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

It is good to see you here in the foyer today.

Come on.

Yes.

Yeah, out of the tent just in time for the big storm to come in into the foyer of our new facility.

And again, we wanna welcome you here for the first Sunday in the foyer of our new building.

We believe in God to do great and mighty things.

But if you're new with us, we want you to know too that we are on a journey and we want you to stay tuned because there's more to come.

There's a lot more to come.

We've been fortunate enough to be able to get a partial certificate of occupancy for our building to be in here today.

Yet this space here you're in is not finished yet.

It will be finished in the future.

But as they're finishing out our arena right on the other side of this wall and much more space for our church family, we want you to know there's gonna be room for a lot of people.

So we want you to continue to invite, invite, invite.

In just a few months, we're gonna move out of this space into the arena after it is finished.

Come on.

And then we're gonna finish this space that you're in now.

And we're gonna complete that a little later down the path.

And so hopefully this will all be completed here in a few months and it's going to be simply amazing.

But we are thankful to our Savior.

We're thankful to Jesus for bringing us here today.

We're thankful for all the provision He has made all the way along this particular journey.

And God is a way maker.

He is a miracle worker.

He is a promise keeper and He is the light in the darkness.

He is the one.

He is the one that can change everything and He is always working.

And I don't want you to ever forget that because sometimes whenever a life comes at us, we wanna give up.

I want you to know today, you have an enemy.

The Bible says the enemy comes to kill, steal and destroy.

And the way He begins to do that is He begins to get you to give up on the things of God and what God wants to do in your life and through your life.

In other words, the enemy wants you to quit.

The enemy wants you to throw in the towel.

The enemy wants you to stop doing what God has designed you to do.

And today I wanna speak in the vein of our series, Be the One.

And I wanna talk about being the one to finish well.

Being the one to finish well.

To not stop in the middle.

To not stop in the process.

To not stop before you cross the finish line in doing what God has appointed you to do in this earth.

Because the enemy wants us to give up and quit.

You know God's got so much more work to do, come on.

And lots of times when we watch the events that are happening in the world, we're like, shoot, I might as well just throw in the towel.

It's over.

No, it's not over until God says it's over.

And it's not over in His way of thinking anyway because God is an eternal God.

And this is just the timeframe that we live in.

This is just a dispensation that we live in.

We live in something called the church age.

It's the age where God has brought people to Himself through the finished work of Christ on the cross.

God gave His one and only Son on a cross to forgive us of our sin, missing the mark of His glorious standard.

And God says anyone who comes to Him and believes in Him to forgive them of that sin and bring them back in right relationship with God so they can have communion with their great God, He's gonna give them eternal life.

And my friend, we are to share that message with everyone we see as we're doing life's journey.

It's a process.

It's a process and we're all in the process.

But the reality of it is we have to continue to move forward because I know things come at us, relational challenges, sickness, financial challenges, all kinds of things come at each and every one of us and they come at us at different times and in different spaces and different places.

But what I'm reminded of is, you know what, God is not finished yet.

And I personally don't believe He's finished with me or He's finished with you, because you're here.

And I wanna encourage you today to finish well and not give up.

I love what the Apostle Paul said in 2 Timothy as he was speaking to young Timothy about keeping on, keeping on.

He says it this way in 2 Timothy 4, verses seven and eight.

He says, I have fought the good fight.

He says, I have finished the race and I remain of faith.

I want you to circle that word if you're following along in your Bible today, I have remain of faith.

In other words, I've stayed the course.

And now he says, the prize awaits me, the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on the day of His return.

I'm still looking forward to the return of Christ.

And the prize is not just for me, but it's for all who eagerly look forward to His appearing.

In another letter he wrote young Timothy in 1 Timothy 4, verse 16, he tells him this.

He says, stay true to what is right for the sake of your own salvation and the salvation of those who hear you.

And that's some powerful words.

He says, stay true to what is right, Timothy, for the sake of your own salvation and the salvation of those who hear you.

