Mark Batterson - Overcoming Obstacles to Your Faith

In 1997, National Community Church was just getting off the ground. We were meeting in the movie theaters at Union Station, and one day after church I was walking home. We lived on F Street; F Street dead ends into Union Station. I came to the intersection of Second and F Street, and it was one of those days when decades happen. I was walking by a crack house on the southeast corner of that intersection. There were cinder blocks in the window frames and graffiti on the building. The ceiling and the floor were caving in; it was a dilapidated property, to say the least. I had walked by it literally hundreds of times.

But this day was different because as I walked by that crack house, I felt like God said, in an unmistakable, still small voice, «In no uncertain terms, Mark, that crack house would make a great coffee house.» That came out of nowhere. I didn’t even drink coffee at the time. There were two problems with that: one, the owners wanted a million dollars for it, and two, it was zoned residential, so we couldn’t even, by code, do what we felt like we wanted to do. But God—come on, turn to your neighbor and say, «A little bit of faith.» But God.

So, in 1997 we were less than a hundred people. We weren’t even self-supporting as a church for another year or two, so that dream was a pipe dream. But I want you to hear me today because some of you have no idea how you’re going to get from here to there. The dream God has given you—you don’t see a path. But I want to remind you today that by definition, a God-sized dream will always be beyond your ability, beyond your education, beyond your resources. You can’t do it, but God, but God can. And when He does, He gets the glory for it.

So here’s what I did—and this is what you do when you don’t know what to do. I just started circling it in prayer for five years. I circled that crack house in prayer. There were days that I would just walk around it, and you have to go all the way around the block, so I got my steps in. Back in the day I would walk around it seven times like it was Jericho, and the security guards at the federal judiciary building, you know, around lap five or six would give me these weird looks like, «Is this guy casing a crack house? What is he doing?»

Well, we purchased that crack house on February 7, 2002. I remember the day because I was at Washington Hospital Center; Laura had just given birth to our youngest son, Josiah, the day before. I signed the papers at the hospital, and we found out afterward that four people offered more money for it than we did, and two of them were real estate developers. Friends, that makes no sense. So how did we get it? The short answer is Matthew 18:18. Let this sink into your spirit: whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. I love that verse; we have lived that verse.

I better add a little addendum: okay, every prayer has to meet a two-fold litmus test. It has to be in the will of God and for the glory of God. If it’s not, it’s a non-starter. Yeah, listen. Here’s the deal: you—prayer is not outlining my agenda to God. No, no, no. Prayer is getting into the Word of God, into the presence of God, saying, «God, what is your agenda for me? What are your plans and purposes?» If you get that backwards, you have an inverted relationship with God, and now it’s more about God serving your purposes than you serving His purposes. Some of us think we’re following Jesus, but the reality is you invited Jesus to follow you.

Sir, truth: maybe we should flip that today. How does that sound? If it’s not in the will of God for the glory of God, it’s a non-starter. If it is, game on, let’s go! Ain’t nothing going to break my stride; nobody’s going to slow me down. Oh no, I got to keep on moving! I just occasionally like to sprinkle in an ‘80s hit. I kid you not; sometimes when I’m preparing these sermons, it’s like this jukebox in my head—it plays a song, and then I sing it for you. Sorry.

So we purchased that property after five years of praying, but I think God put a contract on it the day we started praying. The word «bind» in Matthew 18:18 is a legal term. This is how we put contracts on things; this is how we exercise our spiritual authority. Remember Friday night of revival with Donna Poni? This is how we stake our claim; this is how we notarize the promises of God. This is how we write history before it happens. That is the power of prayer.

Now let me wide-angle lens and welcome you to National Community Church! Thrilled you’re here in person, online, Nova, DC! You’ll find notes in the message app; the message notes are in the NCC app. You came on a great Sunday. This is kind of our state of the church; is that okay? And I just want to say the state of the church is strong—I just like throwing that out there. It feels appropriate. And we want to be a part of the dream that God’s given you. Please hear me; we also want you to be a part of the dream that God’s given us.

