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Waiting Well | Dream Big | Week 8 · Life Community Church

0:02
SPEAKER_01: Hello, this is Jamie Bridges, and thank you so much for joining us for this week's podcast.
0:08
SPEAKER_01: All of our services are inspired and built straight from the Bible.
0:11
SPEAKER_01: Let's get into this week's message recorded at Life Community Church.
0:16
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
0:17
SPEAKER_02: One of the things we're uh we're talking about today is this space that I think a lot of people are in, and this space is kind of this waiting in between uh moments.
0:28
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you've you're you're in life right now and you feel like, man, this process of what you're trusting God for, this process that you're in.
0:35
SPEAKER_02: And I don't know how many people love to fly.
0:37
SPEAKER_02: Anybody?
0:38
SPEAKER_02: Love to fly?
0:39
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
0:39
SPEAKER_02: Uh yeah, I have a love-hate relationship.
0:42
SPEAKER_02: A lot of pet peeves.
0:43
SPEAKER_02: Uh, I think flying reveals a lot of what's going on on the inside of us, right?
0:48
SPEAKER_02: Uh one of my biggest pet peeves is when you you pull up and you're about to get off, you hear that ding, right?
0:54
SPEAKER_02: What's everybody do?
0:56
SPEAKER_02: They stand up.
0:56
SPEAKER_02: And you're like, what the heck are we doing right now?
1:00
SPEAKER_02: Why are we standing up?
1:01
SPEAKER_02: What are we doing?
1:02
SPEAKER_02: Like, you're not going anywhere for a while.
1:04
SPEAKER_02: You're gonna be waiting.
1:05
SPEAKER_02: You're gonna hurry up and wait.
1:06
SPEAKER_02: That's all that's happening, especially when someone's in row nine trying to get past row eight.
1:11
SPEAKER_02: That actually happened.
1:12
SPEAKER_02: Some old lady, she's in row nine.
1:14
SPEAKER_02: I'm in row eight, and I'm like, lady, what are we doing?
1:16
SPEAKER_02: Kelly's like, be quiet, be quiet.
1:18
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, no, this lady is crossing the line, right?
1:22
SPEAKER_02: Seven, then six, five, then four.
1:26
SPEAKER_02: Like, this is an easy process.
1:27
SPEAKER_02: Why are you a nine needing to get off?
1:30
SPEAKER_02: And you're wearing a mask.
1:31
SPEAKER_02: So I had a problem.
1:32
SPEAKER_02: I had a problem.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: If you're just get in front of him if you come to show.
1:35
SPEAKER_02: Stay home.
1:36
SPEAKER_02: Stay home.
1:37
SPEAKER_02: Like, don't fly on this Southwest fly.
1:40
SPEAKER_02: That's just me.
1:40
SPEAKER_02: Like, anybody else have a problem waiting?
1:43
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that it's the reason you're standing up like this.
1:46
SPEAKER_02: You're under this overhang.
1:48
SPEAKER_02: Like, I'm gonna stand here and I'm gonna just wait.
1:50
SPEAKER_02: No, you look like you're about to go to the bathroom.
1:52
SPEAKER_02: That's what's going on.
1:53
SPEAKER_02: Like, just sit down, chill for a moment, and let row six through one to get out.
1:58
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
1:58
SPEAKER_02: And then we'll go.
1:59
SPEAKER_02: But this is this is kind of the season we're in.
2:02
SPEAKER_02: And Paul is talking to the Philippian church.
2:05
SPEAKER_02: Are you okay?
2:07
SPEAKER_02: You've heard this two other times already?
2:10
SPEAKER_00: I just I had this vision.
2:12
SPEAKER_02: Oh no.
2:15
SPEAKER_02: That's old men dream dreams.
2:17
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
2:18
SPEAKER_02: Young men have visions.
2:20
SPEAKER_02: Um Paul is.
2:25
SPEAKER_02: Young men have visions.
2:27
SPEAKER_02: Come on.
2:28
SPEAKER_02: Philippians chapter 4.
2:30
SPEAKER_02: Philippians chapter 4.
2:31
SPEAKER_02: Paul's talking to the Philippian church and he's talking specifically about waiting.
2:35
SPEAKER_02: Now, some of us we know Philippians 4.13 because we use it on anything we're about to endure.
2:40
SPEAKER_02: Seasons, sports.
2:42
SPEAKER_02: I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.
2:45
SPEAKER_02: It's not actually what Paul is addressing or talking about.
2:48
SPEAKER_02: In fact, Paul is saying this, and in verse 11, Paul says, Not that I was ever in need, for I've learned how to be content with whatever I have.
2:59
SPEAKER_02: I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything.
3:02
SPEAKER_02: I've learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or an empty one, with plenty or little, for I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength.
3:13
SPEAKER_02: And even so, Paul's talking again to the people, even so, you have done well to share with me in my present difficulty.
3:21
SPEAKER_02: Paul's saying, listen, here's what's going on in my life.
3:24
SPEAKER_02: Here's what I've learned.
