ou know, today we are celebrating the goodness of God and the blessing of God on our church. And this past week we had rally night. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.And we’re watching God do great things and new things within the the the life of our church. Now, you know, we’ve beenin a series and the series is called Live Like a What? A Leader. And I’mexcited today because Brandon Stewart is going to be bringing the word to ustoday. Let me tell you a little bit about Brandon. He grew up in our house.He’s like a son of our house and has served the church for many years now, but he started an organization a few years ago that is called Leading Second.It’s a ministry that is helping literally churches around all aroundNorth America. Many, many churches, pastors, and those who serve together in what is called the second chair or thesecond area of leadership behind a pastor’s vision. So today, Brandon’s going to bring the word of God. And Iknow he’s no stranger to you, but I want you right now, everybody at every location on your feet, and let’s justgive a great big welcome to Pastor Brandon Stewart.[Applause]Good morning, how are we this morning?Hey, say standing if you would all over the house. Anyone thankful to be in God’s house this morning on a Sunday morning?I mean, I was just thinking about this during worship today.Uh, I always try to do this on Sunday morning. Take a look around, you know, for a minute. Is there any place better that you spend any time during the weekthan God’s house? Like, just think about it. Is there any place that your family goes that’s better than this? Anyonethankful for Champion Center today that God has brought you to this house in this season, in this time? Amen.Amen. I’m so thankful. Um, Pastor Kevin and Sheila, uh, there’s no one like them. They are once in a generationleaders. They are my spiritual heroes.Um, words can’t describe my my appreciation, my respect, my honor forthem. And I know you feel the same way if you’ve been a part of our church uh, for any length of time. So, at all of our locations today, can we thank God for our pastors? Can we just thank Godthat God has given us good shepherds over the house? Amen.And um so incredibly grateful to share I got a heartful to share today and I believe God’s given me a word uh for usfor today. Is anyone thankful for the word of God? Are you thankful for what this means in your life? And man, I maynot know your name today. I may not know your story. I may not know your background. Our church is really growing right now. I know so much new life inthe house. Um, I may not know your name, but I know Jesus and I know his story.And I guess I can tell you with full confidence today that his story is more than enough for your story today, regardless of what you’re facing. And Ibelieve that God has something he wants to speak to us today. I believe that God wants to stir up something new in ustoday. Stir up the ministry gift inside of this house. So, anyone that would join me at all of our locations, would you just lift up a hand to heaven thismorning? Can we just give God some space today? Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, King Jesus, we love you today.We’ve gathered under your name, under your word. And I thank you today that you have something you want to do in our hearts. You have something you want todo in our lives. I ask that you would come right now and you would speak all over this room at all of our locations today. Jesus, we just give youpermission. We give you space. Would you come and speak? Would you come and talk to us today? Would you stir up in us,Father? Uh the ministry gift, the calling that you’ve placed on the inside of each of us today. I pray, Father,that I would get out of the way, that you would have your way. This is not about my words. This is about your word today. May your word have the authorityover this place today in Jesus’ name. In Jesus name. One more time. Let’s thank God for what he’s going to do over the next few minutes. Amen. And you can take your seats.Well, it is so good to be home today.Um, as Pastor Kevin mentioned, we do get the opportunity to represent this house a lot of different places for the last 11 years. God’s been really kind toallow us the opportunity to do that the last five years I think it is. Um we have led a ministry called LeadingSecond. We’re so thankful for it. In fact, this week we’re hosting uh the first of two conference events for Leading Second. We’ll see hundreds ofexecutive level leaders from dozens of churches across North America gather over two events. If you just be praying for us this week, we’re just believingGod for a really significant couple of gatherings. We’re just doing everything we can, I guess. Throwing noodles at the wall at this point, right, Hayden? Uhjust