Hope Church LV Sermons
Church Planting :: Travis Fox
My name is Travis Fox, and yeah, I've lived here for the last 10 years where I've served at Canyon Ridge as a teaching pastor, youth pastor, children's pastor. I've done just about everything except sing, because that is not one of the gifts God has given me. And I'm not going to bust out a song for you right now to prove it, okay? I was saved at 15, called to the ministry at 17, called to plant churches at 19 and called to Salt Lake City at 29. All of those are odd ages because I'm kind of an odd dude. My dad was the one who preached the gospel to me, and by doing that the Holy Spirit opened my heart to receive Christ. You see, I grew up in a family that was very devout as far as going to church, but we weren't extremely devout going about loving Jesus. And I can remember as a young kid, my dad literally having to pry me off of door frames and force me in a car to go to church. Well, about when I was laid in elementary school, early middle school, my dad got into a difference with some of the leaders at the church, and he told my mom, he said, you know, the guy talks about money again, one more time, we're leaving. It was Easter Sunday, we show up, dad's sitting there in the chair, mom's next to her, or next to him, and the guy starts talking, I'll never forget, dad stood up, and my mom grabbed him and sat him right back down and said, you don't embarrass me now, we'll leave afterwards. And after that, we left. And we didn't really go back to church very often. We'd go every so often, same scenario, dad had to pry me off the door frames, force me into the car. Well, God in his grace sent a kid into my life by the name of Mike. Mike moved from Pennsylvania down to Louisville, Kentucky, where I'm originally from, and Mike and I just hit it off, we just had an instant friendship. And Mike started to share the gospel with me, and I constantly rejected him. All the way in the middle school, I just kept rejecting him, rejecting him, rejecting him. He kept inviting me to this Friday night outreach thing at his church, and I just kept rejecting him and rejecting him and rejecting him. And then finally, Mike got smart. He looked at me, he knew what my passions were, being from Kentucky, one of them was basketball, being from Kentucky, and just any other teenager, one of them was pizza. But then there was also this girl. And Mike looked at me, he goes, hey, you like to play ball, we play it on Friday night. She's like pizza, we eat it on Friday night. You know that girl you like? She goes to my church. I said, dude, I will go listen to some guy talk about Jesus if I get to sit next to her. And I went, and I sat there every Friday in this chair, and I listened to the pastor preach, and I didn't want any part of it. Eventually the girl started dating me, the basketball was fun, the pizza was good, my dad started to wig out because he looked at me and he said, I don't have to pry him off the door frames to get him to go to church. He goes, and he wondered, did I join something kind of shady? And so dad sent my mom to church to find out what was going on. And so I go walking in with my mom, we get some info on this church. Next thing I know, dad is starting to go to this church on Sunday morning except he's not going alone now. He's bringing his sons with him, his wife with him, and he sat in the chair and he listened to Pastor Bob preach, and Pastor Bob preach, my dad heard the gospel and my dad was saved. Next thing I know, dad's preaching the gospel to me, Mike's preaching the gospel to me. I can't get away from it by this time the girl broke up with me because she figured out probably wasn't a Christian and so I was really ticked off about that. And again my dad starts dragging me to church on Sunday mornings. And dad noticed that my heart was extremely hard to the gospel, but he just kept coming at me, sharing the gospel with me, sharing Jesus with me, tell me about Jesus. And finally dad made me go on a trip to Colorado to church camp. He sticks me on this bus, I get in this bus, we're heading to Colorado. We drove from Louisville, Kentucky all the way to Colorado. Could you imagine doing that with about 50 high schoolers? My dad goes as a leader. And I could not figure this thing out because I thought my daddy wasn't that cool, but guess what? Even with his socks and his flip-flops that he wore everywhere, dad became the coolest guy on the bus. And people started flocking to him and my friends started talking to him. And I went through that whole week just playing ball trying to find another girl and about Thursday that week my dad noticed that I wasn't receiving anything the pastor had to say. And so he pulled me into his dorm room, and I will never forget with tears just coming down his face. My dad doesn't cry. He just doesn't cry. With tears rolling down his face he starts to share the gospel with me. How Jesus lived the life I was supposed to live. How Jesus died the death I was meant to die. And how he rose again, conquering Satan, sin and death for me. He didn't say it that eloquent, but he said it's essentially that. And then he looked at me and goes, "Pastor Bob's on the trip, make sure I said it right, go down to his hallway, go down to his room and make sure I said everything right." And so I got up and I walked down the hallway and I looked at Pastor Bob and I basically said, "This is what my dad told me." And he goes, "Do you believe that?" And I said, "Yes I do." And all of a sudden I just started crying. And he goes, "Well tonight they're going to have an invitation at the service. Why don't you just walk on down?" And so I did. We go through the service. Gospel is just impacting me. I start walking down the aisle and I'm getting rained on because my dad's over top of me just crying as