3:26
SPEAKER_02: And this is for us to grasp because Paul didn't say I found contentment.
3:30
SPEAKER_02: He didn't say I grew into contentment.
3:33
SPEAKER_02: He didn't say I discovered something.
3:34
SPEAKER_02: He said, I've learned it.
3:36
SPEAKER_02: And there's a big difference between learning something and something being given to us.
3:42
SPEAKER_02: Paul's saying, I've been through so much, you guys, that I know what it is to have a lot, I know what it is to have a little.
3:48
SPEAKER_02: I know what it is to be on the mountaintop, I know what it is to be in the valley.
3:52
SPEAKER_02: Paul's discovered something in his life that no matter where I am, I've learned something that God is still there.
4:00
SPEAKER_02: That I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.
4:04
SPEAKER_02: And in these seasons that Paul's talking about, he's saying we often confuse contentment with settling.
4:10
SPEAKER_02: But the Bible is clear that contentment is not giving up on what God has promised us.
4:16
SPEAKER_02: As followers of Jesus, we know eternity is a promise for all of us, which means why on earth are we stressing about certain things?
4:27
SPEAKER_02: I'm not diminishing the real things that are happening in our lives.
4:31
SPEAKER_02: All across all three services, there are people that are going through real life difficult things.
4:36
SPEAKER_02: But in the grand scheme of perspective, when it comes to the promises that God has for us, in light of eternity, man, they are minimal.
4:46
SPEAKER_02: That's the reason later Paul says, You could take my body, but you cannot take my soul.
4:51
SPEAKER_02: If I am absent from this earth, I'm present with the Lord.
4:54
SPEAKER_02: He understood you could do all of these things, but you can never take away eternity.
5:01
SPEAKER_02: What is that?
5:02
SPEAKER_02: That is contentment.
5:04
SPEAKER_02: Where's Paul writing this from?
5:06
SPEAKER_02: Prison.
5:07
SPEAKER_02: Not the luxuries of being in Jamaica or on the beach or at your lake house.
5:11
SPEAKER_02: He's writing from prison and he's saying, I've learned what it is to be without and I'm okay.
5:19
SPEAKER_02: He's writing to a group of people who are concerned about what Paul is going through, and he's telling them, guys, I'm good.
5:27
SPEAKER_02: I'm okay.
5:28
SPEAKER_02: Even though I'm through these situations, I'm okay.
5:32
SPEAKER_02: This is what waiting looks like.
5:35
SPEAKER_02: Contentment is not the absence of desire.
5:38
SPEAKER_02: Being content and a follower of Jesus, we can say this.
5:42
SPEAKER_02: I trust God enough to be at peace before he answers.
5:48
SPEAKER_02: I'm trusting God enough to be at peace before he ever answers.
5:53
SPEAKER_02: That means I can desire marriage yet still be content in being single.
5:58
SPEAKER_02: That means I can believe for healing and still be content in waiting for that healing.
6:04
SPEAKER_02: That means I can dream I can still dream of what's next and still be faithful right now where I'm living.
6:11
SPEAKER_02: That's what Paul's talking about.
6:13
SPEAKER_02: That's contentment.
6:15
SPEAKER_02: That's living content.
6:16
SPEAKER_02: And that's what he's challenging and encouraging us to be a part of.
6:21
SPEAKER_04: On February 1st, uh many of us uh were handed a spiritual journey card by the leadership of a flight community church by our pastor.
6:31
SPEAKER_04: And we were asked to uh process you know what it might look like for us to take 30 days into pause or to wait, uh, with the hope that then we would be able to receive something from the Lord in regards to what we were going to financially contribute to uh the Dream Big campaign.
6:49
SPEAKER_04: And I remember uh and most of you probably do remember, it was the weekend we were all snowed in, right?
6:54
SPEAKER_04: We got a video from Pastor Jamie, and it was more of a link, and then we picked up that document, you know, when we came in the next week.
7:00
SPEAKER_04: But that weekend we were all snowed in, the Williamson sat down at the kitchen table and we began to discuss what it looked like for us to go on this spiritual journey.
7:08
SPEAKER_04: What does the first 30 days look like for us?
7:11
SPEAKER_04: So we talked about like what we were gonna fast, the things that we were gonna remove from our lives in those 30 days: food, phones, whatever it is, all those kind of things, self-denial, denying self.
7:26
SPEAKER_04: And then we also began to talk about like what we were gonna do with our time.
7:29
SPEAKER_04: So the things that we were removing, how what we were gonna fill that time with, how we were gonna pray, how we were gonna read, when we were gonna pray, when we were gonna read, what we were gonna commit to, all of these kind of things.
7:39
SPEAKER_04: And we then for 30 days, you know, held each other accountable and stuck to the goal and was disciplined.
7:46
SPEAKER_04: And at the end of the 30 days, I don't know if you feel this way, but at the end of the 30 days, man, it was awesome.
7:53
SPEAKER_04: Like it was refreshing for us.
7:56
SPEAKER_04: We felt transformed.
