Vision Sunday

Vision Sunday. Welcome to Vision Sunday, everyone. Before we get started, I would love anyone who is an owner. So if you are serving specifically, if you're an owner who's serving this season here at Everyday, I want you to stand up real quick.

If you're serving in any capacity, I want you to just stand up. Let's give it up for some of these owners. We just want to pray over you guys in commission, you into this fall season. So go ahead and extend a hand or lay a hand on someone near you.

God, we thank you for these radical servants who are rolling up their sleeves, meeting practical needs in our community. Lord, I thank you that you have called these ones, pastors and teachers and evangelists and prophets and apostles. God, I thank you for their everyday mission that's happening, that's actually putting their hand toward building this house and building this body. And so we ask you God that as they refresh others, that they would also be refreshed themselves in this season, that they would feel the wind at their back as they are serving in your name, Amen.

Amen, we love you guys. We can't do this without you. Thank you. Yes.

Well, like Josh said, welcome to Vision Sunday. We do this two times a year. So every fall and every new year, we kind of do a family meeting like this. We like to remind ourselves that we started in a living room.

And so we picture these nights like we're back in the living room together. And we started as a community and we want to continue as a community together. And so these are kind of those moments for us as a house to look at what God has done and celebrate. And so that's where we're going to start, being people who remember what God has done.

So we're going to celebrate, but then also people who look ahead and go, what's coming Lord? What do we need to know? And how do we need to position ourselves for what you have in front of us? And so just want to invite you kind of into the inner circle tonight to hear what's happening, to look behind the curtain, to see behind the scenes and what God's been saying to us and just some updates that we have.

How many of you came for a big update tonight? I'm curious. Okay, that's coming, but we're going to celebrate a little bit first, okay. How many of you know what the, so every January, we put out a word for the year.

We pray as we go into the new year and we ask the Lord, what is one word that you just want to say is kind of a compass over our community this year. And who can shout out what the word is for this year? Alignment, one, two, three, four. And so man, it's my favorite word we've ever had.

And I didn't know that at first. I was like, man, I don't even know if I like that very much. But each year, he gives this word. And oftentimes, we don't know what it looks like or how it's going to play itself out.

But then by the end of the year, you're like, oh, I kind of see how he did that. And us and you're more like looking back and realizing what he did throughout the year. But with this word on alignment, we have watched him from day one of releasing that word. He has been actively working on realigning our hearts.

And in an unprecedented way, it's like, we are watching him reorient our affections and our desires and our passions to rightly have him at the center, to rightly have him at the top. And I know it's like every single one of us could be like, yeah, God first, that's just the thing you say. But he actually is reworking our heart to go, how do I fight to have you be first? It's not easy.

It's not simple. It's not going to just come naturally. There is that spiritual violence to choose that alignment to come up under him and his lordship. And so I just wanted to start our time of just thanking God.

Can we just thank him? Like, Lord, thank you for what you're doing in us. And would you, God, we ask that you would take this work that you've begun in us, and that you had carried out to completion, that we wouldn't think that you're finished before you are. And so we just say, like continue working on our hearts, God, continue to expose our desires and re-align them in a way that honors you, Jesus.

You're worthy of it. Amen. Amen. I reflect on that one, two, three, four word that was also part of the word that we got for the years, a theme over the year.

And that being something that the Lord had showed us on clocks for over three years, for some reason, it was always 1234, you know? It's like it shows that we were staying up too late, right? Or at lunchtime, it's just always 1234, and we don't know why we're always seeing it. And the Lord began to unravel, that it was actually Luke 1234, that he was speaking over us as a community, that where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

And just the whole passage of Luke 12 being really significant for us in the season. So if you haven't opened up Luke 12 recently, and you need somewhere to start tomorrow morning, as you're opening up your Bible, open up to Luke 12, and just read it. It's something that God's doing corporately, but he's also doing it personally in us, in the work of alignment. I don't know if you guys remember last vision Sunday, but last vision Sunday, we changed our name from Grove Community Church to every day.

It's been a whole year. Can you imagine, it seems like so long ago, that we've been every day for years, it's only been one year, and there's so many things that we actually changed in the fall last year, as we changed our name to every day. There was also adjustments that we made that we felt conviction around, like the Father's house, and that God was wanting things to feel here, like his house. And what does it feel like at Dad's house when you walk into the living room?

I think last week I started with just a little bit of an exhortation for the 530 around the Father, I don't know if you were here. All the people that didn't like that, they just aren't here this week. But just that God is actually, when we gather, it should be a red-hot furnace of feeling like Father God's living room. That's what it should feel like when you walk in.

And we actually took intentional steps in order to make it even feel like that a little bit more. Like we set up these great chairs, look at all these wild ones up here, saying the great chairs, right? Those are the best seats in the house. Oh yeah.

You think they're intimidating, and you sit there and you're like, wow, I love it up here. Oh yeah, yeah. You'll notice that even in worship, that people up at the front, they'll actually kind of stand to the side, right? And it's not because if Katie's standing across from me, it's like, I just wanna see her and the Lord.

And that's not what's happening. It's actually, we're gathering around Jesus. Just like in heaven, there's a circle. And so there's not a front of house in terms of the worship team.

All of us are just encircling him, just like in heaven, right? And we're gathering around him and celebrating him as the honored guest. And so there's all these things that we did. The other thing that we added over a year ago was celebrating stories and testimonies.

And man, you can't measure the impact of having everyday people get up and share stories of what God is doing in their everyday lives. Cause you look at it and you go, hey, he wears those lame nerdy jeans, just like I do, right? And you're like, I can do that. I can share my faith when I show up to work as an accountant.

