Pastors Brian and Jacque Lother
Pastor Brian: I remember when I was young, the Miss Universe and Miss America pageants were always on television. I was always fascinated by the interviews that they would do with these young ladies who were hoping to become Miss America, or Miss Universe. They would ask them a question such as this: what do you want to do? What great aspirations do you have? And inevitably, the answers would begin something like this: Well, I want to solve world hunger, or I want to help the homeless.
Jacque: World peace.
Pastor Brian: World peace. Yes. I never heard any of these young ladies say, "I want to be a high finance banker because I want to be a power broker in the world." I found that really interesting that these people would have a rather prominent place, obviously in either America or in the world, if they won this prestigious position. They wanted to use their position to actually make a difference in the world. And that's really the title of my message today: to make a difference. God has given each of us many gifts. I'm not talking about the gifts of the spirit. The gifts of the Spirit are wonderful. God gives them as he wills, the gifts of the Spirit are most often for the purpose of evangelism or at least bringing the kingdom into the world. But the gifts that I'm talking about here today are the gifts and talents and abilities that God has given to each and every one of us. We are on this earth to use our giftings, our talents, our abilities to bless God and to be a blessing to each other. That's why we have these giftings.
How many of you are blessed with Adrian's piano playing? And other people singing. We are blessed by singing and someone playing the trumpet over here. I don't know. Or saxophone, whatever it was. But God has given each of us these giftings to honor God and to bless each other. Being a blessing to each other is one of the ways that God intends for us, believe it or not, to make a living. God gave you giftings and abilities to bless other people and in that blessing, it's a way that God can bring income into your life to be a blessing to you.
I've often looked at people who have trudged off to a job for 40 years that they hated only to get a paycheck, and I think to myself, what misery they must live in all week long. God has given every single one of us talents, abilities, giftings, so that we can bring a blessing to God, bring a blessing to each other, and also actually make a living. I had a friend who is now with the Lord. He was the excavator that helped excavate our building here and did all the groundwork. He was a 20 something year friend of mine. We had the privilege of doing his memorial three years ago. But he used to say this: "Brian, if you love what you do, you won't work a day in your life." If you love what you do, you won't work a day in your life.
What do you love to do? God has made you to love what you do. God has made you with giftings and abilities to actually make a difference. Sometimes people have asked me, how do you actually serve others? Or how do you actually make a difference in the world? I'm going to give you five ways today that we can make a difference. The first is this:
Be the real you. Be the real you. Don't try and be somebody else. Don't try and be somebody that you are not. You know what? I married Jacque because I loved how she was, but I would be really bad at being how she is. You get what I'm saying?
Jacque: I'm not sure I do .
Pastor Brian: Well, we'll be married 50 years next year, so maybe by then you'll get it.
Jacque: I think I get it. Oh, I really do get it. Yeah.
Pastor Brian: Here is me. I want to walk into a room of a hundred people and find one person to talk to for three hours. That's me. Jacque wants to walk into a room of a hundred people and make sure everybody is happy. It's true.
Jacque: I want to enjoy everyone.
Pastor Brian: Yeah. we are different. And one of the things that you need to do to make a difference is actually be the real you because that's how God made you. Now, there are strong points and weak points to our personalities. there is no question about it. And you need to minimize the weak points and really accentuate the strong points. But don't try to become something that you are not. If you discover what giftings you've been given and how to use those gifts to help other people, you'll make a positive difference in this world. You will automatically make a positive difference. You'll make the difference. Listen to this. You'll make the difference that you were born to make.
Jacque: Hey, Brian, I did go through a time where I tried to be more demure and quiet.
Pastor Brian: What does that mean? What's that mean?
Jacque: Well, just cool.
Pastor Brian: Cool or quiet?
Jacque: Quiet. Cool. Just quiet
Pastor Brian: Jacque and--
Jacque: Quieter. I did try to just calm down and I was so miserable. Yeah.
Pastor Brian: Jacque and quiet do not go in the same sentence.
Jacque: Because I would get embarrassed after church. I'd go, "why did I say that?" I'd say to
Brian, "I'm changing."
Pastor Brian: I said, "God made you like that."
Jacque: I'm done with that.
