Friends, it is good
to be back home with you.
And I need to be honest with you,
I'm struggling a little bit this morning.
Because,
I want to bring you up to speed with the last two weeks.
But I want to make sure that I tell Jesus's story,
and not my story, if that makes sense.
I want to make sure that we're talking about the cross.
The cross and the kingdom.
And not about,
the events in another land.
Only,
and so I've been I've been praying a lot and thinking through a lot.
And I'm gonna do my best to give you a glimpse
in the last couple of weeks of my time in Ukraine
with God's people.
But to draw our attention not to
the trip, but to the kingdom.
If you're
wondering why I went to Ukraine and the front lines,
we had the opportunity to be invited with the group.
I work with Excel Leadership Network, which is the church
planting movement to plant churches all over the world.
We were invited to go to Ukraine and establish what we've also established
in Guatemala, in Mexico, in Cuba,
in Ukraine.
One of the things I know is that as far as evangelism is concerned, telling
people about Jesus, people are most receptive to the message of Christ
when they're under tension and in transition.
When people are under tension, they're looking for someone
to relieve the tension.
And when people are in transition,
they're looking for someone to give them stability.
So think about what's going on in Ukraine.
Everybody is under tension and in transition during war.
And so what I told the people there was,
your country is ripe for revival
because everybody's looking
for something to bring stability,
for some semblance of peace.
And as Christ.
And so we were invited to go to Ukraine and start this
church planning movement in their country.
What I told them was,
I will go lead that as long as I can
also go to the frontlines.
A couple different reasons.
One, because the values of our church,
three of them are this irrefutable love
and what proves love more profoundly
than going into someone else's battle
and saying, I am with you and I love you.
Presence does that more than words.
Do you understand?
Because that's exactly what Jesus has done for us.
For God loved the world so much, he sent his Son
to come to the frontlines of our war.
Irrefutable love.
That's why I had to go to the frontlines as well, but also
illogical faith in.
We were told when we were there.
Listen, there's been a lot of pastors from huge, huge churches in America
that have come to LaVey, which is right on the border
of Poland on the western side, where there is no conflict.
Basically.
And they come there and take their pictures
and give their money and then leave
till nobody.
Has come from America
as far as the church is concerned, to the front lines.
They don't do it.
And so what that tells me is illogical.
Faith says yes,
you follow.
But also one of our values is the invisible kingdom.
We believe
in this kingdom that you can't see right now,
and it is of utmost importance.
And demands are all
and any opportunity we have to expand that kingdom.
We're going to take,
because another one of our values is incessant
reproduction.
It's evangelism.
It's church planting. It's what we do.
And any opportunity we have to tell people about Jesus and to plant churches.
We're going to take.
And so I said, I have to go to the front lines.
People need Christ.
And when you get close to your own mortality, you start asking questions
that you should ask before you realize you're going to die.
And so I had to go to the front lines
also, because when my daddy got back from Vietnam,
there was a great struggle.
Any of you who have served in our military
to be in an active war, you understand
that if God blesses you with living through that,
you wrestle with who you became, in that
oftentimes.
And, well, there in death is redemption.
We're redeemed by Jesus.
Sometimes in life
there's a struggle with restoration.
Can God restore who I've become?
Knowing my own
father's struggle after Vietnam,
in the church,
for people who did not understand,
I was compelled
by the grace of God for my father
to bring that message to other men and women on the front lines.
Do you understand?
And so well the impetus
was to plant churches and start a church planting movement in Ukraine.
There was also the call to the front lines.
And for me, I was not allowed
to separate the two.
And so let me just walk you through this is where we were.
This is Ukraine.
Way on the left is Poland.
And we flew into Poland, into Krakow,
and through a series of busses and trains,
we made our way all the way across to where the green is in Kiev.
That's the capital city of Ukraine.
And if you follow the news at all, you know how much that is
constantly bombed, literally, almost day after day.
That's a capital city.