It's like, it fills us with faith to go, wow, I've been struggling with a chronic. Hey, I don't know. It fills us with faith when we go, wow, that person had chronic sickness for 10 years. And they just shared a testimony of getting healed in a moment.

I struggle with chronic pain for the last five years. Whoa, my faith rises, right? Like Lord, you can do it again. And I feel like that's been such a special thing for us as a community to dive into.

So we're here at first conference this year. How many of you were at the Hunger Conference? Just a few months ago with Cori Russell, that was such a marking day for our community. And we, I get to also announce that we're doing another conference in November.

And it's the Identity Conference and Early Bird tickets open right now. So if you want to grab those, I would recommend doing so because we've already sold quite a few from the Hunger Conference. So the Identity Conference this year, we are bringing in Dan Moller. And Dan is such a father in this house.

I'm curious in this service, how many of you were at every day when Dan was with us last like five years ago? Okay, not as many of this service. He is, if you don't know who Dan Moller is, you just go on YouTube and look up Dan Moller and click on any video that you see and you will love him and you will get that early bird ticket right away. So it's going to be such a good weekend.

I want to make sure that you guys are in the room and that you get those tickets before they're sold out. It's going to be on a Saturday this time instead of a Sunday. We're kind of experimenting with a Saturday better or a Sunday better as we figure out these one days together. So mark your calendars, get your early bird ticket before it's out.

Women's Night was killer, amazing women's night. That was a marquee night. Hey, prayer room for this fall actually has an intersection prayer topic schedule. And so we have these flyers and everyone can grab one as they're exiting, we'll hand them out.

But on the back of these, it shows all four months of the topics that we're going to go after. I'll read a couple. Next week, we've got the church. We're going to be praying for the church, actually this church and building the base.

October 5th, Gen Z and Gen Alpha. We're going to pray for the next great awakening. October 12th, we're praying for the Twin Cities and Prodigals all throughout the Twin Cities. October 19th, we're praying for awakening in the bride, church wide or city wide.

26th, we're praying for Gen Z, Gen Alpha again. We're praying for the University of Minnesota. I mean, it just keeps on going. So get ready and look at the schedule and you go, man, if you don't come to prayer room a lot because you know, it's your work schedule or something like that, look at the schedule and if you go, man, I'm going to get work off.

I'm going to have somebody take my shift or I'm going to get babysitting to go to that one. There's so many of you in the 530 that show up to prayer room every single week. But if you don't, look at the schedule and go, hey, just choose a couple in the fall that you're going to go to. Prayer room is the core of everything that we do.

And so you got to show up on Wednesday night to prayer room. Men's Prayer has been new in this season. And while I haven't been in the room, I've wanted to be in the room after I hear about men's prayer and what it's like every Monday morning. So we actually have something, if you guys want to put up the men's prayer side, we have a way now for you to get text reminders.

If that would be helpful to you, you can just follow that QR code and text men to that number. And then you'll be on the list to receive reminders like, hey, we don't have men's prayer this week or see you at Men's Prayer this week or whatever other updates we can send the guys. But if you want to be on that Men's list, we recommend getting on it so that you can stay in the loop as we won't be announcing it every single Sunday. With this Men's Prayer thing, if you've already chicken scratched your name on the list, for Men's Prayer, just scan this instead, okay?

So I know someone you're like, do you know what I'm talking about? Are they going to automatically set it in? No, we're not going to. You just do that and help us out, okay?

How many of you have heard us talk about raising up an army of counselors? You guys heard us talk about that. We believe that's a mandate over this house to raise up an army of counselors. And that is quite a feat.

And we have no idea how we're going to do that, but we are taking steps to be faithful to that word. And so we've had soul care for the last few years and we're continuing to be faithful with that. It's such a fruitful part of our ministry. But in this season, we want you guys to know that we are launching our very first Christian counselors training.

And so this fall actually in a couple of weeks, 12 of our leaders of this house are going to be going through Christian counseling training to begin the process of becoming Christian counselors. And so we just, that's the counseling, soul care side of things is oftentimes a little bit more behind the scenes here because we're just working behind the scenes to build and cultivate something. But in the future, it will be much more front facing, but we still want you guys to know that it's happening. And so if you think of it, pray for these counselors or soon to be counselors that are going through this training as we're starting to take more and more steps to like see that vision fulfilled.

The last thing that we need to celebrate is next gen. The kids and students, what God is doing in kids and youth is unbelievable at every day. I mean, what we've seen in this last year has just made every other year prior just kind of pale in comparison. It has been so beautiful to see what God's done.

I mean, I went to the first every youth night. My goodness, you guys, it was the place to be on a Wednesday night in downtown Minneapolis, okay? It was so fire. The students are so hungry, God's doing so much in hearts.

And we're talking about kids that grew up in the church, meeting Jesus, we're talking about kids that have never been to church before, meeting Jesus. And it's just so beautiful to see all of our youth owners, not just show up on Wednesday nights and invest in kids, but texting them during the week, meeting up with them, going to their games. It's like discipleship is happening in every day with youth. And even Alex and the team, they're doing a Bible track for middle school students on Sundays, Bible studies on Sundays over at the everyday offices.

And so we're going to be like, we're just carpooling over there, busing over there. Are we busing? We're busing the kids. We bused over.

Like a school bus. Tonight, school, I missed it. I want to go on that bus. That's amazing.

Okay, our middle school and high school are over at the offices. Doing Bible study, a leaders track is happening for high schoolers. And then for our kids, we have something called Bible track that we've started. So this is our midweek discipleship for kids that's happening on Wednesday nights.

