Hope Church LV Sermons
The Stirring in Our Hearts
We are a family. A church is a family. Brothers and sisters in Christ. And sometimes in the life of a family, the right thing to do is just sit down and have a conversation together and to share our hearts and to be super transparent and honest and just real authentic. And that's really what we're gonna be doing tonight. If you are visiting with us, this is a little bit different for us in a weekend. Occasionally we'll do this, but it's not the norm to see two of our teaching pastors up here together at the same time, sitting down, acting all casual and just chilling out around a table. But yeah, especially sitting this close. Yeah, I feel a little awkward. You can move over a little bit if you will. But we are, if you're visiting, we're studying in a series right now. We're preaching straight through Matthew five, six and seven, a sermon on the Mount. And we are studying through that series and we are right in the middle of chapter six. And so we're gonna take a break this weekend. We'll be picking that up again next weekend. But we want to take some time tonight and just share some things with you that are going on in the life of our church family. 10, a little over 10 years ago now, I guess it's been 1998, I guess one of the originally, I guess that first or 1999, when that first moment happened for me, this journey called hope began in my heart. That began in the heart of God the way before it began in my heart, but God invited me to get in on it. In 1999, I was having a quiet time and I've told you this for some of you, you've heard this now dozens and dozens of times, but just sitting down reading my Bible one morning, spending time with God in Luke chapter four, in verse 43, and Jesus said, "I must preach the kingdom of God "to the other cities also for I was sent for this purpose." And that morning, as sure as anything, God spoke clearly into my heart. And I didn't know exactly what he was saying, but I knew this much. God was putting something in my heart about joining in his activity in another city in the world for the expansion of his kingdom. And I went and Christy's sitting down here, we got together and we prayed. And we said, Lord, yes, we don't know when, we don't know where, but the answer is yes. And you know the Paul Harvey rest of the story, right? God had the sense of humor to fill in the blank with the city of Las Vegas, a city that was not on my radar. I was preaching all week this last week in Alabama. That's why I'm struggling with a little bit of allergies. I picked up some stuff back in Alabama and brought it back to Las Vegas with me. But back there in Alabama this week, I told them the same thing I've told you many times when God called me to Las Vegas, where I grew up in Alabama, Las Vegas is not a place people visit. If they do, they don't tell anybody. They don't think Las Vegas is hell, but they believe you can smell it from here. It's just, they think we all live in casinos and we all are gambling away our life savings in Las Vegas. So it couldn't have caught me more off guard and yet it's exactly what God was doing in my family. So Christian, I prayed, put a yes on the table and God relocated us to Las Vegas. But a part of the process for us of coming to Las Vegas was God birthed in our hearts very quickly that he wasn't calling us by ourselves, that we were putting together a team, that God was going to assemble a team. I recognize Paul in the New Testament as the greatest missionary who's ever lived. And yet Paul never went anywhere by himself. Paul is always followed by the word and, Paul and Barnabas, Paul and Titus, Paul and Timothy, Paul and you fill in the blank. There's a whole bunch of them. Sometimes it was a group of guys. And so we began to pray, Christian and I, about a team that we would put together, that we believe God was joining our hearts together with. And at that time, I was serving at a church in Tennessee and one of my responsibilities was I had six seminary interns that worked directly for me. And my job was to manage those six guys that were in seminary, they were getting their education. And one of the interns that worked for me at that time was Mike Lauren and Mike and his sweet wife, Jennifer had become very good friends of Christian and I and actually had started seminary. And while I was in seminary, Mike came to seminary and then I graduated and he finished up his seminary there. So I brought Mike in one day and said, man, I really believe that you're supposed to be a part of this team and God began to work in their hearts and had been doing some of that. And Mike and his wife, Jennifer, man, they put their yes on the table. And then we relocated here as families together to join in what God was doing of starting this church. But from day one, we've all lived with that yes on the table because as pastors, before we're pastors, we are husbands and fathers who follow Jesus Christ and try to lead our families to pursue God's activity in our lives. And we have to live the same way you live before God every day saying, Lord, what do you want today? Lord, where do you want me? Where do you want my family? And so we're sitting before you tonight because we wanna talk to you about some transition that is happening in the life of our pastoral team. And we just thought a very appropriate way to do this tonight. I mean, we are a family and we've been this way for now nine years. And we wanted to just in the most transparent, authentic, genuine way we could, sit down and have a conversation with you so that you could hear our hearts. So that you could see into our lives. You know, sometimes you see us up here and you see us as the preachers and the pastor. But again, before we're all of that, we are