That's where we that's where we that's where we finally made it to Kiev.
And then we went from Kiev.
We went down to where the blue is church. KC
that's right on this, this, this,
it's the largest river in Ukraine that flows down into the Black Sea.
And that's where we did our discovery centers for church planters.
It took us 27 hours from when we left to get all the way up to Turkey.
It was a grueling trip, a grueling trip from the United States to there.
From there,
eventually up in the Orange is Ha Keith.
And again, if you follow the news, you hear the word heart Kiev.
That is on the front, both one of the places on frontlines
that is constantly, constantly shelled drones,
guided missiles, all of that
from there down in the purple is, Kramatorsk.
That's the place where we lived for three days with the guys
literally on the front lines in their little house,
and they would move out to visit the troops.
So that's kind of where we were in and in the orange in Kharkiv.
That's where I got to preach last Sunday.
And it was and I'll tell you more about I'll tell you more about all this stuff,
but I want to give you a picture of when I say the front lines,
what I'm talking about.
We slept in where the purple is,
we ministered to Donbass.
That is literally on the border of Russia.
That's where we were
a couple kilometers from the Russian troops
all along that area on the frontlines,
with guys that know Jesus and guys that don't know Jesus
and were able to do worship with him and pray over them and share communion
with them and witness to them and minister to them.
And so when we're talking about
this is what we're talking about, we were there,
because that's where the opportunity was for us
to expand the kingdom of God.
People don't go there.
They told us while we're there, there's no there's no law,
there's no overriding,
system to say this is allowable and not allowable.
Whatever happens, happens.
And so we need to know your blood type.
I said it's red.
And so I want to introduce you to
some of the people that are there.
And I want you to pay
attention to the names that you'll see
on this piece of paper.
You will see.
Soon yours is.
The two men who live in that house.
And that's right there on the front lines where we stayed.
The wall, the exterior walls, about 18in of concrete.
It's really thick. And they try to reinforce it well.
But the two guys who live there seem as a video game.
And Sasha, I want you to put them on your prayer list with them and Sasha.
They have determined that God has called them to the ministry of the front lines.
They've sent their families, their wives and children to, to Germany.
And they've said, God has called us to ministry to the people of the
on the front lines.
And so they see their family about once every three months.
And every day they start their day with scripture reading and worship.
That was the worship music and communion, reminding themselves of the kingdom that
they serve, the God that they serve, and that God has called them to this work.
They ask for his provision, they ask for his safety, and they ask that
through them God would save people who are lost without Christ.
Those names on the papers,
three different lists.
Names of men, women who have been killed
in the war that they had ministered to,
that they remember the names of those who are missing in action,
and the names of the current ones that they're current currently ministering to,
so they can keep track of them with their families,
care for them, care for their souls.
And they every day they just make their way down
the front lines in worship,
in foxholes, in bunkers,
making sure that the guys know God hasn't forgotten about you.
He knows you and he sees you.
He loves you, and we're here for you.
Amazing people,
amazing people.
Every community has this.
These are memorials in every community.
Every flag represents
someone who's been killed from that community during this war.
Every flag
represents a life.
I've shared some of these on social media while I was there.
To give you a picture,
but I want you to understand how
pervasive and what they're living under.
These little memorials just keep growing.
And it's a stark reminder.
Of life and death and eternity.
And that life is fleeting.
This is the top story
of one of three apartment complexes.
Has has nothing to do with the military.
Completely civilian.
And the results of
Russian drone attacks and guided missile attacks
at the basement of this building,
people ran for safety
and they were smothered and 50 of them died.
The hole there is where the middle building was.
There were three buildings.
Community after community.
This is this is the reality.
There's more buildings that
are destroyed that are.
Untouched.
And this is what they live with.
A constant reminder that.
Of what their reality is.
What's.
So this is going towards the front line.
That's a drone.
Look on.
They don't have them on all the roads. They have them on some of the roads.
That's it.
