Change is Coming, Week 4
Tim Rivers | October 23, 2022
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Transcription
Tim Rivers: This message may be short, you know what I'm saying?
[laughter]
Tim: We're so excited to be here I've been thinking about just the transition that we've been going through over the last few months, and there's one word that I could use that encapsulates how I feel it would be 'overwhelmed'. Not overwhelmed in an anxious way or in just, "Oh, no, what's happening?" In a way that explains the goodness, the favor, the grace of God. To be part of this transition and to be chosen by God to step into this role and get to lead you all into what God has for all of us is just absolutely amazing.
First of all, I want to just say how grateful and thankful we are to Tim and Juliette for their leadership in all this. Come on, put your hands together for that.
[applause]
Tim: I've been in church all my life and I've seen a lot of transitions take place, but this has been one for the books. Not just one that I get to see, but one we get to participate in. They have led this absolutely well. Then I want to just give you a shout-out as a church body for your willingness to participate in the transition, for your love, your support, your prayers, and all of it. It goes seen, it's been heard, it's felt. Give yourselves a big hand for your participation in it.
[applause]
Tim: I'm excited. I am. I'm containing myself right now because I really just want to start running the house.
[laughter]
Tim: When I think about what God is getting ready to do with us in the next season, I'll spend another hour up here just preaching about how great and how mighty God is going to work in and through us. I'm super excited. One of the things that I've been thinking about is obviously knowing that I'm going to preach today, you always wonder, "All right, what do I say What do I preach? What does God have to say on this first service as your pastor, right?" What do you say? What are the words? You heard of the expressions of first impressions leave lasting impressions. I've been praying about this, I've been praying and thinking through that, and this is how funny God is.
Tim and I, we knew we were going to start this series called 'change is coming' We didn't compare notes. We didn't say, "Hey, you preach on these topics, these services, and I'll preach on these topics." We just separately went to the Lord, asked God, "Hey, what do you got to say?" God speaks to us. I did not know what he was going to preach last week, the transfer zone, I had no idea he was even going to call me up. I had no idea about that. A couple of weeks ago, the Lord gave me some clarity about the message that I am to preach today. It just so happens that what I have to preach today is the continuation of the message that Tim preached last week. God's playing with us. You can't make this stuff up.
He talked about the transfer zone and Moses laying hands on Joshua and transferring some of his authority. I'm going to preach on the other side of that message, of that happening that happens in numbers. I'm going to preach on the other side in Joshua 1. If you have your Bible, let's go to Joshua 1. Just reading a couple of verses of Scripture Joshua1. If you have a physical Bible, say yeah.
Congregation: Yeah.
Tim: That could be an electronic one. All right, Joshua 1:7. Here we go.This is the Lord speaking to Joshua."Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it, for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God, Yahweh, is with you wherever you go.
Somebody say amen.
Congregation: Amen.
Tim: There are two types of people when it comes to change. On the one hand, you have the person that resists change. They don't like it. They like their stuff the way it is. This is the person that has a lazy boy in the same spot that has an indention of their body in it. They've had it for the last 30 years. The wife Ethel's been telling Earl, I just feel like that's the type of person whose name is Earl. " Earl, when are you going to get a new lazy boy?"
Earl is like, "I'm not getting a new one. This is how I like it." Earl is also the type of person that goes to the same restaurant, eats the same meal, drinks the same drink. He has a routine. He doesn't like change. Anybody relate to that? You don't like change that much, it's okay. On the other extreme, you have the person that loves change. They love the change of things. They're always looking for new opportunities. I'm probably that type of person. If you know me and you see my office, it changes every two months. Every two months, I come in and I move my desk around, and I replace my books, and I love change.
You ever met somebody like that that loves change? There are some people who love change a little too much. You know what I'm saying? They're always in a different relationship.
[laughter]
Tim: Always getting mad at everybody. They never settled. Always running from church to church. They're the type of person that just loves change a little too much. Attitude is always changing. You don't know what you get any time you meet them, you have that person that extreme. One thing is true about whether you're in the middle somewhere or you're on either extreme. One thing is for certain. Most of us want to know when we hear that change is coming. Most of us want to know what is changing. If don't mind change, that's great but you still want to know what is changing.