In other words, be the one to finish well.

Be the one to cling to the things of God and finish your assignment, Timothy.

Finish it and finish it well.

Don't give up on what God wants to do.

I'm here to encourage you today to never give up, to never quit, to never throw in the towel.

As many of you know, this is my first weekend back since I had neck surgery a few weeks ago.

In October, I had an MRI run.

I'd been losing my balance a lot.

I'd been stumbling, I'd been falling a lot.

I wasn't walking properly.

And so, you know, I began to go to the doctor because several years ago I had lower back surgery and I thought it had something to do with that.

They couldn't find anything wrong.

Doctor said, well, let me do an MRI of your upper body and let's see if anything's going on there.

And of course they did.

They found that my spinal cord was restricted and the communication between my brain and my legs wasn't working right.

And it wasn't communicating properly.

So they went in, they fixed it.

They gave me a bunch of fusions and what they call laminectomies, where they went in and cut all my bones out and did all kinds of stuff to relieve that pressure.

And what I do remember about all of that is, you know, the God of peace was with me through that whole process as they rolled me in to the operating room, you know, it's like, just trust God, you know, it's gonna be okay.

But what I remember as I come out of that anesthesia, you don't remember a lot when you're coming out of anesthesia, I can promise you that.

One thing that comes to my mind that I remember that God put in my spirit is I was being rolled back into my room.

I looked up off the bed up in the air with a neck brace around and there was a young nurse standing with her back against the wall.

And I don't know her name.

I don't know anything about her.

I don't even remember a wife, my son, or anybody else being in the room.

But what I remember is that nurse's face and I remember opening my eyes and I remember looking at her in the whatever the conscious or unconsciousness of anesthesia.

And I looked at her and what I remember after the surgery is I said, Jesus is my healer.

And I remember her looking back at me.

Again, I don't even know this nurse's name, but I remember her looking back at me and says, yes, he is.

And then God began to remind me that he is the Rapha.

He is the healer.

He's Jehovah Rapha.

And you're gonna be hearing a lot more about Jehovah Rapha in a few weeks.

And we're gonna be talking about Jehovah Rapha, which literally means God is my healer.

You're gonna be learning that only, he doesn't only heal our bodies sometimes physically, he heals our spirits, he heals our soul, he heals our life, if we will trust Jehovah Rapha.

And I do believe in Jehovah Rapha, God my healer, because I believe God heals us for a purpose.

He doesn't only heal us to heal us so we can walk around and be vessels in this earth, but to be vessels for his kingdom and his glory.

Come on, he's not finished yet.

There's only one reason.

There's only one reason that God has chose to begin to heal my body.

And it's simply so I can be a vessel for his glory.

And my friend, Jehovah Rapha, God the healer, the live and well, he is amazing.

But remember, he wants you to finish and he wants you to finish well.

So today I wanna talk about how to do that.

And God gave me three words.

He says, you know, I've taken you on a journey in life.

You've learned to pretty well be a farmer.

I grew up on a farm and I did landscaping.

A lot of my life.

I've taught you how to be a farmer.

I've somewhat taught you how to be a builder, though I didn't physically build this building.

I learned a lot about building in the process of building this building.

Come on, somebody.

And I've, you know, I've taught you how to be an artist and no, I can't paint a flipping thing.

But the reality of it is I've taught you how to be an artist with my word and begin to communicate it in a way that encourages people to stay on the journey.

So today I wanna talk to you about you taking those three things, being a farmer, being a builder, and being an artist and apply them to your life.

Because when you learn to apply God's word to your life, you learn to build his kingdom here on earth.

Plant the seeds, come on, and expect to harvest and paint the picture of what the future will be.

Everything will begin to change in your life because you were created for that, my friend, whether you sit up here on the front or you sit all the way in the back because that's the seat you got when you come in.

I need you to know that God sees you from the side of the building to the side of the building, from the front to the back, and he has a purpose and a plan for your life and he doesn't want you to quit.

