(This transcript was generated by AI. Apologies for any inacuracies)

I do believe that God wants to use each and every one of us as an important part of what He's doing in the world to begin to display His glory through our stories that are bonded together and begin to share His goodness from all angles of life.

I know that many of us are in different seasons in here.

We have some folks who are older, retired.

We have grandparents, great-grandparents.

We have parents.

We have singles.

We have students.

Come on.

We have young children.

And so we're all at different ages and stages of life.

But what I do know is we come with various challenges.

And what God wants to do is God wants to speak into those.

But not only does He want to speak into those, He wants to use those challenges and He wants to use them together.

He wants to put something beautiful together.

The Bible says we are God's masterpiece.

And He says we can be created anew in Christ Jesus.

That don't mean your story is going to go away.

Come on somebody.

But it does mean that your story can have new meaning and new purpose.

He said He has created us anew in Christ Jesus so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.

And so I believe that your God and my God has a great plan for our life.

And if you're new with us here at Valorous Church you came on a good weekend because we're getting ready to talk about some of the future plans he has for this community of believers called Valorous and how he would love for each and every one of us to participate.

We're looking to do some capital expansions here.

We're looking to put in here in the next 12 to 18 months as we raise the financial resources for it.

We're looking to put in a lift to our upper room because we have a stairwell that goes up there for our prayer partners and people who need prayer.

But we want to create a way for those maybe who are disabled in some form or fashion to be able to get up there for prayer too.

How many of you know that prayer for the sick in an upper room is a good thing too?

Come on.

Yeah.

Anybody believe that today?

And again, so we want to add that lift.

We're wanting to add a cross to our community so people riding up and down the road can identify that this is a place that gives hope, hope in the finished work of Jesus on a cross and his resurrection and his ascension.

And we're a church that believes he's going to come back one day.

And we want people to know where they can find hope in Jesus.

So we want to put up a 35 foot lighted cross with flag poles around it here in this community, just as a way for people to identify a little bit about this is a place they can drive in off the street and find hope.

Come on, somebody.

And then one of the other capital projects we're looking to do, and it's a little bit more costly, but we're looking to put in an outdoor fountain, heated baptism pool right out in our front courtyard and build some seating around that because we desire not to just baptize people in the ocean at big baptism celebrations.

But as people make that decision to follow Jesus immediately, we want them to be able to go through the baptism waters and there to share a story that there's a God who can put their past behind them and they're raised a new life in Christ Jesus.

And that is the first step of obedience for any Christ follower.

Come on, somebody.

And people are taking those steps every single week, but we want to put in a baptism pool out of front where we can celebrate that, not just once in a while, but at every single service, every single weekend, which is also going to require us to put in some dressing rooms for people to maybe change out of their Sunday attire and get in their water gear.

Come on and be able to go into the pool of baptism.

I know you can jump in with your blue jeans and all that good stuff, but we are looking to create a experience for people in an incredible, incredible way.

So these are some of the things in the future.

If you're sitting in the building and you have never had an opportunity to walk around the building right over here to my current left side, if you're driving or coming up, it would be on your right side.

We have some offices in our front, but right behind those offices is some, there's a playground and about 10,000 square foot of yard space right there that we hope to one day build a designated, come on somebody, designated children's space for children's ministry for all ages and stages on the weekend right here in that spot.

We use our school during the week.

We flip it on the weekends to use it as children's ministry and then we flip it back on Sunday afternoon and use it again on Monday morning for a school and all of that's, you know, great economically saying, but it becomes a real challenge for having dynamic, dynamic, come on somebody, age appropriate children.

Because how many of you know that children don't always enjoy this space, but they can hear about Jesus in an age appropriate space and they get excited about what God wants to do in their life.

Come on church.

Yeah.

And so we want to add that space in the near future.

So again, just to highlight what you're going to be seeing in the foyer displayed out there on your way out, inviting you to participate if you can financially in some of that work, because we're looking to add to it and looking to build great things for God's kingdom around here.

I do want to say if you're new with us or you've been around for some time, we moved into this on this campus, this 60 acre plot of land.

We built a school and a staple building here, and we moved into it back about a year and a half ago, we'll say.

And we moved into this particular worship center and it took us a few years to build it.

We got started in the middle of something here called a COVID.

And whenever we began to start the project and began to look at doing some things, obviously the price of doing what we do, because we were in the middle of already executing some of that, but the prices of materials and everything began to escalate.