men that are just trying just like you are to just seek God daily and find out exactly what he has for us. And so we wanted to kind of let you see into that. So with that, kind of Mike as the parameters or kind of the table that we've set here, I guess, tonight. What does, tell us what God is doing in your life. - Yeah, well, as you talk, Vance, it's really hard for me to believe that it's been over 10 years ago since Jennifer and I were in seminary in Memphis, Tennessee and getting ready to graduate seminary and knew that God had a call on our lives but didn't know where at that point, didn't know what it was gonna look like. And I'll never forget that day that the Vance called me into his office for our weekly meeting. And I said on the other side of the table, and he said, "Man, let me tell you what God's called, "Christy now to be a part of." And, you know, the minute I heard that, the first thing in my mind was, gosh, I would love to be a part of something like that 'cause God had already began to work some things in my life that Las Vegas fit perfect. So when Vance said that, it was like, "Man, well, I would love to be a part of that." And the next sentence that a Vance's mouth was, "Would you like to be a part of that?" So my answer was, let me pray about it but I think the answer's yes. So obviously what happened at that point was, God began to open a door for Jennifer and my family. My family was much smaller 10 years ago but for my family to have an opportunity to come to the city of Las Vegas and be part of a church plant with Vance and the team. What an incredible, unbelievable 10 years. It has been, I had no idea when I said yes, what I was signing on for, but it's far exceeded my expectations, relationally, ministry-wise, to get to be part of a church from the very beginning and see what God does in the life of people and a body that He's allowed us to experience. It's more than I could ever imagine. So I guess it's been about a year ago, something nine months a year, something like that. I really began to discern, for lack of a better term, a real stirring in my heart. Didn't really understand it, didn't really know what it meant. The only way I know to describe it is a stirring, an unsettledness that God was doing something. Now it didn't make a lot of sense because God, for 10 years, had driven this stake in the ground in Las Vegas for my family. We knew without any doubt, we were where we were supposed to be, doing what we were supposed to be doing, and that stake was solid for 10 years. So this stirring in my heart didn't really make a lot of sense, and Jennifer and I wrestle with it. And Lord, what are you saying? I'm in a church that I love. I work with a team that I love most of the time, but I'll just get an incredible opportunity. My family's happy here. I'm in a church that's one of the greatest churches on the planet. Lord, why this unsettledness? What does this mean? How am I to discern this? So when you're in a situation like that, really the only thing we need to do is to wait and listen to the Lord. He had not give us any clarity or any clear direction, just a stirring and an unsettledness in our heart. So we were committed to wait on the Lord and seek His face and be in His word and walk with Him through this until He showed us some clarity. So we waited on the Lord. And then when you're in a situation like that, you kind of seek some counsel and you go to some people and start asking questions and sharing what's on your heart. So it's kind of been our pattern for 10 years. I went in to talk to Vance, this was early in the spring, I guess maybe February, and sit down across the desk again. And we kind of took our pastor's hats off and I said, man, here's what's on my heart and I just need to share it with you. I don't know exactly what it means. I don't know how to discern it, but there's a stirring and an unsettledness in our heart. And you remember that conversation? - Absolutely, absolutely, we talked. - And you know, when you're in ministry, it's not uncommon for you at seasons, just like it is in your personal lives, to walk through seasons where you sense a stirring. It usually begins with a restlessness and that's when God's doing something. You don't always know what it is and you don't know what it's gonna mean and sometimes it's minor and sometimes it's major. And so you begin to enter that process of really trying to discern God's voice and seeking counsel. And so when Mike came to me and shared it with me, it wasn't uncommon because from the very beginning of our relationship 10 years ago, every year, I've sat Mike down and because of the giftings and callings on his life every year and said, "Man, are you still content? Are you still content with where God has you?" 'Cause I knew at some point there may come a time in Mike's life when he wanted to take another step and in ministry and in more of a lead role. And so we'd always had this conversation, but when he came this time, immediately what triggered in my mind was, "Hey, Boulder City, we've had this opportunity open up in Boulder City. It's an incredible path. I mean, God just really gave us this door. He really opened the store for us to the city." And so the first thing I did after going away and praying about it was I came back and I sat down with Mike and I said, "Man, let me tell you a possibility." And I was trying to figure out, okay, how can we let this stirring happen? How can we allow it to be there and go through this and yet figure out a way to keep us all together at the same time? And 'cause you know, that's what we all do, right? As humans, we say, "Okay God, we want what you want. We'd like it to look like this." (audience laughs) And so we do the same thing you do. And so I said, "All