Hope Church LV Sermons
Vision Weekend
In September of 1999, God changed the course of my life. It was not a special, extraordinary day. It was just an ordinary, regular day. I woke up that morning like I do most mornings and set aside some time to spend with the Lord. Not perfect at it, I don't do it every day, but it's my desire, my goal to try to spend time with God every day. And this was just another one of those days in September of 1999 when I got up to spend time with God and just to seek to know Him in His Word and God forever redirected my life. And let me just go ahead and say here, right up front, give you a life application principle. Everything God desires to do through your life. He will do out of the overflow of what He's doing in your life. I'm gonna say that again, 'cause I want you to be sure you get that. Everything God desires to do through your life. He will do out of the overflow of what He's doing in your life. As you and I just seek to spend time with Him, like we talked about a couple of weeks ago, just spending time with God on a daily basis, God will do in and through us everything He desires to do. As you and I simply focus on knowing Him and being with Him. That's where I was that morning, just woke up to spend time with God, have a daily quiet time, just some moments to be alone with Him in His presence. And at that time in my devotional life, I was reading in the Gospel of Luke. And that morning I was in chapter four. And I came to verse 43. Here's what it said. Jesus was speaking and He said, I must preach the Kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose. And that morning in my devotional time, there were no lightning bolts from heaven, the ground underneath my feet didn't shake, but I sensed God speaking straight into my heart. Wasn't an audible voice at all, but I just sensed God speaking into my life right out of that verse of scripture. Here's a verse of scripture that I'd probably read hundreds of times before, but for whatever reason that morning, the Holy Spirit of God just pierced my heart. And I got to be honest with you, I've gone back many times and asked the Lord the question, man, what if I hadn't spent time with God that day? And God was doing what He was doing with it without me, but what would I have missed had I not been in the presence of God that morning? When I read that verse and God spoke into my heart, I didn't know all that it meant, but I knew that God was calling my life, my family, to relocate, to be involved in the expansion of His Kingdom in some other city in the world. I went and talked to my wife, we prayed about it together, and here's what we did together, we put our yes on the table. We said, Lord, yes, you say, what was the question? We didn't know. But here's what we did, no, Lord, and yes, was about the only two things that went together, right? Lord, anything else didn't really fit. So we said, Lord, yes, we don't know when, we don't know where God, we don't really even know what. But the answer is yes. Now, we really thought when we put that yes on the table, we were headed overseas, we were prepared for Africa, or China, or India, somewhere like that, I've been around the world, been traveling a lot overseas and involved in what God was doing and had a passion for that. And when God spoke that morning about the expansion of His kingdom to other cities, we just assumed God was about to relocate our family to some third world country where we could join in what He was doing there. Two weeks after that event, I was serving at this point in my life, I was the senior associate pastor of the Kirby Woods Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. It's a great church, I had a great relationship with the senior pastor. He was my dad, I'd known him my whole life. We had a wonderful working relationship and that doesn't always work well for everybody, but for me and my dad, it was a great experience and it was a great church. They were giving millions of dollars away to missions, they were involved in over 50 church plants around the world, they were supporting missionaries and training leaders, it was a church that was involved in God's kingdom activity right there in the heart of Memphis. And most people pretty much assumed, and I kind of thought it was the plan that one day my dad would retire, which he did two years ago after over 20 years of pastoring that church. Most people thought he would retire, I'd become the next senior pastor there at Kirby Woods. And God had spoken into our heart and our life, we'd put our yes on the table and two weeks after that yes moment, we had Dr. Johnny Hunt, who you got to hear a few weeks ago here at Hope, we had him come speak to a group of men at our church and that night after that men's gathering, Johnny and I were walking down the hallway and he stopped me, I'll never forget it right outside the men's bathroom, I don't know if there's anything significant about the men's bathroom, but that's where we stopped. So we're standing right there in that hallway. Johnny looks me down and he says, Vance, our church is gonna be starting a church in the fastest growing city in North America, Las Vegas, Nevada, and God's put it on my heart that you are to be the pastor of that church. Now two weeks prior, we'd put our yes on the table. We were prepared for Africa. (congregation laughing) Or for China. I