So we had to figure a way to value engineer our current facility.

That's why the 10,000 square feet of children's space ain't over there right now.

That was part of the value engineering.

Come on, somebody.

And many other things.

It's why the elevator's not there right now.

It's why the baptism pool isn't out there.

These aren't afterthoughts.

These are things we want to add to what we're doing.

But prices escalated and this whole entire property that you sit on, just again, I got about 40 minutes to speak a message of hope into your life today, but I'm kind of giving you the highlights real quick today.

Be glad to answer any questions anytime after this today.

But we moved in, we raised resources to build a facility, and this entire project moved from being about a $7 million project to about a $15 million project over COVID.

Come on.

And so we raised about a third of that $15 million.

We raised about $5 million.

Come on somebody.

And we got started and we built it.

And we're still currently paying for the other two thirds.

We have a monthly mortgage payment here.

Many people think that this is all a paid for, but we have a monthly mortgage payment.

Like many of you young folks maybe moved into a home.

You put a down payment down.

Come on.

Maybe 20%.

If you know, God's been good to you, maybe you put 40% down.

I don't know.

But you put a down payment down and then you finance the rest and you pay a monthly mortgage payment.

Well, the same thing happens with us in this facility.

We pay a monthly mortgage payment.

We would like for that to go away, but as we built and things got going, uh, we had to kind of finish it out and we did by value engineering.

And so some of these projects that we're trying to add back, we're not wanting to extend our mortgage payment.

We wanted to pay for those as the resources come in.

So we don't need you to keep or stop giving to the monthly mortgage payment or the ministry that we're currently doing to make these project happens.

We need to add to that.

Come on somebody.

And we need to go above and beyond if at all possible or if you're not currently given, maybe you want to step in and help us make some of these new projects happen.

But I just want to be clear today that here at Valorous Church, um, we do everything we do for ministry.

Come on.

And everything we do on this campus is simply to reach people with the good news of who Jesus is, build them up in their faith so they can become a part of God's family and go out and share with the world who he is out of their various lives.

And so that kind of highlights where we're going with this series.

And we've titled today, We Build.

Okay.

We Build.

And we want to look at what it means to build a house for God and to build a house with God and what that really means for us in this modern day world.

Now we know from scripture that the Bible says that you and I are actually the temple of the Holy Spirit.

What does that mean?

That means when we put our faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ, that now God, instead of his presence just residing in the world around us, he resides in us believers.

And then the Bible goes on to even make this statement.

It says that we're like stones, but not like dead stones that were God exist, uh, like in a structure Bible calls us living stones.

And what that means is we're living stones where God's presence resides.

And as God's presence resides in us together, it's great that you're an individual Christian, but God's presence does supernatural things when his people come together with its various gifts to display him to the world around him.

His presence shows up in a powerful, powerful way.

This is why it's so important because God's design is that you belong and that you have a part to play.

And if you really want the presence of the living God to shine out of your life, then what you have to do is connect your life with other people's life to have gifts so that together, if I say together, we can shine the light of Christ in the world.

It's been God's plan from the very beginning.

God chooses to work his glory, his majesty in people and through people.

And God loves to build things even physically as that begins to happen.

Though we are the church, we meet together in these particular environments.

And we want together to build more for more people to come and be a part of what God is doing in the earth.

So we build, but we don't build just to build.

We build and we invite God to be a part of what we're doing, or we invite you to be a part of what God is doing is a better way to state that.

Listen to what the scripture says in Psalm 127, verse one, I'm going to read it from two translations from the new living translation.

It says this, it says, unless the Lord builds a house, the work of the builders, that would be you and me.

The work of the builders is wasted.

And he's not just talking about a church structure.

He's talking about families here.

He's talking about your own homes.

He's talking about anything you're a part of, unless the Lord builds it, the work of the builders is wasted.

Now that doesn't mean that, you know, you just sit back and God does nothing.

That's not what the scriptures or that you just sit back and God does it all and you do nothing.

That's not what it says in the context of all of the Bible.

But another translation says it this way, 127 verse one, new American standard Bible, unless the Lord builds a house, they who build it, labor in vain.

So what we gather from this short Psalms that was written is God is the ultimate builder, but he chooses to build through a people.

And so we believe what God is building here, he is the ultimate builder.

As Jesus says, I'm going to build a church and the gates of hell won't hold it back, won't prevail against it.

