Amen. Amen. Wow. What a powerful song, huh?
All throughout the service here today, man, there has just been such a powerful presence of God in the room here in
Tacoma, I know he’s there in DuPont, in Belleview, in Yakima with you online. He wants to do something.
All he’s waiting for is for us to have a heart, to have an open posture, to have arms raised that said, “God, I don’t care what I’m going through right now.
You are more than able to handle every single circumstance of my life.” Amen.
I believe he wants to speak to us. I think in this next uh few moments, next 30 minutes or so, when we’re together and uh we’re hearing from his word and
examples from his word, I really believe that he wants to speak to us. I’ve been praying for you this week. There’s been some of you that I don’t even know you
by name, but I believe that God has has given me something that is just for you
and that he wants to speak specifically to circumstance that you’ve been walking through. And on the other side of him
speaking to you today, you’re going to leave here with confidence. You’re going to leave here with your head held high knowing that he is on your side and he
is well able to take care of your circumstance.
How about we just pray right here in this moment? Would you just lift up your hands to God?
Oh father, we thank you.
God, we thank you for the power of your presence in our life.
We thank you that we can come together in your house like we do and that we can lift up our voice to you and sing and to
honor you and to declare that you are more than able, God, to do the impossible, God. That we can have a
moment where we lift up our faith, God, that we begin to expand our thinking about your greatness and your
magnificence and all that you are and all that you’ve been to us, Lord. And so God, I just pray right now that in these next few moments that you would speak to us.
Oh, Father, our our heart is ready to receive anything that you would have to say to us today. And we thank you,
Father, for this moment with great expectation we have, God, of you and your goodness in our life. It’s in
Jesus’ name that we pray. And everybody said, “Amen.” And hey, as you’re seated, why don’t you turn to your neighbor and say, “God’s got something good for you today.
He’s got something good for you.” Well, hey, I don’t normally get to do this on a Sunday morning. It’s kind of
nice to be here with all of you. I’m thankful to be here today.
Hey, we have such an incredible team here at Champion Center. So many great talented people that God is blessing and
uh and such a wonderful team from the parking people who are out helping you park your cars today to the ushers to the people who are taking care of your
kids. We are team church and we are better together. Amen.
You know, we wouldn’t have team church though if it wasn’t for two people that I want to give some honor to this morning before I start my message and that’s pastors Kevin and Sheila.
You know, Pastor Kevin and Sheila years ago answered the call to ministry. They said, “Yes, Lord, I will go to the Northwest. I will leave everything behind and I will I will create a space.
I’ll create a church that people can come to and create relationships that are like family. And if you’re grateful
and thankful for all that pastors Kevin and Pastor Sheila up in Belleview, we love you. If you’re grateful for them, can you just let them know this morning, we got the best pastors on the planet.
We love you. We’re thankful for you.
Thankful for you, man.
Okay, so the title of my message, my title of my message is unmet expectations.
I’ve experienced a lot of unmet expectations in my life. I’m sure some of you have too and you’re probably already thinking of them right now.
Could be from little things like, you know, poor service at a restaurant.
Thank you co for that lasting and parting gift that you gave us. Or big things like maybe being cut off from a friendship after years of time together.
Unmetations.
But for me, there’s really one area that deserves an award for how often it has left me with un unmet expectations, and that is online shopping.
How many times have you been told when you order it’s going to be there in two days cuz you need it in two days, right?
And then you get a quote status update on your item and you know right then and there it’s going to be late. Or maybe
you’re like me. Anyone else ever had a item shipped to you with like missing parts, broken parts, the thing you
really needed to pull the whole event off and it comes broken? Or maybe you were like me and you got something with the item in the box and then you opened
the box and there was nothing in it at all. I just just a little tip for free here.
I did that for one of my kids Christmas gifts. I would highly encourage you if you online shop, do not wait till December 24th to open up all of your
packages because there might be some surprises in there that you just really didn’t expect. Like, but clothes ordering online has got to take the cake
from me when it comes to unmet expectations of online shopping. I don’t care how many reviews that you read. I don’t care how much research you do.
There’s a real chance that your online shopping expectations might not be met.