And this is where we are teaching and training them how to use the word and how to love the word and how to pray the word. And we've been piloting this behind the scenes over the last year. And we had our kids a part of it. And we have watched, I mean, it's just been beautiful to see not just their knowledge of the word, but their love for it.

And that's really what we're wanting to cultivate is that love for the word, which is love for Jesus. And so they're doing Bible track now and the summers they have mission track where the kids are going out on mission every Wednesday night and just coming back with the wildest stories. So just taking more steps in this last season in discipleship for next gen has been so good. This last service, the three o'clock, was the first time in our history that because of fire code, we actually had to turn away families for kids.

And so there was toddlers and babies that could not be watched just because of fire code in the building. And so the amount of kids, there's just so many babies getting added to our number, right? There's a baby boom at every day. Amen.

Please stay at the 530. Do not go to the three. Please don't go to the three. There is not room for you.

Do not go there. Again. Oh, this is why I was saying this. They're not ready.

Yeah, they're not ready. They're not ready at all. No, but we, I just want to celebrate that the number of kids has just grown exponentially over the last year with our kids and with youth. Even just last year, there's been double the amount of youth that are now in youth compared to last year.

Quadrable? Yeah. Quadrable. Yeah, like 40.

Let's go. So it's just something to celebrate. And it's not just kids that are part of this community. Kids that are just coming that don't have any context for who God is.

And it's just been so beautiful to see what God's doing with youth. So, all right, I think they're ready. Are you ready? Yes.

OK. We've been on a journey. Haven't we? You know what I'm talking about, don't you?

We've been on a journey through the wilderness. And we are so excited to be able to announce tonight that we are finally moving. And we are moving. And so we know that we're moving.

We know the date that we're moving. We are moving in September of 2023. One year from right now, we will be in a new place. We do not know.

Where that new place is. We just passed out right there and said, good bye. OK. Let me give you the story.

We're not just making up this timeline. We've been looking for a building for four years. We have not found a building in four years. Just in the last month or two, we're connecting with Elmwood.

And great news is that Elmwood is growing. And their ministry is fruitful. And because of that, we need to get out of their way so that they can use their building. So if you're new with us, this is Elmwood's building.

We just rent space here. And so Elmwood has asked that we would honor the growth and the fruitfulness that's happening in their community by giving us this deadline that we, at the latest, need to be out by September of next year. And so we want to honor that. I would love for us to be out of here before that, to get out of their way.

Because as you know, we're using this building a lot. And we want to just get out of the way for them to be able to have access to their own building whenever they want it. And so we are excited to honor that request. And we're so thankful that they gave us 12 months.

They could have given us, they could have said, be out by October. And then we, I don't know. But either way, I'm just so thankful this October, sorry. I think they got it.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So, you guys got it, right? Yeah.

We got it, OK. So thankful that they gave us a year to find a new spot. So that is all. You guys are having some similar reactions that we had.

We're hearing this. And on one hand, you're like, whoa, are you receiving that news? It's like, whoa, OK. And then it's like, yay.

Or should we run victory laps around our house? That means the season has to end. There is a transition. And God has to do something.

And then it also settles in. And maybe it will settle in for you tomorrow or something. But it starts to settle in. And you're like, no, but actually, what are we going to do?

We've been looking. And it isn't like we've been taking our foot off the gas to find a spot. We have been looking. And there just has been nothing for our community.

And there's been a lot of closed doors and roadblocks along the way. And so we want to invite you guys in behind the curtain of what this means for us and what the timeline is. So Josh is going to talk us through this very, very hopeful, exciting timeline that you are going to learn about. Yes.

Yeah, I'm excited to talk about the miracle territory that we are in as a community. You know, what we've been doing is we've been searching for a building. We've been searching for a needle in the haystack. And the reason why is this?

Because it's very difficult in the city to find a property that has enough parking spaces to facilitate gatherings and a high enough ceiling to facilitate hundreds of people gathering in a space. And so those two are pretty difficult to find. And we have people that are coming on Sundays that are driving an hour to an hour and a half away every single week. And so because of that, we're hoping to be closer, not right next to a freeway, but at least close to one, where you don't get off the freeway and drive 15 minutes after you've gotten off the freeway.

And so as we've been searching, we've made many offers on properties. And there's been properties that have just fallen through because of other circumstances. But we have, it's kind of an all hands on deck for the search for us, even more than it was in the past, of course. And so we have our commercial broker, Cameron Peterson.

Cameron and Brooke Peterson. Many of you guys love the Peterson family. But Cameron has actually activated a couple of other commercial agents to just all be working on finding off market properties. So we are aware of every single property that's on the market in the Twin Cities.

And because none of those are working, now we're moving on to finding off market properties. And we have been doing that as well. But other than that, our board, we have a board of seven leaders that are meeting every single month. And they're looking at our financials, making sure we are good stewards of the finances that God has gifted us.

And making sure that those finances are moving towards the mission that the Lords give us. And so they've built multiple committees. But one of the committees that they've built from the board is a building search committee that's specifically focused on churches throughout the Twin Cities. And calling churches that are maybe in a different life stage, and maybe they're going, we're growing, and we need to move to a different location.

Or we don't know what to do with our space, and we're wanting to sell our space. And so there's board members that have been reaching out to local churches all throughout the Twin Cities as well, that are meeting our specifications. So that's what we're doing. Let me share with you the Miracle Territory timeline.

Are you guys ready for that? All right, let's look up at this timeline. You will see that we have two months to find a building. After four years of searching.

