The Pearl of Great Price: Vision, Kingdom Value, and the Path Forward

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for me, not worth walking if we don’t know how to enjoy the good things of life. Amen, Amen, Amen. All right, we’re trying to, step into, what we had planned for today, because today has been kind of an important lead up for us.

00:00:19:21 – 00:00:58:26
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And everything that we’ve been witnessing today is, I believe, contributing to the plan of God in our lives as a church and our lives individually, because I see God resurrecting his life, his life and people, his life in the earth. And so everything is testifying to, I think, what God is doing. And so we, we put out, for this day today, this heart that we wanted to share some vision with word of life, fellowship and, and what this is coming from and how this is looking for us.

00:00:58:28 – 00:01:26:13
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And so as we’ve, wrapped up this time of fasting, it truly has been a time of God bringing clarity. And I have never felt so clear in my understanding about what is coming for this house and what he’s asking us. And so it’s been, for me, an important, time the last few years. We’ve we’ve been pastoring here.

00:01:26:16 – 00:02:11:25
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There’s been transition. There’s been this time of, maybe getting our bearings of of establishing trust and, really trying to hear God’s voice for this house. And it’s funny because as you go along, it really it’s always the same. And God’s heart is always the same, and so great, too, because we’ve been in this, the series The Kingdom way and, the, the parable of the stuff we’d been preparing was so actually applicable to what is on the heart, our hearts for vision, for this place and vision for where God is taking us as a as a people, not just locally, but but beyond here.

00:02:11:28 – 00:02:40:07
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So many things that we have already established in other places and the Lord’s bringing us into. We’ve got churches in the Valley and we’ve got Alaska. We’ve got people in Greece and people traveling all over the world. And God is putting this people into such a trajectory for what he’s doing. And we’re so excited about it. And, so we actually landed this parable that we’re going to land on this week is going to lead us right into where we feel that vision is for this house.

00:02:40:10 – 00:03:11:20
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So let’s, let’s check out Matthew 1344. These scriptures are, something you’re all going to recognize, I’m sure. And it’s exciting for me, the simplicity of this is, you know, something that sets me in a in a good frame of mind. All right. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which a man found and hid, and for joy over it.

00:03:11:20 – 00:03:39:04
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He goes and sells all that he has and buys that field again. The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. All right. This is Jesus talking. This is him likening the kingdom of God to two men.

00:03:39:07 – 00:04:11:16
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One man stumbles upon a treasure, discovers it, hides it again, and then goes and sells all he has to obtain the land that that treasure was purchased in. Then we have another man who is a merchant who’s seeking out pearls. He understands what he’s seeking out. He understands this trade and the value of pearls, and yet discovers one that is so unique.

00:04:11:19 – 00:04:39:22
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It’s a pearl of great price and one that he takes for his own by selling all that he had not to resell this pearl, but to possess it for his own. This is a parable helping us understand the kingdom of God and the kingdom of God is something that Jesus is connecting with us about through this idea of possessions.

00:04:39:24 – 00:05:03:23
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Now, possessions make a lot of sense to us because we live just about every day of our life in order to gain possession, in order to grow our bank account, in order to acquire things that we are going to find valuable and helpful in our lives. Right. So all of us understand this idea of possessions. So God’s connecting with us here.

00:05:03:23 – 00:05:48:21
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And he’s saying, hey, the kingdom of God is like a possession that you want so bad that you’re literally willing to sell all you have for that possession. So how the heck do you decide whether something is so valuable that you’re willing to make that kind of a decision? What propels us to immediately step into a totally different frame of mind and surrender everything we had acquired to have this, that’s that’s a discovery that you have to be able to recognize.

00:05:48:24 – 00:06:20:02
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So many of us are living our lives out in discovery mode, right? There’s some of us that, you know, have tried this, have tried that, have pursued this, have pursued that. And I think many of us have a story that’s going to say we’ve tried a lot of things. We’ve done a lot of things. There’s been a an attempt in our lives to maximize, you know, our worth and to maximize our joy.

