Casting the Vision

Casting the Vision

For a New Church Facility

May 6, 2001

Pastor James Freund, Senior Pastor

Genoa, IL Foursquare Gospel Church

This might be a chapter in a book someday!

I need the Lord to go before what we are going to be doing and what we are going to be saying. That I do not want to come across in any level of boasting or arrogance or anything other than the absolute humility and honor that God would entrust us with the small part of His great work. And how it could be that He would bless us.

In a few moments we are going to be voting on whether or not to purchase 14.6 acres of land for $150,000. Have you ever known something and you could hardly wait to tell it to somebody? I want to tell you that you bust a gut over it! Because there are moments, and there are moments that I almost started to tell - but I had people around me that said "no Pastor, it’s not time." And you told a few, the people closest to you, you kind of share little tidbits, because you gotta tell somebody. But then here is what you do, you say "now don’t tell anybody!" I got to thinking, that that is not fair. When you hear such good news, you are just bursting to tell it, aren’t you? You know even Jesus did that, He would come up and heal somebody and then He would say, "now don’t tell anybody." And I mean they are walking for the first time and they probably thought that people are going to see it anyhow and they are going to ask, so maybe you can share a little bit about it.

Well, I don’t know if you got one or not, but I actually put together an outline for this simply because there are some things you are going to need to write down. Maybe all of you did not get an outline and I apologize that my faith was a little less than the turnout this morning, but hopefully maybe every couple at least got one.

But anyhow, I want to talk about casting vision for a new church facility today. We are going to cast some vision before you. But it is not going to be vision just in regards to a new church facility, because I believe that the message you are going to hear today has everything to do with YOU, as much as it is for us as a congregation. And I want you to hear the voice of God coming through in this message today.

For some time now, we have been thinking and talking about needing to relocate and build a new church sanctuary, a church facility. Because there are a lot of things that perhaps we want to do, and can’t do, and we are reaching a point of maxing out, and they say that once your congregation reaches 80% of its seating capacity, people will stop coming. And we have been there for a while now.

I want to stay on my notes, because if I don’t we will be here until 3:00 this afternoon. So, permit me to just walk through this thing with you. I believe that God has given us a vision, first of all. But, I believe that vision is birthed out of need –

a lot of times, it is birthed out of need. And so I jotted down a few things for you for us to think about of why it is we even think we need to get out of this place:

One of them is parking. Now, I don’t have the blessing of coming into this place at five minutes to ten or two minutes to ten, or two minutes after ten, or ten minutes after ten as the case of some might be (nobody in particular in mind, of course ~ ~ mainly family members!). So I don’t have the luxury of being outside and seeing where all you people park. Some of you live close enough that you parked in your garage and walked over – that’s wonderful! But, I can’t imagine how far some of you have to park away from this place. And so parking. You know that the statisticians say that if you don’t have enough parking that people won’t come to your church. We have been living with this for years and we were wondering why people weren’t coming.

The facility. Basically, I mentioned about the seating capacity. We would like to have more rooms that we can do things in, and split our groups up smaller. Especially like our Bears on Wednesday night. We are putting them into three different locations simply because of the logistics of our room and there are 25 to 30 kids in a group on Wednesday nights. We have been running about 50 to 60 kids and people on Wednesday nights. We want a place that we can put them and also maybe have a Bible study going on at the same time, so the Bible study doesn’t need to be in conjunction with the Bears because I know that sometimes cuts down on the people coming to the Bible study – perhaps (it might be the teacher too, but…).

So, just the rooms and logistics of our place.

We would like – how about this one – have air conditioning (ahhhhh!) Let’s vote right now!

A larger platform. We enjoy doing plays and putting on things. I think we need to give that availability, but let’s face it, this platform is not conducive to do that. This is maybe what is going to prolong this thing, and I hope it isn’t, but I think they are necessary. But, I had a fella come to me the other day, we were standing in the back and we were looking up here at the front and he says to me: "I think I can get you 40 or 50 more seats in here." And I said, ya – how? He says, "well, we’ll strip off this part of the platform all the way back to the wall." And then bring the platform back to this level and we can fit in 50 more chairs. Now that is well and good, but where do they park? See, 50 more people, but where do they park? Our worship group is expanding and I’m hoping that it expands more. And we’ve got them crowded in there now. Bonnie can’t get back to the organ, Tim can’t get back to the table and so on. And so a larger platform in places.

We would like to have the convenience of doing church fellowship dinners where everybody can come at once. Wouldn’t that be nice, instead of having to split up the Thanksgiving dinner? And I actually heard of a couple that drove here to come to church, saw how many cars were out front and assumed that there would not be enough room to find a seat and so they drove back home. I actually talked to a man several years ago that came and visited our church once and it happened to be a hot summer day and vowed he would not come back until we got air conditioning. I am anxious to go back to that man after we get the air conditioning in the new building. And say "Hey, we’ve got air conditioning, now you can commit to the Lord!"

Some have suggested that we perhaps go to two services. I will be honest with you, I struggle with two services. It is not in my philosophy. Some of you remember when we didn’t have these rows of chairs and we were sitting people out there (in the fellowship hall). I struggled with that. And that is what made us bring these chairs in here, because I didn’t want those people out there feeling they weren’t a part of this. I want us to feel like we are a "part." When you go to two services, and everybody I talk to, they say that there becomes a division in your church. That you have the people that go to this service, and you have the people that go to that service. I don’t want that. I think we can accommodate everybody that wants to come.

