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That's a good husband right there. Actually, Heidi ran up here just a second ago, and she was, like, trying to be secretive while the video was going, and she showed me her phone. David had texted her to tell me that I was created for this, and he's proud of me or something like that. And so, that's my hubby. He's off doing what God has has commissioned all of us to do, really.
I have been Oh, I'm Courtney. Good morning. It has been a wild 5 years, and I have been an emotional roller coaster all week because of everything that's happened, and there's just a consistent thread through every second of this journey, and that is God's faithfulness. Every step of the way, every time we were like, how are we gonna do this? Every time I say we, because my husband's faith is like she said annoying.
I told him a couple of weeks ago, we were just having a conversation, and I I told him, I said, I want to learn to have faith like you. So, that's the pastor that leads this church. His faith is something that we should all want to emulate, want to imitate. So, I struggle a little bit sometimes with faith, especially in this process. And today, I'm gonna share some stories.
Y'all know I can't tell a short story. If you've heard me speak, you know I love telling stories. It's how I relate to people. It's how I want people to talk to me. Like, if you if you're a storyteller, find me.
I'll listen to every teeny tiny detail because I really like to get to know you. And so, I wanted to share a couple of stories today, and really every single 1 points to his faithfulness. But first, I felt it's appropriate for a 5 year anniversary to share a testimony. David received a text, I think it was last week, from a young lady named Courtney, not me. There's another Courtney in the church.
We have another Courtney in the house. It's a good name. And she sent him her testimony. Now, she the Lord has been drawing her for a while now, but but she just fully surrendered her life to Jesus recently. And this is a beautiful testimony.
I believe if you can see where we've come from, you can see where we're going. And the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy, and that means what God has done before, he wants to do again. So today, we're gonna talk about the things he's done before because I believe he just wants to multiply it in all of you and all of Pinellas County. So I'm gonna read this testimony, her words, not mine, about what God has done in her life. And it really is precious, and I'm emotional, so I'm not an emotional person, but this week has been very unique because I've just been so overwhelmed at his faithfulness.
3 words to describe me before Jesus, hopeless, unfulfilled, sick. How I came to know Jesus. I came to know Jesus through the Holy Spirit. I believe I've dealt with some darker forces in my life. I was into new age things, and I started to recognize that the name of Jesus Christ held real power.
The Holy Spirit gave me dreams, showed up at my grandmother's death, and has shown himself to me more often than ever since I accepted Jesus. I still, in most of those things, sometimes hopeless, sometimes unfulfilled, sometimes sick. I recently accepted Jesus into my life, and I am in the process of "growing roots". I want you to remember that word, process. I'm in the process of growing roots.
*Jesus* reminds me to show kindness to myself and not just others. I've always been a typically nice person trying to do the right thing, but when it came to myself, I was living by the as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else motto, which I later realized was a church of Satan quote. Jesus placed it on my heart in the beginning of this summer to stop stealing things. I didn't realize how much it was hurting my self esteem. I justified stealing from large corporations like Walmart because I wasn't hurting any individuals, rather just a company's stocks.
I haven't stolen anything since the beginning of the summer except soda fountain drinks. LOL. This is real church. We're still in process. We're still learning.
Okay? This is a good example of how I was always finding the gray areas in life, making excuses for things which benefited me. Now, with the bible, I feel like I have a well lit path of right and wrong. I didn't have a great example of a mother, father, or healthy relationships growing up. I hope to grow my relationship with God, so I can look up to him as a real father.
*God* has also placed it on my heart to completely change my dating lifestyle. I need to place the attention and love I've been giving to men to myself and friendships for a while, which is wise. When I was younger, my mom always told me there's something wrong with your brain. She repeated this over and over again, usually when she was high, and I started to believe it. In my early twenties, I was sent to a psych unit 3 times.
I soon found out I needed to have a brain tumor removed. At my lowest point, I was a patient in a psych unit using a wheelchair to get around. 1 day, I was in my wheelchair in a tightly enclosed outside area, and at this point, I had been begging God to kill me for weeks. I looked down, and I found a beautifully intact dead moth, and I snuck it into my pocket and kept it. The first day I went to real church, Jerry gave his testimony about how when he was lost and asking God to give him guidance, he looked down on the floor and found butterfly wings.
