Hello, everybody. Welcome to New Life. Are you excited to be at church today at all campuses? Come on, let me hear you. Yes, absolutely. Why wouldn't you want to be here? I mean, come on. It's a great place to be. It's a great place to be. You come, you get some coffee, you hang out with some friends. We worship Jesus together. I mean, it is a blast, a blast.
So I want to say hello to everybody worshiping with us at all of our campuses, including all of you that are here at New Life Church. I want to say hello to all of you that are here at New Life. I want to thank you guys so much for showing up today. Today is called our Vision Sunday, all right, for Kingdom Builders. So today's going to be a day of celebration, right? Celebration and the stretching of our faith. So are you ready to celebrate a few things, by the way? Are you? All right, come on. Come on, high-five the person next to you and tell them we're going to celebrate. Come on. All right, we just got to get ready. Got to get loosened up. You got to get ready for all of this, all right?
Now, Kingdom Builders, if you're new to New Life today, this is your first Sunday. Can I just say this to you as the pastor of the church? I know that when it's your first Sunday and you hear a church talk about money, you think that's what they talk about all the time. And I just want you to know that's not what we talk about all the time. It's only every other Sunday. But we're celebrating some things today because of our generosity. We believe, for those of you that are new, we believe that Kingdom Builders is our expression of generosity to the world where we meet a lot of people. And we're celebrating a lot of people. And we're a lot of needs. You're going to hear a lot about that today.
And so I just think it's time that once a year we stop and we celebrate what God did this past year and where God is leading us in this next year. So I first want to start with this. Last year, we set a Kingdom Builder goal at the beginning of the year of $599,644. That was our goal. This is what that means. That if those dollars were to come in, we knew exactly where they were going to go. How do we know that? Because we put together a Kingdom Builder book. And in the Kingdom Builder book, like you'll hear about today, you'll hear this, that in this book is exactly where all those dollars would go. We had one for last year. We have one for this year.
Now, last year, you guys had no respect for the $599,644. And you were like, "Pastor, that's too low." And so you decided to give $681,686. Yeah, what in the world? Right. And so look, so what do those dollars do? Well, let me give you a few examples of what those dollars do. First, they keep missionaries in all these different regions. We have missionaries that live in Asia, in India, the Middle East, Europe, Africa, Latin America, South America, and North America. So we've got a large portion of those dollars that are going to human beings that are living in these different countries. And they're helping to facilitate Kingdom Builder dollars into planting churches, training pastors, rescuing people, responding to natural disasters. I mean, they're there helping to share the good news of Jesus around the world.
Okay. So that's one of it. But on top of that, some of those dollars went to help feeding starving children around the world. We invested tens of thousands of dollars into feeding starving children, helping them. People that have been affected by natural disasters, both here in America and around the world. We rescued churches in America before they closed. In fact, last year, we were a part of rescuing around five churches in America before they closed. So the doors did not close in that church, and those churches are getting trained and equipped to come back alive so that a light, the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ can be shared in those communities instead of it going out. I think that's what Kingdom Builders is about.
You came alongside pastors, and you trained pastors to be better leaders here in America, in Nebraska, and around the world. That's what some of those dollars went for. You showed the love of Jesus to abused, neglected, and abandoned children. You rescued women from sex trafficking in different places around the world. You paid, you helped to pay the electric bill, the gas bill, and the rent for many, many people who live near one of our campuses who have been struggling over this past year. You also came alongside, and you helped to subsidize professional Christ-centered counseling for those who couldn't afford it but needed it through our CityCare Counseling Center.
You shared the grace and the love of Jesus with junior high students, with high school students, and with college students all across America through missionaries that we empower that are designated to high schools and colleges in different places in America. You empowered young adults in El Salvador to chase after their God-given dream so that they can become who God called them to be and be able to afford to go to college so that they can help to fund the local church in El Salvador for generations to come. That was one of the things that you helped to fund, and we provided a way for adults that are addicted to drugs, alcohol, sex, pornography, prostitution, whatever it is that you came alongside. Hundreds and hundreds of adults who are trying to find freedom in Jesus' name and find freedom from their addiction.
