Heavenly Father, we come before you now, and we believe some of us believe some of us have seen miracles like that happen. Some of us have have seen you do a mighty work, and some of us expect you to do it again. There are others in our rooms who, in they want to believe God, we wanna believe that you'll show up. And then there are even others who aren't even sure that you hear our present. In fact, I'm convinced there is, there are people here in these rooms right now gathering with us across all of our campuses, gathering with us online. I'm convinced there are people here who think I might even be talking to myself, but I know I'm not. I know the God of the universe hears my cry. And we are so grateful for what you have done, and we are even allowing ourselves to hope that you truly are not finished yet. So, may we hear your voice above the noise. May you give us a glimpse of what is now in our future, and in those moments where it feels like maybe we're, we're talking about things that are way bigger than we can imagine, God remind us that we're right where we should be, because you will do more than we could ever ask or imagine. You Lord will do this. So we ask all of this now, in the name of Jesus, we praise you. We thank you and the people of God across all of these campuses, across all the places where we are gathered together right now, the people of God together said, amen. All right. Okay, well, we're gonna let this team go. We're gonna let the worship teams at each of our sites go, because this is one of those moments where we were all gathering together. So let me welcome those of you at, uh, at Mid Rivers and Fenton and Grants Trail, those of you joining us online, you're gonna hear a little bit more about them in just a minute. Uh, my name's Greg. I get to be one of the pastors here, and today is Vision Weekend. We've been talking about it four weeks. Well, here we are people. And I want you to know, since Baptism, which was, you know, kind of a third of the way through summer and was fantastic since then, we've had a chance to hear from some really cool teachers. Amen. I mean, there's been people here like, uh, yeah, go ahead. I'll just put it this way. Uh, I said it this way last night and I need to think of a better way. 'cause I was saying, man, just think of all of our in-house teachers. Like, you know, and then I was like, well, wait a minute, that makes the other people outhouse teachers. So I didn't know how to say it, but I, what I'm talking about is our staff. You've got, you know, Tim and Judy and, and Chris and Joel and Angela. I mean, they brought it, didn't they? It was such a beautiful thing. I I'm all of the people who, who taught what a thing. And then all of the others who came in world class communicators. But how about just this? How about that? Will Coleman last weekend, huh? I mean, come on. That was amazing. What a blessing it is for us to invest in other churches in St. Louis and to see what God is doing in other places. We celebrate that. But today is Vision Weekend, right? So that's what we've been saying, it's Vision Weekend. And some of you're like, well, I don't know about that and I don't know what to do with that. And I don't even go to this church and I picked the wrong day to be here. Well, I'm gonna tell you in just a minute, you will understand why this is something for you, because we're gonna talk about a very big vision. But vision is a thing, right? There are a couple of, uh, leaders, they wrote a, the, the book called Leadership Challenge. It's been a few years now, but Cuss and Posner wrote this book. And they say that every organization starts with a dream. And then you get this quote. They say that when you really think about it, the let's, the dreamer vision is the force that invents the future. Now, I happen to believe it's God who invents and, and holds the future, but I get what they're saying, right? So here's what I want you to do. Just hang out with some people around you, just real quickly. This is easy. If they don't wanna be involved, they're just gonna keep looking forward. And, you know, they'll give you that. And, and that'll be that. But just see together, if you can figure out, I'm gonna give you corporate vision statements. You pick the corporation, go ahead and tell the person next to you, the corporation that this particular vision statement goes with. Go ahead, talk to each other real quickly. All right? Alright. All right. Some of those I got, some of those I didn't get. Uh, I learned a little bit. I mean, who knew we could all achieve complete wellbeing through yoga pants, right? I mean, that's just, I mean, I'm so encouraged. Now, um, let me give you a different vision statement of sorts. Okay? Now, here's the temptation. Those of you who have been around the block a time or two, and you know who you are, you're like, ah, yeah, I know where he is going. In fact, if you don't know where I'm going, all you have to do is to look at the blackboard and you're, oh yeah, I see where he is going. I want to give you a vision statement that, that, that Jesus gave to his church. But I want to challenge you now to listen for something fresh and something real and something new and something personal that he's saying to you through this. Okay? In the weeks that followed his resurrection, this mind bending miracle, Jesus appears to his disciples again and again in very real everyday uh, situations. And at one point we're told that he gathers his disciples. And probably if you look at some of the other details, some other people on an, an unspecified mountain in the Galilee, 60 miles north of Jerusalem. Now, they all knew where they were going. He had told them where they were going, but it's right here at the end of Matthew chapter 28. It's right here that Jesus gives what I think is the vision statement for the entire New Testament Church. Here it is. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I'm with you always to the very end of the age. Now, let's just start off by stating the obvious. Who's saying this? Jesus. Jesus who now has all authority in heaven and earth. It's Jesus who is saying this. Jesus is who he claims to be. He's looking at these disciples and saying, I am so much more than you think I am. But now that you're beginning to understand that, I've got something for you. And so what does he tell them? It's pretty simple, pretty, pretty straightforward. Let's just go ahead and start filling in some of these blanks. He says, go. And what's the rest of it? Make disciples. Now, there's a little bit more to it after that, but let's just say he says, go and make disciples. This word disciple is a really churchy word. Some of you're like, I don't even know what that means in the historical context of Jesus. He is a rabbi. He is an itinerant teacher. We've said this before, but you raised up disciples. A disciple was someone who would follow the rabbi around and they would learn from the rabbi how to be like the rabbi. That was your goal. You spent your waking hours trying to figure out how to be more like your rabbi. That means it's intentional. That means it's something that you are constantly focused on because you're focused on him. That's a disciple. Now, he mentioned something in there about being baptized, baptized people in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In just a few minutes at the end of our service, we're gonna show you the newest baptism video. Now I'm telling you that upfront so that you understand that at the end, for some of you, this will be more than your heart can stand. Alright? I'm just warning you. Now, for others of you, you're gonna be watching it from a distance and you're gonna be curious for even others. It's gonna be a little intimidating. And you're, you're gonna go, I don't think I can handle this. And you might even be tempted to just kind of sneak out. 'cause I, I just can't see this. Well, I need you to know if that's you today, nobody's gonna look at you if you get up and you leave. But I'm just gonna encourage you, hang in there and see and behold what God is doing. But I want you to understand all of us, that when you are baptized, it doesn't change. You are standing before a holy God. What changes? You're standing before a holy God is the cross. What changes? You're standing before God. What you will have to answer to God for when you stand before him one day is, what did I do with this gift of Jesus? What did I do with what he did for me on the cross? You don't get to stand before God and say, you know what? I married a really good gal and she loves you. We don't get in on anybody else's relationship. So it is this, it is receiving God's grace. But I need those of you who were just baptized. I need you to know something like there were hundreds and hundreds of you that were just baptized. This is just the beginning for you. This is where it gets interesting. If you were just baptized, it's time to take the next step towards learning who Jesus is and, and, and learning how to be more like him. Let me, let me give it to you. The way that I've, I've said it, uh, around the world recently when we've been doing some things. Like, one of the first things I say is, I'm not an expert. You guys know that. But I have to make it clear to to other people. I'm not an expert, but here's who I am. I'm a child of the king. Learning from the king how to be more like the king. Amen. Yeah. So that's all I got was yeah, yeah. You know, I, I sneak in here and I see these things. And when I can't be here in person, I'm watching online. I heard what Will said to you all last week about, yeah, it's okay. Talk to the preacher. And you were like, oh yeah, amen. Preach you, you go, will. And all I get here at Chesterfield is, hmm, here, here run. So anyway, yeah. Too late, too late. I'm a child of the king learning from the king how to be more like the king. That's what it means to be a disciple. And it's one of the reasons why we stress this idea of, of what it means to explore God's word. You see, we're going to constantly open God's word because this is where we get the idea of, of what Jesus has said. This is where we get the idea of what God is giving us. This is your best chance to understand. Whenever I drift away from God, almost always it is because I am not soaking my thoughts in his word. I've got to apply this to my life. We want to give you ways to do that. This