If you hate change, you still want to know what is changing. When this series started, 'change is coming', I'm glad that Tim let you know from the front end this is the change that's coming. As I begin to pray about this service, knowing that we all have this question of what is changing. Now we know that the leadership changes, but what does that mean for us as a church? What does that mean for me as an individual? What else is changing? Are we going to change buildings? We're going to change the carpet? What is going to change? Quite naturally, Tim preached about this a week ago.
Change is inevitable. Your kid, if you have a kid, you know they're going to change. As they get older, they will change. It's a natural thing that happens.
Then there are some things, the Lord said, that don't change. On this first service, I want to preach on this subject. Some things never change. While there is change coming, and while we're living in the transfer zone and while we're in a season of change, in the midst of all of that, there are some things that never change. That's what we're going to talk about today. Let's pray.
Heavenly, Father we thank you so much for Your goodness and mercy. Thank you for drawing us into this house. I pray that you give us ears to hear, a heart to receive, a mind to understand your word. Help us to walk out of here different than the way we came. Do what only you can do. We give your name, the praise, the glory, and the honor in Jesus' name. Everybody say amen.
Congregation: Amen.
Tim: There are several aspects of a house that are very important. Most people would argue that the most important aspect of a home is the foundation. We even got songs about it, right? Christ is my firm foundation.
[laughter]
Tim: I just adlibbed y'all, I'm not Kiek Franklin, I just adlibbed. I'm going to mess with some of you with theology today. I would submit to you that the most important part of a house is really not its foundation, but it's what's underneath the foundation. You could have a great house built on a great foundation but if that foundation is built on unsettled ground, when the seasons of change come, that foundation will not be stable enough to handle the shifting of the seasons and eventually, that foundation will buckle and crack under the pressure of changing seasons.
Have you ever met somebody like that? Where everything looks right but they're on shifting ground so when seasons of change come, they can't handle the pressure of the ground swelling or attracting and detracting. What ends up happening is, if you have a cracked foundation, eventually you see cracks in the house. Then when you see cracks in the house, all of a sudden, that house that used to look so nice is now leaning to one side. Have you ever been to somebody's house that has a bad foundation? You have to walk in sideways.
[laughter]
Tim: You're at a 45-degree angle, but you're really standing straight. Because over time that beautiful house that was built on shifty ground has now settled and now the foundation is cracked. You've met these types of people, right? The types of people that their life is great, as long as things are going great, their life is great in summer but when winter comes, they're shifty. Their attitudes are always shifting. Check the soil.
They're in and out of relationships. Check the soil. They love God. They're shouting, they jump high, they worship God with all they got on one Sunday and then some things happen during the week. The next Sunday they show up, their arms are folded even if they come to church, guess what? Shifty sand. Even Jesus talks about it. Let's read about it in Luke 6:47. This is what Jesus said.
"Why do you call me Lord, Lord and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and here's my words and does them, I will show you what he is like. He is like a man building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock," let me just stop and say this. The most important thing is the rock and we know that Jesus is the rock because the scripture says the stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.
That word cornerstone literally means the base of the foundation and he says, "and when a flood arose and the stream broke against that house and could not shake it because it had been well built but the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who has built a house on the ground without a foundation and when the stream broke against it, immediately it fell and the ruin of that house was great."
Here Jesus is talking to the Jews who had been building a house on a foundation that was not built on the rock of Christ Jesus. When the seasons of change came and we know that season of change will come, their house was just a caricature. It was just a Truman Show. It was built. It looked awesome until the seasons of change came and when the season of change came because they weren't on solid ground, all of a sudden their foundation began to crack and the house began to collapse.
Can I tell you that the people inside of a house that is built on a foundation, that is built on shifting sand are susceptible to collapse in destruction. That's why it's very important that we build our lives, our marriage, our relationships, our children, our home, our church, our family on Jesus Christ and Him alone. Whatever you do, build your life on Christ Jesus so that when change comes, you can handle the pressure. I want to go back to our opening text in Joshua 1. I want to give you a little bit of context because to understand what's happening in Joshua 1, we have to understand the history of Israel.
The first five books to the Bible are called the Pentateuch, which means five books or also known as the Torah, which means instructions and that's Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Now, these five books are the origin story of Israel and they are what defines the rest really of the Bible. Genesis is the place where we see the creation of mankind, we also are introduced to the patriarchs and then Genesis, Exodus. Exodus we know the oppression of Israel, the deliverance of Israel, and the giving of the law.