So let's talk a little bit about how to be the one to never quit, to never give up.

Ephesians 2, chapter 20.

Paul reminds us as he writes to the church at Ephesus to lay a solid foundation.

If you wanna be powerful in life, you have to have a solid foundation.

The word tells us this, it says, together, everybody say together.

That means each one of us, we are his house built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets that came before us.

And the cornerstone himself is Jesus Christ.

In other words, Jesus Christ is the one that everything needs to align with and everything needs to be built upon.

Here at a valorous church, we had the opportunity as we began to build this particular facility several months ago, almost a year to the day ago in December of 2022, we had the opportunity to take God's word, put it in a case and turn it to that passage of Ephesians 2.

And put it in the back corner, the cornerstone where they began to align all the building and build all the building.

And we were able to put that in the foundation of this church as a symbolic way to remind us that Christ is the cornerstone.

And may all the days of this church in the future always be built and aligned with Christ being the firm foundation.

Because it is Christ and Christ alone that makes all of this possible.

It's not by our might, it's not by our strength, but it's by his power and his glory that all things are built.

Come on, give God a hand clap.

1 Corinthians 3, as the writer Paul wrote the church at Corinth, he says this, he says, it's because of God's grace to me I have laid the foundation like an expert builder.

Now others are building on it, he says, but whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful.

For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that we have already have and it's Jesus Christ.

So literally what he says is as you're building God's kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven, he goes on to say you can use a variety of materials, but you can't lay another cornerstone.

You can't begin to start a new work, a new person, a new savior.

He says, no, no, no, he says, Jesus Christ, he is the one that has been laid in the foundation.

And you know what?

2,000 years later, he's still the cornerstone and we're building the church a different way, sometimes with some different songs, some different elements, some different things.

And again, he says, build my church with straw, hay, gold, silver, whatever else.

And all those things are gonna be tested in the future, but the cornerstone itself is Jesus, never change who made all this possible.

Give Jesus a hand clap of praise, the risen savior, come on.

He's the King of Kings, he's the Lord of Lords.

Lay the foundation, lay the foundation.

You know, I don't know who will be the next generation of pastors and teachers in this church, but I charge them with what the apostle Paul charged us with in the scripture, build church, use whatever is in your hands, make the name of God great in this world, but never ever consider changing the cornerstone, the Lord Jesus, because he is the one that will sustain us, he is the one that will hold us, he is the one that made all this possible, it's technically him building his church through us.

So, man, I wanna make sure that he is the one that everything is built on.

Jesus said these words in Matthew chapter seven, verses 24 through 27, he says, anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock, come on.

Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against the house, he says, it won't collapse because it is built on bedrock, come on.

If you choose to follow Jesus and make him the foundation of your life, I don't care what comes your way, it ain't gonna collapse.

Build your life, build your house on Jesus and it ain't gonna collapse, it's gonna make it, come on.

It's gonna get there, it's gonna do it.

He says, but anyone who hears my teaching and doesn't obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand.

When the rains and the floods come and the winds beat against the house, it will collapse, the mighty crash.

My friends, you know, and again, there's a lot of people in life and a lot of churches in life that have endured a whole lot more than ours.

Reality of it is, is we have endured a lot of storms.

We've endured a lot of pain, we've endured a lot of heartache we've endured a lot of things the enemy has come against our church family, you know.

And the reality of it is, is we've made it through those storms.

And we're here today because the bedrock of who we are is Jesus.

He's the cornerstone, he's the light in the darkness, he's the one that will continue to sustain us.

And again, I don't have a lot of eloquent words to persuade you to make Jesus the bedrock of your life.

All I can come here and the many people that sit around you today can come here with is to say, he's the foundation, he's the one that stabilizes them in life.

He's the one that got them from where they are to where they are today.

Life isn't perfect, life isn't easy, but they're stable.

Oh, stable.

You know, God's house is to be a stable place.

It's not to be unstable, shaky, moving from this teaching to that teaching like a ship on an open ocean.