right, Mike, what if we consider this? What if we let you go out and be our primary teaching pastor in Boulder City? You would lead out there. You'd stay as a part of our lead team, continue to be a part of our priority of elders here on our main campus and continue to do the counseling and all this kind of stuff for us at Hope. And what do you think about that? So Mike, I pitched that to you and as you prayed through that, where'd you land? - So Vance, we have this conversation about Boulder City. With the stirring in our heart, we began to pursue that option. We considered that as a route that our family might be. God might be leading our families a direction for our family. So we really began to pursue that. And what we found out is God really is a work in Boulder City. God has opened up an incredible door of opportunity and ministry for this church in Boulder City. So it was very appealing to us for a lot of reasons because of the opportunity to be a part of something new again, to be able to connect relations with so many people there that were interested, the ability to stay here in Vegas as a part of Hope and what God was doing. And kind of like Vance said, it kind of fit, if you will, the human side of what I thought maybe God was doing in our hearts. So we really pursued that. And ironically enough, really within about a two week period when Vance and I had this conversation, along with the Boulder City option coming on the table, I was contacted by another church out of state. And it was a church that Jennifer and I had a history with. It was a church very much like Hope in a lot of ways, the nations on their heart, a kingdom minded church who called and asked me to consider talking about becoming their pastor. So I said, well, you know, with all this stirring that's been going on and a little bit of uncertainty of what God has for sure, we'll talk about it. So Boulder City, things going on. We have this interview with this other church and so we went through the interview process with one discussion. And as best I can say after talking to both opportunities, looking at both opportunities, we were convinced that God was not finished with us here in Las Vegas, that the stake that he had driven in the ground was still intact and still very solid. And the opportunity at Boulder City seemed to be the best route. So we contacted that other church that had called us and said, we're gonna have to pull our names out of a hat, take our name out. We're no longer gonna be a candidate. We really, as best we can tell right now, God's not finished with us in Las Vegas because the calling of God on our lives in Las Vegas had been so clear. There was no way until he gave equal clarity that he was doing something else that we were even gonna consider leaving the city at call state. And at that point in March, middle of March, there was no clarity whatsoever about leaving the city he had called us to. So really for the next two months, we pursued the Boulder City option. And again, we're really excited about what was going on there. God was doing something. God had presented us with a land and a facility and some of you guys were so excited about what God was doing there and God was at work in Boulder City and he still is. And what we knew was this, it's God had opened an incredible door for Hope Baptist Church to minister in the city of Las Vegas. But after several months, to be real honest of pursuing that, by the time June rolled around, my wife and I were able to get away for a few days and able to finish a conversation without kids around. You know how that is and really talk through some things. God really impressed on our hearts at that point, probably early June, that even though God was doing incredible work there and Hope was gonna have an incredible work there, that was not the direction that he was leading our family. And he made that really clear by the 1st of June. So we get that from the Lord and kind of continue on. So here we find ourselves in the middle of June, almost late June now. This stirring is still going on. The sun's settled, this is here. And Lord, what are you telling us? What are you leading our family to do? We need some clarity from you. And like Vance said, being encouraged, we live there sometimes too with, we don't know the next step. We know God's stirring. We know he's doing something, but we simply don't know the next step. So what are you doing times like that? Well, how can I have a pattern? And Vance has seen this pattern over the last 10 years. I go to the mountain. So I picked a Sunday and I took my Bible and my journal and I went up to Mount Charleston and just spent the whole day alone with the Lord up on Mount Charleston. And basically I went to that time asking the Lord, as best I could say Lord, I need some clarity here. You please show us the next step. So I opened up my Bible and began to read in 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy is a very important book to me because that's really the book God used to call me to ministry to begin with. So I just began reading 2 Timothy and I wasn't expecting lightning bolts or anything to come out of the sky or to audible voice. I just needed some clarity from the Lord. So as I was reading through 2 Timothy, it really was as if God just began to meet with me. And again, not an audible voice, not a lightning bolt, but just the impression upon my heart became very clear upon the mountain. As I listened to him through his word, he really revealed two things. I wrote these down in my journal as quick as they begin to come to my mind and form my mind. That God made two things very clear. The first one was this, is that Mike, you're a pastor. Don't look for anything else. Exactly what you've been doing here to hope for the