The Way of Advancement | "The Way" Week 14

- It's so good to have all of you here in the room. Those of you watching online, those of you that the Edmund campus, those of you in Grapevine or in the surrounding areas. And we'll give a special shout out to everybody behind bars that watches us on the Pando app in prisons. Can we welcome them? We want you to know that we think of you. We're mindful of you. And God bless you right there where you're sitting. If you have your Bibles, you can turn to Matthew. You can begin to turn over to Book of Matthew. We're gonna continue this season called The Way. We were gonna be done at the end of October because every November we enter into what we call Heart for the House. And we are gonna do Heart for the House, but we're just gonna parallel them together. And so we'll continue that. And then on November the 22nd, just to, we'll talk more about this at the end, but we'll take up our annual Heart for the House offering. And we'll talk more about that at the end, at the end of the service today. But we're excited to continue this season just a little bit longer. I hope that this season called The Way has been a blessing to you. If you've missed any of those messages, you can go back in the archives and watch those.

Before we jump into the word today, let's bring our ties and offerings into the storehouse. I like this passage. I'll read it real quickly in Isaiah. I'm sorry, in the Book of Genesis, chapter 26, Isaac is the main theme here. And he does something particular that is applicable to us, especially in this day and age that we live in. So I wanna set the setting first of this text is in Isaiah, I'm sorry, Genesis, chapter 26, verse one. It says a severe famine now struck the land as had happened in the time before Abraham's time. And so it's getting the setting. It's like it's a time of famine. And I don't know what news channels you're watching or what algorithms your social media feeds you. But there are times where it feels like we're in a famine, is it not? I don't know if I was watching the news Friday and said something, the stock market crash, like I don't know how many billions of dollars vanished from the stock market. And I was like, I don't think I'll be checking more 401K today. I think I'll just not look at that and just pretend like that's not happening. But it happens all the time, right? Whatever algorithm, I guess I heard the other day that we're supposed to lose power for weeks or something.

I don't know what's happening. Like every time you turn on the news, every time you turn on something, it just feels like we're in a famine. And I love this reply, this response. So verse one tells us the setting that Isaac was in. And then verse 12 tells us his response. It says, then Isaac planted his crops that year. He harvested a hundred times more grain than he planted because the Lord blessed him. And he became a very rich man and his wealth continued to grow. Find it fascinating that he had the faith and the courage in a time of famine. You know what famine means, right? It means that there's no rain for crops. And so he planted his seed in a time when rationale and everything around him would tell him, this doesn't make sense. But it takes faith to plant seed in times of famine. And it's a word to us in 2026. When we hear rumors, when we hear thoughts or rumors of layoffs at work, when we see the stock market crash, the temptation is to keep our seed. And the encouragement from the Lord is to have faith and to trust that he is our provider, not our boss, not our company, not the economy, not the stock market. And in times of famine, we can still sow seed and trust the Lord that he's gonna bring a harvest

because not because we're that good, but because this text says, then the Lord blessed him. So we respond about obedience and out of faith. We give in that manner today. If you can't prepare to give, you can give online. You can give at every exit at your campus as you leave, let's pray for the offering today. Lord, we love you. We're grateful for the word of God that gives us courage. It gives us faith. And we do, we give in that manner. We give full of faith. Faith must be greater than fear. Fear, faith must be greater than worry and doubt. And you are greater than any famine. You are greater than any economy. And so we place our trust and our hope in you in that way. In Jesus name and Lord, just real quick, I haven't prayed for this in a long time. Lord, we need help with the thunder. All these injuries, it's ridiculous. So I haven't prayed for the thunder in quite some time, but I'm feeling the prompting to begin to do that again. So we just pray a special covering of healing. And we just pray against any other NBA fans in the room that you would save their soul. Thank you for Jesus name and everybody said. Amen. Amen.