It's to be stable.

And can I tell you what makes it stable?

It's the continual teaching of who Christ is and what he can do in a human's heart and a human's life.

And my friends, we have to keep that before people all time because we live in a very unstable world.

It's crazy out here.

But the reality of it is, and all the craziness, in Christ Jesus, he's the anchor of our soul.

So stay stable.

Don't go crazy with the rest of the world.

Stay stable.

Make him be the foundation of your world.

We wanna finish and finish well.

Again, to make Christ the cornerstone, the foundation of all we do.

If we're gonna be the one that finish well, we don't only need to be like a builder and lay this firm foundation.

We gotta be like a farmer and we gotta plant the seeds of faith deep in our heart and begin to let them sprout, produce something great.

The Bible says this in Hebrews chapter one, or chapter 11, verses one and two, reminds us of what faith is.

And so we gotta plant that faith in the hearts of our life, in the hearts of other people.

Bible says faith shows the reality of what is hoped for, what we hope for.

It is the evidence, everybody say evidence.

In other words, faith can be seen.

It's the evidence of things we cannot see.

Faith can be seen and what it is is evidence in our faith of what people can't see.

Through their faith, through the people of the old's faith, the people in the days of the old, they earned a good reputation.

Because see, people couldn't see what they could see by faith, but it was because of their faith that people began to respect them and respect the God of their faith, so they never completely physically saw all the things that God said they would see here on earth.

They believed it in their heart and they kept hope towards it.

They kept moving towards it and their actions began to display that they had faith in what God said and hope in who God was.

There's a whole list of examples of people who live by faith in the old, and they're found in Hebrews 11, I wanna pull out one of them in particular and it's Hebrews 11 verses eight through 10 and it's Father Abraham.

The Bible says this about him in Hebrews 11 verse eight, it says, it was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as an inheritance.

But what it says, he went without knowing where he was going.

In other words, he never saw it, he didn't know, he just know that God spoke and said, I'm gonna give you an inheritance and I'm gonna give you a land that I'm gonna give you and he obeyed and he moved forward, he took action, took a step towards what God said.

And even when he reached the land, God promised him, he lived there when he got there by faith.

For he was like a foreigner living in tents.

And so did Isaac and Jacob who inherited the same promise.

Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations.

Jesus Christ, to a city God would build the cornerstone and a king everlasting.

A city designed and built by God.

So though Abraham reached a physical land, he continued to live by faith towards who God was and what God was gonna do the eternity.

And my friends, he had faith planted in his heart and that faith grew as he began to exhibit that faith towards who God was and your faith will grow too.

But understand we have faith in God to be a display in this world of God's mighty power, God's great glory.

This whole journey of a church plant, a seed planted in a living room.

And we're here today and there's a bigger harvest and there's more harvest to come.

But can I tell you that we didn't only say, hey, God's gonna do great and mighty things and we didn't really understand all of what that is up to this point, but we took steps towards what God could do in people's heart.

Other words, we didn't sit stagnant in a living room.

We begin to share vision for who God is and what God wanted to do.

That's what faith does.

Faith moves, faith takes action.

Faith gives, come on, faith serves, faith believes.

Faith honors God.

Faith believes that there's one more.

There's one more heart touch.

Because what faith and who God is, who Jesus is, is faith believes that he's coming back.

It's hope that he is gonna set up an eternal kingdom forever and ever and ever.

And we continue to plant the seeds of the gospel, the seeds of the good news.

Wherever God has placed us, we can guess he's given us.

So that other people can come to him because we believe that.

We believe in the great return of Christ.

And we believe that all evil will be put in the abyss.

And we believe there's no more suffering, no more sadness, no more sorrow, and we'll live eternally with our great God.

Come on.

You ain't seen it yet.

He ain't got back yet.

I haven't seen it yet.

We live by faith in this eternal city that is built by God.

Foundation is Jesus Christ himself.

And we keep walking towards it, inviting other people on the journey.