00:06:20:04 – 00:06:54:15
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Here’s Jesus saying, hey, there’s something that’s worth selling. All that you’ve discovered, all that you’ve already attained. I got something better, you know, in the in the professional sports world, there’s something called a scout. And these scouts have to, go kind of investigate and and find talent. Right. And they, they have to give, an analysis of the talent they find.

00:06:54:17 – 00:07:27:28
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And when they when they do. Right, what they, what they share with a team that wants to buy talent, right, that becomes really important information. Right. And so these scouts are helping determine value. Jesus has kind of showed up on the scene here as a scout. He’s he showed up on the scene to help us gain clarity of value.

00:07:28:01 – 00:07:46:04
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Right. And that understanding of value is, we got to make a decision about just like a sport team has to decide, well, I’m willing to pay this much for that individual’s talent. Right. There’s there’s an assessment going on.

00:07:46:06 – 00:08:20:05
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That’s your decision. It’s your call. What’s what this value of God’s kingdom is to you. I think it’s interesting for young people that grow up in church because I was my story growing up in a church, you’re taught all this stuff about God and you’re taught about the righteousness of God. You’re taught about the goodness of God. All of those things are just words.

00:08:20:08 – 00:08:55:11
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And when you grow up in church, you get comfortable with the relationships, right? That just becomes normal. You get you get comfortable with, doing life this way, but you’re always looking at other things and you’re trying to assess value. You know, for a young person coming from the church, you don’t necessarily have the comparison. You don’t have this ability to really determine the value.

00:08:55:13 – 00:09:25:08
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You just have to trust somebody. You know, that show? I think it’s like the Antique Roadshow where people bring stuff in to, to sell it. They possess this stuff. It’s been sitting around, you know, their house, it was passed down from maybe their their parents or grandparents and, you know, it just doesn’t look valuable right now. It’s just maybe a piece of wood, you know, got some halfway functioning drawers or something like that.

00:09:25:08 – 00:09:55:23
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You know, but you bring it to somebody like, you know, an antique specialist and they may see it and instantly go, where did you get this? Know? What is this? I mean, where did you find this? Right. And they can start telling you what you possess. They can start helping you understand. Wow, this is very special. Do not put this on the dump trailer.

00:09:55:25 – 00:10:37:01
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You’ve got something here, right? And that that becomes a way for us to identify value. Cheryl. Bob, when I received the word today and it was a prophetic act sort of thing, we want to have her come up to you later. Maybe later. All right. But it was it later. It was recognizing those who run with recognizing their value, recognizing what they have and the wisdom they possess.

00:10:37:03 – 00:10:50:22
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Because from that place of wisdom, we can make much better decisions, like not throwing away something that’s really got a lot of value.

00:10:50:24 – 00:11:24:15
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So this this parable has given us a picture, these two parables of of people who have had to recognize and exchange. And this exchange is for us the most important thing that we could ever accomplish. As individuals and as a church, to recognize what the great exchange that Jesus is talking about here, what it looks like, what is this?

00:11:24:17 – 00:11:48:05
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What is the challenge set before us? What are those markers that help us see? Wow, the Kingdom of God is real. The Kingdom of God is worth more than I could have ever arrived at in anything I did in my life. This is where we’re at.

00:11:48:08 – 00:12:24:20
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It’s also interesting that Jesus uses this picture of a pearl, because a pearl was a sign of opulence, right? It was a sign of, abundance. And Christians wouldn’t wear pearls, right? They wouldn’t they wouldn’t, take that persona on. But here’s God making a comparison that the kingdom is like this pearl of great price. He wants you to shine.

00:12:24:23 – 00:12:43:18
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He wants you to to have this life in you that is declaring something special. Your life can be like this pearl of great price.

00:12:43:21 – 00:13:02:19
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Craig Keener says Jesus is not comparing the kingdom to something useful or helpful, but to something that redefines what wealth is. Our lives are in this constant pursuit of making the most of every moment.

