Growing in Generosity.

Look, today we are celebrating six years as a church. So you're going to notice how we got donuts to celebrate. We're also hearing from missionaries from some of the projects that we gave to last year as a church as a result of our big give.

We're going to announce the big give that we will take in December. To celebrate all the things that God has done here in this space and in this church, we want to take time to intentionally give to create the culture around the world and here in this city.

Our Foundation

Our story began in 2018 when a group of friends gathered in a living room and started to ask this question: What would it look like if Jesus were to be walking here on earth? If Jesus was right here in Madison, Wisconsin, where would he be? How would he be spending his time? What are those patterns, those customs, those beliefs, the culture that he would pass down?

Our entire name is centered around Matthew 7:24, which says, therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house upon the rock. From early on, we decided that we wanted to be a church that not just showed up on Sundays and occasionally saw each other in other places, where we just read scripture and heard a lot about Jesus, knew a lot about Jesus. We wanted to put those words into practice. We wanted every day to say, let's not just be hearers of the word, but doers of the word. Let's not just hear about the love of Jesus, but let's encounter it for ourselves. Let's experience it and let's share that with the people around us.

We held a few preview services at Gates of Heaven Synagogue in James Madison Park. We started opening the doors and just kind of said, let's see if anybody comes. And people came, and they kept coming. We didn't really have much of a plan. I still have a Google Drive folder that was called The Project, because we didn't even really have a church name.

In October of 2018, after I had seen a friend's band play at a nightclub, we had been praying. Through prayer, God gave someone a picture of a red door. So many parts of our stories and steps that we have taken have been a result of people praying, God speaking, and us taking that next step in obedience. We looked and knocked on every red door in Madison and could not find a place to meet. Finally, it was at this nightclub that in the alley we saw a red door. We knew that this was going to be our first home. We met there for a little over a year.

We then moved into a neighborhood center and COVID hits. That's when things got really fun for us as a church. During COVID, we ended up starting meeting in living rooms and house churches. Then we finally landed here in Bedford. It was a late Saturday night, scrolling on Craigslist around 11 p.m. when I saw this place pop up.

I remember the first time we came here, I had felt the Lord give me that confidence and assurance to say, I'm going to take you home. We have a home for this church. I walked up to this store and the number on the door is 219, which is my home area code. I stepped into this space and I just knew this is our home. This is where the Lord has us for this season to create his culture.

We've been here now for three years and it has been quite the adventure. Last year when we turned five, I felt the Lord put on my heart to really think about what does it mean to be five? What does it mean to be at that spot where now you're going to kindergarten and you're learning to ride your bike and the training wheels are coming off? I really felt this invitation for us to take risks, make mistakes, and get messy.

Year six, here we are. A year of growth and a year of becoming. There's a lot of significance around the number six in scripture. In the Bible, on the sixth day, man was created. This is a year of us being formed, a year of us becoming who we were created to be.

In the Old Testament, there were six cities of refuge. These six cities of refuge were a place for people that had accidentally killed somebody. They could come to these cities of refuge and have a fair trial or be safe without being harmed. These cities were Levitical cities and the Levites were thought to be impartial judges who could calm the passions of the victims' families.

I couldn't help but think as I prayed about this and thought about this year ahead of how from day one, that's been a piece of our invitation as a church. How do we create a safe place for people to come, for people to heal, for people to grow, for people to take refuge in the Lord? As we enter into this year, the invitation that I hear God saying is that this will be a year that we can have that peace, that refuge and multiplication, that this will be a year of becoming.

Our so what for today is that growth starts with a faithful few. Growth starts with a faithful few. When I go back to the story of our church, there are so many people, hundreds of people that have been a part of this that are not here anymore. Some of them have physically passed away since being a part of this church or that have given and contributed to this church. We've seen a lot of people and a lot of lives.

But one way or another, whether this is your first Sunday or your hundredth Sunday, we now are standing on the foundation that was built by faithful people that have come before us. Everywhere that we go in life, we are stepping into the stories that people have lived before us. We have this wall over here that says create the culture. This is a map of all the places that people have moved in the past six years from New Culture. There are pins all over that map and one pin sometimes represents multiple people that are not just all over our country but all over the world of missions that we've supported, of people that have gone and moved to be missionaries themselves.