Their attempt to prevent one of the smaller drones
from moves out of the ground through to the traffic.
This this is somebody
there's some music going off that some of these are real lights.
It's their phone.
And turn it off.
This is one of the bunkers
where we were with some of the, guys on the front lines,
and they didn't let me go all the way down.
Oh, we went all the way down, but they didn't let me film all the way down.
Pass or stuff.
But these are this.
There's there's two, four man troops
that rotate two days on and two days off.
And it goes down a couple different layers.
And these guys have watch for the Russian drones.
Not fill the skies.
And they have their own surveillance drones that they'll send out
to kind of keep movement or keep eyes on the on the Russian troop movements.
Again, right on the front lines there while we were there,
there was there were a lot of events that were happening
on the outside when we were underground.
And this is what they live with.
And there's a there's a man here, I think I have him.
He's he's he's the tall bald guy, not the short bald guy.
And his name is Sergei.
And he loves the Lord.
And he follows Jesus.
And he's got three guys in his unit with him who don't know the Lord.
And he is.
They're not just to do his service, but to witness to them,
to help them come to faith.
And in the middle of that, that's the that's
their biggest room in the in the bunker.
It goes down into another room.
Two guys are up top there.
Kind of keep an eye out if there's any, any boots, troops coming at them.
One guy sleeps and one guy is on the computer with the drone.
And that's where they live for two days on and two days off.
And so we got to be with them.
We got to worship with them. We got to encourage them
for these guys and for some other troops I was with on a place
called Seven Winds, this, this outlook that looks over this valley.
And they had their, you know,
military guys there with their weapons looking for drones coming in and missiles.
And I told them, I said, guys, I want you to understand something
you, as commanders
have under you men who rely on you
and your job is not just to fulfill the commands
of your commanding officer, but is to secure the life of your men.
And if need be, lay down your life for them.
I said, I want you to understand something
that reminds me of another man
who, at the command of his commanding father,
was given the charge
of watching after the lives of those under him
to secure their life, and if need be, give his life for them what he did.
I said, I want you to
understand something that you are for your men.
You can be a visible reminder of Christ.
So lead well.
Lead well and serve well.
And help them reframe
what their role is in this.
And that's who he is to these guys.
He's a visible picture.
Of one who came into their conflict,
their war, and gave his life.
And it was really significant.
We were able to go just outside that bunker in this big concrete,
room and lead him in prayer and worship
and do communion with them, anointed him with oil.
We prayed over him
all while the explosions are going around outside.
And it was a beautiful it was a beautiful moment of worship.
It was a beautiful moment of ministry.
And it was a beautiful realization that God is the God of minutes and moments,
time and time and time again.
While we were there, it was minutes or moments that separated us
either on just before something happened
or just after something happened that God was orchestrating.
All the minutes and the moments that we were there, there was never fear.
There was never concern because we knew everyone of us.
There knew that God was the God of minutes and moments.
You understand that?
For your minutes and moments, guess what?
God is the God of them all.
Minutes of moments
just before or just after.
Multiple times.
Where you realize, okay, Lord,
you're the God of my minutes, of my moments
and you're orchestrating them all.
So what have I to fear?
Right.
Time and time again.
Had it been a moment earlier
or a moment later?
Things happened.
We got to rescue people.
We got to care for them.
Because we knew God is the God of minutes of moments.
And he positioned us strategically.
And it was beautiful.
Get to get to be a heart, a part of.
That's.
She doesn't know a world without war.
She's on a living on the frontlines.
And her family had to be extracted.
The day we got her and her family out,
right at the tail end of getting them out, the drones came and decimated
her neighborhood.
And that night, she spent her first night in safety.
And her whole life.
And it was beautiful.
Minutes and moments.
I got to preach in her Kyiv on the front lines last Sunday.
And when they
do church service there, they have a basement
so that when the air raid goes off at the church, goes down to the basement,
and they keep worshiping.