Literally that passage can be, be translated as I'm going to build a church that's going to be so powerful that the gates of the enemy can't hold anybody hostage any longer.

Come on.

Nobody can be held in darkness anymore because that church is going to be so powerful.

It's going to break through those gates and it's going to rescue people from darkness, from all walks of life and bring them out of that bondage, out of that slavery, out of that sin into the wonderful light of God.

God says, Jesus says, I'm going to build a church that looks like that.

Come on, somebody.

And so God wants you to be that kind of church, wants us to be that kind.

Matter of fact, every congregation wants it to look like that.

It's a bunch of people that Jesus is building.

He's building us up to be who he's designed us to be so that we penetrate darkness and rescue people from all ages and stages of life that have a personal relationship with God.

Jesus says, let your good deeds, everybody say good deeds.

That's the good things that God designed you to do.

Let your good days shine before men so that they may praise your heavenly father.

So we don't want to build in vain.

We're not just building.

So everybody goes, Oh, look at that.

Look at that particular congregation.

Look at that particular thing.

No, we're building the house of God.

So God can be glorified.

We're building a house of God.

So people from all walks of life in different ages and stages can be reached with the good news of Jesus Christ.

And so I wrote in my journal this week, we don't want to build in vain.

We want to build with God.

We want to build with God.

Psalm 127 again says, unless the Lord builds, everybody say builds, a house, the work of the builder is wasted.

The word here, the Hebrew word for build means much more than construction.

It is a divine establishment with the hands and heart of God all over it and all in it.

Let me say that again.

It's really important.

The Hebrew word here in this passage in Psalm 127 verse one for builds is much more than just construction.

It's a divine establishment with the hands and heart of God all over it and all in it.

So that's what we're all about here at Valorous Church is to build things that the hands of God are all over it and all in it and it displays who he is to the world around us.

Every environment is important.

Every door is important.

Everything we do here is significant.

Everything we build, ministries we build, teams we build, upper rooms we build, lobbies we build, stages we build, all of those things are so much more than the construction.

It's spaces and places where we come together and display that God is with us.

God is in us and God wants you to be a part of who he is and help build the local church around the world.

What God's going to do in the world, my friend, he ain't going to do through a bunch of individuals roaming around.

He's going to do through a called out people, called out of people out of darkness into the wonderful light that he gives power, he gives gifts to and they come together to display his majesty and his glory to the world around them.

There is no plan B. The plan is the local church.

Come on church.

And God wants you to be a part.

It's amazing.

You know, there's been a lot of great things built in this earth.

There's been great cities built, great communities built, great neighborhoods, great homes.

I've been in great countries built.

But if God isn't the foundation of what is being built in his presence, isn't the foundation, then you're missing so much about what building is all about.

It's just empty noise.

I know it offers things, but at the end of the day, it doesn't offer divine design.

It doesn't offer you to understand in your heart, your unique purpose.

You can build the most magnificent things with money.

You can build all kinds of things, but without God, it's just in vain is what the scripture says.

It doesn't really matter.

And so we want to build great things.

We want them to be great displays.

We want them to be incredible.

We say it this way here at Valerie's church.

I could stand up and share the message of Christ in a cornfield and build absolutely nothing.

And people may come to know who Jesus is, but guess what?

God's given us much more than a cornfield.

Come on somebody.

He's given us the ability to share Jesus in environments where people can come in and begin to know who he is.

You can share Jesus in no matter where, in the backseat of a car.

But at the end of the day, God wants to have impact and he wants people to know who he is.

He wants you to be a part of helping people know who he is and how he works is in and through a group of people that have his presence, his blueprint, his mindset in their heart.

And so we build with God and we build with the presence of God.

Listen to what the scripture says in Exodus 25 verses 8 and 9.

God has always used people to build things.

He created the man and the woman and put them in the garden.

He supplied the resource, but he wanted them to tend the garden and build something.

He called Abram out of a dark land and said, go to a land where I'm going to show you something.

And guess what, Abram, when you walk by faith and you go to that land, I'm going to resource you in a way that you never imagined.

And I'm going to build a great nation out of you.

It's amazing because when the people were disobedient, the Bible says the Hebrew people that they went into slavery for 400 years, 400 years.

And God says, you know what?

It's time for the hand of the enemy to get off from you.

And I'm going to reach in and I'm going to bring you out.