Faith does, does crazy stuff.

Sometimes it doesn't make sense.

Those around us, of why we do what we do.

Sometimes, you know, people actually write big checks for the kingdom's sake.

And people are like, why would you do that?

You could have used that money for so much more.

To do things in this earth that would just make a difference here and now.

But see, there's people that believe in writing big checks sometimes because they believe in the eternal kingdom of God.

They believe the work of God's church in this earth and what God's doing on this earth.

And the reality of it is, is one time when Jesus was here on this earth, some people said to a lady who poured out all that she had, an expensive perfume jar, and she anointed Jesus for his burial.

The people in the room with her looked at her and said, what a waste.

Why would you do that?

Because they actually said that that bottle of perfume, the wages from that bottle of perfume, you just poured out and wasted.

It could have helped so many poor people.

Here's worth of wages, according to the scholar.

She poured it out on Jesus's feet.

People sitting around her said, what a waste.

And what Jesus says was, because what she did, we discussed and talked about, future generations, who I am, what I've done.

Because what she did, she poured that out to prepare my body for burial so I could rise again.

And those in the room couldn't see it.

She by faith believed it.

She prepared Jesus's body for burial so he could rise again and give eternal life to people.

Come on.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Understand, oftentimes when you walk by faith, some people will say, what a waste.

But understand the Lord Jesus says, leave them alone because what they did, we talked about generation to generation.

And I wanna personally thank all of those in the life of Valorous Church who have planted seeds of faith along the way.

And we talk about those seeds today because of what Jesus has done in people's life.

There's so much more to be done.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for being a person that believes God by faith and plant the seeds for an enormous harvest because you know what?

Your reward is great just like the apostle Paul's reward.

Paul said, I've poured out my life like an offering.

He says, now the time has come.

I've finished my race.

But the reality of it is, is I'm a person who lived by faith, did what God designed me to do, and I'm expecting eternal inheritance, a reward that is bigger than you can see now.

All live with an expectation.

But friends, I want you to know today that faith has an expectation.

Faith isn't just willy-nilly.

It expects a return on the investment.

Abraham expected a return on walking by faith.

He was looking for a city with eternal foundations.

Come on, with an eternal king over it.

He was looking for an eternal city.

Even when he reached the physical land, he kept looking and he kept walking by faith because he had an expectation that God was gonna do what he said he's gonna do.

And he did.

My friends, I want you to understand you have a small amount of faith today.

Grow that faith.

Put it into action.

Never stop pursuing.

God is put you on earth to pursue.

It's to bring up there, down.

It's to bring heaven to earth through the gifts, talents, and resources he's given you.

Let's be a people who walk by faith, have action that demonstrate who God is.

Lastly, I believe that God don't only call us to be a farmer, God don't only call us to be a builder, but God also calls us to be artists.

If you wanna finish and finish well, again, to see the picture and paint the picture for others to see.

Because the reality of it is that sometimes all people can see is what's right in front of them.

Because of all of the strategies of the enemy, people began to be what I call short-sighted and they can't see into the future.

But you know, God has given us his word.

His word is eternally true.

He has given us a snapshot because he gave a man named John a glimpse of what can be.

Some people are all focused on, you know, end times, is this all there's ever gonna be?

And you know, and all I can say is I hope so.

Is the end of all it is like it is now.

The reality of it is I'm gonna live today like it's not the end because I believe there's more people to come into the kingdom before Jesus returns.

God gave John a snapshot of what the eternal future really is going to be like and look like.

And my friends, it is marvelous.

And John took words and began to try to describe the picture.

He tried to be an artist with the words.

He wrote it down in the book of Revelation.

I wanna read them to you today because I pray that these words would begin to speak to your heart in a powerful way and begin to do what God wants them to do.

It paints a picture for the future.

Revelation 21 verses one through seven says this.

Says, then I saw, he says, after all of this calamity, all of these things happening in the earth, he says, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.

No, he says for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared, gone away.