7:58
SPEAKER_04: We remembered what self-denial actually, how what it did for our home, what it did for our family, what it did for us as individuals.
8:05
SPEAKER_04: It was incredible.
8:07
SPEAKER_04: It was so, so good.
8:10
SPEAKER_04: I mean, it was just so good, which reminded me what Jeremiah said in Lamentations 3.25 when he says this.
8:17
SPEAKER_04: The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
8:26
SPEAKER_04: We experience this as a family after 30 days.
8:29
SPEAKER_04: That the Lord is good to those who wait for him, who seek him, whose souls wait on him.
8:36
SPEAKER_04: 22 says this the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end.
8:43
SPEAKER_04: 23, they are new every morning.
8:45
SPEAKER_04: Great is your faithfulness.
8:48
SPEAKER_04: Twenty-four, the Lord is my portion, says my soul.
8:51
SPEAKER_04: Therefore I will hope in him.
8:53
SPEAKER_04: Listen, what we've already learned is this that the reward is not fifty-seven acres.
9:01
SPEAKER_04: That the reward is not the buildings that will be built on fifty-seven acres, that the reward is the Lord.
9:10
SPEAKER_04: The reward is his steadfast love for us, the reward is his mercies that are new every morning, the reward is his great faithfulness, the reward in the waiting, right?
9:24
SPEAKER_04: We learn that he again is our portion, that he is our hope.
9:29
SPEAKER_04: Listen, if there's anything that I wish that you as a family would experience as we have as a family, is that he is our portion, that he is our reward, that he is what we should be working for, striving for, aiming for.
9:46
SPEAKER_04: And in that, like the Lord then will invite us to be a part of something amazing.
9:51
SPEAKER_04: As we wait, we find strength.
9:54
SPEAKER_04: As we wait, we find direction.
9:57
SPEAKER_04: As we wait, we get to dream big and be a part of something amazing.
10:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I too, I'm I'm so glad that we paralleled a spiritual journey with the other natural aspects of what we're doing in our dream big initiative.
10:17
SPEAKER_00: Um with what I do, there's a number of churches that I've worked with through the years doing capital campaigns, and and the only thing that's focused on is the capital and not the spiritual journey aspect of it.
10:30
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm very appreciative of that because I think it's equally, if not more, important that this is a spiritual journey and not just a natural initiative that you know that we're endeavoring to do.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: I uh for me, I I really loved the 24 hours of prayer that we did.
10:49
SPEAKER_00: How many of you were involved in in the 24 hours of prayer?
10:53
SPEAKER_00: It's not a trick question, you can reach yeah.
10:56
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
10:57
SPEAKER_00: And um I did the 3 to 5 a.m.
11:01
SPEAKER_00: stint, and typically because I'm up at that time anyway.
11:05
SPEAKER_00: Were you dreaming dreams?
11:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
11:07
SPEAKER_00: But um what spoke to me was that there were seven or eight people that showed up for the three to five a.m.
11:14
SPEAKER_00: and I'm like, dang, Lord, you're doing something here.
11:17
SPEAKER_00: For the, you know, they say, Oh, seven or eight people, yeah, but three to five a.m.
11:20
SPEAKER_00: to come and pray.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: And and and that's what they were doing, praying.
11:25
SPEAKER_00: I that spoke to me that God is really doing something in this.
11:28
SPEAKER_00: And so I I'm excited, I'm excited about the whole endeavor, but I'm really excited about the spiritual endeavor that we are on.
11:37
SPEAKER_00: I want to share with something with you from I'm gonna share several points.
11:40
SPEAKER_00: I'll do a couple now and a couple later, but this comes from um out of actually out of two scriptures in Matthew 28.
11:47
SPEAKER_00: You're all probably familiar, most of you, with it's the Great Commission where Jesus says, Therefore, go into all the world and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
12:00
SPEAKER_00: And then and then later, or not later, but in then Luke's account in Luke 24, verse 49, Jesus says, This, now I'll send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father promise, but stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit is.
12:14
SPEAKER_00: So it's it's kind of like Jesus was saying, go, but not yet.
12:18
SPEAKER_00: You know, you ever had that in your life where it's like you feel like the Lord's saying go, but then there's it, you know.
12:24
SPEAKER_00: It's why is that?
12:26
SPEAKER_00: I think we have to understand that in these endeavors of God, of his work in the earth, and then using us in what he's endeavoring to do, is that he's preparing us and and and getting us to look forward, but then he's saying, I want to equip you for what's before you.
12:44
SPEAKER_00: So get ready, but make sure you get equipped for everything.
12:48
SPEAKER_00: And so from that, one of the first points that I've I've run through this is you've got to embrace the pause.
12:54
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
12:55
SPEAKER_00: How many of you like the pause button?
12:59
SPEAKER_00: Probably none of us.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: You know?
13:04
SPEAKER_00: It's like you know, like if you're you're playing a podcast or something or something, you hit pause, and it's like it just ruins the whole thing, right?
13:14
SPEAKER_00: But there's there's power in that, there's an importance in that because what we do many times is we get something, we want to rush right into the next thing.
