Week 3 | Hope That Can’t Be Stopped

Come on, we are in history of celebration of hope. Come on, let's give Him some praise. I'm taking off the heaviness. I'm dancing out of my regrets. I'm throwing caution to the wind. No, I am not ashamed to praise like this. Some would say it's foolishness. But I say it's worth the risk. I can't forget what Jesus did. No, I am not ashamed to praise like this. Where are those chains that once held me? I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free. My sin is gone. How can it be? I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free. It's looking what the Lord has done. I'm never going back to the way I was. I sing out this cause I believe. I'm free, I'm free. Thank God I'm free. Thank God we're free. I found a friend that never quits. No other man is good as this. I get what anyone says. I'll never be ashamed to praise like this. Where are those chains that once held me? I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free. My sin is gone. How can it be? I'm free, I'm free, I'm free.

It's looking what the Lord has done. I'm never going back to the way I was. I sing out this cause I believe. I'm free, I'm free. Thank God I'm free. He took the cross and You broke Your body. You shed Your blood, now the sinner can't sing. My debt is paid and my record is clean. I couldn't do it so You did it for me. He took the cross and You broke Your body. You shed Your blood, now the sinner can't sing. My debt is paid and my record is clean. I couldn't do it so You did it for me. He took the cross and You broke Your body. You shed Your blood, now the sinner can't sing. My debt is paid and my record is clean. I couldn't do it so You did it for me. I couldn't do it so You did it for me. I couldn't do it so You did it for me. Oh my God, I can't do it. Oh my God, I can't do it. Oh my God. Oh my God. Come on. Where are those chains I want? Come on, you sing. I'm free. I'm free. I'm free. I'm free.

My sin is gone. I'm free. I'm free. I'm free. And look at what the Lord has done. I'm never going back to the way I was. I'll sing all day because I'm free. I'm free. I'm free. I'm free. You took the cross. You took the cross and You broke Your body. You shed Your blood, now the sinner can't sing. My debt is paid and my record is clean. I couldn't do it so You did it for me. You took the cross. You took the cross and You broke Your body. You shed Your blood, now the sinner can't sing. My debt is paid and my record is clean. I couldn't do it so You did it for me. I couldn't do it. Oh my God, I could not do it. Oh my God, I couldn't do it. Oh my God, I couldn't do it. Oh my God, I couldn't do it. But Look at what the Lord has done. I'm never going back to the way I was. Oh. Look at what the Lord has done. I'm never going back to the way I was.

Look at what the Lord has done. I'm never going back to the way I was. But Look at what the Lord has done. I'm never going back to the way I was. I want you all to keep your hands clapping and those feet moving. Y'all know last week we introduced a new song called Omeima. Let me hear you say Omeima. Yeah, the one who does good. We serve such a good God. So come on and join us as we praise our good God. All right, here we go. Put your hands together like this. Let's go. I know He loves me. I know He cares. Whenever I call, He always is right there. In times of trouble, He is my help. Yeah, I know no fear. I know He'll be right there. Hey, He really does what He says He will do. My God really moves on. Hey, why would I doubt when He always comes through? My God really moves on. Let me see your hearts like this. Come on. He really, really moves on. I know He loves me. I know He cares. Whenever I call, He always is right there. In times of trouble, He is my help. Yeah, I know no fear. I know He'll be right there. Hey, He really does what He says He will do. My God really moves on. Hey, why would I doubt when He always comes through? My God really moves on. Hey, He really does what He says He will do. My God really moves on. Hey, why would I doubt when He always comes through? Let me see you wave your hands like this. Come on, we praise our God today. Come on. Let me see you wave your hands. Come on. He really, really moves on. We worship you, oh God, yeah. Come on. On time, on time. Yeah. Alright, sing this out with me. Come on. Come on. Oh, yeah. All right, this is so easy. Come on. Say, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Says he will do. Say, yeah. Why would we doubt when he always does say, my God, really? Yeah. He really does what he says he will do. My God, really. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He really does what he says he will do. My God, really.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hey. Why would I doubt when he always does say, my God, really move on? Hey. Hey. Hey. Why would I doubt when he always does say, my God, really move on? Amen. Amen. Amen. Yes, we serve a God who is really moving and he is already moving this morning. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Your name stands above them all All thrones and dominions All powers and positions Your name stands above them all And the angels cry Holy, all creation cries Holy, you are lifted high Holy, holy forever Come on and sing this with us If you've been forgiven And if you've been redeemed We'll sing this song forever into the land And if you're lost

And if you've been taken Come on sing with us Sing this song forever into the land We'll sing this song Forever and amen And the angels cry Holy, all creation cries You're holy, you are lifted high You're holy Jesus You're holy forever So hear your people sing If you're holy, you're so holy now You're holy And you will always be So holy forever Your name stands above them all Your name stands above them all All thrones and dominions All powers and positions Holy, holy forever Your name is the highest Your name is the greatest Your name stands above them all All thrones and dominions All powers and positions Your name stands above them all And the angels cry Holy, all creation cries You're holy, you are lifted high Holy, holy forever

Hear your people sing Holy to the king of kings Holy, you will always be Holy, holy forever You will always be You will always be Holy, holy forever Yes, you are holy Jesus Yes, Jesus Yes, Jesus, you are holy You are worthy of all of our praise Your name is above all names You are holy forever, God Your word says that where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom We have freedom to praise you We have freedom to thank you God, we are singing holy, holy, holy to our God almighty Thank you, God, for your presence Thank you, God, for the way that you move God, we just call upon your name And we ask that you continue to move throughout this service May you open up our minds to what you want us to hear today You open up our hearts to what you want us to carry with us after. We love you and we praise you in your holy name the Church of God says amen, amen. Come on, let's give them a strong clap offering. Yes, we praise you. Amen, amen. Alright, before you take your seats, why don't you turn to the person next to you and say I am so glad you are here today. Hey, well, good morning, Willow Creek. I am so glad that you are here today and welcome to week three of Celebration of Hope, right? If we haven't met before, my name is Kyle and I'm one of the pastors here on our team.