last 10 years is what you're supposed to be doing. You're called, gifted, equipped to be a pastor. All right, got that. Because when your situation of uncertainty and stirring, you're thinking, "Well, Lord, am I? "Should I look at doing something else?" I mean, there's a lot of things I'd like to do and I would enjoy doing, but I had to hear really clearly from the Lord. Now, this is what I made you to do. This is what I created you to do and a real re-conformation of that from the Lord. So that's the first thing, maybe very clear from his word, Second Timothy, you're a pastor. But then the second thing, he began to make very clear in my life for the very first time that he'd ever began to make this clear was, Mike, I'm leading you into the season. I'm giving you a new ministry assignment. And as clearly as I'd ever heard it in 10 years, 'cause I'd never heard it in 10 years, it was as if the 10th stake that I described two year earlier, God was just beginning to move that 10th stake and for the first time ever, with great clarity, that 10th stake was coming up. And what God made very clear was, I'm getting ready to give you a new assignment. And what that meant immediately was, your time and hope is coming to an end. And all I can say at that moment is there was a huge sense of mixed emotion. You know, in one sense, you have the sense of, all right, Lord, I'm so thankful for clarity, but Lord, are you sure? Could you say that again? Are you telling me, are you impressing on my heart that the work that you called me to 10 years ago, you're saying that that work is coming to an end. So I wrote that in my journal and all I can say is at that moment there was a great sense of thankfulness. You know, the words of my journal are thank you, Lord. I'm overwhelmed with the sense of what you've allowed me to experience for 10 years. It's been beyond my wildest imaginations. I'm so undeserving of all that you've done in mind and my family's life over the last 10 years, thank you, Lord. But then the sense of, all right, I always say my yes is on the table. You know, we say that and we preach that, but do we really mean that? And my only response at that point was, Lord, our yes is on the table. I don't know what that means. I don't know the next step. You've just revealed these two things to us. So we came off the mountain that day, knowing those two things. You're a pastor, you're a call to be a pastor, don't look for something else, but I'm getting ready to give you a new assignment and your season and hope is coming to an end. So God made those things very clear to me. - So Mike came down from the mountain. For me, I usually go check into a Hilton hotel somewhere, so Mike and I are a little different wiring. So Mike comes down and Mike shares these things with me. One of the great joys of leading this team is I get to work with guys that I have unbelievable respect with their ability to discern God's voice and to speak into their life. So when one of these guys says something to me, I don't take it lightly. And I've already done my best job early on in the year to create something and try to talk Mike into this direction. And when he came and shared those things from me, I did what we always do with each other. I begin to ask some questions. You know, the best thing you can do is have people in your life that when you're trying to seek God's will, they don't just bobblehead. But they begin to ask some really serious questions to help you discern God's voice. You want somebody that's gonna speak into your life. So that's what I was doing for Mike. I began to ask him some questions. So what we thought we wanted to do tonight is we wanted to just let you pull in real close. And I wanna ask Mike some of those questions so you can hear his heart. I think one of the great disservices that churches do their congregation a lot of times. There's a lot of stuff like this happens behind closed doors and you get a three minute statement read on a letter and that's all the information you get and everybody's left to wonder what in the world, you know, what's going on. And you know at Hope, our pattern has been we live with information on the table. We're a family. We want you to hear where we are and what we're doing. And we want you to know exactly how we discern God's voice. So we thought we'd share some of this with you. So you could hear our heart. And secondly, I think there's gonna be some real takeaways in this that you can learn more about how God would speak into your life. So Mike, one of the first questions I ask him and I'll ask you again is how we say God gave clarity, God confirmed, how, if it wasn't lightning bolts and writing in the sky, how did God confirm this? - Again, obviously when you're impressed with something like this on your heart, the first thing you do say Lord, you need to confirm this. I need to know for sure this is what you're saying. So as I kind of think back and even look through my journal, there's really four things that God used to confirm, something like this in my heart. The first one and a very important one was my wife. I came down the mountain and went and immediately talked to Jennifer and was able to share these things that I believe God was laying on my heart. And it's very important and very encouraging when God is doing something in my heart. And then you go to your wife and you realize he's been doing the exact same thing in her heart. So we go and we sit down and I share these couple of things that the Lord had impressed on my heart and her response was sweetheart, I've really been sensing those for months now. I mean, what's taking you so long now? But the confirmation that God was doing something apart from one another in her heart and in my heart and then to be able to