So I want to cast a little bit of vision, talk about who we are, what we’re about, and where we’re headed as a church. Is that okay? Okay, so in 1996 I was reading Joshua 13, and the Spirit quickened it. It said, «I’ll give you everywhere you set your foot, ” and I just felt this prompting to pray a perimeter around Capitol Hill. I think we have a picture of it. It turned into a 4.7-mile prayer walk. I was praying for people, not property. „Right, Lord, let your kingdom come; let your will be done in this case on Capitol Hill as it is in heaven.“

Then fast forward 29 years, somehow we own six properties right on that prayer circle. I mean, those properties are worth about $85 million, and we own them debt-free. Only God! Only God! That is the favor of the Lord. And what we love about that is, „Oh, great, now we can give more away!“ And we’ll get there because that’s the heart of this church: how much can we give to Kingdom causes that don’t have our name on them? So you see, Ebenezer’s Coffee House was kind of that one corner of the prayer walk. Pretty fun. The other corner is the Capital Turnaround. And I’ve got some fun news: on the corner of E&M Street is where our second Ebenezer’s will be. We’re hoping for the fourth quarter of 2025.

Just imagine that! Just imagine that! Like, we’re still giving you coffee. You’re going to get coffee! But I know you want those fancy drinks—where are my fancy drink people? We’re going to have those, too. And you know what? I love it because the truth is, like, I never want to preach to an uncaffeinated congregation. I just don’t. The Holy Spirit plus caffeine equals awesome!

Now let me step back because I want to give you the big picture and help you understand our DNA—who we are at the very core. Two days before opening the doors of Ebenezer’s, which was March 15, 2006, we didn’t even know it was National Coffee Day. God has a sense of humor! We opened the coffee house, and we didn’t even know. But two days before that, we dedicated that building to the Lord. So we were praying, laying hands on the walls, praying over the doors for every person that walked in. And then at one moment, one prayer turned prophetic, just kind of out of nowhere.

I never remember hearing the combination of these two words before, but, „Lord, let this coffee house be a Dream Factory.“ And that was the genesis. Now hold that thought—I have a friend who worked on the Hill, a staffer for a number of years, and he used to frequent the coffee house. One day, I don’t know what he was drinking, but he got a vision; he got a passion, and he started a nonprofit called Mana—Mother-Assisted Nutritive Aid. He knew that there were children all around the world that were dying malnourished, and he also knew that there were RTFs—I want to get this right, ready to use therapeutic food. He now has factories with hundreds and hundreds of thousands of square feet that produce millions and millions of RTFs.

So he sends me an email—this is a couple of years after Ebenezer’s, and the subject line caught my attention. Here’s what it said: „A Million Lives Saved at Ebenezer’s.“ Wait, what? He went on to explain, „Hey, I got the vision at Ebenezer’s, and then, because that place was so significant to me, I launched our organization at Ebenezer’s.“ Then he writes these words: „The dream of Mana was formed in the Dream Factory of Ebenezer’s Coffee House.“ And I’m like, „You go, God!“ Like what?

It happened again on Friday. During revival, we hosted a gathering of pastors and leaders. We had a few hundred leaders here, and one of them came up to me afterward and said, „Hey, I just want you to know Ebenezer’s inspired me to start a dry cleaning company.“ I’m like, „What does coffee have to do with dry cleaning?“ He said, „We now have five dry cleaners because of Ebenezer’s!“ Do you know that thousands of people from across the country have made a pilgrimage to a coffee house called Ebenezer? And I just—I mean, just to keep it real, our coffee can’t be that good that you’re coming across the country. Why do people come? I’ll tell you why: because there’s courage in our coffee.

When you drink, „Oh, maybe I can dream!“ Yeah, it may take five years of circling something in prayer. It may be beyond my ability, beyond my resources, but look at what God did here. Maybe He could do it again. When people drink our coffee, it’s like they dream God-sized dreams! This church is a Dream Factory! I want a louder amen than that!