I'm Dwayne. I'm one of the pastors as well. It's great to see you this morning. Oh yeah. Week three of Celebration of Hope. And I'll tell you what, I get so excited during this season. This is actually my 11th celebration of hope here at Willow and I love that. 11. And Dwayne, this is your first. This is my first one. Praise God. First time. What's it been like for you, man? I mean, I got to pack seeds. I got to just watch God move all around the world and watch what he's already been up to. And can I just say, like, we're not just packing seeds, we're also planting seeds. And this has been a wonderful time of just that recognition. Praise God. So Dwayne, you mentioned seed packing and I know the people want to know. How did it go? Did we hit our goal? Where are we at? Do y'all really want to hear how we did in seed packing? Yeah, there's a couple of y'all. We have not just met our goal, we have exceeded our goal. Come on, somebody. Praise God. Praise God. And thank you to everybody who came out and packed seeds with us. And I tell you what, this is a really exciting season in our church. So if you are here for the first time, maybe you've been coming for a while, you don't feel connected. We have a digital connect card that I would love for you to fill out. You fill that out, one of our staff team will get in touch with you. Or you can just stop by our Next Step booth in our lobby. Yeah, now one of the steps of faith that we invite you to take is actually going to happen today. We have a step of faith that we call Discover Willow. And listen, if you're new to Willow Creek and you just want to hear about the mission and vision of Willow Creek, and you have not yet taken Discover Willow, I want to invite you today at 1230 in the Waterfall II room to take that class. We have some food available for you. There's some childcare. Our staff will be there, and the goal is to just share the mission and the vision of Willow Creek and to help you on the journey of taking those next steps of faith. That's going to happen at 1230. We would love for you to be a part of that class.

Now, one of those steps of faith that we encourage you to take is something called baptism. And listen, if you are a Christ follower and you have not yet been baptized, next week our whole service is going to focus on baptism, and we're going to have live baptisms here, praise God. Yeah, we want you to be a part of that. That's going to happen on May 3rd, and you can sign up for baptism by going to willowcreek.org slash next steps, and you can also sign up for Discover Willow at the same place. Awesome, awesome. Well, I tell you what, Church, we love to celebrate generosity because we love seeing lives transformed because of the good news of Jesus. So I'd love to just invite our ushers to come down, prepare to collect this week's offering. Before they do that, I want you to know that when we give, we're ensuring that even when the headlines look dark, the gospel of Jesus is shining bright all around the world. And to that end, I want to tell you about our partner in Jordan. This partner, as wars have risen up around them, as they've looked up and seen missiles flying across their sky, they have become a refuge to serve refugees, people fleeing conflict and war. And over 500 families get served by this church every month with food, with supplies, with needed services. And so what I want you to hear in that is that our partners aren't just organizations. Our partners are local churches full of brave men and women who have dedicated their lives to following Jesus and becoming more like him, which means when things look dark, they don't flee. They lean in and they serve and love people. And I think that is a beautiful, beautiful thing. And so as important as our resource offerings are, we know that our prayer offerings are just as important. So before we collect our offering, I would love to just pray for our partner. Will you join us? So Heavenly Father, we are just in awe of what you are doing around the world. God, thank you for people like Pastor Khalil, who we'll hear from in just a minute, for the brave people on his team, for the volunteers that are serving through that local church. God, it is evening in Jordan right now, but may they feel your presence. May they feel your comfort. God, fill them with strength. God, it is amazing to see your kingdom expand even in the midst of conflict.

And so, God, we pray for our partners really all around the world, Lord, that your kingdom will come, that your will will be done just as it is in heaven. God, we thank you for the opportunity to partner with people like Pastor Khalil in this church in Jordan. We pray this all in your powerful name, Jesus. Amen. Amen. Now, listen, there's a couple of ways that you can give here at Willow. Remember earlier, we said we're not just packing seeds. We're planting seeds, and one of the ways that we do that is through our giving. So you can give online at willowcreek.org, or you can give a gift through Venmo, or you can leave it in the baskets as they move around the room. So let's go ahead and take our offering right now. You can begin. And listen, as we have just walked through this journey for the last few weeks, we have heard so many stories of God's faithfulness and his grace, right? So good. Yeah. Yeah. And we have the opportunity now to hear another one of those stories from Pastor Khalil in Jordan who sent us this video. Will you take a look? Warm greetings, people of God, Willow Creek Community Church, our heart full of appreciation for your great love and wonderful support. I decided to record this short video. At the same time, you know, the sirens right now start to, you know, the voice spread out. You know, we are here in Middle East, in the midst of the war situation, in the midst of fear, and people, they are running from here to there. Many people, they live in shelters. Many people displaced.