I haven't prayed for the thunder in a really long time. And it's becoming obvious. So we need, we need the Lord. All right, Matthew chapter 16 is where we're gonna be. Let's go over there. I wanna preach about something today that I believe is a critical component of being a follower of the way. All of this season has been about, if we are followers of Jesus, what does that mean? What does that look like? We've covered a plethora of different topics. Today, I wanna talk to you about a particular word, and that word is advancement, advancement. We did one week on spiritual warfare that dabbled in that, and I think that's an important piece of being a follower of the way, is to know that we have an enemy, a real enemy. But also, you can't read the New Testament, particularly the New Church and all through the Gospels, but in the book of Acts, that this wasn't a stagnant church. It wasn't a pitiful, defensive church. It was an aggressive church, taking territory from the enemy, responding in faith, and watching God show up in miraculous ways. So, you can't read the New Testament without realizing that if we're gonna be followers of the way, we're not called to sit on the sidelines, we're not called to be passive,

we're not called to live our lives as Christians in a defensive posture. We're actually called, in many ways, to take advancement, to advance territory, to take something, to respond out of faith, and take steps forward, and with every step we take, we take territory from the enemy, for our families, for our careers, for our finances, and every aspect, and every component of our lives. And so, in Matthew chapter 16, Jesus kind of responds and is kind of declaring something, and it's a promise that he speaks over us, that affects every single one of us, as members of his body. In Matthew chapter 16, verse 13, it says this. It says when Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do people say that the Son of Man is? Well, they replied, some say John the Baptist, and some say Elijah, some say Jeremiah, and some say one of the other prophets. But he asked them, but who do you say I am? Simon Peter said, you're the Messiah, the Son of the living God. And Jesus replied, you are blessed, Simon, Son of John, because my father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being. Now, I say to you that you are Peter, which means rock, and upon this rock, I will build my church, and this is the part.

All the powers of hell will not conquer it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, or whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven. Then he's sternly warned the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah. I wanna draw your attention back to the beginning of verse 13, because it tells us the location in which this happened. And that's no mistake, it's intentional, that he's telling us the actual location that it's happened. So it says that this occurred in Caesarea Philippi. If you've ever been to Israel, or if you ever go to Israel, it will more than likely be one of your stops. It's one of the more familiar, one of the more famous stops. Caesarea Philippi was a very well-known area in that day because it was known for its pagan worship. There was temples there where they would sacrifice animals. They would sacrifice children. They would sacrifice human beings of worship of this God called Pan, P-A-N. And it was, if you go there today, the ruins are still there. There's actually carved into the side of this mountain where they would, part of the temple. It's carved into the side of this hill. And one of the very prominent things is this cave. There's a cave that you see when you go there.

And even the appearance of this cave just looks eerie. It just looks creepy and kind of evil. Well, in that day, this particular cave, it's a giant cave, very deep cave. And it was known in that day, it was believed to be. And they called it this. They called it the gate to Hades. It was literally called the gates of hell. And it's interesting that of all the places that Jesus decided to declare this, he has his disciples up there. And I can just picture in my mind's eye, he's got his disciples in front of him in this backdrop of these pagan temples where they sacrifice and do the most horrific things. And this cave in the background that everybody would have known that this is the gateway to hell itself. And he stands there and he declares, "I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." And this declaration, this powerful, like locker room speech, we're gonna charge the hill. It wasn't like, let's all just pray and maybe we can get through this and hunker down. And if we're careful, we'll survive this. No, it was an aggressive, it was a movement of adventure. And Jesus declares a promise over what he himself is going to build. He didn't say, "You guys get after it and maybe you'll succeed." He says, "I will build."

And then he's possessive about it. He says, "My church," he's like, "It's mine and I'm going to personally dedicate myself to it." And since that time, empires have risen and fallen, governments have changed, cultures have shifted, generations have come, and generations have gone, but Jesus is still building his church. And humans like you and I have messed it up royally along the way, and if you're looking for a perfect church, one doesn't exist because you're here and I'm here. But until the day Jesus returns, he will continue to build his church, and the promise he delivers is that the gates of hell shall not, cannot, and will not prevail against what he has set his mind to do, and we get to be a part of that. It's just the good news that's for us. So really the question isn't whether or not the kingdom of God is advancing through his church. It's not the question. The question is, what part have we decided to play in what he has already put his hand to? So he has never stopped building his church. The question is, have we come alongside him in the effort of advancing? And I believe with everything in me that if we want to say that we are followers of the way, it is very difficult to declare that we are followers of the way if we are not picking up our cause to come alongside Jesus, and not to be passive, not to attend church, not to say that we love the man upstairs, and do our best on God's green earth, what part are we playing to advance the kingdom of God, and to ensure that God's mission, that the gates of hell will never prevail against the church, what part in that do we play? So today I want to talk about get practical, because we say we're going to say this whole season we're followers of the way, and every week we try to get practical on that. So I want to talk about three ways that we, you and me, could come alongside what Jesus is doing in advancing the kingdom of God. So I want to talk about that.

