God has More | Pastor Grant Ethridge | Liberty Live Church

When I was in middle school, I found a room in our church that I did not know existed. [MUSIC PLAYING] There was an archive room of all the pivotal moments in the history of the church. There were architectural drawings of every building we've ever built. All the pastors and congregations through the years. There were original books of the first members in Liberty's history. There were old projector slides and pictures of all these moments in the life of the church. There are relics up there that no one has seen in decades. If you could think of an important moment in the life of our church, it's archived in that room. Over the years, I found myself drawn to that room over and over again. It's like every time I would go, I would unlock another piece of the church's history or a moment in our past. What I found in that room was the faithfulness of all the generations who had gone before us. What I found was the story of how God's moved over the last 125 years. And as I went on a journey to discover what God's done in the past, it showed me something about how God wants to move right now today. I was asked to come on staff at Liberty in April of 1986. So I have been here 40 years last month. See if he recommends do that.

Oh, yeah. Who are those young guys? This guy, he's an old, decrepit guy, and I can't remember. He's knee-hardling. [LAUGHS] That'd be me. See, I've got to put on glasses now to do this. How are you going to be looking at pictures? This is Barry Hobbs' Sunday School class in 1982. Unfortunately, Barry left. And I became the interim teacher of that class. So I never actually was asked to be a teacher at this school, at this church. And so I'm still an interim teacher. For the last 45 years, I've been an interim teacher here. I claim to fame, but yeah, all these are all great people that are-- many of them still good friends, so it's great. [MUSIC PLAYING] Well, Bonnie and I came to Liberty in 1968. I was 22 years old, and Bonnie was 21 years old. Pastor King loved people. He knew every member by name. He visited everyone when we went to the hospital. No matter who they were, he was a good preacher. It was east to Sunday that he passed away. In 1972, he was preaching. He fell to the floor. He pulled himself back up from the floor, held him to the podium, and said, go and tell. And that's what his message was for, is to go and tell.

Then he dropped to the floor again, and he went to be home with the Lord. So when we first came, Pastor Wilder was here. You know, the things that I remember about Pastor Wilder, he was just all about the Bible. He was the Bible. He was the Bible. He was the Bible. He wasn't in the Bible. He wasn't important. We were going to follow the Bible. And if you seek hell and fast, all the estates, he said, will be added to you. We were not going to be able to grow on three and a half acres on Todd's Lane. If we were going to grow, as a Lord had called us, we were not going to do it in the location we were in. I was teaching son school class at that time over in the Family Life Center, and I I take three steps to the left, and all of a sudden, the ceiling falls down right where I was standing. It collapses. The room had leaked water, and all of the stuff in the ceiling had just collapsed. And my comment was, I guess, it's time for us to move. Then we heard about the relocation vision, and we discovered something about the heart of Liberty Badmister. We all knew and we united the fact that we had to relocate. There was no way we could do all the things

that we wanted to do, and still be able to stay in this property, so we had to relocate. We agreed that we needed to get at least 30 acres of land. If we didn't get 30 acres of land, there's no way we could accomplish what we wanted to do. We asked the Church to set aside a committee to begin searching for 30 acres of land. We also felt that we should begin to hire a market deck. As soon as the land was acquired, they began to construct you as soon as possible. There was four homes on the property, so we just want the houses and the land attached to the property, and the back 24 acres was one farm that had 14 heirs. 13 of them were very easy to get signed. It took me about a year to run the last air down to get him to sign off on the property, and we were able to purchase those 24 acres, too, so gave us a total of a little bit over 46 acres. I had the privilege, because I came on staff at that time, to be a part of acquiring all of the land that we sit on today. You know, we had had the campaign of claiming Canaan, and that was Canaan. That's the day we marched over to claim Canaan. I remember very well, I got the picture right out there myself, and it was a day of celebration when we went over there. Some people were in wheelchairs, some people were walking, and it was just an exciting time to go over there.