But I want to thank God in the midst of all these situation, the church shine. Many people these days, they're running to the church to just to receive support. Today we have approximately 150 family, and every week we had group after group. And the church, praise God, full with packages. And because of people like you, because of your belief, for your generosity, because of your love, we can stand here and give the big love, big hope to every person around us. But we believe we are here for such time like this. God will give us a new season. We will see people running to Christ. We will see churches planted. We will see the King of God increase. This is what I believe. I believe that the Christian will be more stronger than any time before. We are here just to give love and hope and the message of salvation for every person. You know, I want to thank you. I want to thank you for your big heart, for your belief, for your standing with us, because we are one body. Let us praise God. We won't say hallelujah. Praise God. In the midst of darkness, in the midst of all the situation, the light still spreads from Jordan to everywhere. The light go to every house and every person. These refugees you are seeing by screen, you know, they are running to the church. And we have great chance to share the love of Jesus, give them hope and light. God so good. God so good. Thank you. Thank you so much.

And we are partner, and we work together for the Kingdom of God. May God bless you. May God be with you. In Jesus' name, we love you, and we pray for every person. I want to welcome everybody. Welcome to week three of Celebration of Hope. I do want to say a very special welcome to those of you joining us online, also all of our Willow locations. A big welcome to you. And as always, big shout out to our friends who join us at the Jefferson City Correctional Center. Great to have everybody here with us. Again, I mentioned this is week three of a series that we call Celebration of Hope. And Celebration of Hope, for us, we've been doing it for a lot of years, is all about highlighting God's work all over the globe, specifically through some incredible partners we have and highlighting the great work that God is doing. Now often, well not just often, every year for week three of Celebration of Hope, we actually take up a special offering, which we'll do a little bit later in today's service. So we've already taken up an offering that fuels the mission right around here at Willow every single week. The special offering really is an above and beyond offering, and what we do is we take those gifts, and every single one of those gifts we give away globally to our partners to fuel God's work all around the world. It's a real powerful opportunity that we get to unite our hearts together with our brothers and sisters in every region of the world. Now I think about the video we just watched with Pastor Khalil, and again think about his geographical situation. He's in the country of Jordan, which if you know your geography is just east of Israel, and so very much within the conflict zone of all. that's happening around him.

Now, what you would potentially think, because we read the news and we see all the headlines of what's going on in that part of the world, it's a very dangerous part of the world right now. It's a very war-torn, very conflict-oriented zone. And so in many ways, you could call it a region that's experiencing a lot of devastation and destruction. But what you'll never see on the news, it was what God is doing through his church. The beautiful thing is there are Christ followers in every one of these countries, in Israel, in Jordan, in Lebanon, in Iraq, in Iran, and God's church is rising up in really, really beautiful ways. And I would argue that sometimes it's actually the darkest of times that allows God's church to actually shine the brightest. You maybe think of this. There's a pine tree that sometimes you'll find in a forest. It's called a lodgepole pine. And it produces pine cones that look like the image that you see on the screen. Maybe you've seen a pine cone that looks a little bit like it. It's not a normal pine cone because it's sealed up. And what you don't know is there's actually seeds for the tree in the middle of this pine cone that you can't get to the seeds because there's this resin that seals it all in. Now, what's interesting is the seeds

of this particular pine cone cannot even be planted until the resin is actually melted. That the only way to get the seeds out of the pine cone is for the tree to be a part of, or experience a forest fire. It's actually the heat of the fire that melts the resin that allows the seeds to be planted and for new life to take growth. And so think about that as an image. What appeared to be devastation and destruction was actually the very environment that allowed seeds of new life to be planted. What we're praying for our partners in Jordan is exactly that. That actually it's the heat of the fire of what's going on in this conflict part of the world could actually be the very seeds that God uses to plant his gospel of transformation into that part of the world. And so we're believing that God is actually using a very difficult season to do an incredible work. And so I'm grateful for Pastor Khalil. Some of you know him. He's been here, he's spoken on this stage. And maybe now more than ever, he gives us the opportunity as a church to pray on behalf of the work that God is doing through him. So can we pause really quickly and pray for Pastor Khalil and that work? God, we just say thanks for the work

that you're doing through Pastor Khalil. I love his heart and his vision for the neighboring nations that you placed him in. God, I believe that you placed him there for such a time as this. And so Father, I just ask as refugees flee their conflict-oriented nations that potentially come to even the front doorsteps of his church to receive resources. God, may they not just receive food, may they receive the bread of life that is Jesus. May they just not receive water, may they receive the living water, which is Jesus. God, as they hand out a cup of water in Jesus' name, God, we just ask that it be the very fertile ground for the seeds of the gospel to be planted in the lives of people that literally you could use to transform a region of the world. So Father, would you protect our brother? Would you use him? We just allow the seeds of the gospel, again, to expand in a powerful way. We pray that in Jesus' name, amen. You know, as I think about that, I think about the difference between the seeds of the gospel getting planted in a very difficult and destructive situation in direct contrast to what we've been talking about over the past couple of weeks. Over the past couple of weeks,