like like anything we can do, anything that’ll stick right now just to equip leaders and just to see the church move forward. So, it’s an honor uh toget to do that. Also, um it’s nice for me to have my wife with me in church this morning. We’re off in different places on a Sunday morning and so Iwon’t make her give the the like wife wave. She hates doing it, but um it is fun for me. We have uh two daughters.One is 11 and one is one because we’re terrible at planning. And uh we our duedates of our kids are two years shy of 10 two two weeks shy of 10 years apart.If you can get your mind around that. So we have a pre-teen girl and we have a toddler girl. And I’m going to let youdo the math. Which one’s the bigger challenge? Anyone raised teenagers in the house want to just like pray for me right now? Extend your hands forward.You know, I would could use the prayer and the fasting today in Jesus’ name.But anyways, um turn in your Bibles if you would to first Corinthians chapter 4. We’re going to be in 1 Corinthians 4.We’re going to be in 1 Peter 4 for a minute. And we’re going to end today in Hebrews chapter 11. 1 Corinthianschapter 4. just kind of park there uh for a minute. We are in a series right now that we’re calling live likeleaders. Come on, someone say live like a leader.Have you not appreciated Pastor Kevin in this series? Just his boldness to call us higher, you know, to call us further.You might be sitting here today saying, “I’m not a leader.” You know, I I thought the message was going to be for me today. Uh well, checkmate. Uh we’vegot something for you today, so hang on with me. No one gets to opt out of the leadership message today, but we’ve been talking about living like leaders.Pastor Kevin two weeks ago talked about the reluctant leaders of the Bible. He showed us that some of the best leaders in the Bible were the most reluctant.Did anybody relate to the reluctant leaders of the Bible? And then last week we talked about the servant leaders ofthe Bible that that the kingdom posture of leadership begins in service. And sotoday we’re just going to keep the the series going live like a leader. And I want to talk about another lens ofleadership today that I think is going to help us. Um, leadership is often presented to us through thelens of the heroic, isn’t it? You know, it’s it’s it’s presented to us by Hollywood as, youknow, William Wallace leading the army, you know, in into battle, so to speak.It’s presented as the the politician who gives the stirring speech that changes the trajectory of the nation in crisis.You know, it’s it’s shown to us in the news as the CEO that leads the company through a challenging time.But I want to argue for just a minute this morning that leadership is far more normal than that.One of my favorite messages by Dr.Martin Luther King Jr., it’s called the drum major instinct. And in the message uh he he he talks about this idea thatwithin all of us is a drum major, the desire to be significant, the desire to be important. The desireto be noticed. And my favorite quote from the message, he says this, “If you want to be important, wonderful. If youwant to be recognized, wonderful. If you want to be great, wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant.That’s a new definition of greatness.Leadership is far more normal than the heroic picture we’ve been given. Let meoffer you a couple of pictures of leadership maybe you haven’t thought of.leadership is the mom who gets up really early in the morning to get her workoutin to get ready so that she can be present for her family and for her kids that day. I brought that up because that’s kind of my wife’s theme rightnow. We’re in toddler land again at 40 years old. God help us, you know, we got to be fresh, you know, for our family in this. That’s leadership.Leadership is the co-worker who slides over to help with a project that doesn’t have their name on it, but they’re just willing to help to see that the work gets done and the project goes forward.That’s leadership. Leadership is my next door neighbor who saw the Amazon package on my front door. And since we got a little bit of theft going on in theneighborhood, he came over and picked up the Amazon package and text me and said, “Hey, I’ve got your package. Just let me know when you’re home and I’ll bring itright over. I just wanted it to be safe.” Right. That’s leadership. Leadership are all the people that I saw out there inthe huddle today that showed up early that will stay late today in the house to see that the mission of the church moves forward. Like it’s it’s not oftenseen. It’s not often noticed, but it’s leadership.So here’s the definition of leadership I want to offer to you today to get us started. Leadership can happen by anywhere. Can happen anywhere by anyone.Let me say that again. Leadership