13:24
SPEAKER_00: You know, and uh sometimes that's the worst thing you can do because you need to pause.
13:30
SPEAKER_00: And in that pause is where God because God is continually working in our midst in that pause.
13:36
SPEAKER_00: God is continually building and implementing and releasing things in that um that He's setting things up for us.
13:44
SPEAKER_00: And if we don't pause many times what we do, I don't know about you, but I've kind of messed up the things that God wanted to do because I was impatient.
13:52
SPEAKER_00: And so we need to embrace the pause.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: And the second thing is we need to focus on the present.
13:58
SPEAKER_00: Meaning what?
13:59
SPEAKER_00: Before that happens, we've got to make sure we're being attentive to what's important right now, too.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: It's not just about the future.
14:07
SPEAKER_00: There is a future who's coming, but we need to be attentive and building and the lives of people that God is giving us the opportunity to touch, the endeavors of ministry, the outreaches, all the aspects of what we're doing.
14:21
SPEAKER_00: We need to be attentive to the now also through this.
14:24
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and so you know that's that's where we're at.
14:28
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're in.
14:29
SPEAKER_02: I think every single one of us have what we would deem defining moments.
14:34
SPEAKER_02: There they're these moments that you're defining the rest of your life.
14:38
SPEAKER_02: And uh again, it's not diminishing the everyday life, but there are moments where you just know, man, this date or what happened on this moment changes everything.
14:47
SPEAKER_02: And in October of 2005, over 20 years ago, uh, I was praying in the sanctuary that we were youth pastors at, and I felt the Lord strongly say, Jamie, you're in a season of transition, and in the season of transition, I'm asking you not to seek it.
15:02
SPEAKER_02: I will send someone your way, and it will be a person you do not know and a place you've never been.
15:07
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, Okay, Lord.
15:08
SPEAKER_02: And so we began this season of waiting.
15:10
SPEAKER_02: And in December of 2005, just two months later, we were sitting in our our house.
15:15
SPEAKER_02: I had a six-year-old Jake, uh, three-year-old Carson, and a one-year-old Libby, and we're having dinner, and the phone rang on the wall.
15:24
SPEAKER_02: And Kelly got up and grabbed that phone, and her response was, Who?
15:30
SPEAKER_02: Where?
15:31
SPEAKER_02: And on the other line was a gentleman that said, My name is Pastor Dobie Weasel from Omaha, Nebraska.
15:38
SPEAKER_02: And I knew in that moment um it was an answer, it was a fulfillment of the promise that God had spoken to us months before.
15:46
SPEAKER_02: And so on March 1st, 2006, 20 years to the day, I jumped in my GMC safari all by myself, and for the next month uh established our new lives in Omaha, Nebraska.
16:02
SPEAKER_02: And Kelly said, listen, be close to the church and don't rent a split level.
16:08
SPEAKER_02: We were 25 minutes from the church in a split level.
16:11
SPEAKER_02: It's just what it was.
16:13
SPEAKER_02: It's not that I wasn't submitting to my wife or honoring her, it was what was available, and it had a hot tub.
16:21
SPEAKER_02: So um there it is.
16:24
SPEAKER_02: There it is.
16:25
SPEAKER_02: And so it was a fulfillment of the waiting.
16:28
SPEAKER_02: And I don't know what season of life you're in.
16:31
SPEAKER_02: I just know that God is speaking and God is looking to his church to obey what it is that he's saying.
16:40
SPEAKER_02: And what God is saying to you, like it was to me in October of 2005, may not make sense to you.
16:46
SPEAKER_02: In fact, I think the temptation is to make things happen.
16:49
SPEAKER_02: When Pastor Mike is talking about going, we want to make things happen out of being impatient, and we're missing out on the promises that God wants to fulfill in our life because of that impatience.
17:01
SPEAKER_02: And so what's happening is in the waiting, we're we're what is being revealed is what we're leaning on.
17:08
SPEAKER_02: What is being revealed in this waiting time is where our sources, who we trust, what we're leaning on.
17:16
SPEAKER_02: Because waiting exposes what we've been using for stability.
17:22
SPEAKER_02: That's what waiting exposes.
17:24
SPEAKER_02: If your peace disappears when progress slows, it may be because progress, not God, was holding you up.
17:35
SPEAKER_02: And so in this season, season, I know waiting strips away my timeline, my identity that I've built that is not on Jesus, certainties that I've leaned on that I shouldn't have leaned on.
17:49
SPEAKER_02: And that's that's uncomfortable, but hear me.
17:52
SPEAKER_02: It's also a holy moment where God is inviting us into the season of waiting.
17:58
SPEAKER_02: And it by inviting us, he's saying, in the season of waiting, I have the best for you.
18:04
SPEAKER_02: If only you would pause, if only you would wait upon the Lord.
18:11
SPEAKER_02: See, the greatest ability all of us in this room has is our availability.
18:16
SPEAKER_02: That's the greatest ability.
18:17
SPEAKER_02: I can't I can't make things happen over here.
18:20
SPEAKER_02: The Lord can take them away.