we've been in the biblical prophetic book of Amos. It's in the Old Testament. Now, again, I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I've never actually preached through the book of Amos. So this has actually been a pretty challenging season for me. But what's interesting about the setting of the book of Amos, it's actually in direct contrast to what we just described with Pastor Khalil, in that at the time that this was written, it was 760 BC, 760 years before Jesus. And in 760 BC, the nation of Israel, the people of God, were actually very prosperous. Things were actually going really, really well. They were militarily strong. They were economically secure. Things were actually pretty comfortable. And that's part of the reason why Amos speaks into their comfort. He wasn't a prophet by trade. He actually wasn't a trained religious guy. He was a farmer. But he was a farmer that had a heart of God that saw that there was this drift happening in the people of God, and he spoke on behalf of God to challenge the drift that they were experiencing. And I think through Amos, you see this idea that comfort has a way of making people blind. They weren't in Pastor Khalil's situation. They were incredibly comfortable. And because of their comfort,

they actually lost sight of their purpose and their calling as the people of God to actually care for those that were around them. And if we're not careful, that's what comfort can sometimes do. We just enjoy the comfort. We love the security. We love the safety. We love the prosperity. And it just causes us, whether it's intentional or non-intentional, to forget about the needs that are right at our doorstep or certainly maybe outside of the circle that we live in. And Amos challenges the people of God on that day. He's like, I don't want you to just bring your worship to the temple or to the synagogue and lift your hand in worship to God, all the while ignoring the people that God loves. I don't want you to bring your worship to God and ignore the purposes that God has called you to. And so most of the book of Amos is incredibly challenging, calling the God's people back to their purpose, to their mission, to their calling. When you get to chapter nine, his message shifts, and he actually paints a pretty optimistic picture. He paints a picture of a God that actually wants to not only restore, but God that wants to do something abundant in their midst. And so here's where we find it. Amos chapter nine, he says this.

He says, in that day, I will restore David's fallen shelter. Now, again, I just mentioned that Israel was prosperous. It was economically doing well. Why would he say restore David's fallen shelter? What's fallen? Well, nothing's fallen yet, other than maybe what's fallen is their mission and their purpose. They've lost sight of what God wanted. And because of that, what he had prophesied is eventually an enemy nation was gonna overtake them. It was gonna lead them into exile, that they were gonna be a divided nation. They were gonna be in ruins, but ultimately God would bring them back because God wanted to restore their purpose and restore their mission. So he says, in that day, I'm gonna restore David's fallen shelter. I'll repair the broken walls. I'll restore the ruins and I'll rebuild it as it used to be so that they may possess the remnant of Edom. And then check this out. In all the nations that bear my name declares the Lord who will do these things. And so basically what Amos is getting at is there's gonna come a day where things are gonna get really hard. It's not gonna be comfortable any longer, but God will do this work ultimately

so that the people of God will understand who they are, what they are called to, what their mission is, what their purpose is, and to no longer let comfort blind them to who they were called to be. Because he says, ultimately, what I've called you to be is for all nations that all nations will bless my name. Now, the way that I typically understand it as this is if we're not careful, we as people, we oftentimes, we will kind of draw a circle. I'm actually standing in a circle right now. We'll give you an angle where you can view it. So oftentimes, this is what we do. And we draw all kinds of circles. Sometimes we'll draw a political circle of who's in and who's out. We'll draw a social circle of who can be accepted and who is not accepted. We'll draw economic circles as far as who has and who has not. And sometimes if we're not careful, we'll draw spiritual circles of those who are approved by God and those who are not. Now, what's interesting is we always draw the circles to where we're in the circle, right? We don't ever draw a circle where we're the outside looking in. We always draw the circle so that we're in the circle. There was a songwriter from Uruguay who wrote this lyric.

He says, there is no people who has not believed itself to be the chosen people. Because anytime we draw a circle, we draw ourselves in the circle. Like we're the chosen one and the other people like are not the chosen ones. Now this happens in about every arena of life. Think about the different circles that sometimes we get the privileges of being in that circle. So for example, if I were to join a country club, there are privileges of being in that circle. That maybe I get to enjoy some fine dining. Maybe I get to play a great round of golf at a nice course consistently. Maybe that I would get to enjoy the prowess of a pickleball court. I don't know. Like there's this circle and there's privileges that get associated if you're inside that circle. I'm pushing 50 years old. I got my first advertisement from AARP recently, right? A couple of woos in the room. I hope the woos are from people who are in the circle, right? Because it's another circle. There's privileges inside of certain circles. Now the challenge for us as people of God is sometimes we do the same thing spiritually. And we think because we're part of the people of God, there's certain privileges that get associated

with being a part of the people of God. And to some degree, that's true. As a people of God, you are loved as a person of God. You are forgiven as a person of God. You have hope, eternal hope, eternal security because you're a person of God. It's great to be in the circle of the people of God, isn't it? But here's where Amos will challenge us. When it comes to the people of God, it's not just about enjoying the privilege. Because there's people outside of the circle that need the same love, that need the same hope, that needs the same forgiveness. And if we're just focused on what it means for me, I will lose sight of my responsibility to take it to others who need the very same that God has given me. When it comes to the people of God, the circle of the people of God is not just about what you receive. It's about the responsibility that you carry. That the people of God are loved so that you love. You were forgiven so that you can forgive. You've received hope so that you can give hope. And where the people of God have missed it literally for thousands of years, if they've seen themselves as people who are privileged, but they've ignored the responsibility of what God has entrusted us with.

