Vision Sunday

Being the Church, it's not a service or a building. It's His people coming together as one body. Now you are the body of Christ, and each of you is a part of it. First, you must be what He has called you to be, do what He has called you to do. Then, we build together a place where others call home to know Jesus, find freedom, and build His kingdom, being the Church, building the Church. Now go be the Church. In 2026, God led us to the theme of being the Church and building the Church, which we believe is a divine call to really the purity of what God created His Church, each one of us, to be and to be participants actively in that. Yeah, we know that being a part of the Church is not something that we actively spectate, but we are active participants in. It means that we are ambassadors for Christ Jesus everywhere that we go. In being the Church, it means that we're full of His Spirit, that He's leading and He's guiding us, not just individually, but as a people. And in building the Church, we know that God has equipped each one of us with our time that He's given us here on earth, the talent that He's placed within us, or the gifts He's given you, and the treasure that He's entrusted us with, with stewardship. So we take each one of those things and we actively advance the Kingdom forward. We push back darkness so light may spread in our towns, our region, and our state. Yeah, if we're going to be the Church and build the Church, it means that we have to be empowered by God's Spirit. It means that Christ has to be the head of His Church. It means that we say yes when He asks us to be obedient to Him, yes when He opens doors. It's not us making opportunities on our own, but being His Church and building the Church as He leads us as a people. So this year, let's together return to the foundation of who we are called to be, a Church that is alive, active, and advancing. In being the Church, we embody the love of Christ. And in building the Church, we advance His Kingdom forcefully together.

The first time we came to Evangel, it was after we were married and doing some church shopping and trying to figure out, you know, where we fit in. Our lives were a little unpredictable at the time. We were in and out of hospitals with our moms that were sick. My mom was diagnosed with cancer, and Misty's mom was actually diagnosed with PSP. Which is supranuclear palsy. Very deteriorating muscles. It's hard to watch. She was very bubbly and a happy person, but there was a lot of struggles. I would spend time with my mom in the hospital for complications, and Matt was spending less time at the hospital. Coming home to him drinking and just kind of shutting down himself. I was just feeling kind of lost and hopeless and just praying to God that He would come around and we could go through it together. I knew it was an issue, and I knew it was a problem. I was in denial for many years, and I learned how to hide it well. That was in December of 2015 when my mom passed, you know. And shortly, ten months after that, Misty's mom passed away. Your dad had helped us move, and he was excited for us to move to Dickinson, and we just thought this would be a new start for us. A good change, a fresh start. Then we got a call one morning from his brother that his dad had passed. And really, my dad was the person who I was leaning on through all this. He was the strength of our family. That news was devastating. I did what I did before when our moms had passed away. I went to the bottle, and this time I hit the bottle extra heavy, and I got sick. I got sick from the alcohol. It actually started affecting my organs, and my organs started to shut down. I had been in the ER three times, because my body just couldn't take the alcohol anymore.

Missy couldn't do anything with me anymore. She was at her end. It was affecting work. It was affecting work. It was affecting our marriage. It was affecting life. I started giving up hope. I went out to Minnesota to rehab, and I spent five weeks out there. I tried my best. I came home, and I tried to stay sober with my own power. Everything they taught me, every skill, everything they went through. They tried hard, and I tried hard, and I couldn't stay sober. I started drinking again probably a month after I got home. I wasn't listening to anybody. I was out of control. I let the drinking just take over and that's when the DUI happened. I was in Fargo for work and we were staying overnight and I went out to Applebee's and I had too many drinks and I still thank the Lord for that cop that stopped me and arrested me and took me in. That was the first moment where I knew there was something probably bigger going on because the sheriff's department didn't even put me in the jail, they actually spoke life into me in West Fargo, they told me there was something better in life, there was more to life. That's when I ended up getting fired from my job and lost my career and ended up going back to rehab because we didn't really know else what to do. So I went out to Minnesota, the same facility, but this time was different, this time was rock bottom and this is the time I actually had to plead to God because I didn't have the security of a career or I didn't even know if I was going to come home to Missy this time because the destruction I left behind. That's when God came to me in this overwhelming sense of warmth and this feeling and this clarity came in my head that this is what I'm supposed to be doing next is just following