wasn't ready for Las Vegas. I grew up in Alabama and Alabama, people don't go to Las Vegas and if they do, they don't tell anybody. I joke and I've told you before, people where I'm from, they don't think Las Vegas is hell, but they think you can smell it from here. I mean, we all live in casinos and dress like dancers, you know, that's Las Vegas, that's what they know of Las Vegas. But as soon as he said Las Vegas, I gotta be honest, we knew immediately. God just gave us an overwhelming peace, so much so that we resigned there at Kirby Woods, our position and we'd never even been to Las Vegas. We hadn't even traveled out here yet, but we just so definitively knew that God had called us here, that we stepped out in faith, knowing that God had spoken. We knew that God had invited us on a journey of joining in his activity right in the city of Las Vegas. Now, there was a lot we didn't know, but we knew God had spoken. We put a team together, relocated here to Las Vegas, we all got here end of 2000, beginning of 2001, and a couple of weeks on the field, God spoke again very clearly, same way, just in a quiet time, not bells and whistles and lightning flashes and electricity running up down my spine, just a simple word from the word. Psalm 107. Verse 35, I was reading it one morning. I want you to look at it on the screen. Here's what he said. He changes a wilderness into a pool of water and a dry ground or dry land into springs of water. And there he makes the hungry to dwell and so that they may establish an inhabited city in so fields and plant vineyards, gather a fruitful harvest and he blesses them. And they multiply greatly. We'd only been in Las Vegas a couple of weeks, man. I mean, we were new to the field and we looked like the Beverly Hillbillies rolling into town, all these boys from the South and their families. You know, we had lawn mowers and rakes and stuff. We didn't even use those here. But we knew that God had spoken. We knew that God was at work in this city and it was a lot we didn't know but there were three things that God spoke out of those verses in our hearts that we knew for certain. Here's the first thing we knew for sure. God desired to birth the church in Las Vegas that would be about the transformation of this city, one life change story at a time. Did you hear that passage of scripture? That passage of scripture was vivid imagery that describes transformation. Las Vegas is known obviously geographically we're a desert but beyond our geography, this city is known around the world as a spiritual wasteland. You can travel anywhere in the world and they know Las Vegas for its sin, right? I've been training pastors on the backside of Zambia near Lake Tanganyek on the border of Tanzania in a hut with rain pouring through the roof where we just let a witch doctor to Christ and he burned his charms and we were now training him to plant a church and in that training session I get up on the backside of Zambia and say I'm from Las Vegas and some dude in the back goes oh sin city, I mean all over the world. They know us for our sin, they know us for our spiritual wasteland. And yet we believe that morning what God spoke into our hearts. Now it's one thing to say this today, looking out at several services that are going to be full and knowing what God's done but back there when it was just a handful of us to believe that God was going to do a work of transformation, that God was going to be so at work in this city that lives were going to be changed. Listen, over the last eight and a half years we've seen over 2,000 people now trust Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. We knew that God wasn't work in this city. And when I say these things this morning it's not just that God was at work at home. No, God's at work in the city of Las Vegas. There are many churches around this valley that are experiencing revival and spiritual awakening. God is doing a great work in this valley and we are privileged to be a part of that. We knew that God desired to birth the church. That would be about the transformation of this city, one life changed story at a time. Number two, we knew that God desired to birth the church in Las Vegas that would impact the world. We knew that it was never just about us. It was never just about us having a place to worship on the weekends where we could come in and hear the word of God and sing together and care for one another and minister to one another and pray for one another. We knew that it was never just about us. Right in the beginning, did you hear those verses in Psalm 107? He changes a wilderness into a pool of water and dry ground into springs of water. A pool of water is a place that you have to come to to be refreshed and we literally believe that what God was saying was he was gonna so do a work here that people would literally come just to be involved in what God was doing. And I've spoken to many of you over the last eight and a half years. I know some of your testimony. When God first moved you to Las Vegas, you had no idea why Las Vegas. And now you know God brought you here to be a part of what he's doing in this city. We have guests every weekend almost that will stop by the first time guest reception from all over this country and all around the world and say pastor, man, we were out here and I just had to come and say, I've heard what God's doing