Pastor Brian: Yeah. Just be you.
Jacque: This world needs who you were made to be.
Pastor Brian: That's right. When you are who you were made to be develop your giftings and your talents, you develop them, and you perfect them, In a sense, What ends up happening is you start making a difference without even realizing it. That's how you make a difference. You don't need to be prestigious. You don't even have to carry great influence. What you have to be is you have to be the person that God intends you to be. And the question to be answered is not, how can we make the biggest difference? That was the question I asked the Lord and myself when I was in my early twenties. How can I make the biggest difference in the world? But the real question is, how can we make the difference that God wants us to make? That's the question we need to ask. How can we make the difference that God wants us to make? When you identify the gifts or giftings that God has given you, and you develop these giftings and use these gifts in a loving way to serve other people, to serve God, you will become the difference maker that God has made you to be. You will just automatically be that.
Secondly, Jesus said a very interesting thing that we were to be in the world, but not of the world. We are to be in the world, but not of the world. So don't fret or worry over making a difference in terms of power or wealth or fame. You may achieve some, or even all of those things, or you may not achieve any of those things, but if you do achieve them, you'll soon realize that they're simply tools to be used. They're just tools to be used in loving and helping and serving other people. I want to read a verse here in one Peter four 10. Let's read that real quick.
Jacque: Every believer has received grace gifts, so use them to serve one another as faithful stewards of the many-colored tapestry of God's grace.
Pastor Brian: Every one of us has received grace gifts. In other words, they're giftings to bring grace and God into other people's lives. So let's use them to serve one another. That's how we can be a faithful steward. Our mission in life should actually be to love people and use things to do that. That's what our mission in life should be, to love people and use things in life, to do that, not to love things and use people to acquire those things. Follow me? Our mission should be to love people and use things, not love things, and use people. That is to be the mission of all of us.
The third thing that we can do is to make a difference. we are called to make a difference to the things that are right in front of you. A lot of times we have an idea, if I could just go to Uganda, or if I could just go to the Ukraine, I could make a difference and we miss out on all of the differences that we can make right in front of us. There was an expert in Jewish law who came to Jesus, and he was testing Jesus regarding the second great commandment. There are two great commandments. Remember what they are?
Jacque: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself.
Pastor Brian: Jesus said, the second is equal to the first. Interesting. We were recently at a gathering where there was a gentleman who wanted to talk to somebody else all about politics and God and everything else, but the people to his right, he never engaged in any conversation with. They actually needed to experience the love of Christ from this man, but he was all wrapped up in all of this political stuff and discussions and arguing. I was in the other part of the room and Jacque and I talked about it and how saddened we were that those four people probably left knowing that he was a church person, and he paid zero attention to them. Zero attention.
In the same sense, there was this expert in Jewish law that came to Jesus, and he was testing him, asking him questions about the second great commandment, which is to love your neighbors yourself. We see this story here in Luke chapter 10, verses 30 to 37. I just want to read it really quickly.
Jacque: So Jesus replied to him, there was once a Jewish man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho when bandits robbed him along the way, they beat him severely, stripped him naked and left him half dead. Soon, a Jewish priest walking down the same road came upon the wounded man. Seeing him from a distance, the priest crossed to the other side of the road and walked right past him, not turning to help him one bit. Then later, a religious man, a Levite came walking down the same road and likewise crossed to the other side to pass by the wounded man without stopping to help him.
Pastor Brian: The Levites were like temple assistants. You have the priest and the assistant to the priest. Seeing this wounded guy right in front of them, they walked to the other side of the road to avoid having to encounter him. Let's go on.
Jacque: Finally, another man, a Samaritan, came upon the bleeding man and was moved with tender compassion for him. He stooped down and gave him first aid, pouring olive oil on his wounds, disinfecting them with wine and bandaging them to stop the bleeding. Lifting him up, he placed him on his own donkey and brought him to an inn. Then he took him from the donkey and carried him to a room for the night. The next morning, he took his own money from his wallet and gave it to the innkeeper with these words: take care of him until I come back from my journey. If it costs more than this, I will repay you when I return. So now, tell me, which one of the three men who saw the wounded man proved to be the true neighbor. The religious scholar responded, the one who demonstrated kindness and mercy. Jesus said, go and do the same as he.