Him and not following the processes of man, but following Him. And that's truly when I was healed as well, that's when He took the cravings away and He took away all of the anxieties of alcoholism and all the shame and all the hurt was all lifted off of me and off my shoulders and off my chest and I was lighter and I felt lighter and I called Missy and I was just crying, I was bawling and I'm like, something cool just really happened to me, but our life is different now. And it was from that moment on where all that changed, that I didn't want the things of the world anymore and I just wanted our Father in heaven. We're praying for a Bible teaching, healthy church to come to Dickinson. We prayed and we pleaded, God, please just bring a church here. We weren't asking for a Vangel, we were just asking for a church, but once we got that phone call and a Vangel was coming, we knew our prayers were answered. We just decided we were all in, this was our opportunity to help. This region of North Dakota needs a church like this and we were going to be there to build it. And we know we're called to be there for this church, so we're living with our palms up now, just doing what God wants next. On a hill overlooking the Sea of Galilee, Jesus teaches to a large crowd, including his disciples, as recorded in Matthew 5. He proclaims, God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted. They will be satisfied. They will be called the children of God. They will be shown mercy. If we came to him, he would actually, in our brokenness, start to heal and restore and make things right again within us. If we remain in him, this is all about inviting the presence and the power into every area of your life. We're pressing two of the three parts of you so that your spirit, which God created

and God burst in you, can come alive. God can take our brokenness and create something beautiful yet again, even in those moments that we feel shattered. If the mess you created and the mess you can't see how you created it, is that mess a lost cause? Yes. If, if you treat Jesus's words as a lost cause, if you treat obedience in areas of lost cause, because you will have forfeited the only way to get out of the mess. Wentz, second and five. Anderson, he's got it. He's got his man. Wentz pumps and then throws it to C.J. Ham, the fullback. Here's Ham. Look at for C.J. Ham! The fullback makes the catch! The Bible was written not to be consumed for five minutes of devotion. The Bible was written to be hidden in your heart. You know what we need? We need Christians who are full of God's Word in their hearts. We need Christians who are full of His Word that when they speak, it's life giving. It's faith filled. It's full of encouragement. We need C.J. Ham. There's a whisper that has echoed through the ages of the church and the people of God since the time of Jesus, and that whisper is God's command to go and make disciples of all nations. At Evangel, the way that we fulfill God's command to go is through legacy makers.

It's people giving generously or going generously in reaching the world with the message of Jesus outside the four walls of the church. We do that through five different lanes of giving and going. It's care for vulnerable kids through things like the Lily Initiative and assisting foster and adoptive families. It's local missionaries and organizations reaching people all across America to bring the gospel and care for people in our own backyard. It's global missions, which supports missionaries and organizations around the world that deliver hope by meeting physical and spiritual needs. It's future leaders and MLC, developing the next generation of pastors and leaders for God's church. And finally, it's future projects, campuses and other places where we can expand the impact of the church so we can connect real people to a real God. We were sitting in church, they played this video. There was a little girl that they showed like a removal and she was getting placed with the family in the middle of the night. And like something just switched for me in that moment. Like I was so broken. I was weeping. We were kind of just in the trenches of small children ourselves. So I hadn't, you know, hadn't really crossed my mind. It was like in that moment that God totally broke my heart for what breaks his. I think I didn't realize how comfortable I was in my faith. Our comfort zone is outside of our house. As long as our home is comfortable, we can handle anything. Like, because we can retreat to our home and just realize, like, hey, ministry isn't outside of our home. It's inside our home. Yeah, I think people will shy away from doing fostering because they think of it as a really big need.