When we walked over and we got to that new place, they had used chalk to outline where the building would be, set up chairs where the pews would be, and we all sat there and prayed together. That, to me, was the most impactful, because there you could see the vision. You could see it, right? You could see it, you could feel it. Can I ask, have all three of you been on a portion of that walk since that day? You know, watching the facilities go up. It brought me to my knees. Here at the Destruction site from Liberty Baptist Church, one of these days we'll have a building up here, or something like that. They're emotional, thank you, Patrick. ♪♪ There were a lot of senior adults in the relocation, right? And the senior adults said, "We need to do this for the next generation." They weren't about, "Oh, no, we need to preserve our thing. We need to make sure our stuff is taken care of now." And I was a young person at the time. They said, "No, we need to do this for you." That was incredible blessing. So we need to think the same way. What are we doing for the next generation? What are we doing from moving forward, right? And they had that vision for us. We needed to make sure we had that vision for the next generation.

Our prayer for Liberty Baptist Church is that such good days and years to come, the commentary on your life would not lead. Well, we pushed a few marbles around, and we did what only Amanda could do. My prayer for you is this today, that all we moved about is in the name of Jesus. We had the faith, we persevered, and God Almighty. - Well, good morning, Liberty. Can we just thank God for his faithfulness? Come on, you can do better than that. Thank God for those who came before us. Amen? Hallelujah. The Lord is so good. And we are standing on the shoulders of those who came before us. They laid down their lives for our Lord because he laid down his life for us. And I'm not saying they died as a martyr, no, I'm saying they gave their life a living sacrifice. And we're here today because of their faith and because of their commitment. I want you to know that you and I are here not by accident. It may be your very first day at one of our campuses, your first day to join us on line. No one is here by accident. The church first contacted us in 1999. And then again in 2005 and then again in 2006. The difference in 2006,

God began to speak to us through our devotions that he wanted us to come. But it was not a good time. Have you ever said God is not a good time? It was not a good time. And it may be that today as you hear the new vision that we're God's leading us and the more initiative, you say, God, it's just not a good time for me or my family. Can I tell you that God's plan and his timing is better than our plan and our timing? Let me put it to you in a way you could receive it. God's plan is better than our stupidity, amen. See, my wife Tammy had been diagnosed with a brain tumor December of 2005. And then she had a surgery. They first told us it was inoperable. Then she had a surgery 14 hours. They removed 80% of it. 20% they were gonna go back and treat with gamma knife. And so she could not come to Virginia. So the search committee came to Arkansas. We had been there 19 and a half years. They ate in our home. We met for three days and God confirmed to all of us that it was his will for us to come to Liberty. And we agreed to come. I remember it was in July. And on Tuesday of that week, we were to be here in view of a call.

Tammy woke up and she was weak and she began to cry. And she said, I don't think I can make the journey. I'm too weak. And I said, well, baby, I don't wanna go. I've been here 19 and a half years. Who wants to leave it 19 and a half years? You wanna make 20 plus years, right? It's the only home that our children had known. It was a miracle church. And so I said, I'm gonna call and tell them that we're not coming. But as we sat there and she was crying, I said, the only reason that we agreed to was our devotion. Let's see what our devotion is today. And our devotion on that Tuesday morning was Jeremiah 1-7. And the old King James, it says, wherever I send thee, thou shalt go. And I want you to, it doesn't get any clearer than that. We dried up the tears we came. We really believed if we didn't, God would kill us. I'm serious, you're laughing, we worked. And we came. And they were meeting, this was a gravel parking lot. And we went into the dining hall where they had worship, and we went to the altar, and we said, God, we came out of obedience. And in faith like Abraham to a place we've never stepped foot in. And we said, we're reporting for duty. And I want you to know that God blessed that obedience.

When you hear about the history of our church, it started with 38 members, right? And two of the 38 had the last name, Etheridge. My brother has just done our family history about a year ago. And we found out that we came from England, back in the 1500s. He strays it back to 1490, I believe. We came from England to Virginia. I never knew that about a year ago. And then Pastor Daniel began to take that research from my brother and look at these two members who had the last name, Etheridge. And he sent me a text. And I wanna read to you the text that he sent me. Thomas Etheridge, 1604 to 1671, settled in Virginia. And in 1647, he was granted land in tidewater. One of his sons, Marmaduke, I told my children, they better be glad I didn't know that, I didn't name them Marmaduke. One of them anyway. One of the sons, Marmaduke, moved to North Carolina, and his family went on to South Carolina in Georgia, where I was born. He is the sixth great-grandfather of Alton Etheridge. That's my dad. His other children stayed in tidewater and became the direct line of Jesse Leonard Etheridge, 1860 to 1948. became Liberty Life Church. Now, the God's story is this, back in about 1996, I was reading my one-year Bible, and I read where God told Jacob, "Go back to the land of your fathers, and I will be with