00:13:02:21 – 00:13:43:21
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A discovery like this becomes something we all need to be willing to make an exchange for. So Jesus gives us a parable of the kingdom as the greatest find a man will make, and he puts it into this transactional scenario for us so that we can possess the greatest wealth, the greatest gift, the greatest way. It is Jesus’s kingdom that we’re looking at for our future.

00:13:43:24 – 00:14:08:22
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So today we we want to be able to speak to vision for this church, for this house. And everything about our future is connected with the deep truths of this parable. Because vision, our vision is nothing original. It’s not manmade. It’s entirely the embrace of the heart of the father. It’s the embrace of what God has established this place for.

00:14:08:24 – 00:14:46:01
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And one of the things I loved when Charles shared that that word with me today and she said she saw like the people up here that have been here for 40 and 50 years, and they are the ones that saw the pearl of great price and were willing to sell all to buy it, literally sell their homes in the Bay area, sell, quit their jobs, sell everything they had to move here to establish the work of God.

00:14:46:04 – 00:15:15:02
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And this is what this church was founded on. When we understand the message of life and what God has for us, and what the kingdom of God is, nothing else matters. And it is such a picture to like in this room. Who actually in this room can you stand? If you’ve been here over 40 years, you moved or who moved to be here over 40 years?

00:15:15:07 – 00:15:27:10
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I’ve been here over 40 years.

00:15:27:13 – 00:15:55:15
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This is something that we need to hold on to. Our purpose must come from the discovery of the kingdom of God, the discovery of the value in the Kingdom of God, because nothing else will have value that really matters. Beside it, everything else is going to fade. It’s going to crumble. Everything else is going to bring disappointment. But the kingdom of God is glorious.

00:15:55:17 – 00:16:34:11
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It is something that is put on display, and we must recognize the value. Like Jonathan said, Christians back then didn’t wear pearls, so they didn’t draw attention to themselves. But Jesus is telling us to draw attention to him, to display the kingdom of God, to display the abundance of him. You know, we live in a world. We’ve been talking about it since the beginning of this message of the Kingdom way that our world system is based on economy of lack, right?

00:16:34:13 – 00:16:58:06
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How to get resources scarcity into places that need it. But the Kingdom of God is a kingdom of abundance. It’s not a kingdom of scarcity. It’s not a do this to change and move over here and move over there and rob Peter to pay Paul. Right. It’s a kingdom of abundance. It is his righteousness. It’s his peace. It’s his joy.

00:16:58:09 – 00:17:14:25
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This is crazy stuff, you guys. People that move their houses and move four hours away, it’s crazy, right? But that’s what Jesus is saying in this parable. When you find something.

00:17:14:28 – 00:17:44:19
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When you find something that compares to nothing else, it doesn’t matter what it costs you. You’re willing to give anything and everything to got to get it, to find it, to possess it, to run with it. This is the vision of this house. It has been from the beginning. It has been for the last 20 years. And it’s going to continue to be because it is the message of life.

00:17:44:21 – 00:18:09:11
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Understanding the value of the kingdom. The kingdom is the best way. Embracing the kingdom is nothing new. God is putting all things that he has already established into a pathway into this next season. And that’s why we are so excited about God’s beginning to unfold vision in our hearts, and that our core team’s heart about what is to come.

00:18:09:11 – 00:18:31:13
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And the coolest part? It is not new. It’s just putting the pieces together. You know, I think of when you build a house, you have to put all the infrastructure together. You put the pipes in the ground. I don’t know how to build houses, but so I’m just kind of making some assumptions here. Right. There’s pipes on the ground okay I do how deep do you want to go?

00:18:31:14 – 00:19:06:06
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Maybe I can I can help if you need. So infrastructure is laid right. But infrastructure by itself is just pipes with water in it until it gets connected to the house. And I believe that there are things that God has been establishing for decades, and even in these recent years that he’s been laying foundation after foundation and establishing our doctrines, establishing the people, establishing the mechanisms in which we’re going to bring the word of the Lord forth.