And because of your generosity through Kingdom Builders, we've partnered with organizations like that here in America and different places around the world to help people find freedom in Jesus' name. Guys, that's just some of what your Kingdom Builder giving has been going to, and that's encouraging already, isn't it? Right. On top of that, your Kingdom Builder giving went to help us launch a brand new campus in El Salvador. And that's what we're doing in Holdridge this past September, and that's exciting. Yeah. Yeah. And right now in Holdridge, there's probably either 160 to 175 people that are going crazy cheering. And there's, look at this, watch this. There's many of them. I don't even know right now the exact number. There's many of them that are newly a part of the Holdridge campus that were not attending church anywhere.
And I'm looking right into that camera, and I'm looking right into your eyes. And I'm letting you know in Holdridge that we believe in you, and we believe in what God's doing in your life. We're thankful for the amount of people that have found Jesus. We're thankful for the amount of people that have gotten baptized. We're thankful for the life change that's happening there. And through Kingdom Builders, we're able to plant campuses that bring this kind of life and have restored marriages and restored families. And guys, if you're a Kingdom Builder, you've been a part of that.
Now, on top of that, because you gave above and beyond, because you gave more than what we actually had vision for, then we were able to do a few extra things. We were able to actually partner with some people in Cuba who had a vision to start a women's addiction center where they're helping women get freedom, in Jesus' name, from drugs, alcohol, and prostitution. I was just there and shot a quick video with my iPhone, and I just thought I wanted you to see the impact of your generosity through Kingdom Builders at work in Cuba.
Check this out. Down here in Cuba at the Teen Challenge Women's Center. This is brand new. It just got built because of your generosity. We sent down thousands and thousands of dollars. They've got six women in here that are recovering from alcoholism, drugs, prostitution, and they're finding hope through Jesus Christ. It is so good. I wish you could be here to see this because these women are so thankful for the freedom that they're experiencing. And it's all because of your generosity. How cool is that? So right now, it can hold six, but they've got room on the inside to make it 16. So soon, because of your generosity, 16 women are going to be finding freedom in Jesus' name. Thank you, Kingdom Builders, for doing that.
I want you to hear from their directors, Juan and Yvonne. Wow. I'll tell you what, it moved my heart to be down there. And when I was getting ready to leave, one of the women yelled out, you know, thank you. Basically, through the interpreter, please tell your church, thank you. My life is being changed. My life is being changed. So she wanted me to pass that on to you. And then her last request to me was, the next time you come back, please, please bring cheeseburgers and milkshakes. And I was like, no joke. That's exactly what she said. My life is being changed. Tell your church, thank you. And the next time you come, bring cheeseburgers and milkshakes.
Okay. All right. So maybe some of our Kingdom Builder dollars will have to figure out how to make that happen in Cuba. I have no idea. But on top of that, some of the other bonus things that we were able to do was we were able to partner with a pastor who has become a friend of mine, Pastor Daryl Baker in Columbus, Ohio. He's planting a church called Change City Church. And he's going to be a pastor. And he's going to be a pastor. And he's church. I met Pastor Daryl through some pastor training about a year and a half ago. And we just hit it off. And we became brothers. And we both say to each other, we're brothers from another mother. And man, he is one cool dude. And they are getting ready to go live. They've got the launch team. And they're getting ready to go live. And man, we just sent them another $10,000 just to help them get that church off the ground.
So you guys, through Kingdom Builders, you have no idea the amount of people that are finding Jesus because of your generosity. You'll never know until the day you stand in heaven. So I'm just letting you know, Kingdom Builders is not just a fund where money goes and then it's a slush fund. We use it for whatever we want to. No, that's not what it is at all. It is a fund where we give so that others can discover the freedom that we have in Jesus' name.
So in 2025, what's going to be the goal? What is going to be the goal? Well, this is the goal we sense in our heart. We want to raise $640,287. $640,287. Now, here's what that means, okay? Here's what that means. That's the goal we're going after. All of that goal is wrapped up in this Kingdom Builder book right here. In fact, that number is in the back of the book. And if you have one of these books, then please just grab it for a second. I just want you to look at it because number one, this is a pretty stinking cool cover, right? And there's a reason. There's a reason why we invest into things like this book.