Like for example, uh I ordered a pair of pants and uh they were supposed to look like the ones I
have on right here today. And uh this is what got sent to me in the mail.
Unmet expectations right here.
And I know you’re laughing cuz I’m not the only one. When it comes to expectations, there’s two camps of thought, right? There are people who
always aim low. They say, “Listen, if you’re expecting nothing, you can never be disappointed.”
But then there’s those wonderful positivity people in our world that aim high because if you expected nothing, you’re going to miss out on all the
incredible things that could await you on the other side of that expectation.
o, I just want you to check in with your neighbor right now. Ask them, “Are you aim high or aim low?” You should know. You should know about the person you’re sitting next to you right now.
Aim high or aim low.
Okay, here’s the thing. We all have expectations, don’t we? And we typically don’t verbalize them. That’s the problem. Any
married people in the house right now that have ever come across some unspoken expectation of your spouse? Okay. We
don’t verbalize them, but we do think that others should just magically know what our expectations are.
Expectations are what we think should happen.
So before moments in our life actually even really do take place, our internal expectation, we already got one and we’ve already decided what the outcome
should be. Like let’s just think about church this morning. Consider church.
Y’all have expectations of what you’re going to get when you get here, right?
In Tacoma, we’ve recently switched up the seating here on the floor. We did that last week and I could tell that we didn’t meet some expectations last week.
Some of y’all walked in here and you’re like, “Where’s my seat?
Where’d it go? Well, how come I have to sit back here?” I never had to sit back here. I don’t know if I even like sitting back here. I sit back here and I can’t even see. There’s like five people
heads in my way. And why is Pastor Kevin out on that thing? I liked him better when he was up here. Why? Why? Why’ they bring that stage out here? Why we got to curve these chairs? Some of you have
those expectations about your seat. And we know we messed them up for you.
And we know this because I met with the ushers last week after service.
Some of y’all getting real nervous right now.
And I just I just want you to know that we heard your unhappy cries about the seat changes.
And I just want to remind all of you that have maybe just an inkling of unmet expectations when you come into the church and the usher asks you to sit
somewhere else. I just want to remind you that the volunteer ushers of Champion Center have expectations too.
And here’s what they expect. They expect you to treat them with respect and honor when they’re carrying out their role to seat this auditorium in a way that their pastors have asked them to seat it.
Oh boy, I’m just getting started and I’m already making people mad.
Here’s the deal. Sometimes we need to just take inventory of our expectations.
Even here at church, take an inventory on your way in. Is is your expectation to serve the church or to have the church serve you?
What’s your expectation?
I think it’s appropriate we just thank our ushers right now. Thank you ushers of Champion Center for being amazing. We love you. We’re grateful for you.
Okay, we’re spending our summer in the Psalms. all summer long. And I know even that comes with expectation. Like you might be thinking, oh, this, oh, I can’t
wait. I love, oh, my favorite psalm is Psalm 27. And I just know they’re going to share on Psalm 27. And the whole summer could go by and know Psalm 27,
right? Whatever your expectation might be for this series, there’s a few things that are true for all of us about the Psalms. And that they are full of
emotions. They’re we we see reactions and we see all the experiences that our soul could possibly have. And that’s why
we relate to them because we see ourselves experiencing the same struggles as the writers. And here’s what you need to know. David wrote 73 of the 150 psalms.
That gives us 73 opportunities to hear how he led his soul through his emotions. And today we’re going to take
a look at some of the psalms that he wrote and hear how David dealt with unmet expectations. And there’s a couple
things you need you should know about David. I realize all of us are experts in the Old Testament and know all of the Bible characters. So, I’m going to give
you like the the 22nd background on David. David was a shepherd boy. David was a shepherd boy who was chosen above his brothers to be anointed as king.
He was a warrior that was wellknown.
Because he was so wellknown, many men wanted to fight with David. They left homes and families behind to join him.
We know that that David uh many people wanted to serve alongside him. We know that that he made his his uh king Saul
crazy jealous. He because he was so successful as a warrior. We know that David had a lot of wives which by the
way led to all kinds of family dysfunction in his life. That was not God’s intended way and it led to a whole
lot of problems. And we also learned last week about David that God said of him that David was a man after God’s own
heart. And so today we’re going to learn. We’re going to learn from three significant unmet expectation expectations that David walked through.