you." It so shook me. I ran in the bedroom where Tammy was getting ready for the day, and I said, "Babe, I think we're going back to Georgia. Alice told me we're going back to the land of our fathers." Well, 30 years later, God has revealed to me now, as we look at the history of our church, that God was sending me to a church that two of my ancestors helped to start. And I want you to know, I tell that story for one reason. That is to remind you, no one is here by accident. If you're here and you've been here for years, it's your very first day. No one is here by accident. God brought us together. And we have put together a special book for this new sermon series and the More Initiatives. I want ushers to come at every campus. Every campus of our ushers will come, and we're going to pass out these books. I'll tell you more about them, but right now, while they're passing them out, I want you to turn your attention to the screens as the episode two of our history. Yes, oh, wow, yeah, look at all that hair, back when we used to wear ties, yeah, oh, yeah, so, yes, remember this day. The early years with Pastor Grant, I saw immediately that this was a difficult decision. They were considering it only by seeking God, only if it was God's plan. They didn't want to come here apart from him sending them. He can do it in your life because he wants to do a work in us. He wants to do exceedingly and abundantly in us. I was praying that God would transfer all of that love and care and concern over to the Liberty family. And so in the early days, I saw him embrace our church history that meant so much to us. He did not just come in and be the pastor and this is how it's going to be what we saw. He took time. History is a very important part.

He didn't just throw away the past and say, you know, this is a new Liberty. He embraced the history and even today as we're talking now about the history, it's, you know, he's still just embracing that and talking about it and not just throwing it away. We understand that the 38 people who met 111 years ago to form a new church called Liberty Baptist Church had no way of knowing the way of being able to fathom or see or envision this moment in time. It was so overwhelmingly obvious that he was the right person for who he needed at this time that we all got aboard very quickly. This pastor, Grant, got here, you could see the direction of the church that Liberty was changing and we were meeting the entire community. They're bringing chairs out because people are still coming in and we're so grateful that you're here. So I've been here six weeks and they said we're going to have the annual picnic and I said, what is that? Peter and BBQ Mill, we met out in the ball field and I remember sitting in the office and just praying, God, give me a name for it. And I realized as I was looking through magazines of Hampton Roads, everything's a festival. So I said, let's take the name of the church and let's call it Liberty Fest. God has something for everyone that they can do for the glory of God. I preached that one Sunday before the annual picnic. I preached that passage going to highways and hedges and compelling to come that my house made me full. I called it Fill My House. So the invitation that day was on your way out, get four tickets and give it to four un-church or unsafe friends. And the most that ever happens, 1800, we'd put a stage, we'd put a thousand chairs out, I put a praise band there and we said, we're going to have a true simulcast. And sure enough, that morning, the next Sunday, I said 1800, they had about 4,000 people. 1256 district cards were turned to you. do across the bridges and the tunnels and that's really how multi-sites came in to be.

Liberty is one church that is multi-generational, multicultural, and now multi-site. And today is grand opening of our campus in Williamsburg Liberty at Smithfield Liberty Greenbriar. Praise God Liberty at Gloucester. Would you praise God? The chairman of the committee was a man by the name of Art Leary. Art was probably the 70s at the time. He asked me my first week here. He said pastor, he said what's your vision for the church? I said I just got here. I said I'm praying. I'm asking God to give it to me and I'll never forget his response. He said as I pray about it, I think we can run over 20,000. He was right because looking back on it now, I didn't know what God was going to do with multi-sites. And so he has proven to be right and God let him see it even before I could see it. And he went to glory. He was 90 years old. And I remember him being at groundbreaking in a wheelchair for the Smithfield campus. And so it's just so neat that God let him live long enough to see it. One church in many locations. You can go to one campus and feel that you're at your home campus and then go to another campus and feel that you're at the main campus. And even seeing people in the community, when you see that Liberty sticker on the back of somebody's vehicle, we always, hey, what campus do you go to? Hey, what campus do you go to? Because that connection is even out there outside of the walls of Liberty. I feel like when we're in the stores and in the neighborhoods, and when we see a Liberty tag, we're at home. Hey, they go to Liberty too. I believe that we first started coming to Liberty in 1988. Seeing what Liberty has become, I would never, never have imagined that when I was a teenager here. Maybe back in the 80s, I thought because Pastor Grant had done a television ministry in Arkansas that maybe that's where we were headed. But I would have never, we didn't know about all these multi-sights and how he was going to take the gospel to Hampton Roads and all these cities with physical locations all around. We could have never imagined that. It's an exciting new day at Liberty for 113 years. Liberty has been changing lives, communities in the world. I never dreamed that this is where we would be today, and I have to say like I'm probably not a person of vision, but that's why I need the leadership of a pastor like Pastor Grant, but to get to move into the multi-site era of Liberty Live and get to see this continuing on, and it's beyond anything that I could have imagined or thought, but it's so wonderful to get to just be a part. I feel like in a wonderful way, I'm just like swept up in something that's moving along, and I just get to be, you said it a minute ago, I just get to be a part of it.