We celebrate what started with a faithful few while also receiving the invitation that we have today to say what is God doing right here in this moment in this city with us as a people, as a family? How do we now take on that responsibility?

We cannot stop growing up. We can't stop aging. We can't control any of that, but we can decide who we want to become. We can decide how we want to be formed. Will we continue to be faithful people that are formed into the likeness of Jesus?

In Acts 9:31, it says, the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened, living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit. It increased in number. The Lord increases, the Lord multiplies as we are faithful.

How Do We Be People That Stay in Fear of the Lord?

Here are three things that I want us to consider today. The first is this: how do we be people that stay in fear of the Lord?

When I think about the church in Acts and I think about how they spent their time and what that looked like for them to be a people that shared everything they had. In Acts 2 and in Acts 4 we see these passages where it talks about this. They gave whenever there was a need. They were able to give. We've witnessed pieces of that when we're standing in Thailand and it's like here's a need and it's like, well, we got to give. Let's give. What does that look like to continue to be those people?

In Acts 2:42, it says, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes, ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their numbers daily, those who were being saved.

Now that all sounds so nice and wonderful, right? You're like, oh, we're just together and we're worshiping and we're sharing meals. But I have so many logistical questions about this. We've been trying to pull off this whole Sundays at the Table and trying to just feed even a size of our group is a little tricky. You got to make sure we have plates. We forgot the forks again. Somebody could run to get the forks. There are logistical things that have to go into place to make this happen.

But there was intentionality there. There was preparation. There was thought going into how they were going to gather and what they were going to do. As they did that, as they were faithful, the Lord added to their numbers those who were being saved.

In Acts 4:32, it says, all the believers were in one heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own. But they shared everything they had. With great power, the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. God's grace was so powerfully at work in all of them that there was no needy person among them. From time to time, those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money, put it at the apostles' feet. And it was distributed to anyone who had a need.

What's happening here? Anytime that there was a need, they're like, okay, we're going to sell things. So it's not just the leftovers, but we're going to sell things. We're going to give to anyone who has a need.

Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, called Barnabas, which means son of encouragement, sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet.

What does this have to do with fearing the Lord? What I see here is that this church did not fear running out. They did not fear lack. They did not fear loneliness. They didn't fear rejection. They gave everything that they had freely. They welcomed people into their homes freely, without question. They lived this way. That shows me that they feared God more than they feared anything else.

They recognized and it shows us that they were seeing signs and wonders. They had this awe. They saw God move in such a way that they're like, God, you're moving like that? I'm going to give everything I have to this. I can't not be a part of what is happening.

How do we do that? Well, sometimes I think in order for us to recognize whether we fear the Lord, we first have to take time to process what are the things we're most afraid of right now?

When we fear the Lord, it's a sign that we fear nothing else. Why do we get stuck? Why do we not grow? Why do we not live fully submitted to the Spirit, surrendering what's in our hands? More times than not, it's because our lack of fear of the Lord. Usually it's because there's a greater fear we have for something else.

I still remember one of the first times I felt invited into ministry. There were so many different encounters in my life that led me here and will continue to lead me where I'm going next. For all of us, we continue to encounter the Lord and respond in obedience. And one of those times I remember being in high school and I just had this sense like the Lord was opening the door and wanted me to do ministry to some extent.

I shared when I went to intern in Ireland when I was twenty that it was initially to do just music. I thought that's what I'm going to do. But a huge part of my story was that summer in Ireland when God did reveal to me this invitation to preach and to lead and pastor in other ways. But I remember the specific moment when I started to have this like invitation and I was going, I can't do that. I am terrified to do that.

Like when I think about even now, like most Sundays I kind of walk in and I'm like, who's in charge of this thing? Like God, I don't know what we're like, Lord, I need you. I'm terrified. It's scary to be obedient. It's scary to step out in faith. It's scary to put yourself in places where you have to rely on the Lord.