That’s what I want to talk about today. Joseph had a dream. You can meet me in ancient Egypt, Genesis 20-25. We’re going to pick up where we left off last week. Do you remember this? Joseph had a dream. Brothers fake his death, sell him into slavery, falsely accuse him, wrongly imprison him for 13 years. His life is not trending in the right direction; the dream is a nightmare! Come on, sir! Things go from bad to worse—lots of doubt and disappointment. But somehow, some way—don’t miss this—come on, let this challenge you. Joseph never compromised his integrity, and Joseph never lost faith in the end of the story.

How do I know that? Because he had 50/20 vision! Remember this: „You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good—the saving of many lives.“ And He uses Joseph to save two nations from famine. So stick with me here; here’s kind of the teaching part. 50/20 vision is prophetic insight—discerning what’s really happening when what’s happening is happening. I think a lot of people take their cues from news cycles, from trending hashtags. Listen, that’s not how we roll! No, no, no! Holy Spirit, give us discernment! Help us see with spiritual eyes what is really happening!

Prophetic insight is the ability to look at a situation and then maybe, just maybe, come up with some supernatural solutions. That’s what God’s called us to. But I want to up the ante because I’m believing God wants to give us some 50/25 vision. If 50/20 vision is prophetic insight, 50/25 vision is prophetic foresight. Here it is: Joseph made the Israelites swear an oath: „God will surely come to your aid, and you must carry my bones back.“ This is so curious, but I want to step back and get some perspective on it. We tend to think right here, right now; God is thinking nations and generations. We think that what God does for us is for us.

But it’s never just for us; it’s always for the third and fourth generation. What’s happening here is Joseph has the prophetic foresight to dream generationally. He is dreaming 400 years into the future! „God is going to come to your aid; it’s going to be 400 long years, hard years, but God is going to show up and show off because He doesn’t forget His people. He doesn’t forget His promises. The God of Israel is going to deliver you and bring you into a promised land, and when He does—come on, scouts honor—bring my bones back. I want to be buried in the place where I was born; I want to be buried with my ancestors.“

I mean, this 50/25 vision is seeing 400 years into the future for someone else! Lord, give us 50/25 vision! And that’s exactly what happens: Joshua 24:32, „And the bones of Joseph, which the Israelites had brought up out of Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the plot of land that Jacob, his father, had purchased from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for 100 pieces of silver.“ So it became an inheritance for Joseph’s descendants. So it wasn’t even for him! Like, this thing just keeps going and going!

And by the way, it all started in a dungeon that was a Dream Factory! On Thursday night, Laura and I had the joy of meeting with some of the leadership team of Prison Fellowship. We’re believing for revival from the inside out! If God did it here, why can’t He do it again? He’s the God of second chances! He is. Do it again, Lord! And so 400 years later, they bury his bones, and it’s like God is just saying, „I just want you to notice, I don’t forget my people. I don’t forget my promises.“

I’m going to paint a little bit of a picture. There’s an island in Sweden called Vino. I’ve got 50% Swedish blood running through my veins—just going to throw that out there. It doesn’t mean I can speak Swedish. On that island is a dense, immense forest of oak trees that are incredibly tall and unusually straight. 300,000 trees occupy nearly a thousand acres. But how they got there was a mystery for a long, long time because oak trees were not native to that island.

Then, in 1980, the Swedish Navy got a letter from the Forestry Department notifying them that the ship lumber they had requested was ready. The Swedish Navy said, „We have no earthly idea what you’re talking about; we didn’t order any ship lumber.“ That’s when someone did some digging and discovered that in 1829, shortly after the Napoleonic Wars, the Swedish Parliament, anticipating a shortage in lumber and recognizing that oak trees are slow-growing trees that take 150 years to mature, ordered that 300,000 trees be planted on the island of Vino and protected for the Swedish Navy. That is 50/25 vision!

Hear me: we drink from wells we did not dig; we eat from fields we did not plant; we live in houses we did not build. It’s our job to return that favor, to do what we do for the third and fourth generations. Listen, as a church, we’re going to dig some wells; we’re going to plant some fields; we’re going to build some houses; we’re going to plant some trees. How are we going to do it? Well, I’m glad you asked. I want to talk about four things this weekend: we’re going to bless the Lord, bless the city, bless the nations, and bless the generations.