can happen anywhere by anyone.Leadership happens when you see a need and you meet the need. It’s that simple.Leadership is when you do the right thing and you take others along with you while you do it. That’s leadership.Leadership can happen in an instant. It can happen in a moment. It can happen anywhere by anyone. It’s not about title.It’s not about position.It’s not about genius. It’s not about charisma. It’s not about having good hair or the right clothes or the right shoes. It’s not about having the rightbadge. Leadership can happen anywhere by anyone by finding a need and meeting the need.It’s far more normal than you think it is.Why as a church, why are we having this conversation about leadership? Like, why are we doing this? Why are we spendingmultiple weekends to call you to live like leaders? That’s because we’reliving and leading in a day where leadership is being redefined negatively in our world.Leaders are being framed as oppressors right now. by prevailing culture.Remember there there’s a conversation happening in our world that doesn’t see sin, it sees systems.And therefore, anyone on top of those systems are automatically oppressors. So who in their right mind would desire leadership if leadership is oppressors?That’s not a Bible kingdom view of leadership. So in this series, we’re just pushing against that right now.Like we’re because think about what’s happened. We we’ve framed leaders as oppressors and then a pandemic hit andwe told everybody to stay home, stay safe, take care of yourself. Hence the rise of the great resignation. Hence therise of quiet quitting. Everyone approaching life with the mindset of I’m just going to look out for me. I’m just going to look out for my family. I’m just going to look out for my health.Imagine how backwards our world will get if we take that posture.But what we’re saying as God’s people is no, we’re we’re actually called in distinction and our distinction as believers. We’re called to lead the charge. We’re called to be out front.We’re called to influence culture. We’re we’re called to find needs and meet needs as the body of Christ.We’re called to live like leaders. It’s just important that we get a kingdom view because it’s being redefined in ways that’ll really get us backwards inour world today. The lens of leadership I want to offer to you is maybe mylife’s greatest passion up to this point. Like this is the message I feel I’m supposed to bring to the body ofChrist. We’ve talked about the reluctant leaders of the Bible. We’ve talked about the servant leaders of the Bible. Today, I want to talk to us for just a minuteabout the second chair leaders of the Bible. The second chair leaders of the Bible.And I want to show you today that you can lead without being in charge.You can lead without being in charge. You can lead without being the one whose name is in lights.You can succeed. You can walk in the fullness of God’s plan for your life and never lead out front.Here’s a thought for you. Leadership happens most often from the second chair, not the first chair.I want you to think about it for a minute. Leadership happens most often from the second chair,not the first chair. So, what’s the first chair? The first chair is the leader we see out front. It’s the CEO ofthe company. It’s the president of the nation. It’s the captain of the team.It’s the pastor of the church. And and let me just pause right here and say this. Our leaders are worthy of honor.Those who lead out front are worthy of honor. In fact, in the kingdom, the Bible tells us that that prophets and leaders in the church are worthy ofdouble honor. So, what I’m about to say takes nothing away from the honor that is due to our pastors, the honor that isdue to leaders who are the tip of the spear. I’m thankful that God has given us, you know, courageous leaders who are willing to get out there with vision andfaith and longevity and endurance and, you know, move it forward.All that being said, John Maxwell says 99% of all leadership in an organization comes from the middle.Think about it. Most leadership doesn’t happen with the person at the top. It comes somewhere in the middle.John Maxwell also points out that most people will not spend their lives leading at the top. Most of us, if youthink about it, will spend our lives serving someone else’s vision. Most of us will not serve as CEO. Most of us will not serve as captain of the team.Most of us, most of us will be tucked under someone else’s vision. And we will spend our lives stewarding what is not our own.Don’t you think it’s important, if that’s true, that we get this right?Leadership happens most often from the second chair, not the first chair. The bandwidth of leadership is greaterthroughout the team than at the top of the team.It’s funny to me that God has asked me to bring a