I want to talk about here's the title is the way of kingdom advancement. So if we go back to Matthew chapter 16, and the very beginning in verse 14, Peter says you're the Christ, they say Jesus says, who do people say that I am, and then they respond in verse 14? Well some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, some say Jeremiah, others say the prophet, and then he asks them, this is really important, Jesus starts by saying who does everybody else say that I am, they answer him, and then he looks them square in the eye and he says, but who do you say that I am? And when we think about the kingdom of God, it becomes very big and very broad and very out there, and that's the temptation when we talk about the kingdom of God is it's very easy to just say everyone out there, but Jesus looks them square in the eye and says, yeah, yeah, yeah, but what about you? Who do you say that I am? And so before we talk about the advancement of the kingdom out there, what I think we have to start with before we go there, we'll go there, but I think we have to start in here first. And so point number one is the kingdom must advance in us. If we ever want to be used by God to advance his kingdom out there, I'm here to tell you that it will begin in here. He'll do a work, he'll challenge us in here and we're accustomed and adapted to the word advancement because everything we do is to advance. You're trying to advance your career, I hope, I hope you're not looking to get demoted. You're wanting to advance your career. You're wanting to advance your business, even socially, and there's nothing wrong with these things. You're looking to advance yourself, become more known, become, you want to meet more friends, have more community, have more kids, whatever the case may be, you're wanting to have advancements. And then Jesus comes along in this way that only Jesus does over and over and over again all through the gospels and he takes the kingdom of this world and he flips it completely on its head and says, we're in the kingdom of God here to do the absolute and complete

opposite of what the world says we do. In Matthew 6, Jesus says, seek first the kingdom of God. So in the world, the world's economy, advancement means more, more influence, more wealth. And then the kingdom of God, like Jesus does, He flips the script and says, actually, we do want to advance the kingdom of God and God's gonna do it through His saints, but I'm gonna flip everything on its end and just encourage you to let you know that if you wanna advance in the kingdom of God, it actually involves less of you, not more of you. And John the Baptist comes on the scene to prepare, what is he preparing? The way. So he's coming on the scene saying, I'm only here to announce to the world the way of Jesus. And he does it by saying, less of me and more of him. If we wanna advance the kingdom of God, we need to first know that there's this work God wants to do in us first and two things can't be advanced at the same time, you and the kingdom. And when we come into the kingdom of God, it becomes less about me and more about him. So it does this work and it shouldn't be this shocker. Like since the day Jesus arrived, all of his time on earth, he was trying to teach us this and convince us this from the very beginning. Jesus came along and said things like, if you try to find your life, you'll lose it.

But if you lose your life, for my sake, is where you'll actually find it. He came along and said, crazy stuff, like the first will be last and the last will be first. He came along and said, crazy stuff, like if you wanna be one of my followers, you have to deny yourself and pick up my cross and follow me. He just said the most upside down things that we had never really thought through. He said, if you wanna become the greatest ever, here's how you do it, you'd be a servant. And let me show you how to do it. I'm gonna wash your feet and then go and do likewise. And John the Baptist comes along and says, I must become less and he must become greater. And then John the Baptist gets thrown in prison and Jesus turns to the crowd and says, John the Baptist, this is in Matthew chapter 11, he turns to the disciples, he turns to the crowds and say, John the Baptist is the greatest man ever been born of woman, ever woman, ever, like this crazy. And like John the Baptist has never done anything other than baptized, he even said, I must become less and he must become greater. I'm not even unworthy to untie the shoes of this guy. And Jesus stands up in front of everybody and says, this is the greatest man that's ever lived. And then almost like he wants us to be competitive, he says, but actually you can be greater than he was.