What's fascinating is you can actually trace it all the way back to the book of Genesis to see your purpose and call. The people of God were actually formed through this guy by the name of Abraham that God called. He was the father of a great nation. God made this promise to him. He said to Abraham, I will make you a great nation. I'll bless you. In other words, there are privileges, right? He says, I'll make your name great. You'll be a blessing. I'll bless those who bless you. Whoever curses you, I'll curse. And then notice what it says last. And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. They're an amazing privileges, but we cannot ignore our responsibility. That we are blessed to be a blessing. It's actually supposed to go through us. And so I think Amos would challenge us in this way. I think he would say this, do not live as though you were chosen instead of everybody else. Live like you're chosen for the sake of everybody else. You feel the difference? And I think that that's the challenge and the charge of the book of Amos is that we would not see ourselves as chosen people instead of others.

We are chosen people for the sake of others. And when we understand that truth, what Amos does next is he paints this powerful picture of abundance. I love this next picture. Says this in verse 13. He says, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman, the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from mountains and flow from all the hills. And I will bring my people Israel back from exile. They'll rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine. They will make gardens and eat their fruit. Now notice a lot of agricultural language there. Again, Amos was a farmer. So it makes sense that the image that he's gonna use is a farming type of image. Now, a lot of us are not farmers. And so we're like, what is he getting at? What's he making sense? And so here's kind of making sense of what Amos is saying there. If you know agricultural, you know that there are specific seasons for different types of work within agriculture. In other words, there's a planting season. There's a waiting season where a lot of the growth takes place.

And then there's a harvesting season where you go and you collect all the crops. Now, the image that Amos is giving us is that the reaper overtakes the plowman. In other words, these seasons get blended so much so that you can't even pick up last year's harvest before the new harvest is coming in. It's kind of this picture of this overwhelming abundance. And basically what Amos is challenging people is to lift their eyes to see a God of abundance. Because sometimes the reason why we stay in our circle is because we fear there's not enough for everybody. That I got to stay in the circle. I got to protect it for me. There's not enough to go around. So I got to hold on to it. But God says, no, no, no, no. I'm a God of abundance. I'm a God that loves to multiply. The more you give away, the more you actually have it multiply. I would say in God's economy, giving doesn't diminish. It actually multiplies. You see it all throughout Jesus' ministry. A couple fish and a couple loaves of bread. Become the very thing that God uses to feed 5,000 people. God doesn't, giving doesn't diminish in God's economy. It multiplies, and so as the people of God, we can never live in a scarcity mentality. We'd always lift our eyes to see the abundance of what God wants to do, not only in, but ultimately do through his church.

Now, we've already mentioned across all of our locations last week, we got to be a part of something called Seed Packs, and so thanks for showing up and packing a lot of seeds. It was amazing. With thousands of volunteers across all of our locations, planting seeds is amazing. We're able to exceed our goal. We're really, really grateful for the work that you've done. Now we've been packing seeds, my understanding, for 16 years, and so we just kind of thought about, like, what is 16 years of seed packing yield? And so we spent some time thinking about that, that the seeds that you pack, just so you know, they are already on their way, being shipped to Africa, to our partners in Malawi and Zambia, and once they get there, those seeds get planted, they get harvested, and we started thinking through, if you look at over 16 years of what God has done through those seeds, what might that look like? It's a beautiful picture of abundance. We captured it in this video. Check this out. A seed can change a life. We've spent 15 years proving it, packing envelopes and sending them to our partners around the world. Did you know we've been able to pack and send 42.9 million seed envelopes? If we stacked every seed envelope we've sent out, the tower would rise 26 times higher than the Sears Tower. A family pack consists of multiple envelopes of seeds. The produce from a family pack weighs 2,000 pounds. At a grocery store, that would cost, on average, $2,500. The current cost to fill and ship a family pack? Just around $1. All those seeds add up to 22.1 million acres of cultivated land. That's 62% of the state of Illinois. Zoom out.

The total comes to 16.6 billion meals, enough to give every person on earth a meal. Twice. And unlike the seeds available to most families in Africa, these can be replanted season after season, multiplying their impact every year. That's the power of a seed. One seed. Real change. Lives transformed. Together, let's grow the future. That's pretty amazing, isn't it? I mean, you just think about what God has multiplied over 16 years is amazing. So I'm holding one of the seed envelopes. Don't worry, this is an example pack. All the seeds that you packed did go to the continent of Africa. But I think about the seeds that were planted in this particular one. If we take Amos's words really seriously, what we actually do as a people of God is we step out of the circle. And our call in our life is to start actually planting these seeds outside of the circle. They're literal seeds that will produce literal vegetation, but it's not just that. These are seeds of the gospel of Jesus. Through it, it not only lifts people out of economic poverty, but it introduces them to the hope, the life, the love, the grace, the forgiveness that's found in Jesus. This is not only transforming lives physically, this is about transforming lives spiritually. But the people of God cannot stay in the circle. The people of God have to be willing to plant the seeds that God has given them for the gospel outside of the circle, because the God's people have always been called to expand the circle. That we can never settle for some sort of holy huddle. We have to be people who are committed to expand the circle. I would say it this way.