And when I bring you out, I'm going to take you into a promised land, a land of provision, the Bible because of land flowing with milk and honey, all you ever need in order to be exactly who you are.

And I'm going to build a great nation so you can be a light to the world around you.

And today God is building a church, people from all generations, all different backgrounds, all different races, all different kinds of languages.

God's pulling us together in order to display his glory.

Later on, God calls Moses to build a tabernacle.

Why?

He says, I'm going to build a tabernacle where my presence can reside with my people.

And it's going to be in the center of your camp.

And God doesn't, again, he doesn't necessarily live in buildings today, he lives in the hearts of people, but people meet in buildings together in order to display God's glory.

God's presence is in us and he wants us to come together for a greater purpose.

But God's been building things down through the ages and God chooses people to build with.

It's not like God just goes, pop, there's the rocking chair.

You ever thought about that?

God goes, pop, there's the tree.

Now, guess what?

You get some peaceable together and cut the tree down.

And you, together with my wisdom, craft a rocking chair.

So you together can sit on the front porch and retire and sip your tea.

Come on, somebody.

But God doesn't produce the rocking chair, God produces the tree and calls you and me to come alongside of him and build something great for his glory.

And the church is not, God builds things through people.

But the question is, are you building it to show the hand of God that is in your life and working through your life?

And when we come together, it's not, it's not about me.

It's not about you.

It's about more than us.

It's about God and it's about his presence.

Listen to what it says in Exodus 25 verses eight and nine.

Give the people, he's talking to Moses, of Israel, build me a holy sanctuary so I can live among them.

Ten of meeting, tabernacle.

He says, you must build this tabernacle, speaking to Moses, and its furnishings.

Exactly.

Everybody say exactly.

Beautiful.

Not how you think, Moses.

Not what the resources provide, Moses.

Not how, you know, you got to build it exactly what he says, according to the pattern that I will show you.

That's significant.

Here's why it's significant.

Because this has much more theological meaning now that we've unpacked who Jesus is.

In our culture today, we know that we live on the other side of the cross in the resurrection of Christ and before, or after the ascension of Christ and before the return of Christ.

That's when we live.

We know a whole lot more than whenever God gave Moses this instruction.

But every piece of that tabernacle, exactly like God wanted to be placed and built, was to express his heart.

And you can go and study this.

It's a remarkable study sometime.

But every piece of that tabernacle is an illustration of how God, through Christ, communes with his people.

And God says, I need you to do it exactly like I say to do it.

Because Moses, I got a bigger plan in mind than you stretching out some cloth and getting a bunch of rinkety furniture and two used candles to put in a house to show my majesty.

I got something that this represents that's more powerful than anything you can think of or imagine.

See, listen, we want to be a people where the presence of God resides and works through us.

You know what that means?

That means that God is calling you to do something exactly, not exactly like you want it, not exactly to your preferences, not exactly how your neighbor thinks it should be or the last person said it should be.

It's not about, it's not about doing away with traditions or any of that kind of stuff.

I invite you to seek God and say, God, what people do you want me to be with?

And what do you exactly want to do with your presence through us?

Some of you might be a candle, some of you might be a sacrificial ark that they slaughter animals.

I don't, I don't know.

But at the end of the day, why I'm telling you this is God's presence does reside in his people, but he cares how his people are placed in the community.

Again, we're not perfect people.

Nobody in this room I don't think claims to be perfect.

There was one that was perfect, died on a cross for all of our imperfections, but he also died on a cross and he rose again and he gave us the power.

Everybody say power of the Holy Spirit to help us overcome our imperfections and live together in community to display his presence to the world.

That's what the Holy Spirit does in your life.

The Holy Spirit is a teacher.

He's a comforter.

He's a counselor.

He's the one that gives you the gifts to participate in God's family, the local church.

But God desires for you to be about his presence.

And God wants his presence to reside in us and flow in us and just like through the nation of Israel, he wants his presence now to flow through us.

We're not here to replace the nation of Israel.

We're here simply grafted in as Gentiles.

Come on, somebody.

Because God wants to do supernatural things through people of all ethnic backgrounds called the local church to display his glory into the world.

God's going to finish what God says he is going to finish.

And he's inviting you to be a part of it.

And so he wants his presence to reside.

And so what that means, if his presence is going to reside, we need a blueprint for what we're building.

Guess what the blueprint is for your life and my life.

It's the scriptures.

Come on.

Listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 7 verse 24.