Then we go Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus. Leviticus again is a continuation of the tabernacle of worship of what we are to do and how we are to live our lives. Then you have Numbers. This is the place where you have the transfer zone and you also have the nation of Israel going up to the promised land and getting to see what God has for them but they're not able to enter in yet because of the unbelief.
Then you get into Deuteronomy, which is considered the second law. This is where God continues to give Moses instructions to give to Israel on how they are to behave themselves. Now, interesting fact about Deuteronomy, the end of Deuteronomy gives an account of Moses death, burial and then what happens afterwards? Most scholars believe that Moses is the one that wrote Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. We're not sure if God gave Moses a vivid picture at how this joker was about to die and who was going to bury him, but we do know he probably wrote about it ahead of his death.
This is what sets up the scenario before we get into Joshua, but within that storyline, within the Pentateuch within the Torah, we find out also how God formulates His people, His children, His nation. In order to understand that, I want to give you the origin story of Israel because we know that God spoke to a man by the name of Abraham and said, "Abraham, I'm going to bless you, I'm going to make of you a great nation wherever you go that's what I'm going to give to you and I and people that bless you, I'm going to bless them, people that curse you, I will curse them and in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed." Abraham receives that promise, then he begins to walk out the promise. He has a son by the name of Isaac.
That same promise that God gives to Abraham is now transferred to Isaac. Isaac then has two sons, Esau and Jacob. The promise that Abraham received that was passed down to Isaac now is passed down to Jacob. Now we know the story. Jacob steals the birthright from Esau and he steals the blessing. Then he has to go to Laban where he's trying to come to grips with who he is and he's somewhat paying penance for what he's just done.
Then he decides that he wants to reconcile with his brother. He's on his way to meet Esau and while he is on his way, the scripture says that he has an encounter with God at the brook of Jabbok where he begins to wrestle with God.
In the wrestling match with God, God is telling Jacob, "Let me go and go run like you always have been," and Jacob says, "I will not let you go until you bless me." God says, "No, let me go because the day is breaking," and Jacob says, "I will not let you go until you bless me." Let me just stop and say this right now. Sometimes if you want the blessings of God, you have to have a determination, a grit. You have to have the willingness to grab ahold of God and not leave even if the day is breaking until God changes your circumstance. Sometimes you got to pray a little harder. You got to worship him a little more. You got to fast a little longer. You got to get in that word a little deeper. Sometimes you got to wrestle your way to a blessing.
God says, "I like this guy," and he says, "You know what? No longer will your name be Jacob, which means to supplanter and deceiver, but I'm going to change your name to Israel, which means having a favor with God." This is the first introduction that we have to Israel. It's a person. It's a man and then we know the story how Israel or Jacob has 12 sons, one of them being Joseph. Joseph gets sold into slavery and then he gets taken to Egypt where through many events Joseph then becomes the second most powerful man in Egypt.
God begins to give Joseph insights about a famine that's coming. He begins to save up products and he begins to save up food because he knows that there's coming a time when there's going to be a famine in the land. Joseph does that and now we have a famine in the land and the 11 brothers of Joseph are on their way. They get to Egypt, unbeknownst to them, their brother who they sold out is the most powerful man in Egypt besides Pharaoh and he begins to entreat them as his brothers by giving them grain and taking care of them. We know that story and we can preach that right now where Joseph said, "Hey, what you meant for evil, God turned to good."
Never despise when people sell you out because when the hand of God is on your life and the promise of God is on your life, there is nothing that you can go through that can stop the will of God from being accomplished in your life.
[applause]
Tim: Satan can't rob you of the call that's on your life. You can only give it away. I got to stop and preach right there because some of y'all are willing to give away your promise because you're under pressure and God says, "Don't give away what I've given to you because I will fulfill it in the right time in due season.All you got to do is do what I'm telling you to do in the season that you in right now because change is coming."
Then the 11 sons of Israel are there and then Joseph reveals to them his identity. Then Joseph says, "Hey, go grab dad and bring your entire family into Egypt and once you to settle here so that you can have a good life." This is the introduction to Israel because Israel or Jacob and his 12 sons are now in Egypt and all of their families, you can read about this in Exodus 1.