00:19:06:09 – 00:19:29:05
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And he’s beginning to put it all together and create pathways and recreate vision for how this thing is supposed to move forward. And we are so excited. Are did you want to say something there about the. I feel like I just jumped in and interrupted you, you know, as as church we are to form kingdom people. Yes. Who live Kingdom way.

00:19:29:08 – 00:19:57:26
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It’s the ultimate path forward. It’s the ultimate path towards success. This is what the message of being like Jesus is all about. It is why we do life together. Because this message of kingdom is where the true joy comes from. This church was named Word of Life based on a scripture. First John one one through four.

00:19:57:26 – 00:20:27:26
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I want to read that to you. It says we proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the word of life. This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him and now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life.

00:20:27:29 – 00:20:55:26
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He was with the father, and then he was revealed to us. We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard, so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the father and with the son, Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy. This is an apostle.

00:20:55:27 – 00:21:25:18
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This is John speaking from a place of experience, and he repeats himself three times here, look, we are proclaiming something to you that we have seen and heard, that we have handled with our hands that which we have known to be true, and we are declaring it to you so that you can have fellowship with this same man that we’re having fellowship with, and that we can be in fellowship with one another in the same way that he is in fellowship with us.

00:21:25:21 – 00:21:49:28
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It is this display of perfect love. It is this display of perfect relationship, and it is this display that brings a fullness of joy. This is the word of life. Jesus, who is being put in front of us as not only a great guy to know, but the way to live life. Yes, he is revealing the kingdom way.

00:21:50:02 – 00:22:19:17
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He is revealing the truth about the lives we get to walk out. Yeah, and if we believe that, we might recognize, I just found a treasure. Yeah, I got I got an opportunity here to reorganize my life. I’m going to start figuring that out. What does that mean?

00:22:19:20 – 00:22:41:11
Unknown
Yeah. You see, when when we talked about the kingdom of God is like this pearl of great price and this treasure in the field. One of the things that I loved about this is that, in both story, Jesus leaves out the details. I’m kind of a detail person. So it was a little like, well, how how is this supposed to work?

00:22:41:11 – 00:22:54:20
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How did they. He didn’t tell them how they sold everything. He didn’t tell them the process or the strategy of getting rid of their possessions in order to, to buy something. He doesn’t explain any methods.

00:22:54:23 – 00:23:04:02
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But he tells us why. Because for each and every one of us, this looks different.

00:23:04:04 – 00:23:36:07
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Because what God deals with is the affections of our heart. Because what? Giving all up for him looks different than giving all up for me. That looks different for giving all up. Right? Because he’s dealing in a personal space and a personal way. But the why is the same? Because the kingdom of God is worth everything.

00:23:36:10 – 00:24:08:25
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The why is the same. The Kingdom of God is worth everything. The Kingdom of God is fullness. The kingdom of God is fullness of life. It’s fullness of joy, it’s fullness of love, it’s fullness of peace. It is worth everything. Living a life of joy and peace and love and fullness and fulfillment is worth anything. It’s worth everything else.

00:24:08:27 – 00:24:27:15
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He is worth it all. You see, when we understand this, when we understand this as a vision, when we understand the value of the kingdom of God, that it’s not a set of rules, it’s a life that he wants to give us abundance in.

00:24:27:17 – 00:24:34:28
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When we understand that, it keeps us from drifting back to lesser treasures.

00:24:35:00 – 00:24:47:10
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You know, the the Pearl merchant had a lot of treasure. He had other pearls. He had other gems. This person no knew their stuff.

00:24:47:12 – 00:25:13:12
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But when we find something that is more valuable, nothing else compares. Nothing else compares. When I was growing up, one of the analogies my dad used to give us at Holy Ghost Workshop, you know, once, man, Saturday night, Holy Ghost workshop, one of the things he’s like the Great Exchange. It’s like me giving up a bicycle for a Porsche.

00:25:13:15 – 00:25:36:08
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No, don’t take my bike. God, I really love my bike. It’s this beautiful $3,000, $5,000 electric mountain bike. It’s beautiful. She’s talking about Brian’s. Brian’s bike that Jonathan wants. And I told him now.