in this church and I wanted to come and be a part of it and experience it. Got an email not too long ago. God's been ministering through our website to some families back east and all across the country really. And a woman sent me an email saying, I'm playing an anniversary trip for my husband. I'm gonna surprise him. And the surprise is we're bringing him to a service there at Hope Baptist Church in a weekend. Just unbelievable things that God's doing to literally bring people here to join in what God's doing in this city. But then he said he changes the dry land and the springs of water. Now, pool of water you have to come to, but springs flow out, right? We literally believe that God was going to so do something in Las Vegas that it would touch the ends of the earth for his glory. You know, our city says what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. We believe God said not anymore. That what he's doing in this city is literally going to touch the ends of the earth. I was last week, this Thursday, I was in an airport traveling home in Atlanta from speaking at two, three missions conferences back east. And I was in the airport, I'm walking down the concourse. If you've been through the Atlanta airport, it's always busy, it's always crowded. And I hear someone scream, "Pesservents, pesservents!" And I turn around and here comes a little Filipino guys, only standing about this tall, literally. He comes running across the concourse. He says, "Pesservents, I've been in America now "for 10 weeks, I've been traveling around, "I live in the Philippines, I have a ministry there, "we're planting churches and reaching nationals "all over our country." And he said, "Every week we gather "and we cannot wait to get the webcast "of the services there at Hope "because God is using it to so speak into our lives. "God is literally using this fellowship "to touch the ends of the earth." Listen, in ways we don't even realize. We knew very early on that God was birthing a church that was gonna touch the nations. When God birthed our church, He had the nations on His heart. It was never just about us. Third thing we knew for sure, if God's not God, we're sunk. As a whole, like we didn't know, there are a few things we knew, and that's one of them. The Psalm is said, "Unless the Lord builds the house, "they labor in vain who build it." Did you hear Psalm 107? He changes. He makes. He blesses. God didn't bring us here to do something for Him. God brought us here to get in on what He was doing. God had invited us to join in what He was doing, and we knew that we were desperate for God. So much so that one of our values here at Hope is God's dependence apart from Him. We can do nothing but through Him, we can do all things. So here we are eight and a half years down the road, and we're as desperate for God as we've ever been. It was pretty easy, eight and a half years ago when there was 18 people sitting in my living room with the dream God had put in our heart to know, "Hey, we're desperate for God." But even though we'll have three full services this weekend, listen, we're as desperate for God today as we were eight and a half years ago with a handful of people sitting in the living room. Eight and a half years of walking with God, and last year we took a major step on this journey as a family of faith, we called it the big journey. Really it was a term that encapsulated all that God had done since we've been here. And last year, really a year ago this month, we set aside several weeks to understand the heart of God concerning a long-term plan for a permanent campus for our church and our sacrificial investment in that plan, believing that the light that shines the farthest shines the brightest at home. It was never our goal to have a campus, but we just came to understand that if we were gonna continue to see the ministry grow and flourish to be able to impact our city and touch the world that we needed that tool. A church building is not what a church is all about. A campus is not the goal, it's not the finish line. It's simply a tool to enable us to continue to be a launching pad for God's activity in our city and around the world. As we embarked on this journey last year, we understood that it was built on three basic principles. First of all, it demanded total dependence on a big God and it involved joining a big God at work in a big world. And finally, it was our accepting God's invitation to a big life. He's invited us to get in on something that's bigger than us. And over the past year, since we came together as a church family, we've seen God do amazing things. Last year, when we began this journey together, we asked you to make a sacrificial pledge as an investment towards God's activity. And all the consultants said, man, in this economy, the worst economy in America in 50 years, a $3 million goal would be extraordinary. Last year, you pledged over $4.2 million and already today over $1.8 million of that has been given in hard cash. We saw God do the miracle this year of selling our building over on Pebble, a campus that we had built as a temporary place for us. And again, in this economy, all the experts said, there's no way you can sell a limited use property in the most difficult zoning in Las Vegas. And the day we got that report, we had an Ethiopian fellowship walk in our doors and say, we believe God's led