leadership message in what I do and work withleaders. I guess I just at times felt like the least likely person, you know, for a message like this. I wasn’t borninto a ministry family. My family loved church. We’ve I’ve been here since I was one. Loved the house of God, but didn’tgrow up around ministry leadership. I didn’t go to school. I didn’t get a, you know, master’s degree in in studyingorganizational leadership and anything like that. To make matters worse, there’s this test we take around the staff at Champion Center. A test yourvalues. And my highest value is what’s called personal freedom. Yeah, that doesn’t go so well on a team.Try telling that to Pastor Kevin. I want to do things my way, Pastor Kevin. On the strength finder, my top strength isideiation. It means my ideas are the best in my brain, and I want to see that my ideas happen. like I I didn’t feel like this whole second chair thing was a natural fit for me.But I was driving in the car like 15, 17 years ago probably. I was driving in thecar one day by myself and I felt God ask me this question. I felt God ask me thisquestion. If you never led in the first chair, would you still be faithful?If you were never the pastor of the church, would you still be faithful? If you were the one involved in the projectwho didn’t get the appreciation or the notice or have their name on it, would you still be faithful? I just felt God ask me to answer that question in themoment. Like, would you still do this if you didn’t lead out front?And in the car that day, I answered yes.I said, I can do that. like what if my life’s calling is to hold up the arms of another. You know, we we love to dothis, don’t we? Uh I I’m thinking of the story of of Joshua when he’s fighting the Amalachites one day and it tells usin um where is it at? In in the book of the Bible, Exodus 17,we see Joshua is fighting the Amalachites and and Moses is kind of up on the hill, right? And as long as Mosesarms are up, as long as, you know, his arms are up, the battle was going in Joshua’s favor. A, and don’t we love todo this? We love to center ourselves in scripture, right? We’re always Joshua. Of course, we’re Joshua in that story.And and so, like, we’re Joshua. We’re we’re the center of we’re the one leading the army into battle. We’re the center of attention. But like, what ifyou’re not Joshua? Well, okay, I guess I’m 40 now, so I’m old. So, I’m Moses now. you know, I’m like the older, wiser, you know, side. I’m the side ofthe room when the pastor says, “Everyone under 30, you know, raise your hand.” And I have to like not raise my hand because I’m old now, you know, and whatif I’m Moses? What if what if that’s my place in scripture? Well, what if I’m not Moses? Well, the Bible also says that Moses arms were getting tired.And so a man named Aaron and a man named her sat there and held Moses arms up because if Moses’ arms were up, thebattle was going in Israel’s favor. Like what if your assignment isn’t to be Joshua and isn’t to be Moses? Like what if you’re an armholder in the kingdom?Like what if that’s your place?I mean, just think about it. I if if you if that’s your thing in the kingdom of what God has graced you to do, calledyou to do, would you still be faithful with what God asked you to do? Okay, let’s get to the word for a minute. 1Corinthians chapter 4, I want to show you this. I I found my home in scripture in this verse right here. 1 Corinthianschapter 4 and verse one, the Apostle Paul’s writing. He’s writing to the church in Corinth and he says this, “Leta man so consider us as servants of Christand stewards of the mysteries of God.” By the way, he’s addressing leadershipin this section of his letter, servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.And then he goes on to say, “Moreover, it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.” I want tounpack this for a minute because this is where the whole leading second thing came alive for me. First of all, Paul issaying we are servants of Christ. In the original language, he would have had several words available to him for theword servant. The word servant that he chose is a word that means a free man ora free woman who voluntarily makes themsself low to serve. Kind of like anunder rower on a ship. it that the commentaries say like a free man, not not an indentured slave, not a not notone who is obligated to, a free man, a free woman who voluntarily makes themsself low to serve, to row the ship,to see to it that the thing they’re a part of moves forward. Isn’t that first of all a beautiful picture of our relationship with Christ? Like free men,free women who voluntarily make ourselves low to serve. I I just love that. First of all, I it feels likethat could be enough. I could spend the rest of my life I’m so grateful to Jesus for all he’s done. The