00:25:36:11 – 00:26:13:21
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But what are we really giving up on? He’s offering up a portion for our bike. Right. The value we must understand because we see value. When we see value. Hear me? When we see value, our future reorganizes. Yeah, that is vision. That is a statement that the kingdom of God is not one good option among many. It is the one thing that makes everything else negotiable.

00:26:13:24 – 00:26:48:17
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This is what the kingdom of God is. This is what we give off for the why never changes. It’s a principle. The scripture in Proverbs 29 says it this way where there is no vision, people cast off restraint, you know, and it’s not because of lack of activity, but because they no longer knew or they no longer know what is worth ordering their lives around.

00:26:48:19 – 00:27:21:10
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Because vision gives us order to order our lives around and without the vision, we have nothing to base it on to base our lives around. You see, vision is the engine that carries us through changing seasons, shifting methods, and unforeseen circumstances. When we have vision, unforeseen things don’t faze us.

00:27:21:13 – 00:27:29:29
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When we have vision changing seasons and ways we do things doesn’t bother us.

00:27:30:02 – 00:27:41:07
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Because the how is going to adapt the what will evolve, but the why remains the same. The kingdom remains the same.

00:27:41:10 – 00:28:13:17
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All right. So we’ve been establishing this kingdom way for, for for months. You know, we’ve been in this series. It’s also been a part of our world for all our lives. You know, it’s the message of Jesus. But what we’ve been really zeroing in on is the kingdom has a different value system. You know, when we read scriptures like Matthew five one through 11, there you read in the Beatitudes, we’re seeing this idea of, of sacrifice, you know, allowing yourself to be persecuted for righteousness sake.

00:28:13:21 – 00:28:39:02
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We’re seeing this this, embrace of purity. We’re seeing this embrace of meekness, of humility. Right. These are kingdom principles. We see a different, definition to what it means to be great. Right? In Matthew 20, verse 16, he talks about the first being last and the last being first. Right. There’s this idea that greatness is not about your status.

00:28:39:08 – 00:29:06:23
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Greatness is about your ability to step into this trust that God is bringing us all together. Right. This message of the Kingdom parable. It wasn’t just to some people, this message was for all people. All people get this opportunity last week, the banqueting table, right, the invite to sit at the table with Jesus is not an invite to select people.

00:29:06:25 – 00:29:14:25
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It’s not even an invite to the most righteous people. It’s an invite to whoever will say yes.

00:29:14:28 – 00:29:47:03
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That’s the audience that Jesus is talking to, which means we all got a good chance of being involved in this. You got you got a good chance of sitting at this table, this banqueting table with him. It’s a different understanding of what kind of results we want in life. What is the fruit of a kingdom way? Right. What is what is real success in this path that God has setting before us?

00:29:47:05 – 00:30:03:22
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Right. It it is going to include wealth. It is going to include and include having a great reputation. It is going to include you being known.

00:30:03:24 – 00:30:30:16
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How are we known is the question, how are we present in the world we’re living? So the kingdom is not just this way of shaping, lives. It is. Or beliefs. It is this way of forming lives that in turn shape others.

00:30:30:18 – 00:31:00:09
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What does a kingdom shaped life actually do? Our answer is it creates a leader with purpose, character and power. So some of the pathways that I began to allude to here, that the Lord’s been putting on our hearts, and we’re going to expand this in the coming months. And, and roll this out into all the areas of, of this church.

00:31:00:09 – 00:31:25:17
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But we believe that the kingdom pathways are so important and that he is leading us into a place where we understand pathways. Amen. And so for us, the Lord’s leading us, into leader development, to leading yourself first, to leading others and to leading our community. And some of you are going to be like, oh, we totally do this already.

00:31:25:17 – 00:31:53:21
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And we kind of do in a lot of ways. We have incredible teachers, we’ve established incredible things. But once again, God is beginning to put the pieces together. He’s beginning to make it all make sense in one vision. Not this and this and this and this, but in one place that we are first to lead ourselves. This is leadership and our own lives under God’s rule.

