Life Community Church
Life Community Church
Obedience | Dream Big | Week 7
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What if the future of our church is decided in small, ordinary moments where love either moves or stalls? We open with the story behind our name—life spoken over a city scarred by loss—and trace how that promise shaped our mission to make room for people long before we ever talked about buildings. From the first living-room gathering to today’s baptisms, we keep returning to the same center: only Jesus saves, and everything we do must point to Him.
We get practical and honest about purpose. When we know who we are and whose we are, speech changes, priorities reset, and even our view of money, time, and work bends toward mission. We name the fruit we cannot fake—kindness, patience, self-control—and the limits we cannot conquer without the Holy Spirit. Then we turn to Matthew 25, where Jesus separates sheep and goats not by statements of belief but by whether love showed up for the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, and the prisoner. Both groups are surprised because the decisive moments looked ordinary. That’s the point: inactivity is not neutral. Doing nothing can be the loudest no.
Along the way, we challenge church-as-crowd thinking. Hype can draw people; only discipleship forms them. We talk unity over preferences, testimony over polish, and a bold aim for 100 percent engagement in prayer, fasting, hospitality, and everyday courage. Our vision is not about square footage; it’s about people—neighbors meeting Jesus, families restored, students discovering purpose, and stories that echo for decades. We pray for clarity to match our words with obedience, trusting a big God to do what only He can do.
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Hello, this is Jamie Bridges, and thank you so much for joining us for this week's podcast. All of our services are inspired and built straight from the Bible. Let's get into this week's message recorded at Life Community Church.
SPEAKER_01:Morning, everybody. Good to see you. Thanks for being here. I'm I'm encouraged by the last 21 days and uh the what we're endeavoring, what we're a part of. And it is, hear me, I'm gonna say it more than once, this is way beyond uh financial. This is this is not about that at all. In 2009, uh I remember we're driving home from St. Louis into uh Granite City, and I was reminded of all the things that were happening in Columbia, and we knew that God had said this is where we were supposed to be. Listen, living in Illinois is a calling. We agree on that? Like you're here because you've talked about going to Florida, but you've never done it. Right? And uh we knew we were called to Illinois. Like we knew this is where God had us. And um, if you've been around Columbia at all, you know uh almost 17 years ago there were murders that happened in this town. And as I was reflecting on the murders of Sherry Coleman and Garrett and Gavin, the Lord said to me, Where there's been death here, there will be life. That's how we got our name. Right there. When people say, like, how did you get your name? That's how we got it. I'm a community person. I always want to be in a community, so we put it in the middle name. Like, we want to be a part of a community. So when you're coming into this place, there's a couple things that I want you to grasp and understand because there might be different kinds of thinking than maybe you've thought previously from other places that you've been a part of that I want us to be reminded of. Okay? Some of you, maybe this is your first time in church, and maybe your first time at LCC. Know this. There's been a group of people, specifically the last 24 hours, that have been praying for this moment right now. It's not by accident that you're here. You thought you might have been here for this over here, but God said, I've been orchestrating and planning this day for a very long time, and He had you in mind. Because God doesn't care about where your last name is, where you've been, what you've done, where you're from. He invites everyone. When the Bible says, if anyone would come after me, God really means anyone. We put stipulations on people, God removes them. He removes them because he needs people to grasp and understand that his gospel, the good news of Jesus, can change anyone. Again, I said this back with the people who are baptized. I think I said it to you, Blake. Our past explains us, it doesn't define us. The moment we move to my past defines me, we're in trouble. It explains you, it does not define you. And so you have to understand the journey that we're on. It is way bigger than than a campaign, or this is a journey where we're giving the Lord two years. But again, this journey started a long time ago. January 23rd, 2011, in my living room, there were 11 people who said, We know that God is saying something for us in Columbia, Illinois, and here we are. And someone's asked, like 15 years ago, would you imagine that it would look like this? Absolutely not. No clue. Just like when someone asks, What does the next 10 years look like? I say, I have zero idea because I'm not God and I'm not gonna limit God. We've called this dream big because God is big. This two years has given us space to go, God, look what you've done. Not what we've done, look what you've done. So I want you to understand. It's the reason the Bible says today is the day of salvation. Because we don't believe this is two weeks from now. We believe today is the day that we can get right with Jesus. And you just saw nine people do it, five people or six people earlier, 15 people total, gave their