freedom he’sbrought to my life. Like I’m so dang grateful to Jesus. Like I I could spend the rest of my life just doing that.Like like give me a towel. Give me someone’s feet to wash. I’m here for it all day long in the kingdom of God. We are servants of Christ. Amen.Hold on. But here’s what I want you to see.He didn’t stop there. That’s not the only thing he says of leaders. He says, “We are servants of Christ and we arestewards of the mysteries of God.” So, what’s a steward?What’s a steward? We don’t use that word a lot. What’s a steward?If a servant was an underrower, a steward was an underleer.Now think about it. A steward was someone, especially in their time, a steward was someone who would manage thehousehold on the master’s behalf. In other words, they weren’t the owner, but they acted like the owner. You see whereI’m going here? They they they managed the household staff. They managed the household budget. They managed the household tasks. To the owner, thesteward was a servant. But to the other servants, the steward was an owner. The steward was a master. He was leading second. He was leading from the middle.He was leading when he wasn’t in charge.And the Apostle Paul says, “This is what’s required of us. We we are stewards of the mysteries of God.”In other words, it speaks to me of ownership. How many of you know there’s a difference between renting something and owning something?Ever thought about this? There’s a difference between renting and owning. As I’ve mentioned, we had a baby at 40.That’s what happens when you go from traveling pre- pandemic 275 days a year to staying home for 7 months. I haven’t quite figured it out, but we gotpregnant for some reason in there. And um had a unexpected baby at 40. My wife, wehad one car because we lived on the road. We had one car. My wife said, “I want a proper mom car.” I said, “I’m onit. I got you.” So, I went and bought us a new car. You don’t get that experience very often. Drove a new car off the lot.It was awesome. You know, I love the new car smell. Love the experience.Like, like I am the guy with the unlimited car wash membership, you know, every month. Like, I’m the guy who willvacuum the trunk. I’m the guy who has like the food rules, you know, like no eating in dad’s car, you know? We had a smoothie spilled in there one time withwhey protein. It was awful. It was like weeks of like smoothie gate in our house because someone messed with dad’s car, you know? Like, why do you do that?Why am I like that? It’s my car. Like, I own it.I make the payment and it’s my car.I have to take care of it. Why? Because I’m an owner.I travel a lot and I regularly rent cars on the road. I could care less about a rental car,right? Like, you’ll take a pothole at 100 miles an hour in a rental car and not give a rip about that thing, right?Why? Why? It’s not yours. It’s budget’s problem.You you you get a D Alamos problem. You get a flat tire, they come replace it.You get on your way. They have to deal with it because there’s a difference between renting something and owning something. And I guess I just wonder,Champion Center, are you renting the vision of this house or do you own the vision of this house?Think about it. Because we’re we’re servants of Christ, but we’re stewards.We’re owners. Our master’s away right now. King Jesus is away. And while he’s away, you know what? He’s looking at the stewards and he’s saying, “I’veentrusted a moment to you. I’ve entrusted something to you. I’ve entrusted resource to you. I’ve entrusted opportunity to you. What areyou going to do now with the opportunity I gave you to build my church and move the kingdom of God forward?” Like, we’re stewards.[Applause]Sorry, I got to say this. Some of you are sitting in this building right now and this building was built the the chairs that you’re sitting on at all ofour locations. I want you to think about this for a minute. You’re sitting on someone’s vacation.Think about it. Someone gave in a legacy offering somewhere years ago to put new seats in one of our locations and theysacrificed something personally to do it because they wanted you to have a seat.because they wanted you to hear the gospel, because they wanted you to be a part of the church. And they just thought, you know what? If me giving up a couple days at Disney World means thekingdom of God moves forward, sign me up for that all day long. We are servants of Christ and we are stewards. We’ve been entrusted with something. We arestewards of the mysteries of God.I got to go. They’re playing me off like the Oscars.