The totality of the children of Israel were only 70. That means all grandkids, nieces, nephews, everybody. It was only 70 people over the space of time of 430 years while they were in Egypt, they began to grow and grow and grow until there were over a million people. Some people say up to 3 million people is what the nation of Israel grew to. There was a Pharaoh that rose up that did not know the God of Joseph and when he began to see the increase that was happening with the children of Israel, it made him nervous because he thought, "Man, they're going to revolt against us and they got a different type of God so we're going to oppress them." The scripture says, the more that Pharaoh begin to oppress the children of Israel the more they grew.
Ooh, that's a word right there for somebody because you may feel like you're under pressure but go ahead and lean into the pressure because oil can't come out of olive until the olive is crushed. Wine can't come out of a grape until the grape has been crushed. Sometimes you have to go through a pressing season, a crushing season, an oppressing season so that God can squeeze out of you the things that he has in you because sometimes it's in the midst of the worst times that we have the deepest moves of God because there's something about pressure that pulls out of you what God has put in you.
The numbers begin to grow and this makes Pharaoh nervous so he begins to oppress them and this is where God calls Moses to lead His children out of Egypt. We know the miraculous story of the plagues and how Moses leads them out of Egypt. Now you have the children of Israel that are walking out of Egypt and up until this point they were still just called the children of Israel. They were just 12 sons who had a lot of family members about 1 to 3 million people that are now wandering and they're on their way to the promised land. It isn't until we get the 10 Commandments that we hear about the children of Israel becoming the nation of Israel because when God speaks to Moses, He says, "Moses, I'm going to give you 10 Commandments to communicate to the children of Israel. These 10 Commandments are not just dos and don'ts, they're not just a book of rules but these 10 commandments will incorporate Israel into a nation so it will set them apart from everybody else." Did you know that a nation isn't a nation until it has articles of incorporation? I'm a poet and didn't even know it. I'm spitting fire right now.
The 10 Commandments were the foundational truths that God gave to Moses to teach Israel that it is these 10 commandments that will differentiate you as a nation from everybody else around you. That's why the first thing that God said is, "I am the Lord your God and no other God shall you serve." Now let me tell you how you have a relationship with me and then have a relationship with each other so the 10 Commandments are not just 10 Commandments but they're the foundational truths, they are the parameters, they set the stage for what God was going to do in Israel throughout their entire lives.
This is why it's so important to understand what the 10 Commandments represent when we get to Joshua 1 because when God begins to speak to Joshua, He says, "Joshua, I want you to cross the Jordan and when you do, I'm going to take you to a land that's flowing with milk and honey. You're going to live in houses you didn't build. You're going to eat from vineyards you didn't plant. You're going to drink from wells that you didn't even dig. They're not going to come from a rock anymore. You can just drop your bucket down and get as much water as you want and you're no longer going to be maneuvering around in the wilderness. You're going to have a home. You're going to have a space wherever you put your foot.
That's what I'm going to give to you. Wherever you look that's how far I'm going to give you. I'm going to give you vision, I'm going to give you all these things, but before you do, change is coming. Before you get to that change, there are some things that never change and those are the rules, the regulations, the foundational truth of what makes you Israel."
Isn't it amazing that we as Christians still adhere, thousands of years later we still adhere to the 10 Commandments and the laws that God gave? Do you know why? Because they're not just rules and regulations. They are literally the articles that God has given to define who his children are. Now, why am I preaching this? Because I feel as if the same way that God spoke to Joshua and said, "Joshua I'm going to lead you and the children of Israel into the promises that I have shown to Moses that he's spoken about for the last several years I'm about to lead you into that but before you do, there are some things that you have to settle." It's an identity process because if you remove the foundation, you remove the identity of who Israel is.
The importance of a foundation for a house is that it defines the location, it defines the parameters. It defines the perimeters, it defines the ethos of what it is. Too many people are ripping up foundations that are good foundations. Can I talk to some millennials? Not everything has to change. You may not agree with it but good foundation doesn't meed to be trifled with. If it's built on a bedrock of Christ let's leave it there and build on top of it. When God began to speak to me about this first service, He said, "Tim, I want you to preach a settling message for the family of Embassy City because there are some foundational truths that God spoke to Tim and Juliette when they launched this church that are in the ethos of who we are.