He says, anyone who listens to my teachings, wow, and follows it is wise.

Not building like you're building a house on sand, he says, and follows it is wise like a person who builds a house on solid rock.

So again, we build with God, we build with his presence and we build with his word because his word is like a blueprint.

And so we're going to take everything we always do.

It might not say, you know what?

Build a lift to the upper room in the foyer for people who are hurting that need to get up there.

Probably don't say that exactly like that in the word, but the Bible tells us to take care of hurting people.

And his word says when we'll take care of hurting people, he'll take care of us.

And so what does that mean?

We're not building the house in vain.

We're not putting the elevator up there because I need an elevator, but somebody needs an elevator or a lift, we call it to get to the upper room because they need the healing hand of God on their life.

And that's the place that maybe God is going to do the healing work for them in their life.

And I know they can go to a cornfield.

They can go to their car.

They can go to the sign out front.

They can walk in this room, but what if God wants them to be healed there, but our disobedience was, God, we want to do it how we want to.

A list is going to cost 200 plus thousand dollars.

What do you mean?

Put that in.

God say, would you build it?

Exactly like I want it built so that people can experience me in a powerful, powerful way.

And so I encourage you to seek God, seek his purpose, seek his word, and let's begin to be people who build who have a God.

But not only do we go to his word, is it not our wisdom?

It isn't our guide and it's not our blueprint.

We also operate by his amazing power, which is the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God.

If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, my friend, he lives in you is what the scripture teaches.

And he has a purpose.

And his purpose is to be the third person in the Trinity on the other side of the ascension of Christ to speak to you in this day and age, so that you get in line with God's vision to display his presence in this earth.

And so God's Holy Spirit teaches us, he counsels us, but the Bible says through Jesus, he distributes gifts on his people so we can do the work of the ministry.

And so I have to pay attention to the Holy Spirit.

Listen to what, as the temple, the first temple got tore down, and then God called the people back to build the temple.

They had been in disobedience.

They built a great and marvelous temple, but it got tore down.

They got taken into captivity.

If you want to go study the Old Testament, it got tore down.

And then God says, go back and rebuild it.

And he sent the people back to rebuild the temple.

But as they got back, they built the foundation.

And then they kind of started forgetting about it for about 15 years.

And then, you know what God says, he begins to speak through some prophets, through some spokespersons.

Don't forget what I called you here for.

But one of the prophets he spoke to was a man named Zechariah.

And this is what he says in Zechariah chapter four, verse six.

This is what the Lord says to Zerubbabel, who was the king, the guy that was leading the project.

He says, it is not by force nor by strength, but by my spirit, says the Lord of heaven's armies.

He says to tell Zerubbabel that it's by my spirit that this is going to get done.

It's by my power, this is going to get done.

Invite me into it.

You know, it's not about your position.

It's not about, you know, all the resources that all the people have.

It's about me coming in the middle of it and giving you the power and the strength to build something that's sustainable, that will begin to display my presence to the world around you.

He says, I'm inviting you into rebuilding the temple with me, but Zerubbabel and all the people of Israel, don't you forget about where your power comes from.

I believe that speaks to us today.

Again, that was a prescriptive text for them, but there's something described in this text that can be applied to you and me today.

And he's saying, build something great for my name's sake.

And he's saying, build with me, but don't forget about me.

So we want to remember his power, but not only do we want to remember his power, we want to know this.

We want to remember that we're not just building with God, but we're building for God.

Listen, chances are that many of us in this room probably won't be here another hundred years, okay?

And so what I want you to say to that today, we're building a legacy for kids, grandkids, great-grandkids, great-great-grandkids, but we don't want to forget about the hand of God.

In the middle of all this, we build for God and we build with God.

And when we build for God, we have something more than ourself in mind.

We have God's vision in mind.

We have God's purpose in mind to reach every generation with the good news of who Jesus is.

To step in and step up as we have the things to do what God's designed us to do.

Know that God had given the people of Israel all the resources they needed to go back and rebuild this temple.

But instead of using the resources to build what God wanted them to rebuild, they built a foundation.

And for 15 years, they were like, well, when we get around to it, we get it done.

And can I tell you something?

What they did is they took the resources, the seeds that God had sown into their life that they were to build with, and they began to self-focus with those resources instead of being God-focused.

And they missed it.

So God sent another warning to them.

And it was through a prophet named Haggai.