And the sea was also gone.

Don't let those words confuse you.

Just paint a picture because in the days of old, the sea was recognized as being a place of chaos.

It's not saying there won't ever be no more water again.

He's just saying, you know what?

That chaos is gone.

He says the sea was gone and he says, I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

He goes on to paint this picture as an artist.

He said, I heard a loud shout from the throne saying, look, God's home is now among his people.

God's home is now among his people.

He will live with them and they will be his people.

God himself will be with them.

He will wipe every tear from their eyes and there will be no more death, no more sorrow, no more crying, no more pain.

And all these things were gone forever.

My friend, that's a beautiful picture.

I don't know what makes your heart ache today.

I don't know what gives you pain today, but he paints this picture.

One day, all of that is going to be gone.

Keep living for the future.

Keep on keeping on.

Don't you give up.

Begin to see the eternal.

He says, and the one sitting on the throne said, look, King Jesus, the one sitting on the throne said, look, I am making everything new.

Then he said to me, write this down.

For what I tell you is trustworthy and true.

And he also said, it is finished.

Other words, I came the first time to put sin, to take the sin of the world away as I gave my life on a cross.

Now it is finished.

It is over.

No more chaos, no more sickness, no more pain.

It's all in the abyss and I rule and I reign with my people.

He said, I am the alpha, I am the omega, I'm the beginning and the end.

And to all who are thirsty, I will give freely from the springs of water of life.

All who are victorious will inherit all of these blessings and I will be their God and they will be my children.

My friends, that is a beautiful picture.

It's a picture of the old heavens and the old earth disappearing, but God somehow, some way, taking what is up there and merging it with what is down here.

Earth and heaven coming together and God being with us in this earth and the earth being a home for his people and there's no evil and there's no pain, there's no more sorrow.

It's a picture of how God originally designed it in Eden, my friend.

It's a picture of us commuting with our great God, walking with our great God.

No more enemy trying to deceive us and fool us.

It's a picture of perfection.

And my friend, you know, I don't know how bad it gets for you.

I don't know how lonely you may get.

I don't know how broken your week is, but I wanna encourage you today.

It ain't gonna always be that way.

Don't you give up in the process.

Don't you give up now.

God is giving you a breath in your lungs and a heartbeat in your chest to make a difference.

Here, now, bring up there, down here.

You know, I know that everything here is not perfection, but what my prayer is, is God, may what has been built on this little 60 acres in this planet, be a little piece of heaven here on earth to begin to usher in.

You don't completely get it.

To begin to usher in King Jesus as He begins to build a highway for the King.

We're here to build a highway for the King.

It's not by our might.

It's not by our strength.

It's by His power at work in us.

And the gift He's given us, my friend, don't give up.

We're just getting started.

God, I thank You so much for every man, woman, boy and girl here.

God, I thank You for Your Spirit.

Thank You for the various gifts You have given Your church.

And I pray, God, we'd be unified with those gifts.

And God, we would bring those gifts together to be a display for Your glory and Your majesty.

God, we would begin to see You do a mighty work in and through our church.

God, if there's one here today that's about to give up, that's about to quit, may You paint a picture for them, the great work You have for them to do as King Jesus moves into their life, becomes the Saviour, becomes the foundation of their life.

May they continue to put faith in Him, keep on the journey, and God, look towards the future.

My friend, if you're here today and you never put your faith in Jesus, I wanna invite you to trust Christ.

Say, God, I believe You came and You gave Your life on a cross through Jesus so my sin could be forgiven and I could have an eternal connection with You.

Tell God, thank You for the death of Jesus, thank You for the cross, thank You for the resurrection.

Tell God from this point forward, You're gonna live by faith, You're gonna trust what He did for you and what He's gonna continue to do in you and through you as you wait on His return.

Lord Jesus, if there's one here today that prayed that prayer I do know that all of heaven rejoices along with us here at Valerie's Church.

It's in Your name, Jesus, we pray.

Amen.