Ministry capabilities. Let me just mention one. The things that we need and want to do cannot be done here in this place. One of the main things is that we want to do some audio-visual stuff. And we can’t do it here. The main reason is because of those huge stained glass windows. Now, everybody looks at them as a blessing, aren’t those wonderful. No, they’re a curse! Too much light comes through them (laughing!). It would take thousands of dollars to put coverings over them that we can raise and lower. We would like to be able to do videos on big screen and to do power point with our choruses and songs. And I am going to tell you why. Because you remember more what you see that what you hear. And the church of the day needs to move into the use of media ministry. It is something that we really can’t do here in a way that we would like to do it.

Another one is just the attendance. We’ve kind of talked about that, that if all the people showed up that should be here on any given Sunday, they wouldn’t have a seat. I estimate that on any given Sunday, we probably don’t have 30 to 40 people here that normally come. Isn’t that interesting? And there’s probably another 20 or 30. What would we do if God sent 50 more people to us? I don’t know, I don’t know if He is going to do it. I would like to think that in the meantime, before we get a new sanctuary built, that He is going to keep sending us people. And mainly, because of the end result of what we are going to talk about here today.

And the last thing is the age of the building. People always ask us, how old is that building? You know you are in an old building when they ask ya – don’t ya? And I tell them, well, back in ’52, they celebrated 100 years. So that makes it about 149 years old.

So, well… We believe that God has given us a vision. And I believe that vision must be God-given. And so, I want to share with you what has happened lately. And it needs to start with something that isn’t even on your notes there. This is just – well, we are adding to it.

I need to tell you what happened. On the way to the convention that we just attended, Dave asked me (at the end of the convention), "well, what did the Lord speak to me?" I gotta confess to you that everything that I received from convention was filtered through what the Lord has already stirred my heart with, and the direction that I feel that we should be going. And so on the way to convention, we are walking through the airport and we are talking about the little book, The Prayer of Jabez, written by Bruce Wilkinson. It is the number one best seller in all the nation. Not just of religious books, but of any book. In fact, for every ten of The Prayer of Jabez that are sold, eight is the next best seller. So it is selling two more in that level than anything else. And so, we are walking through the airport and we are talking about the book, and Ruth goes by a bookstore there in the airport and she sees the book, The Prayer of Jabez, sitting out front of the bookstore, and walks in a buys it. Well, I bawled her out. I said you realized that we could probably have gotten that on discount, at Sam’s Club we probably could have gotten that for $2.95 or something. Or we could have gotten it on discount up at Lemstone, or we could have gone to Wal-Mart and bought it for less than – well, that was the joke where I told people to go to Lemstone and buy the book and here’s Alberta sitting there from Wal-Mart and she says "well, we have it on sale too," and probably three other there – they are probably all over the place – go and buy it wherever you want (laughter). And so she bought it.

Well, I heard so much about it, and some of you had told me about it. So, on the plane to convention, I read The Prayer of Jabez. You want to hear what the Prayer of Jabez is? Take your Bibles, open them. By the way this is going to be Bible stuff, too. So, 1st Chronicles, Chapter 4, if you don’t have it underlined in your Bible, get it underlined. If you don’t have this book, go get this book. It will revolutionize your life. I am going to make some bold statements today (laughing), because I am feeling them. 1^st Chronicles, right before 2^nd Chronicles, right after 2^nd Kings. Chapter 4 – it’s dealing with the lineage of Judah. I hate reading the lineages in the Bible. I found a reason to never stop reading the lineage, you’ll never know when you’re going to get a gem. Verse 9, now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers and his mother called his name Jabez saying because I bore him in pain. And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying – in other words – Jabez prayed a prayer.

And this was the prayer he made: Four simple statements:

Oh that you would bless me indeed. A very selfish prayer - that you would bless me indeed. And enlarge my territory. That your hand would be with me, number three; that you would keep me from evil that I would cause no pain. A simple prayer. An unpretentious prayer. But I want to tell you something, we are going to testify to you today, that this prayer will revolutionize your life. I believe it, with all my heart, I believe it.

We got to convention, the first service, the first night, our president is the speaker, and he stands up and he talks to us about moving toward our destiny. Nobody else had to show up at that convention. It was for me. Moving toward our destiny. I knew that the theme of the whole convention was enlarging our horizons. But he proceeded to have us open our Bibles to Isaiah chapter 54. Now, I hope that you jotted down on your papers 1^st Chronicles, Chapter 4, verses 9 and 10 – that’s the Prayer of Jabez. Jot down on your papers Isaiah, Chapter 54. And then open your Bibles. This all plays into the scheme of things, folks, so stay with us.

Isaiah, Chapter 54, I have heard our president speak on this subject that would have been for the fourth time – but for some reason, I was seeing it in new light. Because things had happened in the meantime, from the other three times I heard him, that all of a sudden made the light go on.