Pastor Brian: So just to give you a little context here, there was a lot of racial tension in those days between Jews and Samaritans. There was a racial tension. The Samaritans were mixed race people. The Jewish people felt that they were the pure race. A Samaritan who had been on the receiving end of this kind of prejudice would be probably the most unlikely person to stop and help a Jewish man, probably the most unlikely, yet he did. He did. And Jesus said to this law expert, this walking, talking Bible encyclopedia--That's what he was. He was a walking, talking Bible encyclopedia. That's what this Jewish in the law expert was. Yeah, in the Torah.
Jesus said to this Bible expert, go become like the Samaritan who you have prejudice against because he comes from a mixed race. Those are the words of Jesus. What I like about this Samaritan is that he took direct immediate action. He took direct immediate action. Let's read what James has to say about that.
Jacque: So then faith that doesn't involve action is phony.
Pastor Brian: Wow. Faith that doesn't involve action is phony. How many thinks phony faith really is no faith at all? Phony faith is really no faith at all. This Samaritan didn't sit down to review all the problems of the world with the peace people that were passing by. He didn't stop the next group of people that were walking by and saying, boy, that hair's a bonehead, isn't he? Can you believe the decisions he is making? He didn't wonder if there was a greater problem to be solved further down the road, maybe there is something bigger for me to do down the road. He didn't say that well, you know, this is really a rural problem and I'm an urban specialist. He didn't say anything like that.
He actually didn't even interview the guy that was injured to see, what was he doing there at that time of day that he got robbed? Or what had he done to these guys that robbed him that maybe he was culpable for? He didn't actually look in any way, shape, or form to blame the guy that was wounded and beaten up. He didn't try to interview him and find out what he had done to get himself in this circumstance. He simply saw the need.
Jacque: He didn't judge him.
Pastor Brian: He didn't judge him. He simply saw the need. And right in front of him, he took action. I try to always be prepared for the little things that we can do that would become a big thing for people. I always try to carry a little bit of cash in my wallet to help someone who is holding up a sign that says, "I'm homeless. I need help". For years, I would see a person like that, and my initial reaction would be, well get a job. Have you ever done the same thing? The Samaritan saw a need that was right in front of him and he took action. Sometimes, the difference that you are called to make will simply be right there in front of you, right there in front of you. That's how we can be a difference maker.
There is a fourth aspect of being a difference maker that I'm going to personalize for you this morning because you may make a difference that you did not plan to make. You might be able to make a difference in a way that you never imagined that you would make a difference. Sometimes, the differences that we make in life turn out to be far different than the difference we intended to make. Nothing could be more closer to the truth than even our story here at Hope Community. Next Sunday, we will be starting our 27th year as a church. We thank the Lord for his faithfulness to us during that time.
Back in 1995, I was asked by the pastor of the church that I was serving on, that Jacque and I were serving in, to start a class on raising up people to become part of church plants. He had been asking me to do this for two years, and I kept saying I'm too busy. I got other things that are more important. We have all these other things going on. But in 1995, the spring of 1995, he said to me, "You are going to do a class on church planting." How many understand what it means to be submitted to authority? So I did. I taught this class for two years. Little did I know that two years later, that same pastor would ask Jacque and I to be the pastors of the first church plant out of that church, which we said yes to.
We had a band of people, a band of brothers and sisters that had been eating and drinking and sleeping church planting for two years with us. And what do you think most of them did? They decided to help us start this church called Hope Community. John and Bridget were part of that way back in the day. We had this vision. we are going to build a little building somewhere. we are going to find land and maybe an acre or two of property and we are going to build a church and then we'll have our nice little faith community.
But probably in 1990, maybe 1990, 89, somewhere in there, a gentleman had come to our church and had spoken a prophetic word over Jacque and I, and that prophetic word went something like this. And I'll paraphrase. He said Brian, you and Jacque have seen yourself as a one man band. you are playing the drum with your foot and you got a guitar in your hands and you got a harmonica around your neck, and you use your left foot to do something else. you are just like this one-man band and you are doing really good at that. But this is what God has for you. Turn around. This big curtain opened up and there was a hundred piece orchestra there. And what the word to us was you need to lift your vision higher.
