Alright, hey, everybody! Welcome to Valley Creek. We are so glad you are here with us today, and you picked a great day to be here because last week, we started not only a new series; we started a new season, a new chapter of the story of Valley Creek, called “Create the Future.” Missional Move: Create the Future. And we said it's time for the people of Valley Creek to take a next step to create a future that doesn't currently exist. For the next six weeks, we're talking about where we're going as a church, so it's one big message all threaded together that I hope you'll be here and be a part of. We started last week by just talking about where we've been. We believe wherever we're going is better than where we have been, but to understand where we're going, we have to first stop and look at where we've been. The past shapes the future. We learn from the past, we live in the present, and we look towards the future. The past creates the present, and contained within the present is everything we need to create the future. But before we can run ahead, we have to first look back. And so, before we could talk about creating the future, we just had to stop and talk about our story, where we've been and what God has done. This is a story of goodness and grace. It's a story of kindness and love. This is a story of God moving among us as a people. And story is incredibly important because contained within story is origin and destiny, vision and values. Contained within story is culture and ethos and sacred and supernatural. Contained within this story is our scars and our celebrations, our mountains and our valleys, our victories and our defeats. Contained within this story is the goodness of God written all over our lives. And what story does – the story tells you who you are, what you are, where you are, why you are, and how you're going to get where you're going. And if you lose your story, you lose your identity. And if you lose your identity, you lose your ability to create the future. When a nation, a people, a family, a business, a church loses their story, they lose their identity. And if you lose your identity, you lose your ability to create the future. Why? Because who you are determines what you do. Identity determines behavior. So when you lose who you are, you no longer know what you're created to do, why you exist, and where you are. And so, we talked about this story, and we said that we're all right here together. It doesn't matter when you joined the journey, we're all right here together. But at some point, every one of us joined this story, and wherever you joined along the way, you joined. And the present you enjoyed was a future somebody else created. Somebody else created a future that didn't exist that became the present that you started to enjoy. And so, my question for you last week was, where did you join? And what if the people called Valley Creek stopped one bullet point before you joined? If you joined here, what if we stopped there? If you joined here, what if we stopped there? If you joined here, what if we stopped there? What would you have missed out on? We have to be people that are willing to create, not just consume – that aren't interested in convenience, but say, "There's more," and we press on in Jesus' name. And so, regardless of where you joined this story, we're all right here. All the revelation, realities, and resources now belong to you, regardless of how long you've been here. But now, we have to decide together as a people, what's next? Where are we going? What are we going to do? What kind of story are we going to write together? And we gave you these shirts last week to say, "You can't buy it. You didn't earn it. You didn't achieve it. You didn't perform for it. It's an act of grace. Just like you were saved by grace, you were adopted into the body of Christ by grace. But you are now writing the story that we are currently living." And in fact, that's what we say, "We're a movement of hope for the city and beyond." And a movement is a story being written by thousands of people all at the same time. And we said, "What comes after this dot is solely determined by how the people who wear these shirts live." You have the pen, and you get to decide that which we are going to write. And the reason we had to start with all of this is because contained within our story are revelations, mandates, callings, and commissions from God of who we're called to be as a people. And that dramatically shapes the future, because to whom much is given, much is required, in Jesus' name. So, you ready for what's next? 