is part of what it means to be a disciple. But let me now be clear with you on this information alone won't cut it. Knowledge alone won't cut it. If you go about your days treating the Bible like some sort of a book project and you learn more factoids about this book than anyone else that you know, but you don't apply it to your life, then we're not being a disciple. You see, the other part of it is you have to experience the presence of God in a very personal way. Yes, it is receiving his grace. Yes it is, it is. It is trusting him. Yes. I would even say at this point we are told that the spirit now lives within us. Okay? So this is now a very, very personal real thing. And so you begin to, to understand that it's, I, I would even call it kind of a, a, it's, it's, it's, it's an earthy, uh, supernatural connection with God. And the best way we can describe it. And, and it gets so overused that I'm afraid sometimes that just don't hear it. But the best way to describe it is it's a relationship with the God of the universe. It's a back and forth between you and the God of the universe. And so you keep trusting him and you keep taking a step and his word teaches you something and his spirit helps you with something. Now, we're getting on our way to what it means to be a disciple, but that word obey is in there. Yikes. So we obey, and I know as soon as we hear the word obey in the back of each of our minds is that little voice that says, you're not the boss of me. Well, remember now, this isn't me talking. This is king Jesus. That's right. I had a, a godly older woman of the faith. Tell me her favorite quote about obedience. Nothing costs you more than obeying Jesus except not obeying Jesus. Now, that'll preach people. So he's calling us to this. He's asking us to do this. He's asking us to, to, to move further towards him. But uh, I think it's important for us to put some handles there. So on it because uh, we've talked about exploring his word. Let me just give you one more. There's an author by the name of Simon Sinek who puts it this way. Uh, a y Now we know what the why is, why are we doing this? Because Jesus said so because he's the king, because he knows what's best. But a why without a how leaves little probability for success. A why without a how leaves little probability for success. So we gotta talk for just a second about the how's. I want you to understand that one of the how's that is now out there that we're gonna lay before you, that we've been talking about that connects all of this together, is this idea of, well, small groups we now have as of yesterday. And it keeps, it keeps adding and adding and adding. We have over 175 small groups fired up and going with people piling in all over, all over the St. Louis area doing this. As we go into this together, in fact, I'm going to now invite you into this one more time. If you want to be in one of these small groups. Here's your chance for eight weeks. It's an eight week thing. If you go, man, I don't wanna commit to these people for the rest of my days. What if they're like strange? Eight weeks, eight weeks. You can handle somebody for two months. So eight weeks, we are going to enter into smaller groups where we unpack the weekend message and we all do this together. We'll give you the resources, we'll give you the questions. We will help you with this for eight weeks. For those of you who are saying, man, I I just want this big church to feel smaller, this is your chance. For those of you who are saying, I don't even know where to start when it comes to being a disciple, this is your chance. For those of you who are saying, I just wanna be like a part of this thing, this is your chance. We've got like really specific things. I mean, I'm just thinking like we've got groups for certain age groups. We've got certain groups for, for for certain regions. We've got groups for educators, we've got groups for pilots, we've got groups. I mean, I could just go on and on where people are saying, wait, I wanna do that. Now for some of you, you're going, wait, I, none of those interest me. I wanna start my own group 'cause I got my own friends and I'd like to do this. Well, we'll take you up on that. Thank you very much. You see, if you sign up as a small group leader, we will equip you. We'll give you the resources now, invite your friends. Now do this and let's see what happens. Let's do this for eight weeks. This is how we will do this. This is how we will go through this. And I just don't want you to miss out. Now the other word that comes up here is go, I want you to see that word go. It's a very active word. Please hear me. That following Jesus is not passive. Please hear me. That following Jesus does not look like this. Go get 'em, champ. I'll cheer for you, but I'm gonna stay here. Jesus says altogether, now not a trick question. Go, go. It's an active verb. Yes. Go, go into the world and reflect my love and my light. Go into the world and tell them about a God who surrendered his right to give e get even go into the world and tell people about forgiveness and hope and second chances. Go tell 'em about grace. Go tell 'em when they're, they're ready. Tell 'em about a place where it's okay to struggle and ask questions. 