I went up to him after his service crying that day and told him my story, and he gave me his butterfly wings. On my first day at real church, I knew God wanted me there. My life had gotten significantly better since my early twenties. However, there was still something clearly missing. Even though I was physically and emotionally better, I was still making choices which led to my life going around in the same circle.
*Proverbs-18:21*, the tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit. If you felt like this testimony was for you or you were struggling with depression or anxiety, reach out to Courtney. I share this because this is what we would call a baby believer who's saying, Lord, what do you want me to do? And those are the people who are gonna impact this world for Christ in a major way. These baby believers who are just like, Lord, teach me.
Teach me what I'm supposed to do. But here's the thing. For those of us who maybe have been following Jesus for a long time, we're not supposed to say, yeah, go learn and figure it out. *God* didn't ask us to make converts and baptize them. What did he ask us to make?
We are commissioned by God in not only his word, but also in the mission that he gave to this church to "make disciples", baptizing them and teaching them everything that he has commanded them. Our job at Real Church is not done. When we call people and we we say, hey, I really want you to come to church with me, and then they give their life to Jesus, we don't say, okay, baptized and get in a small group because now you gotta figure this thing out. We are called to walk hand in hand with people and disciple them. And that process can be a long and tedious process.
If you've ever raised children, you know it's not a 1 and done situation. It's daily. It's consistently. It's being faithful to be consistent. And God has been faithful every step of the way with every single 1 of us, and he's not gonna stop, and he's asking us to be faithful with other people.
I'm gonna share a couple of stories of God's faithfulness. Because this is our anniversary, I've been reminiscing a lot and remembering. And in our dream team huddle this morning, we we gather, we pray, and we were we were sharing just some of the stories of real church. About 6 or 7 months in, maybe, time is a little fuzzy, but we were at Clearwater High School, and and we were having services on Sunday mornings. And Clearwater High School is a is a big campus, and our children's ministry was on 1 side, and our auditorium was on the other.
And we didn't have the equipment and the teams and everything. We were just starting this thing out, and so we were lugging heavy boxes early on Sunday mornings. I I wore my honorary wrecking crew shirt because because every Sunday morning we were up early working really hard to to get everything set up to serve people coming in. And and about 6 or 7 months in, the teams had really dwindled, and and I showed up about I think I got there around 7 maybe. And a handful of people were there.
And I'm getting boxes unloaded with a couple of people, and then I start realizing, wow, things aren't really set up the way that they're supposed to be. Like, there's a lot of stuff that hasn't been done yet. And as I'm walking across campus and I'm looking at these things, I'm like, I don't know where to start. I'm overwhelmed. And then I was like, where is everybody?
Where is our team? Where are all these people who've committed to come and show up? Like and I started panicking, and I was like, I need to I need to go pray. So I'm walking down the walkway to the auditorium, and David is walking this way, and David says and he doesn't panic, and so I knew something was bad. He said, where is everybody?
And I said, I don't know. They confirmed on planning center. They're not here. And he said, we've gotta get everything set up. And I said, we cannot both panic at the same time.
And he hugged me and he kissed me on the forehead and then he walked away. And so I took that as my note that I'm allowed to panic. And so I ran to the bathroom and I was like, God, where is everybody? Like, me and Mike Gabbard can't do all this ourselves. And I'm like, Lord, what do we do?
And I'm crying and I'm really it sounds like, oh, she's just so concerned with everybody who's coming to serve them. No. I was being a brat. And I was taking it all on myself like, I can't do it. Poor pitiful me.
I was here early and nobody else is here. And I'm really being a brat with God. And he reminds me, this isn't your church. Come on. So, do you know what I did?
I brat was some more. And so, I was like, okay. Okay. This is not my church. This is God's church.
So here's what I'm gonna do. And I had this game plan of everything. Was like, you know, if we don't have children's church, that's fine. If we don't have copy, that's fine. And I went through all of the things that I needed to do while God had just told me, hey, calm down.