How, tell me how, become less than even he was. So Jesus just comes and flips everything upside down. And so it's not real encouraging, it's not real fun. Nobody says amen at these parts of the messages 'cause we wanna be something, we wanna be used by God, we wanna be important. But I'm telling you, you can be important. The best path to be an important is to be used by God. The best path to be used by God is to advance the kingdom of God. And the best path to advancing the kingdom of God is to not advance yourself. That I must become less and by me becoming less, he immediately and automatically becomes greater. And when we make God greater in our lives, what we do without even realizing it, you are actually advancing the kingdom of God because you're advancing it above yourself. So after the kingdom begins to advance within us, that's stage one, okay? We have to allow, and it's a process, y'all. It's a prize, in fact, it's a daily practice of making myself less so that he can be greater. And once we begin that process and begin that journey, then number two, the kingdom of God must advance through us, through us. And even this term, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of God, it seems so vast and so out there and beyond me and how could I ever even play a part in this?

And if we're not careful, we'll begin to think of the kingdom of God as missions and missionaries and pastors only and people who start churches and people who dedicate their lives to the Lord and those things are applicable. Those things are the kingdom of God, but what we'll do is we'll not intentionally, but we'll begin to isolate ourselves and minimize our impact on the world and advancing the kingdom of God becomes someone else's job. It's someone else's responsibility and how can little little me be a part of this? But I wanna just remind us all today that the kingdom of God never advances through someone else. The kingdom of God advances through each and every one of us as we advance it in our own little way, in our own little time, and in our own little sphere of how God uses us. And so I wanna frame this just a couple of ways to try to get practical, to help you realize the ways that God wants us to do. So let's just get practical. The first thing that under point two is God wants us to advance his kingdom through us. He will do it through the people that God has entrusted to you. So you, whether you realize it or not, God has entrusted you with people.

Now this could be your family, your marriage, your children, your extended family, it may be a coworker at work, it could be a group of friends, it could be your neighbors, it could be, it could be a group of people that he has put in your proximity. And what we need to begin to frame our mind to think of is if they are in my atmosphere, then God has entrusted that to me. And God wouldn't have entrusted it to you if he didn't trust you with it. So you are trustworthy to advance the kingdom of God with the people that he has put in and around you. So we can become so consumed with the kingdom of God being so vast and out there that we fail to realize that the kingdom of God needs to be advanced right around you. And it actually is possible for you to build a kingdom-minded business and fail to raise a kingdom-minded family. It happens all the time. It's actually possible, if I'm not careful, it's possible for me to be a pastor and to hopefully raise up a generation in my church and fail to disciple my own children. Because I fail to see that they are part of the kingdom that God has entrusted me with. In fact, I would present to you that my children, my duty as a father to empower them and equip them and advance the kingdom of God through my children is even more important than me doing that here.

So God has entrusted us to do these things. So many times you don't need to cross an ocean to advance the kingdom of God. You need to cross the hallway into your children's bedroom. You need to cross the hallway at work, cross over to the cubicle next to you and you could be a part of advancing the kingdom of God in the most seemingly small and minute waves. We are all missionaries, okay? We're all missionaries in the territory that God has called us to do. So one, in the people God has entrusted us to. Number two is the places that God has positioned us in. So one is people, two is territorial geographically. So begin to think about your life as territorial that God has put you in a certain church, in a certain business, in a certain city, in a certain neighborhood, right? In a certain county. God has you here on purpose for a purpose. In war acres, in Edmond, in DFW, in the Oklahoma City Metro, in the business that you have, right? In the neighborhood, you live in the neighborhood, you live in the apartment complex you live in and you need to begin to think of it as God has entrusted you. He has placed you intentionally in that area to be a candidate of advancing the kingdom of God

in that way. And even for those watching on your panel app in the prison cell that you're sitting in, the prison yard that God has placed you in is your territory to advance the gospel. You are a missionary in the prison that you are in right now. So wherever we are, we are missionaries that have been placed in that space, in that place, Matthew 5, 13 says, you are the salt of the earth, but what good is salt if it's lost is flavor. Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot and worthless. You are the light of the world, like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket instead of lamp is placed on a stand where it gives light to everyone in the house. Everyone in the house is proximity. You're a city on a hill. You're a light in a house. There's geographical territory in the same way that your good deeds shine out for all to see so that everyone will praise the heavenly Father. Not someone else, you. Someone else is not the light. You are. We are called, every single one of us individually are called in position in a certain place. So we stand for biblical convictions.