00:31:53:23 – 00:32:17:18
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In second Peter one it says, therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call an election. Sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior. The first place leadership shows up is how we lead our own lives.

00:32:17:21 – 00:32:53:07
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This is discipleship. This looks like deepening discipleship pathways here in this church, so that every person has a clear way to grow spiritually. This looks like expanding our spirit school of ministry as a primary environment for God’s formation. This looks like raising a people who are grounded in Scripture and shaped by the spirit, and formed in character. Leader development is character being shaped, habits being reordered, and faith becoming embodied.

00:32:53:10 – 00:33:03:04
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If you are learning to live under God’s rule, then you are already being formed as a leader.

00:33:03:06 – 00:33:32:06
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Which means that your life is going to arrive with a greater purpose. As you embrace the fullness of what Jesus is calling you into. As you embrace this path of kingdom, as you really take hold of this pearl of great price, what comes out of you is a is a message that God wants you to pour into others, right?

00:33:32:09 – 00:33:50:20
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So there is a an automatic plan that God has for you that requires you to be pouring into others. This this place of us seeing ourselves differently as leaders who will lead.

00:33:50:22 – 00:34:20:12
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We’ve learned how to lead our lives, but then we learn how to help others, and we become an example to others. Not in a superior way, but in a humble way. In John 1315, Jesus says, for I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you. He’s saying this as he’s washing their feet.

00:34:20:14 – 00:34:54:02
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He’s saying this at a time of sitting at the table with them. The kind of leader that Jesus is, is raising up in this kingdom way is one who’s eye to eye with you, one who sees you and is considered greater than them. Right? That that way of the kingdom comes from an understanding of the way Jesus is.

00:34:54:05 – 00:35:21:15
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So as we are stepping into this time this season in front of us, there is going to be a new expression of expectation that you have purpose. And that purpose is needed in order for the kingdom of God to bring transformation to a church, to a family, to a community.

00:35:21:17 – 00:35:54:06
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Leadership here and leading others because kingdom for formation never stays private. Understand that Kingdom formation never stays private. Some of us will disqualify ourselves. When I say, you know, first of all, we’re leading ourselves and leading others. Oh, I can’t, I can’t do that. I’m not qualified to do that. Yes you are. Yes you are. Because as people learn to lead themselves well, God begins to entrust them with responsibility for others.

00:35:54:08 – 00:36:23:12
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Leadership here isn’t about position. It’s about trust. And it looks like leader development that is integrated into discipleship, not separate from it. It’s equipping people to take responsibility for others in ministries and teams in relationship. It looks like building partnerships with other churches to strengthen discipleship and leadership beyond our walls. We’re not trying to grow a crowd.

00:36:23:14 – 00:36:54:07
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We’re growing people who can carry responsibility. And then our community. So in this, we see our church stepping into a greater season of leading and community. We see greater, emphasis, come in to those opportunities where not only are we going to thrive in these business arenas that we exist, we’re going to see, kingdom leaders emerge.

00:36:54:07 – 00:37:25:25
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We’re going or government leaders emerge. We’re going to continue to see a, an awakening of, understanding for the the way of God’s kingdom in the earth that way that brings righteousness and blessing. And these are opportunities that will continue to unfold from a place of preparation, from a place of, qualification that people have allowed God to accomplish in their lives.

00:37:25:28 – 00:37:52:15
Unknown
Right. This is the the purpose of God’s thought process for us embracing the Kingdom, that it would prevail. Right? And that kingdom is righteousness. That kingdom is peace and joy. And maybe we’ve not seen a lot of it in previous days, but we’re going to see more of it from our lives, because it’s not just something we’re talking about.

00:37:52:17 – 00:38:29:03
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It must be our focus. It has to be our focus, and it has been our focus. In 2025, we got to celebrate hundreds of baptisms, not only in this church but in other churches. There’s been an amazing draw occurring in our community. We have been watching, partnerships form with other churches. That is remarkable. It is. It is testifying of this way, of this unity of the faith, of the oneness of this message.