And you have to be this, this, and this, and you have to meet all these qualifications and have the perfect, you know, home and home life and whatever. That's not the case. Like Jonica said, it's just an opportunity to love on these kids. If you love on your own kids, you can probably love on somebody else's kids. Yeah, and any barrier you have in your life, the church literally helps remove. Even with when we were getting started, it was like, you need quite a few things to get started. Yeah. And Liliana, she just said, save your receipts, submit them, like, it's covered. And there was just like no excuse for us not to do it or not to get started because the church was just right there every step of the way. That first placement was, we had a set of twins and they were just freshly removed and came to us and Shannon was out of town. And so it was just like, we're navigating all this stuff. And I remember my son looked at me with tears in his eyes and he said, mom, this is really hard. And I said, yeah, it is really hard, but I said, God calls us to do really hard things. Our youngest woke up one morning and she said, I got up in the middle of the night with one of our foster kids. He was crying and I just went in and I held him and I rocked him back to sleep. And I didn't know any of this was happening. She just did this on her own in the middle of the night. And I just thought, wow, God is really working in ways I could have never imagined. And I'm seeing it through our kids. I fall deep and fast for these kids. I was like, they'll never know how much I truly fell in love with them. And I gave them all of my heart. I didn't hold back anything. I was just like, okay, here's all of me.

It's amazing how quickly they change you, honestly. We haven't been doing this for very long, but I would say after that first placement, like, we're forever changed. Those little girls changed our lives, for sure. Anytime somebody comes into our home, that no matter the length of time that they're there, that we use that as an opportunity to build a foundation in their lives, that one, that God loves them, that he cares about them, that we love them, that we care about them. And I think one of the most encouraging parts of the whole thing was watching God intervene for these children. Their situations are really desperate and broken, and you feel like, I'm just a really small piece, and I can't fix this brokenness for them. And you pray over them, and you weep over them, and you pray that God would protect them and provide people in their lives. And we've seen that firsthand. We've seen God move mightily in these children's lives and in a short time. And so that's been really encouraging to see, like, God loves these kids so much. God loves them. And the fact that we have such a strong community in our church has been just made all the difference in the world. Like, we couldn't do what we do without the support of the Little Initiative. Every child deserves the chance to know Jesus, but nearly a billion are still waiting to hear his name. One Hope is a global ministry committed to changing that by bringing God's Word to children and youth around the world. Since 1987, we've reached over 2 billion young lives across nearly every country through Scripture engagement programs made for their age, language, and context. But there are still places where the gospel hasn't broken through, where children grow up in war zones and refugee camps,

where persecution silences the church and spiritual darkness dominates daily life. These are the hardest-to-reach regions on Earth. Often called the Final Third, it's home to most of the world's unreached people groups, where nearly one-third of the next generation has yet to hear the name of Jesus. And our calling to reach every child with God's Word won't be complete until we reach them, no matter the cost. Here, entire generations are growing up never knowing who Jesus is. Their futures are being shaped by lies, violence, and hopelessness. But we believe they are not forgotten, because God knows them by name, and He's calling us to reach them, now. With the help of friends like you, we're going where others can't, or won't. We're equipping local believers to plant churches in places where they've never existed before. We're creating contextualized print and film Scripture programs that speak their heart language. And in the most closed nations on Earth, we're crossing digital borders, reaching youth on their phones, through videos and conversations that lead to Christ. They're curious. They're searching. And when we meet them with God's Word, everything changes. One child at a time, the gospel is breaking through. This is the front line of the Great Commission, and the time is now. We're so excited about what God is doing all over the world through Legacy Makers, but we also know we have a responsibility in our own backyard, and what God continues to do through all of our campuses, and even right here at the Bismarck Campus. Over the years, we have seen continued growth, just year after year, at our Bismarck Campus, and we have always done our best to be a part of that. as leadership to steward the growth and believe that God is going to continue to provide as we steward what he's doing here. And recently, you know, we just paid off the mortgage for our Bismarck Campus expansion, and we're already asking the question, what do we do next? Because the seats keep running out. And so, as you know, we recently launched our fourth service to provide more opportunity for growth, for more people to come and experience Jesus, for more kids to get Jesus on their level. But we also know that's maybe not the long-term solution. And so really