On the way out today, you’re going to get one of these—says „Dream Factory.“ It’s our annual lookbook, and would you just prayerfully consider—it’s not an annual report; it’s a praise report. It’s that, „Look at what the Lord has done, ” but it begins to cast a vision for where we’re headed as a church. It’s looking back and saying, „Look at what the Lord has done, ” but the best is yet to come.

But I want to let, let me meta-narrative for a moment. By the way, that forest—in ecology, the canopy of a forest is called the overstory. Who knew that? And then the undergrowth is called the understory. I can have some fun with that! A lot of understories are happening in Joseph’s life; most of them not good. Most of those understories, the plotline was, „You intended to harm me, ” but there was an overstory that God was writing: „God intended it for good.“

God is always writing a bigger, better, longer story. And so let me tell you what I think the overstory of Scripture is. Because the common denominator in all four of those things is the word „bless.“ Okay, stick with me here for like a two-minute Cliff Notes: Genesis to Revelation, the very first thing God does after creating Adam and Eve is to bless them. Before original sin, there was original blessing. If you get that sequence backward, you’re in trouble. Understand that God’s most ancient instinct is to bless us, and that’s why I think the deepest longing of the human heart is to be blessed.

So God establishes a covenant of blessing with Abraham: „I’m going to bless you, and you will be a blessing to all nations.“ By the way, when they’re in the wilderness, there’s a priestly blessing: „May the Lord bless you and keep you.“ This was pronounced on the Jewish people two times a day. Why? Because about twice a day, I need to be blessed! Anybody else?

Every commandment comes with a blessing, like they climb up to Mount Gerizim and pronounce blessings. „The Lord will bless you as you come in and as you go out.“ The tithe—the first 10% that we give back to God. God says, „Watch, I’m going to open up the windows of heaven and pour out more blessing than you can contain.“ And like that’s just the Cliff Notes of the Old Testament.

Then we get to the New Testament. What is the cup of communion called by the Apostle Paul? It’s the cup of blessing! And so understand that when Jesus went to the Cross, He not only broke a curse, come on, but He signed and sealed the blessing. What blessing? Every spiritual blessing is ours in Christ in the heavenly realm! Ephesians 1—I mean, come on! The Beatitudes start with blessing; the infilling of the Holy Spirit is called the second blessing! God wants to bless your socks off! This is the heart of God; this is who God is!

And so, friends, we’re not just trying to build a church; we’re trying to bless a city to the third and fourth generation. But I think it’s four things: bless the Lord, bless the city, bless the nations, bless the generations. I’m going to go pretty fast, but I think this is important. It starts with bless the Lord: „Oh my soul, and all that is within me, bless the Lord!“ Friends, you have two ministries. „Oh, I’m not a pastor.“ You have a ministry! Every one of us has a calling, an anointing, a gifting, and a ministry.

You have two ministries: the horizontal ministry is to people, and that is your second ministry. But your first ministry is to the Lord; it’s your vertical ministry. And I want to tell you right now, I don’t care what you do for a living. I don’t care! But as we walk out a relationship with Jesus, your horizontal ministry to people will never exceed your vertical ministry to the Lord. Why? Because it’s those who are in God’s Word, in God’s presence, who seek God first that, „Oh, I can trust them.“ And those who are faithful with a few things—watch this—then „I’m going to expand your sphere of influence.“

But our first ministry is to the Lord. I was reading a book when I was 19 years old, and I can tell you exactly where I was: Cabin 8, Lake Ida, Alexandria, Minnesota, about 2 o’clock in the morning. The reason I remember is because the next day I took a prayer walk through a cow pasture, felt called to ministry, and gave up a full ride scholarship at the University of Chicago to begin to pursue what I believe was God’s calling on my life. But that night on page 18, I read these words: „What joy! Some churches start in heaven; they keep heaven happy all the time.“

Oh, Lord, let this be that kind of church! Let this be a church that worships with reckless abandon! Let this be a church that worships come hell or high water! Hallelujah! And I just want to publicly say how grateful I am for those who lead us in worship. I’ve watched Pastor Chris; I’ve watched you give God the sacrifice of praise. Now, I will say this: as a lifelong Commanders fan, I know that it was easier to worship this morning for you. But win or lose, like we’re going to give God our praise!