18:21
SPEAKER_02: I can't give my opinion here.
18:22
SPEAKER_02: People ask all the time, what's your opinion of what the next five years looks like?
18:26
SPEAKER_02: Don't do that to me.
18:28
SPEAKER_02: I have no clue.
18:31
SPEAKER_02: My only job, my only responsibility as a follower of Jesus is to be available to what the Lord is saying.
18:39
SPEAKER_02: That's it.
18:40
SPEAKER_02: Pressure off you guys.
18:42
SPEAKER_02: We that think that we gotta perform or we have to do X, Y, and Z, the Lord says, Would you just wait and be available?
18:50
SPEAKER_02: And again, for the impatient people in this room, hello, where are we at?
18:55
SPEAKER_02: This is a struggle.
18:57
SPEAKER_02: It is a struggle because we want it now.
18:59
SPEAKER_02: Microwave that thing, it'll taste okay.
19:02
SPEAKER_02: That's what we want.
19:04
SPEAKER_02: It's what we want.
19:05
SPEAKER_02: And contentment grows when we focus on what is, not what isn't.
19:11
SPEAKER_02: We have a tendency to want to think about the things that we don't have or that we missed out on.
19:19
SPEAKER_02: And God says, Why don't you focus right here?
19:22
SPEAKER_02: When Paul is when Paul is saying, Hey, listen, God, can you do this?
19:27
SPEAKER_02: God, can you do this?
19:28
SPEAKER_02: God, I'm impatient.
19:29
SPEAKER_02: What does he say?
19:30
SPEAKER_02: My grace is sufficient for you.
19:32
SPEAKER_02: He doesn't heal them, he doesn't respond to them except to say, Listen, my grace is enough.
19:39
SPEAKER_02: And grace being sufficient means empowerment.
19:43
SPEAKER_02: God doesn't give grace to us so that we can go, man, God gave me grace.
19:47
SPEAKER_02: God gives grace to us so we're never the same again.
19:50
SPEAKER_02: He's empowering us to never be the same again.
19:53
SPEAKER_02: So when you say you've been saved by grace, that means, God, I've asked for your forgiveness.
19:58
SPEAKER_02: You've saved me, you've changed me by your grace, and your grace has now empowered me to never go back there.
20:04
SPEAKER_02: So then Proverbs gives us this picture, like a dog returning to its vomit.
20:10
SPEAKER_02: This disgusting picture, right?
20:12
SPEAKER_02: So that we understand that when I don't rely on the grace that He empowered me to, I always go back to the disgusting.
20:21
SPEAKER_02: And by going back to the disgusting, the outside world will go, that's gross.
20:25
SPEAKER_02: God says, I also think it's gross.
20:28
SPEAKER_02: Rely.
20:29
SPEAKER_02: God is saying to us today, I'm enough.
20:33
SPEAKER_02: My grace is sufficient.
20:36
SPEAKER_02: There's no plan B here, you guys.
20:38
SPEAKER_02: It's waiting on the Lord.
20:40
SPEAKER_02: And that's we want him to do what he wants to do, not what we want.
20:45
SPEAKER_02: Not what I want.
20:48
SPEAKER_02: What we're talking about is gonna outlive everybody in this room.
20:53
SPEAKER_02: If it's built on us, we've missed the whole point.
20:56
SPEAKER_02: It's gotta be built on him.
21:00
SPEAKER_04: As believers, as Christians, and you've heard this all morning, we find direction while we wait.
21:08
SPEAKER_04: If you're looking for direction, start waiting.
21:14
SPEAKER_04: Start waiting.
21:16
SPEAKER_04: Extremely difficult.
21:18
SPEAKER_04: We find direction as we wait.
21:21
SPEAKER_04: And specifically the direction that we were looking for as a family was how much we were going to give to this campaign.
21:28
SPEAKER_04: That was what was before us.
21:29
SPEAKER_04: That was the goal that was set before us.
21:31
SPEAKER_04: That's what we were asking the Lord.
21:32
SPEAKER_04: We were asked answering the question what is it that you want us to do financially?
21:38
SPEAKER_04: That's what's being asked of us as believers as we attempt to do 57 acres.
21:46
SPEAKER_04: And so at the end of 30 days, we sat around the kitchen table again.
21:55
SPEAKER_04: And we began to practically ask ourselves first and foremost out of our own buttons.
22:00
SPEAKER_04: What we can do.
22:02
SPEAKER_04: What can you do?
22:04
SPEAKER_04: Natalie, what can you do?
22:06
SPEAKER_04: Mom, Dad, what can you do?
22:09
SPEAKER_04: We came up with our number that would work, right?
22:13
SPEAKER_04: And then we began to say, okay, Lord, we've been waiting.
22:16
SPEAKER_04: What is it that you want us to do?
22:17
SPEAKER_04: What is it that you're gonna do?
22:19
SPEAKER_04: How are you gonna be involved with this as well when it comes to our family?
22:23
SPEAKER_04: Right?
22:24
SPEAKER_04: And he gave us together a number.