Isaiah, Chapter 54, "sing o barren, you who have not born, break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who have not labored with child for more of the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman says the Lord." Now, don’t ask me to explain all that, because I don’t fully understand. But the next part I understand. "Enlarge the place of your tent. Let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings and do not spare, lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes, for you shall expand to the right, to the left, and your descendants will inherit the nations and make the desolate cities inhabited." There’s a couple of things there I need to just speak to, that I believe the Lord spoke to me through that. As it says enlarge the place of your tent, and we would normally think, oh that must mean that we‘re supposed to expand this place – the place of our tent. That’s impossible. You would need to really believe in miracles if we’re going to expand this place. We have no room to expand this place. The first thing they tell ya, if you’re thinking of getting into a building project: first of all, examine the possibilities of simply enlarging where you are – it’s not possible. We cannot go in any direction. We can’t go to the right, we can’t go to the left, we can’t go in this direction. I hope you understand that. So, this is not something that we have looked at and thought lightly about. There is just no place. We could try putting a balcony up there to seat another hundred people maybe. I don’t think this building would hold it.

And so, the thing of enlarging our tent, it needs to be done in a different place. The last thing I want to say about that, is in the conclusion of this, where it says "and your descendants will inherit the nations and they will make the desolate places fruitful." That’s what it basically says, that’s my translation. I am believing that a decision we make here today, is an investment in God raising people up from this congregation that are going to move into places in the inner city of Chicago, and they’re gonna raise up churches in those desolate places. And we need to begin right now to see the possibility of fruitfulness that will flow out of what God wants us to do in building a new church facility.

Well, that’s how convention started for me. But, there is more to the story, and you have it here. This is the vision God’s given to us.

The first revelation, I believe it was in a convention in ’95. We had been talking for some time about relocating and building a church facility. And it was in Seattle, Washington that a speaker spoke, and we were sitting there and he said something to this effect -- "if you are going to relocate your building, he says, put it on a high place." "Put it on a high place." So write that down, the first revelation is a high place. That’s necessary. So I came back from that convention, and the Lord said to me that we need to start looking for a high place. Put up that first map. I want you to see something. Right up there is our church, but that’s where our church is now. Now, if you come down here, there is Sycamore Street, Walnut Street, there’s Madison. Okay, down here’s the Golf Course back in there. That spot right there, that’s what I began to pray over. That is important – do you see that. That big area right there, 110 acres, and I said, God, that’s a high place right there. And there is building going on there and building going on here. There’s building going on all around there. And I’m thinking, yes, God has that spot. There’s a high spot right in the middle of that. And I said – that’s it! Every time I drove by that, I even had some of you praying over it. I said every time you drive by that I want you to pray over it. A high place.

The second thing is my wife’s prayer. It happened in Cincinnati in a convention in 1997 – four years ago. The speaker there said something to the effect – pray impossible prayers. Don’t be afraid to pray impossible prayers. And so my wife, we were praying together, and they had us agree together for some reason, and my wife prayed this: she said "God, I want you to have somebody give us land to build the new church facility on." (Oh ya, and she prayed it and then she told me what it was – this is why she wanted to be here, so I got the story right!) And I want to have it right! She shared that with me, that that was her prayer, that was the impossible prayer that she prayed. And I said to her, "ya, like that’s going to happen." My exact words.

The third thing, oh, I’m praying over this, I’m praying over that land. I’m thinking, that’s it. Because, you know what I noticed? The city built a landmark, a brand new landmark, right next to our land – right there. The water tower, the new water tower right out here south of town. I saw that go up and I thought, God that’s a sign! YES, that’s a sign! Because just as you want our church to be a spiritual blessing to the city, just like that water tower, the water flows to the city. That water’s gonna probably feed and send water to these places, and these place, and these. And do you know there is going to be a whole new housing development right over here on the other side of the Kishwaukee River? You know, right there. That’s going to feed all those houses. I want our church to be a blessing like that. I said I want us to flow down out that high place and be a blessing to the community that we dwell in. So the new city landmark is the new water tower. Right that down.

I had a confusing, yet clear, picture. When I was at Promise Keepers, and I think Darrel and I think Dave, I shared with you guys, as we sat there on Friday night I walked in and we sat kind of high up in the auditorium and I looked at the back drop that was behind the speaker’s platform. And they had cities, and they had figures of men coming out. And I looked behind and I thought, man, isn’t that cool – it’s cornfields back behind the backdrop. It was the backdrop of the main picture. And I said, wasn’t that neat that they did that because it was in Des Moines, Iowa. They put cornfields up on that picture. And the next morning, we sat down lower and I could see the picture more clearly. It wasn’t cornfields, it was men. And God spoke to me and said "I want to raise up men out of a cornfield." And so I started thinking, and I thought, oh – God, that place was planted in corn! That’s it! That is it! And I started praying more earnestly about what God wanted to do. And then the Lord gave me a key scripture. Write it down. Psalm 48, verses 1 and 2. I want to read it to you so I get it right. Psalm 48, verses 1 and 2: Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God in the mountain of His holiness. Beautiful for elevation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion on the sides of the north, the city of the great king. And all of a sudden, God spoke to me and said. "Whoops, we are supposed to be looking to the north of the city. That’s where we’re supposed to go, because the beautiful for situation is to the north of the city." And so I started going out there, driving Ash Road, and looking. And I wanted to tell you, I felt no peace. I felt there was a piece of property out there for sale and we looked at it and there was not the sense of the Spirit of the Lord. And so I kind of put that one on hold. Now I want you to know, that I don’t believe that vision is ever self-promoted. If it is God-given, it will happen. It will happen. Why I believe that the property that we are about to make a vote on is the place where God wants us to be, is because of how it came to be.