And because their country is under tension
and in transition, the message of the gospel
is good news.
And probably about a quarter of the people in that church
made a decision for Jesus that morning.
It was it was beautiful.
We shared communion together.
Because when you realize
how close your mortality is, you start asking the eternal questions
and looking for eternal answers.
The guy to the right and the lady,
next to me, in the lady next to me, that's the pastor and his wife.
Years ago, she was diagnosed with cancer.
Very aggressive, fast spreading cancer.
The doctor said there's nothing we can do,
so just take her home and I'd be comfortable.
And the pastor and his wife prayed, and they said, Lord,
your will be done.
But if you give my wife life, we will stay in this community
and we will proclaim your name and plant churches.
And miraculously,
suddenly she was healed.
No ramifications.
No, no, no, no proof of cancer at all in her body.
And then the war broke out.
The war has been going on since 2014.
The current invasion has been since 2022.
And so as this invasion is happening,
his wife said, honey, we're on the front lines.
We need to move.
Everybody's leaving. They're going to Germany and Poland.
We need to go.
And he said, sweetie, what did we tell God?
That if he gave you life, we would stay
and we would minister and we would plant churches.
We're not going anywhere.
You know why?
Because they believe in an invisible kingdom and they have illogical faith,
just like us.
Their kids left with their grandkids.
And she said, honey.
Not only are we on the front lines,
but now I don't get to see our children or our grandchildren.
And he said, sweetie.
We told God.
That if he gave you life, we would stay.
And when we give God our yes,
we cannot take it back.
We'll
get our kids in eternity right now on this earth.
We're staying.
Sometimes this is how I feel.
Sometimes it's good for donkeys and jackasses to be around thoroughbreds. So
that's what I felt like.
Can you imagine
that level of commitment to the Kingdom?
One of these guys told me, they said, you know, before this war,
before I was here on the frontlines, I would get so worked up.
I want a different car. I want a bigger house.
I want a better job.
I want more, he said.
But now.
Things have been clarified.
And if God gives me one more day on this planet,
I'll be grateful
and especially give me one more person to share
Jesus with.
That's the first group of staff and church planters,
that we worked with to plant churches and excel leadership network.
We follow acts 13.
God calls high level leaders
and sets them apart for church ministry and for planting churches.
And any chance we get to go call out and train high level
leaders to plant churches, we're going to take it.
And these were some of the first ones
that we got to work with in Ukraine to start a church planting movement,
because they want their country to come to faith.
That was the first group.
This is the second group.
During our time while we were there, one of the largest strikes missile,
guided missile and drone strikes on hard Keith
decimated parts of the city,
decimated the place where we were just 24 hours earlier.
God of minutes a moments.
As I walked into the training room
for all these church planters and pastors,
we had to address what?
Just because it was their family, it was their loved ones.
It was their homes that had just been destroyed.
And they're here to to serve God and to honor God and to plant churches.
And we had to like, how do you deal with that?
This is how they dealt with it.
Oh, some guy that
we had been,
he called
us up.
For some
to see.
We woke up early
in the morning to the drones overhead and the explosions around.
We get word that what has happened in heart, Keith.
And their first response
was, let's worship God
name above all names
worthy of our praise.
How great.
Oh, how great is our God.
And I'm standing there and I'm filming this and I'm just crying,
thinking, Lord, why?
Like, why?
Isn't that my first response?
When something bad happens.
What?
You really have to redefine bad.
Sometimes.
Their first response was God is a good God.
Worthy is his name.
Though there was great sadness,
there wasn't depression.
Though there was confusion,
there wasn't rage.
There was worship.
That's one of the couples
that I got to work with that is part of Excel.
Network planting churches,
young families.
They have four kids.
She's pregnant with their fifth.
And every one of them has the opportunity to leave and go to Poland or Germany.
And they said, God's called us here.
We can't leave.
He saved us from hell.
How can we leave?
They say it would be so disingenuous to say, God, you saved us.