It's amazing. It's exciting. And we just stand before the Lord, and we don't feel entitled to a building. We don't feel entitled to a space.

But we're going to partner with his heart to go, man, if you're going to build it. We can't build it. You have to build it, right? And so let me talk you through this.

We need to find a building. And this is why we need to find it in a couple months. Because there's a period of due diligence. And what happens in due diligence is you look at the building, make sure all of the mechanics, mechanicals of the building works.

And if there's a zoning process, that's not included. This timeline is not included. A city zoning process. So the building has to allow for gatherings in it, according to the zoning district in any given city.

And so if there's a building that we find, and it doesn't allow for gatherings of people in it, then we have to rezone it. And that will take at least 90 days, if not 120 days. So this timeline is not included in finding a building that has a zoning process. So due diligence, this is a process where there's a purchase agreement.

You got to get lawyers involved. They're looking at the purchase agreement. Once that's signed, then you enter into due diligence. Then you bring all of the specialists through the property.

And it's usually a 45 to 60 to 90 day process of due diligence. So that allows us eight months for renovations. As we've talked to our architects, they've said that all renovations usually take at least nine months to a year because of supply chain issues. And that's actually very generous.

Okay? And so we're just talking about renovating a building that's already standing to purchase land and then build on land is more than that. Okay? So it's like 18, 18 months.

So the remodel usually like a six month doesn't happen. Okay? And so we are really backed up against a timeline that is urgent right now. If you're following how this is all.

And then you are. Okay. We're tracking. There's a couple people in the room that are checking out.

Not this October, but next October. Yeah. So as we look at this timeline, I want to move into talking about the base and what we're actually dreaming of building. And I want to provide that vision so that you understand when we think about the future that we're not just thinking about searching for a church building, right?

So there's it's important for us to share the vision so that you understand when we when Katie and I sit in a parking lot of 150,000 square foot building. This is an 18,000 square foot building. So when Katie and Josh sit in a parking lot of 150,000 square foot building, we go, I think this could work. In terms of what we envision in the future of this base vision that the Lord gave to us separately of one another 14 years ago.

Okay? So what I want to do is I want to talk about the base vision and get a little bit more practical with it more than we ever have it before. And it feels vulnerable and it feels foolish even to share it. But I believe that that God has actually released us to share what he's put in our hearts and what we dream of.

And if it doesn't happen and there's only a quarter of it that happens, do you know that the Lord is going to be so pleased with us and he's going to look at us and go, man, I love you and I love what this is. And every every vision that the Lord gives always goes through the valley. And this vision that the Lord gave us 14 years ago, it's gone through the valley. Some of you guys need to hear that.

Some of you have a vision like David, like Joseph. God gave you a vision for something that you're to build and now it's in the valley and there's refinement happening and that's normal and you need to understand that every vision goes through the valley and it comes up on the other side. Okay? All right.

You guys ready for me to paint the picture here? When we picture the base, we don't picture just a church building. We picture like a center or a campus or a mall, right? And it has this revolving door element to it.

You know, so many churches sit vacant for six days out of the week and it's not even a good use of space and resources. And we just picture, man, what if there was a building that was just bustling happening all the time, right? And there was movement happening. There was a house of prayer at the core.

There was prayer and worship at the core. That's the vision that the Lord gave us, that the house of prayer would be in the middle and that there'd be that day and night worship element. But also that there'd be ministry schools, that there would be a place where you're on your lunch break and you run into a friend at the cafe at every day, at every day. That's not open just when there's church programming.

But it's a cafe coffee shop that people go to from the city all the time because it's always open, right? And you walk in and you see your friend that's also a business leader and you're talking about your Zoom meeting that you have with a couple C-suite leaders in China. And you're talking about that and you're dialoguing and then you go, hey, where are you going? And they're like, oh, I'm headed to the noon set.

And they're going to the noon prayer meeting set at every day. And there's, it's the biggest prayer set of the entire week because the community is gathering halfway through their day and they're praying and worshiping. And then you get out and you met that leader and, but you're going to the co-working space and you're working at the co-working space. That's where you office out of.

And you have other people that you work next to and you're a business owner and they have their own thing, they're entrepreneurs. And you walk past, as you're going to the co-working space, you walk past some least out space to small businesses in the building that are kingdom businesses. And you walk past the adoption agency door. And you walk past the ministry that works with foster care that office is there.

And you walk past the missions organization, the YWAM base. It's actually also office in there. And as you walk to your co-working space, you just start thinking about your next meeting. Okay?

And you start thinking about then your spouse that stay at home, stay at home dad. And the stay at home dad is getting ready to pick up the kids from school. And so the kids are getting released from school at the other side of the building, the school, K through 12 wing. And K through 12 is getting released around three o'clock.

And as there's the pick up line for K through 12, it's kind of like just a roundy round that you go with your cars and you go the other side of the building for the family prayer set at four o'clock. You grab a little snack and then you go to the family prayer set with your kids. Do you see what I'm trying to paint? I'm trying to paint a picture.

And then there's podcast studios that we're renting out that people can utilize as they're changing the way that people think through articulating God's heart in specific realms and spheres. And then you go, you talk to a friend that lives in Philadelphia. And you go, hey, you should just come and take a retreat at every day. They've got these rentable prayer rooms that you can rent.

And they're just open to rent so that you can retreat with the Lord and you can kind of pop into the prayer room and sit in the room. There's instrumental music and then you can go privately into your prayer room that is just a retreat room. And it's the perfect place to retreat and you can back it up right next to when the conference is happening and when the hunger conference is taking place. Do you see what I'm saying?