I grew up in a small town in northern Minnesota, just a little country boy raised in an iron mining town, very little money. And so I never really had too lofty of an ideas other than I wanted to play the piano like Van Clyburn. I did want to do that. But when Jacque and I met and God called us into the ministry, all that we wanted to do was just serve nothing super big or anything, just serve, just serve people. And that's how we've lived for 50 years.
But 27 years ago, brought, God brought us out to this location and we needed to find a place for the church. And so we started to do prayer drives and we would drive all around the whole northwest part of the Twin Cities here. One day we were driving out right in this area, and Jacque says, "Man, I'm getting really hot." It wasn't August. She felt like the Lord said, this is the area we are supposed to be in. And so we started to zero in on the area of Corcoran, and one thing led to another, and the property across the street became available to us.
We acquired it through some really incredible God provisions. And we were ready to build our little church. When we went before the city, the neighbors in our neighborhood didn't want this little church in their neighborhood. And there was a substantial amount of opposition to us building this little church. How many know that sometimes opposition isn't from the enemy sometimes it really is from God.
To make a long story short, we had permission from the city to build a church, but the council at that time had put 38 conditions on us that virtually made it impossible to build any kind of church that would be sustainable. We did the only thing most of us know how to do, and we have trouble. And that was look to heaven and say, help God. And we began to pray. After six months of praying, I reached out to one of the council members at that time and asked him if I could meet him for lunch, and he said sure. I was convinced that God had changed the city council's heart so that we could build our little church.
I met with him and we sat down in the booth at a Panera restaurant, which by the way, I didn't buy his lunch because that's not legal to do. That's bribery. I offered to, but he said I couldn't. The first thing he said to me, Brian, I don't know what you want to meet with me, Brian about, but if it's to build a church on the property you have, we are not going to let you do that.
Jacque: And we had how many acres we had?
Pastor Brian: Well, we had 52 acres at the time, but some of it was wetland. But the problem wasn't size. The issue was God was using him. God was using him. I did what I didn't want to do, and I said, well, can you help me? Tell me what we should do? I didn't like to ask him about that because I was always pretty independent. I just wanted to do what I wanted to do. He took out a map of the city and pointed to this property here. And he said, "Brian, if you can get this property, we'll let you build whatever you want." So I said, "Well, who owns it?" I don't know. Well, is it for sale? I don't know that either. But if you can get that property, we'll let you build whatever you want."
Well, I thought that was a pretty open door, or at least it was the only door that was open. So I went down to City Hall right away, and the gal who was working there, she is now since passed away, her name is Pat Poole. And I walked in and she had known what was going on with everything and was empathetic to us, really kind to us. She said, what can I do for you, Brian? And I pointed to this property on the map. Because there was a map on the counter, a map of the city on the counter. I pointed to this property and I said, "Who owns this property?" She gave me the strangest look. And she said, "Why?" I said, well, I-- I mentioned the Councilman's name, and I said they said if we could buy this property, we could really build whatever we want out here. And she looked at me and she said, "This must be God, Brian."
Listen, when a city worker says something like that to you, it gets your attention, doesn't it? I said, what do you mean? She said, "Well, the guy that owns that property, people have been trying to buy that property from him for 20 years, and he has not been willing to sell. And he was just in here 20 minutes ago, and he wants to sell for the first time in his life." So where do you think I went from the city hall? I went right to his house, introduced myself. They were wonderful Christian people. They were ready to sell for the first time. Within five weeks, we had a purchase agreement signed. And the rest is a little bit like history except for one thing.
We submitted at that time, a plan, rather sketchy in a sense, but on that plan, it showed senior housing and it showed commercial development and so forth. And the city back in 2001 gave an approval to that. So we've just been waiting and waiting and waiting for city sewer and water to come. All of that took place in 2001. This year, as you notice, the dirt pile outside here and across the street or the hole, across the street is where the water treatment plant's going to be. In the water towers going to be on the church site. And we are going to be developing this property, probably starting sometime in 2023/ 2024.
What the Lord has put on our hearts to do, and what the city seems to be very excited about working with us is two phases of senior housing, 54 row homes, town homes for people who can't quite afford the single-family homes, but want to still move to Corcoran.