22:27
SPEAKER_04: And guys, listen, on Friday night, the Friday night before that all most of us on Sunday morning gave.
22:32
SPEAKER_04: We had a leadership gathering here where all the leaders of the church gave.
22:35
SPEAKER_04: And guys, I drove here.
22:36
SPEAKER_04: I was we were you know how it works.
22:38
SPEAKER_04: We didn't none of us drive together anymore.
22:39
SPEAKER_04: We all drive, you know, separate vehicles.
22:41
SPEAKER_04: So I'm driving here, it's gotta be earlier, and I am rocking out.
22:46
SPEAKER_04: I got the music turned up loud, it's freezing cold outside.
24:15
SPEAKER_04: I can show you my challenge you want to come to the financial situation of our home.
24:19
SPEAKER_04: I count every penny.
24:21
SPEAKER_04: Right?
24:24
SPEAKER_04: I'm being asked.
24:26
SPEAKER_04: Our family's being asked to go on a journey with the Lord to trust him in a way we've never trusted him before.
24:32
SPEAKER_04: And in my waiting time, we've heard from the Lord and we're moving forward.
24:36
SPEAKER_04: And guys, listen, there's so many things that I want my kids to learn.
24:41
SPEAKER_04: If you're a parent in here, there's so many things that I want my kids to learn.
24:46
SPEAKER_04: One of the most important things I want them to learn is that everything that's in their hands is the Lord.
24:53
SPEAKER_04: And I want them to be able to clearly hear before they leave my house the voice of the Holy Spirit.
24:59
SPEAKER_04: And when he says to jump, we say how high.
25:04
SPEAKER_04: And we know his voice, and we know how to move towards his voice, and we're gonna be we're gonna be faithful to what he's asked us to do, and for the next two years, we're gonna do a lot of waiting and we're gonna listen and we're gonna watch.
25:16
SPEAKER_04: God show up in the most miraculous way.
25:19
SPEAKER_04: Listen, the invitation is not to build a building, the invitation is to walk with Jesus on this earth in a way that only he can walk.
25:30
SPEAKER_04: Could you imagine what it would be like if you were able to live in the New Testament and walk with him?
25:37
SPEAKER_04: You'd be like, what do you need of me, God?
25:40
SPEAKER_04: Here I am.
25:41
SPEAKER_04: He's still here, he's still doing all of those things.
25:45
SPEAKER_04: And I'm just I'm just wondering.
25:50
SPEAKER_04: It's not a plea to empty your pocketbooks out.
25:54
SPEAKER_04: That's not what we're doing.
25:56
SPEAKER_04: That's not what I'm doing.
25:59
SPEAKER_04: It's a plea not to miss an opportunity to walk with Jesus in a way you've never walked with him before.
26:06
SPEAKER_04: I don't know about you.
26:08
SPEAKER_04: But in the waiting, what I've learned is the best move for me is to trust the Lord.
26:13
SPEAKER_04: And it's for me and my house, that's what we'll continue to do.
26:18
SPEAKER_04: We're asking you if you'd like to walk with Jesus with us.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I I think the significant thing that's been said, both Pastor Jamie and Pastor Sean have said, is the trust factor.
26:33
SPEAKER_00: I think that's the thing that's probably in these types of endeavors is critical.
26:40
SPEAKER_00: And um I I just want to thank you as part of the leadership here for your trust.
26:49
SPEAKER_00: Some of you may be at 100%, some of you may be at 50% in the trust factor, but that's okay.
26:56
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's a journey.
26:58
SPEAKER_00: And um I but I want to thank you for your trust because that's something that's very valuable to me, is somebody else's trust that they give me.
27:09
SPEAKER_00: And um so I want I want to thank you for that.
27:13
SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, for those of you who are like, eh, I don't know if I'm there yet.
27:19
SPEAKER_00: There's a scripture in Matthew chapter 11 that says that wisdom is vindicated by our children.
27:24
SPEAKER_00: Meaning what?
27:26
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you've got to wait around and see the evidence before you get.
27:29
SPEAKER_00: And I I understand there's some people that, you know, that's where you may be, uh, see what.
27:35
SPEAKER_00: But nevertheless, um things will prove out, okay?
27:40
SPEAKER_00: That it that it's gone.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: Um I've I've had to take several churches through very significant transitions and transformations in the past.
27:54
SPEAKER_00: And what I've found is trust is is most present where there's the unknown.
27:59
SPEAKER_00: That's where trust, that's where you really find trust.
28:03
SPEAKER_00: And and it was challenging, to say the least, to take two churches, to take these churches out of this place of survival into success.
28:13
SPEAKER_00: Because there's things the unknown you deal with.
28:17
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes, you know, I got used to the wailing and gnashing of teeth as the Bible says, Well, you know, what are we doing?
28:25
SPEAKER_00: Why are we doing you know, all these things.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: You have to trust.
28:28
SPEAKER_00: But I'll tell you what's what's even more challenging that I've learned in having to take churches, not having getting, to take churches from success into significance.
28:40
SPEAKER_00: That's even more challenging.