'cause you don't have to have it all figured out. We're kind of working on this together. Go tell them more than anything else that the person who will change all of it is named Jesus. Now lemme just ask you, is there anyone coming to mind that you could imagine going and telling about this? 'cause for some of us, we're going, I don't even know anybody who doesn't know Jesus. I've kinda made sure that I Will ask God to help you with that. He will. But I'll bet you, you at least know someone who's disenchanted with their faith. I'll bet you know, someone who's a little disinterested, a little disconnected, someone who's just maybe like, uh, they just sort of maybe gotten out of the habit of learning from Jesus how to be like Jesus. Okay, I got that person in mind. Now what do I do? What did Jesus say? Let me tell you what he didn't say. He didn't say, send them a postcard long distance that says, dear friend, you were apart from God. Come find me. I'll explain what to do. What he said was, go, that means you gotta go have a relationship with 'em. You gotta go hang out with them. Not like they're your project. That's creepy. We don't do that. You love them for who they are and you just hang out together. You, you're, you're their friend, you serve them, but you go, we are a scent people. Jesus is clear on this. Tim talked about this a couple of weeks ago. The father sent me, Jesus said, the end of John, he says, and as the Father sent me, I'm now sending y'all, you go, go. The next question is, where, where? Well again, let me tell you what Jesus didn't do. Jesus didn't say, I'm sending you kids. Go back inside. It's too scary out here in the world. Everybody just hide under your beds with your besties. Hang on, I'll come back and get you in a few years. Don't worry, that's not what he said. What he said was, go into the world. It's not great out there, but I'm with you and I'm bigger than this world and I've got stuff. I'm go go. And then in Acts chapter one, these are the last recorded words of Jesus. He kind of breaks it down for us. You're gonna be my witnesses. You're gonna testify to this Jerusalem that's close to home, Judea, Samaria, that's regional, and then to the ends of the earth. That's ends of the earth. So it's got a global emphasis, a regional emphasis and a local emphasis. I want you to know that our vision includes all of those and like never before, we are seeing God ignite some opportunities there. I'm gonna give you some, some little factoids and things just to show you along the way, but we'll start with this one. Uh, our services, uh, we have folks you all are gathering with us from, uh, of course our four uh, sites, but also, you know, online from, from all sorts of places around the country. But I want you to know, over this past year, we had well over a hundred thousand, uh, households join us for weekend services. Now, I'll let you do the math. How many people are in those households watching that for those services? But we're talking about a lot of people who are joining us each weekend. But I will tell you, they came from, and I triple checked this number, uh, they are coming from 171 different countries. Now, this little old church whose first building was in a cornfield is reaching out to the ends of the earth. And I want you to know that when you think about, well, are we living this out? We are absolutely living this out. This is something that we believe, this is something that we believe in. But I want you to also notice that this is something that we think needs to, to include other things. And it happens locally. Being a witness is not just telling the story of Jesus. It is that, but it's showing who Jesus is in really practical ways. You want a different way to be a witness locally than do this, get involved and volunteer for an outreach project. We are committed to, to serving people locally and meeting their practical needs, reminding them that they're not alone, reminding them that they're seen, reminding them that they don't have to give up yet. That there are people who are cheering for them. We can pray, we can love, we can serve, we can give with no strings attached. And this also proclaims the name of Jesus. You want a way to be a witness, go and sign up for an outreach project. But there are even more ways that we will do this. I I just want you to understand that we believe that we are called these days to reach the entire region with the gospel of Jesus. And I know that sounds like a lot and you're gonna hear me say a couple of other things today. And you're gonna go, oh, I don't know what you had for breakfast, but slow down. It's not me. I think God is calling us to something. I believe it is time in these interesting days to reach the entire St. Louis area with the hope of the gospel. Now, I'm not saying everybody's gonna turn to Jesus, we know that's not gonna happen. But I am saying we make sure impractical and creative ways that the message of the gospel reaches everyone. And you're going, but we live here. Everybody knows Jesus. I promise you, you know someone right now, whether they came to mind or not, who thinks that the answer to what's going on between