30 villas for seniors, a multi-family apartment building. Two of them, actually two medical facilities, two retail commercial buildings, and an influence of positiveness in our city that when I said yes to starting a church, I had no clue about, no clue about. The difference that God is allowing us to make here is a lot different than the difference we thought we were going to make. When the Lord asks you to do something, just say yes. Just say yes to it. Because you know, we are just a little band of brothers here. we are just a little band of brothers and sisters here, but God is a big God. Amen. And he has helped to sustain us and provide for us every step of the way. Our heart has always been to serve our city. A lot of churches come into a city and start making demands. We never did that. We wanted to come in and serve our city. We still do.We had a great time last Tuesday night at The Night to Unite. Jacque served cotton candy. We almost had three recreation episodes of I Love Lucy, with Jacque doing cotton candy that night.
Jacque: And Cheryl
Pastor Brian: And Cheryl. Yeah. And Jeff and others were there helping Pat. Dan and Cindy and others were there. Angie was there. We love to serve and it's in serving that we can make a difference. I think you had one thing you wanted to say.
Jacque: Well, I think it's so beautiful that the church is the very center of the campus and all the service and the love and the care and the living that goes on this area will be centered around the church.
Pastor Brian: Yes. Interestingly enough, probably 20 years ago, there was another gentleman who had a kind of a prophetic picture vision. He saw hundreds of people coming to this site, like walking across the fields. And of course, at the time, with our limited knowledge, we just kind of thought, well, that's kind of strange that people are going to be walking here to church. But what God was really showing us was all the people that will be coming to live on this site: seniors, independent living, assisted living, memory care. They will receive hospice care here. They will receive a place to belong. Our first phase of seniors will even be connected to our church building so that people can go from that building to our building.
Jacque: Without going outside.
Pastor Brian: Without going outside in the wintertime. there is a lot of things that still have to happen, obviously for all of this to take place. But I'm thankful today that there was a council that had the courage to say no to the things that I was asking them to do because God wanted to open up that curtain and show me a hundred-piece orchestra rather than a one-man band. God wants you to make a difference in a way that maybe you don't even plan on making.
Jacque: But it all starts with saying yes.
Pastor Brian: But it all starts with saying, yes. One more thing, and then we will get ready to eat some ribs. How does that sound? The fifth thing is this: Little things can actually really make a big difference. We can change another person's life by doing something that is simple, by doing something that is loving and the impact. And that can be incredibly amazing. I believe that Jesus is calling every single one of us, and he is offering us his hand. He always offers his hand when he calls us to do something. And he is encouraging us to step out in faith and make the difference that we were born to make. We were all made by God to make a difference in this world. We need to continually ask God, how can I make a difference for you? How can I make a difference for you as I'm navigating through this life? And so this story that I want to read, it's not so much, -- well, let's read it and then I'll explain what I mean. It's a story of Jesus taking a walk.
Jacque: At about 4 o'clock in the morning, Jesus came to them walking on the waves.
Pastor Brian: Yeah, that's where he was walking.
Jacque: When the disciples saw him walking on top of the water, they were terrified and screamed, a ghost! Then Jesus said, be brave and don't be afraid. I am here.
Pastor Brian: How many of you actually need to hear that today from Jesus?
Jacque: Be brave. Don't be afraid. I'm here.
Pastor Brian: I need to hear that a lot. I need to hear it a lot.
Jacque: Peter shouted out, Lord, if it's really you, then have me join you on the water.
Pastor Brian: He was really trusting in whatever that was out there. I thought to myself, what if that really was a ghost out there? And the ghost said, "Eh, come on here." But it was Jesus. Yeah, it was Jesus. And he said, come on. Hey, join the party.
Jacque: Come and join me, Jesus replied. So Peter stepped out onto the water and began to walk toward Jesus.
Pastor Brian: Just imagine that.
Jacque: But when he realized how high the waves were, he became frightened and started to sink. Save me Lord, he cried out.
Pastor Brian: How many times have we began to sink? Because we were afraid.
Jacque: We looked around.