God is wanting to build a base that is also taking everyday people and launching them into the nations and acting as a home base where people come back and there's all of a sudden just people randomly rolling through and you're like, man, I didn't know you were going to be here and they're like, yeah, I'm just here for a couple weeks and then I'm going to go off and do this. You're like, wow, it's so fun that friends just kind of stroll through and see them. I get to pray for them. We get to encourage each other and then they go again.

It's a base that's sending and receiving. What am I missing? Oh, a gym. Wow, there has to be a gym.

There has to be a gym. No, I mean, I just picture trainers that are actually like kingdom, gospel, loving, Jesus loving trainers that are actually training athletes that are excellent in their skill and just discipling them. I picture a dream center happening. Maybe it's not even in the building.

It's a different location, but a dream center that's serving the poor, serving those that have struggled with addiction and actually providing a way for them to get out of their past and into the future that God has for them. Counseling, a counseling wing where there's actually counselors that are off the scene out of the building. I mean, as we dream about these things, we go, Lord, I want it to happen. This is something that you put in our hearts.

And so as a people, we believe, let's do a minute clinic. Why not? Just a kingdom, minute clinic. But power, prophetic ministry, all of these things that we feel like God has deposited in our hearts.

And I know that as I say that, it seems so far away from this moment as we look down at the mouth carpet. But I believe that the Lord put it in our hearts and he's the author of the dream. And if it's okay, if only half of it happens, but I believe that there's something bigger that he's doing. And I want to be found dreaming.

I want to be found leaning on him. I want to be found running with him at his pace of faith that he's the author of faith and I want to actually go, if you put it in my heart, you're going to provide the resources to make it happen. And you're going to build it. If you want to build it, then you build it.

And we'll just do everything in our ability to come alongside him and do that. We got a text from a leader mentor in our life just yesterday. And they were saying, make sure you don't dream too small. You need to dream big enough because you just might hit it if you do.

And I just, there is that what Josh has said a couple of times here. There is that feels foolish to even articulate when we are where we are at in our life stage as a community and without a building and all of those things. But we have the conviction on our hearts that what we started, what we set out to do, is what Josh just talked about. We did not set out that this vision has not changed.

If you've been with us since the living room, you've heard us paint this picture. Maybe not in that detail because we have held that a little closer to our chest. But it's like, this is the vision that gets us up in the morning. This is what we are giving our life to.

And so we believe that it's the desire of his heart, that there would be a hub like this, that there would be a base like this in the upper Midwest for our nation, like to come to. We see other bases throughout the country, but nothing up here. And so we just believe that he's worthy of it and we need it in our city. We need it in this part of the country.

And so we want to put it in front of you as we are standing in the position that we're in right now. And we want you to know and have clarity in your mind that when we gather, we are gathering onto this, like this is where we're headed. This is our trajectory as a community. I don't know how many times we've tried to like say, this is not just a church.

Like we are not just gathering on Sundays. We want to be a body that is broad reaching in one, expressing the worthiness of Jesus over a region and two, training and equipping the body of believers to not be spectators anymore, but to go and to do the work of ministry. And so that is what this is. That is where we are headed.

And like Josh said, how quickly will we see that? Will we see it in its fullness? I believe that we will. And if we don't, our children will.

If not our children, our children's children. Like this is a generational like legacy in mind as we build. It's not just for us. And so, man, do I talk about the Red Sea moment that way?

Yeah, I do. It's a new day for American Christianity. It is. And we're putting an end to spectator Christianity, like you were saying.

And God is changing the understanding and expression of Christianity in one generation. And it has, I want to be clear that as Katie's talking about the mission of, we're called to empower and train and equip everyday believers. I want to be clear that this is a vision, that the base is a vision, but the mission is actually what we are building. Okay?

So, the vision is the vision is to empower everyday people like you to live the way of Jesus. And the base exists. So the vision exists to just come up under the everyday believers. Okay?

And so, the vision of the base exists to just serve you in your everyday. The lifestyle of following Jesus. Yes. So, I want to be clear that as leaders, we're not going, it's the base or we die.

Though we believe that God has called us to build a base, it's empowered the everyday believers or we die. Lord, give us a building that's a tool to actually facilitate us fulfilling the mission even more. Yes. Turn in your Bibles to Exodus 14.

I want to look at Exodus 14 together. This is what one of our mentors called a Red Sea moment. It says a Red Sea moment. I don't know if you know the story of the Red Sea, but it is a quite intense moment that the nation of Israel went through.

The people of Israel went through. They just came out of 400 years of slavery. And there was multiple plagues, 10 plagues that got poured out on Egypt and on Israel. And finally, the Egyptians were like, get me out of here.

Or get them out of here. And so Israelites ransacked the Egyptians and all of a sudden what they do is they realize as the Israelites are moving towards the Red Sea, we made the biggest mistake letting a million slaves out from under our control. And so what they do is they take all of their chariots and they start chasing the Israelites. And so they're pursuing the Israelites and let's look at Exodus 14, verse 10.

I want to read this. This is the type of moment that we're in right now. In the name of Israel, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them. They feared greatly and the people of Israel cried out to the Lord.

They said to Moses, is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us? What you have done to us is bringing us out of Egypt. Is not this what we said to you in Egypt?

Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians. For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians and continue to be slaves than to die in the wilderness. And Moses said to the people, fear not, stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again.

The Lord will fight for you and you have only to be silent. The Lord said to Moses, why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. Lift up your staff, stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground and I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them.

I will get glory over Pharaoh and all of his hosts, his chariots and his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord. When I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen. This is a Red Sea moment where there is the sea at our back and the people of God in front of us and we see that time is short and that there is a timeline that is short.