Just out of the blue, Scott and Marianne Henze live out in a place called Southwoods. And they had a neighbor. And they used take their dog out and walk in this area, right here. See that long strip of land. And he was walking out there one day and he came home and he says to Marianne, he says "I wonder if Dick Watson would ever want to sell that land?" And she says "why don’t you go ask him." So he went and talked to Dick Watson, who lives right there, right there next to the land. And so Dick says, sure, tell them to make me an offer. Ya, who knows?

And so I went out and talked to Dick Watson – Dick and Leona – probably two of the most wonderful people that you’ll ever want to meet. I want to tell you something, that’s a blessing to me. Because I went and tried to meet with another couple, about some land. And it was the most horrific experience I’ve ever had. And to be honest with you, I would have been content to stay in this place if I never had to go talk to another person like that about land. And I went nervously to talk to Dick and Leona. But they opened their home to me, and they welcomed me in. They said, "come on in and sit down." When I’d gone out there to talk to them, I’d planned on being there 15 minutes. I just needed to drop off some paperwork or something and we sat and talked for 2 hours. In fact, I probably shouldn’t even add this, but he (Dick Watson) was sharing with Scott the other day, he’s says , "boy, I really like your pastor." He said, "if I didn’t have a church home already, I’d be coming to your church." I hope, that we can get this thing done before they die. I want them to be at the dedication.

I said what do you think you’d want for it? We’re talking this airstrip, right there. 300 feet wide, 1,900 long – 12.6 acres, right there. I said what do you think you’d want – what are you asking for it? And he’s says, well, how’s $125,000 sound? I said well, I need to talk to my council. I said I will go and talk to them. And then he mentioned this, he says, ya know, we have another 2 acres that sits right there. He says you might be interested in that. I said, well, let me talk to them. And so that’s how we came to find that land - right there.

Now, put up the other map, because now here’s where I want to you notice something. You can’t see all the rest of it, but you kind of know where it is. But I show you the two extra acres right there, so it’s 14.6 acres. I went back to Dick, after the council went out there and we met, we stood on the ground and we prayed and we believed it was God. All eight of our council members – no all seven of our council members, plus I took a few extra guys out there and everybody that has seen it, just thinks it should be right. And I just want to go on record to say this. That if this is not the place God wants us, I cannot imagine! He must have something so wonderful in store! Because I’ll tell you why -- we walked up on this land… Oh by the way, the two acres, I went to him and I said – they’d (the council) would like to also consider the two acres, add that on to it. And the reason is, that’s a wooded area, this is all cornfield, okay. Keep that it mind – cornfield. Or was cornfield. But this two acres, is all wooded and we’re thinking that possibly might be a place for the parsonage. We’ve always dreamed of having a house in the woods. That there is going to be a pond right there, and we think that it will have to overlap on to the two acres. And it’s going to be a beautiful place. And so, that’s some of the vision that we’re seeing. And so I said, "what do you think you’d want for that two acres, cause they’d like to buy it." And he says "how does $30,000 sound?" Now, keep in mind that they probably would have said yes, and that would have brought the price of the land to $155,000. Which is still a steal, I think. But I said to him, I said, I need to go back and talk to them. But I really don’t see a problem , because they were willing, because I said to them what if we can get it for $25,000. And he turned to his wife and he says what do you think? And they agreed and said they’d take $25,000 for it. So that brings the price for 14.6 acres to $150,000.

Here’s where the fun begins folks. You haven’t heard anything yet. Remember the high place I told you about? I’m sitting there talking to Dick and out of the blue, I didn’t say this to anybody, do you know what he said to me? He said, "you realize that this is one of the highest points in DeKalb County?" And I was looking up there – thinking - isn’t that typical, I said we look through our eyes and we think that something is more than what it is. And God has something more. I should have rehearsed this with somebody else, because it gets better.

Remember the city landmark – the water tower. This land is right at the base of the water tower. Not near it, but right at the base of it. Closer than the land up here would have been. Coincidence? I already told you that this was planted in corn. I don’t know what he’s going to plant it in this year because we allowed Dick to go ahead and lease the land. And if we come to the place where everything falls into place, we will perhaps buy some of the crops from the fellow that farms it so we can start with our excavating and building.

Remember the scripture I gave you. I read that wrong. And I was reminded of it when we walked up to right here, which is probably the highest point of the property. About maybe 100 feet, 150 feet into the property – that is the highest point. And you stand there, and you look to the west – you see trees, you look to the south you see trees, you look to the east you see trees (you see another field really) but you look to the north and you see the city of Genoa. And I said God, that’s what that scripture means. It’s not that we would put our church on the north side of the city, it’s that the city would be on the north side of our church. And we stood on that property as a church council and said imagine, imagine, right now all we can see is the Willow Glen subdivision and some of you have told me that you can look out of the windows of your homes and see our property. And you say it in that way – I like that. Because we start claiming something before it’s even ours. And that’s what were gonna do today. And imagine, all the houses that are going in over in this way and the fields just north of us, you know that within three to five years that’s going to be all subdivision – if they’re smart and get it while they can. It will be all subdivision, probably 120 more homes, 150 more homes. Then, just across the Kishwaukee River, there’s the plans for the Riverbend, 670 new homes. We will be within walking distance of probably 1200 to 1500 new homes that people are going to be moving into. "

