Abraham's Big Move... And Ours

That's fine. Well, hey, let's, before we jump in, let's just pray.

If you guys would join me, good way to start the new year. So Lord God, we thank you. We thank you for this day. We thank you for your love and your care. Lord, we anticipate it. You've been looking forward into this year, Lord, because you've been so faithful to us over and over again. And we just want to pause and remember that, Lord, whatever 2024 had, whether it was difficult things or good things, Lord, We just want to remember the consolation and the hope that we have had in you, Lord.

And so we look towards this new year and this new season and ask you, Lord, would you encourage us today as we just think, Lord, and we consider what it is you have for us just collectively and individually. We want to seek you and know you and walk with you this year, Lord, and whatever is in the way of that, you know, whatever obstacles, Lord, we just want to put them before you and just have you deal with them. Even slowly, Lord, if it's a slow process, but Lord, we just look to you.

Holy Spirit, would you just fill us up? Would you encourage us? Would you build us up? We pray that in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Well, today we're going to start a short series.

It's called, see, you know, you choose these titles and then you get embarrassed when you actually say them. It's called Journeys in Genesis. Ah, man, I thought it was good. And then now I'm doubting myself. Anyone else do that? Thank you. It's okay. Thank you. Oh, Larry likes. All right. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I needed that, guys. You might have been able to guess. This is a series where we are going to look at various journeys in the book of Genesis.

And if you are familiar with the book of Genesis, there are several of them. God's People Take Trips. It's a very clever title, I know. But full disclosure, and you probably can guess this, I have a reason for wanting to look at this topic, not just because I think it's interesting. And that's the reason is that because as a church, and we've talked about this a couple times, but we may soon be taking a journey.

A journey, not quite as epic as some of the ones that we're, And while I'm sure many of you know, just to catch everybody up, I'm sure many of you guys know about this and others may not, but for the last year, most 2024, the elders have been praying a lot and kind of just discerning, like, what does God have for us as a church going forward?

And we've been praying a lot as the elder team, and we've talked about this in different times, in different ways here in the service, and just individually and in smaller groups and stuff like that. We've talked about it a lot. We've been discussing very specifically moving from this building to another location, okay? And at this point, it is possible.

Sometimes I want to say like very possible, but it's possible that we may be going on a journey and just moving from this location to a new location. And that's because there is currently another church who is interested in this building. I mean, taking it over from us, and we've kind of entered into a contract with this church. It's a Chinese-speaking church.

But as I mentioned last month when we first talked about this, the contract begins with what is called a feasibility study or period, right? And if you know about real estate, you know what that is. And if you don't, that's just a time when the people who are interested in the church that's interested can come in and just look around and poke around and do their inspections and ask their questions.

And if they just decide for any reason that it's not going to work for them, they can totally walk away, right? And so I told you guys, I think last month, you know, that we were in this kind of 30 day feasibility period. And that would have ended like a couple of days ago as we came into January. But we've actually extended that feasibility period a little bit by two weeks to January 15th. So we are still in this feasibility period. Yeah.

Time. They've done a good job. They're well done, good and faithful servant, but not really legal anymore. You know, some things just, you know, health codes keep updating and stuff like that. And there's certain things that need to be done. And if you know anything about getting something done, respect King County, but dealing with King County, it can take a little while. And there's a lot of people that need to sign off on things.

And so we're in this thing where we have to like make some plans and make some headway before we can move out of this feasibility study part. So that's where we're at right now. So I've actually, I made a little timeline and I've updated that timeline by just moving it slightly to the right. Okay, right? So we're into this thing where we're kind of in mid-January, at least for now, we would come out of feasibility.

And if we're going to move forward, we'll kind of know at that point or if it gets extended because of septic, I don't know. But that's the updated timeline. And we'll just keep talking about this. But the important thing to know about this timeline as well is that if we do continue forward, you know, pass feasibility on to actually contract execution, we have in the contract three months of being able to rent back this place after the sale. So we wouldn't have to leave until mid-May.

So all that is to say is that if this does go forward, there is some time. Okay, that's fine. there's some time to really go on and find a new space so don't feel like you're having to move next month because that's not it. So we have time, or actually that is to say, we have time to actually make the move. But there is actually, should we move forward? Again, I apologize about the contingency of all of this. I know that's like annoying. I certainly find it annoying, but that's the way it is.