sit down and discuss it and realize you know what, it's the same thing. God's doing the exact same thing and that's confirmation. Confirmation, especially when a husband and wife are one, guys, there may be times you don't agree perfectly on things and that happens, but ultimately God's gonna be leading you in the same direction. So my wife was a huge one. Second was counsel from others, you know, like Vance and other guys and gals that I have relationship with. One of the first people I called to be honest was Pastor Chip Rigg as you guys remember Chip and we continue to have a great conversation and he'd gone through a similar process several years before and great conversation with him. I shared what was going on and how that conversation, just some confirmation from me that this is exactly what God is doing. And then, you know, we talk about this, but you really want this in your heart when you're about ready to make a major decision, is that sense of rightness about it. Just that sense, that inner sense of rightness, that, you know, the Philippians idea that be anxious for nothing but in everything through prayer and supplication in God, the peace of God, the peace of God will guard your heart, your mind, and Christ Jesus. Now, that peace didn't always mean you were ready to jump up and down and all excited about it right away, but there's a sense, a settled sense of rightness and God gave us that. And ever since that, you know, that time on the mountain, that peace has remained there. There's been some things we hadn't understood, some things that scare us, some things that, you know, we may not even know exactly why God's doing it, but there's been that sense of rightness. And then finally, and probably the most significant is, you need to hear from the Scriptures. God needs to confirm from His word. And not, you know, you just go and say, "All right, I'm gonna start having a quiet time now." You know, 'cause I gotta hear from the Lord, but out of a pattern of spending time with Jesus, just you're listening. I mean, the radar is up. Lord, confirm this. Lord, I'm listening to what you're saying. So I was in Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy chapter one, in the Old Testament, and chapter one, I came to this verse one morning. And it is just one of those times where it says, "If the verse just jumps off the page." And the Bible said this. "The Lord our God spoke to us at Mount Sinai and said, "You have stayed long enough at this mountain, "turn and set your journey." And it was one of those moments where the Scripture, the Word of God became crystal clear. God was once again saying, "Mike, your time here is done." But that's okay. That's my plan. So I kept on reading, Deuteronomy chapter one verse 32 says, "And the Lord your God, who goes before you on your way "to seek out a place for you to encamp "and fire by night and cloud by day, "will show you the way in which you should go." And I needed to hear that. Because God had said, "All right, you're breaking camp, "the tent's stakes coming up, "but at the same time I want you to know, "I am going before you to seek out the place "where you're going to camp, "and I will lead you in the way, year to go." And boy, I've held on to that verse. We prayed that verse and held on to that verse tightly over the last few weeks. So God spoke very clearly through His scriptures, and that's very important to hear a word from the Word when you're trying to make a major decision. - Now, Mike, so everybody can kind of walk along with us on the journey. When you get that direction from the Lord, does God give you all the answers? - Yes, every single answer, He immediately gives... Absolutely not. In fact, when you're in a process like this, again, what you learn with the Lord is, I think He gives you just enough, He gives you just enough to take the next step and just enough to trust Him more. Because, you know, our response is, we always want to know the answers. Tell us what's going to happen next month, next year. Lord, fill in all those blanks. And it's as if God says, "No." I'm not overly concerned about the answers. I'm concerned about the relationship. And I'm going to give you just enough to take the next step and just enough to trust me. And that's what He's done, this process. - What are some things then that you have learned in this process that would be beneficial for each one of us as we each continue to live with a yes on the table and seek God? What are some things you've learned? - Yeah. - It's been a great process of listening to the Lord. And here's a very important truth that we've learned. You know, when you're going through something like this, we talk about seeking counsel and that's very important. And obviously you have a lot of people that love you and care about you. But ultimately, when you're a process like this, ultimately what you can say is his voice is all that matters. - Yeah. - Because there's a lot of well-meaning people and friends who have God's plan for your life, so to speak, and it may be God's plan, but it may not be God's plan. And the point is, you know, just like Jesus said, we live by every word that proceeds from His mouth. - Yeah, that's right. - His voice is all that matters. So that means there's times alone with Him and that time when you're listening to Him, Lord, your voice is ultimately all that matters. That's been a huge thing. Secondly, God's taught us that we are able to recognize His voice as an overflow of our intimacy with Him. In other words, it's not really healthy to get in a situation like this and say, okay, I better start spending time with God. Hopefully it's been the pattern of your life and when you get in a situation like this, you just continue to listen to Him and the overflow of