But I remember in that specific moment when I said, Lord, I'm scared. How are you going to provide if I'm in ministry? God, if I'm in ministry, will I ever get married? Will I ever have kids? Lord, I'm afraid of what that's going to look like. What if you're going to send me somewhere that I don't want to go? I'm afraid of what that's going to be.

But then I had this moment where I thought I'm more afraid of not being in the center of where God wants me. I'm more afraid of not being fully obedient to everything that he is inviting me into. I have had so many of those moments lately. They're here at these altars during prayer and worship where I'm saying Lord, I'm scared. Lord, I don't know how you're going to come through. But I'm more scared of not being right in your presence where you want me to be. Because even though it's scary sometimes to the flesh, it is the safest place that we can ever be when we look to God to be our safe place in our city of refuge.

For all of us at different times of our lives, we're going to have to answer that question when God is calling us and he's inviting us to do things to say in this moment I might be afraid of this and this and this, but what am I afraid of most? Am I willing to walk and to trust the Lord and his provision in that?

Psalm 91 says, he who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust. Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare and from deadly things. He will cover you with his feathers and under his wings you will find refuge. His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

You will not fear the terror of night nor the arrow that flies by day. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked. If you make the Most High your dwelling, even the Lord who is my refuge, then no harm will befall you. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. They will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread upon the lion and cobra. You will trample the great lion and serpent because he loves me, says the Lord. I will rescue him. I will protect him for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him, with long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.

The Lord is our refuge. The Lord is our safe place. The fear of the Lord is our awareness of his awe and his wonder and that none is beside him, that none is like him, that he is all-knowing, that he is all-powerful, that he is the one that we can trust with giving our lives freely.

Submit to the Spirit

As we continue to talk about today of what does it look like to submit to the Spirit and what does it look like to surrender and give what's in our hands, I think that it has to first start with a reverence and an awe and a fear of who God is. Not a fear in the sense that I'm so scared that if I'm not doing what he's asking me to do, I'm going to be punished. But this fear in recognizing that his presence is the greatest gift that we have.

That the salvation that Jesus gave us is the greatest gift that we had to make way for us to be in his presence and with the Father forever. This wasn't just easy for them, I'm sure, to all of a sudden go and say, well, I had these properties. You probably worked hard for those properties. Now I'm going to sell them and I'm going to give to anyone that has a need. I don't think that that just came naturally because that wouldn't come naturally to me.

But I'm blown away today by your generosity. And even as I'm referring to the story that nobody knew of saying God, how are you going to provide if I say yes? How are you going to provide? How are you going to make way? Miracle after miracle, I have seen God's faithfulness. I continue to grow in the awe and wonder of who he is. But the best thing is always his presence, his nearness, that he is with us, that he's beside us, that he's not leaving us, but he's our safe place.

In 2020 when COVID hit, one of the things that we really felt strongly was that we were renting from a community center and a lot of places that were renting at that time were told you don't have to pay your rent because you're not meeting here. But I think we're supposed to sow seeds of generosity like Jesus was generous. Yeah it really doesn't make sense. We don't have a lot of money as a church. But I think we're supposed to keep giving. So we continued to pay rent for months and months when we weren't meeting there.

Then when the doors opened up some things happened and we were kicked out of that space and we couldn't meet there anymore. I remember that so clearly because it was such a reminder to me that we are obedient to the invitation and we sow the seeds and we create the culture of Christ, even if it doesn't lead to the earthly reward that we desire. It didn't lead to them being like, you guys are the best people. Stay here forever. Thank you. Thank you. But I still believe in the power of what we did.

Because as we said we want to sow into these neighborhoods. We want to be generous people. We want this to be a part of the story when people think of our church, not so that it makes our church sound cool, but so it makes Jesus known as someone who loves generously, who gives sacrificially, who loves in ways it doesn't make sense.

The Power of Money

One of the stories that I often tell as we get ready to make our big give in December at the end of the year is about money. Money is always a hard thing to talk about because money is often the thing that controls our lives the most.

A couple years ago I was in New England visiting a friend and we went on mansion tours. I remember going in some of them and they are like beautiful marble everything. You have your little headset and you're walking through. It takes like hours to walk through because in this tiny artifact is worth this billion amount of dollars.