I'm walking down the aisle. I got back home and my dad ended up baptizing me in the same pond that he got baptized and he baptized my mom and he held me under for a really long time. I remember coming up and I almost swung out. I was like, "Would you do that for?" I almost sinned like right out of it. And he goes, "I just had to make sure to get it all out of you." And he hugged me and that's just the way my dad's been ever since. Well the next thing I did is dad and I went on mission and we just started sharing Jesus with our family. You got to understand the family I grew up in for us to join this church. It was kind of a big deal. And some people got very angry but we didn't care. We started telling our family and our friends and everyone we could about Jesus. That's the only thing I knew because as soon as dad got saved that's all he did. He told me. He told his employees. Next thing I know I see my cousin Brent get baptized. My cousin Blair. My cousin Brad. Two of them become worship leaders. I see my uncles get baptized. I see my aunts get baptized. The next thing I know Jesus starts to do this radical thing in our family but it wasn't easy because not everyone was all up on and for what we were doing. And just as many family members that were coming to Christ there was just as many family members who were kind of putting us down making fun of us tearing us down. I got plugged into a children's ministry during that time and I started serving with fifth grade boys and I started leading this small group and I figured out real quick the way you get fifth grade boys to sit down and do Bible studies. You bring donuts on Sunday morning. And so I brought donuts and sat them in there and said alright let's start studying the Bible. And during that time I had friends and I had family. I had mentors start telling me Travis. I think God might be calling you to a ministry and I was like well he needs to let me know that because I didn't want anything to do with it. And the reason I didn't want anything to do with it is because if you know who I was before Christ I had no business preaching the gospel had no business sharing Jesus. A couple years ago I asked my mom I said mom how did you put up with me because basically I just unleashed a ton of physical and verbal pain on my family. And I asked my mom I said why did you put up with me all those years and she said Travis we almost sent you away. She goes we didn't know what to do with you. She said the more we loved you the more you hurt us back. I said what happened mom she said Jesus happened. Jesus saved you. And so I'm wrestling with this and I've got people tell me and I start studying the Bible and next thing I know I feel God's calling me to pastor. And so I'm at a camp I'm 17 years old I'm at a children's camp leading fifth grade boy small group and my mentor knew I was struggling with this and he said hey Travis here's what I want you to do. I want you to go out on the porch of this camp and I just want you to start praying. Just ask God to speak to you, plead with God if he's calling you to the ministry. And so I did what I was supposed to do. I went out and started praying. And at the time I was praying specifically to go into children's ministry. And I just said God do you want me to be a children's pastor I feel so unworthy. And as I'm praying next thing I know I feel this pain in the back of my head. And I look up and I see this kid. Blond, I'll never forget his face. Blond hair, white t-shirt, wear and jeans and he smacked me in the back of the head laugh and ran away. Now earlier in that week we'd been studying Saul's conversion in chapter 9 of Acts. And so I try to go back to praying except by this time I'm ticked off. And I don't have tried to find this kid. I look for him everywhere. I can't find him anywhere. And so I just assume if God can knock Saul on his rear end and save him God can send a kid to smack me in the back of the head. And so I got up and I went to my mentor I said here's the deal I think God is calling me in the ministry. I think a kid just smacked me in the back of the head to prove it. I said where do I go to school? He said you go to Cincinnati Bible College. I went to my youth pastor where I go to school Cincinnati Bible College. I went to the senior pastor where I go Cincinnati Bible College. Here's what I found out. I believed at that time everybody that was in ministry went to Cincinnati Bible College. And so I went and I started playing on the soccer team. I was in playing on the soccer team I say who do we play against? And they go we play against other Bible colleges. I go I had options and they go yeah there's a ton of Bible colleges here. I was like okay well I start doing an internship at this church and my senior pastor Bob he takes us up to Chicago to a leadership conference. And while we're sitting there we're sitting around a table and Bob begins to share with me the story of how he started Northeast Christian Church in Louisville Kentucky. I had never heard about church planting before. Never. I'm from Kentucky I've seen things planted. But I didn't know that's how I didn't know you plant churches. And so I was like dude you got to unpack that for me bro I don't understand what that means. And he started telling me how he started our church. And as he was sharing that with me I just felt my heart begin to just get like heavy. Because what clicked in my mind is if God didn't lead Bob to start Northeast Christian Church my dad may have never heard the gospel in turn he may have never shared it with me. And at the end of that time he looked at us all just a bunch of young men he goes which one of you is going to plant a church. And out of all the dudes that were there I said no because I was scared to death of it. But when I got back to Bible college next thing I know out of all the dudes at the table I was the only one saying yes. I remember when I started dating my wife I said honey this was going to happen. God is going to lead us to start a church and it's not going to be in Kentucky. It's going to be some place that I don't even know yet. And she said okay I'm fine I'm good with that. So in 2009 I entered into seminary. A lot of people go to seminary to get smart I went to seminary to repent. I took a class called Intro to Missiology. And in that class I discovered that for every thousand dollars spent in a church 999 of those dollars are spent on the saved. 