And we just want to encourage our whole community that we are to fear not and that we are to stand firm and stand firm in faith. I am reminded of Ephesians 6, we are just stand firm in the Lord, right? In the armor of God and that we get to stand firm in his promises. That if he has taken us this far, he is going to author completion to it.

He is the author and the perfecter. He is not just the author that starts a story. He loves finishing stories too. Yeah, I want to call us to all hands on deck.

You know, seasons like this, we need the family to come together and to rally and to hold it together. I will be so honest with you and say, Josh and I cannot just carry this forward. Josh and I and our leadership team cannot just carry this forward. It is going to take the family for us to go together.

We do not want to get to September 2023 and look around the room and have there be 15 or 20 of us that are just like, oh my gosh, I carried this thing on my back. And everyone else is like, cool, on to the next season. And we, not that this is to be a heavy yoke on the 10 of 20 or whatever that number that would be, but we want to rally to carry this together as a family. When we have our last Sunday here at Elmoi, we want you to feel like you are a part of the year leading into this.

When we find a building, I want you to have joy in your heart. They're like, I've been contending for this building. And just like Nicole said, it's like, this is my story now too, because I've been investing in this. And it's like, when we move in and we, you know, we find the spot and we walk into that new space for the first time and we have our first service that you would have like this joy in your heart.

It's like, this is your story too. And I think that, you know, in this last season, it's so easy for us to have been dispersed because we physically were dispersed for a season. And we are so surprised actually how we are still fighting to just rally the family back together. And I just want to call the family back together.

We have to move forward together. And so I just want to invite you in really practically on, you know, I know that so many of you would be like, how can we help? Like, what do you need? How can we help?

And so we want to put practical needs in front of you. And I know that in some way, if this was just an organization that served people, it could feel weird to say, here's what we need from you, because they're like, aren't you here just to serve us? But it's so good that we operate as a family and not like that, and that you are not spectators and that you are not consumers. And so I know that so many of you are like, how can I help?

What can I do? And so we want to put this in front of you. And so we have three really simple, and we were laughing at the last service because we're going, these are the most cookie cutter things that we could ever come out of our mouth right now. And we're going to say, so these are the three things that we need moving forward from you.

The first thing, can you guess it? It's prayer. We need you to pray, everyone. Listen, leaving this room with just a, what would I call this, leaving this room tonight and just having confidence in your heart that God's got it is not faith.

And not thinking about it, not carrying it in your heart, but just going, he's got it. Oh, we've got leaders who've got it. The Lord's going to lead them. Oh, yeah, that breakthrough is coming.

That's not faith. And it's not prayer. It's not how the family carries it. And so I want to invite you to actually pray, not like well wishes, Christian, like, yeah, brother, I'll pray for you.

Like, actually pray. And so we want to invite you, like, would you pray that God would provide the building? Would you pray that he would give the leadership wisdom to not waste time on properties that are closed doors or dead ends? That is a huge one.

The enemy wants to waste our time and distract us. And we're like, man, Lord, give us wisdom and discernment. You can pray for wisdom and discernment over the leadership team. You can pray for courage and boldness over leadership.

You can pray for leadership, families. Like, you can just pray. God, give our team wisdom. Give us clarity.

Give us discernment and courage to keep waiting when it looks like there's no way. Like, we need prayer to not give up. Like, if I just say that directly, two weeks ago, I don't even know how many dreams are where it's people sent us and said, don't give up. Do you know how much we needed that?

I don't know that I could sit in front of you in the same way that I'm sitting here right now had I not received the encouragement from the body because I wanted to give up. Okay? We need each other in this season. And so I know that right now for you, if you're just hearing this information, it's easy to go, he's going to do it, but you don't feel the squeeze of it.

The team is feeling the squeeze of it. And so we need your prayer. We want you to rally with us. And so practically speaking, we're going to be sending some text updates for prayer, ways that you can practically pray or, hey, we found a building.

We have a meeting with the city, pray, things like that, that will be just sending very casually as things come up. And so if you want to receive those text updates, you can follow that QR code. Otherwise, we also have a website, just a simple webpage that's set up that kind of walks you through all the things we're talking about today. But there's a contact form on it as well.

And we want to encourage you, if you have a building, you're like, I know the building, I know Josh said we know of all of them, but if for some reason, just send it to us. Don't be shy. Send us a building. If you have a contact, you want to connect us with, send it through there.

If you have a dream or a word for the Lord, just send it. We're just collecting as we're listening to Holy Spirit and letting him guide us. And so one of those QR codes is for texting. Prayer updates the other is a way that you can connect with us directly as well.

And so you'll see this again. We're going to give you guys time to kind of do some of these action items in a couple of minutes. The second thing that we are asking is that you would consider serving in this season and very specifically serving next gen. So either serving kids or serving youth.

And so that's for anyone in the room that you're like, I have capacity on a Sunday or on a Wednesday to invest in next gen. In this season, as we, yes, we're praying for a building in this big transition, we need extra hands. We need all hands on deck for next gen as we are bursting at the seams. And so we need the family to rally for Generation Alpha and Gen C.

And so if you are, we're going to pray about it in a little bit, but we'd love for you to consider that. And then lastly, we are asking that you would financially invest that you would give in this season. And you know, with moving comes an increase in finances is going to be needed. And so over this next year, you're going to hear us talk about finances a lot.

And that's not a bad thing. We need to talk about that together. And so we would ask that if you are not already consistently giving every day, and this is your home community, we want to invite you to put your yes behind this community to actually experience that buy in in a practical way of, I am a part of this family. And this is a small part that I can play a role in this.