them and God is merely religion and going through the motions. That means they don't know what Jesus is offering them. So we are together going to do this. I believe together we are going to share this, this heart healing, destiny changing, shame busting, darkness, shattering gospel of Jesus. And it's not just gonna be this church, it's gonna be many churches together making this happen in the coming days and weeks and years. But what if we were a place that lit the fuse? What if we were a place that said, yes, we're about this and we're going to do this together. I promise you there is research out there that is showing us that people, younger generations are actually open to talking to you about God. So we go and we do this. But, but I think the question is like, who's coming to mind for you? So this summer, as you were probably want to do, I was traveling a little bit and I was, you know, in different places and sitting in different seats. And in one of those places, in one of those seats, I'll admit it, I was cocooning a little bit. I had my air pods on. I was just kind of in my own little world. That's sometimes how I cope, you know, especially, anyway, it's just blo you're doing that. I don't know if I was listening to a podcast, a book music, I was, I was in, it was just me, my own little happy world. And then at one point you take those out and you're back in the world. You familiar with that phenomenon? So I mean, I, I mean, so it's like, oh, oh yeah. And as soon as I am, I immediately drop in on a conversation. It wasn't eavesdropping, it was a loud conversation not far from me. And I thought, oh, I think I'm, this sounds personal. These two girls were talking about their husbands. I'm gonna put my ear, I'm gonna, I'm just gonna go right back in. And then I heard they were talking about matters of faith. And I was like, oh wait, I'm gonna listen for a second. I dunno. So maybe I was eavesdropping. I'll never forget this one woman says to her friend, they're both, well, neither they weren't exactly young-ish. So they, I was picking up that they had been married for a long time. And the, and and the one gal looks at the other one and says about her husband, I just don't know where he stands with Jesus. And the other woman said, well, why don't you ask him? And she said, it's just so private and so personal, it would be so awkward to bring this up again. It would not have been my place. And it would not have been helpful at all if I would've said, Hey, excuse me. Can I just jump right in between you two and muscle in and tell you no. So I prayed, I prayed for, for him that his heart would be soft. I don't know what the story is. I'll bet you there's a backstory. And I prayed for her that there would be a moment, just a moment where she'd feel a nudge and she'd go, okay, God, I'm gonna walk through the door. And it's not a one-time conversation, but where are you? Listen to me. If the story we are telling is true, those of you who believe, if the story we are telling is true and there are people in our lives that we love, how can we not least pray for the opportunity to start a conversation? Again, I'm not saying you go in swinging. I'm not saying you find the biggest Bible. I'm not saying this is a one time conversation, but how do we not go into the people, into lives that we love and say, Hey, what do you think? Can I tell you where I am? And we listen and we ask curious questions, and then we listen some more. And our brains don't explode when they say something crazy or mean or hurtful because there's always a backstory. We just listen and we keep doing this. And if you're someone here today who got invited on the arm of a friend and you're going, oh, so that's why you brought me here. 'cause you want me to know Jesus. The the real answer is yes, but I want you to understand nobody here's gonna strong arm you or stuff something down your throat. We think Jesus is that good and that big and that patient that he will lead you as he leads you, okay? But we wanna keep thinking of ways that we can give you excuses to start conversations and opportunities and, and ways to invite. So let's just go back one more time, this series that we're now about to start. I could go through all of these series. I'm just gonna give you one of 'em. It's, it's Pray Like This. You've heard about it. But that's the next series, eight weeks. We're gonna study the Lord's Prayer phrase by phrase, by phrase. Now I, here's what I know. As, as all sorts of studies have been done. Everybody prays just about everybody prays, atheists pray. You figure that one out. But atheists will pray in times of trouble, but nobody is satisfied with their prayer life. Everybody's like, oh man, I don't know what to do with this. We are going to let Jesus teach you some things along the way. Now, what I think is really cool is that our kids and youth are gonna be tracking phrase by phrase with us. We're gonna all be going through this together. I had a young dad this week who said, I can't wait to have conversations with my little girls around the dinner table as we're all learning phrase by phrase, some things that we can talk about regarding prayer gang, I'm gonna tell you what, that's