First and foremost, in this book, it casts the vision for what Kingdom Builders is. Kingdom Builders has three main focuses to it. Global outreach, okay? Everything happening around the world, things happening in Cuba. Local church expansion, like church planting, like our own campus in Holdridge, or pastoring with my friend, Pastor Daryl Baker, to plant that Change City Church in the Columbus, Ohio area. But it also involves future Christian leaders. And future Christian leaders are those who we're trying to pour into the next generation, our children, our youth, our college, our young adults, who are going to be future missionaries and future pastors. Like who's going to take my spot? Who's going to take Daniel Irizarry's spot, the missionary to Cuba? Somebody's got to take their spot. Somebody's got to come alongside. Somebody's got to catch the vision for that.
And so we come alongside them and we go future Christian leaders. In this book, you're going to see it's broken into those three sections. But we've also reached out to some of our Kingdom Builder partners and we've kind of turned it into not just a project guide, but we turned it into kind of a Kingdom Builder magazine. And in here there are some articles. Don't read them now, but there are some articles from some of our Kingdom Builder partners. There's brief descriptions of each one of our missionaries and partners so that you have a little idea of what they do. We designed it to be something that's attractive.
And here's what I want you to do with this. I want you to put this like on your coffee table at your house. Put it someplace where you're going to see it on a regular basis. Put it someplace where people that come over are going to see it. It will create incredible conversations for you, right? But the other reason why I want you to put it out is because in the very, very back of the Kingdom Builder book, if you just open it up to the back, flip one page, you're going to see that it says prayer guide. And in the prayer guide, we have taken every single one of our partners and we put them there with a little box next to it. And really what this then becomes throughout 2025 it becomes an instrument that you get to use for prayer. We'll talk more about that.
So here's a fun fact. Over the past three years at New Life Church, your Kingdom Builder giving and generosity has allowed us to be able to see Kingdom Builder partners impacted to the tune of $1.8 million. Over the past three years. That's not a small amount of money. $1.8 million as business partners. That's not a small amount of money. When I think about $1.8 million, I think about 1.8 million souls. When I give to Kingdom Builders, right? And maybe better said through Kingdom Builders. When Kim and I do, we equate every dollar to a soul. See, that allows me to give with generosity. It allows me to give with great Christ-centered purposefulness. It allows me to really attach a face to it, a heart to it, and realize that it's a great gift.
And when I give to Kingdom Builders, it allows me to give with grace. And I realize that, man, my giving is going not to a program. My giving is going to advance the good news of Jesus in the hearts of many people around the world. So $1.8 million over the last three years. So I would just say this, like, don't miss it, right? Don't miss out. If you're not a Kingdom Builder, jump in and become a Kingdom Builder here at New Life Church. But why would you want to do that?
Well, when Jesus came, guys, you need to know something about the mission of Jesus. When Jesus came, he came to build the Kingdom of God in the heart of people. That's what he did. In fact, listen to what Jesus said to a group of people who wanted to keep Jesus for themselves. They experienced the ministry of Jesus, and they didn't want to let him go. They wanted him to become their pastor. They wanted him to stay right there in their little community. Listen to what he said in Luke chapter 4, verse 43. Jesus said this, "I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God in what? In other towns too." Why? Because that is why I was sent.
This is what a kingdom builder does. A kingdom builder comes alongside what Jesus started and said, it's not just about me. Christianity is not just about me. Everything I've been given in this world is not just for my own selfish pleasure. Just like Jesus said, look, it would be very comfortable to stay here with you in this beautiful, wonderful town, you know, with beautiful, wonderful people, but that's not what I've been called to do. I've been called to take the good news of the gospel to the ends of the earth, to every people in every single town. And that's what we're here for. We're continuing. We're walking in the footsteps of Jesus as we continue to share the love of Jesus with everyone.
When we don't just care about ourselves, when we care about what God cares about, which is humanity in his heart. And here's what Jesus does. Jesus invites you to join him in that mission. I want you to remember what Jesus said to the very first followers of his. When he came to Peter and to Andrew along a beach shore on the Sea of Galilee, in Matthew chapter 4, verse 19, Jesus said this, he says, "Look guys, come follow me," right? Now look very carefully at the next couple of words, right? "And I," Jesus says, "I will show you how to fish for people." I will do it. Meaning this, you don't know how to fish for people, or better said, you don't know how to be a kingdom builder. You don't know the first step of being a kingdom builder, but I will show you what it means to be a kingdom builder.
