It's Time to Build

Thanks so much for having me. I don't know, is this on? Do you guys hear all right? Good deal. Yeah, thanks so much for letting me be here. Like he said, you gave a kind of story of who we are and what we're doing. We, me and my family, we moved up here about two years ago and started church. And everyone asked, like, what how did you choose Charlottesville? Why here? Why? And all the only answer we have is we feel like the Lord told us to do it. And so we did. We thought we should do what the Lord says. So that we came up here and now I can't tell you how thankful I am for you folks at Jefferson Park Baptist Church, because we've been able to partner with you in a very limited way. I use the word partner because partner, you know, implies the idea that it's a two-way street, right? And honestly, we've just been the beneficiaries of you guys. Whether you know it or not, you've been a huge blessing to our church. We've had mission teams from the church that I came from in Texas who have stayed right below in the basement area. We've borrowed your vans for a week and hauled around kids. Whether you know it or not, you've been a tremendous blessing to our church, our little fledgling church that meets in an elementary school gym. And so I'm glad to be here. It has been probably six months in the making of us being here, you know, the birth of of kids or all kinds of other circumstances prevented. But but I'm glad that it's here and I'm glad that it's now because, you know, I think today's going to be a little bit different than normal, where I think what we're going to do, rather than just a regular old school sermon, it's going to be an exhortation. You know, and we're going to talk through some things we're going to talk through at the end of time. At the end of our time, we're going to wrap up and we're going to talk through like what's happened in the last year with Jefferson Park Baptist Church and then what's going to happen with with a new pastor coming on board. what the future can look like for this church. And so at some level, we've struggled to try to find a time that this would work out. But I think the Lord appointed us for me to be here right now as an outsider, to be able to offer some encouragement and some exhortation as you move into a new transitional time as a church. And so I ask for your forgiveness if I don't understand the full dynamics of everything that's gone on here. And so I encourage you with every sermon that you ever will hear, that you look for the truth and you embrace that truth and then you throw out everything else. And so just know that I'm preemptively saying, like, if I don't understand fully of everything that's happened and I know for a fact that I don't, then than cling to what is true. There's two kinds of people in the world. People who are currently going through storms in life, and then those who are about to go through storms in life, right? That's all that it is. If you currently aren't in a situation right now where you are just feeling the wind, at you and going through some substantial struggles, it may be coming around the bend. And I don't mean to be a downer about that, but there's one certainty in life that you'll go through troubles. And these storms will hit you in a lot of different possible ways. Difficult or broken relationships, financial crises, legal problems, unpleasant or unhealthy painful health situations. You can just say the word cancer and most of the people in this room will just think about something in particular, just a painful moment or maybe a lost loved one. And maybe your storm is broken relationships, disgrace, humiliation, work problems, finding a job or holding on to the job that you have. conflict situations with people. This church has definitely been through a storm in the last year or so, right? And you've suffered loss. You've had to deal with some anger, some hurt, some frustration. You've had to fight away ideas of bitterness. And storms in life, they come. They come personally and they come corporately, don't they? It's not a matter of if, but it's a matter of when. And how are you going to survive those storms? What is going to get you through as a church, but also individually, the difficult times in your life that you're certainly going to have to deal with? And the claim of the Bible is that we are building our lives on something. Like that there are some foundational hope, truth, love, joy, that everything is centered on. That there's one object of your worship. One thing that you really label glorious above everything else. And you gladly make sacrifices for whatever it is that thing might be, right? We all do it. We build our lives upon something. Some view of the world, some priority, some singular love that our entire lives we would really sell off everything except for that one thing. And what is it? And can it bear the weight of your life? Is it worthy of having that title? Is it a strong enough foundation for your life? So Jesus says in the passage that we're about to read that you need to be careful about what you build your life on because there are ramifications for when the storms do indeed hit. Let's all turn to Matthew 7, if you have your Bibles with you. We're in Matthew 7, verses 24 to 27. And it reads. Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house. And it fell and great was the fall of it. The context of this is Jesus is just now wrapping up the Sermon on the Mount like this is this is it like this. It's like period at the end of verse 27. Right. And he just wraps up the most amazing speech or sermon or whatever you want to call it that man has ever recorded that still impacts and changes people's lives on a daily basis. And he just says, if you just want to flip back and look at some of these different things, unbelievable things, things that if you grew up in a church, I hope that you are not immune and numb to. But I hope that you see the reality of these things. He starts off with the beatitudes, these counter-cultural values, right? They're like, blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are those who mourn. And then all these other blessings or rewards that come with it. And He teaches us how to pray. Like the God of the universe, Jesus the Son, He's like, hey, if you want to talk to God the Father, here's how you can pray. He gives us practical instruction for life as well, right? About how to handle your anger, how to not divorce, how to not lust, how to not be tempted by things. I mean, just on and on and on. It's the most amazing words ever recorded. And then what he does is he tells a story. He's like, all right, you've got two builders. These two folks, they go out and they start building something, a house, you know, a home. And they go and they both have the same motivations. Get a little feedback on this. So they both have the same motivations, don't they? They want some place to call their home. They want something stable. They want something dependable. And they want some level of comfort. in the sense of out from the rain, out from the elements that their families and their kids can grow up in, and it's going to be a good place. And so both of them, they strike out. They strike out looking and they're like, OK, is this the spot? No, let's keep going. Look here and look there. And they both are like, this is it. This is where I should be. This is where our family is going to call home. This is where we're going to do life. They chose two very different locations, didn't they? Like, very different. One builder, he chooses a place where rock is going to be the foundation of things, where it's going to take a whole lot of work to get a house ready there, right? And so they're going to have to blast away, they're going to have to chip away at the rock, or they're going to have to remove it to make a smooth surface And they're going to have to dig down deep so they can put pillars and anchors in so that they can build their walls. And because it's on a rock, it may be far away from water, it may not, but it's going to take a lot of effort. And then you've got the other guy, right? And he sees what would be a good spot for him. He's like, man, this is great. This is sandy. It's soft. We just have to put down a rug. We'll have to broom. We'll have to sweep every now and then, but it'll be all right. And we'll be able to dig down and anchor down in a hurry. And in no time at all, we are going to have a great foundation. And it's going to be settled. And we'll be happy. And then we'll have campfires and sing-alongs. And it'll be great. And then maybe they're like, man, look at that. There's a creek right by. Like we won't have to chase after water. We won't have to make long tracks. It'll it's just going to be this little stream. It's just going to be perfect. Like we're going to love it. Like this is it can't be any better. And so they build their house. Right. And they intentionally chose places. And then and then the storm hits. Right. And it starts raining and raining. I'd forgotten what rain was until this morning. I was like, what is what? There's a name for that. I forgot what it was, but it's gladly received. Raining and raining and then it kept raining. And it rained so much that that little creek became a raging river and a flood. Right. And the wind started blowing. And in those days, there in the Middle East, I've spent some time there, it's mostly rock. And so what it does is when it rains, there's not a whole lot of topsoil. It doesn't get absorbed down deep. And it's mountainous. And so what it does is it stays near the top, and it runs down the mountains. And that's why if you even go to the Jordan River, there are times where it literally can be that deep, and there are times where it's 50 feet deep. I don't know if that's 50 feet, but substantially deeper because all the water just flow. It's either it's either feast or famine. And we see the flood comes and it got wind on the walls. It got rain coming down, flood water coming up. And all of this became too much pressure for one of those houses, right? and the one with the poor foundation. When the storm came, it didn't say that it just fell, did it? It said the fall was amazing. Like it had a great fall. A tremendous fall. It was a total calamity and destruction. Complete ruin. And Jesus says, one of these people One of these builders is called wise. And the other one is called a fool. There's one of them that's a haphazard builder. They looked after immediate gratification and was blind to the consequences of poor perspectives and decisions and worldviews and ideas. And they chose what is easiest and what would be the quickest fix. And they're like, I'll do that. and they built upon faulty presuppositions and presumptions. And the other one did the hard work of building, right? They had to clear rocks, dig deep holes by busting out rocks. The results weren't immediate, and they probably had to distance themselves from the little creeks, but in the end, they were glad that they did, right? Well, we all know, we all know that the most important part of any home is the foundation, right? We're all aware of that. As the foundation goes, so our home goes. And especially where I'm from in Texas, that is abundantly clear. It gets so hot and it can get so dry in Texas that the land starts cracking open and it will make your foundation crack. And the whole structural integrity of a building will be compromised just out of the heat. I remember the last time my dad was here, he was like, well, I better get going. I need to go because I need to go water my foundation. Has anyone in Virginia ever watered their foundation? Does that happen here? But in Texas, you do. You literally have to. You have to get your water sprayer and point it right at your house and you just shoot your house. Because you know that your