Now I'm going to leave and let others fend for themselves because I can't.
We have to stay.
And so they are.
There's one young man who was a couple who was working with us,
and he's right on the front lines,
and there's so committed to the youth of that area.
They don't have buildings to median. They've all been destroyed.
And he will do a little WhatsApp app and say at 3:00 on Tuesday,
we're going to meet in that burned out field.
Let's just get together to talk about Jesus and worship.
Let's
meet at this burned out intersection on the other side of the road.
And let's just talk about God.
This another couple is going to Planet Church.
I think they're 12 or 13 years old.
They had the same conversation.
We're just starting our lives.
Why would we stay in Ukraine on the front lines and plant churches?
And the resounding answer is because Christ gave his life
and this is where he's put us.
He's the God of the minutes, an ominous and will stay.
You think if people could have an excuse
not to go to church and not to do ministry, it would be them.
There's a group of young people
and a lot of young ladies, incredible
leaders, valiant women, warriors
who are so committed to their God in their faith.
They make things like this.
And the military patches are a big deal.
In the current military.
You get patches for missions served and ranks and all kinds of stuff.
And so what they're doing is they're making patches
and they're taking these to the troops on the frontlines
so they can use these patches and talk about Jesus.
You understand the symbolism of that, don't you?
John 316, the crown of thorns.
And they'll get these patches and they'll go into the bunkers
and into the trenches, and they'll the young ladies talking to these
men and hear,
I want you understand who Jesus, what he's done for you.
So they'll put it on and remember,
one of the patches on the patches is this I love this patch.
I put on one of my hats.
The X represents the commands of God
that have been defiled and broke, and that's why it's in black.
It's dark, it's been darkened
because.
And you men and women who have served in the military, you know this especially.
You've been in war.
Oftentimes there are things
that soldiers do in battle
that cause them to question, who am I?
Who have I become?
How do I reconcile what I've had to
with who I want to be as a human?
It's one of the things my dad struggles
with.
And he comes back
after Vietnam to a church that didn't understand
and wouldn't have accepted him had they known.
Really? No.
You guys have been on where you understand this.
You women, you understand this.
And you have to wrestle with what have I done?
Who have I become, and can I be?
Can I be redeemed?
Can I be restored?
So one of the ministries that these young ladies are doing with these men
who are wrestling with this question, who, if they get to come back to the world.
Are met with all of this.
Yeah.
But you so what they tell them is we've all broken God's law.
Every one of us.
We defiled his commands.
And no matter what that looks like for you,
there's a cross that covers it
through the death and resurrection.
Resurrection of Jesus.
There's not just redemption.
There's restoration.
Beautiful, strong
young women who are engaging
in these soldiers on the frontlines to take them the gospel.
You know why?
Because the people want their country saved.
It's incredible.
And they understand God is a God of minutes and moments.
And so there's this incredible resiliency
and faith and courage
and commitment not to run away,
but to run and engage.
So. Thank you.
Thank you for your prayers.
When I
when I told them that there was a church back in the United States
that was praying for them 24 hours a day, every hour, every day,
he couldn't understand it
because have you ever now, we're not in that type of war situation,
but but I bet we've had those times where something's going on
and we think, God, do you even know I'm here anymore?
Do you even care about
what's going on in my world?
Like, where are you?
If you ever anybody.
That's how they're all feel.
But you understand.
And to have a visible
reminder that there's an invisible
church and kingdom that is interceding
before God on their behalf,
they were absolutely overwhelmed.
And they told me to tell you, thank you,
thank you, thank you, thank you.
Because you are the ones that stand in the gap with them
and they know they're not alone.
You've been so generous.
I was able to give every church planting
couple $500, which is a year's salary for pastors.
There.
Just say we love you.
And it's not just lip service.
You're such a good church.
And they wanted to make sure I told you.
Thank you for letting your pastor go.
I mean, there's other church that might go and take some photo ops
and use it as propaganda.