And this is where I want to speak to you individually because corporately, we want to bless the Lord, but we individually need to own this. Whatever you don’t turn into praise turns into pride. But I want to flip that script: whatever you don’t turn into praise turns into pain. Ronald Rolheiser said, „Either pain is transformed, or it is transferred.“ So here’s my question today: are you transforming your pain or are you transferring it to other people?

„Mark, how do I transform it?“ Friends, I don’t know how else to say this. There have been moments in my life where it just feels like things are falling apart, where you’re devastated; there’s disappointment, there’s profound loss—where you’re grieving. And those are the moments where I don’t know what to do other than to give God the sacrifice of praise—to prophesy my praise not based on my circumstances. Not worshiping God because of what He’s done—and we do that too—but worshiping God in spite of my circumstances.

It’s Paul and Silas in a jail cell in Acts 16. It says, „About midnight they were singing hymns, worshiping God.“ And what happened? An earthquake shook the foundations and prison doors flew open! I want you to hear me today, and I’m saying it figuratively, but this is no less powerful. If you want to shake the foundations of your life, you start praising God through those circumstances! You start praising God over the problems in your life. I’m going to tell you, some prison doors are going to fly open! Your circumstances may not change, but you’re going to step into a different place in here and in here!

Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me—bless His holy name! Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Jesus! I’m going to go out of order. We’re going to bless the nations! We have a hard time believing God for cities, and God says, „Ask of me, and I will give the nations.“ We’re believing big! And by the way, this church represents the nations!

Listen, when we were 19 people 29 years ago, National Community Church was a total misnomer. We weren’t even local, let alone national! And now we’re International Community Church, right? Because there are more than a hundred nationalities represented! I love—occasionally at House of Prayer we’ll just say, „Hey, if you speak another language besides English, would you just pray and praise?“ And man, it’s like Acts 2 all over again!

50 countries are part of our EXT family online; just put in the chat where you’re from! We are here, there, and everywhere! And we feel called beyond our borders. Why? Because Jesus said, „Go into all the world.“ You want to talk about 50/25 vision—long vision in a day and age when before planes, trains, and automobiles, when people didn’t travel outside a 30-mile radius of their birthplace, Jesus said, „Go to the ends of the earth and preach the good news!“ And it’s happening! As a church, we’ve taken more than 300 mission trips!

We’ll take 17 trips in 2025! Do you know that we have given more than $27 million to Kingdom causes that don’t have our name on it? This year we’re aiming for more than three million, which will put us over $30 million because of your generosity! Thank you, God! And so I want to say thank you.

You know what? Probably on par with sacrificial praise is sacrificial giving. There are those who God has blessed financially in ways that I couldn’t personally imagine, and you’ve been so faithful and so generous in giving! But I just want to remind us today that the person that Jesus celebrates is the woman who gave two mites—which was the smallest currency in Roman coinage. Each mite equals six minutes of time, so she gave the equivalent of 12 minutes. Jesus said, „Oh, she gave more than everybody else.“ Why? Because she gave sacrificially!

So some of you, maybe a tithe is the next step, but maybe that faith promise—you can get in on it! You can get in on that and begin to give sacrificially. Just see what the Lord will do. But we’re trusting God for the nations in Jesus’ name!

We’re going to bless the generations, and this is so fun because for a long time, for our first 15 years, we were 80% singles, 20-somethings, and we loved it! That was a season like, „Man, I mean, your chances of finding someone and getting married were so high.“ You know, it was really happening right and left. But listen, you know, for Laura and me, the joy of pastoring for 29 years—you’re going to pastor like 17 different churches! I mean, there was a day and age where we were the theater church, right? Because we were all about meeting in theater churches; we couldn’t imagine God giving us some properties! Like, we just couldn’t even imagine it!