You right now, Peter and Andrew, everything revolves around you. Everything is self-centered around you, but I will show you a different way to live. Because guys, I'm going to tell you right now, left to our own demise, we become me-centered. It's through the love and the grace of Jesus Christ that we become others-centered. This is part of the work. Jesus says, there's something that you can't do on your own, but I will show you how to do it. So being a kingdom builder requires sacrifice. I'm not going to pull the punt. I'm not going to make it easy. I'm not going to tell you like, oh, it's just, it's awesome. It's so simple. No, it's not simple to be a kingdom builder.
To be a kingdom builder or a person that follows in the mission or the footsteps of Jesus is not easy. It requires sacrifice. It's going to stretch you. It's beyond what you can do on your own. And it's going to require for you to allow faith to increase within you. It is not easy. It's not the easy road. Being a follower of Jesus and walking in his footsteps and being a kingdom builder is not the easy road, but it is the road Jesus calls us to go on when he says, still to this day, "Come follow me." And for those of you who said, "Yes, I will follow you, Jesus." Jesus said, "Good, you don't know what comes next, but I will show you what comes next. I will show you what it looks like to sacrifice. I will show you what it looks like to put others first. I will show you what it looks like to seek my heart for this world."
So Jesus said, Jesus promised, "I will show you how to do it." So then he goes on a journey with his disciples, which is a journey for you and me to glean from. He goes on a journey of three and a half years of ministry, showing them what it looks like to be a kingdom builder all the way until the day he ascends into heaven. You know what the last words of Jesus are as he's getting ready to ascend into heaven before he comes back for us again? It was Acts chapter one, verse eight, which is the theme verse, by the way, of our Kingdom Builder book. If you want to know why is fire consuming the earth, we're not trying to destroy the earth here, all right? Just want to show you. I wanted to let you know that. This is not apocalyptic, all right? This represents the fire of the Holy Spirit that rested upon the disciples as they sought after the Lord in Acts chapter two, right?
And here's the reason why, because Acts chapter one, verse eight, Jesus said these words, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere," meaning I will show you, I will now empower you. I've showed you how to fish for men, and now I will empower you to fish for the hearts of men. Where? In Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. The power of the Holy Spirit, guys, is our fuel to be a kingdom builder. And without the power of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives, we cannot overcome the sacrifice. We cannot break out of a me-centered Christianity. The power of the Holy Spirit helps us to break free from these things and helps us to really capture God's heart for the world.
That's what the power of the Holy Spirit is at work doing within you. Why? Because it's beyond you and me. It's beyond us, but the Holy Spirit empowers us to do it. And then through that empowerment, the Holy Spirit teaches us obedience to him so that we know exactly what we are to do. So let me just make it super clear. The Holy Spirit empowers you to be a kingdom builder in three practical ways. The first one is he empowers you to pray. And that's why in this project guide, we made sure to incorporate prayer into it. And I want you to use it for that because this is what a kingdom builder does. A kingdom builder captures the heart of God and they start to pray for missionaries. They start to pray for all of our collective dollars at work. That $640,000 that we're wanting to raise and invest and give away. We already know where it's gonna go. If you give it, we're gonna send it.
Right? A kingdom builder prays for every one of those dollars to be impactful and meaningful and useful and not to be wasted. A kingdom builder prays for the missionaries, prays for those dollars, prays for the joy that people would experience through their giving. A kingdom builder also prays for those who are going on foreign or local trips. A kingdom builder prays. And Jesus is the one who taught us how to pray. He taught us about this kind of prayer even in Matthew chapter 6, verse 10 when he said these words. "Hey, look, let me teach you how to pray. Pray this way. May your kingdom, God, Father, may your kingdom come soon and may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
Here's what he was praying. May the kingdom of God come and rest in the hearts of people all around the known world. That's what a kingdom builder does. A kingdom builder cares about the salvation of others they've never met before. So they pray because they can't always be in front of everyone. A kingdom builder cares about the destination of people's souls, that they would spend eternity with them. They would spend eternity with them. They would spend eternity with God in heaven instead of separated from God in hell for eternity. That's why a kingdom builder prays for souls to be saved here in Nebraska and to the ends of the earth.