Pastor Brian: Yeah, we looked at what was happening around us. Remember the story of Elijah and Elisha. Elisha's request of Elijah was that Elijah would give him a double portion of Elijah's anointing. But there was a caveat to it. He said, " you've got to keep your eyes on me." And what happened? Man, this fiery chariot shows up. The wind starts blowing. All these sorts of things start happening and had been really easy for Elisha to start looking at all that stuff. But he kept his eyes fixed on Elijah. And that was a typology for us today to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. When our eyes can be fixed on Jesus, then we don't look at the surroundings, the circumstances, the situations that seemingly we cannot cope with that we will never overcome, that we will never be able to get behind us, but rather let's keep our eyes on Jesus. Let's see what happens here.
Jacque: All that distracts us. Jesus immediately stretched out his hand and lifted him up and said, what little faith you have? Why would you let doubt win?
Pastor Brian: Isn't that a good line? Why would you let doubt win? Let me tell you something. Doubt is not our friend. Doubt is not our friend. How many lives have been improved by doubting? Of all the disciples the name doubting Thomas, that description isn't a positive one, is it? I want Hope Community be to be known as a church who truly believes in what God asks us to do. I want you to be the kind of person that believes that God can do what he is asking you to do. Why would you let doubt win?
Jacque: And the very moment they both stepped into the boat, the raging wind ceased.
Pastor Brian: Wow, the very moment that Jesus and Peter stepped into the boat, all of this turmoil, all this agitation ceased.
Jacque: Then all the disciples bowed down before him and worship Jesus. They said in adoration, you are truly the son of God.
Pastor Brian: Peter walked on the water when he had faith to walk toward Jesus. Let's walk towards Jesus. Just like Peter, when we have moments of fear, which we all will do-- we'll have moments of fear. We'll have doubt. We are subject to the temptations of the enemy. When he began to have fear and doubt, he began to sink. But Jesus reached out his hand and said take my hand. And when Jesus reaches out his hand to us, let's take his hand. Let's just keep walking towards him. Let's just keep walking towards him. The truth is this: we can't see the whole picture. And that is why we have to step out in faith. Sometimes we don't see the whole picture. We have to step out in faith. We don't know where all the pieces fit. How many have put together a thousand piece puzzle and the first thing you do is what?
Jacque: The edge?
Pastor Brian: Well, you dump the pieces out.
Jacque: Yes. And you sort them
Pastor Brian: And you sort them. I am never going to get this done, right? But you get them all sorted and then you start looking for the straight pieces, the edges. Then you get that edge put together, then you separate colors into areas and whatever, right? And after a while with a lot of effort
Jacque: And patience.
Pastor Brian: And patience, it comes together. But the fact of the matter is, if all we look at is the pieces, it can seem overwhelming. Sometimes, we say, why did these things happen this way? And we see through a mirror darkly as Paul says. We see real dimly. Did you know that only God has the view from the top of the world? Only God has the view from the top of the world. These little things that you do for other people that might seem insignificant when you do them. Just think of yourself as reaching your hand out to Jesus and doing what Jesus is asking you to do. You may not see the results of anything that might happen by doing these little things. You might not even see them in your lifetime. Are you okay to do the right thing during the course of your life without seeing the results? We have to be. When Jesus said to do it, then what? Do it. Do It
Jacque: Just a little bit over a long period of time makes an impact.
Pastor Brian: A huge impact.
Jacque: We've been doing a lot of landscaping and I found a rock by the barn and it has got this beautiful hole all the way into it. It's just so amazing. And like a little line that goes down into a hole. And I realized that it is just dripping water over years and it has had that kind of impact on that rock.
Pastor Brian: So just like the Samaritan saw something to do in front of him, when we do what Jesus puts in front of us to do, what that will do is when we respond, that creates ripples. That creates ripples. And those ripples keep going out. Even if you can't see how far those ripples go, or even see how far those ripples will touch somebody, just keep doing it. I have one more scripture. It's found in James 4:17.
Jacque: So if you know of an opportunity to do the right thing today, yet you refrain from doing it, you are guilty of sin.