One of the stories in particular was talking about this family fortune and how it was generational wealth that kept going and kept going and kept going. Finally it got to this great great grandson. Every single other heir had invested and taken the wealth that was given to them and they invested it. But there was one guy that decided that he was going to live it up. Rather than continuing to work and continuing to invest he indulged. He bought expensive yachts and all of these things. He didn't take care of the house. This house that years ago was worth millions was sold in the 80s for like four hundred thousand dollars. The family lost almost all of their money.

When we invest, when we continue to work and we continue to be faithful with the inheritance that we are given, we see that things multiply and it continues to go and it continues to grow and it continues to get passed down for generations to come. But there will always be a temptation for us to receive the blessing and rather than submit it to the Spirit, start to submit to our flesh instead and indulge in the luxury and the comfort.

When we talk about this today, it's because one of the things that we see Jesus continue to model in the way that he gave his life was this culture of being above and beyond generous. That's why as a church we choose in December to say we want to be above and beyond generous to the people around us.

In the Old Testament we see for the first time the mention of the tithe with Abraham after he had this great battle. He gave ten percent of what he had as an offering. When we talk about that here as a church, we talk about that we practice the tithe. We practice and believe in the power of us giving our first fruits, the first ten percent of our income to the church and ultimately to the Lord and to the kingdom.

Why do we do that? Is it just so we can have fancy lights and a stage? Well, our lights are pretty cool. I think they were twenty bucks from Target like five years ago. But hey, cool, like sure. Is it just for that? No. Is it just so that we can have money? No.

It's because we want to be a people that our hearts are on the kingdom of heaven. So much of that starts with the way that we give and what we hold on to. In the Old Testament culture that was it. You would go and you'd give your ten percent.

In our current American culture less than three percent of Christians tithe and give now. We're talking about the big give but this big give and this offering we're going to take is going to be above and beyond our tithe. So I'm sharing this today because I think for many of us the invitation is going to start with the practice of the tithe.

When we see it move to the New Testament though, it was so much more than just their ten percent. And so sometimes we look and we're like, only three percent are giving ten percent? Because the New Testament church, when they came into the picture, it was no longer this like cultural obligation of giving ten percent. But rather was give everything you have. It was anytime there was a need, there was an expectation like we're all selling our cars and we're coming in and we're putting the cash down at the altars.

And Jesus is like, hey, I want everything. I want access to use everything. What does that look like for us? Matthew 6:19 through 24 is one of my favorite passages when it comes to thinking about giving and the hold that money can have on our life.

It says, do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Do you want to grow in your heart for God's kingdom? Do you want to grow in your heart for the Lord and that awe and that wonder and that fear of the Lord? It's going to start with our treasure and where we sow that and where we give that, our heart is going to go after.

There's a reason why I'm so excited about those videos. I'm so excited to see those projects. It's because we're a part of it. Now it would be cool if we just showed a random video to you guys and we're like, hey guys, these people in Thailand, they just got some new bathrooms. You'd be like, all right, happy birthday, New Culture.

But why is it so impactful for us? Because we're like, oh my gosh, we were a part of that. People are coming to know Jesus on the other side of the world because we gave a few hundred dollars, a few thousand dollars to these missionaries. Where our treasure is, our heart goes. Now all of a sudden we have this connection there and we want to continue to invest and to give and to see it multiply and go beyond what can happen in this room.

We want greater things for the kingdom. It starts with our heart. So much of that starts with our treasure.

The Faithful Few

To surrender what's in our hands, we first have to submit, and to submit we have to stay in awe and wonder and fear of the Lord. We're here today because a faithful few surrendered what they had. We too now today have the invitation to surrender what's in our hands.

I think of many different people whose names could go on and on. There was a pastor from New Glarus and other pastors who said, whatever you need, we got it. To the point where I didn't know that most churches just for context, they'll raise like two hundred thousand, three hundred thousand, four hundred thousand, five hundred thousand when they start a church. We started with ten thousand.