foundation, if it's extensively hot, it's going to give and it's going to buckle and you have problems. The walls start tilting and separating. And when your foundation is compromised, you're doomed. You're doomed. The fall is great. The church that I used to serve at, it's a huge church that we moved into. When I was a college student there and then I was a college pastor there. And so we moved in there and within a month, the foundation started cracking. It was this 16 million dollar like baptidom. Like it was like it was this 3,500 person sanctuary and they had spent tons of money. And they looked at it, and there were decisions made. It was right when I got on staff about how deep to send down the anchors and how thick the foundation should be. And it was like, well, we've got X amount of dollars, and we've got to have this amount of space. And so the decision was made to make a shorter, smaller, more efficient foundation. And literally within one month of moving into the building, you could place a marble on the floor and it would start rolling to the wall. And I had some friends from our church who went to Texas for a wedding and drove by the church and they saw scaffolding all around the church. That was seven years ago that they moved into that facility. Seven years. and who knows how many dollars later, they're still dealing with ramifications of a bad foundation. It's unbelievable. Jesus says that you, you yourself, you right there that's listening, you're one of these two people. And it comes down to the foundation by which you're building your life upon. And it it calls you a fool if you're building your life on the wrong foundation. And this this this storm was a true crisis for these people with so much at stake, their families, their identities. There was rain on the roof, wind on the walls and floods at their foundation coming from every direction. Have you ever have you been there? Have you been there when it seems like from every direction, there's calamity at the doorstep? And when just everything seems to be falling apart, it's a rough place to be. It just feels like your soul is aching and there's just doubt and pain and uncertainty everywhere in your life. And these things, they come. They come and they test the worth of who we are. They test our foundation. And Jesus is saying, be careful about what your foundation for your life is on and make sure that your foundation can stand during the storms of life. Jesus says, really, you have two foundation options. One is you can strike out and you can build on whatever foundation you want. And man has never run short of foundation options, have we? I mean, we just invent them all the time. Economic fantasies, enduring beauty, happiness at any cost. We can worship our families. We can worship success, achievement, intellect. We can worship our favorite sports team. We can even worship a victim's mentality. We never lack for foundation options in our lives, do we? No. And he's saying if you do this, there's one thing you can count on. That foundation is going to crack. And when the storms hit, you are just going to be a pile of debris. Like the you, there will be nothing left of who you are. And none of these things, none of these things I mentioned, and none of the things that you hopefully are thinking through, none of these things can support your life. Your other foundation options, he says it here, right? He says that His words, that if His words, what He has just gotten done telling them about, again, the most famous message ever given, about how to live, how to treat people, how to worship God, how to practice spiritual disciplines. He says, if you just do these things, if you just put into practice what I'm talking to you about, when the storms come, you'll make it. You'll make it. You'll survive. And he's saying these words literally mean the difference between life and death, destruction, prosperity. He gives you practical, conceptual wisdom and teaching for you to build your life upon. Everything He's just told us, He says that these are the right building blocks for your life. That this is a stable foundation for you. And I would go and I would even elaborate, it's like, man, just all of His teachings, like what He says in the rest of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Jesus calls Himself the Rock, right? And so, anything other than the person, the work and the message of Jesus Christ that you built your life upon, someday will be seen as foolish. And He's calling us. to trust in him, that their only right foundation is him and his words. He's saying your life, it's too important. It's too beautiful to be wasted in any other way. That's a travesty if it falls apart. So here's the point of what he's saying, what he wants from you. is to embrace the foundational message of Jesus Christ, His words, His ethical teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, but also who He is, like the Gospel, what He did, what He came for, how He lived a perfect life, died on a cross, rose from the dead. And He wants you to embrace Him as your foundation, as your Savior, as your King, the lens by which you make every single decision in your life. He says, make that your foundation. And then the next part is there's this expectation that you will build upon that foundation. And the way that we do that is obedience, right? And that's what the construction is after the foundation. See, Jesus actually thinks, as God, as the Creator and the Sustainer of the universe, that you should actually follow and obey what He has to tell you in this book. That He has the words of life and that we should listen to them. That He knows what's right and what's wrong. And He intends to teach us how to live. That's the first time I've heard that. Oh, Lord, speak or speak. Oh, Lord. I'm not sure which one. I don't know where they speak. Oh, Lord. I'm like, and that's it. That's that's incredible. You do this