We participate in civic life around us, in our schools. We vote biblical values. We stand up and we advance the gospel. This coming Tuesday, if you haven't noticed, is kind of an important day. Every, I'm just ready for the commercials to stop. Praise the Lord. I can't wait for just have regular commercials again where it's just insurance and drugs. That's what we're used to, you know? (laughing) in a small minute way, all right? Even going to your polling station and casting your vote, not for who's a good guy, they're all bad guys. But those who will vote biblical values, you are advancing the kingdom of God by checking a box and voting in a small way. I want you to begin to think about your life, not through how good you are or we are at hiding behind a keyboard and ranting about the evil, or proclaiming something, or begging the pastors to preach more on politics. What is God calling us to do as the church? Because we are the church. So I remember whenever my kids were little, I volunteered at my kids' elementary schools and they had something called, they asked the dads to be what they called watchdogs. We ever heard of their watchdogs before. And I would go and just roam the halls

and go in and read to the kids and love on the kids. And it was a great time, it was actually quite miserable, but it was fun. It was definitely a sacrifice, I'll put it that way, all right? But what is God asking you to do? It's like God may ask you to join a community, to join a group of people that go and volunteer to school. God may ask you to join the PTA, God may ask you to put in your name in the hat and be served on the school board. We have a gentleman that attends this campus at the OKC campus, his name is Brad Carter. And he believed that the Lord was asking him to run for city council. As crazy as it was, he's just a small business owner. He didn't think he had a shot of winning. And right now he is the city council member for the city of Oklahoma City, being a light in a dark place. I'm telling you, God may ask some of you to stop complaining about stuff and run for office. Run for office. The area that you feel the most passionate about, it's probably not, God probably didn't give you that passion so that you could complain about it. He probably gave you that passion so you could do something about it. So what we have to do is ask the Lord, okay, what places have you positioned me on purpose to go and be someone who advances the kingdom of God?

There's this passage in Jeremiah 29 where the prophet Jeremiah is declaring something over the nation of Israel. And they've been exiled to Babylon. And you would think that this proclamation to the Israelites would be an encouraging word. Like, I'm gonna deliver you. I'm gonna come rescue you. It's gonna be all good. I'm gonna take you back to your homeland. I want you to listen to this word about doing something where you're at. Jeremiah 29, 4. It says, this is what the Lord of Heaven's armies, the God of Israel says to all the captives. He is exiled to Babylon from Jerusalem. Build homes and plan to stay. Plant gardens and eat the food they produce, marry and have children. Then find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren multiply. Do not dwindle away. Listen to verse seven. And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I have sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it. For it's welfare will determine your welfare. He's saying, get engaged in the place that I've sent you. Be a solution, not a problem. This is the word for us.

So what if the very place that we've been praying for God to change is the place that is calling us to engage? And you may be asking God to send somebody to help your schools and send somebody to help your community. God may say, I've already sent you there. I've placed you there to be the light on a hill for others to see. So we advanced the kingdom within. We advanced the kingdom through God will advance the kingdom through us. And last but not least, the kingdom must advance through his church. I am so madly in love with the church. I obviously have dedicated my life to it. I think that the church is the hope of the world. That God gave us something really beautiful. That it's bigger than any one of us individually. It's bigger than our business. It's bigger than our own individual influence. It's bigger than any one family. That when we come together, when we congregate as the body of Christ, we are fulfilling something really powerful and really beautiful. When Jesus prayed to his Heavenly Father, he said, God, I pray that they would be one as you and I are one. Me and them, you and I, you and I and me and them.

And he's saying, when we come together, we're all one. Paul said that we are many parts, but when we come together, we're one body. In fact, we are referred to in scripture as the bride of Christ, the bride of Christ, not individually, but when we come together, when we come together, all of our many parts, all of our differences and all of our quirks and all of our weaknesses and all of our strengths, we come together and we form the bride. And this bride that we form together is the very bride. When Jesus was standing in Caesarea Philippi and he says, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Do you know what that means? It means that the gates of hell are going to try to prevail against it. It means that we have a real enemy that comes to attack, comes to steal and to kill and to destroy. And we have seen the enemy attack the church. We have seen corruption. We've seen terrible things in the church. But the church stands united. Why? Because Jesus himself is building his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And we spend a lot of our times and a lot of our lives building things and we should. We're called to build great families and to build marriages and we have to build careers.