90 percent or 90 cents is spent on those who have some access to the gospel and like 10 cents is spent on those who have no access to the gospel representing 1.7 billion people. I started study text like Matthew 28 where Jesus says go into all the world and preach the gospel. I started studying Acts 1 8 where Jesus says I drew some Judea, Samaria, uttermost parts of the earth. I'm going to send you and I just got broken. And when I get broken in my family people know it. Next thing I know my son my six year old is coming up and he's drawing pictures to kids in foreign countries who don't know Jesus. And he's like dad we send us to the kids who don't know Jesus. Because I'm just leaking all over my family and about this time I'm thinking God is going to send us out. He's going to send us far away. And I'm walking down the hallway of Canyon Ridge. I walked in and I saw a friend of mine named Chris who was kind of my supervisor. And it was during this week and I'm just broken over this just thinking God is calling us just out of here. And he sits me down and he says hey Travis I know you want to plant a church you've told me that if you ever thought about Salt Lake City. And I said no. He said well too bad I bought you and your buddy Brian a plane ticket you're going. He said I want you to go up there I want you to pray about starting a church in Salt Lake City. And I said okay I'll go and I went up there and I didn't know what to expect. I got on a plane we caught a late flight I remember we landed in Salt Lake City Utah and while we were there we went to Denny's real late at night. Now Denny's in Vegas nobody goes real late at night it seems like but Denny's in Salt Lake it was slammed. There's people everywhere I remember looking at the waiter going hey what's this all about he goes all this kind of a slow night. I went really he goes yeah all the clubs all the bars they let out and they all come into here and I started looking around. I just saw tons of people they took us up to the spot where Brigham Young supposedly stood in 1847. And they said we just want you to pray over this city and all of a sudden these stats just started to cloud my heart and just put weight on my heart. That the national average is one church for every 900 people and Salt Lake City there's one church for every 5,000 people. If you go Salt Lake up to Ogden there's one church for every 10,000 people the seventh most unreached part of the United States. If you go Orm to Provo one church for every 18,000 plus people representing the number one most unreached area of the United States. God put an a passion in me to go reach unreached people and little did I know six hours for my front door was the most unreached part of the United States of America. I came home from that trip I looked at my wife and I said we're going to Salt Lake City Utah and we prayed about it God confirmed it and we're going. And since that time we made that decision I started talking to people I talked to one young man who lived in Salt Lake City for 14 years. I asked him two questions could you imagine not could you imagine living in a city and not passing a Christian church. Could you imagine living in a city and never meeting another Christian and he looked at me because I lived in Salt Lake City for 14 years. I never passed a Christian church and I never met another Christian it wasn't until I got out of Salt Lake that I heard about Jesus. I was up there with Brian just a couple weeks ago my friend and we're up there and we're in a coffee shop and we're shaking okay we're just freezing. You know why we're freezing because we're from Vegas and it was snowing up there. And people could tell these dudes aren't from here so they looked at us and they go what are you doing here and we just told them we're here and we're going to start churches in this valley that impact the nations. And the lady looked at me and she goes will you start that church in my town. I said we're still called downtown right now but I said we're planting churches every three years here. And she told us where she lives and she said there's not a single church in my town. I do believe God is mighty to save because he saved me. I didn't go looking for him he tracked me down he saved my dad and then boom it was over. But if you believe that God is mighty to save then let me ask you a question why aren't we doing everything in our power to make sure everybody in the world knows. Why will we not sacrifice our time our talent and treasure to make Jesus famous throughout the world. Because that's what it's all about. You see as followers of Jesus Christ we are saved for the glory of God and to make him famous in the world. And if you don't believe me all you got to do is just study the book of 1 Peter. You see the book of 1 Peter is all about exiles people who are living as exiles in a land and they're living for Christ. It doesn't necessarily mean that they were kicked out of their homeland as much as it means that they were living as Christians in this world. And as a result there was people just like my family and some of my friends who were coming down on them and persecuting them and maligning them and tearing them down. And