You partnered with me, and we were there with them
on the frontlines in the bunkers and trenches.
And it's important.
So what's next?
Well, I'm going back to Ukraine.
Because there's churches that have to be planted,
and we have to establish this thing so they can run it on themselves.
So we don't have to keep going back.
But in the beginning, we do,
because we believe in an invisible kingdom and incessant reproduction.
That's why we're here.
The Holy
Spirit woke me up on Thursday morning.
And he gave me this.
It's wrong for people who want to be right simply to do no wrong
rather than do what's right.
It woke me up in such startle with those words ringing through my ears.
I had to write it down.
It's wrong for people who wanted to do right, simply not to do wrong
rather than do what's right.
The Almighty said this.
Our greatest fear should not be failure,
but in succeeding at something that doesn't really matter.
We've been given such grace here and it's beautiful.
It's wonderful.
And I don't want to guilt us into, into, into the enjoyment of grace.
But I want us to realize the grace we've been given and not waste it.
In succeeding at
stuff that doesn't really matter.
And so I have seven minutes
to preach my message.
A couple of big ideas,
friends, because God is the God of your minutes and your moments.
Trust.
Even when it feels like the clock's ticking against you.
Remain patient and stay faithful in the minutes
before the moments come.
And be bold to step into your moment.
When it comes.
If God is the God of your minutes and your moments, be bold
and step into them without fear and without trepidation.
I believe with all my heart you've heard me say this before.
I hope you're starting to believe me when I say it, that as long as you are
on God's mission for your life, you are absolutely invincible.
Until that mission is complete.
Yep. Stan.
God is the God of your minutes.
In your moments,
he works in the tiniest detail and he works in the big,
life altering opportunities.
Whether it's a five second decision or five year delay,
God is the God of your minutes.
In your moments, you've got nothing to fear.
Trust him.
Be bold and be courageous.
Because God
is the God of minutes and moments, you can trust his precision.
He's a precise God, and God is is the God
of every minute that you think you've missed.
He's the God of every moment, every minute
we get so wrapped up of what we think we've missed out on.
God says we just relax.
I'm the God of it all.
The Israelites came to the for the Red sea and they were completely trapped.
The army behind them, the sea before them. They had no way out.
They didn't know what they were going to do.
They think they thought, God, you missed the moment.
You missed the minute.
And God said, I have missed a darn thing.
And what God
said through Moses was this don't be afraid.
Stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord.
He's going to work out.
Relax.
God is the God of your minutes and your moments.
Stand where you are.
Be firm.
You will see the salvation of the Lord
because God is the God of your minutes and your moments.
God didn't open the sea early.
We want God to work in ahead of time for us, so it requires no faith to follow.
That's not how God works.
We trust him in the minutes, in the moments.
So we can follow God
before he acts because we know what.
He will act.
So we can follow him before he does the thing, because we know he will do with he.
And so we can follow without fear,
without trepidation, with completely unreserved.
Because we know that Joseph at the right time, he'll step in.
He'll.
Because that's what he does.
You may be waiting on a healing.
You may be waiting on a spouse.
You may be waiting on an opportunity.
Don't confuse silence with absence.
God is timing every minute and every moment
you can trust him.
And because God is the God
of the minutes of the moment, you can trust the bigger picture.
He's got a bigger picture that he sees,
and we don't trust him in the minutes, in the moments.
One moment with God
can change every moment after.
Don't run away from him.
Don't run out on him.
One moment.
God can change every moment after. This was the story of Esther.
I won't tell you the whole story, but she was she.
She was given this position
in a kingdom for a purpose for a moment.
And what she was told is this if you don't step into your moment,
God will move just without you.
You'll suffer the consequences of not
stepping into the moment God has prepared you for.
But who knows, maybe
this moment has come in your life for such a time as this.
God is orchestrating your moments and your minutes.
His perspective is bigger.
One moment with God can change every moment after
you understand.