what'll change the world. I mean, that's cool, isn't it? Speaking of cool, speaking of kids, Jeff Bush, our director of of Kids Ministries here, said that, uh, this past year, just to give you some updates, uh, over 600 new registrations kids in, in, in, in our, in our system. So those are new families that are showing up and the majority of them keep coming back. How does that happen? It's the grace of God and word of mouth. People are inviting their friends and they're coming. But I want you to understand that when kids show up in our, in our ministries here, they are learning about God. They're learning about how God has made them and God loves them, and they are learning that there is a God who cares for them. And I can't think of a better message for kids to hear in a world of horrific headlines. When I think of what school aged children and middle schoolers and high schoolers face, and the challenges and the worries and the things that pile up on them. I am grateful for people who face this with them and point them to the hope of King Jesus. Ryan Peters, our director of of of youth ministry, said that YC Youth crossing this past year served over 1000 middle and high schoolers. I want you to let that number settle in. We're not big into the, hey, look at us numbers thing. I'm just telling you, God is up to something. Ryan said, we're sensing momentum like we haven't sensed in years. Both he and Jeff said, we're sensing that momentum with our volunteers. Like people are saying, let, we're in. So for those of you who said, I'm gonna go into that ministry and I'm gonna serve that ministry, I wanna say thank you. You will never know this side of eternity, the impact you are having now, you're probably getting a sense of the impact it has on you. Like when you teach a 5-year-old how to worship Jesus. When you listen to a middle schooler, realize that he's not the only one that has that fear. When you listen to a high school senior start to put together their faith and, and take a stand in a courageous way, yeah, it's, it's a thing when you go into any of our ministries, when you say, no, I'm, I'm gonna go on ahead and do this. You know what it's like. But now let just say this, for those of you who are, uh, and, and it happens to all of us, but have you ever felt just a little stalled out on your faith? You ever felt a little disconnected even here at church? You ever felt like, man, I don't have any of those stories. I don't know any of those people or those names. I always feel like I'm a half step off and I kind of have to borrow everybody else's stories to get excited. You ever find yourself feeling that way? You ever find yourself feeling a little bored, feeling, feeling a little, uh, critical, feeling a little grumpy? Do you know what the antidote is? Go. I don't mean go away. That that if you're grumpy, just go, no, that's not what I'm saying. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is go, go ahead and sign up for a class. Go ahead and say, yeah, I know I'm busy, but I could do this. Go ahead and say, you know what? Let's go, let's, let's start a small group. Go ahead and, and say, I'd like to volunteer just once a month and do something. Go ahead and ask that pastor the question that you've always wanted to ask. Just go and take another step. You know what I'm convinced of at the end of our days? I don't think any of us, at the end of our days, I almost said deathbed. I always hate that phrase. I don't know. I mean just, but at the end of our days, I don't think any of us are gonna go, oh, if only I just observed more. If only I'd just been a spectator just a little bit more. I just don't. If only I had creeped on friends I haven't seen for years on Facebook, just a little longer in my life, it was so productive. If only I had looked at a thousand, 10,000 more funny videos on TikTok. It just, if only, I don't think we're ever gonna say that. Listen, I love the socials. I think they're a great way to, for us to connect. But again, where your life is going to take off is when it is a life to life connection with someone. And you actually begin to go, what is God saying to us? That's discipleship. That's, that's, that's the thing. So let's go. And when we go, Jesus says, I'll get behind that. I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. I'm with you now. There's a great promise in there. I'm with you always to the end of the age, to the end of history, to the end of my life. And every day in between, Jesus says, I'll be with you. And there are times that I sense him really close and times that I don't. But there's a really important thing in here that I want us to take a look at because Jesus says, uh, well in in the English, it just doesn't translate. I've told you this before, whenever we're in Matthew 28, but when he says, I am with you, what is he saying? It's a plural you and in English that doesn't translate. No, it'll, unless you're from the south. Yes. Thank you David. Now I know, I know, I know there are people in the Midwest who will say, well, we say you guys or you guys, or there's a place in Missouri where you say Ews yuns are gonna have to explain that to me 'cause I don't get it. But what Jesus