lives and said, Hey, listen, we don't care. I promise you, had nothing to do with this water. There's some actual nasty floaties in here. There's a tint of yellow. I was just third service, you know what I mean? It's just what it is. And uh, but there's nothing special about that water. What you just saw people do is in front of people that they know, in front of people they don't know, they said yes to Jesus. And they said, Listen, I'm leaving my old life and I'm I'm moving into something new. It's the reason Jesus said, I've come to give life and not just life, life in abundance, life to the fullest. There's so much more than what we're experiencing right now. Hey, in 2018, there was a story that happened uh in Thailand about 12 soccer players and an assistant coach were after practice, they got thrown into this kind of this exploring a cave, and a monsoon happened, and they found themselves trapped. No one knew where they were. Two miles deep uh under this cave. Finally, nine days later, some divers found these 13 individuals. And after nine days, they hadn't drank, they hadn't eaten anything, barely slept, and they were exhausted. Another nine days later, it took thousands of people, volunteers, the the uh Thai uh naval uh, in fact, one of those guys um were was killed in in getting these people out. And the whole idea of what happened, you can watch the movie, I'm sure it's on Lifetime Hallmark or one of those. It's it's called the rescue. You can you can hear about you can see you will see that in order for these 13 individuals to get rescued, it took not just one person, it took thousands. It was teamwork, it was people coming together. My prayer since February 1st, my prayer since last August, when God started stretching us with some of the things, my prayer from the very beginning, and this is against the higher-ups, the intellectuals who said this is not possible. Our prayer has been how do we get 100% involvement? Not giving, praying, fasting, believing for God to do the miraculous, the radical, the crazy, the things that people go, I don't know what's happening, but man, there's something special. Like, how do we get 100%? And here's my belief that we can blow statistically what guys would say should happen in a church our size, and we go, listen, I know what your stats say, but look what God did. Look what God did. And so, yes, it's this is a journey that we're embarking on. Yes, this is gonna take every single one of us. John Maxwell said, Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, working together is success. It's the reason the one unanswered prayer of Jesus was what? Father, may they be one as you and I are one. This is the prayer that Jesus has for us who follow and believe in Jesus, that we would be so united, that we would be, that we would flow in such unity that that the world will see something is going on with those individuals. Something is happening. Paul told the Corinthian church, this is important for us to understand. He said, All of you together are Christ's body, and each of you is a part of it. He's saying, Listen, every single one of us plays a role. Every single one of us has purpose. And know this. When you understand purpose, when you understand that God has purpose in your life, when you understand who you are, whose you are, it will change the way you talk, it will change the way you live, it will change the decisions that you make. Why? Because the Bible says what is inside of your heart, that is what comes out. Out of the abundance of your heart, the mouth speaks. That means if inside my heart is messed up, messed up things are coming out of my mouth. That means if I'm, it's the reason we say love Jesus, serve people, make disciples, give generously. I have to flow from this understanding that everything that I do starts from knowing who I am in Jesus by loving him. My marriage, my kids, my family, my job, my friendships, my relationships, my speech, my talk, my mind, my money, my everything I do. It's gotta flow from that. And when it's off, when that is off, everything else is off. I cannot serve people without loving Jesus. I'm way too selfish. I cannot forgive people on my own. I can't muster up enough courage to say, I forgive you. I'm sarcastic in nature. I am not gentle in nature. Only the Holy Spirit can do that. Only the Holy Spirit. And sarcasm isn't one of the fruits of the Spirit. I know some of you have said that. That is actually not true. It's love, it's joy, it's peace, it's patience, it's kindness, it's goodness, it's gentleness, it's faithfulness, and it's self-control. The only thing that God asks you to control is self. That's it. That is what the result of following Jesus. Because I follow Jesus, I'm kind. Because I follow Jesus, I'm faithful. Because I follow Jesus, I'm patient. It's not one of those things that you and I get to go, like, oh, I'm really good at being kind, but patience, oh, I can't do it. You're right, you can't. That's the point. That's the point. You can't. Just like you can't forgive people who hurt you. It's impossible, you guys. Only Jesus can do that. Only Jesus can do that. So I need us to understand, and I want us to remember the why. The why of why we do things. This is so important. Jesus came to earth to reveal God, to rescue humanity, to restore what was broken by sin. Reality check. None of us in this room can save ourselves. None of us. We can't. We're broken by sin. Only Jesus could do that. Nobody else, not a church, not a pastor, not a friend, not your grandma who's incredibly righteous, I'm sure. She can't save you. She can pray for you, she can encourage you, she can bless you, she cannot save you. Nobody