Let me just clarify this. Tim didn't tell me "Hey, make sure that these are the things that you don't change. Before we talk about this, make sure that these things don't change, that we don't ruffle this up, that we don't mess this up." He has literally held it with an open hand but when I went to prayer, I felt like the Lord said, I want you to go in there and talk to them about the things that will not change about our church so that we can be safe and secure in who we are as we get ready to move over Jordan. There are five things, five foundational truths about our church, about Embassy City that are not going to change. I want to share those with you because Jenise and I are committed to upholding and honoring these five things that define us as a church. Number one is we are going to remain hot.
Honest, open, and transparent. My commitment to you as a pastor is this I will remain hot in scripture in the study of God's Word in prayer and fasting, in teaching of God's word. I will do my best not to preach some allegorical messages and be isogenical and come up with my own version of what I think the Bible says. I must stay honest, open and a lot of dudes are doing that right now. Be careful who you listening to, go check the scriptures. You know what I'm saying? We're going to remain hot.
I want to share something with you that I think is absolutely fascinating. In 2017, Jenise and I were in a prophetic service and there was a, and a prophetic service is basically a moment in time where those that are gifted in the gifts of prophecy are sharing words that God has given to them. There was a lady named Mallory from Gateway who was speaking to Jenise and I. One of the things that she told me, this is 2017, 2 years before I had met Tim but during a time when the Lord had already spoke to me that I was going to connect to Tim.
If you want to hear the whole story, go check out the basement. The latest episode. This is what Mallory said to me. Literally, you can quote me. I got the recording of this. She said, "Tim, I feel like the Lord wants you to be hot with scripture. Honest, open, and transparent." This is literally what she tells me. "I have a friend whose name is Tim Ross who lives by this principle and he says this often, I feel like God wants you to apply the same to your life." This is two years before Tim and I met. This was in 2017. Four years. Is it four years? Five years before I know, I got to go back to math class.
[laughter]
Tim: Don't tell me God hasn't been orchestrating this all along. We're going to remain hot as a church. The second thing that we're going to do is we're going to remain generous. We pay the building off in five months fam. Do y'all know how crazy that is? A church has been around for seven years as completely debt free. Praise God. You know why this happened? It's because we have a church that is generous and there's three areas that we're going to be generous. We're going to be generous in our time, our treasure, and our talents. If God's given you a talent man, sign up to be an ambassador so you can contribute your talent to this house. If you have treasures, share them generously because God loves a cheerful giver. It's because of your generosity that we were able to pay off of building without selling pies.
[laughter]
Tim: If you make a good pie, bring it for free. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with capital campaigns, but God has so blessed us to be generous that God continue-- Here's the thing, you can't outgive God. You can try it but it ain't going to work. God will always outgive you because he's a generous Father and that's part of the ethos of our house is we're going to be generous people.
Here's the third thing is we're going to walk and not run. Sometimes we'll be walking at a fast pace. Somebody asks like, "How do you define walking?" I'll say it this way. We have our youngest son, he is one year old now and he walks and he thinks he's walking so fast. He's at that point now where he thinks he's running away from you and he ain't going nowhere. He's at that point where he grabs something and if you try to grab it, he'll--
[laughter]
Tim: He thinks he's running, but he's just walking. There are going to be seasons where we're going to walk at a faster pace and we're going to walk at a slower pace. The thing that we're not going to do is outpace God. We're going to follow the pace of God. Whatever God is showing us and telling us to do, that's the pace at which we're going to move. If God says stop, we're going to stop. If he says go, we're going to go. When Moses struck the rock instead of speaking to it, I think is because he outpaced God. I think God was in the middle of saying the sentence and that joker was already swinging. "Moses, I'd like for you to--" "I got it God." God said, "No. I was going to say speak, not hit and because you outpaced me, now you got to pay for it." As the church body, we are going to walk and not run.
Here's the fourth thing that we're going to do. We're going to be a multi-church. We want everybody to feel welcome here. Multiracial, multiethnic, multi-generational, multi-career, multi-color. If you're purple, you're welcome here.
[laughter]
Tim: We'll pray for you. Make sure you stay afterwards so we can pray for you. Get this purple up off you. We're going to be a multi-church. We're going to always invest in a multi-generational vibe. We're going to have a good kids ministry. We're going to have a youth ministry, we're going to have young adults. We're going to invest in being a multi-generational church but also a multi-ethnic and multiracial if you're Black or White or mixed it don't matter, come here, this is an embassy.