You see, five years ago, COVID happened. And I would call COVID the great interruption. COVID came and interrupted everything, especially good American church. And overnight, everything was disorienting. People were full of doubt. People started to drift and pull away. People started to deconstruct in their own faith. And this great interruption came out of nowhere. And I'll never forget the first week when we weren't going to be gathering as a church because they shut us down. I remember walking out in the parking lot talking to some of our leaders, and I just asked, like, "Are we really not going to meet?" And they looked at me like I had lost my mind. They were like, "Yeah, no, we're really not going to meet, and probably for a while." Six months go by, we're not meeting. And I remember they looked at me, and then they said, like, "How long do you think this is going to last?" And I looked at them and said, "Oh, every bit of five years." And they looked at me about as confused as I was that first Sunday, like, "Five years?" And sure enough, it has taken every minute of every day of those five years to get back to a place of normalcy where the people of God can start moving forward in a different way. You see, what happened after that COVID dynamic is we spent most of 2020, '21, and '22 trying to put the pieces back together. We were trying to just pull everybody back together, just start gathering, just getting people back so people just weren't weird anymore. You know what I mean? You remember that? Everybody was weird. If you met, they were mad at you for meeting. But if you didn't meet, they were mad at you for not meeting. It was just weird. So, it took all of that to pull the pieces together, but then in 2023 and 2024 is what I would call the great deepening. After the great interruption, there was a great deepening, and God did a deep work in His people. He did a deep work in us. And the deep work is the hidden work. The hidden work is the hard work. And the hard work is the important work. And as He did this great deepening in us, our roots started to go deep. What's the point of a tree's roots going deep? It's so it can grow wide and start to bear fruit. And so, this fruit started being born in our lives because we were growing deeper. And I watched as this sense of tension began to develop. As people were going deeper, they were starting to become more fruitful, and they wanted to give their fruit away. So, they started saying, like, "What's next? Where are we going? When are we going to move? What's the next thing for our church?" I honestly would get kind of irritated with that question because I'm like, "We're doing it, people. What are we doing? We're going deeper. We're going deeper with Jesus." The only problem is, is at some point in time, if you can't give your fruit away, you no longer want to go any deeper because you already have more fruit than you can offer to others. And so, we started 2024 with this series called “A Different Way.” Thought it was just going to be a couple of months. If you were here, it went a whole year. My favorite series that we've ever done. And all throughout probably the second half of '24, this tension began to build. "What's next? Where are we going? What's the vision? What's the thing?" And I was like, "We're doing it. Silence and solitude, people. Memorize some Scripture. Practice fasting. Like, we're doing it." And as this tension began to develop, I knew it and I could sense it, but I was so locked in from the Lord that we were in the season of the great deepening. Do the deep work. So I didn't think one time about what was next for the future. I was locked in on where we were.<br>Then we finished that right going into Thanksgiving time. I literally went home, had a snack, had a nap. About three hours later started seeking God for what's next. 

And in a very short period of time, we heard from God what's next for our church. And God gave me this passage and I feel like really describes the season that we're in. It was kind of a word from the Lord for me that I believe is a word for the Lord for you. And it's the story of the Israelites. They're leaving Egypt. They're on their way to the Promised Land. They're against the Red Sea. The Egyptians are chasing them down. And it says as Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn't we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone. Let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert." And all the people said to John, "What are we doing? We can't memorize any more Scripture. And I'm so hungry from fasting; I need to eat something. What are we doing?" Moses, John, answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm, and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today, you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you. You need to only be still." In other words, John says, "Sabbath, silence and solitude, confession and repentance." But then the Lord said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on." And I believe that is a word from the Lord for us. It is time to move on in Jesus' name. "Raise your staff, stretch out your hand over the sea, divide the water, go through on dry ground. I will destroy the Egyptians." Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel's army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved in front of them and stood behind them, coming between the Israelites and the Egyptians all night long. Water parted. They go across. Their past is destroyed. And they're moving on to the Promised Land in Jesus' name. And I think it's so prophetic that it says the cloud moved from in front of them to behind them. For years, we've talked about being people who follow the cloud, wherever God goes, we go. So it's so interesting that the cloud goes behind them. It's almost like God is saying, "Hey, now you're at this certain level of maturity. I'm coming behind you, and I'm going to ask you, 'What do you want to do? Who do you want to be? What kind of future do you want to create?'" It's kind of like my season of parenting my 15-year-old and my 17-year-old. When they were kids, I was in front of them, telling them what to do, how to do it, where to go. But now I'm moving behind them, and I'm saying, "What do you want to do? Who do you want to be? What kind of choices are you going to make?" And I'm not going to let them hurt themselves, but I'm going to give them a lot more freedom. And I think we're at a level of maturity as a church that God is saying, "Hey, Valley Creek, who do you want to be? Where do you want to go? Because now I'm standing behind you, saying, ‘Let's go create something together.’”And so, in Jesus' name, we believe it's time to move on. And you say, "Move on to what? Or to where?" Well, we believe it's time to start Missional Move: Create the Future. You say, "What's a missional move?" I'm glad you asked. A missional move is when we take a next step for the sole purpose so that somebody else can take a next step on their journey. And we believe that God is inviting us to create five things over the next five years. Missional Move: Create the Future. Five things in five years. Five, remember, is the number of grace in the Bible. God's grace was on your life over these last five years. 