You guys ready? You going to take some notes this morning? Okay. All right.
Here we go. David wrestled with the unmet expectation of acceptance.
David was a young shepherd boy. He was 17 years old. He was his dad called him out of the backside of the hill and
said, “Hey, I need you to go take some supplies to your brothers that are out at war right now.” Can you imagine how excited David was? He’s the baby of the
family and he gets to go hang out with his older brothers.
Can you imagine how excited he was and he gets to take him supplies. Just think of the expectation he had of the warm welcome he was going to receive from his
brothers. These amazing warriors that he held in such high esteem that were fighting on behalf of God’s army and and
on on God’s people. And so David goes out there to see his brothers. And instead when he got there instead of the
warm welcome that he hoped to receive his brothers saw him and they shunned him.
When David offered, then he he he saw what was going on. He heard that there was some some commotion about this big
tall guy named Goliath, a giant that kept coming out every single day and saying that he wanted to take down the people of Israel. And here’s this young
shepherd boy bouncing around. You can imagine all the scene. You have all the warriors of Israel on one side, all the Philistines on the other side, and then you have this young shepherd boy,
brighteyed, ready to go, super excited about the experience. He looks around and he’s like, “Hey, why are you guys letting this guy over
here talk about our God this way?” So, David gets involved in this situation and he says, “Is there no one who will
go and take this guy on? I’ll take him on.” And again, his brothers mocked him.
Listen to what his oldest brother said in 1 Samuel. He said he heard him speaking with the men about taking on
Goliath. And his older brother said, “Why have you come down here?
And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness?” You feel that?
I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is. You came down only to watch the battle.
I don’t think that’s what David expected when he came to see his brothers.
Instead of being supported from them, David was despised. He was belittled.
And you know that unmet need for acceptance can derail you from living out your God-given purpose.
Especially when it comes from your family.
So what did David do when his brothers didn’t approve of him? He didn’t let their words stop him from living his purpose.
Thank God he pushed past his their disapproval and defeated Goliath. And this changed the course of the rest of
his life. Listen to what he he wrote in Psalm 27. He says that even if my father and mother abandon me, the Lord will hold me close.
What can we learn from David and leading his soul through unmet expectation? He shows us that even if his family
abandoned him, God would become the source of his strength. Isn’t that encouraging?
Number two, I’m going to read the second one. David also wrestled with the unmet expectation of approval.
You know, outside of your family, one of your greatest influences in your life is your leader. And we all have one. A
mentor, somebody that we look to, somebody that we’ve learned from, someone that we’ve spent maybe some time in their airspace, could be a boss,
could be a coach in your life, could be a a close family member, an uncle, an aunt.
Here’s the thing. After David fully uh defeated Goliath, uh he was immediately rewarded by Saul. And part of that reward was to live with him, the king.
So David never went back again. 17 years old, he never went back again to live with his family. He stayed in the palace. And here’s what we learn about
Saul. Saul had major anxiety. like he had so many insecurities about the way people saw him as a king and dealing
with the pressures of his leadership that he literally needed David to play his harp for him so that he could feel
calm and David did. So David spent most of his days with Saul playing his harp to calm Saul’s anxiety. And it’s written in scripture that David loved Saul.
David was loyal to him. I mean, think of all the conversations you’re spending all your days with an individual helping comfort them. Can you imagine the
conversations that they had? Can you imagine all of the uh the the times that they spent together and how much David’s
affection for his leader grew in his heart. And I it’s so sad because David
was so loyal and and he never spoke poorly of Saul ever. And yet Saul was disobedient to God. And because of his
disobedience, he ended up losing his kingship. And God then anointed David.
And that only made his insecurities even crazier to the point that he wanted to kill the
one person who had stayed by his side comforting him the most, and that was David.
So David found himself on the run from Saul and hiding in a cave. And here’s where he wrote the 13th Psalm. Listen to the grief. Listen to the disappointment.
Listen to what David went through. He had gone through all of these emotions of being rejected by his leader. And
here’s what he wrote in Psalm 13:1. He said, “How long, Lord, will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow
in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? Look on me and answer, Lord, my God.