I got this. But I didn't listen to him because I was thinking about myself. I was being selfish and kind of boastful, like, I've got to do all of this stuff. And I walked in the lobby and I saw mister Kevin Keeney And a whole bunch of people I didn't know, they came out of nowhere. And within the 5 minutes of me being in the bathroom, about 30 minutes of setup had taken place.
And I walked out and I asked him. I was just getting I I might it might have been the first time I ever met you. I'm not sure, but but I said, do you need any help? And he said, no. We got it.
And I'm looking around. I'm like, okay. You would think that would be the indication, oh, God's got this. But no. I was like, okay.
I sprinted across campus to children's church. I was like, gotta set up children's church. And I see Mike Gabbert and a bunch of guys that I don't know have popped up children's church. I was like, all of this happened so quickly, and I didn't do any of it. It changed my perspective on the faithfulness of God when he said, this church is my girl.
This is my bride. I started it. I will sustain it. You just be faithful to what I've asked you to do. And I believe that he's saying that to all of us, every person who's on a team, who leads a team, who serves, every person who's a part of this ministry.
And, really, you can take this this fact that God is faithful and apply it to every area of your life. We wanna be good stewards of everything that he's given us, but there's a point where we have to be like, Lord, we're gonna be good stewards, but you are in control. We're not in control. We allow him to be. Amen?
Amen. So, on this 5 year anniversary, think that it's proper that we spend some time doing what Hebrews-12:10 says is **"outdo 1 another"** in honor. We're gonna have a day of honoring. And first, I would like for us all to stand and honor the Lord for his *faithfulness* over the last 5 years and for his consistent and continued faithfulness. Give him your highest praise.
*Lord, you are faithful*. You are good, and we worship you. And everything that we see here is by your hand, not ours, and we just ask that you will lead and guide us forward, Lord, because there's a lost and dying world that needs you, Lord. Amen. I kinda went mama on y'all a little bit.
Sometimes we just gotta get out of ourselves and start praising him. You guys can sit down. I just felt it was proper that we spend a minute honoring the Lord for his faithfulness with with this ministry. And I also I wanna spend some time honoring some people. Some people for for what they have been willing to say, Lord, put me in.
Put me in, coach. David and I do not lead this church ourselves. We do not implement everything ourselves, and I believe that's how it should be. We have a team of people who help us lead. And so, I'd like for us to honor some people who lead in this church.
And if if you're 1 of these people, I want you to stand and let us honor you. Can I have my our elders, our deacons, our speaking team, and our staff who are in the room stand, please? And let us honor you and thank you and acknowledge you. Thank you. Help me acknowledge them.
Thank you. As you noticed, several of them aren't here. We actually have a really big team. And spoiler alert, David gave me permission to tell you all this. Next week, we're appointing 2 new deacons to the church.
Mister Chuck and miss Shirley Grossman, are you all here? She waved. She's like, hi. I'm gonna sit down. Man, *Hebrews-13:7 says, remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God*.
Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. And I am confident in every single person who leads at this church that you can confidently imitate their faith. Imitate their way of life. Learn from them. As far as production guys back there, I gave you verses.
And yesterday, I called David, kinda freaked out. He's in Brazil doing what God's asked him to do, and I'm like, dude, I feel like God changed the trajectory of this service. And so, I might not be using those verses, but I'm really grateful that you put them in the computer. Thank you. I wanna share with you my favorite Sunday to date of real church to show you the type of church that we are.
We were a couple of months in, and we got a weather alert that we were gonna have some severe weather. Now, at Clearwater High School, we had a lot of things to set up outside. A monsoon came. I'm talking campus flooded, our equipment was getting broken. I was holding onto a tent, and it lifted me off the ground.
I had to let go of it. It was crazy. And at 1 point, I was like, I gotta go to Sam's. This is in the middle of us getting ready for the service. I would go Sam's, grab some towels, and come back, and I think, who is going to come to church in this, and who is going to stay and serve during this?