And so even if you're like, I've got $5 a month, it's significant. And I want to invite you to be a part in giving or maybe assessing, hey, I think we could give a special gift for this or, hey, I think we could go above and beyond in what we are giving right now. Whatever that looks like, would you just pray about it and ask the Lord if he would have you start giving or increase your giving in this season? Yeah, I want to even add on top of the giving that Katie's talking about, when we're talking about giving, there's, it really is significant for our team during the season of searching.

Because it's actually helping us understand the future of being able to achieve owning a building and paying the utilities and paying the staff. And all of those added expenses that are going to come in this future season, there's actually banks that are looking at our finances right now and going, well, are we going to be able to close on the building because you need to show in your financials that you can actually make the payment. And so it's important right now, before we even find the building, because there's a history getting built financially for us as a community so that we can actually achieve, I would love to move into the next space, Jeffrey. How many of you would love that?

It would be amazing. I'm ready. But until that moment, there's a responsibility that we have to actually show with all of the people that are part of a community, this is our financial health as we're interacting with banks that are helping us actually purchase the building. So as we're going, we can welcome the worship team, the band up, and this is such an opportunity for us to kind of not just be a person in the room that receives, but also that person that goes, I'm an owner.

And that's what an owner is that every day is that you serve or that you give. And it's not volunteers at every day. It's called owners because we're actually owning the mission and we're owning the vision that God's given us together. And we want to do that collectively.

And I just want to even double down on what Katie was talking about with the next generation, what God is doing with next gen right now. Man, there is something so special that the Lord is doing, that it's not just something where there's so many stories that are coming to my mind, but I need to move forward. I just want you to know that next gen, if that's something that the Lord has given you to experience in or he hasn't, that doesn't disqualify you or qualify you, that the Lord is actually calling men to invest in you. The Lord is calling men to invest in kids.

I want the boys of our community to have men that love the Lord with all of their heart investing in kids. I want them to see men that are jocks and men that are creatives and men that are more like I love doing puzzles on weekends. I like want them to see all of the whole spectrum. I want them to see African American men and Hispanic men and white men.

So I know I'm leaning into the men because I'm a man, but I just listen, it's not, when we talk about you and kids, we are not talking to the women in the room. That's why I'm saying that. We are talking to the women in the room, absolutely, but we're also talking to the men. So as you're praying about, man, which two am I going to choose or am I going to do all three or, or is this even my home?

Can I just pray for a far, whatever that looks like, I want you to be not just canceling out one of these options like I can't do that. Let's turn it into prayer and let's ask him and have a conversation because the Lord might have something that might surprise you, okay? We're going to just take a couple of minutes right now because we know how it can be to leave the room and it's like, oh, I was going to sign up for that or I wanted to do that and it just slips our minds and we want to be able to leave tonight and just even have a visual on ways that you're wanting to get involved as we move into this next season. So we're just going to take like three minutes here and we're going to run those same slides on the screen.

So if you want to grab the one for texting prayer requests so that you can get on that prayer list or if you want to look at the webpage and you're like, oh, actually, how to dream and you want to send us a dream that the Lord gave you last week, you can send that if you want to sign up for serving next gen or if you want to set up giving or a gift, you can do that. So we're just going to give it a few minutes and then we're going to go into just a prayer time, a family prayer time together. We're going to take communion together. So stick around.

It's going to be a special close to service. You can go ahead and roll those slides. One more minute and then we're going to go into a time of prayer and worship. Give you about one more minute.

Would you just stand with me? What we're going to do is we're going to share communion together and I really believe that communion at a moment like this is really significant but I want to give context of what the Lord has been speaking about communion over the last couple months. I believe that the Lord, a couple prayer rooms ago, I think it was three prayer rooms ago, the Lord just dropped in my heart. This phrase great communion revival.

He said great communion revival and then I was wondering, man, is this something that's happened in history? Is this something that's happened in the past? And as I searched online, I was just searched on Google, great communion revival. And I saw an article by a prophet that we know and he got the same phrase and has been talking about the great communion revival coming to America.

And I believe that the Lord is actually doing something really significant with communion right now and that he's bringing us back to remembrance and bringing us back to the bread and the wine, the body and the blood. And as a people, he's bringing us back to the simple things that the Lord has commanded us to do. And so throughout this year, we're going to be taking a lot more communion together. I'm really excited about that.

But I believe that it's so significant that we would take communion at a time like this because if you look at history and the history of the people of God, I think about the Israelites and on the eve of hopelessness, on the eve of deliverance, on the eve of the breakthrough, they actually celebrated Passover, which is what we're celebrating when we celebrate communion. And that communion evening where they slaughtered the Lamb and put the Lamb's blood on the door post was the day of breakthrough and freedom. And it was actually the breakthrough that was needed to set a whole people free and completely change the season after 400 years into a new day. And then Jesus in this place of hopelessness in this place of thousands of years of sin running rampant with never being checked and demons never being checked, Jesus sits around a table with his friends in this place of hopelessness.

And he says, this is my body taken eat. This is my blood. Take and drink. Take this in remembrance of me.

Bring my body and my blood into your system and have it nourished every part of who you are because he knows that in that great testing and that great pressure in that great hour, there's actually a nourishment that we need and it's found in the body and in the blood. As we celebrate the body and the blood, we celebrate perseverance when it doesn't seem like it makes sense. And that's what we get to step into as a people knowing that as on the eve of it seems impossible, we're going to have a little and I know this is funny that this is it's a way for and a little but it's what we represent. Okay.