that relationship and then an intimacy with Him, you're gonna be able to hear His voice. It's an overflow of that intimacy. And then another thing that's been very helpful for us is whenever God's leading you in a decision like this, we always need to remember God always has the big picture in mind, always. See, what do you mean by that? Well, our nature is to try to fix all the little details and our nature is to try to think, okay, I need to, what's this mean for hope? What does this mean for my family? What does this mean for others? What does this mean for all the different pieces that are involved in this? And it says if God, once again, is like, I've got it covered, all right. I see the big picture much better than you do and when God leads you to something and God's calling you to a step of obedience, just know He always has the big picture in mind. He knows all those details. Ours is to simply trust Him and to take the next step. And then finally, very important to learn is when you're seeking God's will and you're really seeking for some clarity in a situation, we just need to remember God desires for us to know Him more than He desires for us to know His will. - Yeah, that's right. - You know, we can get really all up tight about, God, I want to know your will. I want to know your will. Show me your will and sometimes He knows, okay, if I show you my will, then you're just going to go off and do your own thing. I desire you and intimacy with you. And sometimes He may not show you the whole picture or even the next step yet because He desires the relationship with you more than He desires to show you His will sometimes. And you learn things like this and process it through. - That's real good. When Mike first came inside down and started sharing some of this with me, I mean, one of the obvious questions that we wrestled with very first is what about church planting? And you may or may not know this, but when Mike came on our team originally, our original design was that Mike would be our first church planter out of our church that we would launch Mike out as a church plant somewhere in the western United States. And so that's really that conversation. Mike and I've sat down and had every year about the particular role of church planting. I mean, I hope it's part of our DNA. So the natural obvious thing you would think is tonight we'd be sitting before you saying we're about to put a team around Mike and launch him out as a church planter in the West. So Mike, why are we not talking about church planting tonight? - Yeah, and it's like Van said, we've had this conversation at least yearly. Is it time, is it, just like you said, are we ready to launch out and plant a church? 'Cause that's who we are at home. And the only answer I'd know that is two things very clearly is number one is just calling. Every year we have gone before the Lord on a regular basis and said, "Lord, are you leading us to go plant? Are you leading us to go start a church here in Vegas or somewhere else?" And very simply, that clear, distinct call has not been there from the Lord. And to jump out and do something like that without a clear, distinct call would be foolishness. And there's no way we would do that. So God has simply not given us that distinct call. I think part of that, the calling of God always has to do with your gifting. You know, when you're in ministry and you've been here 10 years, you kind of learn who you are in ministry. That's very important. And you also learn who you're not. You know, we teach shepherd training and I teach that class, it's very important to understand our shape, the way God's put us together. And to be comfortable with that and to serve within that shape that God gives you. And I'm learning my shape and we've learned who I am here in ministry. And I'm just not convinced that that lead role on a church plant is the way God's shaped me right now, that God's free to do anything He wants in the future. But right now, as best I can understand about who I am and the way God's wired us, He's not called us to that because I don't know that He's gifted us for that. Right now, and those two always go hand in hand. So it's a calling and a gifting issue. And I would affirm that completely in that, you know, I travel and train and teach a lot of people about church planting. I was this week training church planners in the state of Alabama and pouring into them. And one of the things we always teach is the importance of a definitive call. And if you're gonna be involved in church planting, you need to know God has called you because in church planting, you can experience the highest highs and the lowest lows all in the same 24 hour period. And we've enjoyed a lot of what the world would call success at Hope, but I'll be honest with you, there are a hundred different times we would have quit. But you can't quit what you didn't start when you know God's called you. And so in the arena of church planting, it has to be a definitive call. And so I would completely affirm, Mike, what you're saying there, that you gotta be to have that call and you've never articulated that or since, you know, that that's what God's calling you to. And you can't force that as much as we'd like to do it in Boulder City or somewhere else, you can't force the call of God. In a process like this, Mike, what's been the most difficult part of this for you? - You know, when you're in a process like this, I think the most difficult thing sometimes is simply not knowing. You know, you go days and weeks, you know there's a stirring and you know God's doing something, but he simply doesn't give you the clarity you desire. So your prayer doing those times or Lord, give us clarity. What are you doing? Show us that. So sometimes it's not