It's a necessity. We have to do these things. There's nothing inherently wrong with the things that we're trying to build. And we should keep doing it. You should build a family. You should build a career. You should build a 401k. You should do all the things that this world requires that we do. But I can't help but look at Jesus standing at Caesarea Philippi and declaring not just them, but to us today and saying, whatever you're doing, I want you to know what I'm going to be doing. I'm going to be building my church. And then he gives this promise that we should really pay attention to. That despite the enemy's greatest attempts, the enemy will be incapable of prevailing against what I'm going to build. Now, how many things in your life could you honestly say that at your best at building it, that something won't eventually prevail over it? Eventually, at some point, as depressing as it may sound, we're all going to be forgotten. But we have this opportunity that we can come alongside Jesus and put our hands to the plow of something that Jesus himself said,

let me just tell you something. This thing will never fail. It will never fade. It will never be overcome. And that we get the opportunity to put our hand to something that has that kind of promise attached to it. And I'm just in the perspective in life of, I've tried to put my hand to a lot of things and some of those things have worked and some of them have not. The reason I love the church as flawed as it is is that I get to come alongside Jesus and help him do something that he's committed to doing and loves his church and he loves you and he loves the work that is happening in the body of Christ. And what an opportunity we have to do this. In 1 Corinthians 3 and 9, it says, "For we are God's fellow workers." How much of the question we all have to ask ourselves is how much of my life we're committed to a lot of things. We'll have a lot of commitments. But can we ask ourselves the question, how much of my life is committed to the thing that Jesus said that he's committed to building? And that's a question that we should always wrestle with and that's a question we should always ask ourselves.

And we can't stop life. Life happens and we gotta raise kids and we gotta make money and we gotta go to work and we gotta do all these things. But how much am I coming alongside the work of the body of Christ? And so what I'm asking you to do in the coming weeks and months is to not attend church. What would it look like to be committed to help building the thing that Jesus has committed himself to build and coming alongside that? That could look different in a lot of ways. I am where we serve and we're praying for the body of Christ. We're praying for the church. We're praying for the work of Christ and individuals. Are we serving the church? Are we giving to the church? And tomorrow, November the same fact, I believe it's tomorrow, tomorrow November the 2nd. Tomorrow will be my 12th anniversary as the lead pastor of Victory Church. 12 years and the hardest thing I've ever done in my entire life and it's the most blessed thing I've ever done in my life. This year's Heart for the House. I am taking the boldest step I've ever taken in the history of being a pastor.

of God stirring in me a new hunger to advance. Because I've just, I've always been a real leader, I've always been a leader that's come and picked up something that was broken and tried to put it back together, a company dumped it, you know, like I've always been Nehemiah trying to pick up the rubble and just kind of piece it back together. And I've never really been a part of leading the advancement of the kingdom. And a couple of years ago, God really started stirring on me and begin to just speak over me. You're not in survival mode anymore. I need you to take ground, not just keep ground, but take ground. And so I started declaring things boldly that we're going to build an Edmond, we're going to build a camp, we're going to launch a campus at Great Vine, we're going to build a new campus at Great Vine. And even as the words come out of my mouth, I'm like, I hope. I mean, I don't know if you've ever had, God's been working on my faith like crazier than ever before. And I begin to see faith all through Scripture in just a different way. These, these scriptures that we just assumed, these men and women of God just did these bold things. And we just like, yeah, but they, that was Elijah, you know, that was Moses. Now they were humans, they were human beings. And I can't help but think like when Moses, God told Moses to stretch out his staff over the Red Sea and the sea parted. Do you know how crazy he looked? Like I can just picture Moses in front of a million people, million plus people, all these people watching him. And he just had to stretch his stick over an ocean. I can just picture him inside going, I hope this works. You know, Peter walking on water. That's crazy, y'all. And he had to literally pick a foot up and be like, okay, well, today's my day, you know, that's how this journey has felt for me. And declaring boldly, and I was vulnerable last year. And I told you that I felt like the Lord told me, because I kept praying for God to provide first. And then I'll step out in faith and build. And the Lord was real quick to let me know that's not faith. And what the Lord kept saying to me was, I'll move when you move. And so I did. I just kind of started declaring it. All right, we're going to do it. We're going to build an edman. We've been talking about building an edman for years, y'all. And I let fear. I'm ashamed to say that I let fear lead me. And I'm, I don't want to say the word ashamed, but I regret not doing this sooner. Because how much more could we have advanced the gospel in edman if I would have stepped out sooner by faith. And so I'm excited to tell you today. That's a done deal, man. We're breaking ground in the spring at edman. It's, it's a done deal. We're excited about it. We've shown the renderings. I'll put that picture up again of the new edman building that's going to be built.