But life is lived in seasons, and churches go through different seasons, and I’m going to talk more about that at the end. But the bottom line is, you know, I think the Lord had a bigger plan and purpose—to have hundreds and hundreds of little people—NCC Youth, NCC Kids—to be able to bless the next generation is just pure joy, is it not?

I’m going to give you one example: our DC Dream Center! More than 60 programs operate out of our Dream Center, and we’re impacting, over the last seven or eight years, thousands and thousands of youth! It’s a place where hope becomes a habit! And we said, „If we want to change some statistics in our city, then what you have to do is you have to go upstream.“ And can I frame this biblically?

We might even have the verse if we have the verse; throw it up there. We might not. We might have a picture, though; do we have a map? Put the map up. Okay, this is so fun! Do you remember the Israelites crossing the Jordan River here opposite Jericho? Right? But that’s not where the miracle happened!

The miracle—read the Bible! Joshua 3:15 and 16—the miracle happened 16 miles upstream in a place called Adam. That’s where the water stood still! Don’t miss this! They got to cross over at Jericho, but the miracle—the miracle always happens 16 miles upstream! The miracle always happens 16 years upstream!

We’re going to go 16 years upstream; we’re going to start impacting kids’ lives, mentoring and discipling, letting them dream some God-sized dreams, and we’re going to change this city one kid at a time because the miracle always happens 16 miles upstream! Just think about your life—some things 16 years ago—well, and the truth is, for better or for worse, right? Like, that’s how we got here. But as a church, we want to, I think, 16 years downstream!

And we want to bless the generations, and we’re doing it through our kids’ ministry, through the DC Dream Center! Let me see if I can—uh, you know what, we do have the—do we have the verse? No, we’re not going to have that one either. I had so many verses; I was just all over the map, but this is—ah, okay! No, bless the city—that’s how I want to kind of land this thing.

We have a saying at NCC, but it’s part of our DNA: it’s not about the name over the church door; it’s about the name above all names! Like, we praise God for every church in this city that’s preaching and practicing the gospel! In fact, we won’t let a church be planted that we know about it that we don’t invest in that church plant because we want to be shareholders; we want a part of our heart in what they’re doing. And so praise God that the kingdom is advancing in our city!

But a couple of years ago, the Lord in those kind of no uncertain terms said, „Do more things that don’t have your name on it. No control, no credit, just give a birthright, give a blessing.“ And the way that we did that is we started our Dream Collective. If you ever see the logo, it’s the NCC logo pointed outwards, which is kind of fun! It’s how we’re turning this church inside out. That we’re going to do some things that don’t have our name on it!

But before we get there, I think Isaiah 58:12 is kind of part of our DNA. I’m going to ask for just a little extra attention today because we’re almost there, but this is really important. Isaiah 58:12 says, „You will rebuild the ancient ruins and raise up the age-old foundations. You will be called the repairer of broken walls, repairer of streets with dwellings.“ And I just think that’s who we are and what we do. It’s our identity; it’s our destiny. It’s why we turned a crack house into a coffee house!

Maybe pop up that old apartment building? That apartment building was a drug den built up for several decades. We bought it for the back taxes, and that’s where we built the Dream Center! I mean, and now it’s a place where life change happens! Maybe we have, and this is so fun—in our offices, we have a real old picture. Do we have that old picture of Pennsylvania Avenue with the top hats? You know what I love about this? This is a hundred years ago, y’all!

Now Pennsylvania Avenue east of the river! But the first thing they had to build was a fire station in 1910. So this is probably just a few years after that house up on the hill—the White House up on the hill that was gifted to us. Like, I think, „The first house?“ I mean, it was farmland, pastures! And God, in His providence, said, „Watch this! A hundred years ago, that home is going to belong to National Community Church, and it’s going to be a home—a home where reconciliation happens, where there are reconciliation lunches, where the community comes together.“

And then it’s right behind that 100-year-old home that we built the DC Dream Center! Don’t tell me God isn’t writing a bigger story, and He’s writing it through us all! And so let me get to the Capital Turnaround. This was the 1891 Navy Yard car barn, and I just—I want to paint a picture today because we are living out Isaiah 58:12. We are doing it!