We're one church in many locations, and so it's exciting to be a part of this family changing lives, communities, and the world for Jesus Christ. There are two things that really excite me about this more vision, and one is 100% engagement. There's a place for everyone to get involved. We need more groups, we need more people serving, we need more people being generous, we need more people just going on this, and that's 100% engagement. The second thing that excites me is figuring out where we're going, where we're going to be launching new campuses, how we're going to reach more people is not about growing our kingdom, it's not about the name of Pastor Grant or Pastor John or even Liberty, it's all about growing God's kingdom. More people in heaven, less people in hell, people having their future eternity location changed because of what we're going to do during this more vision. The other thing that excites me about more is I think about how Liberty has been a church since 1900, and for 125, 126 years they've continued to seek more, to grow, to reach more people, and we are a product of what has happened in the past and we don't want to be the ones to stop that. We want to be the ones to keep pushing that further into the future, further forward, reaching that next generation because I think about all the faithful people that have gone before us, that cloud of witnesses, cloud of witnesses. They continued the legacy. Four doesn't just stop in seven years. More doesn't just stop when we die because what people did in the past we are able to do what we're doing today and we're setting up the foundation for the next generation. Can we just praise God one more time? God has been so good that we get to be a part of the story that's so much bigger than us. And so I hope that you receive the book that we have prepared and inside there's information. How about that? All right. I hope you got your book. If you don't have one just hold your hand up and see if the sure could see it and get to you or just jump up and run to the back and grab one. All right. But I want you to make sure that you have it as you go on this journey with us inside. There are at least four things. First of all there's sermon notes that you're going to be able to take every Sunday so bring it with you. Inside there is a commitment card and you do nothing with

that now. Take it home and put it in a special place. Put it beside your bed. Put it in your Bible wherever you have your daily devotions. Put it on the refrigerator. Wherever it is that you will see it and pray about it we don't turn this in until November the 15th. If you've got that say I got it. But I want you to take the book and I want you to turn with me to page 28 and 29 because that's where we have sermon notes for today. And then in your Bibles you can turn with me to Ephesians chapter 3. Ephesians chapter 3. I want those who are online to know that we do have a digital copy for you. You can go online use the QR here and you'll find the resources. Plus well we just gave you two 10 minute videos. And I tell you our people did an incredible job with that. Can we thank those who worked so hard putting it together? And you know what? You'll never know all the hours that went into it. But let me tell you there's so much more. There's the Eastover story. There's sermons of pastors who were coming before me that you saw just a small part of. We're going to put a lot online so you can go and enjoy it in the next eight weeks. Well today I want you to know that God is doing more than starting a new sermon series. He's starting a new season. They don't miss that. More than a new series it's a new season in the life of our church. God works in seasons. And so I want you to see number one right this down. God has more for you. God has more for you. Just look at Ephesians 3 verse 14. "For this reason," Paul said, "I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named." Paul says that the great family of God is made up of those in the past and the present. Made up of those who are in heaven and those who are on earth. Made up of those who are still yet to come in the future. I want you to know it's a big family. And God, listen, God is not some angry judge. He is a faithful heavenly Father. And He loves us. And I want you to hear really what Pastor John said. If God's been working all these years through all these different generations, we don't want to be the generation to stop it. We want to be the generation to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth in our lifetime. Our Father owns it all. Our Father, He is our Source. And I remind you today that He has made His family. Tell me I just got