just praying and doing due diligence as leadership to determine what is the next best step to continue to steward the movement of God here at the Bismarck Campus. Yeah, we often talk about plowing our hearts, and that's just what we're doing as leadership. That's what we're doing as a board. It's just praying, listening, and when God speaks, we want to be ready to obey, and then watch what he does. And so we put pieces on paper and moved it around and said, how can we maximize the space that we have? How could we add to it? What does that look like going forward? So no big announcement today, but an invitation to please pray with us. Believe God for what he wants to do next. Pray that we have the wisdom of God on how to continue to move forward so we can continue to reach our communities for Jesus. That's really what it all comes back to. Even as we look at this next year, my heart has shifted from just certain communities to how do we rewrite the spiritual map of a state or of a region? And not just Bismarck or Garrison or Dickinson or the state penitentiary or online or Beck TV, whatever it is for Jesus, but North Dakota for Jesus. And we're just praying and saying, God, we want to be ready when you open the doors. The only ambition in our hearts is a godly ambition to see people come to know Jesus. And we believe that he knows what's next. He knows what he wants us to be as the church and what he wants us to build as the church. And so we're just trusting him and praying together and believing that even throughout this year, God's going to be able to speak to us about what those next steps are. So come along with us, pray, let's listen. And when God speaks, let's obey. And I believe we're going to see North Dakota for Jesus in these coming years. Come on, can you give God praise for all he's doing? What a privilege. What a privilege. And what an opportunity we have this year. It's been a great weekend already. We've had our Legacy Makers Banquets. Many of you were there and just setting the tone for what we believe God wants to do throughout this next year. I want to welcome all of our campuses in, in Dickinson and Garrison, the state penitentiary, everybody online. Bismarck, will you welcome him in? Everybody who's watching today. I want to just immediately direct your attention to two responses. I'm going to tell you where we're going in the end today, and then I'm going to talk through, are you guys okay? It's cold out. Yeah, you don't look happy. All right, so yeah, smile, fake it, and eventually your heart will make it. But man, it's great to see you. And I just love the testimonies from that video and the things that God is doing. I want to give you the two responses that I'm going to bring you today,

and they're really contained in this handout that you received. One of them is, what is God directing you in, in your own next step? We try really hard to give you an identifiable path forward in your faith. If you're here, go to there and take your next step wherever you're at. And today, maybe you want to take a pen and you just want to check boxes. I'm like, what am I already doing? And what is God maybe calling me to do next? Also on the inside of this handout, it talks about legacy makers. And if you're new to Evangel or you're a guest today, this is not a normal Sunday for us. It's a vision Sunday. And the videos that you saw today about One Hope or about the Lily Initiative are all supported by people who not only give to the regular giving of our church, but give above and beyond to something called legacy makers that assist foster parents. It brings the message of Jesus to kids all over the world. And those are just a sliver of all the things that God is doing and that we get to be a part of here at Evangel. And so maybe today, your response is, I'm going to partner with what God is doing around the world, because generous things happen across the world when the people of God are generous. And when our priorities line up with what God is doing in the lives of people all over the world. You also received a legacy maker's guide when you came in. This is for 2026. The first half is just what God is doing in our church and how people are moving forward in their faith. And the second half is the causes through Legacy Makers that we're supporting. And so we have enough for everybody, one per family to take home. Let it remind you of what God is doing in your church and through your lives. When I was in elementary school, we used to go in the back playground of our small elementary school in Glen Island, North Dakota. And we would build snow forts on weekends like this one, well, not weekends, weekdays, during our recess time. And we would roll these big balls of snow and stack them together and build these amazing,

well, we thought they were amazing, snow forts. And everybody would kind of build their portion of the wall, right? And then you'd only have about a 20-minute recess. So you'd build as fast as you can. And then at the next recess, you'd build a little bit more. And everybody's part mattered on the wall. If somebody wasn't doing their job, that part of the wall got a little bit weaker, or the snow fort looked a little bit uneven. If somebody left and went to play tag instead or a different game, their part of the wall would be unfinished. If somebody wasn't really, wasn't rolling the snowballs big enough, and they had small little snowballs, their part of the wall was a little bit weaker. But the worst part wasn't just if somebody abandoned their part of the wall. The worst part was the opposition that we faced. Because we would spend three recesses building snow forts, and then we'd come back the next day. And high schoolers had driven through the playground with their trucks and run over our snow forts. And what had been a snow fort was now just a pile of snow with tire tracks through it. It was awful. And we would start back all over again. It reminds me actually of the book of Nehemiah, of Nehemiah rebuilding the walls around Jerusalem,