I don't know how that happened, but that's a miracle right there that we are still standing because most people start with so much money. But ten thousand dollars came from a pastor that said, whatever you need, we want to sow into this church. A few months later when I met with him and I said, I don't know how we're going to pay rent next month, he said, here's the next three months covered.

We have had story after story of people that some have walked in here and seen what God is doing. Others have never physically been here, but they gave financially to what was happening. I think of my aunt who also passed away a year and a half ago. She never even came to New Culture, but from a few hours away she prayed for this church constantly. I got monthly cards in the mail with prayers and monthly checks, praying for all of you. Anytime we had any student trip or anything like that, she was the first to say, does anyone need scholarship money? How can I give? How can I sow into what God is doing there?

I think about a student named Charlie when we met in the nightclub. Part of our agreement was we had to show up at eight a.m. to clean up from the weekend before. So he would come in every single week. We did pay him. So we would pay him to come in and clean the sticky beer floors and the nasty toilets and all the things. And then we would watch every single week that he would give the money right back in the offering for what we were paying him.

We are here because of the faithful few that continue to give in their time, with their tithes. So many people that came and even built different shelves and the sound paneling and all the different things. A couple that only lived here for a year, their closing gift as they say was hey we want to pay for the kids room to also be a prayer room and for us to put things into that. So many people that have continued to invest into what God is doing here.

It's a faithful few. We continue to have that invitation as we grow up to say, who do we want to become? How do we continue to say that at some point for all of us, we're going to be a pin over there? At some point, we're all going to be moving on, whether it's we're dying in this city or we're moving to a new place or another country around the world.

But as we are here we have an invitation to not simply just indulge and receive the gift that has been given to us by the people that have come before but to say how do we now submit to the Spirit, stay in fear of the Lord, and in the kingdom that he's building and surrender what's in our hands?

Our Big Give

We're going to be highlighting our different missions givings over the next few weeks. But I want to kind of give you a little bit of what we're doing and who we're giving to. Our big give is going to support a few different areas here as a church.

It's going to start with the missionaries that you saw that are in Ireland. We have them church planners in Galway, Ireland. Part of our offering will go to continue to help and pay their rent for their space.

The next one is going to be one of our local partners, Neighborhood House. We do a lot with them for the holidays, whether it's stocking stuffers, Thanksgiving baskets, things like that. A part of our offering this year will also be going to Care Portal, which is a new ministry initiative that we have taken on to help support families in our communities. A lot of this is working towards foster care prevention. So we're going to raise funds so that we can have money kind of ready and set aside for when needs come in and family members say, hey, we need a mattress or we need a backpack for our kids or we need this or that, that we're ready to have the funds to say yep we got it we'll take care of that need.

Another one is going to be Tolarian mental health. So there is a new housing building that's coming up and there's a lot of residents that have been experiencing homelessness and different substance abuse disorders that actually Elena who's in our church is going to be overseeing that program. So we want to bless them as they move in as new residents with gift baskets and kind of welcome them.

A big one that is super exciting is every single year we've worked with Project Rescue which is an organization that does anti-trafficking work around the world. In the past couple years we helped build a home in India, we helped build a home in Europe, last year it was in Bangladesh and this year it's going to be in Honduras. Project Rescue had a woman come to them and say, hey, can you please partner with us? They are ready to purchase a home where they will be able to house eighteen women. They have therapists ready to employ. They have mental health counselors and other advocates to work with these women and to do job coaching and all of these things ready to go. So we're going to take an offering to contribute to purchasing that home and giving to the ministry in Honduras.

And then finally, the last one is our very own living room. It has been three years and if you haven't noticed, if you've been down there, some of our couches are no longer standing on solid ground. Some of them are a little rocky, a little shaky. They have seen a lot of love. So our living room is our community space downtown. A part of this is going to be set aside to invest into that space.

Right now we currently have a men recovery group that meets there for men that are transitioning out of the prison system here in Madison. In the spring we're going to start having a young adult group for kids that are now adults aging out of the foster care system that are going to be meeting in the living room. We've been able to use that space not only for our college ministry and for our own things, but also to bless other ministries in the city. So we want to continue to do that well and not have anybody fall if they sit on a couch. Some of that this year is going to go towards those things.