And this is what he said to them in Haggai 1 verses 4 through 5.

He says, why are you living in luxurious houses while my house lies in ruins?

This is what the Lord of heaven army says.

Look at what is happening to you.

And again, I don't say this in a condemning way today, but he spoke to those people today.

And again, that was prescribed for them.

And we can learn something through this when God gives us the resources to do what he's called us to do.

And it's to take care of ourselves and take care of his house.

I like to say it this way.

If I'm really about God's house and I take care of his house, he's going to take care of my house.

Let me say that again.

If I take care of his house and his purpose and what he's doing, he's going to take care of my house.

But what happened in this particular culture, they were about taking care of their house before they took care of God's house.

And God says, you're working hard.

You're eating every day, you're drinking every day, but you're miserable.

Tells them that through the prophet, go read it.

He's like, I've given you seed and you use the seed on yourself and you, you got a nice living room, but you're miserable.

And God says, I want you to look at what's happening to you and why your life feels this way.

He's saying, you know, okay, if you considered my house so I can take care of your house, you're working hard, you're planting seed, you're eating, you're drinking, you're doing life, but there never seems to be enough.

What God's saying is he wants us to build with him and he wants us to build for him.

And again, if you take care of God and his business of what he wants to do in you and through you, in you and your family and through you, he will take care of all the rest.

He is always taking care of his people.

There is no New Testament or church command that you give a 10th of your offering, but it's highly suggested.

Why is that so important?

In other words, what is a tithe?

A tithe is literally, it means 10th.

Why does God ask people to return the tithe in the Old Testament?

Though it was grain, all those kinds of things, I get it.

But why did he do that?

It was simply so his house could function, hello, and so that they would recognize him as the provider of the hundredths.

We miss this principle in our day and age.

We forget God is the one that gives us 100% of everything we have.

And I can tell you this right now, I did a little bit of research this particular week actually, and it says 2-5% in the American culture tithe to their local church.

And say tip, $20, tithe, 10%. 2-5% of Americans tithe to the local church.

And why I'm saying this today, I really believe if we could get on board and be a church that takes care of his house, he's gonna take care of every stinking one of our houses, our kids' houses, our grandkids' houses, and the houses that are yet to come.

Come on, because we recognize him as the provider of our life.

I'm telling you right now, a church this size, it would never have to be what we call a capital campaign to raise resources if the church itself stepped up and tithed.

But what we're asking for is above and beyond the 2 to 5% that normally tithe, and saying, would you consider giving some kind of offering if you already tithe, but if you're tithing and you're not participating, would you just consider an offering start somewhere?

I'm not to beat you up about money in here today.

God started this church from the ground floor, my friend, and he's provided every step of the journey to be in this venue right here today.

It's been an amazing journey, but we have invited God into it every single way to bring him glory.

Listen to what the scripture says.

First Corinthians chapter 10, verse 31, whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it for the glory of God.

And so everything we do is for the glory of God, for the majesty of God to show his hands at work in his people.

This is again, and I'm a little anal retentive when it comes to stuff like the grass and stuff.

That means I'm a little over the top probably sometimes, but why does it matter?

It represents God at the end of the day.

Yeah, it's coming from here and it represents something to people driving up and down the road.

But do we really want to show God in a person that cares for his house?

Got in a person that cares for his campus or his children?

No, no, no, no.

God's the best there is.

He's incredible.

He's phenomenal.

Do all you do for the glory of God with what's in your hands.

We build for his glory, not our reputation.

And again, we're not seeking recognition or his honor.

We're seeking his heart because we want to know what his heart is so it can be our heart.

Because I'm here to describe this this way, what gets in here in your head will eventually get in your heart and it will come out of your hands.

Let me say that again.

And so whenever we come underneath the word of God, we're not here to manipulate you or anything else.

We're just here to simply present what the word of God says so we can get in here.

But eventually it's got to get from here to here.

And that's what the word of God is supposed to do is to act as a transforming power with the spirit of God.

And it transforms your heart to begin to see things his way instead of your way.

And then when you begin to see things his way instead of your way or culture's way or any kind of other way, then what happens, it begins to come out of your hands or through your serving in the world around you.

And it begins to show a display of his glory in his people and through his people.

Isn't that amazing?

So what gets in here gets in here and it comes out here.

Do everything you do to the glory of God.

Go to work, go to school, go to the beach to play.

Do it for the glory of God.

Do it for his sake.