Oh stay with us, it gets better. Are you excited yet? Remember Ruth’s prayer? You probably know what’s coming. On Sunday, April the 1^st - I wrote that down because I wanted to know the exact date and I thought isn’t that ironic – April Fool’s Day! I told about the land that we found, and I told how that the council went out a stood on the land and prayed over it and voted for us to pursue buying it. The next day, the next day, somebody came to our house and put in my wife’s hand a check for $150,000 (applause). It was an anonymous gift, they don’t want anybody to know. And that’s right. By the way, how much did I say the land was going to cost us? I hope I’ve said it enough that you’re making a connection. The person did not know how much the land would cost – they did not know. In fact, they told me, on a Sunday morning, April Fool’s Day. Actually, I was thinking, is this a joke? They told me what the gift was going to be. And I stood there and I wept. And two weeks before that, or I think the Sunday before that, no it was after that, you started telling about your prayer, praying the impossible prayer and how God honored it. God has given us the land. Do you get that? God has given us the land! (applause) (Ruth reminds Pastor what he said when she told him her prayer and he jokingly states he feels bad enough as it is - laughing).

By the way, not to prolong this, but I told my wife this morning I see about ten sermons coming out of this right here. What we’ve done this morning. Because I want to elaborate on the Isaiah text, I want to elaborate on several points in this. And this is one of them. In fact I confessed to her this morning, I said, "you know, even though she’s the one that prayed the prayer, I get in on the benefit." And that’s the way blessings should be.

God has given us the land. Are you excited yet? Catch this one. When we returned from convention this past week. There was an envelope waiting for us. It said Pastor Jim and Ruth Freund. And I thought, oh Lord, you know, because I’ll tell you, the enemy has been doing a number on this mind. So I opened it. And in it was a note from an anonymous donor and it said this. That this is to be applied toward the new parsonage and it was a check for $100,000. (applause) I didn’t tell you that right, because now I need to follow it up. Ya, now I need to tell the rest of the story. My wife told the Bible class today that she was sitting on her porch and I saw the check, I saw the note and I said I have to go tell Ruth. And I walked over there and I showed her the note, I showed her the response and I said well what do you think of that. This is the exact words out of her mouth: She said, "it doesn’t surprise me" – "it doesn’t surprise me" is what she said. Now catch this, that’s not arrogance and that’s not pride. Because less than an hour before I walked across the street with that check, my wife prayed the first part of the prayer of Jabez and she said Lord, bless me indeed. And the note that accompanied the check said this is for Ruth’s new home. (applause) Less than an hour. Ya, don’t ask her to pray for you though, she can’t. She can only pray for herself (laughing). But we get in on the blessing. Isn’t that something?

Now this is why, I said earlier, I believe with all of my heart, God is beginning to do some things, and He is going to set people free and there’s going to be release come. Now, here’s where you fit in – here’s where you fit in. It’s this very thing. I believe God wants to do the same thing in all of us. He does! He doesn’t just want to carry us as a congregation and bless as a congregation, which I believe He does. But some of you are running through some struggles right now and you don’t know of a way to get out of it. And some of you have shared with me and some of them have to do with finances, some of them have to do with your families, and I encourage you, I implore you, to start praying a simple prayer. Oh God, bless me, indeed. With a passion that says if you don’t bless me, I just may die. Begin praying that prayer, we started praying it years ago. You know what I thought when I read the book? This was what I thought: I didn’t pray the prayer, formally, but I’ll tell ya I was the first one to hold the check in my hand that was made out to Pastor Jim and Ruth. It wasn’t just for her. But you know what I thought as I was reading that? This was my confession, God you’ve always done that, you’ve always blessed us. And all through convention different times we’d go to places and something would open up, and something would happen, we’d meet this person and we’d turn and say, oh that happened because we’re a blessed people. The people of God need to start saying that more. We’re a blessed people. WE ARE A BLESSED PEOPLE! And I don’t know about you, but I just feel that God did this for us just to show us how much He does bless us. We need you to make this your vision. It’s our vision, actually it’s God’s vision, but we need to catch it. Somehow we need to catch it. Not just ride on the coat-tails of it folks, we need to catch it. Because I believe God has in store for us tremendous things of blessing that will extend far beyond our community and will touch worlds for Jesus’ sake.

We need you to contribute. Ah ha, you knew it was coming, didn’t ya. Here comes the sales pitch. Let me talk to you about sales pitch. I am so convinced of God’s hand in this thing, boy I’m going to make a bold statement, that I don’t think we will ever, ever have to ask for a dime. That God is going to provide. Oh, He may encourage us. You know a lot of places when they get ready to build, they bring these financial consultants and all these people on board to tell them how to raise money and how to get money.