knowing, but then ironically enough, sometimes in a process like this, the most difficult thing is knowing. When he does give you clarity and he does reveal the next step, then your prayer is not for clarity. Your prayer is for courage and your prayer for his Lord, are you sure? Are you absolutely sure this is what you're saying? So at the same time, it can be not knowing, but then it can be knowing because obviously as God reveals some of these things to us and even the steps we're involved in right now of transitioning away from hope, but that's not easy. We had never prayed Lord, we're ready to go from hope. That had never been a prayer of ours ever. So for God to reveal this, it took a lot of, and we're still praying for a lot of courage to say yes, Lord, we don't fully understand it all, but we know you have the big picture. So knowing and not knowing. - That's a good word. There probably some people might sitting out here that are experiencing a stirring in their own heart and life. Maybe it's something on a smaller scale. Maybe it's on a scale like what you're dealing with. Maybe it's on a even larger scale. What would you say to somebody sitting here tonight that might be wrestling through one of those times of where God's stirring their heart? - Right, and I couldn't say this strongly enough. Press into Christ. In other words, you'll find yourself pursuing all these different options, all these different things, all these different what-ifs, all these different possibilities. But ultimately, number one, press into the relationship with Christ. Sit beforehand, wait, listen, be it his word, pursue the relationship like never before. Because it's out of that that he'll give you the clarity that you're looking for. So press into Christ. And then out of that, learn to listen to his voice. You know, one of the most difficult things for us to do is busy doing active human beings is to listen and to stop and to hear the voice of the Lord. 'Cause sometimes I think God's been speaking, maybe and revealing things to us, but we're so busy and so active and so all over the place, we haven't stopped to listen to his voice. Press into him, listen to his voice. And then I encourage all of us and we say this, but let me just say this again. We really do always need to live with our yes on the table. - Yeah, that's right. - Because if Jennifer and I had not been living with our yes on the table 10 years ago, we would have never experienced all of this. So for us to say now, Lord, I hear what you're saying, but the answer is no. What in the world might we be missing? - Yeah. - And if you're there struggling with us, something that God has revealed and you're like, Lord, I don't know, maybe instead of a simple yes, and you may have no idea what you're missing and what God has for you. So press into that relationship, listen to his voice. And it's a very healthy to regularly say, Lord, our yes is on the table. Are we where we're supposed to be? Are we doing what we're supposed to be doing? Lord, yes, and then you fill in the blank. So those are some helpful. - That's real good. - Helpful things. - Mike, what's next for the Lauren family? - Yeah. Well, we're definitely hanging on to Deuteronomy 1 that he's gonna go before us and show us the place that we're to camp. And that's definitely where we are in one aspect, we're watching, we're listening. We believe God has absolutely faithfully shown us one side of the coin, and that is that he has a new assignment for us, and that our time at Hope is coming to an end, and we believe with the exact same clarity, he's gonna show us the next step. So we are watching, listening, praying, like never before as a family, but also we are pretty far down the line in a process with a sister church, great church. It's a lot like Hope that is very interested in us being their senior pastor. And we are pretty far along the line in that process. Listening to the Lord, we want absolute confirmation, and we want him, wherever God calls us, to nail a stake in the ground, as firmly as he did in Las Vegas for 10 years. And until he does, we're not gonna move an inch. So we're involved in a process there, and then our yes is on the table, and we're waiting for him to fill in that blank, so we get a pretty good sense of what he's doing and how he's filling that in. So over the next few weeks, as a family, and here on staff, we're going to be transitioning out of our role that we've had for the last 10 years, and kind of be bringing some things to an end here. That's not easy for us. Sitting up here tonight and looking at faces is not easy for us to look over at my wife's face, it's not easy, it's not easy to sit next to this guy, it's a very small table tonight, but the point is God's made it very clear, and ours is to obey. So what it's gonna look like over the next few weeks is we're gonna be transitioning out, and I just want you guys to know, this is not a position that we've held for 10 years, this is who we are. I mean, we've been shaped in ministry by the experiences God's given us here. Our families, who our family is, because of what God's done here for 10 years, and the friends, and the people God has led in our life, we are who we are because of our last 10 years at Hope. And no matter what happens or where God takes us, Hope was not just a job for us, Hope is part of who we are. We will always be part of this Hope family. We'll always wanna know what's going on, and what's the next step for Hope, and whatever that looks like over the next few years, Hope is simply a part of who we are as a family, and I cannot say enough, thank you for an unbelievable privilege, and a humbling opportunity it's been to serve as your pastor, and as one of your pastors over the last 10 years, it has