rebuilding the walls in Israel. It says that every person who worked on the wall in the book of Nehemiah was working in front of their own home. It wasn't just a wall for the city. It was a wall that would protect their own family, would protect their own house. And while the individual names of those people who built the wall often faded their legacy, we still read about it today. And the point of the stories is that when we build something where everybody is doing their part, what we build can be really impactful. And it can be really enduring. In fact, the Bible says this in 1 Corinthians 12. The apostle Paul writes about what happens when we build together. Here's some select verses from 1 Corinthians 12. Verse 12 says, the human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. He says, so it is also with the body of Christ. That's his church, that's his people. Verse 14 says, yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. If the foot says, I am not a part of this body because I am not a hand, that does not make it any less a part of the body. It's still a part of the body. 1 Corinthians 12, 18 says, but our bodies have many parts

and God has put each part just where he wants it. How strange a body would be if it had only one part. I think that would be a monster. Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. The eye can never say to the hand, I don't need you. And the head can't say to the feet, I don't need you. And he says, this is how it is with the body of Christ, that whether, if you're a follower of Jesus, whether you proclaim to be a part of the body or not, whether you are a hand or a foot or a nose, you are a part of the body. You know, when we were building those snow forts, nobody ever announced that they were getting lazy on their part of the wall. Nobody really ever announced when they were disengaging or saying, you know what, I'm gonna go do something different. It was just all of the sudden, one part of the wall wasn't being built. And all of the sudden, the snow fort was becoming a little uneven. No second grader ever stood up and said, I hereby resign from my part in building the wall. They just slowly crept away, or they, you know how they are, they would see somebody else playing a game, and they'd get up and they'd run over there rather than being right here where they needed to be. They just didn't show up at the next recess, or they didn't show up the next day, or they stood there holding a snowball like,

you know what, I'm more of a visionary. I'm not really a builder. This isn't really my thing. I'm not really a wall guy. And what happened? The wall never just falls apart at once. It just gets a little bit weaker or. thinner or uneven or more wobbly, it still was standing, but when you get to the top and you just start pressing it together rather than building something, that snow fort couldn't stand. And the Apostle Paul writes about how the body of Christ is the same, that if every member isn't doing their part, if every member isn't serious about I am a part of this body and I have something to bring to the table, that maybe the body can still stand, but it won't be as strong as it was meant to be. It's not because people are bad. It's not because people don't care. It's often because life is real, that other priorities come up or distractions enter into our lives or we go through difficult things. Sometimes it's the reality that we love the benefits of the church. We love to glean from it. We love to be a part of it. We love to show up, but we hesitate at the responsibility of what really makes church happen. Even like Sandan and Jonica in the video, we sit back and we hear about the need for vulnerable kids

and we think, surely somebody else will do it. And we delegate out to other people when maybe God is actually saying, no, I want you to take responsibility for your part on the wall. We think thoughts, and I've been there of, well, I'm stretched too thin already. Or maybe somebody else will handle it. Or I don't feel like I'm needed. Maybe my gift doesn't matter. I don't know where I fit. Or you know what, I tried to build part of the wall before and I got hurt and I don't know if I want to engage again. Or I'll get involved later when my life slows down. Has anybody found out that life doesn't really slow down? At least not for me yet. And here's what I realized is the same between snow forts and the body of Christ, that it's often not destroyed by opposition, it's weakened long before that when people disengage. When everybody stops building together and frankly, the larger the church, the more people show up, the easier it is to have this thought of somebody else will go, somebody else will give, somebody else will do and we can abdicate what God is speaking to our own hearts. Now listen, don't just do it because I'm telling you to. The goal of this Christian life is obedience to Jesus. It's like we talked about in the video. It's praying and listening and then being quick to obey when God speaks to our hearts.

The Apostle Paul said one part of the body can't say to the others, I don't need you. But that's often what our disengagement, what our pulling back or what our passivity is quietly saying is I don't really know if I need the body and I don't really know if the body actually needs me. And you know, I was thinking about this. How do you actually know? How do you actually know the difference of what God is asking you to do in the local church? And I would put it this way. If you're in a relationship of any kind in your life and you're consistently taking more than you're giving, that's probably an unhealthy relationship. Does that make sense? You wouldn't wanna be in a marriage like that. You wouldn't wanna be in a relationship with another person where it's constantly give, give, give, give but little, or constantly take, take, take, take but little comes back. And as I was thinking about this in the context of the local church, here's really what I'm asking of our church on this Vision Sunday is to go from a mindset that says I love this church, I love what they do to a mindset that says I am this church. There's a difference between I love it and I'm glad I get to be a part of it and a mindset that says no, I am the body of Christ. This whole place suffers