This is bad weather. And I get back, and I see our dream team, pants rolled up, shoes off, walking people to the auditorium with umbrellas like this, getting drenched to make sure that they were experiencing the "love of Jesus", sacrificing themselves for the sake of others. And our vision statement, what we do, why we do all of this is because we will do whatever it takes for every single person that we meet to know the love of Jesus and live their God given purpose. And so if you are a part of the dream team, the team who comes early, stays late, you set up, you tear down, you serve people that are coming in, will you stand and let us honor you, please? I am so grateful that I get to serve alongside you.
This is a very small, small part of our dream team because some of them are still serving out there. We have we have staff, and we have dream teamers who are serving out in children's church. We have security that's walking around. We're a very safe church. We can come and worship freely without fear.
I'm so grateful for all of our teams. Grateful for our team leaders, Bart, and and Noni, and Mac, and everyone who leads our dream team. And I think that it's worth honoring them. Also, I had to ask 1 of our elders, Mariah, if it was appropriate that I honor this next group of people because it could come across kinda weird. And I can be awkward sometimes, and I was okay with that, but I didn't want y'all to feel weird.
And she said, I feel like this is very appropriate. When we said yes to sell almost everything we own and and come here and plant a church, we said yes for our entire family, and that included the 3 children that we had at the time. My girls were 2 and 3 years old, and my son was 5. And we're in the van, and we get to the interstate, and we're about to about to go. And he's sitting there coloring, and he said, I don't wanna go.
And it hit me that we're excited and we're scared and and, you know, I didn't I didn't wanna go here. I didn't wanna leave my family and my friends and the relationships that we had built. But when we say "yes to Jesus", it's yes to Jesus. In fact, whenever I was struggling with the with the decision to say yes, I said it, but I was struggling with it. Does that make sense?
Sometimes we say yes, and they were like, what have we done? When I was struggling, I called Clay Russell. He's 1 of our dear friends. 1 of the leaders, he leads Fresh Start, the drug rehab that we're associated with in Louisiana. And he said, Courtney, because he's Louisiana and this is how Clay talks, I'll tell you, I've made 1 decision in my life that mattered, and that's yes, Lord.
And every decision I make lines up with yes, Lord. And I've never regretted it, and you're not gonna regret it. And, I told that to to Trip at 5 years old. I said, Bud, we said yes to the Lord. And and he's going to provide.
He's going to give us a life that that is abundant. He's gonna bring relationships to us. He's gonna bring friends. He's gonna bring these things that you feel like you're giving up. And I don't wanna martyr him or make him feel like a victim or make any of our children because they they live an incredible life and they are very blessed, but I am not blind to the fact that they live a life that not a lot of kids experience.
They've given up their rooms, they've given up their beds, they've given up their house while we have meetings. That's just the life that they live. And I'll tell you, when I told him that, while we've been walking for the last 6 years, we lived here for a year and we've been a church for 5 years, while we're teaching about being content and we're teaching about gratitude and and all of that, I have never heard a complaint from any 1 of my children about the life that we live. And, I wanna say that I am so proud of my kids. I wanna honor my kids for their willingness to to understand in their childlike way that we're on mission.
We have a job to do. And it's not just us. Parents, your children should be on mission too. We're called to train them, called to tell them, come on, come alongside me as we learn what it looks like to follow Jesus. And what's so precious is my girls were 2 and 3 years old, and I knew that they had each other, but he's our only boy.
And now we have we have 3 girls. River was River doesn't have any other life other than real church. She owns this place, and she acts like she does. She's 2. But I figured my girls had each other, but I was like, Lord, I prayed this as we're coming, as we don't know anyone in Clearwater.
And I'm like, Lord, will you send friends that can can understand what he's going we we send him good friends. And I kid you not, about 2 or 3 years ago, a kid from school's parents planted a church in Westchase or a portable church in a high school, and the kid is his best friend in his class with him. His exact same age. The Lord cares about you and he cares about your children, and not just making them feel better, but blessing them and taking care of them. When I was concerned that I'm failing my kids because I'm dragging them away from everything they know, the Lord's like, no, you are leading them to do what I've created you to do as a parent.
So do not despise taking small steps of obedience and trusting the Lord as you do it. He is so faithful. I am proud of you guys, man. Y'all have been troopers. Again, when when I was in high school, y'all might be like, oh my gosh.