Should we move? We have time to actually make the move, but we don't have time to actually decide where it is that we want to go. Ideally, we would want to make that determination, you know, before close, which on our current time, I would be around February 15th. And that is a big decision, right? It's a big decision for us to decide where we want to go. And that's really why I thought it would be a good time to spend some time in Genesis.

As we kind of think about the moment that we're in, and we think about the journeys that God's people have gone on throughout scriptures, I want to take some time in Genesis because I think it'll help us to think through and process and understand what sort of opportunities are there in the midst of this kind of big and difficult and somewhat hairy decision?

And what are things to avoid? And as I've been thinking and praying about this journey, I've been struck particularly with the similarities between the choice that stands in front of us and really the journey that Abraham went on. You know, the first big journey that when Abraham was called out of the place where he was into the promised land. If you're not familiar with it, you could find this story beginning in Genesis 11, and we're going to spend some time there.

So if you've got a Bible there right in front of you, you can pick it up, go to Genesis 11. It's like, I don't know, it's like six pages into the Bible. It's not far. So go ahead and open that up. But if you aren't familiar with Abraham, just to give you some backstory, he's a pivotal character in Scripture.

Not only in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament. Like Abraham is important in the narrative of Scripture, but he's important to Christians and particularly to the Apostle Paul as an example of what faith looks like. He's lifted up and focused on. His story is really important. The book of Genesis begins, right? And you sort of probably remember this from Sunday school at the very least. The book of Genesis begins with God creating everything.

He creates it well. It's good. The world is well-ordered and things are the way they should be. But it's not long in the book of Genesis, he takes just a couple chapters, for things to go a little bit awry. In the perfect place that God has created, the perfect world that God's created, the relationship that he's made with man, with men and women, with Adam and Eve, quickly becomes polluted by sin and corrupted by sin.

And the book of Genesis really begins with this big explosive bang of creation and excitement and hope. And it starts to feel very quickly like all that hope is lost because of sin. But what we see as we go on past chapter three is that God doesn't give up on the world. In fact, he enters into this world that he's created that's been broken by sin through rebellion, through disobedience. And he comes in, he says, no, I intend to remake things and restore what's been

broken. He is intent right from the beginning on reestablishing relationship and setting things right. And Abraham's story, his calling is just a huge milestone in God's plan to put things back together. Before God gives him a new name, we know him as Abraham, but before that he was just a guy named Abram, which sort of sounds like the same thing, but I don't know. They call me crazy.

He was just a guy named Abram. He lived kind of just a little bit north of modern-day Kuwait in a city called Ur of the Chaldees, or at least that's where biblical scholars think it is. There's actually some debate about the particular location of that ancient city, but he probably lived in that southern region of ancient Mesopotamia. And he was just a normal guy. That's the thing. We don't really know much about what Abraham was like before he started this relationship with God.

But actually, if you read Abraham's story, you kind of realize he's a very normal guy. And in fact, he really isn't that special at all. He makes some mistakes along the way, let's just say. But he's just a guy. He's a guy. His name is Abram. He's probably just a pagan like all the other pagans in Ur of the Chaldees. Or the Chaldeas was the center of worship in ancient Mesopotamia and ancient Babylonian or pre-Babylonian culture.

We have no reason to believe that Abraham was particularly special. But what God does is out of nowhere begins a relationship with this guy, this unspecial guy. God says, you know what?

I'm going to make you special by initiating a relationship with you. And so he calls, he begins to talk to Abraham and he calls him out to go on a journey, to leave the place where he's at and head to the promised land, what will later be modern day Israel, right? But at that point it was called the land of Canaan.

And so I'm thinking about this story, like this thing, I actually see several big similarities between his journey and things that we can learn from his journey as we kind of potentially set out on our own journey. First thing that is an interesting parallel is that Abraham made some stops along the way. If you look at a map, and I think I have one up here.

Thank you very much. What Abraham does is he goes from Ur of the Chaldees, right down there by modern day Kuwait, up to Haran, which is kind of north of Damascus and Syria. And then eventually he makes his way down to Israel. And you'll notice that that's not exactly a straight line between where he started to Israel. Now, granted, there was a giant desert between those two places, and so it probably wouldn't have been easy to go on a straight line.

But he does, he makes some stops along the way. And we actually read about that in Genesis 11. Abraham's journey actually begins with his father, Terah. So picking up in Genesis 11, verse 27, it says this, Terah fathered Abraham, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran fathered Lot, who becomes relevant later. Skipping ahead just a couple verses. Terah took his son, Abram, his grandson, Lot.