28:43
SPEAKER_00: And I feel that's where we're at.
28:45
SPEAKER_00: We we've been very successful, we, the Lord, have been very successful, you know.
28:50
SPEAKER_00: But there's something significant that God wants to do with us that I think we would be remiss if we don't uh endeavor to take God up on the challenge that He set before us.
29:06
SPEAKER_00: Because significance is the place where you will experience the greatest place of fulfillment and like, yes, God, is in that place of significance.
29:19
SPEAKER_00: And so uh that's that's what we want to be a part of, right?
29:23
SPEAKER_00: And then the last point I want to make is what I call purposeful waiting.
29:29
SPEAKER_00: Something that I I learned is this there are times that God will say, I want you to go get it.
29:36
SPEAKER_00: God said, This is what I have for you, I want you to go get it.
29:38
SPEAKER_00: You can see this scripturally, David's life, and different individuals.
29:43
SPEAKER_00: And then there are times that God says, No, I want you to wait.
29:47
SPEAKER_00: And it's critical as a people.
29:49
SPEAKER_00: That's why we're pursuing, that's why we're we have this spiritual journey element on it.
29:53
SPEAKER_00: Why?
29:54
SPEAKER_00: It's because we're continually saying, God, is this a time that we move forward or is this a time that we wait?
29:59
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
30:00
SPEAKER_00: Because here's what I found.
30:02
SPEAKER_00: When you get impatient and you and you don't, you know, do the purposeful waiting, um, when God says, I want you to go get over here, we're sitting here.
30:12
SPEAKER_00: And we're wondering, why isn't God doing why isn't God doing something?
30:16
SPEAKER_00: Because what it is is over there on the on the go get it, and we're sitting here waiting.
30:22
SPEAKER_00: Or the other is is that God's saying, I want you to wait, and we're like, we take off and go, God's go.
30:30
SPEAKER_00: And we're, God, why aren't you showing up?
30:33
SPEAKER_00: He says, Because I am, because I was bringing it to you in your weight.
30:36
SPEAKER_00: Many times what we do is I see it this way, is um, I dream about it this way.
30:46
SPEAKER_00: It's that we we run right past God on our way, you know, to either go get something or you know, or we don't pass him because we shouldn't be waving, you know, the whole thing.
30:59
SPEAKER_00: And so that's what we're endeavoring to do.
31:03
SPEAKER_00: And um and so we're all learning and growing through it.
31:07
SPEAKER_00: That's that's the powerful thing.
31:12
SPEAKER_00: It's who we become on the journey of dreaming big.
31:18
SPEAKER_02: You know, last August, when I felt like the Lord said, Jamie, would you put everything on the table?
31:26
SPEAKER_02: I I prayed one thing and I said one thing to the Lord.
31:30
SPEAKER_02: God, I don't want to carry this.
31:33
SPEAKER_02: Like, this has to be you.
31:35
SPEAKER_02: And so, really, you asked my wife this, like, I feel like I've been a person that's stressed over things in the past.
31:44
SPEAKER_02: I'm not stressed about this.
31:46
SPEAKER_02: And here's why.
31:47
SPEAKER_02: When you go to the book of Acts, you see Jesus is visiting people after the resurrection.
31:52
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says he met with 500 people.
31:55
SPEAKER_02: 500 people, he told them what Pastor Mike read.
32:00
SPEAKER_02: Go wait for the promise in this room, and the Holy Spirit's gonna come.
32:04
SPEAKER_02: 500 people in that church.
32:07
SPEAKER_02: 500 people at the first church, and 120 showed up.
32:14
SPEAKER_02: Jesus said, Listen, if you want to be disappointed in the 380 that didn't show up, even Jesus couldn't get them to the prayer meeting.
32:23
SPEAKER_02: You want to know how a church is revealed, not in attendance on the weekend, but who shows up for the prayer meeting.
32:30
SPEAKER_02: And the first church, only 120 showed up.
32:35
SPEAKER_02: So I'll be honest.
32:36
SPEAKER_02: I'm being vulnerable in front of you.
32:38
SPEAKER_02: Like there's been highs and lows over the last 18 months.
32:43
SPEAKER_02: I've watched friends walk away, I've watched friends not be a part of the journey, I've watched people come in that I never would have dreamed coming in, saying they want to be a part, and it blows my mind.
32:58
SPEAKER_02: So surprised?
33:00
SPEAKER_02: That's off the table.
33:03
SPEAKER_02: Yes, good, bad, the ugly, but I will not carry this burden.
33:08
SPEAKER_02: It is not mine to carry, it is his.
33:20
SPEAKER_02: And if there's ever a moment that you're like, but I'm looking to you to do, don't.
33:25
SPEAKER_02: Jesus at lifelinois.org, send it to him.
33:29
SPEAKER_02: It's him.
33:30
SPEAKER_02: And I don't I don't say that to be irresponsible and then you not question it.
33:36
SPEAKER_02: That's not what I'm talking about.
33:38
SPEAKER_02: We're an open book.