us here to purchase this facility. And 30 days later, we were closed and that facility had been sold. And now there's an Ethiopian wonderful Christian church meeting over on Pebble in that facility. And we thank God for that. We saw God this last year donate, provide for us a $1.2 million facility in Boulder City, a property that has increased our financial position and has opened the door for us to do ministry in that city. We've seen God do awesome things in the last year. We also, as of this past Friday, I now get to tell you that Hope Baptist Church owns 15 acres of land over on cactus. We praise God for that. (audience applauds) Those of you that have been with us for some time, you know, that's been a long, we've prayed and we've sought God and we've asked God, we've had special nights of prayer, wondering where does God want us to be now? We know God has provided and as of Friday, we've closed on that land and it now belongs to us. And we praise God for that. So now we're ready to build a campus. We have been for the last several months in a planning process. It's involved our pastoral team, our stewardship team, many of our volunteer leaders, consultants, construction professionals designing a master plan for a long-term home, a campus that can be a launching pad. But as we set out to go through this process, there are really four principles that kind of guided us through this and I want to give them to you before we show you something. The first principle was we desired a place of community. We desired a campus that would be a place of community. You know we said all the time and following Jesus is all about what? Relationships, right? It's all about relationships. And we wanted a campus that would allow us to exercise the spiritual gift of hanging out, right? I mean, there's just a big part of church that's building relationships, that's hanging out with one another, that's connecting, that's sharing life-change stories, that's investing in one another's life, that's sharing in the lives of others. So we desired a place of community. Secondly, we desired a place relevant to our culture. The culture of Las Vegas is 95% unchurched. 95% over 75% declare no religious affiliation at all. 95% would fall in the category of unchurched means they don't have a regular connection to any house of worship, any place of worship. We knew that the culture that we were trying to reach into was not a church culture. We didn't come here to simply reach church people. We wanted to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We wanted a campus that would be attractional to people that didn't know Christ and didn't have a relationship with Him. Also understanding our culture is filled with young families at its peak when Las Vegas was the fastest growing city in North America, the fastest growing segment of our population was elementary school children. This city is filled with young families, those kids weren't moving here by themselves, right? It's filled with young families, and we wanted a campus that was attractional and inviting to an unchurched culture that was filled with young families that didn't just invite them to worship on a weekend, but attracted them and invited them onto the campus throughout the week. Number three, we wanted a place. We desired a place designed more for function than style. It was not our objective to build an architectural monument to Hope Baptist Church, but to design a campus that facilitated the ministries God had given us in the most cost effective way possible. You could set out as a church to build enormous edifices and architectural statements that brought beauty to, or accelerated the beauty of our facilities, but that wasn't our intention. You know our heart, our heart is to do what we can to what we have and then give everything else away as an investment. Listen, one day when you stand before the Lord Jesus Christ, how pretty the buildings were, how beautiful this or that was, that's not gonna be the issue. The issue is gonna be did we make an investment in the kingdom of God? That was a guiding factor for us. And then number four, we desired a place of life change that changes lives. We wanted the campus itself to communicate the picture that God had placed in our hearts, that what starts here reaches the ends of the earth. And so with those guiding principles this morning, what I'd like for you to do is I'd like for you to turn your eyes towards the screen. And I want you to watch this video that will share with you where we believe God's led us at hope. Eight and a half years ago, I stood right here in the corner of my living room with 18 adults that had gathered here to join in God's activity in this city of launching a new church. From the very beginning, we knew that God was doing something that was so much bigger than just a church. God was inviting us to get in on His activity and touching this city and the ends of the earth for His glory. We knew right there at the start that we were a people that was desperate for a big God who was at work in a big world to do something that only He could do through our lives. The moment that very first night that I'll never forget was standing right in this area somewhere. And the first time the group came together and we just began to sing. And it was as if that group of people was becoming a church right before our very eyes. And