when I don't build my part of the wall. Not out of obligation but because God has formed me and he has fashioned me, he's put gifts inside of me that when I step into who he created me to be, the whole body benefits. Everybody around me benefits and grows. I really wanna ask you this question today. I know I'm stepping on your toes but it's in love. If everyone in the church lived like you do, would the church be stronger or would it be weaker? If everybody in the church lived like I do, would the church be stronger? Would the body of Christ be stronger? Would the wall be stronger or would it be weaker? See Ephesians 2 19 says that you are not a random human on the earth. It says that if you are in Christ you are now a citizen of heaven. That God has brought you into his own household and he said you are now a part of the family of God. And it's one thing for you to watch a video and go wow that's cool what those people are doing. But what we have to understand what has to get into our spirit is if God can do it in them he wants to do it in me. That there's a vision and a passion and there's gifts and there's steps that God wants me to take in my life. And right now I'm watching other people's Christian experience but God wants me to experience the full Christian life. Not just watch other people experience it. You are members. You are citizens of the household of God. We are built as a church as a people on the foundation of the prophets in the Old Testament who said that a Savior would come. And the Apostles in the New Testament who pioneered and built this early church. And the Bible says that that foundation of all of them has now built us into the people of God. A holy temple the body of Christ that is still being built up today glorifying our Father in heaven. What a privilege. What an opportunity to

be a part of the body of Christ. Christ Jesus is our cornerstone. See God still builds this church today through ordinary people. He still taps the Gideons and the Davids and those in the scripture that were often overlooked. The people that think I'm the most unlikely candidate. I have the most messed-up story and God goes I want to make your mess into a message. I want to use your life for my glory. And every one of us has a part of it. Everyone matters. Your part in the body matters. Your part in this body matters. 1st Corinthians 12 27 says you are the body of Christ and each one of you is a part of it. Not even just for the benefit of a vangel that's a very small slice of this global church. This global movement that we are a part of. But you know what happened at the end of last year? A few people on Legacy Makers Sunday gave generously and another donor matched what we gave and 418,000 kids received the message of Jesus because of your part in the body of Christ. That's the way of God's kingdom. I've been I turned 40 and I think it caused a lot of reflection in my life and I was thinking about just how I got where I am. And even last night at the Legacy Makers banquet I was talking about all the people in the room who have a part in Legacy Makers or even are supported through Legacy Makers. And one of my college friends now leads a ministry called Hip Hop and Hope and he's a huge part of what's happening in the state penitentiary and correctional facilities not just in North Dakota but now expanding across other states. One of my other college roommates is leading a church here in North Dakota that's a consequential influential church. Another one of my honorary roommates in college is in Alaska and has started the Alaska Student Partnership where the furthest most unreached villages are receiving the message of Jesus. And I look at that and I think either I picked really good friends or God did something really special among us when we were together. And now it's gone and that movement that started when we were college students is impacting Iowa and Alaska and North Dakota and places all across the world. And I just I think about this church and I think about this moment in time and it's so easy to get caught up in the moment isn't it? I mean well life is busy

there's a lot going on I don't know what my part is and I can't help but think when they look back 10 years from now when they look back 20 years from now what will they say about what was being built here? What will they say about the the lives of people who maybe were on the fringe today? but are changing the world 10 years from now. That's what God does. He plucks out people who are struggling and on the fringe and inadequate. He takes our ordinary, everyday lives and he leverages them, he uses them for his glory. I've really been thinking about that 10 years from now. What will they say about what we built today? Because the kingdom, it's the long game. It's the eternal perspective. It's saying, am I just building for this ordinary, temporary life or am I building with eternity in mind? And I'm so thankful for what God is doing in our church, aren't you? I'm thankful for the healthy emergence of a college here at the church where we're training students and the next generation of pastors with a biblical worldview, where we have quality students who are coming in. We're gonna start this year training people who are mid-vocation to be able to have their career, but also say, hey, I think I might be called to missions or I might be called to vocational ministry. What an opportunity as a church. I'm so thankful that the church just continues