Haran's son, and his daughter-in-law, Sereh, and his son, Abraham's wife, and set out together from Ur of the Chaldees to the land of Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there and Tara lived 205 years and died in Haran. So, Terah sort of initiates, it seems like Terah initiates this journey.

He brings Abraham, Abram at the time, along with him, along with Lot, and they are setting out for the promised land, but as they get to Haran in the northern part of Mesopotamia, they just decide, we'll just stay here for a little bit. Their journey towards Canaan, towards the promised land, is interrupted. And I think about our journey as a church, right? And I don't want to necessarily say we've been interrupted, but we've made some stops along the way.

If you know a little bit about I-90, and you guys probably know more about this than I do, because I'm actually relatively new here to I-90. We have made some stops along the way in our history, and I actually have a little map of our journey so far, right? This is very complicated. You know, I mean, I'm not sure if you'll be able to orient yourself here along I-90, right? But sometime around the year 2011, maybe it was 2010, actually no one really remembers. I've heard both things.

Somewhere around that time, this church formed from a group of people at a different church. There's a word for that. I won't say it, right? But essentially, a group of people decided that we wanted to start a new work around 2010, 2011, and they were a part of a community in the Snoqualmie area. And then at that point located some rental space in the infamous, the famous Kids Bounce, right? You know, the perfect place to have a kids ministry would be a bounce house

place. And so they rented half of Kids Bounce. And again, these are just the stories that I've been told. I've been texting with the Carnes this weekend to give me all the original I-90 information, right? And so they moved to Kids Bounce and, you know, slowly had half a Kids Bounce and then they took on all of Kids Bounce and then they started to rent the gym next door. And then the fire marshal found out about it, right?

And there's a lot of stories that went on, you know, let's say they didn't ask permission before they just started to have a bunch of people be in the gym. But it worked out. It worked out really well all the way up until something happened in 2020, right? This is this thing that kind of happened in 2020, in March of 2020, there's this, well, actually, you guys had it in February, February of 2020. You guys are early adopters out here in Seattle. Good job. You have COVID before everyone else.

It was good. And so around that time, you probably remember there was this global pandemic that began. And when, especially in the Seattle area, like it went to, oh, yeah, you can put a bunch of people in a gym sort of unless the fire marshal comes by sometime. Right. So you definitely can't gather a lot of people in a gym because there are all these rules about gyms. And so all of a sudden, this church has been renting this space in a gym is having to figure out, well, what do we do?

And it was a huge blessing that back in 2014, a historic church that had a location off the High Point exit had merged with I-90 and given them this building that we're sitting in right now. And it was a huge blessing because, you know, right as COVID began, the founding pastor of this church resigned. And in the middle of that time, as COVID was ramping up.

The church simultaneously decided to start a pastor search looking for a new pastor who, here we are, you know, looking for a new pastor while also moving into this building, which really hadn't been used as much. And I have heard great stories about this time, about how people rallied together and just got it done. You know, a lot of churches would have just at that point been like, look, it's not going to work.

We don't have a pastor. We don't really have a building. But I-90, like you guys were committed. You didn't call it quits. You're not like most people, which is awesome. And we moved into this building, conducted that new pastor church.

And now, almost four years after—I'm the pastor, just in case you weren't getting that. I was the new pastor that was hired, and then I've been here almost four years. We are just the elder team, and we're collectively just praying, okay, Lord, is there another step in this journey? Is there another step in this journey? And the elders have been praying about this for a long time.

We've been taking steps. We've been waiting on the Lord. and the elders are very convicted that, yeah, like God is opening these doors and he's directing us to these. We really believe that this journey is not yet done. And so that's why we're kind of walking through this process and sort of exploring this next move. And there's actually another interesting parallel between our moment and our story and where we find ourselves right now in Abraham's story.

And that is that when he set out, he didn't know where he was going. And we don't either. Isn't that great? That's great. That's not stressful. And it wasn't stressful for him, I'm sure. He was a man of faith, so you can never be stressed. That's irony. We'll talk about that in a second. Genesis 12, okay, let's keep reading in Abraham's story, okay? So Abraham has, Terah, Abraham's father, has brought them from Ur of the Chaldees

in the south up to Haran in the north. And at some point, his father Terah dies. And at least if this is chronological, which according to the Hebrew mindset, it doesn't necessarily have to be, after Tara dies, God approaches Abraham and he says this. The Lord said, Abraham, go forth from your country and from your relatives and from your father's house to the land which I will show you. And I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great.