I share all of that because it's going to take all of us coming together to say, how can we give what we have? This is no small thing to say that we want to invest in creating the culture of Christ here in Madison and around the world.

Closing Prayer and Invitation

The church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria enjoyed this time of peace was strengthened, living in fear of the Lord, encouraged by the Holy Spirit, increased in numbers. We were never meant to just stay the way that we are. God always has new things. We are growing. We are becoming and we get to decide who we want to become.

I'm going to invite the worship team to come back up as we get ready to close today. There are a couple more stories that I wanted to tell. As I was praying through, what does it mean for us to now be six? What does it mean for us to grow up in this call to generosity, in this call for us to keep investing into what God is doing, to see our name on the wall, on the chore chart, and say, okay, I got a responsibility.

I think the first invitation for us is to look back and to say, okay, what is it when it comes to me holding on? What am I holding on to and why am I holding on to it? Because when we talk about giving and even tithing to the church, it's so much more than just keeping the lights on. But it's us growing in this practice of saying, God, everything I have is yours. I am simply a steward to let it flow through my hands.

Sometimes we often don't give because we do fear something else more than we fear the Lord, more than we acknowledge the awe and wonder that he's going to provide. Sometimes we don't give because we fear not having enough more than we fear the God of awe and wonder. I wonder sometimes how often are we robbing God of the miracles and the things that he wants to do because we want to hold on and we want to control? Sometimes we submit to our comfort and our idols but our idols of trying to comfort ourselves more than we submit to the Spirit of God because we're so afraid. Well if I can't do these things for myself am I going to be able to make it? Am I going to be able to keep going on?

And so I want to ask you today and I know it might sound strange like why on our birthday we're talking so much about money and surrendering and giving. But I truly believe that as we grow and seek to be formed into the likeness of Jesus, we need to be people that are so free to say, God, we love you. We know your power. And so we too will come to the table and say, here it is. I'm sharing all that I am and all that I have.

In the same way that Jesus taught the disciples to pray and the disciples prayed, our Father who art in heaven, give us this day our daily bread. We're people that we're saying we're looking for our daily bread, not just mine, but we are a community doing it together. And so the question then is, what is stopping you? Even when you think about giving, when you think and hear that, what's stopping you? What comes up? What feelings come to the surface? What are the things right now that you are believing you need more than you need to be obedient to God? What if any are the idols and the things that are taking up space?

They gave up their homes. They gave up their evening plans. I'm going to be honest. I don't want to eat dinner with people every night. They gave up their alone time. They prioritized gathering together. They trusted the Holy Spirit strategy of him saying, hey, as you gather, as you give, I'm going to provide for you. This is my strategy. We are his strategy for seeing his kingdom come in this city and around the world. Do we trust that today?

And finally, we often don't give because we're surrendered so much more to ourselves and submitted to ourselves than we are to the Spirit of God. Rather than building our lives on Christ as the firm foundation, we've built our lives on these half pieces of that. But the church, living in fear of the Lord, encouraged by the Spirit, increased in numbers. That growth started with a faithful few, and we have the invitation to give what is in our hands.

So as we think about this today, there are a couple things that I want to invite us into. You're going to notice on both of the pillars there's kind of some paper there and we have some Sharpies. In just a few moments, we're going to have the worship team pray. I'm going to invite you to stand and we're going to take time to just pray over this next year, to just pray over the next generation of this church and what God is doing in this city.

I want to invite you, even if it's your first time or your hundredth time to join us in this because God has us here right now on this day for a reason. I want us to reflect and to pray and just take a moment to say, God, what am I asking? What am I asking you to do in this next season? What are the things that the Lord's putting on our heart? Is there even a scripture? Is there a prophetic word? Is there something that he's speaking that you want to speak over this city, that you want to speak over this block, over this neighborhood?

Because so much of our church culture has been passed down. It has been a result of people praying, hearing from God, and responding. So we want to pray into this new season. But as we do that, I want us to think of one more significant story of six in Scripture.