Folks, boy, I risk saying this, oh, I risk saying this. God you’re in it. We have, right now, approximately in money and properties, over $650,000 toward our new building project. And we have never asked for one dime (applause). Do you know how I believe God wants to do it? The same way He built the first tabernacle in the wilderness. The people had a mind to give. And the Lord spoke to hearts, even of people that aren’t even in this place. Becky reminded me, I want to tell you how God’s hand has been upon this place, we’re a small congregation years ago. Oh, 19 years ago, there are a few people that are still around that were with us in the beginning. Bless you. Bless you. And we didn’t have a lot of money and we decided the outside of our building looked horrible and we needed to repaint it. And so we decided to start painting it, no we were going to scrape it to get all the old paint off it. We thought, man this is an impossible situation, so we decided to get it sandblasted. And so we sandblasted it. It took us about a week to sandblast it. And then we put new paint on it. We did it ourselves. We did it for about $4,000. It was going to cost us like $25,000 to get it done by a professional. We did it ourselves. A lot of people invested. I remember Becky out there spray painting. Some folks that aren’t here any more, they’ve moved on to different places. But God met the need. The outside of this building sat naked for a week. You should have seen it. Do any of you remember seeing it when we did it? (laughter) It sat naked! That’s what I was leading to. A man walked by and was so impressed with what we were doing that he donated to us, didn’t know us – had a business in town, but he donated $500 to the project. See, I believe that God’s just going to allow people to just come. And just bless, bless His work. And we’re not going to have to ask a penny, or we may do some fundraisers, but we’ll do them because they are "fun," not "fund" raisers. You know what I mean? Not feel an obligation that we have to try and feverishly, God is going to build this thing. God has given us the land.

Hallelujah!

And so that’s what I’m going to say about finances. That’s why it’s not even on your list. The word contribute has nothing to do with finances. Tell you what, let’s make a deal. I’m going to pray for you that God will bless you in the area of finances, if you will be mindful to bless Him in return with what he gives you. Fair enough? I’ll do it. I’ll pray the Prayer of Jabez for you. Because I want you to be blessed. You know what, Jesus wants you to be blessed. And I’m not talking of prosperity mentality here. Has nothing to do with that. I’m just talking praying simple prayers. And believing God, and trusting Him. And knowing how its going to come out. Not knowing how it’s going to happen. We thought somebody would give us land. Somebody gave us the cash to buy the land. Same thing. It works.

We’re going to pray – is that what’s next on your notes? Oh no, contribute.

This is what I mean by contribute. Become involved, serve when asked, and give your talents. And I’m going to show you that in a minute. Then we’re going to pray. And then we are going to become people who care about lost people because that’s what this is all about. It’s not to just give us a home where we can meet and we can kind of satisfy our spiritual bellies for a Sunday and then go about our ways and live as we please. God is raising up a force, a spiritual force that He wants to use to make a difference in our community. And believe me, it has already started. It has already started. I believe that God is putting people in places that’s going to help us to walk through this thing that we’re going to have to do with the city and with the county. Oh, we need to pray. We need to pray.

This is how my mind works, Ruth prays a prayer and within an hour, she’s getting a blessing. I’m back home less than an hour and a half and I’m getting a phone call from our attorney saying, well there might be a problem with the road leading into the property. I want to tell you something, that’s going to be a hurdle for us. It’s the only access we have. But I want to tell ya, I believe that if God can make a way through the wilderness for His children, He can make a way for us to get to our property. Wouldn’t it be terrible to build a facility and not be able to get to it? That won’t happen folks. That won’t happen. Because there are contingencies that need to be fulfilled and I’ll share that with you in a moment. Let me finish this up. Because this is not something that we’re going to do for us, but we’re going to do for Him. And we are going to do it for the sake of our kids, and that’s why I wanted them here. To hear, and to hear first hand of a miracle of God. Of how you can pray and believe that God will do what you ask Him to do. It may not come in exact ways, but it will be a blessing with you. Now I need to share these real quick.

A grasshopper mentality. And this is going to be a sermon. Remember the grasshopper mentality, where the children of Israel were getting ready to go into the Promised Land. And 12 spies went in and two of them came back with a good report, 10 with a bad report. And they said this: There are giants there and we’re like grasshoppers in their sight. You know, that’s a grasshopper mentality. We think we’re smaller than the task or the project. We’re not smaller than the task. Because God is bigger than the task. And He is on our side.

There is a Moses mentality. And you need to hear this. Exodus Chapter 33, jot that down, Exodus 33. I’m almost done. Beginning at verse 14, remember Moses meets the Lord and He’s sending him back to deliver His people. In verse 14, He says My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. And I’m saying, God, ya, we need that. But look at what Moses said in verse 15, if your presence does not go with us than don’t take us from here. Folks, that’s my prayer. Is that I don’t want to leave here if God is not in this thing. We need to know His mind, and His heart, but now I want you to continue this because I believe it’s a word for us from the Lord. For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in your sight except you go with us and I. So we shall be separate, your people and I from all the people who are open upon the face of the earth. So the Lord said to Moses, I will also do this thing that I have spoken. For you have found grace in my sight and I know you by name. And I want to tell you something, I walked through this place this morning and I prayed God, I don’t understand it and I prayed I don’t deserve it. But I said whatever you’re doing, oh God, it’s wonderful and I appreciate it. And the next verse, and Moses said to God, please, show me your glory.

If nothing else is accomplished, we want to know the glory of the Lord. We want His blessing pronounced upon us. And then God said, I will make all my goodness pass before you and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I believe God is going to use us in that way. And then I threw one more in, because this was a sermon that developed as time progressed. And time is progressing.

And I had to add the Thomas mentality. And here it is. There are some of you that are like Thomas. That had a hard time believing in the resurrection unless you would see the nail prints and be able to put your hand in the wounded side. Unless you are a seeing-is-believing type of follower. And I wanted some of you to know that, and maybe some of you kids, that you’ve been doubting even the existence of God. There’s things happening in your world that’s making you question. And maybe you’re trying to understand the fullness of your mom and dad’s relationship and you just don’t understand. And some of you adults, even right now, are questioning God’s ability to meet your needs. Well, I want you to know that if you’re a Thomas type of person that needs to be convinced this morning, you have seen the miracle hand of God and His ability to answer prayer. Don’t ever doubt Him again. And I promise, I won’t either.