00:38:29:06 – 00:38:59:11
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Jesus has invited us to be in fellowship with one another and in fellowship with him. That is not exclusivity. That is that is what we should see as part of the fruit. We’ve been celebrating that in 2025. We’re having a gratitude, luncheon today because this church has had so many people embracing the opportunity to walk a different way.

00:38:59:13 – 00:39:31:11
Unknown
And the result of that has been blessing. It has been support to people. It has been support to the community. We’ve we’ve seen our church, be, added to with people desiring what the they find here. We have, watched our, our discipleship ministry, the school of ministry, take voice of God not only, to other places in the States, but to places like Greece and to Africa.

00:39:31:11 – 00:40:09:10
Unknown
This last year, there have been, a an expression of life coming out of young people. All right. One of one of our, partner churches, you know, Sierra Bible, they have seen incredible fruit in their young people. And these young people are exist in this room today, but they are showing up on campuses with faith. They’re showing up, holding their head a bit higher with a message of life and living in line with that.

00:40:09:17 – 00:40:28:22
Unknown
We have incredible student leaders in this place that I’m so proud of. They are holding on to this kind of faith. This is what God’s been doing. 2025 has been an incredible year. So our 2026 focus.

00:40:28:24 – 00:41:09:27
Unknown
Is carrying the same kind of, sense and attention. But we are preparing for more which which means that people have to recognize not only the opportunity, but the need for them to see themselves differently, that God needs to use them to bring voice into their circles and that they can, feed situations with life and goodness. They can contribute to whatever arena they’re in.

00:41:09:29 – 00:41:39:10
Unknown
But for them to have confidence to do that for, for us to really step forward with that boldness and courage, we got to know the value of what we possess and we got to understand it right. We we got to start that process of, okay, I found something really valuable. What does it mean for me to embrace this with all my life?

00:41:39:12 – 00:41:53:07
Unknown
Not just something I know about, not just something I know they they talk about, but how do I how do I make this message? My life?

00:41:53:10 – 00:42:30:01
Unknown
Those questions are what we want to prod today. Because what we see happening for 2026 and beyond is God increasing discipleship. We see God increasing, church planting. We see God increasing our leaders. She wants me to follow my notes on this part I do. Can you put the 2026 focus slide up? I’m going to have her read it because, you know, if you saw this page and how it printed, it was good.

00:42:30:03 – 00:42:39:20
Unknown
You would laugh. 2026 focus. We’re skipping a few slides for time’s sake.

00:42:39:22 – 00:43:09:02
Unknown
So we believe that we need to be intentional. And this season and in 2026, we see that we are increasing evangelism and baptisms. We see the strengthening of discipleship and clarity across the church. Does it not come through? Oh, there it is. Okay, good. We see raising up and equipping new leaders in our community. We see growing spirit.

00:43:09:02 – 00:43:38:06
Unknown
School of Ministry, enrollment and impact and expanding relational and ministry partnerships. These are our specific targets that we see based on this vision of selling oh for the Kingdom, because it’s worth it and God is doing such great things. Jonathan said it 2025 was fantastic, and we see that God is going to do even more in 2026. Beyond 2026.

00:43:38:11 – 00:43:44:24
Unknown
Longer term directions are we believe that we’re supposed to plant churches.

00:43:44:26 – 00:44:08:15
Unknown
We believe that we have regional and global leadership development to expand and release, and we are going to continue to send people, not just gather people. These are just some of the things that we see. Some of it’s going to happen in 2026, some of it’s going to pour over into future years. And beyond, and God’s going to continue.

00:44:08:15 – 00:44:30:10
Unknown
Like we said, the House are going to shift a little bit how we do things. What we do is kind of shift a little bit, but our vision remains the same. The kingdom of God is worth everything. It is the message of life, you guys. It is the message of being like Jesus. It is the message of doing life together.