And again, to help people come to him.

Psalm 78 verse 4 says this, we will not hide the truth from our children.

Parents, this is why it's important to begin to go over godly things with your kids over and over.

The writer here says, we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and his mighty wonders.

So again, structures in scripture had generational purpose.

Let me say it that way.

When you read the scriptures, they had generational purpose.

When God brought a people, wandering people for 40 years across a river into the promised land through a man named Joshua because they were disobedient before.

And what happened is they got 12 stones out of the middle of that river, says stack them up, build something.

Why?

Not so you can just look back and say, God was with us last week.

No, no, no.

So you can look back and say, God did it one time.

He'll do it again.

So you can point to those stones to your children, your grandchildren, your great grandchildren, and say, once we were over there in disobedience and not being who God called us to be, but God, God parted this river and those stones you're looking at generation next generation came out of the bottom of that river.

And how did they get out of that bottom of that river?

Them big old honking stones.

God dried up the river.

We walked through to the other side.

It was his doing and our participation.

He sent a word.

We obeyed the word.

We walked through the river.

We stack something up.

We believe God and we need you to trust God like we trusted God.

That's a beautiful thing.

Understand parents, what you're building, you're building for your grandkids, your kids, your great grandkids.

And we're saying God was with us.

God worked 20 years.

These people wandered around in a desert for 40 years.

We've been on a journey for 20 years and God's done this in 20 plus years.

This started with some people packing up their flipping car and putting stuff in a U-Haul.

Cause somebody said, listen, if you'll go to Myrtle Beach or North Myrtle Beach and plant a church in a community, we're going to, we're going to buy you a house in Barefoot Landon.

Okay.

So we sold our house where we were and two business guys said, we'll buy you a house in Barefoot Landon.

If you'll move in it and began to share who God is.

We took a stool before we unloaded one flipping piece of furniture because there wasn't nobody impressed with our furniture.

We took a stool and we sit in the middle of a living room in a house over on Herring Gold Circle in Barefoot Landon.

We sit in the middle of that living room and we said, God, we didn't say we see all this.

God, we want to be here for your glory.

Help us do the next right thing.

Help us take the next step.

And can I tell you, God has not missed a beat.

There has been a lot of opposition along the journey, but God says, if you build with me and you build for me, I will work through all the challenges and my name will be made great.

I'm inviting, listen, I'm inviting you into something greater than yourself.

And again, this is God's doing.

And it started in a living room, eventually moved to a hotel conference rooms and wherever to the high school and the mainstream and all this stuff.

But what is amazing is not to look at the stuff, but to look at how great the hand of God has been.

And listen to me, thousands of lives have been touched and transformed.

There's people starting churches in other nations right now because of what has happened in 20 years in the life of this church.

And God wants to do more and more and more and more.

So here's the deal.

We build with God and we build for God.

But lastly, I write right down, we build together.

And you're going to hear more about that in the coming weeks.

God wants to use you.

God wants to use your neighbor.

How God wants some of you to call your parents up this afternoon and say, get to church with me because God wants to use you.

How some of you are saying, would you call your aunt, your uncle, your old boss and say, get your rear end to church because God wants to wake you up and do marvelous and great things in you and through you.

My friends, we haven't seen or heard of the magnificent things.

These projects, they're going to get done.

Okay.

And again, they might not get done in my timeline, but I'm shooting for in next 12 to 18 months, maybe we can do them all three at the same time.

But these projects ain't the end.

I need to go ahead and declare that.

Next is going to be, maybe God wants to go ahead and start the children's ministry.

I don't know.

I'm casting vision that that could be multiple millions of dollars, not, not just a few hundred thousand.

I don't know.

I know God wants all this to get paid for, but what God wants to do is he wants to use his people, build his people and wants us to work together to do great and mighty things.

I want you to listen again.

The temple got tore down.

God sent some people back to Jerusalem to rebuild it.

He had to get a hold of their heart and eventually he had to put, build a fortified wall back around the city of Jerusalem.

And there was a man named Nehemiah in a far off place that God began to speak to his heart and said, go back.

I need you to rebuild the wall so my temple can be rebuilt.

And maybe there's some Nehemiah's in this room today.

I don't know.

And again, he may not call you to build a wall around Jerusalem, but maybe he's calling you to play your part in doing what God wants to do so his house can shine in the world.

But in Nehemiah chapter two, verse 18, Nehemiah says something incredible.