what Peter says to them in 1 Peter chapter 4 verse 12 he says this. He says beloved do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you. I don't know about you but I don't like surprises. I'm not a huge fan of them even at Christmas time I want to open my presents now. Even when I get somebody a present I have to tell them what it is. I'm just not a huge fan of surprises but that word surprise literally means hospitality. It means like an uninvited guest and what Peter is trying to tell the church he's looking at him he says you're living for Christ. And you should not be surprised when people tear you down, when people make fun of you, when people malign you for preaching the Word of God. And he wants them to understand that and he doesn't want them to be surprised because when this happens many of us think that God doesn't love us anymore. But that's so far from the truth because what Peter is saying is that when you are tested when you are tried what God is doing is he's growing you. He's purifying you. He's growing your faith in him. And what we see is that the people in 1 Peter they weren't just being torn down simply for preaching the gospel. But they're also being torn down because they were living the gospel. You see the gospel is something that impacts us internally and affects the way we live externally. And we see over here in chapter 4 verse 3 he looks at him and he says this the time that is past suffices for doing what Gentiles want to do. Living in sensuality and passions and drunkenness and orgies and drinking parties and lawless idolatry. He says with respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery and they malign you. Here's what I want you guys to see is that what was happening to these people as they were living in this culture that was plagued with pagan gods. Pagan gods were the culture that it wasn't uncommon for them to live just crazy sexual lives and worshiped to these gods. And because of what Jesus had done in their life he affected and changed the way in which they lived with other people. Therefore the men weren't taken advantage of the women and women were staying with their husbands. And as a result and because they would not go and engage these practices some people got really ticked off. I can remember several years ago preaching about this and watching a young girl in a youth group just get completely broken for purity. I'll never forget she gets broken she comes to faith in Christ but her boyfriend was ticked and he was ticked at me. And I walked out the back and I looked at him and I said bro why are you so mad he goes you only gave us an hour to decide if we're going to be pure. And I don't think that's really cool. And he started looking like I thought he was going to like punch me. But that's what was happening in this church that is people started living honoring lives that people started maligning because you know what dudes were losing their girls. Girls were losing their dudes and they didn't like it. Not only that the people lost their drinking buddies he says drunkenness and orgies and drinking parties that they stopped going to these things. And because they wouldn't go to these things their life was a conviction on those who weren't and they started to tear them down. But then here's the last one they quit engaging in lawless idolatry. The whole culture surrounded by the gods. If you didn't worship the gods you were unpatriotic. Even businesses were around the gods. And if you didn't get into the business if you didn't worship the gods in your business you could lose your job. You could get a pay cut. But not only that a lot of the family traditions center around the pagan gods. And a failure to worship the gods with your family you were disrespectful to your family and you could have been kicked out of your home. Let me tell you that the city I'm going to those things could happen to people. The city that I'm going to their people who could experience far worse and just get made fun of like I did. They could lose their jobs. They could lose their families. They can lose their social network. And if you ask him is Jesus enough? Every one of them that I've talked to looks back and goes yes he is. You see when the pressure comes on for living as a Christian we can go in one of three ways. We can become kind of synchronic in our belief which basically means that we can start just bending our beliefs just to accommodate the culture. It's kind of like when you watch a movie and you see an undercover cop. And the next thing you know by the end of the movie you don't know if he's undercover or if he's with the good guys or the bad guys anymore he's just kind of blended in. Some people they just kind of do that with their faith and they go you know what I really don't like what Jesus said here I'll just chuck it. Some people go I'll take that part I won't take that part. But there's some other people who will kind of go separatist with their faith. And instead of just engaging the culture instead of sharing Jesus with people they'll end up kind of retreating in their home and kind of have a holy huddle and start saying we're against the culture we're against the city. But then there's a third group and these are people who love Jesus so much and they love Jesus more than the sin around them. That they're going to sacrifice everything and they're going to go out in their community and they're going to share Jesus no matter what it costs them personally. You see the way we stay in the game the way we stay in the fight when it comes to living for Christ is not necessarily trying to live better lives. But it's trying to believe but it's rather it's by trying to believe better truth. Because what does Peter do in the next chapter here you go back one more what does he say he looks at these