says here is exactly, there's a Greek scholar that says, if you really want to understand, Jesus is saying, I am with y'all always. Or as my wife would say, I'm with all y'all always. You see, there is a tangible presence of Jesus in relationships. When we're together, some of us are going to be reminded that we're not alone. Some of us are gonna be reminded of something that we need to work on. Some of us are gonna be reminded of something we need to just settle in and own and go, yeah, God, you did do that in my life. Thank you. You see, it's, it's in relationships, it's in community that I am both sharpened and softened. I'm encouraged and challenged. I don't think we're gonna ever fully be the disciples that we, that we long to be without the heat and the friction and the love and the laughter and the joy and the love and the mercy of relationship. And Jesus says, I'm with y'all always just understand that which is why around here, we, and this is the last point. We believe honestly that God has led us to something for such a time as this. 'cause this go and make disciples. Matthew 28, man, that's every, that's every vision statement. That's every church. That's always what happens. But somewhere along the way, God began to connect us to another passage in John chapter 17. On the worst night of his life, Jesus prays for us, and he doesn't pray that we'd be popular or powerful or, or that we'd have all the best theological answers. He doesn't pray that we would be connected or influential. He doesn't pray any of those things He prays. Father, may they be one, as you and I are one, may they reflect our love that flows between the two of us, that flows between the three of us. Father, son, and spirit. May they be one as you and I are one. Why? So that the world will know that you sent me. I want you to understand around here, we absolutely believe in this particular time of, let's just say there's a lot flying around in the air these days. This is a fractured world. And our distinctive as Christians is we will do it differently. Even we, we don't agree on certain things. We are the ones who can love each other and honor each other and focus on King Jesus. And when we do this, a watching world says, well wait a minute. How's that happening? You see, what would happen if younger generations, what would happen if skeptics, what would happen if those were burned out on Christianity? For all sorts of reasons, saw us doing it differently. I'd, I'll tell you what'll happen. We'll be, we'll be talking to people about Jesus and before you know it, we'll be making disciples. And before you know it, something begins to happen in this world in just a little bit. Uh, our genius of one class for short, we call it our G one class is gonna pick up. And this particular class has revolutionized our church because we are learning how to express God's love in very practical ways, in real life situations. This is what we do. But I also want you to know that we it, this is beginning to revolutionize like places around the world. Okay? So the book gets translated in a bunch of languages. The course has been translated now in I think 15 different languages. We've done this in all across Africa. We've done it in Latin America. We'll be back in Latin America this fall. But as some of you know, we were in an undisclosed location in Asia just a few weeks ago. And I'm not trying to be too dramatic. Many of you were following us on the socials, but it's just, it's because we couldn't disclose where we were out of. We just couldn't endanger the people that we were serving because their governments couldn't know that they were there from these various countries. And you're like, uh, that sounds too James Bondy for me. You're making it up. No, I'm really not. Come to me privately and I still won't tell you all the details, but I'll give you enough to know that we're, that, that, that this is how it works. We had people coming from a variety of different places and countries, undisclosed location where we thought it was gonna be safe enough for them to be some of them traveling 24, 36 hours on trains, buses over treacherous roads, a few of 'em actually flying on a plane for the first time ever in their life, gathering together so that we could talk to them about John 17. You see, these are pastors when we talk about reaching the ends of the earth around here, primarily our strategy is that we are going to partner with pastors around the world. It really doesn't do a lot of good for me or any of our pastors to go and have a crusade someplace for a week and then come back home. We want to equip the people that are on the ground doing life there. That's how this works. So oftentimes we're partnering with living water and we're doing things in a very practical way. And, and that happens. And then in sometimes some instances there are no water projects at all. But we are going to equip pastors and leaders and churches. 