As he gets a vision, he goes back and he begins to speak to the officials and all the people there.

He says, Jerusalem lies in ruins.

Don't it hurt your heart?

Jerusalem, our country lies in ruins.

Don't it hurt your heart?

He says, and the gates have been destroyed by fire.

But he says, let us, everybody say, let us, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem and end this disgrace.

Church, the enemy has had his hand in our lives for way too long.

And my Lord Jesus said, he's going to build a powerful church that the gates of hell will not prevail against.

And I believe he might want to build a powerful church in the next city, but I believe that that applies right here, right now.

And he's saying, come on, people, I need you to get together and build, build the wall because I'm ready to do great and powerful things.

The Bible says somehow, some way Nehemiah was able to rally those people together.

And what had been torn down for 140 years, they rebuilt the wall in 52 days.

How?

Together.

Together, every family taking a portion of the wall, every family working their part, every family doing what was called to them and their kids and their grandkids.

And they were met with tremendous opposition.

But the Bible says the opposition didn't stop the hand of the Lord, nor the work of the Lord.

And they rebuilt the wall and they celebrated 52 days later because God was with them and did what he said he's gonna do.

My friend, you're part of God's family.

I don't know what portion of the wall, it's not Jerusalem, but here God is calling you to build.

I'm inviting you into it and to be a part of it and take on your portion and let's see what God wants to do.

And again, we're not asking anybody during this campaign to go broke.

That's not what we're asking you to do.

But consider, consider something.

If you're a student here, consider that one cup of coffee that you may just do without this week.

Wow, that's a sacrifice.

Just teasing to build God's house.

Maybe it's a sacrifice for you.

I don't know.

And again, I don't believe God is asking us all to put it.

Just go and give our life on a cross and sell our houses and come up in here.

And this is where we all going to live.

This ain't a compound.

This is a place where God is working in his people and through his people.

Come on somebody.

And I believe that God wants to use us to build great and marvelous things.

Each one considering doing our part.

Let's see what God can do.

Let's build the local church.

Many years ago, I sit down with a pen and a piece of paper and I penned a thing about being the church and it's printed on the back card of this back part of this red card.

If you got one when you came in the door today, but it was all about the church I see.

And much of it back in the day, much of it has has come into play.

Some of it still got to come into play, but I want to read to you what it says and says, we are a church where everyone matters.

Come on.

We are a church where the light of Jesus is reflected.

We are a church where purpose is revealed.

We are a church where God's kingdom dominates.

You can follow along with me if you want to.

We're a church that changes culture.

We're a church that operates 24 seven.

We are a church where excellence is displayed.

We're a church that is alive.

We're a church that works together for God's greatness.

We're a church where kids develop into leaders.

We're a church that attempts to different, to reach all people.

We're a church that is full of God's kindness and hospitality.

We're a church that builds on the work that Jesus has already done.

We're a church where many dead stones become living stones.

We're a church that speaks life into all who pass through.

We're a church that the community revolves around.

We're a church where kids discover they are masterpieces.

We are a church that serves with heart.

We're a church that walks with the spirit and steps into opportunity.

We're a church that represents a king.

We're a church that functions like a kingdom.

We're a church that brings hope and healing to whatever it touches.

We're a church where all people have a function and a purpose.

We're a church that gives its best.

We're a church that honors all but bows to one and His name is Jesus.

Come on.

We're that church.

So, I don't know.

You say what this church is about?

Take this home and pin it on your refrigerator.

This is who we are.

And God has already in 20 some odd years done much of that.

There's much more of it still to come.

You're just seeing the previews.

Let's see what God wants to do in you and through you as Jesus builds His church.

Let me pray for you.

God, you're an amazing God.

Thank you for everyone here today, online today.

God, we're a church that builds on the work Christ Jesus has already done.

We thank you Jesus for forgiving us of our sin as you did that work on a cross to die for each and every one of us and pay that penalty.

We thank you Jesus for your amazing power of coming back three days later and ascending to heaven and pouring out your spirit on men and women alike so we can build your church.

Jesus, thank you for the opportunity to step in and change the world.

God, I pray today you would speak to every man, woman, boy, and girl here and if they haven't started that relationship with you, today would be the day that Jesus becomes the foundation of their life.

The one that gives them life anew.

God, if they have already received the work of Christ on a cross and his salvation that he offers, God ain't get busy doing the work.

He's called them today