But a kingdom builder also, secondly, they give. They give. Kingdom builder first starts by giving of the tithe. 10% of what God has blessed us with as an offering, a sacrifice back to God saying, "God, thank you for what you have given me." And then on top of that, a kingdom builder then decides to become generous in their giving. Because see, tithe is what I would call obedience to God. Okay, it's obedience to God, but kingdom building, it becomes generous to God. And God actually talks about the tithe in Malachi chapter 3, verse 10 when he says this, "Hey, look, bring all the tithe, which literally means 10%, into the storehouse or into, like, into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my temple. So the storehouse becomes the church, right? If you do, says the Lord of heaven's armies, here's what God promises to do. I'll open up the windows of heaven for you and I'll pour out a blessing so great that you won't have enough room to take it in. Then watch this. Only time in scripture it says it. Hey, try it. Try it. Put me to the test, God says.
So what does a kingdom builder do? A kingdom builder decides I'm going to break the 10th of what God has blessed me with. I'm going to bring it to the local church so that things can happen at the local church, like pastors get paid, electric bills get paid, ministry happens here with youth and children and all kinds of other things. Tithe, right? It helps us make sure that you can actually hear me right now, right? Through a sound system. You can see me with the lights on. Like, you can sit in a chair. Like, all those things are very good. I think you probably appreciate those. All right? Maybe not hearing me all the time, but I get it. I understand. All right. I get it. I understand.
And then on top of that, then the kingdom builder goes, man, I want to be generous. So watch this. Like, look, here, this is what happens. When you give in that biblical mindset, here's what happens inside of you. God starts to develop, he starts to develop his kingdom in you. Why am I talking about money right now? For some of you, it's awkward to talk about money. It's not awkward for me. And here's the reason why I'm talking about money right now. Why it's not awkward. Because I don't feel like I'm really talking about money when I'm talking about money. I feel like I'm really talking more about my heart and about your heart than I am talking about money.
Because when we give biblically, like God teaches us to, then God gets a piece of our heart and he gets to transform us and he gets to put his kingdom inside of us. And then watch what happens. When he puts his kingdom inside of you, then you can become a kingdom builder. We want to go do something for God. And God's like, before you go do something for me, I want to do something in you. But to do something in you, I have to own your heart. And how does God own our heart? He owns our heart through the tithe. Then we can become a kingdom builder. Then we can go do something with God. See, that's the way it works. He always works on your heart first so that you can partner with him.
So if you want to experience like a spiritual revival in your heart in 2025, align yourself biblically with God's plan for giving. And I'm telling you right now, you'll start to discover a spiritual revival in your heart. I'm not going to promise you that God's going to fill your bank account because that would be false teaching. But what I can promise you is that God's going to fill your heart with incredible joy and with a closeness with him that you have not experienced in a long time because that is biblical truth.
So do you want spiritual revival to happen in your life? Align yourself with what God's doing. Our children are doing it. Did you realize that kingdom builders goes all the way down to children? That our children are taught to be kingdom builders at New Life Kids? This is cool. Every single year, we set a goal for our children. We set a goal for our children. We set a goal for our all of our kids ministry.
Hey, kids, raise $2,000 and be a kingdom builder and we'll send it somewhere around the world, right? Our kids have never hit that goal. That's right, right? And you know, we all know where that money comes from. It comes from you, all right? We get it. We get it, all right? We get it. So the kids, they've never hit that goal, all right, until this past year. Pastor Michaela, she decided in kids ministry all across New Life, we are going to get more aggressive. Being kingdom builders. And so she started casting the vision for it. And kids got excited. Kids started giving. And we launched that brand new campus in Holdridge in September.
Well, September, October, November, December comes and the kids at the brand new campus in Holdridge raised $50 all by themselves. And I thought to myself, this is super cool. So in 2024, New Life Kids actually brought in, not $2,000, they brought in $2,525. And the kids were ecstatic and excited. And they celebrated that they took money out of mom and dad's pocket and gave it to the Lord. Some of you didn't even know you were being generous. But your kids forced you to be. I love the faith that's happening in our kids. So all the way from our kids, if you're a kid at New Life, you're a kingdom builder. Youth, you're a kingdom builder. College, you're a kingdom builder, right? That's just what we do. Instilling that into the hearts of people.