Give light to my eyes. In other words, help me see what’s going on or I will sleep in death and my enemy will say, “I
have overcome him and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
David felt the sting of his leader’s rejection. And in his discouragement and despair, he began to question God.
Instead of seeing how God was going to help him through the situation, David began to take it out on God for
what Saul did. And that’s what unmet expectations will do. Before we know it, we’re angry at God. We want to know why.
Why, God? Why did you let this happen to me? Why did you let another human being with free will cause me so much pain?
Why are they treating me this way? Why did they cut me off? I love that David questioned this. I love that he cried out to God. I love that he had this
moment because you know what? It gives us insight that he was a real human being who struggled with his own emotions and even questioning God when circumstances didn’t go his way.
The last unmet expectation I want to share with you from David’s life is the unmet expectations he had of himself.
See, uh, while David, he’s now king.
He’s moved into the palace and he has, um, all of his men are off to war and David’s bored.
Good things don’t really happen well when you’re bored. And in this case, bad things really happen because David was bored.
He started going looking out his window and before he knew it, he saw this beautiful woman on a rooftop bathing herself. He decided she looked so good that he would have her her for himself.
And so he did. And she became pregnant.
By the way, he knew she was already married.
And in order to hide his sin of taking another man’s wife for his own pleasure, he created a plan. So he called the husband from the battle lines and said,
‘Hey, come home and have a little holiday here with your wife and hang out with her. In other words, I want you to go sleep with your wife so it’ll cover up my sin that I have impregnated her.
But her husband was so loyal, he said to David, I cannot do such a thing while there is a battle going on. If you have summoned me, I’ll stay here in your house with your servants.
Wow.
Can you imagine how David felt in that moment?
He took the wife of a very loyal leader in his army. So when his plan didn’t work out, rather than just confessing it
all, he took it to the next level and he he reached out to the the leader of the army and he said, “I want I want her husband on the front lines. Surely he
will die on those front lines in battle.” And that’s exactly what happened. After being confronted by God’s prophet Nathan about his sin,
David cried out in despair over what he had done.
He imagined sitting in that moment and saying, “I was anointed king and it was said of me that I’m a man after God’s
own heart and instead I have abused my power as king that he has given me and I have taken what I’ve wanted for my own
pleasure. I have failed God’s expectations of me and I have failed my own expectations of myself.”
David cries out in Psalm 51. He says, “Have mercy on me, oh God, according to
your unfailing love according to your great compassion. Blot out my transgress my transgressions, God. Wash away all my
iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions and my sin is
always before me.” And I love that David takes ownership.
He says, “Against you, you only have I sinned and done evil in your sight.”
And you know, David could have settled there.
He could have spent the rest of his life stuck in the guilt and the shame of his really poor choices.
I mean, can you imagine how the enemy of his soul mocked him?
Can you imagine how the enemy would whisper to him as he goes out to battle to see his troops and to lead his people? Can you imagine him saying,
“Look at you. You’re the leader of these people.
And after what you’ve done to to Ba Sheba’s husband, Uriah, look at you.
They know what you did. They know you’re not qualified.
I know what you did. How could God ever use your life mocking?” And you know what? He does the very same thing to you and me.
And this morning, some of you, some of you walked into this room and you are carrying shame.
You’re carrying guilt.
And maybe your story isn’t as extreme as David’s, but you’ve done some things you’re not proud of. You’ve done some things that you know have caused a bit
of a distance between you and your relationship with God. And I have really good news for you this morning. God does not want you to carry that shame. He
sent Jesus Christ to take that shame for you.
Remember, we’re talking about David now.
We’re looking at a snap, a picture of his life and how he walked through unmet expectations. But more importantly than just the unmet expectations is what
David did in response to them. Listen to how David began to lead his soul back to
the goodness of God. In that same moment, he recognized how badly he’d messed up his life. How badly he’d
messed up his testimony. How badly no he messed up his credibility with anyone would listen to him. Listen to what he said in verse 10. He said, “Create in me
a pure heart, oh God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” He said, “Don’t cast me from your presence, God,
or take your Holy Spirit from me.” He said, “Restore to me the joy of your
salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.”
David struggled with unmet expectations, but he didn’t get stuck in his discouragement.