back from Israel. And it doesn't matter if you're walking the Jewish quarters, the Muslim quarters, the Christian quarters, families are everywhere. Little children running everywhere. Families so important. And I tell you God never intended you to live the Christian life alone. We need one another. We're in this altogether. And when you isolate yourself from the family of God, you're only cutting yourself off from the blessing of God. So my challenge to you now at the beginning of the message and my challenge and invitation at the end is one thing. Go on the journey. Go on the journey. Make sure that you see and experience the more that God has for you. You say what more? I'm glad you asked. Look at verse 16. That according to the riches of His glory, He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being. So that Christ may dwell in in your hearts through faith. may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Why in the world would we ever be down in the dumps when the Bible says we're seated with Christ in heavenly places? That God wants to fill us with his fullness. Look at what God offers you. He's offering you more, everybody say more, more strength. Anybody need more strength today? Can I get a witness? Hey, verse 16, more strength, verse 17, more depth. Listen, don't you wanna grow deeper in your relationship with God and your relationship with the people of God and then understanding in verse 18? How many times have we heard somebody say, I wish I could understand the Bible.

I wish I could understand God's will for my life. I wish I could understand the purpose for which God put me here on this earth. He offers you more strength, more depth, more understanding and more fullness instead of the emptiness of this world. Going the journey, God has more for you. But number two, God has more for our church. God has more for our church. Now we begin reading in verse 20 and you'll see this on the front and back cover of our book that we gave out to you. Why? It's our prayer promise. And I want you to know God has done so much more. It says now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think. Now we know God's able to do more. The question is, what are you asking? What are you thinking? Will you go on the journey? It says it's according to the power that works within us. To him be glory where in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever and everybody said a good amen. And so understand here that what we're about to present, our leadership team has prayed over a year on and it is a seven year vision, but it starts the first two years of the seven years is a discipleship and generosity initiative that we're calling more.

And the primary goal is this, 100% engagement. Our main focus is complete involvement by everyone at Liberty. Discovering together what God is calling us to in this season. We want every single person to take his or her next step and discipleship and grow in generosity. So the obvious question is, what's your next step? For some it's baptism. For some it's to go to life track. For others it's to get into a group. For others it's to start praying. To start having a daily devotion, to start reading your Bible every day. For some it's to start living a life of generosity. God's not asking you for something that you don't have. He just wants you to be faithful what you have. Put him first, give him the best. For some it's to bring your neighbor, bring your family member, bring your co-worker to Jesus. You have the opportunity to do that next Sunday. We have Candy Palooza. The Sunday before Halloween, the devil's holiday. We're gonna bring families. We're gonna give children a great time, a lot of candy, and most of all the greatest gift, Jesus. And so you have the opportunity to invite them, Candy Palooza, or to the end of the year, Christmas Eve services. You say, well, Pastor Grant,

if you get that money in the first two years, what are you gonna do with it? Well, we're gonna pour it in to what God's already given us. We have current campuses that all campuses have needs, shout out to Gloucester. They're meeting in a school right now. They need a permanent home. Other campuses need more space. Other campuses need more parking. Here at Hampton, we don't need more parking or space. Hey, we need carpet and a camera. Now you may laugh at that, but there's 3,000 seats bolted to the floor. This is the same carpet that was put down when we built the building. That's why we've got duct tape covering runs and bad places, and I doubt any of you have that at your house. It shouldn't be that way in the house of God, but it's a major project in the camera. It's just like your smartphone, it's just like your computer. It's like three or four generations old, and it's on borrowed time, and it is the very camera that is broadcasting to every campus right now. It is the camera that puts us online. It's the camera that puts us on television, every Sunday morning on ABC at nine o'clock. And so at Hampton, we need a new camera. Hey, listen, the importance of that camera, I could illustrate in one picture.