00:44:30:16 – 00:44:51:07
Unknown
This is what it looks like understanding the value of the kingdom and walking in it today, in this season, in this season of this vision, we believe that faithfulness includes deepening discipleship, developing leaders who will equip leaders.

00:44:51:09 – 00:45:33:08
Unknown
Everybody strengthening relationships. That doing life together, preparing for multiplication. I believe that’s a word for this house for this year. Preparing for multiplication and future church plans, increasing the visible kingdom impact in our community. That is not just word of life. That is, the church is working together to bring impact into our community, to celebrate what God has called each one of us to do, and to partner together to accomplish the work for this place.

00:45:33:11 – 00:46:03:16
Unknown
God called us all to this region for purpose, and he’s given each of us a piece, and we must come together to deliver the Kingdom message to this community, because it is full of brokenness. It is full of hopelessness. But we have hope and we have wholeness, and we have love and we have fullness. And this is the message that we have to deliver to everyone who will hear us.

00:46:03:19 – 00:46:26:09
Unknown
And you know what the Bible said? That they will know you. You are God’s Jesus, his disciples by the way you love one another, not by the way we love each other in this room, but by the way we love each other, the body of Christ, the unity of the church. And I believe our community is supposed to model that.

00:46:26:11 – 00:46:57:10
Unknown
And I believe that God’s put it in our hearts. Jonathan, my my dad have developed such great relationships and God is continuing to develop unity into this community like we’ve never seen. This is a community that hasn’t known unity in a lot of ways, but I believe that we are breaking through the barriers that the enemy has tried to separate and to bring division, and he is bringing oneness and wholeness to our community so we can release the Kingdom of God into all.

00:46:57:10 – 00:47:04:10
Unknown
Let me county and in California.

00:47:04:12 – 00:47:09:18
Unknown
I have we want to close.

00:47:09:21 – 00:47:59:26
Unknown
Simply put, you guys, this is our vision. Our vision is that all? All of us would see ourselves as those who are exchanging our lives for this treasure, for this hidden treasure that all of us would see ourselves from this position that we get to take hold of the fullness of God’s kingdom, and that it is ours. It is for us and by it we will get to release not only the blessings of God, but we get to enjoy walking in the fullness of relationship with him.

00:47:59:28 – 00:48:09:18
Unknown
And so as we close this time. It’s going to it’s going to feel a bit different.

00:48:09:21 – 00:48:17:01
Unknown
Because there’s an expectation on each of us to know this exchange.

00:48:17:03 – 00:48:30:00
Unknown
To value that exchange and to make the decisions that match up with your faith. Your faith. And it’s worth.

00:48:30:03 – 00:49:04:04
Unknown
Thank you everybody who have been walking this out. Thank you to everyone who have poured out in this previous year. It has been an amazing year. So many stories of God’s intervention and help and love, people being, rescued, people being strengthened, our community growing stronger. There has been such a testimony of, just blessing in every arena that we’ve gotten to be a part of In touch.

00:49:04:07 – 00:49:29:05
Unknown
That’s because you guys have said yes to this parable that Jesus has laid out before us. And so today we’re saying thank you. And as we go across the way, we’re going to pray for the food. And you know, hope that it blesses you and nourishes your body and gives you great joy for the road ahead. And so, father, I thank you.

00:49:29:05 – 00:50:01:05
Unknown
I thank you for this day. I thank you for this, family, God and doing life with fellow believers. Lord, embracing you in the fullness of your love. God. We just pray that this season in front of us, Lord, would be full of your power, your truth, and your grace. God, as we say yes to you and as we, go across the way, Lord, we just pray for an increase of unity in our church that we might, testify of your goodness.

00:50:01:08 – 00:50:30:04
Unknown
Bless the food that we’re about to eat. Lord, may our bodies be strengthened and nourished by it. God and bless everyone who has helped serve the cause. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. For those who are new and you don’t think there’s food for you, there’s plenty. So come on over and join us. Meet somebody new. We’re so grateful that you are here.