She's standing up here thanking a bunch of people. When I was in high school, we always had these banquets, like this athletic banquet and and different clubs and everything, and we'd be clapping for people. Like, we're supposed to outdo 1 another in honor, this should be a joy. As I've been thinking about this, I was like, Lord, I don't wanna drown on just saying how great everybody is. I wanna settle in on how great you are, but really as we're honoring people, we're honoring him.
Right? So, this might seem weird as a wife, but I wanna honor pastor David even though he's not here. Honor David. Because that man's faith, like I said before, is something that we can all learn from. And it's interesting that I have a vantage point that no 1 else does.
And so, for me to confidently say, like, he is the best leader that I've ever met, that's a lot if you've heard our testimony. Because the first couple years of our marriage, couldn't say that. But I've seen the Lord work in him with his willingness to say, yes, Lord, whatever you say. Oh, you want me to change how I how I treat my wife? You want me to change how I raise my children?
You want me to shift my life in order to follow you? Okay. That should be what we all do. It should be an easy step because we trust him. And, really, if you don't understand that he's good, it's very difficult to trust him.
And I assure you that he is always faithful. He is always good. A couple of months into the church, we get a call. And this guy says, I just want you to know what's about to happen. I have nothing to do with it.
And then he hung up. And so, we were like David said, we're about to get pranked. And I was like, I don't like pranks. I don't like tricks. I think everybody should just be kind to 1 another.
And someone now, just so you know, this guy's been gone since we were 3 months into the church, so you probably don't know him. He was very much behind the scenes. But he brought in a group of people on the dream team who unfortunately left left the church. He brought in a group, and they started going around. He called it an intervention.
That was his word, not ours. And, he spoke about the mission that God gave us, which is discipleship, which takes time. It takes resources. It takes it takes of ourselves being willing to walk through that process that Courtney so eloquently said she's in. It takes walking through the process of discipleship to fulfill the mission God has given real church.
And all of their concerns were centered around, we need more people in the church because the work has gotten too hard for us. And it had. It had gotten hard. It had gotten to where there were very few people doing the job of a lot of people. And he said, I know what we need to do, and the mission is great.
And 1 day, we can get to that. But but we need to do these things. And and, eventually, we can do the discipleship and all of that. And and I remember David, I'm thinking at this point, I'm like, this isn't a prank. This is serious.
And David's sitting like this on the couch or on a chair, and he goes, so what do you want us to do? And he said, we need to do whatever it takes to get more people in the church. And David said, we're gonna do whatever it takes to show you the love of Jesus and live your God given purpose. That's what God said. That's what we're doing whatever it takes for.
And then he said, and, you know, what you're wanting to do takes time to equip people, to get them ready for greatness. And and that's all well and good, but we're getting burned out. And in honoring David, I wanna share what he said with such conviction that I was like, okay. Okay, baby. He said, the mission that God gave Real Church is not for sale, and we are not going to shortcut things to get more butts in the seat so that you don't have to work as hard.
That was from the board. It was because I'm sitting there, my face was blood red. I was like, I don't like conflict. I've learned to enjoy healthy conflict and watch the Lord work in it. But then, I didn't like it.
And I'm sitting there not wanting to say anything but defend the church. I'm like, our church is wonderful. Our team is great. Everybody left, and we sat back and said, what just happened? And David said, that was an attack against what God wants to do at Real Church.
We will not shortcut the process because we will shortchange the fruit. And I don't wanna shortchange the fruit of *discipleship* because what I see is that the process takes time, and we're gonna have to clean up messes, and we're gonna we're gonna take late night phone calls, and we're gonna get up early to go and serve people. We're gonna take care of people. And if all of us are doing that, the work is not as hard as people make it out to be. Many hands make light work.
And if you are a part of this church body, I just need to let you know that we're not going to let up on this. We're not gonna relent on helping you to make disciples, on helping you to to walk hand in hand with people. And it should be a joy because it's the call that Jesus gave us. Listen. Jesus brought 12 dudes in with him to live with him, to eat fish, to walk with him, to do life with him for years.