We're going to break ground in the spring. For that, that is a done deal. And here at the OKC campus, we're going to continue to do technology advancements. I told you the last couple of years heart for the house. I've been going to technology. We've written on the lighting in this room. We need to get new cameras. We have a lot of technology up in the back office that's over 20 years old. And so we're just continuing. In the past two years, you guys have advanced advanced the gospel here. And if so, six, we've spent $630,000 on technology just in the last two years at this campus alone. And that's because of your generosity. And now people in prisons are watching because of this sort of technology. It's vital. It's important. So that this campus will continue to invest in technology for the OKC campus and the Iglesia campus, the Spanish campus meets in this room as well. And then at the Grapevine campus, I'm really excited what God's doing there. Everything's looking great with the city. We're being told that we will probably close on that building in January. And then we will break ground at the Grapevine campus. You'll see that's the rendering behind me of the new Grapevine campus that we will be in probably in the spring of 2028. And so we're moving forward with that. We will probably break ground in the spring of next year. We'll break ground and begin to build an add on to a building there. The Edmund, the Edmund project is a $6.5 million project. Here at the OKC campus, we will just, we'll spend what comes in, right? The Grapevine campus, you want to talk about a stretch of faith in a God moment. The Grapevine campus sits right now. It's going to cost about $25 million to build a Grapevine campus. And I can't wait to see how God shows up. I can't wait to see how God shows up. Let me read a quick passage to you. One of the beautiful things about the Grapevine campus is we're actually purchasing a vineyard. This property that we're providing, How beautiful is that? And so the Lord showed me this passage. I'd probably read countless times over the years as I've read through the Bible, but it's never jumped off the page like it did this time. And we're actually, as the city requests it and we are excited about it, we're actually gonna keep part of the vineyard open when we move in.

And so about an acre of it, as you drive onto the campus, you'll actually drive through a vineyard to get to the church. And I just think that's beautiful. I think it's one of the most beautiful things. Jesus said, "I'm the vine." And so part of that will keep going. And I'm just, I'm not saying we're gonna do it, but I think it'd be pretty cool if we actually harvested our own grapes and created our own communion juice. It called Victory Vineyard Juice. And we'll just have our own communion at all of our campuses. I just think that'd be super cool. Now listen to this passage in Amos chapter 9 verse 13. Oh. It says, "A time will come when the grain and grapes "will grow faster than they can be harvested. "Then the terrorist vineyards on the hill of Israel "will drip with sweet wine. "And I will bring my exiled people of Israel "back from distant lands, "and they will rebuild their ruined cities "and live in them again. "They will plant vineyards and gardens. "They will eat their crops and drink their wine, "and I will firmly plant them there in their own land. "And they will never again be uprooted from the land

"that I will give them." I wanna draw your attention to where it says that the vineyards will drip with sweet wine. But it doesn't say that. It doesn't say the vineyards will drip with sweet wine. It says the terrorist vineyards will drip with sweet wine. Terrorist vineyards are built in the side of the mountain and they build stair-stepped terraces with systems so that it can catch the water so that the vines can capture what God sends. Otherwise, it would just roll off the mountain that would never nourish the vines. And so what the Lord is saying is I will drip sweet wine in the places that one have faith and trust and they build systems and they're intentional about what they're trying to do with vision. If you go to any vineyard, what you'll find is as you drive past a vineyard, you'll see these beautiful rows of vines. It's gorgeous. And what we never think to notice is what lies just beneath the vines that actually sustains the vineyard. These are called trellises. Just beneath the vines are these structures called trellises that hold up the vines. Without the trellis, the vines would fall to the ground and they would be trampled a foot and the fruit could not come onto the vine at all. And so what trellises really do is trellises bear weight.