I stood here on a Sunday morning and looked in the camera and said, "Some of you are at home in your place." get in your car, go to the nearest campus, follow Jesus and be baptized. And I wanna show you this couple, 85 and 80 years of age, did it. They did it, why? God used that camera. It's the camera that we're on at ABC at nine o'clock. And Joel Osteen, I'm sure you've heard of him. He gave up nine o'clock on ABC. And so the television station called and said, "Do y'all want it?" I said, "No." I done television in Arkansas. I knew the work behind it. And so my staff said, "What were you thinking?" We're opening two new campuses at Fairview Heights and Smithfield. We need an exposure to drive people to all of our campuses. Just do it for one year. We did, and I want to show Joel was the, we're on a first-name basis, Joel. You know, Joel Osteen. Joel, he and Charles Stanley were the most watched program in Hampton Roads at 13 to 15,000 households. And they just contacted us from the television station and said, "Now, Liberty lives the number one program "at 24,518 households to the glory of God."

Now we all know it's a God thing, because number one, I don't look like Joel. And I certainly don't sound like him. And so it's just God. Well, it is a seven-year vision. I really wanted to be a 10-year vision. But it's a seven-year vision, one, because God's plan's better than ours. And so you just think about why a seven-year vision? In 2000, and I didn't see this until after it was over, in 2000, we celebrated the birth of our Lord. 2000 years, the birth of Christ. You owe me not your head. Hey, in seven years, it'll be 2033. How old did Jesus live to be, 33? He ascended to heaven and it was, it'll be the birth of the church. It'll be the 2000th birthday of the church, capital C, and the day of Pentecost. When the Holy Spirit came to live inside of every believer. And so I love it that it coincides with the capital C church, what God's doing. Look, God is moving, and you'll see this here, on page 13 of your book. God's moving liberty to expand into a family, a network of congregations in the next seven years. The vision is to launch new campuses, adopt existing churches, foster, light-minded congregations, and equip faithful leaders.

This movement will pursue the laws by notting a revival, and that's what we're praying for, in Hampton Roads, in the nation, and in the world for Jesus Christ, through this spiritual awakening, God send us one, we need it. God will create a legacy far beyond our name for generations to come. That's what I love about it, it's bigger than one church or one denomination. It is about the kingdom of God. And so I wanna point out to you here, page 14 and 15 in your book, you can follow along as we look at these, and unpack it for you, launch campuses. We're gonna launch new Liberty campuses in Hampton Roads to reach the 1.8 million people, and they can experience Jesus personally, and there's just some places that we're obviously not. The largest population is Virginia Beach, we're not there yet. North Carolina, we had people from North Carolina who drove one hour to go to Greenbriar to go to life track. And people in North Carolina are begging for us to bring a Liberty Live campus. We have people in Richmond who go to the York River campus, and one young man who was at Smithfield went to Richmond with his job. He said, "I pray that God will give us

"a Liberty Live campus in Richmond every day." He said, "If we can get to Richmond, "we can influence the state." He said, "And then we gotta go straight up I-95 "and get to Washington DC so we can influence the nation." Amen, thank God for that kind of faith. But our very first launch was at Harborview, and Tammy and I, we invited our neighbors to come, and they weren't coming to Hampton, they weren't driving across the bridges and tunnels, but when we had a Harborview campus, they went. And I want you to know, one of the sweetest baptisms I ever witnessed or was a part of is their mother, 90 years old, blind on hospice, her bones were brittle. She said, "Before I die, I want to be baptized." They said, "You're trusting Jesus, "that's all that matters." She said, "I know I'm trusting Jesus, "I don't want to be baptized." And so we got to baptize, that would have never happened if we didn't reach our neighbors. It would have never happened if we hadn't had a Harborview campus, are you catching it? We were just in Israel, and I went to Jacob's whale that's in Samaria, it's where Jesus asked water from the Samaritan woman. And you know what he told his disciples? "I must needs go through Samaria." Wow, there was a woman there that he needed to win, and there was a city there that he was going to bring people

just like you said, I must need to go through Samaria. They're places we still need to launch campuses. Here it is, we've got to adopt churches. We've done that at York River. We've done that at Fairview Heights to revitalize them, reestablish that gospel witness in the community. And if we don't do it, this is what happens. This is a Christian church in New York that is now a mosque. This is St. Anne's Church in Buffalo, New York that was a Christian church, but now it is a mosque. You say, that's New York pastor. No, that's behind us. One block. That's the Presbyterian Church that the Islamic community bought. Now I want you to hear me. Jesus, I love you neighbor and I love my neighbors. I don't care if they're Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, agnostic, atheist. We love people because God loves people. All right, but with that said, you need to hear me. I just left the Holy Land. I just left the birthplace of our Lord. We're five times a day. I heard the Muslim prayer go out the call from the mosque. And if you don't want Sharia law in America and to hear that coming out five times a day from the mosque, we better wake up. I'm saying to you, if they think it's worth buying