people he goes I know you're experiencing pain I know you're experiencing trouble I know you're in a trial. But here's the deal don't give up and he doesn't tell him just you know suck it up and get back in the game he tells them who it is that saved them. He looks at him and check out what he says in verse 9 he says but you are a chosen race a royal priesthood a holy nation a people for his own possession. He looks at these people and he goes Jesus saved you Jesus chose you you belong to Jesus. And in order to understand that you got to know who you were before Jesus because before Jesus the Bible tells us in Romans 5 that we were weak. We were weak in our sins we were sinners and then the last part of it says we were enemies it goes bad worse even worse. You get into Ephesians 2 it says that we're dead in our trespasses so what how does the Bible sum us up before Jesus saves us dead rebellious enemies. And that should blow our minds that God would send his son into the world to save dead rebellious enemies and that's what he does. Because it's not necessarily about what you can do to get to God you can't do it it's about God coming to you. I'll tell you right now I look at my own life and I think it's kind of funny and I got some friends that say this and I kind of laughed with them a little bit. They go man I found Jesus and I'll look back at him and go I didn't know he was lost. Like it's a where's Waldo book can you find Jesus where is he. No it says that we were the ones that were lost and Jesus came and he found us. He saved us he rescued us and it's through faith by grace through faith in what he did by trusting in what he did that were saved. And what does Paul say there in Ephesians 2 it's a gift from God so that no man will boast. You see no Christians should be walking around going yeah I was that cool. God looked at me and he saved me I loved what Teddy said even on our best day it's like filthy rags before God if it's not rooted in Jesus. That's what it is and he looks at these guys Peter and he reminds them you want to stay on mission you want to stay focused on Jesus then focus on Jesus. Look what he did he says he saved you he made you a holy nation his own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies. We do this all the time don't we. Just today I watched Kentucky play that's my favorite basketball team I think there's only one basketball team at the University of Kentucky and I was watching him play Tennessee today. My wife was out taking my older son to karate and as is a close game and as I'm sitting there watching it it gets close and all of a sudden I see Anthony Davis turn around and do a fade away like bake hook shot. And I went nuts and I started praising the excellencies of Anthony Davis. I picked up my nine-month-old daughter off the ground I went whoo you know they did I'm dancing around and she's like what are you doing to me. I picked up journey she's like what are you doing to me because here's the deal there's arena in Lexington Kentucky of 23,000 people that praise the excellency of a basketball team. My son he comes home he's all in the cars too right now he loves it and he'll come home with a new car. And he'll look at me and go hey daddy you see my new car and I'm like yeah that's really cool but and then he wants me to start praising it with him. He's like isn't it cool yeah yeah that's cool but yeah I said it's cool but and next thing you know he's just praising this car. You see all of us we praise something for some of us we praise our job we praise our spouses we praise our friends we praise our families but here's the deal. We're not created to praise the excellencies of the things of this world. We are created to praise the excellency of the one who created this world. And that's what he says he says you are a people who was called out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people but now you are a people. Once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy. We are saved by the mercy of God and that is such a glorious amazing truth and it says that we weren't a people but now we are a people belonging to God you know what that makes you hope that makes you a family. And you look around this room you're like really I wouldn't have chose some of these people you might say that to yourself. I know look at our church I'm like yeah you're stuck with me I'm stuck with you because here's the deal we're here now and guess what we're here for eternity. We're with each other for eternity and one of the things that's going to make the biggest impact in our city is if we can live that principle out to its fullest. That we are going up there we're going up there and we're not just simply starting a church but we're seeing a family of God grow. That when people look into us and they see what's going on they're going to see John 1334-35 where Jesus says a new command I give you love one another. As I have loved you so you must love one another. By this all men will know what you're my disciples if you love one another. That's why it's so important for all of us to be plugged into community because it's by being plugged in that community we get to show off the glory of God as he takes people from very diverse backgrounds. In this chapter predominantly Gentiles but there was also some Jewish people in here that were in the family of God and he looks at him he goes you're a chosen race you are now a people. You're a people for my possession to show off my glory to praise my glory. Why? In verse 11 he says, "Beloved I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul." You see it's a war we're fighting against the evil desires and a war is not fought in isolation a war is fought in community. That's part of why we need the people of God to serve as a mirror to show into our lives to say