to grow and to grow and to grow. Many of you know me and I said this last night at the banquets, I said, I'm not trying to grow a mega church, I never have been. I don't know when you become mega. People just use that terminology, but what we are trying to build is a church where every nation, tribe, and tongue, every person gets to hear the message of Jesus. We're trying to build space for every person to be able to come in and hear the message and have their kids hear the message of Jesus. And I don't know if you know or not, but there's still a mission field in front of us. I know the church can feel large or it can feel full in whatever context that it's in, but there's still people in Dickinson, there's still people in Garrison, there's still people in the state penitentiary, there's still people in Bismarck-Mandan that have not heard the message of Jesus, that are not a part of the body of Christ. And it's our job to steward what God is doing here and steward these buildings and steward this college and steward this community and prepare for what God wants to do next. I'm thankful that last year, in order to make this happen, our church gave the largest amount to legacy makers that we've ever given, $2.8 million was given last year for causes like this all around the world, amen.

We should clap our hands and thank Jesus. But even more than reaching people, I'm thankful that 1,000 people in our church have gone through heart and soul and been commissioned not into just receiving, but into using their gifts for God's glory. I'm thankful for testimonies, stories like TJ's and Lacey's that we shared on Legacy Makers Sunday and Matt and Missy that we shared today that God is changing the lives of people. Isn't it incredible? I was just with Matt and Missy on Friday and man, at Dickinson, come on, clap your hands, cheer for what God is doing in the lives of people. And Matt's been a part of MLC and even set his career on the side, in a way, to say, I'm gonna fulfill this call to ministry. And man, it's amazing what God is doing here, but we know that Jesus gets all the glory. Jesus gets all the glory. And God has given us a vision for the future. And he's piecing together a vision of what it means to continue to be kingdom people, to continue to not be a church that is stuck in nostalgia because a church in nostalgia is in decline, but a church that has a vision for the future. And I'm inviting you to be a part of it. I mean this sincerely, the word for the moment right now is North Dakota for Jesus. Not just Bismarck, Mandan, Garrison, Dickinson,

but I believe that God wants to rewrite the spiritual map of your home using your life. I believe God wants to rewrite the spiritual map of our state using our lives. But it's gonna require a people that say, we are the body of Christ and I am a part of it. It's gonna require some people to say, I refuse to just come and receive in this relationship and not give anything. Because I have gifts that are inside of me and my purpose as a human is attached to what God has called me to do. And if I don't live out that calling and if I don't express those gifts and if I don't use the God-given abilities he's put inside of me, my hope will wane. See, the lie is, no, the more you commit to, the more drained you're gonna be. That's not how it works. The more you leverage your life for God's glory, the more fulfillment and purpose you will have. You will be able to do more with more energy. When you say, yeah, I'm doing it, but God is in it. I'm telling you, I did two Legacy Makers Banquets, two podcasts, I'm preaching four times today and I am energized, I am ready to go. Because I'm in it. in what God has called me to do. But it's not just for the preacher on this stage. Every one of you is a part of the body of Christ.

Every one of you has a purpose in what God is doing. I want you to just be encouraged knowing that last night and the night before we had Legacy Makers Banquets in Bismarck and in Dickinson. And just between the maybe 300 people out of our church that were here for that, they committed just under a million dollars to Legacy Makers this next year because they're saying we're all in. We believe God for it. Come on, praise the Lord. And I wanna close with this thought. Many of you know Aesop's Fable about the goose that laid the golden eggs, right? And I just wanna give it to you in a little bit of a different light today because this is what God has been encouraging my spirit with today. We all love the golden eggs. I love the golden egg of the Lilly Initiative, right? I love the golden egg of One Hope. I love the golden egg of the Midwest Leadership College. I love the golden egg of Alaska Student Partnership. I love the golden egg, all of them that are provided for through Legacy Makers. And if you don't know the story, a farmer discovers that he has a goose that's laying golden eggs. I think it's like one a day or something like that, which is a huge gift. And at first he's really grateful, but eventually he gets a little impatient and he goes, why won't that goose produce two golden eggs a day?