He led his soul towards expectancy. And expectancy is very different from expectation.
Expectation is what we think should happen. Expectancy is our anticipation and belief in what could happen.
When things didn’t go the way that David thought that they should, he began to stir up his soul with the anticipation
of what God could do in the midst of his trouble.
What did we just sing? Who am I to deny what the Lord can do?
In Psalm 51, David’s soul began to anticipate and believe that God would hear his prayer, that God would have
mercy on him, that God could cleanse him from his sin, that God would move him from this terrible place of despair to
restoring him to giving him strength to renewing that steadfast spirit within him. And even though he was he messed up
big time, he was quick to repent. And I love that he didn’t let the unmet expectations define his character
character and stop him from believing in what God can do.
This morning, man, I was just praying this week as I was writing this message and I just thought, man, there’s going
to be people sitting in the audience who are struggling in their relationship with God because of unmet expectations.
Some of you have longed for the approval of your family.
Some of you have done everything you possibly know to do and they’ve still rejected you.
Some of you this morning, you’re the only one in your house that got up to go to church.
And when you get home, you know the comments are coming.
You know the disapproval is going to be there.
Some of you getting ready. You got here to church this morning and as you got here, your son or daughter, maybe you’re just coming home
from their night of potentially partying. Maybe they’re hung over and you’ve cried out to God on behalf of
their soul and you’re wondering, “Is it ever going to get better?” Or maybe you’re just feeling the sting,
you know, of that disapproval you got, that rejection that you felt from that mentor, that leader, that coach, maybe it was even a leader in a church.
And you might be carrying around things that they did to you and fighting through hurt from the past. And I want you to know that the enemy of your soul
is going to try to take advantage of your unmet expectations.
The same thing he did to David, he wants to do to you. He wants to whisper in your ear that God doesn’t really care about you, that you can’t really trust
him, that he really didn’t hear those prayers of yours on behalf of your prodal child.
That he doesn’t love you like you thought that he did. Because after all, if he was a good dad, he’d never let you go through hard things.
But I’m a parent and I know that my kids go through lots of hard things because I know without hard things, they don’t grow.
Without hard things, they don’t they don’t garner strength for the next hard thing because life is full of trouble.
We know this. Jesus said this to us. He said it to his disciples one day. And he said, “Listen, uh, in this world you’re going to have trouble. And I’m telling you that right now so that when trouble
comes, you can have peace. And that peace is going to come from the fact that I have overcome the world. So every trouble you are going through, I’ve already made a way of escape for you.
Unmet expectations can leave you tired and weary.” Oh man.
It can lead to resentment, bitterness, discouragement, and for some of you, you’re just in a place of despair.
But God has so much more for us on the other side of unmet expectations. So much more.
And I love the example of David in the Bible refusing to let them destroy his expectancy of what the Lord could do.
He met his discouragement and disappointment by leading his soul toward expecting God to do great things
like strengthen him to continue to work on his behalf to do the impossible. And
that’s why when we read in the Psalms, we see that David says to us, “Give thanks to the Lord. Sing praises to him.
Declare his glory.” He said, “Call upon his name when those unmet expectations have have tried to seek you out and
destroyed your life. Wait upon the Lord when the prayer hasn’t quite been answered the way you thought it should.
Bring an offering of praise to him. Look to him for strength and remember what
God has done.” Earlier in this service, our worship leader asked you, “How many have you seen God do the impossible?
ometimes when we’re facing the impossible, we got to remember what the what God has already done.
David said,
David said that he would confidently look for the goodness of the Lord.
So, can I encourage you today?
The answer in defeating that pain that lies in your unmet expectations
is your expectancy of the almighty God who is still has an incredible future for you.
You got to leave here today knowing your best days are ahead of you. Your best days are ahead of you.
You might be in a waiting period right now and you might not even see how it’s all going to work out, but you can lead your soul towards expectancy of what the
Lord can do. Listen to what David declared over his life in Psalm 40. He said, “I waited patiently for the Lord.
He turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of
the mud and the mire. And he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.
He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in
him. Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false
gods. What does he say? Many, Lord, my God, are your wonders. Many are the wonders of the things that you have
done. The things that you plan for us, and none can compare with you. Were I to speak and tell of all of your deeds, they would be too many to declare.