We can give up some of our time for some of these people that the Lord are bringing to him. Amen? This made me cry. I wanna share another testimony. Let me just say that seeing someone go from death to life, and not just death to life, but death to **"abundant life"**, is more rewarding than anything.
Right. Before I accepted Jesus as my savior, I was completely broken. I felt angry most of the time. I was really lost. I felt betrayed, abandoned, unwanted, unlovable, depressed, and I had 0 self worth.
Although, spent good money on trying to look good on the outside, I was dying on the inside and filled with pain. I tried to kill myself by the age of 30. I was the victim of sexual, mental, and physical abuse. I turned to drinking to try and numb the pain, but nothing worked. After my entire family disowned me, I was convinced if my parents didn't love me, how could God possibly love me?
How I came to know Jesus was by stumbling on a video about real church on Facebook. I had not been to church in over 30 years, and after 8 years of Catholic school, I was totally against organized religion, but something just kept tugging at my heart to go check it out. It honestly was the best decision I ever made in my entire life. I went to their very first service on 09/16/2018, and for the first time in my life, I felt an unexplainable peace. I felt loved.
I felt accepted. I faithfully came every Sunday and wanted to know God better and develop a real relationship with him. I quickly discovered it's not about religion at all, but instead, it's about relationship. I dug out my bible and now read it faithfully every day. I joined the dream team.
I volunteered to do outside events like feeding the homeless. I served on 2 different teams at church. I joined small groups, hosted small groups, and have led many small groups at my home. What I learned is if you're just coming to church to hear a great sermon and walk away feeling better about yourself, then you're doing it wrong. I'm gonna read that again.
What I learned is if you're just coming to church to hear a great sermon and walk away feeling better about yourself, then you're doing it wrong. I look at it like pastor David's "spiritual boot camp", where he teaches us how to be great disciples, how to serve others, and how to help save others. *Galatians-2:20*, it's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. It's been 5 years since I've faithfully attended real church, and a lot has changed in my life in these past 5 years. Within the first few months of attending real church, I got saved, I got baptized, I left a 13 year relationship with a man who was mentally abusive, I stopped hanging out with the wrong crowd.
Today is 1488 days since I quit smoking cold turkey after 37 years of a smoking addiction. I was totally set free of an alcohol addiction. I had a torn meniscus in my knee that was 100% healed through prayers. I had a brain tumor that's now completely gone. I've had 3 heart surgeries that my church family helped me through, and my heart is now healed.
I'm no longer filled with anger, fear, depression, anxiety, loneliness, or pain. I'm now filled with the Holy Spirit. And, I have so much peace in my life, and all I wanna do is help others feel this love and joy and help save those who've not yet made that decision. I can't stop talking about Jesus to everyone. If you know Jackie, you know that's true.
We have to say if you know that. I can't stop talking about Jesus to everyone I meet. I pray on the phone to scam callers, the cable company, my doctor's office. I've been in the doctor's office where I'm trying to get details of her exam, and she's like, hang on. I gotta tell you something.
*Jesus* loves you so much. I'm I'm the I'm 1 of the pastors, and I'm trying to get through the doctor's appointment. And she's like, hang on. We've got work to do. That's missional mindedness.
That's a saved person. Man. My doctor's office. I've even prayed for people on the phone at the IRS. I now have an entire church family who genuinely loves and accepts me just the way I am.
I have a father in heaven who never stopped loving me and will never abandon me. My chains have all been broken, and I've been self set free from my own self bondage. I've forgiven everyone who's ever hurt me, and I pray for their salvation. I am a child of God. I'm loved and forgiven by his blood on the cross.
*Romans-1:16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel* because it's the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes. *Jesus* did all this for me, and he can do it for you too. People like like Jackie excite me. Because as as she shared, this whole process hasn't has been anything but easy. She's had sickness.
She's had heartache. She's had a lot of things that have gone on, but but she kept saying, but I'm but I'm yours. But there were people that kept reminding her that she belongs to him. That's our job. If there is someone in this room who's saying the way that she and and Courtney described themselves before they met Jesus, that's me, do not leave here today without at least talking to someone.