And so you shall be a blessing and I will bless those who bless you. And the one who curses you, I will curse and in all in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed. I've had a lot of conversations with different people in different settings about a potential move and several people. So if you're one of those people, don't feel embarrassed. Many people thought this have said, well, I know you say you don't know where we're going, but you secretly, you actually have already decided.

Multiple people have said there's no way that we're just moving towards this thing without like a decision having been made. Right. And I just want to make it clear. I really don't know where we're going. And the elders really don't know where we're going. It's not that we aren't assessing our options. We have a grab bag of options. We have a, we're trying to stuff as many in there as we can.

Some of them jump out, but we're trying to keep, you know, a collection of options and exploring all our options. But there has not been a definitive decision made of this is definitely where we're going. No contracts have been signed for leases. No, nothing, nothing like that for so many reasons. But really, honestly, I mean, the biggest reason is because we want the Lord to direct our steps. The Lord has to make this decision. If he doesn't, I don't know what we're doing.

I don't know what we're doing. Now, don't get me wrong. We're not considering moving to Idaho or Mexico. Maybe we should think about Mexico like a vacation church. No, okay. No, we're not going to Mexico. We're not going to Idaho. We're not going to Mexico. Really, honestly, we are considering because of where we're at. You can't go north. You can't go south. We're just thinking east or west and really within a pretty tight latitude. I actually think I have a map of the potential options.

It's either that way or this way, right? I mean, that's really where you can go. And either it's, you know, three miles to Isquare, five miles to Snoqualmie. I mean, potentially maybe things between there, but there's really not that much between there. So, but you know, it's a range of possibilities that we are considering and we're praying.

And our prayer as the elder team from the very beginning, from a year ago, I think March, we went on a retreat and it's like, okay, Lord, if you're going to do this, you just have to open the doors.

We don't want to, through our cleverness or through our planning, bring all of this about. And what we've seen up to this point is God just opening door after door after door after door, and yet this final door is not open yet. It's not clear to us where it is, or maybe it is open, we're just not aware of it, right? We are praying that God would direct our steps, that he would go just like Abraham received, that God would show us the land that he's going to show us.

He's going to lead us along the way. And frankly, just let's be 100% honest. I know this open-ended approach is a source of a lot of anxiety for you and for me. It's stressful. It's stressful. I would love to come up here and just say, this is the plan. This is the way it's going to be. But I'm not going to do that for reasons that we'll talk about here in a second.

And so I just want to you know just begin by by apologizing sort of or at least recognizing that this is a thing that causes anxiety and I I don't want anyone to feel anxious but I also think that in that there's a huge opportunity there's a huge opportunity because you know what Abraham had this this this thing you kind of wonder when Abraham when God starts to talk to Abraham why he couldn't have just said, I'm going to take you to the promised land.

I'm going to take you to the place and it's going to be awesome. And here's some, here's some pictures of the pool where you're going to be able to sit by, you know, why couldn't there have been a brochure as Abraham was, was, was setting out? Why does it, is it Lord, I'm just going to take you to the land that I'm going to show you this kind of open-ended sort of thing.

Abraham was just told by God, just go ahead and leave your family, leave the place where you grew up, leave all your comfort, leave all your security, and it'll be fine. I'm going to show you a place and it's going to be even better. It's going to be so much better. And in fact, as you go along, you're going to be blessed. Your name is going to be great. You are going to bless other people. I'm going to watch out for you. The whole earth, in fact, is going to be blessed as you step out in faith.

See abraham certainly would have felt anxiety that's okay he certainly would have been like anxious like that's a very normal response but abraham is commended because he meets his anxiety with with faith it's not that he doesn't have anxiety it's that when he is in the normal course of life doing something that is is a lot involves a lot of uncertainty and a lot of challenge He sits in that anxiety and he meets it with faith.

Paul tells us about Abraham's faith. He commands Abraham's faith in Romans 4. He says this.

Just think about this, okay? He says this. He, Abraham, is the father of us all. As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations in the presence of the God in whom he believed, the one who gives life to the dead and calls things into existence that do not exist. He believed, hoping against hope, so that he became the father of many nations according to what had been spoken.

So will your descendants be. He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body to be already dead since he was about to be 100 years old, and also the deadness of Sarah's womb. He did not waver in unbelief at God's promise, but he was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God because he was fully convinced that what God had promised, he was also able to do. Therefore, it was credited to him as righteousness.