Why can't there be more golden? Isn't that our nature as people? And impatience and greed begin to take over. And I think the story results in the goose being slaughtered to try to get all the golden eggs at once. But if you kill the goose that produces golden eggs or you neglect it, pretty soon there's no more golden eggs. And I believe, and it's my conviction, that the local church is the goose. That when Jesus left the earth, he said, I'm giving you something that's built on the foundation of the prophets and the apostles. It's the local body of Christ. That the church, with Christ Jesus as the head, is God's plan A. We are not a weekend gathering. We are a people of God being built up into a holy temple. We are the dwelling place of God Almighty. Paul said in another place in scripture, he goes, don't you know that you yourselves are the temple of the Holy Spirit? That a spirit-filled, prophetic body of Christ is the goose. And when the church is healthy, what does it produce? It produces golden eggs. It produces amazing next generation of pastors and ministry leaders. It produces people who go out and they start parachurch ministries that affect people all over the world. It produces things that meet the need

for foster care in its communities. But sometimes we fall more in love with the golden eggs and we forget if you want golden eggs, you gotta feed the goose. And really what the back of this card is, it's never just about your personal transformation as a human. We get that wrong. We're very individualistic in how we see our spiritual lives. But the goal is that your life would be transformed for the glory of Christ Jesus. That your life would be transformed so that his body would be in full force. And so my request today is not just for you to give or for you to be a greater part of evangel, but my request today is would you take your resources, your gift, your life, and would you feed the goose? And I believe that what I experienced in college because somebody chose to feed the goose, now 20 years later, believe it or not, is having an impact all over the world. And God wants to do the same thing here. And he's gonna use you. He's gonna speak to you. He's gonna call you out of your ordinary everyday life. To be used for his glory. But if a few people take their hands off the wall and a few people don't build with faith and a few people offer neglect

where really faithfulness should sustain, then all of us get weaker. And I know there's many of you that you've been a part of Evangel for a while, but you've not engaged in a deeper way. You can stand on the shore all day and wonder if the ocean is salty. Or you can get in there and find out what it's like to swim in the deep. You have the option to stand on the sidelines. You have the option to be critical to the church or to be critical of it. You have the option to be a consumer in the church or to be a consumer of all God wants to do in your life. And so I want to close just by asking you today, what part of the wall is God asking you to take responsibility for? And with that, I want to give our campus pastors an opportunity to share and to lead the church at their campus. We're gonna transition at this time. If you're in Bismarck today, would you just take this handout that you got when you came in and I just want this to be even a prayerful and a reflectful moment for you to say, God, what is my next step? How do you want to use my life to produce something for your glory? And sometimes we try to predict it,

but really all you can do today is just say yes to the next thing. And then all of a sudden you find yourself down the path months or years later and you're like, God was putting together a work in my life that I could have never predicted. He wanted to do something through me. I'm not gonna put a lot of emphasis on it today, but if you're here and you've never been a part of what God is doing around the world through legacy makers, I tried to give you some tangible examples of how even giving on a monthly basis can make a difference in the lives of people. Will you stand with me? Father, we just thank you, Lord, for the vision of this house. Lord, we thank you that you're able to speak to every individual heart. Come on, if you wanna hear from him today, would you just put your hands out in front of you? Lord, I even ask that right now, you would just speak to every individual heart. I wanna hear from you right now. I wanna hear from you right now. I wanna hear from you right now. Lord, I even ask that right now, you would speak into individual hearts and lives and you would show people where you want them to build the wall. That even now you'd begin to help them identify the gifts,

the calling. I ask that the whisper of your Holy Spirit right now would begin to speak to our hearts. That as they look at a next step that they can take, that they would read something and it would jump out at them and they would know this is what I'm called to do. And together, God, as each one does their part, this whole body would be built up and it would be a true house of worship and a true house of prayer that would bring glory to your name. So Lord, whatever work you've started in us, we trust you to bring it through to completion. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Well, the preacher was long-winded today, so I'm gonna dismiss you, but I'm gonna ask our prayer teams if you would come and if you're here today and you want prayer over the decision you're making or you need prayer for something that you're walking through in your life, let our prayer teams pray with you. Take your next step.

God bless you. Thanks for being here today. Service is over, but church is not, so go be the church. Amen.