[Music]I wasn’t done.Okay, I’ll fast forward. Let’s go to Hebrews 11.Let’s go to Hebrews 11. I want to show you. Here’s what I want to show you.I want to show you that stewarding the mysteries of God is what God’s people have been doing since the church was born. This is whatwe’ve been doing. This is our this is the lineage we’re a part of. This is our heritage. Servants of the the themost selfless sacrificial people the world has ever known were Christ followers and churchbuilders. the ones who did anything they could do to see the church move forward.I’m going to read to you a passage of scripture that’s difficult to read in Hebrews 11. Bible can be a little R-rated sometimes.I’m just going to warn you, but I just thought it appropriate to read it.This is following the hall of faith. You know, the writer, we don’t know the writer of the book of Hebrews, but he’swriting kind of laying the groundwork for where we’ve come from. And then verse 32 he says this. What more shall I say?I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barack, Samson, Jeepa, David and Samuel and the prophetswho through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice and gained what the world promised.Who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames and escaped the edge of the sword. Whoseweakness was turned to strength. I love that. Who became powerful in battle and routed thorn armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again.There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection.Some faced jeers and flogging, even chains and imprisonment.They were put to death by stoning. They were sawed in two. They were killed by the sword. They went about in sheep skkins and goat skins, destitute,persecuted, mistreated. Look what it says in verse 38. The world was not worthy of them.Think about it. This is who came before us. Men and women whose faith like the think about that. The world was not worthy of their faith.They wandered in deserts and mountains living in caves and holes in the ground. Now look at verse 39.These were all commended for their faith. Yet none of them received what had been promised. They they didn’t know Jesus. They didn’t have Christ yet.Since God had prepared something better for us so that only together with uswould they be made perfect. I just want you to think this whole thing has just been prelude to the church.This whole thing, the story is scripture. It was just prelude. It was just setting the stage for Christ and his body, his church, so that together with us, they would be made perfect.This is our heritage. This is the line of leaders that we come from.The greatest men and women who have ever walked the face of the planet. I got thinking the other daythat there’s there’s a bunch of names in the early church that are listed in some of the the letters, the epistles.There’s a bunch of names listed that we gloss over. You know, they’re greeted by Paul. They’re greeted by another. Everseen some of those names? You’ve never one time heard a sermon about one of those names? I promise you. I did some research. I cataloged every single oneof them the other day and we’re putting them up on the screen for you today. I want you to look at this for a minute.This is every named leader in the early church named in scripture. Just look at it for a minute.Look at all those names. Here’s what I want you to think about. You’ve never heard a sermon on one of those names or most of them.You probably don’t know what most of those people did, but what they did was significant enough to be mentioned in scripture. In otherwords, out of the thousands or even tens of thousands of believers in the early church in the first century, out of the tens of thousands, this about 120 nameswere the ones who got mentioned in scripture. So, their their contribution was significant.We just don’t know it. Their names weren’t the one in lights.They weren’t the ones that got the credit yet. They moved the church forward. They were servants of Christ and they were stewards of the mysteries of God, like owners of this thing.I thought I’d tell you about a couple of them. I looked every single one of these up. I want to tell you today about Phoebe.Don’t ever say that women can’t be used significantly by God in leadership. By the way, Phoebe,she lived in a kind of a suburb of Corinth.She was a deacon in the church, but she was also a patron. She was a a financial supporter of the church. She was a womanof means who took the journey to deliver the book of Romans to Rome. Think about this.This was like an 800 mile journey. She paid for that. She personally delivered what’s probably the crown jewel of Paul’s writings to the church in Rome.She did that. You’ve never heard a sermon about Phoebe, but you’ve been impacted by her life and her service because she was a steward of themysteries of God. I want to tell you about Aquilla and Priscilla, an an incredible couple.They were tent makers. Paul worked with them in their business while he planted the church in Corinth. Paul actually took them to Ephesus with him.They were just