Abraham, like Paul looks back and reflects at Abraham, this father of the faith. And he says, he's like, he's the father of faith. He's the father of those who know what it is to be faithful. And there's a reference here to how later in his life, Abraham just kept trusting God, even though he was so old, he trusted that God was going to give him an heir, a son with his wife, Sarah.

And even though Sarah was very old and he was very old, and it was entirely unlikely that they would have a baby, Abraham kept believing through this. And Abraham had this regular practice of hearing from God. When God spoke to him, he would listen, and he would hold on to those promises. And Paul says, and that's the thing that makes him righteous before God.

When he hears that God has said something, he just is able to say, through anxiety, through difficulty, that, well, if God said it, it's going to come to pass. It might take time. It might be a difficult path. But because of his faith, he's able to go ahead and just say, yes, I know that God is going to do it. He's going to deliver us, even though it may seem unlikely and even though it may seem difficult. Abraham's faith led him to just set out from Haran, this place where he was familiar.

At least it was closer to the place where he grew up to leave his family behind, to leave his things behind. He had enough faith to just say, hey, let's go. Let's pack up the minivan. Let's get the stuff in there. I mean, can you imagine that? Imagine the conversation that was had. He gets all his stuff, all the camels in tow, everything, get a lot together. They close the door. They say, all right, Abraham, where are we going? He said, well...

Good question. I don't know. We're going to a land that God's going to show us. And you know, no, I'm not going to say it. I'm not going to say it. Never mind. I was going to say something about Sarah because she's kind of, she complains a lot in the book of Genesis. And I can't imagine what she would have said to Abraham in that moment. She would have been like, are you crazy? What are we doing? What are we doing here, Abraham?

But I said, I wasn't going to say it. And then I said, I shouldn't have said it. I'm sorry.

Abraham didn't know where he was going, but as the scripture says, he was fully convinced that what God had promised, he was going to be able to do. Here's the thing about faith. Faith is a strange combination of high conviction and low clarity. I think faith always operates in that space. High conviction, so a strong sense of, no, I believe that we must act. We have to do something. We have to follow through and trust in the Lord, yet faith always happens in

low-clarity environments. If you have certainty, you don't have faith, right? If you have an assurance that things are going to work out, that's not faith. There's nothing wrong with certainty. There's nothing wrong with intelligence. There's nothing wrong with making good decisions and clear decisions, but decisions that are made with total certainty and total guarantee are not faith decisions. It doesn't mean they're bad decisions. It's just that they're not faith decisions.

And so why couldn't God have said, here's the brochure, and here's the path, and here's the itinerary, and here's when you'll be here, because that would have not been a faith decision. Then Abraham, he would have been the father of obedience because he would have gone up and go, but he wouldn't have been the father of faith. Faith says, I don't have all the answers.

I don't have all the clarity. I don't have everything that I want, and yet I'm still going to put so much conviction and confidence in what God's going to do. And I mean, just fundamentally, what Paul says is, this is the thing. People who learn the capacity for faith are people who end up being counted righteous. What God wants from us, right? He certainly wants us to obey and follow and love him, but that is always expressed in faith because we are not him and yet we follow after him.

We don't have his understanding and his knowledge. We don't understand everything about where we're supposed to go all the time, what we're supposed to do. And yet we are called to be people who are high in conviction that whatever he says, that is what we ought to do because he has our best interests in mind and he loves us and he cares about us. And so like, yeah, Abraham could have had all the clarity, but that would have denied him the opportunity to develop his faith.

And I think that what God is doing right now for us, he's asking us as a church to have faith. We need to have conviction, despite a lack of clarity. And here's how, by seeking the Lord in prayer, seriously, to a person. I'm not saying, I'm going to tell you in a second about all the things I'm not asking you to do. There's several things I'm not asking you to do. You maybe think I'm asking you to do something just like, just trust me or just do whatever I'm telling you to do.

I'm saying pray, pray, get a conviction. Conviction from the Lord. It's not my job. It is, but it's not only my job to have conviction. And we're going to talk about that here. And actually, we're probably going to talk about it again next week. So we're going to go all in on this message. What we need is fervent prayer. What we need is God to confirm in us where it is we're going. If you don't have that, I'm saying, yes, you do need it. And yes,

you have a part to play in having that, in getting that. And it's prayer. So that's the wide open invitation. Yes, faith, but faith, conviction that comes through prayer. So here's what I'm saying. Faith is not a couple things, okay? Because these are typically the things that we can mistake for faith in the world of church and in the world of kind of big moves. Faith is not, and I'm going to apologize before this first one, it's not advice. And I'll just mean, I say, it's not merely advice.