33:40
SPEAKER_02: We'll we'll have the conversations.
33:41
SPEAKER_02: That is not what I'm if that's what you're reading into this moment, you're you're not hearing me.
33:46
SPEAKER_02: I'm telling you, from a standpoint of carrying it to try to do it on our own, we are not there.
33:52
SPEAKER_02: We're letting the Lord write this story because in the end, we don't want glory, we want him to get the glory.
34:02
SPEAKER_02: The reason I have a relationship with my pastor to this day, when he's the guy I didn't work for the longest, it's because the Lord brought us together.
34:10
SPEAKER_02: The Lord knew what Jamie and Kelly needed in Pastor Dobie and Jamie Weasel.
34:14
SPEAKER_02: He's still my pastor 20 years later because the Lord did something.
34:19
SPEAKER_02: That doesn't diminish the other two pastors, that three pastors that I worked for, but it's what the Lord set up.
34:25
SPEAKER_02: What we're talking about is what he wants to do.
34:28
SPEAKER_02: And so, yes, we wait.
34:30
SPEAKER_02: We wait on him because he's the one.
34:32
SPEAKER_02: Unless the Lord builds this house, we labor in vain.
34:39
SPEAKER_02: We're just swinging hammers and not doing a thing.
34:45
SPEAKER_02: We're asking and inviting him to build this place.
34:49
SPEAKER_02: But we do have to ask ourselves: are we part of the 380 or the 120?
34:55
SPEAKER_02: That's an important question.
34:58
SPEAKER_02: Because hear me.
35:01
SPEAKER_02: All of us believe we're part of the 120 until reveal day.
35:07
SPEAKER_02: And then we realize we weren't.
35:11
SPEAKER_02: Don't let that happen.
35:13
SPEAKER_02: We still have time in this moment.
35:15
SPEAKER_02: I'm not talking about 57 acres or building anything.
35:18
SPEAKER_02: I'm talking about being right with Jesus.
35:20
SPEAKER_02: That's what it's about.
35:21
SPEAKER_02: That's what it's about.
35:23
SPEAKER_02: Would you stand with me right now?
35:25
SPEAKER_02: Here's where I'm gonna invite us as we close.
35:28
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna invite you to surrender whatever it is that you're carrying.
35:33
SPEAKER_02: Now I will say this.
35:35
SPEAKER_02: I think there's two ways that we surrender in the natural for the supernatural to happen.
35:42
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
35:43
SPEAKER_02: And you've probably already seen this, the beginning of service.
35:47
SPEAKER_02: Lifting your hands is one way to surrender what you want, what is in your hands, and give it to the Lord.
35:56
SPEAKER_02: The other way of surrender is to get prostrate or face down before the Lord.
36:00
SPEAKER_02: We see this in the book of Joshua when Joshua got face down, and in that moment the Lord spoke to him.
36:07
SPEAKER_02: What did he speak to him?
36:08
SPEAKER_02: Joshua, you're gonna walk around these walls seven times and then they're gonna fall.
36:12
SPEAKER_02: It's crazy, right?
36:14
SPEAKER_02: But where was it revealed?
36:16
SPEAKER_02: When he was prostrate, when he was submitted, when he was waiting on the Lord.
36:22
SPEAKER_02: There's gonna be things that the Lord speaks to you that in that moment it makes zero sense.
36:30
SPEAKER_02: Does not make sense to walk around walls and on the seventh time shout it out and they're gonna come down.
36:37
SPEAKER_02: Makes no natural sense.
36:38
SPEAKER_02: There's gonna be things that the Lord asks of you that in your mind and in your wife's mind they do not make sense.
36:46
SPEAKER_02: The Lord is inviting you to say, Will you trust me in this season?
36:51
SPEAKER_02: Will you be obedient to me in this season?
36:53
SPEAKER_02: Because as you're waiting, here's what I know is happening.
36:56
SPEAKER_02: He's speaking.
36:57
SPEAKER_02: That's not the question.
36:58
SPEAKER_02: The question is, am I listening?
37:01
SPEAKER_02: And if I'm listening, am I gonna do something with it?
37:05
SPEAKER_02: That's important.
37:07
SPEAKER_02: So if we could, could we just lift our hands?
37:10
SPEAKER_02: God, we surrender God, our will to your will.
37:15
SPEAKER_02: God, we say we're not in control.
37:19
SPEAKER_02: God, we say that we're available.
37:22
SPEAKER_02: We're here, God.
37:23
SPEAKER_02: And what we're doing is we're acknowledging that we're here by being still, by surrendering our ideas, our thoughts, our preconceived thoughts of how things should be done, our timelines, and we're saying, God, we trust you, and we give you the control.
37:44
SPEAKER_02: God, we know that you can be trusted.
37:46
SPEAKER_02: So in this moment, God, we say yes.
37:49
SPEAKER_02: We say yes.
37:50
SPEAKER_02: Can we declare this song right now?
37:52
SPEAKER_02: Come on, just in this moment, just declare this.
38:02
SPEAKER_03: And we walk upon the waters, wherever you will come in.