can. Only Jesus can. That has to be our why. If that is not our why, we'll reject people. If that's not our why, we'll say, I don't know if he's good enough to get in the tank. If that's not our why, and we think we're the ones doing the saving, we think we're the savior, if we think we're the solution, it will fail every time. Put YMCA outside on our sign, take life community church down and just be that. That's not what it is. Only Jesus can do that. If we forget that, if we forget the why, I don't care what you build, I don't care where you go, you've missed the whole point. It has to be about Jesus. Why did he come? To defeat death, bring new life, to seek and to save those that were lost, the Bible says. That is why Jesus came. If if that's why Jesus came, then it has to be what we're about. When you're at school, it's to seek and to save those that are lost. When you're at work, you think you're there to make a buttload of money, and that is a side benefit. But make no mistake about it. You're there to seek and to save those that are lost. I don't know why I'm in this job. I don't even love it. Maybe it's the fact that you're complaining about your coworkers instead of loving them, and that's the reason you're there. Well, it just got really hard, so I just quit and moved on to another one. Here's another little alert. I'm gonna save you a lot of heartache. They're gonna be just as bad at the next place. Just as bad. In one sentence, Jesus came to earth to reveal God's love, rescue us from sin, restore us to the life where we were created to live. That is our why. And this is our reminder. Peter says this friends, this world is not your home. So don't make yourselves cozy in it. Don't indulge your ego at the expense of your soul. He's saying, Life community church. This is a pivotal moment for us as a church, not because of dream big, not because of it's a pivotal moment because there are real people not serving a real God and going to a real hell. That's the why. That in the grand scheme of eternity, this life that we have is this. In all of this, we put more stock in this little part than all of eternity. And Peter is reminding friends: this is not your home, this is not the end, this is not the end all. There is so much more to life than this. This is eternity, what he's talking about. We have to be about that. If it's about quick fixes, see the government. That's not the kingdom. Jesus said, if you want to follow me, here's what you do. See that cross over there? Pick it up, carry it. That's not easy, you guys. That's not easy. We've been in Matthew chapter 25 the last three weeks. And these are passages where these are not passages where Jesus comforts us. These are not passages where where Jesus is even teaching us. These are passages of scripture where Jesus is looking us in the eyes. If you're a parent in this room, there's been a moment where you've looked at your kid and you're like, look at me. Right? And then maybe you are a chin grabber. Any chin grabbers in here? You can't do that anymore. Kids are soft. You can't even grab their chin. I am calling the authorities. Like, I am the authority. Get in the basement. You're grounded. Give me your phone. Fast that, anyway. Right? Where are you? Come here. Yeah. Yeah. I know your parents, so this is easier. Like there's moments, right? When your kid is not looking at you, right? And they're like looking somewhere else. They're rolling their eyes somewhere, and you're like, hey, hey, look here. Right here. In my eyes. And listen to what I'm about to say to you, right? All right, that's awkward. Are your parents here? Hi Mike, hi Jess. Anyway, I had a soccer coach that I played for, and he's a legend. He passed away. But if you didn't look at him in the eyes, you didn't play. It just didn't happen. There's a chalkboard behind us in our team room. Chalkboard Kids is this board, and it's got chalk. Okay? And you write on it magically. Does fall. Oh, you know. I got you. Okay. And he would write who was starting up there. And then he'd turn around and he'd look. And if you weren't paying attention, shh, scratch it off. He was looking for people who are attentive, listening to what it is. Now he won 10 state championships in like 15 years. I've seen him kick guys off teams in the middle of postseason when they were starters because they did something that was immoral, unethical, and against our team rules. He had standards. There was no email then. Parents were not emailing. They had to get on an actual phone and call. And it was a lot of work. By the time they were getting to call, they're like, What am I even calling them about? This takes too long. Very intense. This is the moment in Matthew 25. Jesus is turning to his disciples and he's grabbing their chins and he's like, guys, pay attention to what this is not a teaching moment, you guys. This is not a moment where I'm trying to show you. This is a moment where I need you to pay attention. This is not a parable about potential. This is not a parable about intention. This is a parable where Jesus says, What did you do with what I put in your hands? Like this is Matthew 25. What did you do with what I gave you? Again, it's not about stewarding money. Is it a part of it? Absolutely. Why? Because we need money. Can we agree on that? You need money. I promise you, it costs money to buy whatever you have on, and someone paid the bill. We need money. It's not just about is it are you stewarding your purpose? Are you stewarding your giftings? He's saying in Matthew chapter 25, what did you do with what I gave you? This is so important. Because it's not, he didn't say what you believed in, he didn't say