for Muhammad, don't you think it's worth restoring for Jesus? Hello. Hey, we've done those two things, but here's the new part. We're gonna foster congregations. We want to strategically partner with light-minded congregations to strengthen the family of God for the sake of the gospel advancement locally and around the world. Here it is. When you read about Paul, he's talking about the whole building, the whole family, the whole body, all the saints of God. We can't be a church that's us for and no more. We can't have attitude like the Jesus-only church and they had that on their sign out front, Jesus-only, and a windstorm came, blew off some of the letters, it just said us only. No, I'm telling you, the kingdom of God's bigger than this one church, or any one denomination. And so we believe this will be a cross-denominational lines and a cross-state lines. And we're excited about the opportunity to partner with light-minded, that's the key. They gotta believe the Bible is the authority that is the inspired, inerrant, infallible word of the living God. Light-minded, everybody say light-minded. They gotta believe Jesus is the way, the truth and the life,

and no one comes to the Father but by Jesus. Light-minded, everybody say light-minded. They gotta believe that God created the heavens and the earth and he made us male and female and that they can't define what a woman is or a man is. 'Cause we're probably not light-minded. All right, but I'm trying to get across to you. Seriously, they don't have to be liberty live. We could come alongside of them and false, how does God build a family? Birth, adoption, false drink for two or three years. And then you equip people that are not even your own siblings or your own children, maybe nieces and nephews. And so we've gotta think bigger than ourselves. One where's we said, "Narrowness in your life will only lead to shallowness and weakness." And so it's not about one church. I'm telling you, it's about the kingdom of God. We're gonna equip leaders because you can't do the other three without doing this. We've gotta develop pastors and leaders to accomplish all three objectives through coaching, online resources and conferences. Let me just say to you that right now, if every student enrolled in seminary goes into the ministry, we still don't have enough to replace the aging pastors who are retiring. Everything rises and falls on leadership. Therefore, our school of ministry

has gotta go to the next level. We've gotta produce staff members, only for our campuses, but for this network of churches. So here it is, the new vision is not just liberty. Liberty's name's not in it. It's legacy church network. And it's about the kingdom of God. Put your hands together and praise God. (audience applauding) Someone said time is measured in minutes, but life is measured by moments. It was a moment when 38 members said, "We're gonna start a church called Little Bethel." It was a moment when they relocated to Todd's Lane. A moment when it became Liberty Baptist Church. A moment when they relocated again to Big Bethel Road. A moment when we lied to God. and an online ministry, and a television ministry. But I believe this is the greatest moment yet in the life of our church. Bigger than anything that we've ever seen, James says, and James 4, it says, "What is your life?" It's a mist. It appears for a moment, and then it vanishes away. Came in, I really had this to come home to us when we had a lady named Meg who went through the line and she said, "I've been far from God. "My family and friends are not Christians."

She said, "But somebody invited me to this church "and God has radically changed my life. "I've been saved, I've been to life track, "and next Sunday, I'm gonna be baptized." She ordered family and friends to come, but it never happened. Because she went to work on Monday morning, she crossed the street, she forgot something in her car, she turned to go back and a truck struck her, and she was tragically killed. Now the good news is Meg was ready, but of the 1.8 million people in our surrounding area of Hampton Roads, the majority is not ready to meet the Lord. And so I want you to know that eternity hangs in the balance. And so you say, "Well, what's it gonna take?" Here is our secondary goal, 75 million for both our existing campuses and new vision, over two years, invested in God's church to expand his kingdom. Look at what those who came before us invested and look how God's multiplied it. Can you imagine their reward in heaven? Hey, stop trying to be the richest person on earth. Elon's already got that, all right? But you can be rich in heaven. We all can be rich in heaven. It encompasses 40 million toward the annual budget. So let me just explain that. If we don't have a more initiative, if I don't preach this sermon series,