passionate for Christ, passionate about doctrinal accuracy, which was important because they didn’t have scripture. They didn’t have canonized scripture back then. So, they had to be accurate in their teaching.Paul actually mentions them in his final letter. He’s writing second Timothy from prison. And he he says, “Hey, say hi toAquilla and Priscilla.” as one of his final words that we know of, like a hello from prison to my faithful churchbuilders. This businessowner couple who moved the church forward. I could tell you about Aenituswho was the first convert for the church in Asia. You want to talk about living like a leader? Can you imagine being the first convert for an entire continent?Talk about the adversity you’d be up against. talk talk about how you’d have to carry yourself and live the first condor for the church in Asia. He moved the church forward.I could tell you about Archipus who was kind of a campus pastor, a location pastor at the church in Colasse.Paul referred to him as a fellow soldier.I could tell you about Epaphris was also at the church in Colasse who ministered in the church. She planted achurch and was eventually martyed for the church for the name of Christ. I could tell you about Lydia,businesswoman who converted to Christianity as a gentile. She wasn’t a Jew. She hosted Paul and Silas in herhome on their travels. I got two more I could tell you about Clement.This is a significant one. If, and this is a big if, if the Clement mentioned in Philippianschapter 4, is the same Clement I’m going to mention, which we believe it was, this 26-year-oldman at the time of the writing of scripture, this 26-y old man would go on to become one of the first bishops inthe church in Rome. I just want you to think about that for a minute. There was a 26-year-old guy sitting in churchunder Paul under, you know, the leadership of the early church leaders who would end up becoming one of the predecessors to the Pope essentially.Just makes me wonder who’s sitting in the room right now. Makes me wonder what 20some is sitting in the room right now that just has a calling of God on yourlife, a calling of leadership on your life. You just you just never know. You never know what God is doing. And I’llI’ll close with this. I could tell you about Perseus, a woman in the church in Rome. You know what we know about her?Absolutely nothing.We don’t know anything about her. She was mentioned in scripture. So, she was obviously a significant part of that church. We know nothing about her. Youknow what we know about her? The Apostle Paul said she worked very hard for the Lord.Like, would you be willing to be faithful if what went down in history about you was, you know what, he workedreally hard for the Lord. Like, Chris worked really hard for the Lord. Mary worked really hard for the Lord. Wouldyou be willing to be found faithful if that was all you went down in scripture for? Are you getting this? Today, Champion Center, we are servants ofChrist, but we are stewards of the mysteries of God. This all of this has been building up to thismoment. I just wonder, are we as a church going to be faithful over our moment and what God has entrusted to us?Let’s live like leaders. Amen. Let’s do everything we can to see the move church move forward. Let’s live in the echo of their service and their sacrifice and let’s do our part in this day. Amen.Would you stand to your feet all over the room? I just want to hold us just for a minute.Because I believe God is here and I believe God is speaking.And I believe today God wants to stir up in each one of us a ministry gift, a ministry call that he’s placed on the inside of us. If you would join me, liftup your hands to heaven right now. And Jesus, I thank you for our beautiful church.I thank you for our house. Just pray pray for Champion Center with me this morning. I I thank you for this house. I thank you for our pastors. I thank youthat Father, for the last for decades, you’ve been building this house. You’ve been establishing this house. You’ve been sustaining this house, Father, forsuch a time as this. And Jesus, right now, I ask that you would stir up the gift on the inside of us. I ask that youwould come and you would light the fire of calling and ministry on the inside of us. I pray today that we would see that leadership can happen anywhere byanyone. I pray that everyone in this room, everyone at our locations today, Father, I pray that they would see that their contribution is significant evenif only heaven knows. Lord, I pray Jesus that we would see today that we have a place of contribution, of leadership, of service, and of stewardship.And Father, my prayer over our church and my prayer over every leader at all of our locations today, my prayer is that we would be found faithful.You said in your word, “It is required