Amen? Amen!

We’re going to vote. I need some of you guys to grab these and get them out as quickly as possible. Now there might be just only enough of these for one per family. But I’ll tell you what to do with them in a minute. Here’s what needs to happen and this can be done in just a few minutes. I need to just do this – this is an official business meeting. Ruth, take out some pencil and paper, you need to write something down for me. Okay, Ruth Barry? Basically, our organization requires of us to do a congregational vote any time we are purchasing property. It has nothing to do with the paper your being handed to right now. So, just hang on to that, don’t look at it now, don’t even read it. I’ll run through it with you in a minute. They require us to give you an advance notice of a meeting like this, a gathering, where we share with you what we’re going to do. You’ve heard, I think, enough of what we’re going to do. We do not need a motion, we do not need a second on this. Because, all you are doing as a congregation is you are authorizing our church council to write a letter to our international board in Los Angeles, California and say, would you grant us the right to purchase this property. That’s what were doing. That’s how our organization works. Okay? They actually pull the strings, we pay the bill. That’s usually the way it works. But, the reason I wanted to do this today, is because there were these things I wanted to share and they were busting me up! And I had to get them out.

And so the other thing is, that we have begun right now to put the wheels in motion. We have sent our letter (or our file) to the city and they will now get in touch with us on what we need to walk through to get their approval, then we’re going to have to walk through the county to get all the approvals, we may need to deal with the township on the road. We have to get a special use permit for the land. And so there’s things we need to walk through and so what you need to know in regards to this vote that we’re going to take, is that I just want to get it out of the way, so that when all these things fall into place, I am believing that within a very short time – in fact, from the time that all the contingencies are made, we will have word from our international headquarters within a week that we can purchase the land, we will buy it from Dick and Leona Watson. Part of that is that we are actually going to buy 12.6 acres with a little less than that, and they are taking one part of that land and donating it to the Lutheran church because that’s where they are members. Or they are deeding it to the Lutheran church as a donation so they’ll get the tax credit and then we will turn around a pay the Lutheran church $25,000 for that parcel of land so that they can apply that to their building fund out there. And so, that’s how were working 2.5 acres of the property. All right? You need to understand that. So, but the price is 14.6 acres, $150,000. And all we are going to do is we’re just going to be authorizing, by our vote, and we’re going to do it by a voice vote. The paper that you have been given is not to vote. And this is what you need to know is that in order for us to do this legally, we need to give opportunity for any questions, any comments, and so that’s why I put the microphone down there. If any of you feel that you need to come and say something in regards to this, I’m asking you two things: One, that you keep your comments brief – 3 minutes, tops. And, also, that it pertains strictly to the property. We haven’t even started talking about building yet. All right, this is just strictly about buying the property.

There was a brief time of questions and answers. (This is the point where the church tapes were changed and the questions were not audible for transcription).

Normally, in a church business meeting you would be required to be a member of this church in order to vote. And, you also need to be 18 years of age. I’m going to waive the being a member, because this is a congregational vote. And I believe that we have fellowshipping partners that just for some reason or another have not joined with us. And that’s not even the issue. But, I believe that they should have a voice in this. Now, the one I’m going to hold to is that nobody under 18 can vote. Because that needs to keep it legal. All right? And so, this is the question and we are just going to do a voice vote. You’ve all heard what we need to do to authorize our council to direct the international board of directors to allow us to purchase this 14.6 acres for $150,000. All in favor signify by saying – aye. (Aye) All opposed, same sign (silence).

Let’s applaud the Lord (applause).

Make sure you make a note, maybe I should say, are there any abstentions? None. Okay. Ruth, make a note that by all indications, that was a unanimous vote.

The thing that we just put in your hands is how we also want you to be involved. You so much need to be a part of this. This is not just the dream of one or two people. And please understand that. And there’s nobody that can do it by themselves. And basically, I started this out, and it says, I don’t even want you to do anything with this today. You are going to take it home with you. But having heard the vision God has given for our church family, and seeing the possibilities for the advancement of the Kingdom of God through the building of a new church facility, I’d like to participate and we’d like your name. The only reason you’d put your name on there is that you’re just giving us some moral support. But then you’re going to go on and you’re going to get proud on yourself for a moment, you’re going to brag on yourself for a moment. And I really want you to do this! I know you’ll find scripture to come to me and say, well, we shouldn’t be doing that Pastor. Well, you’re going to do it now. Because we need to know who amongst us are gifted and talented in certain areas. And you’re going to tell us. What are some of your areas of expertise? What are some areas? I want to tell ya, I think I shared this with you before, we’re looking for some engineers. You know any engineers that need to get saved real quick (laughter)? Bring them to us! We need people that have experience in some areas. I don’t! And our council sits there and they go, well, these are some areas that we don’t know what to do all the time. We need to know where your areas of gifting and expertise are.