Why? Because I want you to be a part of sharing the love of God around the world. That's what I want. I want you to share the practical love of Jesus around the world. Listen to what God says about this point in 1 John 3, verse 16 through 18. He says that we know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion, how can God's love be in that person? Dear children, let's not merely say that we love each other. Let us show the truth by our actions.
Why do we give? We give because Jesus first gave to us with the beautiful, wonderful, incredible sacrifice of his life on the cross. Then what does he give us the capability of doing? Partnering with him through compassion and showing true acts of love. Acts of love to others. It's not just good enough that we say we love one another. It's about our actions. Remember that verse 18? Remember what verse 18 said? Take a look at it. Like, let's not merely say that we love each other. Let's do something about it.
So that's why a kingdom builder gives. Lastly, though, a kingdom builder does one more thing. They go. I want to make it super clear to you that... The first thing that we do as kingdom builders is that we take the good news of Jesus to the community that we live in. We go there first before we go to the ends of the earth. We're not going to be a church that pats ourselves on the back for what we do around the world while we say to our local community, you can go to hell. That's not us. That happens at other places, but that's not New Life. New Life first starts with we're going to love you in our backyard, and out of the integrity of doing that, then we will go to heaven.
That's not us. That's not us. That's not us. That's not us. We'll go and love people at the ends of the earth. So I want to let you know, like, next week, I'm giving you an opportunity to go, all right? We're doing this thing called Jersey Sunday. By the way, Super Bowl Sunday, whether you like football or not, is not the issue, okay? It's not a Super Bowl party. It's a Jersey Sunday. Here's what that means. Some of you, you disgust me, but you fit into your high school jersey still. I can't even get close to it. You don't even want in a high school jersey. There's way too much of me that's going to be showing in a high school jersey. Is anybody else with me?
Okay. All right. But man, some of you do, and you wear them. Others of you, man, you've got grandchildren that are in sports. You put on their jersey. Others of you, you put on a professional jersey from a football team, a hockey team, a basketball team, whatever, right? A badminton team. I don't know. You wear whatever jersey you want to wear. Did you know that what we do with this kind of a Sunday is just to have fun? Then we preach a message of hope, okay? And next week, I'm going to preach a message of hope. I'm going to preach an evangelistic message that's going to give people the opportunity to surrender to Jesus.
Listen to this. Statistically, over the last few years, here's what we discovered. More men show up to church, right, per capita on Jersey Sunday than any other Sunday. Why? Because right now some of your husbands are at home and they're hearing about Jersey Sunday this week and they're going, what? I get to wear my chief's jersey to church? I'm going, absolutely. Like men look for any reason to wear a jersey, all right, someplace. And we give them that opportunity. And there's a lot of women in the same boat. But I'm just saying that more men, more men per capita show up on Jersey Sunday than, watch this, than who surrenders their life to Jesus more than anyone else. Men on Jersey Sunday.
And here's what we want. We want a church that is full of men that are passionate for Jesus. We want a church full of women that are passionate for Jesus as well. But we want homes that are led by moms and dads, both, not just one, by both that are passionate for Jesus. And so we do things like Jersey Sunday to give you an easy opportunity to invite, meaning an easy opportunity to go. So please take advantage of that, will you? It's the power of the invite.
Let's just practice something really quick at all campuses really fast, all right? Look, if you've been invited, right, if you've been invited by somebody to come to this church in the last, let's say, six months, six months, you were invited by someone to come to this church and you're here today, would you just put your hand up in the past six months? Just put your hand up and hold it up at all campuses right now, at all campuses, right? We got people right here in this service at a couple of different places up in our loft, up here in the front. And I guarantee we got people at other campuses. And somebody invited you guys. And those people who invited you are my heroes, right?
Like right here, at our campus, are you the one that invited them? Oh, see, right here at our campus, I know you guys can't see them, but sitting right here in the second row, which might as well be the first row because no one's sitting in the first row other than my wife and Pastor Chris. They're sitting in the first acceptable row. We've got the person that invited them and the person that came. You guys are heroes of mine. Thank you so much for inviting your friends. Thank you.