And he ends that passage in 16 saying, “May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. May those who long for your
saving help always say, the Lord is great.
God’s not done with you.
He’s not done with you. He’s not done with your circumstances.
I know that those unmet expectations, they can create holes in your soul.
Those holes that there’s only one person that can fill the hole in your soul of that disappointment and that’s Jesus Christ.
And for those of you who came in here today and maybe you’re facing challenges, maybe you’ve got holes in your soul, I
just want to encourage you. He wants to restore your confidence. He wants to restore your joy. He wants to give you a
song of hope, a song of praise for all he’s going to do. And I think this morning it would be so appropriate for
us to stand to our feet. And our worship team is going to lead us. And that song of praise that can stir within you is to
declare that God is more than able to handle our circumstances. Will you worship this morning, church? How about
we do this? Let’s just lift up our hands to him.
Let’s declare it. God, you are more than able to handle my circumstance.
Oh, we thank you, Father. We sing to him.
You are holy.
Jesus, you are more than
I to do. You are more than able.
I see you do it. You are my
You are my
You are my
Who am I to deny what the Lord can do?
Can you imagine
it? With all of the in the Lord.
What the It’s going to happen. It’s going to happen.
Lord can do what the Lord can do.
He’s going to have just the way they do. He’s going to go.
He’s going to move.
Oh, thank just sing that to him. Sing that to him. You are more than able.
Yes, you are. You are Jesus. You are more than able.
Thank you, Jesus.
Thank you, Jesus. You are more than able.
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?
Oh, such a sweet spirit here. I want to pray for you this morning.
Something in this message just resonated on the inside of you.
If you were really honest with yourself, you’d say, “That’s me. I got some holes in my soul. I got some things in my past
that are trying to hold me back, trying to keep me from reaching all that God has for me. I’d love the opportunity to
pray with you.” There is faith in the room. We just saying, “Can you imagine what God can do?” And I believe there are some of you in this room that are
going to be set free from the the weight and the shame and the guilt of e unmet expectations in your life. And if that’s
you and you’re saying include me in this prayer, I’m believing right now that God’s going to do a miracle that he’s going to fill the holes in my soul.
Would you just shoot your hand up in the air? Hands are going up all over this room right now. Let’s just let’s invite God to this moment. Father, we thank you
that in this moment, you see our hand raised, God, and you know the impossible circumstances we’ve walked through. You
know the pain and the suffering and the shame that’s come along with it, God.
You know the discouragement we’re sitting in right now wondering if the circumstance can ever turn around.
And yet we know, God, that you are more than able. We invite you in this moment, Father, to restore us.
God, create in us a clean heart, Father, in this moment, renew a right spirit on
the inside of us. Restore to us, God, the joy of our salvation.
We ask this of you now, God. We leave this moment in confidence knowing that you who began a good work in us that you
are faithful to complete that work. And so we thank you now. We thank you now.
We’re going to be looking, Father, for the ways that in the future you’re going to you’re going to bring that joy to us, God. We’re going to have different eyes
to see our past, different eyes to see our future. And we just thank you, Father, for what you’ve done.
Thank you, Father. You could put your hands down, keep your heads bowed.
There’s another group of people I would love to pray with this morning.
And maybe you find yourself here and you you’d say, “I’m I’m not I’m not where I need to be in walking in my relationship with God right now.
I’ve made decisions that have separated me from that closeness that I know he wants to have with me.
And you know it’s you because the Holy Spirit is moving in your life right now. Your heart might be racing a little bit.
Might be feeling a little nervous on the inside. And I just got to tell you that is the Holy Spirit who is tapping on
your shoulder and saying, “I want to be that friend in your life. You have not done so much that he has forsaken you.”
He’s saying, “Come, child. come back into relationship with me because I have so many good things I want to give to you. And if that’s you in this room or
maybe in Belleview, maybe you’re feeling that in Yakama, Dupon or online, would you be bold enough to lift up your hand and say, “That’s me, God. Count me in.
That’s me, God. I want to I want relationship with you. I want to restore that closeness that we’ve lost. I want a
new beginning in my relationship with you.” their hands that are going up all over this room.