After Heidi dismisses everyone, we're gonna have the leaders up here, and it's gonna be like a post service prayer. So, if you need prayer, if you have questions, if you're like, I don't even know if I know Jesus, come and talk to someone. Do not leave here. Today is the day of salvation for you. And for those of you who have decided to make Real Church your home, can tell you like I told a woman a couple of weeks ago.
She was telling me about her situation and how she was willing she's a believer, but willingly choosing to remain in this horrid sin, and basically saying, no 1 can stop me. And I told her, if you make Real Church your home, we're not only going to continue pushing you towards the cross because we love you, We're also going to push you towards helping other people know the Jesus that you know. But right now, there's some things that you you gotta get get right in your life, which means recognizing I'm already forgiven. Now, I'm gonna live like it. That's the simplicity of walking in your relationship with Jesus.
Recognize if you are saved, if you are already made holy through the blood of Jesus, you are right in the eyes of God, now live like it. And, if you don't know what that looks like, guess what? We got a room full of disciple makers here who will help you. God has done so much in the last 5 years. And it would be really easy to put a check mark on it and be like, wow.
This is so good. He's done so much. But like David said, he's just getting started. Do you know why I know that? Because we live in a county of 1000000 people, and not all of them have heard the gospel.
It is challenging to get outside of ourselves, believers, and share with people because it takes us laying aside ourselves. But if it's truly not I who live, but Christ who lives in me, then that should propel me to walk in what he's asked me to walk in. Right? I think that we sometimes need to be reminded as believers that it is no longer I who live. Like I told you at the beginning, I'm trying to make everything work, and I'm trying to get everything together and do things in my own power.
Did you know that if God calls you to something, he's gonna require you to depend on him? And that includes reaching your friends for Jesus. That includes raising your families in a godly way. Everything that he calls you to do, he is going to require that you depend on him. Do you know why?
Because you can't depend on you. He is so faithful to help us. He is so faithful to walk with us through the good and bad. And if you are in here and you're saying, "I don't know what's next", go back to the last thing that he told you to do and just do it. And if you need help, come and ask somebody for help.
The beauty of being a **body of believers** is that we are 1 and we're doing things together. And this is not a place where you're going to be able to come in and leave and not be challenged in your faith to move forward. We love you too much, and the mission is too precious. The mission is discipleship. If you would say, wow, this feels like the place where I belong, but I don't know what to do, first step, "come to establish".
Heidi's gonna tell you about it in a minute. We're gonna help you know what we're doing. If you say, this is my church. I wanna be a member here. I wanna do I wanna learn.
I wanna grow. I wanna train with these people. Listen, we invite you to be a part of that. I put membership forms up here on the stage. You fill them out and leave them on the stage.
Take them home and pray over them. Our goal is not to grow in numbers right now. Our prayer is that we will grow at the rate of discipleship, and that takes those of us who are committed to the mission that God has us on. It takes us saying, yes, Lord. What do you want me to do?
Okay. Very simple. I have 4 kids, and you can ask Tripp. I frequently say, if you would just do what I tell you to do, you would make life a lot better for you. He'll go, yeah.
And I feel like God is saying that to all of us. He loves you, and the best truly is yet to come for this church. The best truly is yet to come for this county. Would you pray with me, please? *Lord*, we honor you here.
And if the last 5 years is a testimony of what's to come, Lord, thank you, and we're submitted to the process that you have each of us on, Lord. Help us to get outside of ourselves and into the mission that you've put us on as a body. Help us to not separate our lives and our church life, but to combine the calling of God on our lives, and that this place just be a a tool to equip us to go and do what you've called us to do. Lord, I pray that this church will continue to be a haven for "broken and hurting people", and that when they come in, they experience your love, and they are set free and changed for eternity, Lord. And, Lord, I pray that we don't become so self absorbed that we forget that you have a mission for us, and that is to equip people and empower people, Lord.
And that process might be long and tedious, Lord, but we're committed to it. Help us, Lord. We are so humbled that you've even asked us to play this part in your kingdom. So here we are. Send us, Lord.
Use us. In Jesus' holy sweet and precious name, pray. Amen.