as those choruses and those praises went up before the Lord, that was a moment that I never will forget. And as I was just standing here, it was as though God just nudged in my heart or whispered in my ear these words. He said, "I will build my church." That very first night, we opened God's word to Acts chapter one. And we began to look at the principles of how God used that early church. And God did through them what they never dreamed possible. They literally began to touch the world because we believe from the beginning that God wanted to change lives here in our city and around the world. And just a few weeks ago, we celebrated Easter together as a church family. And it's hard for me to even imagine that what was 18 adults in my living room was over 3,300 people gathered in four services spilling out of the gym of Silverado High School. God wanted to change lives. And what God's begun, He's only just started. And He's gonna continue to do that as we look to the future. But it wasn't just about our church. It was about a multiplication of churches that would touch our city for God's glory. And we've seen now nine new fellowships begun right here in the city of Las Vegas. We've begun to partner with others around the world where God is literally letting us train pastors and train nationals and see life change happen on four different continents to the point where almost now the sun never sets on the ministry of what God's doing through this church around the world. What started right here in this house eight and a half years ago was really God's invitation to a group of people, to a big journey. And it was a journey that was more than just a place of worship, more than just a location for people together. As a matter of fact, we've met in multiple locations from carpenters' halls, to boy scout centers, to parks, to buildings, to schools. It's never been about a facility. It's been about a group joining in what God's doing to touch the world for His glory. Although this journey is not about a space or a location, we became convinced as we sought God that the next step for us was to build a launching path, a place that could be a stepter for us to continue to touch this city and to touch the world. It is with incredible joy today as your pastor that I get to tell you that God has made it very clear what that next step's gonna look like. (upbeat music) - Church family, the next step on this journey has led us right here. What you see all around me is going to become the future home of Hope Baptist Church and from right here will establish a launching pad that will touch the nations for the glory of God. It is extremely encouraging to realize that after years of praying and asking God, what's next, that God has finally shown us the place where we can establish a permanent campus, a place that has the community of faith called Hope. We can call home. I remember walking and praying over the first piece of property that we purchased as a church on Pebble Road. And I had no idea when I did that. All of the life change and kingdom expansion that would take place from that piece of land. And I just walk here on cactus. I can't help but just ask God to do it again. Let this property be a place where he rescues people and expands his kingdom, both here in Las Vegas and around the world. When I look out over this property, I get so excited about the potential of what God is going to do here over the next few years. There's going to be marriages that are going to be impacted and the lives that are going to be changed and children are going to be discipled and church planners are going to be trained, missionaries are going to be raised up. And what happens here is not going to stop you. It's just the beginning. In the early days of our fellowship, God birthed the passage description, the heart of our pastoral team, found in Psalm 107. It simply says he changes a wilderness into a pool of water and dry ground into springs of water. And there he makes the hungry to dwell so that they may establish an inhabited city and sow fields and plant vineyards and gather a fruitful harvest. Also he blesses them and they multiply greatly. And God really showed us that what he was going to do was establish a fellowship right here in the center of Las Vegas. There's going to be a pool of water where people would come to find refreshment, but not just a pool people come to. It was going to be springs of water that would flow out to the ends of the earth for God's glory. And God's directed us to design a campus that really symbolizes what happens here, what begins here in life change spirals out to the ends of the earth for the glory of God. Over the next several months, right here on this piece of land, we're going to begin the construction of a future home for our church that's going to allow for us to have a place for people to come and connect. We say all the time life change happens in community. And we want to see people be able to come together and connect and get to know one another and do life together. And this is going to be a place we can do that. This campus is also going to be a place where we invest into the next generation of Jesus followers. It's going to be a place that is family-oriented and kid-friendly. We want to create a space that kids can walk on our campus and be blown away by the environments and the facilities that we