every week. You say these words. Is that right or no? No. But I'm like, these are. This is incredible, and I just hope and pray that when you read these, that it's not just some dead religious activity to you. But it's life-giving. Man, take your truth. Plant it deep in us. And teach us full obedience. Holy reverence. True humility. Test our thoughts and attitudes. Incredible. And our job as building on that foundation is obeying everything that we know. To listen to what He says and put it into practice. It's just it's obedience. Jesus preached and preached and preached, and you know what to do, you know, and now the expectation is that you'll go and you'll strap on your tool belt and you'll do it. That's the idea. He wants us to put his words into action. I think some of us for the problem is And we know that Jesus is our foundation. I haven't told you anything new and you're already thinking about where lunch is going to happen. And you've given mental assent to that. But if you're honest, the foundation is there, but there is really not much intentional obedience going on. That you view His commands as suggestions. As mere suggestions. You're not practicing intentional obedience. And I think there's too many foolish and careless hearers of his teachings. And it reminds me of my time in the Middle East. I was in Lebanon and, you know, in the 70s, 80s had this unbelievable civil war. You can still drive around Beirut and you can see the Holiday Inn and there's just bomb blast holes in this building. And just you can still it's crazy. I mean, 30 years later, there's just these buildings with huge cavernous holes in them. But after that ended, they had some economic prosperity for a little while. And so all these people started buying these big mansions, like these plots of land, they were like walled off. And what they do is they would build these foundations. I mean, These incredible foundations, you just look at the foundation and you're like, that's a 3,000 square foot house in the making. They just stay at one level. But the crazy thing was, is a lot of these houses, the foundation was there, but right in the middle, of this foundation, they had tents. They had tents and they lived in these tents. And that's where life happened. They never went beyond to build a whole house. They just they ran out of money. They ran out of will. They ran. Who knows what came next for them? But I just was like, oh, I just was convicted. Honestly, I was like that. Sometimes that is a picture of my heart. Where I'm like, I know that Jesus is true, I know that His words are right for me, but there are times when I just don't care. I want to do my own thing. I view what He has to say as suggestions and my sinful heart as I have to follow that. I mean, how many of us? We're like that as well. And some of us, honestly, the last thing we need is another sermon that we have no intention of obeying. And that's for some of us, it's the last thing we need to hear is a new guy in a monkey suit going on and on about the same old, same old. What we do need, we need some people who hear God's word and just practice some good old fashioned obedience. And who are like, God, if you say it, I'm going to do it. Like my heart is for you. I realize what you've done for me on the cross. And so I will obey no matter what. If you say go, I'll go. If you say make disciples, I will make disciples. If you call me to the nations, I will go to all the nations and on and on and on. And you're called in this passage, you are a builder. So Bill, maybe this week you can go back and read the Sermon on the Mount on your own. And then I challenge you to actually and literally do what it says. To deal with some anger maybe that's going on in your heart or in your life, or when it calls you to fast, that you fast. When it calls you to be charitable with your money that you give sacrificially, That you extend radical grace, that you lay aside your anger, that you put to death your judgmentalism. That's not going to be easy all the time. But we see, like, when we hear obedience from me, from my heart, I don't get excited. You know, at these kind of sermons, oftentimes, I'm like, okay, they're rolling out the obedience card. But I'm like, man, the benefits of obedience. He talks about it. He's like, I don't want you to just obey because you just shouldn't. It's not like dog obedience training. He's like, this is for your good. If I am your foundation and you build off of that well, when the storms come, there's going to be some stability in your life. That when the roof is still there afterwards, there's going to be some comfort. There's going to be some strength. There's going to be some endurance for you. And there's comfort in knowing God's Word and putting that to the test. And you see His faithfulness. And the worst storm of my life by far, it's a no-brainer, our oldest son was diagnosed with autism. It was a foundational shaking time in my wife and I's life to where we just... I'm not a big crier or an emotional guy. I just remember just sitting in the room by myself, just crying, weeping in sorrow for hours and just broken to no end. And I just remember. opening up God's Word, and it says, and I read the passage about if God can feed the birds, if He cares that birds have enough food, I'm going to believe that He can take care of my son. And I just remember being like, Lord, I feel like everything is gone. I just remember crying out at Him, I will trust You on this. your words that you can work out things. And He's faithful. He's been totally faithful from day one. And if we don't realize Jesus is our foundation, if we don't build well in obedience, we're going to miss out on that. We're going to miss out on some of the amazing things that God can and will do in our lives on a regular basis. Our obedience to His teaching is for our good. And His words, they're a bedrock of strength for us. A place of stability and