It's not merely advice. I know, I wanted to apologize that because I don't want to, I don't want to ever make you think that I know that much. Because I really, you know what? I'm learning a lot about septic tanks right now, and they did not cover that in seminary. There was not a class in seminary. I learned a lot about them now, right? I understand there's so many things about real estate and about churches that I sort of have an expertise in, but I'm not really an expert in.

I desperately need advice. And I will tell you, for the last year, I have sought a lot of advice. We have sought a lot of counsel. We've had some smaller meetings where we've asked people their views and opinions, and that was important. It is important. We need advice, and I really want to say this. I think we've taken a lot of counsel. We've taken a lot of counsel, including from some experts outside the church in church.

I don't want to say church growth, because that's not it, but church thriving, right? We've had a lot of advice. And if you have advice, I'm not saying don't give it to me, but I'm saying don't give me advice and not prayer, because that's not loving. Because that's so typical what we do. When we are faced with a problem, everyone's normal response is, let's think of the best solution, and that will be success.

And yet what Paul tells us over and over again, and what Abraham knew is actually the smartest person is not the one commended by the Lord.

The person who has faith is the one who's commended by the Lord. And so let's not think that if only we had more advice and more wisdom and more knowledge, then we would make decisions for the Lord because I know lots of people who are very smart and who maybe are very successful and who are very rich and who have nothing for the Lord. You can be very smart in the flesh and not be wise in the spirit.

And I'm not accusing anyone of that, but I'm just saying we're at the point where I just need you to understand that what we desperately need is you to pray. What I need is to pray because we need God to open the doors. It's not even like we're in such a bad situation. We're actually in a great situation. And it's like, if the Lord opens the doors, we'll be financially able to cover whatever we need to cover.

And it's like, so it's not about that, but it's like, if we come up with a great plan and it's not God's plan, then what are we even doing here? I don't know. I don't want to spend my life doing that. I'm 40. You know, I feel like it really like has to get real now. And I feel like what we want as a church for it to be real now. Right.

I mean, like, like we went through all this stuff and we've been scratching their heads and just saying like, like, why would you sustain this church through such a crazy time? You know, founding pastor leaving and COVID and a move. And it's like, it's like, Lord, what do you have for us? I, I am so deeply convicted that he has something really, really good and that I have no idea what it is and I could think about it all day long and I do.

And yet all the thinking that I do doesn't get me any closer to the thing because actually what I need is him to open the doors and we need to collectively like listen and hear from him and have a deeper conviction from him about what we're called to. So I'm not asking you for advice. Again, if you have, I'm saying if you have advice, give me advice. I'm not saying that, but don't give me only advice. That's all. I'm not asking you to trust Pastor Trey.

I'm not asking you to trust Pastor Trey. That's not faith either. And in fact, I'm going to say this. That's a cop-out. That's what I'm saying. I'm saying, don't just trust me. Do not delegate your prayer life to me. I don't want it. I won't do it for you. You don't get to do that. In the New Testament, sorry, you got baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit. He's in you and you are the recipient. You get to engage with him. Not my job.

Isn't that wonderful news? You don't just have to trust me. If you don't trust me, okay. That's okay. Do you trust the Lord? That's the only thing I care about. Do you trust the Lord? Charles Spurgeon said this. This is really good. I think I've done this quote like a couple years ago, but Charles Spurgeon said this, for my part, I should loathe to be the pastor of a people who have nothing to say or who, if they do say anything, might as well be quiet for the pastor is the Lord paramount.

And they are mere laymen and nobodies. I would sooner be the leader of six free men whose enthusiastic love is my only power over them, then play the director to a score of enslaved nations. And he goes on, he says this, the why behind that. Brethren, our system will not work without the Spirit of God. And I'm glad it will not. For its stoppages and breakages call our attention to the fact of his absence.

Our system was never intended to promote the glory of priests and pastors, but is calculated to educate manly Christians who will not take their faith at second hand. Manly, womanly, full of the spirit. It was the 1890s, guys. Let's give Charles a little break. People who are mature in faith, he's saying the church doesn't work by pastoral authority and the iron rod, that's flesh.

That's trusting in men. If the church isn't going to work, if we are not walking in the spirit, if we are not seeking out the Lord together, if we are not free to go where the Lord calls us to go and do what the Lord calls us to do. Secondhand faith is not faith. And I desperately want for you to have faith. And so I will do, you know, honestly, guys, like I told my wife this.

