes to preach through this. All right? So get comfortable. But as we just show there's so much information that as we try to soak in Paul is showing us this is what a harvest church looks like. We define reality that we are in a broken world. That lights are going out among our communities, among our cities, that people are roaming in darkness. And when a church closes, the tragedy is there is not a gospel voice and a gospel witness in that community that is as strong as it was before. And we define that across our culture and across our world right now. And we say that is a problem. But then we start to dream about the future, about how God wants us to be the people among that brokenness and that reality. That just as Jesus came down to heal, to save. That through his death and resurrection from the grave, that he has called us by his power. That just as he saved us once for all of eternity, we share that message with the world around us. We think of a future where we are doing nothing but trying to bring those who are far from God into a saving knowledge of him and share that good news. But then we design a path to do the work that God has called us to light new beacons of hope to keep lights burning bright and to be a part of the ministry work that he has called us to do. So let me ask you directly as your pastor, a as a fellow believer that is part of this church and as just another Christian that is challenging myself the same way I hope you are challenging yourself is are we ready for the harvest that God is bringing. Are we ready for the harvest that God is bringing? Here's how we know if we're ready. We ask ourselves the hard questions. Are we cynical when we look at the world around us? Or are we hopeful knowing that our God still reigns? Are we complacent and lazy and in getting swept away in the entertainment and the comfort of our world? Or are we growing closer to who he is? Are we compromised? Are we letting sin reign in our lives? Are we distinct in who we are in Jesus Christ? And here's the thing. As you're coming, you are part of a church family today that we have defined reality. Honestly, we have dreamed about what God wants to do through us. We have designed a path to get there. And here's what's actually exciting is tonight we are going to talk about this next season. Tonight at the SBS at 5:00 at the Vista Center, we're going to launch some vision about what God is doing. So, I hope that you're there. It's not too late to register. sign up and join us there tonight because we're going to talk about this dream that God has given us. Because here's the deal is I believe God is bringing a harvest. I believe that there are people in our community, in our circles of influence, who are hungry for the truth, who are desperate for hope, who are longing for authentic community. And the only place they will find that is in the salvation of Jesus Christ in the church he has given us to do his work. The question is, are we ready to receive them? Are we ready to disciple them? Are we ready to love them even when they're messy? Are we ready to give to the mission even when it hurts? Are we ready to point them to Jesus? 35 weeks, 35 sermons, two letters to one church on one mission to make Jesus known. Church, the harvest is ready. Are you? Yesterday, I was on that field out there in a lawn chair with some shade watching my kids play soccer. And I don't even know when I was watching my youngest son and Arlo. He's four years old. I have no idea if we won or lost that game. Harlo didn't kick the ball one time, but he chased it and his friends the entire time. The beauty of that is just this past spring as he was signed up for soccer every single Saturday, we'd start on the field, we say, "Kick the ball." And he ran to me screaming, crying, and he was not ready. Let me tell you, as a dad, that's not frustrating at all. But every single Saturday we showed up and every single Saturday he was like, "I'm not going in that game." There was a reluctance in his heart that says like, "No, not doing this. Nope, I'm not ready for this. Nope, I'm not going there." But this Saturday, even though he didn't kick a ball, he ran around. When I asked him if he loves soccer, he said, "Yeah, it was so fun. I loved it." I was like, "We're going to make you kick the ball next season." Am I right? We're moving there. But to see the growth in my little four-year-old son warmed my heart that he moved from reluctance to even be on the field to be ready to be on that field. And I can't wait to see what the next step looks like. What is your next step? Maybe you've been reluctant to be a part of a community in a church. You're like, "I I like coming every now and then, but I don't know if I want to make these my people. I don't know if I want them in my business." You need to move forward. Maybe you've been reluctant to give your time and your resources be like, "I'm busy. Things are hard. I don't know if I can do that." And God's asking you to be a part of the missional work to sacrifice for his kingdom cuz he has sacrificed everything for us. And maybe you're reluctant to make your faith bold to say yes to Jesus in a huge way to proclaim it in baptism like we will see five people do today. to say yes in your life to Christ and to truly live out the gospel. [Music] And maybe God is saying you are ready to leave the excuses behind, ready to be within the will and the plan that he has for your life. church. I'm excited because cross church, God is using us to do some big things. Are we ready for it? [Music]