comfort when the storm comes. This church has obviously in the last year has gone through an incredible storm. And again, I don't know. I mean, I'm an outsider to the situation, so I don't even know the full details. But I praise God for this church, for Jefferson Park, Baptist Church, because it seems like the foundation held. It seems like the foundation is built upon the person and the words and the teachings of Jesus Christ. I don't know Keith Goad from Adam. I wouldn't, you know, if we cross that, I've never met the guy. I've seen the video on your website. I read all the, you know, the book that you made him write out. I saw all that, you know, I read through all of that and well done, good job. I wouldn't have made the cut, that's for sure. But he and I do, we have a mutual friend who's been in town for a little while. He was a missionary and their baby had to have emergency surgery as soon as she was born. And so they were here and they came to Archer or something. But they also came here, I don't know if you had a chance if you know who I'm talking about or not. I was like, is he a spy in the land? Did Keith send him to kind of spy things out? And so we had lunch the very next day. I was like, man, tell me about it. And he was like, it was awesome. Like there are people here who love Jesus. He was like, man, there just seems like there's signs of life in this place. And it just seems like it's going to be a great opportunity for God to do some fantastic things, and there are signs of life and vitality here." And I was like, that's true! There are! Like, from what I know, the people I know in this congregation, I'm like, there are some amazing people who love Jesus. And I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful that you have survived the storm. And I know that some of you, you've barely survived. And you're feeling a little bit waterlogged. And when the rain pounded and the floodwaters rose and the wind picked up, it seems like the foundation held. You know, I think certainly there's been some suffering and some loss and some damage done. You know, with the wind and the rain and the flooding from all direction, it just seems like that's just it's going to happen. The facts are facts. But there's been some hurt. It's been going on when things like this happen. And I know I've talked to some hurt people. And when the storm comes, I think one thing that you have to do is you have to take an assessment of what damage has been done, right? Like you remember that, remember that wind storm we had maybe a month or two, two months ago where trees were down everywhere? Like in our neighborhood, like the Belchers, we had lived in, and it was like 90% of the trees seemed to fall over. And so everyone was out that day with, you know, chainsaws and things like that. And I remember just walking around the house just seeing like, okay, what are we going to have to deal with here? You know, and when floods, moldy walls or whatever. But you, obviously when you go through what, when you go through what you, have in this past year. There has to be a cleanup process in place, doesn't there? And maybe you just need to assess things. Maybe things have to be cleaned out, gutted. But a process needs to happen. And I hope that you have done that well. And I hope that as you move into like a new phase of life in Jefferson, In JPBC, that you have handled all of the issues with the house that need to be addressed and cleaned up. And maybe that's you just need to repent of any sin that is going on and that has lingered in your heart or in your life. And just some repentance needs to happen for you. Maybe you need to just forgive and be done with the ways that you feel like you've been hurt. And you just need to move on. Maybe you just need to work through the process of unifying yourselves. Again, this may have already happened, and I may be dealing with stuff that you handled months and months ago. But if you haven't, if you haven't, now is the time to do that. to take final stock before you move forward to be like, what needs to be repaired? In my heart and in my life, but also interpersonally in your myths. But here's the cool thing. Here's the good news. You get to build again. You get to do a remodeling project and a lot of who you are is probably not going to change. But it's a new day and a new history and a new future for Jefferson Park Baptist Church. And what is that going to be like? Has anyone ever seen Extreme Makeover Home Edition? Right. Anyone? No one? No one. I'm kidding. OK, no one. No one's seen it. It's this one show. It's on TV. I know we're Baptists, you know, I don't know if we can watch secular TV or not. But anyway, as long as we don't dance while doing it, I guess it's just a joke. It's just a joke. Do with that as you will. But this cool show is where they leave the foundation and they just take sledgehammers to everything. Right. And it's like, boom, they just they like move that bus or whatever. And then by that time, you're like, It's just, you can't. I challenged the strongest man to not cry during that show. And they'd move it and everyone's crying and screaming and jumping up and down. And it's just a fantastic future that hopefully awaits for these new folks. And I hope that as Jefferson Park Baptist Church, And you get to rebuild and you get to chart a direction for your future as a church. When you get to rebuild, there's two things. Make sure that when you build, you still are doing it on the right foundation. Make sure that you on the way to the job site, you don't get confused. Make sure that the main thing is the main thing. Make sure that you are like Paul in 1 Corinthians, that you claim to know nothing except for Christ and Him crucified. That petty divisions that open... See, at our church, we call them close-handed things. We will not compromise on who Jesus was, His substitutionary work on the cross. You know, some certain