in stewards that one be found faithful.” I ask that you would find us faithful.God, I can’t think of anything else I’d rather hear someday than, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” May that beour mission. May that be our focus. We don’t we don’t just want to build a cool church. We just don’t want to build a big church. We want don’t want to buildan Instagrammable church. We want to build a faithful church. Jesus, a confused world needs a faithful church.A confused world needs a powerful church. And we just say it again all over this room. Sign us up today, Lord.Sign us up for service. Sign us up for stewardship. Sign us up to move the church forward in Jesus name. In Jesusname. Amen. And amen and amen and amen.In Jesus name.[Music]Thank you, Jesus.[Music]Thank you, Jesus. Stir up the gift on the inside of us today.Stir up the gift on the inside of us today, Jesus. Thank you, God.[Music]of Christ was born in the flame. Now his goel through theLord shall not shall not fhis blood in his name. He is free. I for Jesus Christ.Praise the Lord.Oh God,[Music]praise the father. Praise the father. Praise the son.[Music]God[Music]forever. Thank you Jesus the king of kings. Thank you Jesus. Praiseforever. Thank you Jesus the king of kings. Thank you Jesus.Every head bowed, every eye closed, every believer in prayer today. Every person in an attitude of prayer. I just wonder today,if you’re in this room, if you know Jesus, all of our locations, if if you know him, are you a Christ follower?Are you a Christian? If if not, I want to extend to you the opportunity, the greatest invitation I could extend to you, opportunity to follow Christ. TheBible says if we believe in our hearts Jesus is Lord, confess with our mouth God raised him from the dead that wewill be saved. I just want to invite you into a relationship with Jesus today. Doesn’t matter where you’ve been.Doesn’t matter what you’ve done. Doesn’t matter how dirty you feel right now. The love of God is for you today. Salvation is for you today. Anyone here todaythankful that Jesus saved you? That Jesus brought you out of darkness and into light. You’re just you’re you’re among friends today.So if you’re here today and you’re saying, “Brandon, you’re talking to me right now. The the Lord’s talking to me.I want to make today a decision day in my life. I want to make today a day where I choose to follow Christ. Where I choose I want to be a Christian. I wantto be a follower of Jesus Christ.” If that’s you, I just want to invite you on the count of three, lift up your hands.Let me see who you are. Give me a chance. I want to pray with you today. a life-changing prayer of new beginnings. On the count of three, one, two, three.If that’s you, anyone around the room, just boldly lift up your hands. Let me see who you are. Give me a chance. I want to pray with you. Good. God bless you. Probably hands going up in everysection. This is awesome today. People making decisions for Christ. Come on. If that’s you, just boldly raise your hand saying, “Brandon, I’m in. This is for me today.So good.” I’m going to give you one one more invite, then we’re going to pray. If you’re here part of our church today andyou feel God has brought you to this house, but you’ve never kind of made that decision, you know, the the second most important decision we make in ourfaith behind what I just asked is where to be planted in the house like like where to put down roots, a church to be a part of. You need to be a part of abody of believers. You need to be a part of a local church. And if if you’re feeling like God has brought you here and you’re saying, you know what, I’m I’m in for the house. I’m in for thechurch. I want to be a part. If that’s you, why don’t you raise your hand?Maybe you’ve never made that decision before publicly, but today is your day.Why don’t you lift your hands? Come on, church. Let’s celebrate. We’re seeing hands like all over the room this morning. People making decisions. Okay,I got to go for either either of those invitations. Lift up your hand again one more time. If if you just raised your hand for either of those two, I’m goingto lead you in a prayer today. Let’s all pray this together, church. Say, “Lord Jesus, I’m standing here todaybecause I want to say I’m sorry for living life my own way. I want to be a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ.I believe in my heart. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord, that Jesus isalive. And I boldly declare, I will never be the same.” The past is in thepast. I’m a new creation. I will be planted in the house of God in Jesus name. All together said amen. And amen.Come on church one more time. Let’s celebrate for every person that just made that decision. A few moments ago,
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