'cause we believe as we do this together and how we do what we do, things start to happen. I need you to know that this church that you're a part of, this church that you invest in is making that kind of a difference. I saw pastors who said, okay, we're gonna take this and this is helping our marriage. I had pastors who were on the edge of giving up saying, wait, so I'm not alone. We can do this. I saw people who were parts of churches that don't even speak to each other, that, that are now valued. We're gonna work together to proclaim Jesus. You see where they're doing this, it's really difficult and they need all the help they can get. And if we can give them practical tools, then that's what we're doing where we give them the course that is now translated in their language. I wish you could have been in the room when I'm teaching in English and simultaneously it's being translated into three different languages. I couldn't figure out if it was the UN or if it was Pentecost, but it was something, I'm gonna say Pentecost. 'cause the Holy Spirit was all over it. It's a sight to behold. It's humbling king when you, when, when, when, when, uh, pastors and, and, and, and men and women come to you in tears and say, please thank the people of the crossing for believing in us and investing in us. And I'm not saying too much here. These are people who have been beaten and threatened and imprisoned for proclaiming the great name of Jesus. And they're thanking us. They're the heroes. I just need you to know we are committed to this. We do this thing and then we find out from another group, another people group. Wait, can we do the same thing again? Can we do this? Can will you do, we're here. Can we go to another undisclosed location and do it again? And it was more people, more pastors than we had at the first conference. I'm just telling you, this stuff is happening. And then in between when we go to a church and a city where they are allowed to worship openly and you don't understand a lick of what's going on in there, but then you start to hear the worship and you're like, oh, this is cool. They're worshiping Jesus. And then they slip into a song that, you know, a song that we sang today that I did not plan on us singing. But when you hear this, just listen to this, Y'all. We just sang that then sings my soul how great that worked. We serve one lord, one king, and he's still reaching this world and we somehow get to be a part of it. And what a privilege it is. I'm telling you, God is up to something. And regionally, regionally, we are bringing this message to the us in cities where we are doing a one day conference and saying, this is what we're learning at our church. This is what we're doing. And we're giving this thing away. We're giving the book away. We're giving the, the, the course away. It's happened in the south and the east and the northwest. But I need you to know next month it's coming home for the first time ever to St. Louis. And I'm gonna ask you to pray as we invite what we hope are hundreds of pastors and leaders and nonprofit leaders and business people to come together and say, could something happen in St. Louis, the likes of which we've never seen before? Could we gather together? Could we work together? We are going to have a lot of things we disagree about, but can we agree on who King Jesus is? And can we do this together? I'm gonna ask you to pray for that because I think God could. What if God did something in St. Louis? What if the kingdom of God advanced in such powerful and practical and loving ways like the St. Louis was the epicenter of it? Y'all are gonna roll your eyes. What did I say this? But what if we were the gateway to a new way of loving and living and the great name of Jesus went out. Some of you're like, that's too big a vision. Not for my Jesus. You see, I'm not afraid of us leaning into a vision that that is, it's beyond us. It's bigger than us. It's way more than three years or five years or 15 or 50 years. 'cause I got news for you 50 years from house. Most of us aren't gonna be here. That may be a news flash for some of you, but it's the truth. You know what? It's okay. 'cause this was never our church anyway. And it was never our vision. It's his always been his. This vision is big enough that it can reach to the ends of the earth. That's what God's giving us. It's powerful enough that I believe it can heal a whole region. And it's small enough that can it, it can bring forgiveness and peace to one single life. So I say, let's go, go across the street, go to a neighbor, go down the hall at work, go to somebody at school and start a spiritual conversation. Go take that class. Go, go invest in, in, in a small group. Go ahead and say, Hey, I've got this question. Go into your world with the hope of Jesus and know that you're not crazy. You're not crazy for caring that much. You're not crazy for, for, uh, for volunteering. You're not crazy for asking for help, for offering help. You're not crazy for laughing and crying and and and, and giving way more than you thought you ever would to a church. You're not crazy for dreaming really big dreams because I believe Jesus is still up to something. I don't think he's finished yet, and we're gonna keep doing this until he returns or he calls us home. But in the meantime, let's go. And along the way, let's give him all the glory. Let's praise him. Let's praise him for all that he has done because Oh, what he has done in our midst.