things. God's Word being true. And then there's some things that are open-handed. that there is more charity towards. And as a church, I hope that you can distinguish those things well. And then on closed-handed things, you stay confident about, and then on open-handed things, there's grace given out to your people. You build. The second thing is that you build, that you get to work. And really, what an incredible opportunity that awaits you as a church today. You've been through rough stuff, you've weathered it, but now it's a transitional time. You've got a new pastor coming in, and it's a day of new beginnings. I'm not getting paid for this plug, but there should be every single one of you that goes to that retreat and gets to know Keith. This should be a time where it's a rallying time for your church. See, at our church, what we do is we... It gets to the point where if you've been to our church for a while, you're like, you're really sick and tired of this question. But we ask it regularly. And the question is, if you were a part of a church that you really loved, and it wasn't a perfect church, but just one that you really loved, What would that be like? You know, and I've never heard anyone say, if we just had lasers, that would just be so much better. If we just had a smoke machine and candles, and you know, if we just had an organ, or if we just had the right colored carpet, or if we just had more electric guitar, or if we just had more cowbell, or if we just had more A few people got that. You know, I don't hear those things. I've never heard that. But what I do hear is like a compelling vision where people are unified and gathered towards something and a singular focus and we love one another and we're different and we have different thoughts on things, but we're united in purpose and focus and mission and we're moving. That's what I hear. And so I ask you that same question. If you were a part of a church that you really loved, not a perfect church, that'll come later on, but if you were a part of a church that you loved, what would that be like for you? And I ask that question in the sense of, man, this church is in some ways a blank slate with a new guy coming in And I hope that you are going to dream big dreams. I know Keith has been praying and seeking the Lord and begging for God to use him in tremendous ways. And I hope that you are excited and purposeful for what God can and will and what He will continue to do through this church. And I hope that it's a new day for you guys. And I hope that you continue to be faithful to the Gospel message, that you love Jesus Christ and you love one another well, and that you strap on your tool belt and you get to work. And these are exciting days for you to love God passionately, for you to love other people passionately, for you to reach out in this neighborhood. You're surrounded by people, and I'll bet a lot of them I know at least one with the Tibetan prayer flags down the road. Anyone know? Probably don't know Jesus Christ. And what is Jefferson Park Baptist Church going to do to take the Gospel, take out that verse to your community? It's a new day. New opportunities for whatever rebuilding that needs to be done to happen. Follow with obedience and gusto and momentum. You're one of two. You're one of two people. You're either a wise builder or you're a foolish builder. And I hope that you continue and renew your efforts to build well. Let's pray. God, I thank You for this time. an outsider to this church who's going to come and go, but has interacted with some folks from here. God, I thank You for what You have done in this church. There are so many sweet people who love You, who love this church, who love people who don't know Your Son. God, I pray Your blessings on this place. God, I just pray that they would be able to do the hard work of damage assessment if it hasn't been done yet. God, that you would just bring some healing and restoration if that needs to happen. God, I just pray that just a renewed vigor to build and to build well. God, I pray that there would be a sense of unity when Keith comes here and God, Hearts and minds would be aligned and focused towards the same goal and the same purpose. Now, I pray for Keith and his wife and guys. If it was me, the nervousness and the excitement and the anticipation and. I pray that this church intentionally tries to be a blessing to them as they get established. God, you're good. You're good. You give us great instructions. You have the words of life. Help us to love you. Help us to love your message to us. God, just transform us. God, just convict those in here who need to be convicted. God, those who are dealing with some sin in their lives, I pray for no rest for them until they deal with you or other people. with whatever's going on. We'll just keep your eyes closed and your head bowed. If your life is built upon a foundation of anything other than Jesus Christ, the bad news is it is a hopeless situation for you. That it will not survive the storms that life will bring your way And the good news is that the foundation of Jesus Christ will uphold your life. That for the sake of His glory, He sent His Son, who lived a perfect life, showed us how to live, died on our behalf where our sin was transferred to Him. And what's needed and what's asked upon for you are two simple things, is that you repent of your sins that you recognize you're a sinner and you change your heart and your mind and you trust in Him in faith for your salvation as your Savior. If that's something that you have never heard of or have not done, I'm sure there are people here who will be available to talk with you through that. Ryan and Chip may be up front, If God is telling you to make a change of foundations right now, you can come forward. We'd have folks who'd love to talk with you about that. God, we thank you for this time. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.