hey let me pray for you let me help you with this. But listen to this last part verse 12 he says, "Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when not if so that when they speak against you as evil doers they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation." What does he say to him here? He says that the testimony of your lives and your message is going to be so powerful that when people see you living your life in a counterculture way for Jesus Christ they're going to notice something different about you and it says that they could come to know and glorify God. That people could be saved and here's the thing I wonder if sometimes the reason we don't share our faith is because we're really messed up on whose job it is to save. You ever thought about that? I used to think for the longest time I wasn't very good at evangelism because I didn't baptize a whole lot of people. But it's not my job to save, it's my job to share. Where does salvation come from? Jonah 2-9 comes from God. And as we live in community on mission we get the opportunity to share Jesus both with our words because it's definitely a word. It's not just preach the gospel at all times it's necessary use words. It's not that. It's definitely a word but it's also us living a life to honor and glorify God with our actions. I can remember I got so convicted over this a couple years ago because I was doing a lot of evangelism on our church campus but I didn't really get to know my neighbors that well. I got so broken over it. This is right when I was taking this class and I can remember being upstairs and I was just praying. I was like God I just repent for my lack of passion to engage my neighborhood with the gospel and all of a sudden all the power in my house went out. This blew my mind. I go downstairs I look at Jess I'm like what's going on our kids were asleep so they weren't screaming so that was good. And I go outside to see what happened and all the power was off in my neighborhood and my neighbors were outside. This neighbor walked across the street he goes hey pastor I need to talk to you I said bud you never called me pastor before he goes I know I need a pastor right now. And he started spilling his guts to me. And in that moment I shared the gospel with him. And I wish I could tell you that the lights came on like the stage and it was like holy moment I was like whoa and it was like where's some water why can't I get baptized. And I just like baptized him in a hot tub but it didn't happen. It didn't happen. But was that a failure? No. Because it's our job to share. I want to challenge you with something. We oftentimes praise and share what is most valuable in our lives. And what does this text say? That's Jesus. Because at the end of the day he's all that matters. In Matthew 18 Jesus says a little statement and he says I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And what blew my mind I put these away too soon was trying to understand what it meant by the word gates. Because I'll tell you right now we're in the middle of trying to start this church it's one of the hardest most difficult things I've ever done. But I'll tell you there's nothing more rewarding than see God bring life to a new church. And to find out what the gates of hell meant it meant like martyrdom and meant death but Justin Holcomb actually says this. He says the gates of a city in the Old Testament were not just an entrance point. They were a place where the strategy of the city itself was determined. The gates of hell conveyed the idea of the organized authority of the kingdom of darkness in an organized strategy against Jesus, his gospel, his kingdom and his church. The demonic forces engage in conflict with Jesus before he built his church and they will continue to attack his church. You see Jesus says that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church but he doesn't say it won't beat on him. And the last time I checked the church wasn't necessarily a building it's people. But here's what we got from God a promise that Jesus will build his church. He'll build it here. He'll build it in Salt Lake. He'll build it in California. He'll build it in Louisville, Kentucky. He'll build it all the way across the world. And what are we called to do? Proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness in the marvelous light. Hope I'm going to challenge you right now. When it comes to living on mission for Jesus, John Piper wrote an excellent blog. There's really three types of people. There are radical goers, there are radical senders and there's a disobedient. There's really only three kinds of people. Jesus didn't just politely ask us to go into all the world to preach the gospel, he commanded us. And let me ask you this question, which one of those three are you? Who's a radical goer? Who's a radical sender? And who needs to get in the game? Hope I love you guys. I pray for you guys so much. This church has done amazing things, not only to impact this valley, but to impact the west and impact the world. You guys are doing so much for the glory of God to make Jesus famous throughout the world. And here's what I want to ask you. Just pray for us. Pray if God might be leading you to be one of those two people. And here's the commitment I'll make back to you. I'll pray for you. People look at me and they go, why in the world would you go to Salt Lake? That's so hard. And what's funny is that's Vegas people telling me that. I'm like, are you serious? Where do you live, bro? You're sitting there going, oh, Salt Lake's hard, they're looking at you going, Vegas is hard. Hey, this isn't like cookies on the bottom shelf down here. You know what I'm saying? This is hard. But here's the deal. Jesus will build his church. Let's just share and show off his glory for all people.