We're not called to be seed collectors. We're called to be seed planters. Would we as a church continue to lock our arms together to plant seeds of the gospel all over the world? Now I debated whether I was going to share this next part, but I think I have enough time, so I'm going to do it. Can I nerd out on the Bible for you for just a quick moment? Okay. Like seven people are really excited for me to nerd out on the Bible. Now fast forward from Amos' time 800 years. So we're now in 49 AD. So this is after Jesus had been crucified, was buried, was resurrected on the third day after he ascended. An early church was starting to form. It's now about a decade, decade and a half old. So really within that first 10 to 15 years of the early church, almost exclusively. The church was Jewish people who saw Jesus as the Messiah, who became followers of Christ and now quote unquote Christians. But they were likely mostly Jewish Christians. There were a few people who were not of the Jewish ethnicity that started to come to Christ as well. A Bible refers to them as Gentiles. They were kind of the outsiders who were being grafted in. But they came to this place that they had to decide what do we do with these Gentiles who were coming to Jesus? I mean, do they need to go? And in some ways kind of become Jewish and kind of practice some of the Jewish faith and religion.

Do they need to become a little bit more Jewish so that they became Christian? There's quite a debate in the early church at how they were gonna navigate this. It's what they decided to do in 49 AD. It's recorded for us in the book of Acts chapter 15. They assembled like all of the really strong, great Christian thinkers of the time. They pulled them together in the city of Jerusalem as the first church council to make this really important ecumenical decision. What are we gonna do with the Gentiles? I mean, are they full fledged, fully accepted, embraced as a part of the people of God, no questions asked, or is this really more of a Jewish movement of people who put their faith in Jesus and Gentiles kind of get in the side door? And there was quite the debate about it. It was actually in this council that James, one of the religious leaders at the time, he actually was the half brother Jesus as well. He stands up and what does he quote to make his case? He quotes Amos chapter nine, what we just read. And he makes this argument that God's vision since the very beginning was never to limit the people of God to some circle, that the call on the people of God was always to expand the circle as wide as it possibly could.

So you read these words in Acts chapter 15, verse 19, it says, this is James talking. He says, it's in my judgment that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are returning to God. In other words, we've got to throw the door open. We've got to expand the circle. It's not about us. It's about God using us for the sake of the nations. We are not chosen instead of everybody else. We are chosen for the sake of everybody else. I mean, that's what Jesus was getting at even in some of his last words while he was on this earth. Some of his last words while he was on this earth, it's recorded for us in Matthew chapter 28. Maybe you remember this. Jesus says, therefore, go and make disciples of what? Of all nations, not of some nations, not of a couple of nations, of all nations. He says this a couple of books later, the book of Acts chapter one, verse eight, right before Jesus ascends. He says that you're gonna receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. And then he says, you're gonna be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth. Do you see it in the heart of God from the beginning in Genesis chapter 12 when he told Abram that through you,

all nations on earth will be blessed through you? Do you see it in the words of Jesus himself when he says, go make disciples of all nations? Do you see it in Acts chapter 15 when James stands up and makes this case based on Amos chapter nine, that the people of God were never to be a closed circle to be exclusive to people, but the people of God were always to plant the seeds of the gospel to the very ends of the earth. And so when we as a church do something like a celebration of hope, and we talk about God's work around the globe, and we celebrate God's work through our global partners, we don't think this is a good idea. We think it's a biblical mandate. We think we are called by God to not sit in a circle, but to expand his good news and his work to every corner of planet earth. And so I mentioned earlier, what we do every single year during celebration of hope is we take up a special offering. We always do it in week three, and what we do is we consider it an above and beyond offering, and everything that happens in this above and beyond offering really goes to the work that happens all over the globe. And I wanna challenge us to really rise up and give in a significant way to really fuel God's work around the world.

Now, before that, let me just tell you where the money's gonna go. Like what kind of work is it gonna do? So let me walk you through some different regions where we have global partners in the work that's happening there. The first one is in the country of Jordan. I started here. I talked about Pastor Khalil. I talked about he's at the truly epicenter of a humanitarian crisis. And partner there, what will happen is some of the resources that are given today will go to Pastor Khalil and his work. And if you think about refugees that are really coming to him. him from Syria, from Israel, from Lebanon, from Iraq, from Iran, from all over that part of the world. There will be resources provided to really serve those who are fleeing conflict, but more importantly, that they will be introduced to Jesus in a powerful way. One of the other things that Pastor Khalil is doing, and it's shown in this picture, is he's actually gathering young people from each one of these nations, and young people whose political leaders are fighting and are at conflict with one another, and what he commissions them to think about is that God is not Iranian, God is not Iraqi, and God is not Jordanian, that God is not defined

by the country on your passport. Instead, being a people of God is defined by your posture and your commitment to the person of Christ, and across these political enemies, these young people are finding unity by the power of Jesus, and if a young generation get empowered to find unity in the name of Jesus, as those young leaders step into their own positions of influence, is it possible that God could literally change the landscape of that region of the world? We're praying to that end, and part of what we give today will go to fuel that kind of work in that region of the world. Let's talk about Latin America. We have quite a few partners in Latin America, countries like El Salvador, and Guatemala, and Costa Rica, and Dominican Republic. What's fascinating about our partnerships in Latin America is it's highly, highly contextualized. In other words, what we wanna do is come alongside the local church to identify what's the greatest need in your community, and how do we empower you to meet that need in the name of Jesus? What we talked about in week one of Celebration of Hope is the Latin American church has coined this phrase about mission integrated, that they're not just a church for spiritual things on Sundays, but they're literally the anchor of the community that provides holistic transformation. And so through our partnerships,

empowering the local church, because we believe that Jesus working through the local church is the hope of the world. And so if Jesus is working through his local church that can change the world, how does the local church feel empowered to see the need and respond so it's the anchor of the community? So some of the resources will go to local churches who will bring clean water to the communities for the very first time. Others will start savings groups. Other will do micro lending to create business infrastructure. The whole heartbeat is this, is if we can create a thriving reality with where we're at, then the people don't have to immigrate somewhere else in order to find life. They can find life right where we're at. And so the gift that you give is not a handout, it's actually a hand up. It's allowing local pastors in their own community to be empowered by training and resources to meet the spiritual, the physical, the emotional, the economic needs to create a thriving community in the name of Jesus. What God is doing in Latin America is amazing. Let's talk about the region of Africa. We primarily partner in the country of Malawi and in Zambia. I had the opportunity last summer to travel with my oldest son, Levi, to Malawi.