what you felt. He said, What did you do with what did you do with what I gave you? This is what he's talking about. This is the core truth. What we say we believe about Jesus must be matched by what we do when the moment requires it. When the moment requires it. There are goats to the left, sheep to the right. That's the Bible, not me. Goats to the left, sheep to the right. You read into that however you want. Goats to the left, sheep to the right. Okay? And he says, this is a separation clarity moment. Goats to the left, sheep to the right. Here's what we're finding out. Do is what I say something I believe to the point where I do it, or what I say to the point where I do nothing about it. And what he's separating in this season is eternity. This is too late. He's talking about a too late moment. At this moment, there's no going back. There's nothing you can do about it. It's too late. There's no moment in this where you go, like, well, wait, I need one more minute. He's like, No, it's over. We're not in that moment. The moment we're in right now is this is a grace period. And this grace period is you're still alive, you're still breathing. That's why the Bible says today is the day of salvation. He's saying that because there's no other day. There's no other day that's more important than today. Okay? And don't give me the excuses of like, no, no, no, I'm too busy. I got all this going on. This is a crazy time in my life. This is a tough season. These are excuses that we make. No one in this room is too busy. Nobody. Nobody. Stop it. Stop it with your excuses. You are not too busy. Your priorities are just crazy. You're not too busy. Stop using that. As if we're spiritualizing it. Like, oh my gosh, so busy. So b I got so much going on. It's like, oh my gosh. You are dramatic. You are so drama. And no one's telling you that because it's like, wow, it is not the case. But what this is what he's saying. What we say and what we do in this moment matters. Every church has moments that quietly shape its future. And this is one of them. But so is June 6, 2021. June 6, 2021 was probably one of my favorite days of the year that I've ever had. Favorite days. It was our first weekend in this building. Brand new. First time I had all overseers here. Mike Plain was sitting here. I was sitting here. Jeff Dio was sitting right here. And and Pastor Doby, my pastor, 20 years ago, when I started working for him, he was sitting right here. And I asked all of these guys to share something about Life Community Church. Like, let God speak to you. You share whatever. This is Pastor Doby. Two two minutes. This is what he shared. Go ahead and play that.
SPEAKER_02:And we thank God for what he did. We thank God for what he's doing. But get ready. Because God is still yet the God to come. Hallelujah. Better things are ahead and the greatest things are in store for you. It says, You have been faithful in little. I will give you much. You have lived it out. You have loved and labored with all you have. You've labored tirelessly, like parents laboring lovingly over a newborn child. You've loved greatly, you've lived transparently, you've been faithful in little. Make room for the world. Make room for God to do even more than ever. Make room. Make room. In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01:So when we come to Matthew twenty-five, again, Jesus tells three stories. And the stories are be ready, the ten version story, be faithful, and be loving in action. Verse 31, he says, But when the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be gathered in his presence, and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left. Jesus again is not describing a debate. Jesus is bringing clarity. And I said, you know what? I'm sure there are a lot of people who don't like my style of preaching. I'm sure there are people that don't like that we have a woman that leads worship. I'm sure there are people who don't like that we have a kid's pastors in Jeff and Jody or an associate and church. I'm sure there's a lot of people that don't like a lot of things. If what you're saying about church is that you are here so that someone can fit or feel a fix that you need, you're here for the wrong reasons. If you're here for me, there's a good chance that some of you, most of you, might outlive me. If you're here for me and I'm gone, I don't want you to then be like, well, I'm done. That's not why we're here. If we're here just for this or we're here just for that, we're missing the point of what Jesus is inviting us to. He's not inviting us to follow man, he's inviting us to be obedient to him. And that obedience, again, is radical. So what he's saying to this group of people, he's separating them, goats and sheep, by those who not only heard, but those that did. Those that listened. Because you'll see verse 34 through 39, the next couple verses, he says, Listen, all of you, sheep and goats, I was I was hungry, you fed me. I was thirsty, you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, you invited me. Like he says this over and over. I did all these things. And the sheep go, when did that happen? What when did you do that? And then he says to the goats, he says, Listen, there was a time I was hungry, you didn't feed me. I was thirsty, you didn't give me water. And they're like, When? We didn't even see you. Both groups are shocked by what Jesus is saying. The sheep don't remember doing anything special. The goats didn't remember refusing Jesus. Why? Because neither group thought this moment mattered. Because when the moment happened, what was inside came out. And for some, the sheep, it naturally flowed out of their relationship