I said, honey, if we get to the end of this and we move forward and it like, it like, it's like we don't really have like a good place to go or it doesn't work. It's like, I will die. I will die of embarrassment. And I'm not sure if I'm exaggerating. I honestly don't know. I might, I might die. because i so want to be competent and i i totally get why you're anxious and you're like really.

But i'd rather be embarrassed than us to just not grow in faith i'd rather bear that risk because i've spent too much of my time in church thinking that. Leadership was about brains and not about spirit. And so if we do something that seems risky, right? I'd rather risk, because I think it's a greater risk to just be safe than to step out in faith. And I mean, I just feel like, it's really great. I talked a couple weeks ago how I have seasonal depression.

So this, along with my seasonal depression, it's been great. I've had a great three months. No, it hasn't been great. It hasn't been great. But honestly, guys, I would do it over and over and over again if we can grow in our faith. And if we can finally just say, oh, the Lord's moving among us and he's giving us dreams and visions and hopes and we feel more convicted that we're doing something because we have risked something.

I've quoted to you guys John Wimber's little saying, faith is spelled R-I-S-K. I love that. On one level, it's not true because if we're being faithful, we have actually the least risk because we have a God in whom we can trust.

But our experience of a faith is always R-I-S-K. Our experience of faith is always, well, there's something to lose here if it doesn't go wrong. I mean, as Abraham was setting out with his family across deserts through hostile nations, that felt risky to him. And yet he was consoled by the power of God and he grew deeper in his conviction as time went on and as God showed up over and over again. My hope is that the Lord would show up.

So faith is not just trusting me. I'm not asking you to just trust me. I'm asking you to go before the Lord and if you need confidence to get it from him. And finally, faith is not resignation. Faith is not just sitting on your hands and just saying, oh, what's the saying? C'est la vie. I was thinking, come see, come saw, which is not that. C'est la vie. Like, whatever happens will happen. You know?

Just saying, well, God's going to do what he wants to do. I don't think that that was Abraham's attitude. You know, as he stepped out and as he heard from the Lord, he said, well, I might die in the desert. I don't think that was it. I think he... He understood faith to be like, okay, I'm going to fully trust in God to do the work. But he understood his part in it. And that's what I really want. I want us to all understand that we have a part to play in this.

There's no such thing as faith on the sidelines. We're on the team. We're all on the team. And I want you guys to pray, to seek the Lord, to seek the Lord as if we needed to hear from him because we do.

We really do i don't have a secret plan in my back pocket and in fact some of the plans we come up with it's really funny all right i'm gonna tell it tell it this story so we've been looking at different buildings and you know it's like you go to some and you're like oh this could maybe work and we went to one recently and we're like okay we're like thinking oh lord this might be the open door and then so we're

like you know trying to explore it and we talked to the realtor And the realtor's gung-ho. The realtor's like, yeah, this would be perfect. This would be great. It's like, you know, it's doable financially. It seems like you'd be in a good location. And so we're like, okay, well, like, draw up a draft lease so that we can just think about, like, what would the terms be and stuff like that. So the guy goes to the very rich person who owns the building.

And you know what the very rich person who owns the building, the building is 20% full, 80% empty. You know what the rich person says? I don't know about church. I don't know if I want a church in this building. And you're like, you would rather have nothing than a church? And you're just like, what is, what is, what is, people are crazy. People are crazy. And like, so the fact is that like, right, like we need the Lord to just show us what's up.

Like, like we're, we're going to do our diligence and we're going to explore the things and we're going to see what's happening. But in the end, God has to bring us to the place he wants to have us to go to. And so what does that look like? And I'm wrapping up now so worship team can come up. What does that look like? Well, we're going to continue to talk about this.

Like we're going to continue to talk about this because this whole leaning into faith and seeking the Lord, it's really at the heart of every journey in Genesis. Whenever God calls a group of people to follow after him, there's other dynamics going on here and faith playing out here. And so we'll talk about that as we go along here. But just some preliminary things. Can I just invite you, number one, to pray.

So to spend time this week and next week and the week after until we really have clarity about what the Lord is doing, to really spend some time asking, right? Not praying your will, but seeking God's will. To saying, okay, Lord, like, what is it? Where do you want us to go? I want you to do that in your own life and in your own time. Because you have that, that's part of your calling. That's part of what you're called to. You're called to hear from God.