Pastor Brian: Now, I know none of you want to be sinners. We all want to be saints, don't we? Don't we? I hope so. James says it this way: So if you know of an opportunity that's in front of you to do the right thing and you refrain from doing it, you are guilty of sin. Let's remember that because I know I believe in all your hearts you want to be right. Those of you are watching by livestream, the reason you are watching today is you want to be right. You want to be right with God. And so let's do the little things and let's let your faith flow into your deeds. Let's not just say we have faith and then we'll just have intellectual discussions with people about God. Let's become God in a sense. Let's become Jesus. Let's become the hands and feet of Jesus to people. And in doing this, we actually will make a difference. Pastor Jeff, would you come?
Pastor Jeff: Thank you, Pastor Brian. Thank you, Jacque. We've said it many times before, but our identity and our destiny are found in heaven. That's where identity comes from. It comes from heaven. And lots of times we can have such a low image of ourselves that we don't think we have anything to offer anybody. But I'm here to tell you that is not true. Every single one of us who is watching by livestream or sitting in this room right now has been created in the image of God, has a calling on their lives from God, and he has a plan for you to change at least your part of the world. I just lost the word. What do you call the statement that identifies who we are? What do we call those things?
Pastor Brian: Identify with?
Pastor Jeff: When we want to tell people what Hope is, then we have our---
Pastor Brian: Our mission.
Pastor Jeff: Our mission statement. Thank you. Mission statement at Hope is to create hope, healing and belonging through the good news of Jesus Christ for the entire world, one person at a time. And you have been brought to Hope to be part of that mission. Your identity is from Jesus. Your calling is from Jesus. And Jesus brought you here because he has something to accomplish in this church that he needs you to be here to help it happen. The way you help it happen is that you start loving on people, one person at a time. Just think how many people, not just in Corcoran, but in all of the area where we live and work, will have their lives improved, benefited, blessed because we love them. It's not a hard thing.
You don't have to be famous and you don't have to be able to play like Adrian or sing like Tammy. All you've got to do is be you just like Pastor Brian said. That's just a great encouragement, Brian. And I love when you told us that if you just say yes to Jesus, what he has planned, the impact you are going to have. You have no idea what it's going to be like until you say yes. And if you are on livestream and you haven't said yes, or if you are here this morning and you haven't said yes to Jesus, now is the time. Right here, right now. And it's so simple to do. You just say, Lord, yes. I've been doing it my way. I give in. I receive your mercy. I'm going to do it your way. And if you've never done that, take a moment, close your eyes and talk to Jesus because in the moment that you do that, his calling, his purposes and his destiny will begin to change your life.
And in saying that, every single one of you is brought here because they need you or God needs you to help this church accomplish this mission. I'm not kidding. We have a good friend who he and his wife have just started coming in the last year. The Lord brought him and Lord brought Angie to Hope and they have been such a blessing in so many ways. John actually wants to share something with you this morning. So John, why don't you come on up? He was inspired by this message for a very important reason.
John: Yeah. I want to talk about making a difference. The worst speaker or the worst time to speak is just before people are going to eat. So I'm going to make this really short. I met Brian when we both were on council. I've been on council for seven years. I feel like when he bashes politicians that the arrows are going right at me from up here. But I want to talk about--- and it's very important to get this project over the finish line as he talked, and we've talked about it before. It has been in the works for 25 years, the campus. I want to talk about what people can do to help councils make decisions in their favor.
Every project that we have in the city, some of them, there are people lined out the door to tell us to say no. There are plenty of projects that people don't like. The lineup, we'll have 25 people speaking. I remember one specific project, we had 26 people speak against it, and one spoke for it. The council is made of five human beings. we are supposed to be antiseptic to some things. But it's really hard to vote yes on something with a lot of people against it. I have a pretty good sense of the vibe of the community. And this project does not have that. It's not a project that will be seen as negative, but there will be people that are against this project. Because every single project that we have before us, not everyone is for it.
And so I implore you, if you want to make a difference, if you want to get this over the finish line when this project is on our schedule, you have to come to the council and speak positively about it. It will overwhelm the city council. The odds of passing something with 20 people for it is so much higher than passing with nobody speaking on behalf of the project. I'm sure Brian and his team will speak, but I really, really, really think that will make a difference in getting this thing done. So thank you for your time. I hope to see you there. Messaging will come out of wind. It's actually on the calendar and I hope people show up.