We need to know on what area of the project you’d most like to be involved with. I’ve already heard several of you as we’ve been talking about this say, well when you getting ready to do that, I’d like to be a part of that. Wonderful, that’s what we want. And then this is the greatest one. We want your wish list. We want your wish list! Within reason. I don’t think we can handle a swimming pool. All things are possible (laughter). We certainly have the land for it. I probably shouldn’t even tell you this one, but a pastor buddy of mine from our district, at a break in the convention, and we walked into – well what do you do on break – it’s a no brainer to know what we were doing (laughter). And so we are standing there "doing it" (laughter) and he turns to me and he says, ya know, they should put some shelves here to put your Bible up on. So you don’t have to leave it out there where its getting all slopped up with water by the sink. And I made a mental note of that. That’s going to go on my wish list (laughter and applause). We definitely are going to have urinals in the bathroom and more than one stall in the women’s bathroom. And bathrooms at different places. Here’s our chance, folks, to build it like we want it. And so we need your wish list. You’re going to think of something that somebody else would never even think of. And don’t think that it’s too minute. Because it could be a blessing to somebody as they come along.

We’ve been touring some church buildings and we’re making notes. Oh that would be great... Well, no we don’t need that, that’s not important... You know one were hoping for? We’re seriously considering – we saw it at a church, is a fireside room. I’d love to have a fireside room where we could have small meetings, you know, gatherings, with a fire going in the wintertime. Wouldn’t that be cool? Well, wouldn’t that be hot, wouldn’t that be warm? (laughter) So we need your wish list. We need you to do that for us.

So take these home with you and begin just bringing them back and we’ll have a place back there to throw them. And it’s not important, in fact, we might even, or just put them in the offering plate. But get them back to us within the next two, three, four weeks. Okay? Really thinking through and pray about it. Lord, how can I be involved in that. Some of you are so gifted in decorating. And we want to see this place.. You know, here’s my dream of this place. And it’s not an elaborate place, it’s a simple place. It’s a simple place that will not cost us an arm and a leg to build. Although, probably before we’re done, we are probably going to spend $1.3 to $1.5 million dollars on the entire complex. Now I don’t know about you, but that blows my mind. That’s beyond me, but we haven’t even tried yet, haven’t even started yet, and we have over $650,000 towards it. So, I don’t think it’s beyond us. I really don’t. But I want it to be just a simple place. Nothing big and elaborate, but a beautiful place. A well-done place. Where we can do things and not be cramped and have room to expand and room to grow.

So you catch it? Are you catching it? Oh I hope you are. (A question was asked about if there was any timeframe in place.) Pastor replied, no we don’t and that’s a good question. Basically, the contract that we signed with the Watson’s is that the closing will be… because they knew and we knew that there are several things we have to walk through with the city, the county, maybe the township. Everything on our end, now that this is out of the way and everything with International, is a matter of a heartbeat and it’s done. So, it’s the people that we are going to have to deal with.

We need to come up with some sight development plans that we’re working on right now. And that’s not to say that that’s exactly how things are going to look when it’s done. They just need to know what we’re going to put on there. The land being the length that it is will probably require two possibly three retention ponds. And right now, I’m envisioning one in front of the sanctuary at the entrance way with a fountain in it, to kind of be an attractive entrance. Maybe a fountain in all of them, all down through. And somebody suggested the possibility that we put a slogan name on our church and it has something to do with living water. And so those are things that will have to be on there. We definitely need to make sure that the ball field gets put on there (laughter). And somebody else suggested a soccer field for the kids, because there are a lot of kids so much into soccer. And I don’t think it had anything to do with the Henze’s being less than a block away and their kids play soccer (laughter).

A recreation facility, a gymnasium. And we are really toying with the idea that we want a sanctuary other than the gymnasium. I know there are a lot of things we are going to talk about, but in my mind of minds, and my heart of hearts I’m thinking I would like to take on the whole project at once and decide what it is going to cost us and get all the money at once and then do it. Rather than piece-mealing it. Because what happens, and there’s a lot of testimonies to this, that when you start doing that, you get so caught up in the one thing that you never advance to the next one. And you lose the vision. And the vision is beyond just us having a sanctuary. We want a place where kids from the community can come. A place where they can come after school perhaps. And our game room – we don’t have anything like a game room we want in this place. A balcony overlooking the gymnasium full of games for kids to come and play.

There’s even a possibility where we could put some computers in. I saw this in Los Angeles, a church that bought an old coffee house and upstairs they have computers along the walls and kids can come there after school because there is nobody waiting for them at home. And they can do their homework on the computers or they can do computer work to help them with their school work. And there is somebody there to counsel with them and talk with them. Have people available where it becomes a place where people can go. A gymnasium where we can get community people to come in a do some basketball and volleyball. But it’s on our turf. You see that’s a big difference folks. If you’ve got to go and live on the world’s turf its different. You hear their music, you hear all of their guff. They come on to our turf and things are different. And we are able to invest in their lives. You know what I want to build? I really feel bad that the park district beat me to this. I want to build a skateboard rink. A roller rink, a roller place, with half pipes – a skate park! I believe we will have room for it. Where kids can come and do their skateboarding and roller-blading on the stuff. The park district beat me to it. But theirs is way on the north side of town. Ours will be on the south side of town. See? These are some things. That’s my wish list. Because I want us to begin to see the possibilities of ministry as we begin to put this thing together and build it with those things in mind. That’s what we want to do.

And so, oh, I hope you get on board with us. I hope this wasn’t boring for you. I wanted to end with a song. And I hope it is all right that we end with this song.

Stand with me would you.

Congregation sings The Victory Chant.

Bless, Hug, and Greet a few people before you leave.

Thank you for being here and God bless you.