can offer them. And so they can hear the gospel in a way that they can understand for preschool-age children, for elementary-age children, and for students. We want to create spaces where they can connect with God and understand what it means to follow Jesus. Psalm 100 says, "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all you lands. Serve the Lord with gladness and come before His presence with singing." And this exact location is going to give us an opportunity to do just that. And even though we recognize that this house of worship is the people of God that gather together to worship Him, we are thankful that God has brought us to a new season where He is preparing a physical house where we can gather together as a launching pad to reach the nations and worship God together corporately. - The very center of this campus is going to be a Babistry. That Babistry is going to be at the very center because we believe it's not just about buildings, but it's about lives being changed. Over the next few years, we pray and trust that we're going to see thousands of people go through that Babistry as a testimony that God has changed their life. - So as you invest in the big journey, you're not just investing in land and facilities, you're investing in God's activity of touching lives in this city and all over the world. (upbeat music) ♪ And I ♪ ♪ To all that it is ♪ ♪ The love of Christ ♪ ♪ The Savior's King ♪ - Last year, when we as a church family put our yes on the table, we knew that this journey involved the building of a campus that would be a launching pad for God's activity to the ends of the earth right here at Hope. What we didn't realize at that point was that it would also involve a multiple campus strategy. Over the last year, God's led the heart of our leadership team to embrace a strategy that allows us to develop multiple campuses, a way to not just ask people to come to the church, but a way to take the church to the people. God's opened up the door to us to begin this multiple campus strategy in Boulder City. The big journey, it just got bigger. Boulder City campus is literally the heart of the community. Within walking distance from the campus are four schools, high school all the way down through kindergarten with over 3000 students. Directly across the street is an aquatic center in a huge city park. God has placed this campus right in the center of the community where life happens. We have the opportunity to bring the life-changing message Jesus Christ right to the heart of this community. The big journey just got bigger. This new piece of the big journey, this new opportunity in Boulder City is really a chance for us to see the unique work that God has been doing at Hope for the past eight and a half years, to see it planted right in the middle of another community. And we say he's at work in a big world because that's true. And this is just another expression that what he does in us is always bigger than us. Who knows the opportunities that await us in the days ahead as we open up this new campus? The big journey, it just got bigger. (upbeat music) (audience applauding) - God is good, amen? Well, I know there are a lot of questions, obviously, when you see something like that. Let me try to answer just a couple of them this morning. First of all, are we gonna build this in phases? I mean, we see all of that. And the answer to that question is yes, we will. This will be built out in phases. We'll not be able to build all of that at one time. And there are some options as to what those phases could look like depending on, again, what God provides financially as you and I live generously. You see this master plan behind me. There are a couple of different ways that we can begin to phase this in. First of all, we could have just building the one first building that would be the worship center building. And we would use part of that building for children's space and for administrative office space. And then at a later date, when we began to expand and build other buildings on the campus, then we would renovate some of that space and convert it into more worship space. Another option for a first phase would be, (laughs) excuse me, that we would build two of the buildings first, but we wouldn't build all of them. We would only build about 65% of each of those buildings in the first phase and it would still accomplish the same objective, worship space, children's space, and administrative office space and some ministry space. The first phase would be about a 12, somewhere between a 12 and 1,400, 1,500 seat worship center with the option to expand that in the future should the Lord lead us to do that. So there are some options to the phasing of what that's gonna look like. I wanted to give you some ideas of what it could look like, but as we pray through that and work with our construction professionals, and also as we see what the Lord provides financially, that will determine what we're able to do from a phasing standpoint and somebody might say, what would it take to build the whole thing out? Well, if somebody walked up today and wrote a check for 20, 25 million dollars, we could probably build the whole thing out, and if you decide to do that, we'll take it. Amen. (audience laughs) You can see me after the service, feel free to cut in front of the line, whatever you need to. (audience laughs) I'm