That we break bread together and we go, this is what you're going to do when we're in miracle territory, we remind ourselves of the greatest miracle in human history that you bent down, became a man, laid on a tree, have men put nails in your hands, have men whip your back 39 times and rip flesh off your back and have beads of blood running down your body, pouring out your blood, giving and laying down your life because you are the way maker where there is absolutely no way. And you put, I just love that he takes all of the demonic powers and principalities and he makes us spectacles of his kindness and he says here, take me in your moment of need, take me and your moment of feeling weak, take me, have my nourishment, take my body, take my blood, take my bread, take my wine. And so tonight specifically, and this isn't going to be how it's going to be for the whole year, but I really feel like it's something significant for the people that are in the room that go, I want to build what every day is built. Like you feel ownership around building the mission and the vision of every day and you're going, during this time you're going, I'm all in.

And a year from now when there's maybe, let's say there isn't a breakthrough in a building, but we've got six acres of land and all we have is a tent and we just like park on grass and it's September and it's starting to get cold, you know, and we all just pile into a tent, there we are just worshipping with all of our kids, there's not a kids wing anywhere, right? And you're going, even when we don't have anything, I'm all in. Even when there's like nothing, no breakthrough, I'm all in and you're going, yeah, that's me, I'm all in on what God is building here and I want to be a part of building it. We would love for that to be the fam that's actually going to take communion together.

So if you're not, if you're just visiting, you just get to be all in worship during this time, you just get to worship him and love him. But if that's you and you're going, I just want to build this house together, then I'm going to pray and then I want to welcome you to just come and we've got communion up here that we're going to grab and then all lead us through communion, okay? So Lord, thank you for every person that you know their story and you know this big story that we all get to be a part of. And Lord, I thank you for all of those people that go, yeah, this is the story that you've actually grafted me into.

And Lord, we thank you that we get to partake of your body and blood. So if that's you, you can come up and grab communion here at the front. We're going to have you come down the side aisles and leave the center aisle just to, okay, okay, sounds good. The communion's on the side, that side, ready to go.

And don't feel odd or weird at all. If you don't grab communion, that's no problem. I want us to have sobriety around this. Okay, we're going to just spread out, we asked a handful of leaders to come up and pray.

So if you're one of those leaders that we talked to, you just want to join us quick at the end, and then everyone else, if you just want to spread out and kind of move forward, we're just going to keep it as like family as we can get. And we're just going to pass the mic around a little bit and have a moment for some of our leaders of the house to just pray and commission us into this next season. So yeah, don't be shy, pull it all the way in, come on up. I'm going to start by just reading.

Oh, we got to take communion. Let's go. We're going to take communion real quick. Let's do that.

If you have to do that. So we're going to start with the body, the bread. Lord, thank you so much for the body. Lord, we thank you that your body was laid down, that you were the chosen lamb.

Of all of the lambs, you were the chosen one. Lord, we thank you that you are spotless and perfect. Lord, we thank you that you are the nourishment of our souls. And Lord, we thank you that you are the body that was laid down, that was beaten and bruised and marked.

You are marked beyond human likeness, just like sin, marred us as humanity. And Lord, you are the one that brought redemption through your body. And Lord, we thank you that your body rose again the third day. And it's a promise that we're going to have resurrected bodies at the end of this story.

And so we, with delight, take the body and eat. Lord, we thank you for your blood. We thank you for the blood that was poured out for us. We thank you for the stripes, for the nails.

Lord, we thank you for the betrayal that you suffered. We thank you for all of the drops of blood that were poured out that brought forgiveness. You have washed us white as snow with your blood. And so we're so grateful that you would remove our past so that we could have a future.

It's by the blood that the Israelites were free. Lord, in a moment, you're the one that brought redemption when it didn't seem like there was hope. Lord, we thank you that you made a way over there was no way. We thank you for your blood.

Now we're going to pray. Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea. Not around it, but in it. The Lord who makes a way in the sea, who makes a path in the mighty waters, who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior.

They lie down and they cannot rise. They are extinguished, quenched like a wick. So remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I'm doing a new thing.

Now it springs at forth. Do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness, and I will make rivers in the desert places. God, we thank you that you are the one who makes a way when it seems like there's no way.

That in these moments when we feel like we are being squeezed, and the pressure is coming in from every side, we thank you Lord that our strategies, like the strategies of man have failed us, and here we are leaning on the strategy of heaven. God, I thank you for this moment for us. I thank you for this moment of building history with you that we will let you build the house. So here you go.

Jesus, build the house. Go ahead and make a way. We're asking you God. We have no other way.

You are our way forward. In Jesus' name. Yeah, we agree Father that you are inescapable. Where could we go from your presence?

Where could we flee where you're not? Where we go across the ocean you're there, down to shield you're there, up in heaven you're there, light, dark doesn't matter you're always there. So we're not saying that we're afraid of missing you. We know you're with us, but we see you moving.

We see you like a cloud by day and a fire by night and you're on the move. And so we say we're moving too. We're with you always, wherever you go, wherever you lead. And so we say good leader lead on.

Good shepherd, shepherd us. Guide us where you want us to be. We're about you. We're about you as much as we can be.

We want to imitate Christ and even say I only do what I see my Father doing. And we see you doing something. We see you going. We see you moving.

And we're going to be found with you God. In every step of the way. Yes, Jesus, we just say that our allegiance is to you, God. And to not a building.

It is you, Jesus. It is you who we are wanting to make a resting place for you, God, not for us, for you, Jesus. And we just say that we are a community, God, that is marked by the love of God. Lord, when people look in on our community, they don't see any fear, fear of the unknown, a fear of unmanned.