I got to witness firsthand just the amazing, amazing work that our partners are doing throughout Africa. Similarly to what I described in Latin America. Again, the heartbeat is everything we do happens through the local church, this fundamental belief that Jesus working through his local church is the hope of the world. And so it's really about empowering the local church. We're partnered with just over 7,400 local churches across the world, but just so you know, over 4,000 of those are in the country of Malawi. And so God's doing an amazing work in the country of Malawi. I loved having Humphreys last week here preaching, kind of sharing with you. I got to spend some time with Humphreys when we were in Malawi. Now what's happening in Malawi is these churches are uniting together, not just one local church, multiple churches coming together for the sake of their communities, for the sake of the regions. The seeds that you packed that were sent there will provide opportunities, not only of sustenance for single families, but it provides an economic engine to lift families out of poverty. The agricultural investment in the equipping is really changing the landscape of regions. There's a product that our partners developed. They're now called.

miracle fertilizer. It was created out of agricultural waste. And utilizing this miracle fertilizer is actually decreasing agricultural costs. It's actually increasing production. And so again, it's providing not only sustainabilities for families, it's providing economic recovery. It's lifting communities out of poverty in the name of Jesus, anchored in the local church. It's a beautiful work. And part of your resources will go to that part of the world in order to empower that work to continue. One that I've not talked about that I'm also really moved by is a newer partnership in the country of Ukraine. Now a number of years ago there was a man by the name of Slavik and in his right hand a woman by the name of Irina. They were leaders of a seminary in the western part of Ukraine. They came here to Willow Creek for the Global Leadership Summit. While they were here they took a tour of the care center. They loved the care center. They thought it was really inspiring, really cool. Then they went back to Ukraine. Eventually a couple years later a war broke out in Ukraine and they turned this theological seminary not only to a training ground for future pastors, they really turned it into an operation that supported the humanitarian crisis that was happening in their country. And so they remembered their time at Willow Creek and touring through the care centers and they contacted and said, can you help us to think through launching what they now call We Care Centers. There are now over 20 We Care Centers throughout the Ukraine supporting people whose lives are deeply, deeply affected by the conflict that's still ongoing in year four of the war there. Slavik traveled to Willow actually a couple months ago. I met with him in my office and he was talking about the work that's being done there and the partnership that we've been able to develop. There are people from Willow who've traveled to Ukraine to provide training to these We Care Centers. There's somebody from our our church that's on the board for the We Care Centers. We're heavily involved just to try to help as much as we possibly can, but they figured out how to multiply these We Care Centers in really powerful ways. So we're now learning from them as well. But when he was sitting in my office he said this,

it's kind of like where we started here today. He said, Sean, I think that there's this window for the gospel that as difficult as it is right now, it is fertile soil for the gospel to change people's lives. He said, there's gonna be a day that the war is over. There's gonna be a day that we return back to comfortable and in that day we'll probably lose some of the opportunity we have right now. And so it's sure it's about responding to the physical needs that are apparent everywhere we go, but there's an opportunity unlike any other time that we've seen for the seeds of the gospel to be planted in people's lives. And we are honored to get to partner with them to see that work continue to thrive and flourish in the Ukraine. We are committed to be a church that doesn't stay in a circle. We don't think it's a good idea. We think it's a biblical mandate to make sure that the seeds of the gospel get spread, in Jesus' words, to the ends of the earth for every nation. Remember what he said to Abraham, that all nations on earth will be blessed through you. That was true in Abraham's day. That was true in the day of Amos. That was true in Acts chapter 15. We get to step into the story because the circle of the people of God has never been about privilege. It's always been about responsibility. To take the good news, the seeds of the gospel, to the ends of the earth. And so as we take up this offering, every dollar that's given will go to fuel the work that I've just described. And so what I talked about in week one is here's how I want you to at least think about and consider. We're calling this one day to change the world. And what I'd love for literally every person to consider, every person online, every person at one of our Willow locations, I actually talked to the team at the Jefferson City Correctional Center. If you guys want in, we'd love to have you in. And here's kind of the idea, is would we each figure out what one day's wage is for us? So take your annual salary, divide it by 365, whatever that number is, is one day's wage. Would you consider giving one day's of your wage to change the world? One day to change the world. Now for some of you, when you do the math, you're like, well I can give more and I want to give more. Don't see that as a ceiling. Give whatever you feel like God is compelling you to give. But I