See, we we we,
we want from God something to just be big and powerful and divine.
But we have to understand that God's moments often don't look divine.
They look like hard choices.
They look like risky obedience.
They look like unexpected opportunities.
And in the hard moments
and the risky obedience and the unexpected opportunities,
you realize this might be God's moment and.
We gotta realize
every one of us faces God's minutes and moments
that he's ordained, and those moments are often disguised as hard decisions.
Dressed in ordinary clothes.
Faithfulness in the moment without running away.
Commitment in the moment without.
Tap it out.
You say, God, you are the God of the minutes, of the moments.
And though this minute and moment looks horrible right now, I'm
going to trust you in the midst of it, and I'm going to be faithful,
and I'm not going anywhere.
Sometimes
the greatest test of faith is in doing things is just in waiting.
And it was so good for me to be in Ukraine with those people,
because they're just waiting right now on God's intervention.
And they're praying for miracles, no doubt.
But they're realizing that before the miracle, God is still in the moment.
And so three things real quick.
How do you live?
How do you live in God's timing without tapping out,
without running away with faith and courage and boldness?
How do you do it?
Well, the one thing you do is you stay in the Word of God.
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
We will never understand God's timing of the minutes
and the moments until we can understand and hear his voice.
And we know the voice of God through His Word.
I don't understand all that's going on,
but I know that my God is the God of minutes and moments.
To understand.
You stay in His word and you trust his process.
Romans 828 A soft pillow for a tired heart
for those who love God.
Not for those who don't, but for those who love God.
He works all things together for good.
So I don't know how
I don't have those answers.
I just have that faith that says he does.
I don't know how the people in Ukraine say, God,
you're going to, I don't know, but they do.
And one of the things I told them is God can redeem this.
If you use this to win people to Jesus,
let God redeem the evil, not by making you bitter and cynical,
but by making you motivated
to tell people about Christ.
See, even the detours of your life
can be part of his design.
If you trust that he's the God
of your minutes and your moments.
Some of you are in a huge delay right now
and the dreams are falling apart.
Trust God that he is still the God of your delays.
He's still the God of your disappointments because he's the God of your minutes.
In your moments, there's nothing to be afraid of.
And be faithful in the waiting.
The Galatians six nine don't get tired.
Don't grow weary in doing what's right with God.
In due season, the harvest is going to come.
Jim, stand,
Lord, I'ma be faithful in the moment.
I'm not running the pole. I'm not running a jump.
I'm going to be faithful right now.
See, we have to understand
that when I'm faithful in the minutes, God is fruitful
in my moments.
Some of you need to write that down.
Take a screenshot on our app. Take a picture.
You need to remember this.
That when I'm faithful in the minutes,
God is fruitful in my moments.
And some of you are waiting on God to be fruitful in your moments.
You need to start being faithful in your minutes.
You follow.
Listen.
Every one of us wants God to step in and intervene.
Miraculous. We all want God to show up,
but we have to understand this
that God is not just in the miracle.
God is in the midst before the miracle.
And some of you are waiting on God
to step in and do something miraculous and wonderful and beautiful.
And God says, look, I'm willing to, but I want you
to first acknowledge me, that I'm not just in the miracle.
I'm in the minutes before the miracle, and you won't see me in the miracle
till you acknowledge me before the miracle.
You understand?
He's not just in the miracle.
He's in the midst before it.
And so,
dear friends.
I want to encourage us
because we serve a God of the minutes, in the moments to live boldly,
to be courageous.
And live with great joy.
Our response in this moment
to God is thank you.
Thank you for forgiveness.
Thank you for your grace.
Thank you that you are the God of my minutes.
On my moments. I will trust you
and I will be faithful.
In the midst of my minutes and my moments.
Our responses.
God, you deserve
all of me
unreservedly.
I believe it was Jim Elliot,
missionary, the Orca Indians, who was killed and beheaded
as he was telling them about Jesus.