with Jesus. But for the goats, you found out real quickly, what do I actually believe? What do I actually believe? And verse 40, it redefines the word faith. It says, and what and the king will say, I tell you the truth. When you did it, did it to one of the least of my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me. Jesus connects real life to real people and real needs. Faith is not just what we confess on Sunday, faith is what we carry out when opportunity knocks. That's what faith is. This is what this is why dream big matters, because what we say about our faith must be proven by what we do in the moment. We don't want to be about, as a Matthew 25 church, we don't want to be about what we could do or what we might do. I don't even want to say we're gonna do it if it doesn't match up with us actually doing it. What he's saying in this time is this that we notice that what the what the goats are judged for, they're not judged for being rebellious, they're not judged for being mean, they're judged for being inactive, doing nothing, doing nothing. They didn't say no, they just didn't say yes, they didn't do anything wrong, they just didn't do anything at all, and we can become so consumed in our bubble, our world of well, I'm just happy where I am, but let's be real, we're doing nothing. To me, that's the biggest part of accountability, you guys. The biggest part of accountability is that we're showing someone, we're showing someone what we're being accountable to. That's why when I say, like, man, you you just did this right here. That's amazing, it's an incredible story. But where else are we sharing our story? Like, hear me, hear me. You inviting someone to church, man, great job. I'm sure it took some boldness, but that's not what it's about. You have a story to share, share that, share that part of it. Share this is what God has done in my life because I want them to be attached to Jesus more than I want them to be attached to Life Community Church. Without Jesus, again, we're just the YMCA, we're just a club where everybody comes and drinks subpar coffee. No knock on coffee. But can we all agree it's not the greatest you've ever had? If that's all it is, we're missing the point. If all it is is let's get from Sunday to maybe Wednesday to Sunday, if that's it, if that's it, we're we're missing out on the abundance that Jesus is offering. Again, a hundred and ten times Jesus encountered people. A hundred and ten, a hundred and five were outside of the temple. That tells me, while this moment is important, it's to encourage you, it's to push you, it's to be a part of something bigger, but this is not the only moment. And if this is the only moment, it will not sustain you. What you do from here matters. I've heard people say that about church. Is it really important? I think it is. Is it important for you to jump out of a plane with a parachute? I think it is. I think it's important to surround yourself with community. But here's why. Who's holding you accountable? Who's talking to you about what really matters? Who's saying, not this 30-minute talk? It's in addition to they didn't say no, but they didn't say yes. Jesus says to them, you guys missed the moment. Man, you missed it. You missed the moment. I brought these people in, you didn't feed them. I brought in the thirsty, you didn't, you didn't give them anything to drink. They were naked, and you pointed at them. You said someone else can do it. You did nothing. You did nothing about it. And Jesus said, Don't be like the goat. Do we want to be a Matthew 25 church? That's the question. That's the separation. Because a Matthew 25 church, hear me right now. Statistically, you know what they say about churches that are in a campaign or doing something crazy. You know what they say about it? They say for the first six months, you actually lose people. You're like, well, that seems like we're going backwards. Right? It would make sense. Like, uh, looks like you're going backwards. You know what they're saying? They're saying you're actually losing the people that are goats. Now, if I said, Hey, who in this room wants to be a goat? Who's waving at me? Probably no one. Who's sheep? We're like, Yeah, we're sheep. And Jesus just said, Prove it. I love when people come up and be like, I made a I make a mean apple pie, and I always say, Prove it. Oh, you've not had gluten-free this. Prove it. You can tell me you make the best apple pie everywhere, Betty Cracker, but until you prove it, you've proven nothing. We can say all day long, we want to be the church. We want to be the church, we want to feed the poor. Prove it. Hear me. I want to be in Matthew 25 church. This is not about increase, increase, increase. Five times he said it, increase, increase. It got camera effect, right? It's like boom, boom, boom. It's not so we can go, we're the biggest church in Columbia. You guys are so awesome. Sure. Nope. That's not what it's about. I don't give a rip. I don't care. If we have masses and we don't steward it well and point people to Jesus and tell them the truth and hold them accountable, we've missed the whole point. We can gather a crowd. That's easy. It's easy. Easy. I could go on social media right now, not to you guys, you're still fasting, but I can go to social media right now, and I can say anybody that shows up next week gets a thousand dollars. I promise you we'll have a crowd. I tell people all the time if we're talking about having the best musicians, we can buy them. That's not what we're raising up. That's not what we're talking about. We want to raise up disciples of Jesus who knows what it is to follow him and obedient radically to what