kidding, sort of. (audience laughs) But we are just trusting the Lord as He provides that we'll just build this out in phases over time. But the second question I want to ask is, when are we gonna start? When are we gonna break ground on this? Well, the obvious answer is as soon as possible. As soon as possible, we wanna break ground, but a realistic schedule that we're looking at, based in part of this will be driven by the county processes. Those of you that in the construction business, know in Clark County, that can be a process. And so, we gotta walk through that, but should that not delay us very much, we think by the end of the summer, beginning of this next fall, we can break ground on this campus over here on Cactus. And so that's what we're praying towards, and that's what I'd ask you to pray about, is to pray about that process moving forward so that we can break ground this fall. Then third question, when are we gonna launch something in Boulder City? When are we gonna open that campus? Well, our plan is this year to begin to wrap our heart around that city by doing some service projects, and sometime in the first quarter of next year, be launching a second campus. Now, somebody might say, what's the difference in planning a church and starting a campus? Well, when we plant a church, we bring in a totally new team, and we launch them out of our church as an autonomous fellowship. When we start a new campus, and we're gonna do both of these from now on, we'll plant churches and start some campuses, a campus is actually taking who we are at Hope, and duplicating our exact DNA in another location. So we'll go to Boulder City, and because God's raised up our teaching team, we'll be able to continue to offer a live teaching pastor format in Boulder City, where we as a teaching team will be able to take God's word, same messages, same series we're working on right here at this campus, and we'll be duplicating that in Boulder City, with a way to penetrate that city with the gospel. But the obvious big question this morning is how do we get there? How do we get from where we are sitting at Silverado High School to here or to Boulder City? How does all of that happen? Well, the simplest answer to that is we get there together. Together as a church family, we will walk through this, and first of all, together we will depend on the Lord. We'll pray. You know at Hope, we say we don't pray before we work, prayer is the work, and then God works. We'll walk in dependence on God. As you leave today, one of the things you're gonna get out here is you're gonna get a little brochure that will give you some of the information about the campus that you've just seen briefly in that video, give you some of the pictures, and there'll also be a kiosk out here where should the wind allow us this morning, we're gonna have some of these up outside so you can get a closer look at this campus. But you can pick up this brochure, and this is designed to give you information, but it's also designed for you to use to pray, to take this and take the different aspects of it, and begin praying through this process, and through this brochure, as we seek God together as a church family. Number two, we'll together live generously. As each of us prayerfully seeks the Lord, as God speaks into our heart, we'll give. Now, some of you are already participating in this process. A year ago, we challenged you to pray about your investment in God's activity through Hope. And a year ago, many of us made a three-year commitment towards our giving to the building of a permanent campus for Hope. And so what I'm asking all of us to do for the next 21 days is to seek the Lord about that commitment. Last year, my family, we made the largest financial commitment we've ever made as a family towards any one project. We believe God had spoken our heart, but even with that, we're gonna pray again over these next couple of weeks, and ask God again, God, is that everything you want us to do? Lord, is there something else that you desire of us? So I'm asking all of us to pray, maybe there's something more that God would put on your heart, especially now that you know, as you invest in the big journey, you're not just building one campus and one church, but you're actually reaching into two cities now with Boulder City. And so we're asking you to pray, but for many this morning, you weren't here a year ago. We just did a survey in our church, 22% of the people that attend Hope have been here less than a year. That's almost one out of every four. And so there are a lot of you who were not here a year ago when we began this, and we wanna invite you to join in with us as a church family. So I'm asking you, if you're new to Hope and you're not participating in this investing in the big journey, I'm asking you to take the next couple of weeks and ask God to speak to your heart about a commitment that you could make for the next two years to give over and above your regular giving as an investment in God's activity through Hope to build this new campus. Now, May 22nd and 23rd of this year, we're gonna have commitment weekend in three weeks. We're gonna have a service where we together make a commitment. Now you say, what if I've already made a commitment? Well, on that day, what we're going to do is just make a fresh recommitment of what God's already spoken into our lives. Or