Here's the fifth point, the fifth foundational truth about our church that we're going to hold steady to and that is we're going to continue to be ambassadors. An ambassador is somebody who represents a country, a city, a place. If there's one thing that we want to continue to do is we want to continue to be representatives of the kingdom. We check our personal preferences at the door when we come here because we represent the king of kings. When you get to heaven, there are not going to be sections [chuckles] There ain't no gang wars in heaven. We're ____ I came through the Eastgate fam. [laughs] Bible nerds say, "Yeah." They call us the Pearl fam. I'm so not a gangster. You know what I'm saying? You can tell I was raised in church.
We're going to be ambassadors of Christ here. The Lord gave me this word because we're going to enter into a season where there is going to be change. That's natural. Here's the thing. The best way to describe it, Roy and I were talking about this is a house. Where there is a change of parent, for instance, when there's a change of parent, the kids of the house are usually like, "Oh, do we have to move?" Where are we going?" There can be some time as the anxiety of what the change is going to be. What I feel like the Lord is saying to us as a church is, guess what? The foundation is settled. Why? Because it's built on good ground. Our church is built on solid ground. We will honor the foundation that was built through the leadership of Tim and Juliette here because it was God-ordained. God spoke to them truths that formulated this church.
We wouldn't be Embassy City Church. We'd be any old people but we are Embassy City Church because there are foundational truths that have been built in the beginning, in the infancy stage of our church. Those are the things that we're going to hold onto. In a season where change is coming, some things never change because they define who we are. One of the most important things about moving into the next that God has for you, is that you have to know who you are. What God was trying to tell Joshua is before you cross the Jordan and you enter into the promised land, it's important that you know who you are first because if you don't know who you are, when you go into the promised land, wherever you are and whatever you go through and whatever you face will constantly change your identity. This is why before Jacob could go reconcile with his brother and enter into the fullness of what God had for him, God had to change his name and give him an identity called Israel because God didn't want to call the nation of Jacob. He wanted to have a nation of Israel.
Before we go into all that God has prepared for us over the last seven years, the prophetic words, the prayers, all the things that have gone into our church, we're going to step into and I'm telling you right now. There are going to be greater things that we even thought were possible that are about to happen in this next season. I just need about 12 people to believe that in faith.
[applause]
Tim: That we're going to see more people come to know Christ than we ever have. That we're going to baptize people by the dozens, that miracle signs and wonders are going to take place. That we're going to drink from wells that have already been dug, that we're going to eat from vineyards that have already been planted, that we're going to live in houses that have already been built. We're going to live in the abundance and the glory and in the power and the grace of God because the promised land is already prepared for us.
[applause]
Tim: Change is coming y'all and it's a good change. It's amazing what God did through Joshua and the children of Israel. He said, "Before I had to split the Red Sea so you can go through it but right now all you got to do is step on the water, I'll part it, I'll show you things that you never thought were possible." Y'all better get ready because I'm fired up. I'm going to be preaching the paint off the wall next week.
[laughter]
Tim: Bring your handkerchiefs because I really feel like over the next few weeks we're going to talk about, we're going to envision, we're going to see, we're going to taste what God's leading us into but before we do that, there's some things we have to settle about our identity and our ethos and our foundation. Tim didn't tell me to say this. Well, that's just how God works, isn't it? This is good ground. This is a great foundation. Man, I can't wait to see the house that God builds with us. I'm glad that you're here. I'm glad that you're going to be a part of it because it's going to be awesome.
Let's pray. Oh God, I thank you. I thank you, God, for this amazing foundation that's been laid over the last seven years. I thank you, God, that you have given to Tim and Juliette a dream, a vision, direction, the governance, the ethos of planning this church. God, they've done such a wonderful job. This church has done such a wonderful job over the last seven years, really building the foundation and setting the stage, becoming exactly who you've called us to be.
Lord as we enter into this next season, I just thank you, God, for planning us on firm foundation and we will honor it and we'll hold steady because while change is coming somethings never change and we thank you for it. Now, we give you praise in advance for what you're getting ready to do [chuckles] I thank you Lord God that you're about to open up windows that we never thought were possible to open. That you're about to open doors that we didn't even know existed. That you're about to just pour out your spirit in a fantastic way, in a miraculous way an we get to be a part of it. Now, we give your name all the praise, all the glory, all the honor because you're worthy of it. In Jesus' name. Amen.