if we just did nothing but stay on autopilot, right now, the budget's about 20 million. So people automatically are giving about 20 million a year. So in two years time, that would be 40 million dollars. So we're talking really about 35 million above the annual budget for our campuses and for this new vision. You say, why don't you just call it 35 million above times and offerings? Because that would leave out so many people who have never gone on the journey to give. And I know some of you thinking right now, you're saying pastor, I can't afford to give. I am financially maxed out. Hey, I got good news for you. It's really that you can't afford to give. It's really you can't afford not to give. Because when you give, let me tell you what God does. He moves in on your situation. Let me put it to you like this. When your life becomes his life, then your problems become his problems. You ever got up one morning and you went to button your coat, your sweater, and they didn't balance at the bottom? Yeah, you missed the first button. It's what Pastor Wilder said on the video. If we seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all these things will be added to us. You get the first button right, put God first,

and he'll help you with all the rest. We want our children to go on that journey. Hey, we don't want our children to just grow up focused on stuff. The conversation's gotta be changed from, are we gonna get a iPhone Pro? Or are we gonna get a Galaxy? Are we going to the beach? Are we going to the mountains? Are we going to Disney World? No, there's something deeper in life than stuff. And so I say to you, generosity is the answer to greed and to materialism. And so the first check that we write, watch this, it's this December and next December. And we'll follow our unnatural rhythm. We always have the big give offering at the end of the year. It'll just be called the more offering. And we normally give about 300,000 to the Lottie Moon Christmas offering. And this past year for the first time, we hit 400. But what I want to do is in the next two years, I want us to give a million dollars to international missions for those who have never heard the name of Jesus. That means the first check we write's not selfish. It's not even for us. No, it's for those who need to hear the gospel and they've never heard of Jesus. 500 this December, 500 next December.

I'm just telling you, like you heard a pastor Al say, when I heard the vision, I could see the heart of the people. I want you to know Liberty has a heart to reach Hampton Roads and the world. "I want you to know, I believe God's gonna move mountains "like we've never seen before in your life "and in the life of our church." But what's it gonna take? The primary goal, 100% engagement. And some of you are listening to me right now, you have never put your faith and trust in Jesus. I want you just right where you are, watching online or in the building. I want you to pray a prayer like this, Jesus. I believe you are the Son of God, that you died on the cross, that you rose from the dead to pay for my sin. I'm not trusting in religion or morality or good works, but I put my faith and trust in you and you alone to save my soul. Give me assurance that heaven will be my home and come into my life. And would you bring the more that you have and give me a little heaven on earth? In Jesus' name and everybody said, "Can we rejoice for those who prayed that prayer today? "We want you to let us know online "or at our campus as you can go out to the next step center." Tammy and I just stood at Caesarea Philippi. And that's where Jesus said in Matthew 16, 18,

"On this rock, I will build my church "and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Look at me, it's gonna happen. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus is coming again. He's gonna rule and reign on his father, David's throne, and of his kingdom, there'll be no end. I want you to know he is building his church. It's going to happen and he can do it with you or without you. The question is real simple. Will you be a part of it? There's no come forward invitation this morning. I wanted it to be very different and the whole service has been a different day, a special day. And so here's the invitation to you. Listen carefully. The invitation is simply this. If you believe God has more for you and for our church and if you want to see him do more in your life and you say, yes, I wanna go on the journey, I want you to stay up. Every campus, we're not coming forward to the altar. No, I pray, I wanna pray with those who are standing. Just stand right where you are. Every campus, we're gonna pray together. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for those who came before us, that they took their stand in their moment in time

and God today we're taking our stand. We stand on your word. We stand on your promises. We stand united together in faith, believing that you have more that you want to do, that the best is yet to come. And so I'm praying for every person who's standing and those watching online going on the journey, would you speak to us? Would you show us in these eight weeks? All that you have for us. God, we don't want to miss what you wanna do. And we confess that this vision and goal is bigger than us and we can't do it on our own. Apart from you, Jesus, we can do nothing. So Lord, we confess humbly before you, we can't, but we believe you can. We believe you are more than able. So we give ourselves to you. I pray that you'll show us what you wanna do in us and through us for your glory and name's sake in Jesus name, amen.