Like the church collectively is this organization where, yeah, I mean, there's some formal leadership, but in the end, I think the beautiful vision of church in the New Testament is that everyone is hearing from the Lord. Everybody has a gift of the spirit. Everybody gets to play and be a part of this. Seeking the Lord together. So spend some time this week. And here's what I'm going to say.

If you get like 70% on what feels like clarity or feels like from the Lord and you've done the work of going through, well, is this just what I want? And if you can say, no, I don't think it's just what I want. I actually think it's from the Lord. Could you like send me an email? Like if you have a, if you have a dream or somebody gives you a word or you feel like you read something in scripture and you think it's clear,

like give me a phone call, give me an email. Like this is data. You understand this? You guys need to go do some data mining. You guys need to go seek the Lord. You guys need to say, okay, what is God telling us as we pray? So that then we can come together and we can collectively think and pray. Okay, where is this supposed to be, God? And what's this supposed to look like? Again, not advice, but what does the Lord say?

What does the Lord say to you? I really want to know that. The elders want to know that. So take some time this week. This Thursday, we are going to be gathering for worship and prayer. We had to move it back because, one, it was really close to the new year, and I thought people would be pretty tired. And number two, just to give us time to have this time to talk. And this Thursday, we're going to worship and pray together.

And I hope to spend that time just really seeking the Lord for this question. Where do you want us to go? If you read the New Testament, yes, people are doing private prayer, but so much discernment and wisdom happens when the church gathers together to pray. It's special. It's unique. When the church gathers together and prays and seeks the Lord, the Lord tends to show up. So if you're able to make it this Thursday, would you come? Thursday, seven o'clock.

And if you're feeling extra special, extra spiritual, and I hope you are, would you pray fast the next four Thursdays with me? I'm going to do that. Fasting is abstaining from food for a period of time for the sake of just seeking the Lord. So for the next four Thursdays, my plan is to fast, and I want to just invite us all into that. And to particularly take those Thursdays to really dedicate to prayer and to really seek the Lord as we fast together and then to listen.

So like if you hear something from the God, would you share it with each other, with me? That's not gossip sharing with each other. That's just encouraging one another. That's what we're supposed to do. Please, please, please, would you share these things with me? So fasting on Thursdays, prayer this week, and we're just going to keep talking about these things as we go along. The next question we're going to be considering is like, well, how do you pray through emotionally complex things?

Because there's a lot of landmines in this for a lot of people, right? Depending on where you live and what might happen and how this looks like. There's so many things. How do you pray through emotionally complex things and how do you have faith? That's what we're going to look at next week. but please, I'm begging you, would you pray? And let's take some time right now to do that.

Can we just stand up? I'm gonna commission you as prayer warriors, as people sent out to gather data, to hear from the Lord and to bring it back. Don't think that that's not part of it, bringing it back to us so that we can collectively listen to what God has to say to us and share it with one another. You know, guys, we have to share with one another what God is telling us. We need each other for that. And so, Lord, we thank you. Holy Spirit, we just welcome you. Even in this place right now,

we just settle our hearts and our minds. And we have so many questions. And Lord, we pray for clarity from you. Music. For it if we have to, God. We're not in a rush. I mean, gosh, if we knew where we were going, maybe we could be in a rush. But God, when we don't even know, Lord, the desperate need that we have is to hear from you, God. And we need you, Lord. We need you to show up and to lead us.

And Lord, would you speak to us? God, could you promise that you give us dreams and visions and words, and Lord, that you'll be among us. Lord, we pray for all the gifts that we need, Lord, those leadings and guidings of you.

Holy Spirit, would you speak to us, Lord? Lord, would you speak to the most unlikely? Lord, I pray for the people who are sitting here and thinking, no, that's not me. God, would you? God, you lift up those who feel like they don't have a part. Abraham had no idea who you were, and yet he was called by a name, given a new name, given a play of God's story. God, there are too many of us who think that we don't have anything to contribute, that we sit on the sidelines and we can't hear from you.

God, would you just show up mightily, I pray, especially to those who feel like they couldn't be used or couldn't be hearing from you. God, would you just draw near to us, Lord, as we seek your face? And Lord, would you lead us and fill us with confidence and hope and faith? Or would you teach us what it is to trust you in all things? And God, would you bring us to the place where we're to be, if that's going to happen, Lord? Or just slam the door shut on this. That's okay, too.

But we want to be convicted and certain of the direction you're bringing us in, Lord. That's all we want. We want your will above all things. And so, Lord, we empty ourselves and we say, whatever your will is, please, please, God, build us up.