Pastor Jeff: Thank you, John. Those are Tuesday nights or Thursdays usually?
Pastor Brian: Thursday nights.
Pastor Jeff: Those are Thursday nights. Some Thursday, very soon there is going to be a city council meeting that we are all going to show up to with our best behavior on. We'll let you know when that is. Just Mark, every Thursday on your calendar. Keep them open.
Pastor Brian: Second or fourth Thursday.
Pastor Jeff: Second or fourth. Okay.
Pastor Brian: And not everybody has to talk, but if there is 50 people there in favor of this, it makes a big difference
Pastor Jeff: With some people talking. Yeah. But if we are there, it will be great. What he just described, the campus. Yeah, I'm sorry. Oh, the project is the campus of the church that we just talked about, Lee. It started with this building and then all the things that we are--
Pastor Brian: Senior housing.
Pastor Jeff: Senior housing, all of that. Yeah. Okay. I'm sorry. I know you guys are all hungry, but I really-- the Lord put in my heart we are supposed to-- do you want to say something Robert? Or you standing there or you just-- okay. Okay. Tammy, can we pray for you this morning? Would that be okay? Adrian, I'm going to take you off the piano. I want you to go lay hands on your wife for me. Would that be okay?
Pastor Brian: I'll go play.
Pastor Jeff: If you are struggling with a sickness right now-- we are going to pray for Tammy. She is facing a serious illness. She is coming into a surgery in September and we are going to trust the Lord. Would you just lay your hands? Why don't you put your hand on your-- yeah, there you go. If you are in need of a healing, it wouldn't be the same one as Tammy, but the Lord is always here to touch our lives in very special ways. And I just had a real clear impression that before this day was over, we wanted to pray for Tammy. we are going to do it right now. But if you need God to touch you in some way for healing in your body, if you are watching on livestream, just put your hand wherever that healing needs to happen. And Holy Spirit is here and we are going to trust him to touch us.
So Father, we thank you for your goodness and your mercy. And we thank you for the blood of the lamb and the healing that is in that blood, that by your stripes we are healed. And so to you, Tammy, right now, I just release the power of healing through the Holy Spirit. From Holy Spirit through me, through Adrian to you, into your body to root out that cancer and bring complete restoration. In Jesus' name, in Jesus' name. Love you, Jesus. I love you, Jesus. And if you are trusting the Lord for something in your life right now, then I just release the favor and blessing of the Father to you, his healing, his provision, his restoration in Jesus' name. Pastor Brian.
Pastor Brian: Robert.
Pastor Jeff: Oh yeah. Come on up. Thank you, guys.
Pastor Robert: Sorry, but this is important. Because I know you can smell the ribs. I know this is important. The weather is such that we need to make a decision, a, a wise decision to serve the food inside because we don't want you to get out there, and then it starts down pouring. It started out misting a little bit, but the drops are getting a little bigger. We have the tent outside, so it's good enough. If we still want to play games, you can do it under the tent. It's still safe enough right now if the kids want to be on the bouncy. But to go out there and set up and have you get wet, we just didn't want to do that. So we are going to set up tables, we are going to set up the serving lines.
Rachel is going to be back kiddy corner to me right by the entrance with the ticket table. So if you could line up kind of-- we did this last year. If you can line up back there, pay if you haven't paid. If you prepay, show that you paid, get your ticket, and then we'll be able to serve you and make the best of this day as much as we can. Okay? So just give us time to set up and everything-- food is ready, so we just need time to set up and get everybody situated. See Rachel and we'll have a good time.
Pastor Jeff: I suppose we can pray for the food too, huh? Should we just pray and bless the meal? Father, thank you for this wonderful, delicious food that our brother Ken has prepared for us. In all the hands that labored over it, we bless it in Jesus' name. We pray you bless the children as they play and all of us as we fellowship together. Amen.
Pastor Brian: Let's raise hands together. Let’s raise our hands together. Now, may the Lord bless you. May the Lord keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. And may the Lord turn his face towards you and give you his peace. And may you do what is right in front of you to make a difference. This we pray the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. Enjoy each other today. God bless you.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 8-6-23. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.