When we got this building, it was just these carved-up classrooms, drop ceilings, narrow hallways—that’s what it looked like. It was not much to look at! I’m not kidding you! It was like a labyrinth of hallways! We found someone who was lost in there for two years! This is where they filmed „Severance!“ This—I mean, it was crazy, y’all! Listen to me: vision is seeing through drop ceilings! Vision is seeing through drywall! We knew what it could become!

And so I got some big news: we demoed that bad boy, and that’s what it looks like now! We got 30,000 square feet of playground, and that’s where, on the corner over here, kind of behind the picture is where that Ebenezer is, and we’ll do a roastery, so we’ll roast all of our beans on site! And then multiple multi-purpose venues for us to do ministry and to serve the community!

Okay, two more real quick; it’s like show-and-tell Sunday at NCC! Show what this auditorium was when we bought it! When we bought it, some of you are literally like, those two garage doors? That’s what’s right behind this screen! Like, are you kidding me? But we knew—we knew we had a 50-foot span; we could even put some LED screens on the beams! But then 100 years ago, this is what it looked like! You can see a couple of those mechanics— in fact, I’m trying to think—our mechanics are right there! You’re our resident mechanics! How fun is that? Like, could they have imagined?

Could they have imagined worship filling this place? Praise filling this place? Would have had no idea what would happen downstream! And I’ll show you a picture from revival! What a night! Just hands raised, worshiping God! Praise the Lord!

Now, I am closing! We are not going to maintain the status quo as a church! RT Kendall said sometimes the greatest opposition to what comes next is from those who are on the cutting edge of what God did last! We’re not going to get stuck in old wine skins; we’re going to believe God for new wine and new wine skins!

And so I announced this to our Nova campus last week, but this week I want to announce it to the entire church! And I’m just—I’m excited about it! Had to try it on for size but excited! Last summer, Pastor Mary and Tamik, our campus pastors at Nova, went on a sabbatical. I should have known, „Change of pace plus change of place equals change of perspective.“

They came back with a stirring, with a vision, and asked if, „Hey, could we take that Nova campus and turn it into a network church with its own name, its own leadership, its own budget?“ I said, „Let’s pray about it, let’s process it, ” and this is just not a church that’s going to be closed. We believe it’s God’s chessboard, so we prayed into it, then we processed it with the Nova team, and the next thing you know we feel like God gave us a green light!

And so I want to announce today that we’re going to launch that Nova campus as a network church in September of 2025! And if you look at page 24, what you’re going to see is all these network churches! And I want you to hear what I’m saying right now: we have never as a church in 29 years—not even close—we’ve never been stronger numerically, financially, or spiritually! We are on the cusp of God moving us into a season, but we’re moving from addition to multiplication! We are believing God for even more!

Take the ceiling off what you want to do! And if we’re willing to do some things that don’t have our name on it—game on! And so here’s how I want to frame it, and then I’m going to pray for us. Worship team, you can come. You’ve been so generous! I knew this would be tough—casting vision, 29 years of DNA—but a few years ago, we walked our daughter Summer down the aisle. What a moment that was!

And there were all these feels, all these feels because that’s my little girl, y’all! Any girl dads like—oo! Like, she got my heart the day she was born, and I used to tuck her into bed. I would say, „Summer, if all the little girls in the world were lined up, and I could only choose one to be my daughter, I would choose you!“

And so her wedding day came, and I’m like, „I don’t know what to say when I get up to pray for them.“ And then it hit me! It came to me. I said, „If all the little boys in the world were lined up, and I could only choose one to be my son-in-law, I would choose you!“

And it was a moment of revelation, friends. That we weren’t losing a daughter; we were gaining a son-in-law! And by the way, that’s how you get grandkids! Woo! And so there’s a generational blessing. Essentially, what we’re doing is we’re going to walk our Nova campus down the aisle. We’re still family; they have our DNA, and we’re going to see God’s Kingdom come, God’s will be done on Earth as it is in heaven! In Jesus' name, amen! Amen!