if God speaks and you desire to do more, if God leads you to do that, then you'll make that recommitment plus say, "Hey, God's spoken and I'm gonna do more." And for many that have never been a part of this, you're gonna make a commitment that day only as God speaks and hear that carefully. We don't want anybody to participate in this because you feel like you have to. It's what the church is doing. No, you pray as God speaks, you respond. Now, when we did this a year ago, we had an initial goal. Our initial goal that God provided, we met that goal as far as what those goals were. We're tracking so far with that coming in. You said, what's our goal this time? Well, the first phase of this project is gonna cost us roughly between 10 and 11 million dollars. I mean, obviously our goal is to pay for it. So should the Lord provide through this offering, it'd be awesome if we could just pay for it completely. That'd be an awesome thing. But we know that that would be a miracle of the Lord for that to happen and what we know our God does miracles, but that's really the only real goal we have. Anything else would just be kind of superficial. We wanna pay for it. And so if the Lord would provide 10 to 11 million dollars through our giving, then wonderful. If not, what our plan is, we've reached that point where we know we can finance a portion of this to get the project started and then we'll pay for that over the next few years as a church family. And so here we are today. I'm asking you again, like I did a year ago, put your yes on the table. Remember a year ago, we came together, we took those cards, we wrote our yes on the table, we all came up front, we laid those yeses on the table. And together as a church family, we did what my family did eight and a half years ago, we put our yes on the table. Remember that? Well, when we put that yes on the table, what we were really saying was, Lord, yes, I'm accepting your invitation to join the journey. God, yes, I will seek you in prayer about my personal financial involvement. And God, yes, as you speak, I will live generously. Well, this year, I'm kinda kicking up a notch to putting the yes on the table, all right? We're gonna add a little something to it. This year, we're not gonna ask you to walk down here and put a yes on the card. Here's what we're gonna ask you to do this year. Tonight, at six o'clock, we're gonna gather over at the property on cactus. And we're gonna have our first ever worship experience on that land. It's gonna be short, it's only gonna be about 30 minutes, we're gonna sing a couple of songs, and then we're gonna have some of these banners, again, Lord willing and the wind allowing, we're gonna have some of these banners located so that you can see where each of the buildings will roughly be located on the site. And we're gonna open with a song, and then we're gonna kinda prayer walk through those buildings together as a church family, and asking God's blessing and favor praying and thanking God for what he's going to do. Then we're gonna close it in a song, it'll be about 30 minutes, and we'll let you go home. But it's gonna be an exciting time. We're gonna gather together there as a church family. We're gonna put our yes together on that property and have our first ever worship experience there as a church family. Six o'clock tonight, don't miss it. It'll be an exciting time. I promise you won't go over 30 minutes 'cause we don't have bathrooms, we don't have seats, we don't have any of that stuff out there, all right? So we're gonna get you on the property and we're gonna let you go home. But it'll be a sweet, sweet time for us to gather together as a church family and just worship God right there on that site. So we've got a lot to thank God for. We're gonna stand in just a second and we're just gonna close with a song, a worship song to God this morning. It's an opportunity for us to praise the Lord together. We're gonna end this time with this song of praise. We're gonna sing that chorus that we sang earlier, how to save your King and just exalt God and praise him for all he's done here. But also I wanna say this, if you're here today and you don't know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and savior, everything we've talked about this morning is really because we want you to know Jesus personally. We exist as a church to connect you to the person of Jesus Christ that you might experience the forgiveness of your sin, be given a relationship with God. And so when we stand as a church family to sing this song of praise to God, we're gonna have a couple of our pastors at the back of the building. And if you need Jesus Christ today, you can simply slip out of your seat and go to the back, take one of them by the hand and just say, I need Jesus. And they'll open the Bible and they'll share the wonderful gospel with you so that you can come to know Jesus Christ as your own personal Lord and savior. Let's give the Lord a praise offering this morning for all that he's done. Amen. (congregation applauding) Let's stand together. Father, we thank you for what you've done. God, we thank you for your goodness, your grace, your mercy, your faithfulness. And Lord, now as we sing this song of praise to you, may you receive it as an offering from us to you of praise and thanksgiving and adoration, we bless you. It's in the name of Jesus, we pray.