We talk often about Joshua overcoming the battle of Jericho. On the seventh day they shouted and the walls came tumbling down. What I love about this story is that before the walls came tumbling down, it was six days of walking. Not six days of running, six days of walking. Six days of taking that next faithful step in the direction that the Lord had given them. As they did that, on the seventh day, the walls came down.

Some of you have been walking for many years with this church. Some of you just a few days. But we all have been on a journey. I truly believe that the Lord is inviting us into a season to say let's see walls come down in this city. Let's see barriers and things that have stood in the way of people knowing Jesus be gone in this city. That it is going to come not from this fast run, not from even this great shout, although the shout is a part of it, but first from the faithful few taking step after step following the invitation of the Holy Spirit.

Just a few weeks ago, I was downstairs in the living room hosting and gathering for local pastors. Completely unprompted, the executive director of the Neighborhood House shared about her experience. She said, to be honest, before New Culture, we hated partnering with churches. But we have seen the faithfulness of their volunteers. In front of all these other people and I'm sitting there trying to hold it together and she said, but after seeing how faithful they've been to continue to show up and to give and invest in our families and our people we're so excited to work with more churches and we would love to partner with anybody else that wants to come be to be a part of what's happening.

Now why is that so exciting? Walls have been broken down and made way for relationship with some of the most vulnerable families in our neighborhoods and in our city through the faithful people continuing to show up. It's not just changing the reputation. Yeah, it's cool that someone's saying, New Culture Church, right here, this group of people. We changed the reputation. That's cool. But what's even greater is that the reputation of the church as the whole and the people of God has shifted and has changed for people in our neighborhood. That is what we are after when we are creating the culture of Christ.

It's all about Jesus. It's all about his kingdom come. We get to take a faithful step. We get to give what's in our hands to continue to see that happen.

So I'd invite you to stand today. I want to invite us into this space to acknowledging in the same way that I've shared some of those stories of knowing like, God, you have been so faithful to us. When I say us, I even mean each and every one of us here today. We are making up a church community, a church gathering.

I want to invite us to take a moment and to build another altar, something to remember where God has taken us and the things that we're asking for him to do now. So we're just going to invite you to take a few minutes and pray. Then go to either one of those pillars and just write down either something that you're thanking God for or a prayer that you have for this city and this community. Believing that as we do that, those are going to be things that we're going to look back for years to come and say, remember when we were asking God for this and he made a way. Remember when we moved to this space and we prayed God opened doors in the neighborhood and now we get to go and serve our neighbors all the time. Remember when we didn't even have a space and we said, God, provide. Provide a place for us to gather. You led us right here to this space.

We want to continue to remember where God has taken us. The faithfulness along the way. And to pray for even greater things to come. So we're just going to open up this space and the team is going to lead us.

God, I thank you today that as we stand here, we are standing on the foundation that has been built by so many faithful people throughout the years. God, when we walk in this room to encounter your presence, this didn't just happen by accident. But with so much intentionality. So many invitations from your Spirit guiding us, leading us to continue to gather and to lift high your name. So many things that we don't even know the significance of and we may never know the significance of.

Lord, I thank you that we are here today in this moment and that you are continuing to pour your love out on this city and in this room. So God, I pray right now, would you continue to just reveal to us where we're storing up treasure? Where we're putting our hope? Where we're putting our trust that is anywhere other than you, Jesus? Would you continue to reveal to us the things we're holding onto and are withholding from you? The ways that we have things standing in the way for making way for you, Jesus.

Would you reveal that to us so that just as the early church gathered with fear and awe, freely surrendering everything that we had, that we can continue to be those people that withhold nothing from you? But we make clear paths for your gospel and your glory to be made known. God, I just ask, would your Holy Spirit fill us again? If we need signs and wonders, would you come and would you pour your Spirit out? Would you remind us of all the ways that you have answered prayers in our lives? Would you help us to be faithful? To remember that you are a God of awe and a God of wonder. You are a God that we can trust.

Lord, I pray that as we continue to find refuge in you, that this too would be a place for people to find refuge. That they would be able to come here and encounter your peace. Encounter your rest. Encounter your safety. Heal. Be redeemed. Be restored and drawn closer to you, Jesus.

So we thank you, Lord. We ask all this in your name. Amen.