Jesus said it simply this way in Matthew 28. He goes, "Go and make disciples of all nations." Go. Sign up for go trips. We got go trips that are coming out. Now, you can go and invite people to Jersey Sunday, but also go overseas when you're given the opportunity. Like, El Salvador's full. Cuba's full. So, what are we doing? We're scrambling right now, working on some other missions opportunities, some go trips. And so, you're getting ready to hear Romania's going to roll out. The Philippines is getting ready to roll out. And we went back to the drawing board and we're starting to work on an Israel go trip all over again. And we're believing that maybe... will be able to do that in 2026. You'll hear more about that.
So what does a kingdom builder do? A kingdom builder goes. So what are the three basic things that it means to be a kingdom builder? You pray, you give, and you go. So what I want you to do is I want you to really quickly just take out this commitment card with me really fast. This commitment card is just a simple way for you to join with the rest of our church and be a kingdom builder. And I want to encourage every single one of you, every single household, to do something.
I don't know what you can do. For some of you, you can give thousands. Others can give hundreds. And others can give tens. It's not really right now about the amount as it is about I want to just align myself with what biblical giving is. I want to just align myself with what biblical giving is. I want to honor God with a tithe, but I want to be generous. I want to be a part of these lives being changed. Guys, we can't do it without you. We can't do it without all of us doing our little part and going, "God, I'm doing this to you. I'm wanting more people to find Jesus and lives changed."
And so you can scan the QR code that's on the commitment card or that's on the screen, or you can fill out the little portion at the bottom, and this perforates. So you can fill out the little bottom portion. You can take it, put your name on it, whatever. You can go digitally and fill it out. If you do the card at the bottom, then all I'm going to ask you to do is drop that in the white offering bucket on your way out of the doors today. If you'll do that, that will really help us.
Lastly, I want you to know that I get it, that when you cast a vision like this, sometimes you're not ready to make the commitment. And if you're not, that's totally cool. For the rest of this month, the month of February, we're going to be receiving Kingdom Builder commitments. Now, for some of you, I know the way you think. You're like, well, we just already give. We don't really need to fill it out. No, I think it's good for you to fill it out because I think there's a couple of things that helps with that. Number one, you're renewing the commitment to God. And number two, I just want you to know that it's an encouragement. It's an encouragement.
I don't know how much you're going to give. I'll never really know how much you're going to give. But it's encouragement to me when I see the list of names of people that are going, I want to be a Kingdom Builder. I won't know your amount, but I want to get like a list at some point. And not because I'm checking it twice, going to find out who's naughty or nice. That's Santa Claus's job. I want to be able to pray with you. That's what I do. I just pray. I pray with Kingdom Builders that God would just do something amazing in your heart.
So again, just it's a way to make a commitment to the Lord. And man, it's a way that I get a chance to pray with you. So please let us know. Let us know what you got, what you sense God's stirring in your heart. And let's do this together. Let's change the world one soul at a time as we pray and as we give and as we go. Amen.
Why don't you stand with me? Lord, I'm just going to take a moment here. I'm going to pray with this congregation, and I'm asking that, Lord, this congregation would catch your heart, not my heart, your heart. They would understand your principles. They would understand your word, that they would partner with you more than they're doing anything else. They would partner with you to see your kingdom come and your will done here on this earth.
Lord, we believe there's so much more to do, but there's such a little bit of time to do it. Lord, you're coming back quickly. Quickly. You're not delaying in your coming back. You're being grace-filled in your coming back. You want more people to know who Jesus is. This is the way we partner with you. So between now and the time you return for your church, we want to share the good news of Jesus with as many people as possible. Kingdom Builders is the way we do that.
So, Lord, would you speak to the hearts of every single person who calls themselves a New Lifer, and would you put into their heart, Lord, a value, a peace, a number of what can they do? How can they be a part of what you're doing? And then they can become faithful to that. And their faithfulness is first to you and what you're doing, but then they would experience the joy as we celebrate our giving at work throughout the year of 2025.
Lord, speak to our hearts. We want to build your kingdom. You left us here on this earth to build your kingdom, not ours. And we want to build your kingdom in Jesus' name. And everybody said, amen.
on Feb 02, 2025