he says. They care enough that they believe what Jesus says. And because of that, it's from here on out. We leave this place, people are saved, people are delivered, miracles are happening, and we're hearing about it all over the area, not contained in these four walls or those four walls. That's not the point. But I will say, if we're still at 310 South Wrap, we're doing 12 services right now. If we're upstairs where the kids are meeting right now, we're doing six services right now. This is not about buildings, this is about people. And if we forget that this is about people, then you could build all the biggest buildings in the world, and the world will applaud, and everyone will say, This is the coolest room ever. But if it doesn't fulfill the purpose and the of what Matthew 25 is talking about, we've missed it. And I'll say this I don't want to be a part of it. Now I'll pray, God, shut it down. Shut it down. If it's not what you're supposed to be doing, shut it down. Because, God, we want what you want. We want what you want, and we want the body of Christ to be able to be the body of Christ. And some of you in this room, man, God has called you to be the hand, and you're trying to be the foot, and that makes a jacked-up body. Spiritually speaking, that's what's happening in the church right now. That is exactly what's happening. People are forgetting the purpose of what they're called to do, and they're trying to be something that they're not, and we want to know why the world is looking at the church like they have 300 heads. It's because we're all trying to be something that we're not. And the invitation that Jesus is bringing us back to is let's go. Let's go. We want clarity. We want clarity. God, I pray that when the king returns, may our words be matched by our obedience. That's the prayer, you guys. That's the prayer. Casey's gonna lead us in a song, okay? Now she leads us in a song. I'm gonna pray. And I'm gonna invite you again to be on this journey. Listen to what I'm about to say to you. Yes, this is an incredible time, as Pastor Sean says, to invite you on a journey. Listen to me. If you're not there yet, it's okay. If your husband has looked at you and said, I don't know that I'm on board with this, then you as a collective are not on board with this yet. This is not a pressure moment. This is a moment where I don't need you to hear my voice. This is a moment where I need you to hear God's voice. Okay? I need you to hear that right now. I'm not pressuring you, but I know that God wants to do something in this area. I know it. As sure as I'm standing right here. I know that what God has called us to do when He told me the next 30 years of your life is gonna be this. And I'm not predicting when I'm dying. Don't be weird on me. I'm not telling you that. I just knew God said, You need to lay roots, you need to make sure that you're laying roots and not make it about you, make it about him. That's what we're talking about. And if you jump on board that, awesome, man. Let God speak to you. Let God speak to you. People say, I'm sure you felt the pressure. I do not feel the pressure at all. You know why? Because I'm not the healer, I'm not the miracle worker, I'm not the savior. I feel zero pressure at all. None. None. I am not stressed out at all. It could be the fact that I'm going to Jamaica tomorrow. Could be. Could be. Thank God for marriage trips. There's a bunch of you in this room that are still going too. Yep. That's why they're smiling a little different. This is why I prayed, God, bring on the snow. I did not, I mean, maybe once. Can we pray? That we pause right now to acknowledge this moment. February 22nd, 2026. Not because of buildings, not because of numbers, but because obedience in this moment matters. God, you're the one. You're the one that sees the end from the beginning. You're the one that gives vision. You're the one that invites your people to walk by faith. God, every prayer, every every commitment, God, every act of faith, every sacrifice, God, you know it. You see it all. You see it all. So we declare, God, that this is not about brick and mortar. This is not about seal. This is about people yet to meet you. This is about lives to be restored, families to be restored, marriages to be restored, young people to know purpose and faith in Jesus and kids to know who Jesus is. God, that is what it's about. So, Lord, we say together, this house will be built on faith. This vision will be carried out with humility. The future will be marked by obedience. God, I pray that there's a church 50 years from now who is saying, God, we thank you for the group of people that gathered at 626 West Bottom. Just like I thank you for the group of people that made room, the group of people that started in my home in January of 2011. God, I thank you for every step along the way of the faith that it took to say, I believe that there's more. I believe there's more. God, I pray that every commitment that is made will echo into eternity. God, make us a Matthew 25 church. We trust you, we follow you, and we say once again, we will dream big because you are a big God. You are a big God. And nothing is impossible with you. So, God, for the person in this room who doesn't know you, for the person in this room who is battling cancer, for the person in this room that is grieving at a loss, God, you are bigger than all of that. Restore, heal, save, deliver. God, I pray that in the name of Jesus. God, that this house, this place will be a place marked by Jesus, transformed by Jesus. In your name we pray. In your name we pray. Amen. Can we give it up for Jesus when you stand with me right now? Come on, church.