Trellises are what hold the weight of the harvest. No trellis, no harvest, no harvest, no sweet wine. And so what I believe the Lord is saying to us in this season and I'm asking you and requesting of all of our campuses is that you prayerfully consider being a trellis. We all get to partake of the fruit of the harvest that God does in this church. And we all, I want us all to be able to do that. But if you've been a consumer, you've just been in a tender that comes once a month and just consumes, you don't serve, you don't give, I'm asking you to consider being a trellis, be something that can bear weight of a future harvest, that God wants to be in greater harvest, but he needs trellises. Trellises are present in summer and winter. Trellises are present when there's fruit on the vine and when there's nothing coming in. They're steady, they're strong. They don't produce the fruit, but they ensure that the fruit is sustainable. And so I want you to prayerfully consider that. What can I look like, Johnny? It can look like a lot of things. You just pray for us, pray for your church, pray, pray, serve, give, be a part. Bible says where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. If you don't have a heart for the church, it might be because your treasure isn't in the church.

So where is your talent? Where is your treasure being sown? And that is the place that God will give you a heart for the harvest. Lastly, and then I want to pass it to Edmond in just a moment. About two months ago, I'm standing over here before I go up and preach to my father. He's out of town today, but he usually sits right behind me. My father was a pastor for a couple of decades and is over all of our prophetic ministries at all of our campuses. And sometimes he'll lean forward and just tell me, I feel like I have a word for the church. And God had given him a word. He wrote it down like two months prior to that. And I said, well, can I see it? And he said, sure, so I read it. And I'm always really hesitant to tell my dad, no, it's my dad, you know? And I was like, dad, this is a word for our church, but it's not now, because I already know the Lord, the Lord has already shown me what's coming. And this is a confirmation one to me. So thank you for this word. it for November when we get there. So this was a confirmation for me because I have felt for the last couple of years, for about a year specifically, that God wants to bring new harvest to our church, that a new harvest is coming. And I told the staff this week that I believe it's a three to five-year harvest that the Lord wants to pour in and pour out in our church. And so he gave me this word,

and it was that kind of confirmation to me, and I want to read it for you, and then we'll, I'll pass it to Edmond, and then we'll be finished. This is what he wrote. It says, "The Lord would say that I have decreed a special season of harvest for victory church and its body, and it will be a season of opportunity and advancement. This will be an unusual season for many, for some would say, I haven't done enough yet to receive a harvest of blessing. But I remind you that blessings often are often not something that you humanly deserve." So I say to you, who are faithful, it's time to reap many of the good things that you've sown. Now I want to pause and encourage you, when a word comes over this house like this, it is for us corporately, but it's also for you because you're a member of this house, okay? So think about this both ways. It's time for many of the prayers that you've prayed to come to fruition. Answers that you've longed for and desired for months are on the way. It's also time for generational blessings to be released upon you. Blessings that your relatives sowed years ago have been waiting for you. I declare it's time for the kindness that you've shown others to come back to you. I say to someone that your discipline of restraint and patience has paid off and answers are coming. I also say that many of you have rebellious loved ones and you will see them come home during this season. Work with me by calling those loved ones back to me. Use your authority to loose them from the blindness and bondage. I charge you to gird up your loins for the coming harvest. I ask you to be looking up to be expectant as a mother expecting a child. It's a special season and open window for such a time as this, a Kairos moment. Ask for it. It's time for your weeping to be turned to joy and your mourning into dancing. So I say partner with me in faith, buying the works of Satan and watch your own words. Watch me work for I will tell you, for I tell you that I am ill should I, the God of more than enough. We're so grateful that you joined us today. At Victory, we pray big prayers to a big God and we expect big results. If you would like to receive prayer, you can submit a prayer request by visiting victory.church/pray. If this message or any of our messages have impacted your life and you would like to partner with us through giving, you can do so at victory.church/give. Thank you again for joining us. At Victory Church, we live life to the full. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]