would love for every single one of us to think through, what is my opportunity? To take what God has given me and invest it in the seeds of the gospel. possible to get spread all over the world. And so I wanna encourage you, I may even wanna challenge you, would you give one day's wages to change the world? And so the campus pastors at all of our locations are gonna come and give you direction about how to do that in just a moment. What I love to do is just to pray for this in advance. If you'd allow me to, let me pray for what we're about to experience. God, we're so grateful that literally for thousands of years you've been calling your people, you've been setting your people apart, you've been choosing your people, but God, at the same time, we recognize we're not chosen instead of others, we're actually chosen for the sake of others. So Father, would you allow us to be people who recognize that sure, there are all kinds of privileges of what it means to be a follower of yours, but at the same time, that's coupled with the responsibility to take what you've given us and to give it to those that you love. So Father, I pray for the work in Africa, all throughout Latin America. God, I pray for Pastor Khalil in Jordan, I pray for what's happening in the Ukraine. God, would you allow this moment

to be a world-changing moment? Would you allow the resources that are given in this moment really go to change our world? God, we love you, we surrender to you, we give this all to you, we pray that in the name of Jesus. Amen. Thank you. Come on, let's praise God for that message and for our opportunity to respond. In just a moment, I'm gonna invite you to respond and I wanna tell you how we can give in that offering. If you would, go ahead and take out your phone now and I want you to open it up to willowcreek.org Give. Right? We know that if you leave here right now and you haven't taken this step, that we might go home and start watching Dancing with the Stars and maybe golf on. And so I wanna have us take this opportunity right now to give in this way. And again, I want us to search our hearts well with the response that God has given us to respond with. One day's wages seems like a sacrifice for many of us, but I can tell you that it will plant seeds for the gospel that will live well beyond us, amen? And so right now, if you go to that page, willowcreek.org slash Give, there may be a login code there that you need to put in if you've given in the past. If not, you may have to set up some information there.

Select your campus and when you select your campus, like this one is the South Barrington campus, it'll show you a fund to give to and that fund will be COH Celebration of Hope. And then collectively we can give and we give with the recognition that God will use it to build his kingdom and with the recognition that he has more than enough. Church, does anybody in here know that he has more than enough? Yeah, praise God. So I invite you to do exactly that, but I also invite you to stand up to your feet and for us to close out our time with a song of worship. Come on, let's worship together. ♪ When did I start to forget ♪ ♪ All of the great things you did ♪ ♪ When did I throw away faith for the impossible ♪ ♪ When did I start to forget all of the great things you did ♪ ♪ For the impossible ♪ ♪ And how did I start to believe ♪ ♪ You weren't sufficient for me ♪ ♪ Why do I talk myself out of seeing miracles ♪ ♪ You do miracles ♪ ♪ You aren't more than enough, oh yes you are, yes you are ♪ ♪ You aren't more than enough, oh yes you are ♪ ♪ You aren't more than enough, oh yes you are ♪ ♪ Yes you are, yes you are, yes you are ♪ ♪ You are more than able, who am I to deny what the Lord can't do, yeah, I know ♪ ♪ Now I see, now I see ♪

♪ All that I have ♪ ♪ Oh, I've got my confidence back ♪ ♪ Oh, I put my trust in the one who still does miracles ♪ ♪ You do good, you are good, you are good, you are good ♪ ♪ Good neighbor you are the good neighbor ♪ ♪ You are the good neighbor, yeah ♪ ♪ You are the good neighbor, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ You are the good neighbor, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ You are the good neighbor, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ Oh, hey, hey, hey, yeah, yeah, hey, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ You are good neighbor, good neighbor ♪ ♪ Can you imagine, with all of the faith in the room ♪ ♪ What the Lord can do, what the Lord can do ♪ ♪ And it's gonna happen, just let the way make it through ♪ ♪ He's gonna move, He's gonna move ♪ ♪ Can you imagine, with all of the faith in the room ♪ ♪ What the Lord can do, what the Lord can do ♪ ♪ And it's gonna happen, just let the way make it through ♪ ♪ He's gonna move, He's gonna move ♪ ♪ Can you imagine, with all of the faith in the room ♪ ♪ What the Lord can do, what the Lord can do ♪ ♪ And it's gonna happen, just let the way make it through ♪ ♪ He's gonna move, He's gonna move ♪ ♪ Anything is possible, oh what can they say ♪ ♪ Anything is possible, I know He can ♪ ♪ Anything is possible, hey ♪ ♪ Who am I to deny what the Lord can do ♪ ♪ Anything, anything is possible, I know He can ♪ ♪ Anything is possible, I know He can ♪ ♪ Anything is possible, hey ♪

♪ Who am I to deny what the Lord can do ♪ ♪ Anything is possible, hey ♪ ♪ Anything is possible, oh ♪ ♪ Anything is possible, hey ♪ ♪ Who am I to deny what the Lord can do ♪ ♪ Who am I to deny what the Lord can do ♪ ♪ Who am I to deny what the Lord can do ♪ Well, we'll just take this out one more time. We'll sing you are. ♪ You are more than able ♪ ♪ Yes you are, yes you are ♪ ♪ You are more than able ♪ ♪ I know you are, yes you are ♪ ♪ You are more than able ♪ ♪ We pray, we believe, we believe ♪ ♪ You are more than able ♪ ♪ Who am I to deny what the Lord can do ♪ Come on, give God some praise this morning. Well, praise God for our time of worship today. We have been so thankful to worship with you. Listen, if you didn't get a chance to give to that offering, I want you to know that there will be baskets at the doorways when you exit Willow Creek. We love you. It's been wonderful worshiping together, and we look forward to seeing you back here next week. So God bless you guys. We'll see you soon. ♪♪