I believe they’re going up online as well. Here’s what I’m going to ask you to do.
If that’s you, I’m going to ask you just to repeat a simple prayer after me.
Romans 10:9 just says that if we believe in our heart that Jesus is Lord and we say it out our mouth that we’re saved.
And that’s what we’re going to do today.
So, if that’s you and you’ve lifted up your hand, this is your moment to pray that prayer. For the the rest of you, can we join in with them? Would you just repeat after me and just say, “Lord
Jesus, I need you today. I need you today.
I need you to come into my life, to cleanse me of all of my sin, all to
make me a new person, to renew that right spirit in me.”
And today I invite you to be the leader in the Lord of my life.
And I boldly declare that I will never be the same again in the mighty name of Jesus. And
everybody shouted a big amen. Can we celebrate those who just prayed that prayer?
Come on, let’s celebrate new beginnings in the house today. Let’s celebrate new beginnings in the house today.
Come on, let’s celebrate new beginnings in the house today. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.
Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.
Whether you are in Yakama or in Devont or in Belleview online or right here in Tacoma, if you raise your hand, if you prayed that prayer and you got a new
beginning today, we’re going to give you some more instructions in just a moment.
And I think first of all, while you remain standing, I think we ought to just all uh just honor Pastor Nicole for bringing a great word to us today.
So good.
Such a great word. And I want to say to our church family, we are expecting an exceptional summer at Champion Center.
Not a mediocre summer, not a get by summer, but best summer ever. Like, it’s going to be exceptional. It’s going to be great. Next weekend is Father’s Day.
I can’t wait to preach to all of the men of the house. Bring your man. If he if
your man don’t come, tell him you’ll do something special for him. Um, get him here. Twist his arm. We’re going to have man’s day. All the lobbies are going to
be full of man stuff. We’re going to celebrate masculinity. We’re going to celebrate manhood. And I am going to
talk to all the men next weekend.
And then that’s just another big weekend. We got all kinds of good stuff planned uh with all of the Let’s rally around our our services. Can we do that?
Let’s just rally around every weekend.
Let’s rally around our youth camp. Let’s rally around team church conference and let’s just invest our yourself and all
agree that we’re going to have an incredible summer in 23. Let me remind you, this is not just my church. This is your church.
It’s not just my church. This is your church. If you’ve been called here by God, this is your church. You’re not
just a a spectator. You’re not just an observer. So, we’re the ones that decide what’s our church going to be like.
What’s our church going to feel like?
What’s Are we going to be happy to be there? Are we going to be faithful to the house of God? I think everybody wants to be. Why? Why don’t we just make
up our mind? We’re going to do that this summer in a really, really devoted, dedicated way. We’re going to celebrate
and elevate the house of God. Amen.
So, they’re going to come give instructions, but I want to just ask you today that if
you hear your pastor right now, if you hear me saying we’re going to have a great summer, I’m going to ask you if you would, if you love God’s house, how
about we make up our mind to express our heart for God’s house this summer
by first of all, I just said it, Let’s rally around our weekends and all of our events.
No, not being sluggish.
Not being like sort of there, off and on there. If you’re out of town, great.
Have fun. Enjoy your vacation. When you’re in town, let’s be allin and let let’s just let let’s just make up our
mind. We’re going to express our heart for the house by rallying around God’s
house this summer. And secondly, let’s honor God all summer long with our tithe and our offering.
You might say, “Well, Pastor Kevin, aren’t we supposed to do that all the time?” Yes. It just seems like summer, people think God takes the summer off or
something. I don’t know. God doesn’t take the summer off. He’s still busy.
He’s still got great plans for us. the church moves forward. Let’s just be faithful. Let’s just be committed. Let’s keep putting God first in our finances
and in our giving. Uh the church is the difference maker in the world.
And if we’re going to make a difference in everything that’s going on in our society, I can’t think of a better place to invest your finances and your
resources than in the house of God. And all God shirts said, “Amen.” So ushers are in the hallway right now.
They have envelopes. You can prepare your given as you exit today or there’s other ways and other options for you to give. I’m going to turn it over right
now to the leaders at every location. Uh come to the platform in all the locations today.