been life changing, it has been more that we could ever imagine, you have been a huge part in that, and thank you from the bottom of our hearts, it's meant the world to us. So thank you from the Lauren family. - So may me ask. (audience applauds) (audience applauds) - Mike will be, by the end of this month, be officially transitioning out of his pastoral responsibilities here at Hope. The last Sunday of this month, October 30, 31, market on your calendars be here. Mike is gonna be preaching that weekend, and as the last official time, will be the last time Mike preaches here, matter of fact, we've already talked about a date next year for him to come back, and we're working that into the contract with the new police, wherever he's gonna be. But so, but that October 30, 31, will be Mike and Jennifer's last official weekend with us here at Hope to give them the freedom to finish this process with this other church where they are talking to, and we're not trying to be super secretive about that. It's just, he's in a process with another church, and until they finish that, we want that church to be able to share with their fellowship and not hear it online on our website. So, we wanna let that process play its course. But October 30, 31 will be their last official weekend, and we're gonna continue to love this family and keep up with them. And, you know, one of the great joys of this work is the people that you get to do it with, and... I almost made it. You said you weren't gonna do this. - I know. Well. (audience applauding) But at the same time, we have to live what we preach, and that is we have to hold everything we have loosely. And that's who we are at Hope. We're not about a church. We're about the kingdom of God, and wherever God plants this family, the kingdom wins, and that is what really matters. I'm gonna ask Jennifer to come up here and join us, and Krista, you're here. I'm gonna ask you to come up here with me. My wife didn't know she wasn't gonna do this, but come up here with us, and I'm gonna just close this time in a season of prayer for Mike and Jennifer, and we'll do this again, the end of this month, where we get to really love on them as a church family, but we wanted to share it with you now, so you had a few weeks to just love this family and let them know how much you love them, and so we wanna pray for this family time. You're gonna move on that side by Jennifer, and we'll just pray for them together. Let me pray. Lord Jesus, we come before you this evening, and God, I thank you for this family that we get to stand here with tonight. Lord, the last decade of our lives, you've allowed us to do life together. Lord, it's been a great joy, it's been a great honor, and Lord, I thank you for this family. Lord, we have all seen our lives changed in so many ways we can't even, there's not enough time to articulate, but God, at the same time, before we are anything else, we belong to you. We are yours, and we live surrendered to your desires and purposes. God, even when we don't understand them, or 10 years ago, there was a church that didn't understand at all, me leaving and moving my family 2,000 miles to Las Vegas. They didn't like it. Some of them told me that in a variety of ways, and yet, Lord, that was your plan, and God, now we see, so obviously, why? And Lord, today, we don't understand, and in some ways, we grieve, but in other ways, we rejoice because we know that you see tomorrow as clearly as we see yesterday. So Lord, tonight, we pray for this sweet time. God, I pray that the next month here as they finish out their time at home would just be sweet, or they'd get to reminisce and enjoy time with friends and share stories and memories, and God, I thank you for the investment that they've made in this city. But Lord, I thank you in advance for what you're going to do. God, if we lay this at your feet, and we submit it to you in the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. Amen. We just say to you, before we stand and sing tonight and bring our service to a close, Mike's family, my family, we're in Las Vegas today. Because of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We want to see people that don't know Jesus Christ, come to know Him and see their lives change. Maybe you're here tonight, and you just got invited by a friend, and you didn't know you were coming to a love fest, you know, a couple of buddies sharing their story with you. But you just came in tonight with a need in your heart, and let me tell you what, Mike Lauren Vance Pittman can't meet that need, but Jesus Christ can't, Jesus Christ can change your life. And when we stand the sing in just a moment, we're going to have a couple of our pastors just kind of over at the side. And when we sing tonight, if you're here and you don't know Jesus Christ, and you want to know the same Jesus that Mike and I know that's changed our lives, then you just go to one of these pastors and say to them, hey, I want to give my life to Christ tonight. They'll get somebody to show you how you can do that. But the other challenge I want you to think about as we stand and sing is, if you're already a follower of Jesus Christ, is your yes on the table. In the area of serving, giving, your gifts, your abilities, your resources, your talents, going, joining in what God's name is your yes on the table. If not, then tonight, man, as we sing, I encourage you, put your yes on the table. Let me pray for us, Jesus, speak to our hearts tonight. And God, as we stand to sing now at the close of our service, would it be just the time of worship? As we just hear, listen to you tonight and heard a testimony, "God, may we worship you." And we each think about our own lives and where we are. It's in Jesus' name we pray. (gentle music)