He said he is an old fool
who gives what he cannot keep
to gain what he cannot lose.
You're not a fool to give
what you cannot keep your life
to gain what you cannot lose.
Salvation.
You are no fool
to give what you cannot keep, to gain what you cannot lose.
Who seeks to save his life will lose it.
He who loses his life for my sake, Jesus says, will gain it.
All in
every minute, moment.
Because he deserves it all.
To understand.
This is what it means to follow Jesus.
We've been given so much grace here, and it's beautiful.
It's wonderful and ought to be enjoyed and celebrated.
And I don't want to guilt us
into enjoying God's grace, but I want to warn us not to waste it.
Don't waste the grace of God.
Fully engaged
all in
trusting the God of the midst of the moments.
You understand?
Thank you.
You are a world class church
and the kingdom is expanding
in this world because of you.
And it is a joy
to get to be a part of you.
And to do this together.
Let's pray. Father, thank you.
Thank you that you are the God of the minutes.
In the moments
you're trustworthy.
You're good.
You're the only God there is.
There's none like you.
You're the creator of heaven and earth,
and you're the God of every one of our minutes.
And you're and moments and.
We praise you and honor you because of who
you are.
Father,
thank that you've given us the opportunity to be a part of your work in this world.
Here in the Ranchos.
And in places like Ukraine.
You're so good to invite us into your work.
Thank you for the opportunity you've given us to say yes to it.
Father, I pray that through this church you would continue to grow
your kingdom, expand your kingdom,
that you would call us into service, that you would employ us in your work,
that we would respond great boldness and courage and joy and sacrifice
and generosity, God, that we would follow you unreservedly,
unashamedly.
Father, that you would increase and we would decrease.
That's our prayer.
Thank you for this church.
Thank you for their generosity.
Thank you for their faithfulness.
Father, I thank you
for what you're doing in us and with us.
Continue.
I pray we trust you to be a God of our minutes in our moments.
Guys, I want, I want like in this moment right now.
Just keep your. Just shut your eyes. Just.
Just pray with me for a minute.
If you've never trusted God
to be the God of your minutes, in your moments,
if you never trust him to for after him to forgive your sin
and given your life to this God that loves you, that would come
to the frontlines of your life and give himself for your salvation.
You're saving. If you've never done that,
I want to invite you in this moment right now
to do that
simple prayer.
It will cost you your life.
It's all worth it.
Say God forgive me of my sin.
I admit I broken your law, your command,
I need forgiveness, I can't be good, I can't be right.
And myself make me right with you.
I believe in what Jesus did on the cross.
I accept you, Jesus, as a Savior and the leader of my life.
This morning, I trust you
would you would just pray that prayer.
Father thank you.
We love you.
Help us to love you more.
In your name I pray. Amen.
This.
And if any of you made that prayer, just come talk to me afterwards.
Talk to us in the start here or the Welcome Center.
I'm going to walk you through some next steps.
I got a little book I wrote I want you to give you.
But let me tell you this, man, I'm thankful for you.
I'm very thankful for you.
Thank you.
And I'm really thankful for our wife.
Just imagine, just for a moment, you
wives, your husband
came to you and said, hey, I got this idea.
Imagine
you husband, just for wife, came to you and said, hey, honey, I got this idea.
Imagine for a moment if your son or your daughter
said, hey Mom and Dad, guess what?
God's called me.
So thank you for being a church, I says.
Now we get it.
We'll support you.
I'm thankful for you
and I'm really thankful for my bride.
You come back next week because we're going to start a series
through the book of Matthew.
It's going to take us about a year to get through it, verse by verse.
Don't worry, it's going to be good.
So start this week reading the book of Matthew chapter one.
You're going to read a whole big long genealogy.
It's not going to make much sense to you, but we'll unpack it next Sunday.
You understand?
We got a great opportunity to get a real clear vision of who
Jesus is, the one who came and died so we can live.
I love you, let's sing.