2025 – five times five, grace upon grace. As we go into the next five, there is grace upon grace to go with God and create that which does not exist. And I'm believing the Lord is going to restore the years the locusts have taken, and that in our church and in your life, He's going to do more in these next five years than you could've or we could have done on our own in the last 10. So, Missional Move: Create the Future. Are you ready? First thing is this, five things in the next five years. First thing is this, we want to create a prayer center. We want to create a prayer center that is a sacred space devoted to the Lord, a place that is a freestanding building, most likely on the Flower Mound property in the green square that's in the parking lot. But this will be a freestanding building that's a sacred space that's designed for one purpose and one purpose only: for people to come and meet with God. It will be a sacred space where people can pray, where they can worship, where they can sit in His presence, where they can intercede, where they can prophesy, a place of an open heaven, a place designed for signs and wonders and dreams and visions, a place where you know that God is in that place. And so, the moment you show up, your faith is already high because it's an open heaven, and you know God is there. And the moment I say "prayer center," we all have these weird views in our mind of what that looks like. It's not a shed. It's not a little room. It's not in the junk that we don't care about. This is a freestanding, beautiful building. The center will be about a 200- to 300-seat worship center in size. It will have little rooms within it on the outside where people can come in small groups or by themselves to pray and seek God. It is not a place. It is not a wedding chapel. It's not for funerals. It is not for teaching. It is not for food. It is not for student events or adult events. It is for one purpose and one purpose only: a sacred space that belongs to God because we are people of presence. And this is the next generation of being a worshipping church. And if you have no concept of this, see it like this, it's a place that, literally, when you pull up, you know God is there. So it's a college student, before he goes back to college, says to his mom, "Mom, I got to go meet with God and get a word from Him before I go back to school. It's a place that a single mom, in the middle of the day when she's had enough of all of it, that she can just come and meet with God, cry and be comforted in His presence. It's a place where a businessman who needs to make a major decision and needs some wisdom from God and he says, "I'm going to the prayer center because I need a word from God on what to do next." It's the place that all the people in this church who pray for you, that you do not know, will be able to go and intercede, pray, and prophesy for you and your family. It's a place that will be open morning, noon, and night, when anyone from any place in the city can come and just meet God. Surely God is in this place, and I was not aware of it. You see, in the Old Testament, there's the Tabernacle of Moses. The Tabernacle of Moses was the presence of God among the people. But it was very structured, very ordered, very set of a description and prescription on how to do it. And people would offer sacrifices, be forgiven, and leave. It was very controlled though and structured, kind of like a weekend service in a lot of ways. There are boundaries and borders that we have to put on here to make it work. But then there's the Tabernacle of David. David shows up years later and David builds a tabernacle called the Tabernacle of David that he put the priests and the Levites to minister to the Lord 24 hours a day. This was a place of praise, worship, and ministry to the Lord. It was a place where the wild things grew, with signs and wonders, dreams and visions, and the supernatural movement of God. And David didn't charge people to come. He didn't raise money from the people. He just said, "This is so important that we as a people are going to spend what's required to build this because we are people of His presence. And what we want more than anything else is a place where God's presence is valued 24 hours a day, 365 days a year." That's what a prayer center looks like. And we believe that through prayer, the future will be created. And so, if you're still like, "What does that look like?" If you came to RE, RE is an example of what will kind of happen in the prayer center. And if you're still not sure, all you need to understand is we care about the presence of God more than anything else in this church. And there are no real great examples of this prayer center that I can give you other than to tell you if my life has touched your life in any way, 20, 30 years ago, people in Colorado built a prayer center, and I was that kid that sat there and heard from God to do this with the rest of my life. So, I know God moves in and through this when we value His presence. Okay? First thing; prayer center, a sacred space devoted unto the Lord.

Second thing is we want to start a training center. We want to start a training center, a freestanding building, most likely around the Flower Mound Campus, that is all about training up leaders. We want to take VCLA, Valley Creek Leadership Academy, and turn it into Valley Creek College. We want to offer our students a fully-accredited two- or four-year degree with our partner, SEU, Southeastern University, where they can pursue their degree in a variety of different career paths and get a fully-accredited degree. But while they're doing that, more importantly, we are focusing on developing them as whole people. That while they're pursuing academic excellence, we're focused on helping them in spiritual formation, leadership development, relational skills, and missional living. This is a place, a building, a space, that will be designed and devoted to raising up the next generation of leaders who can then go out and create the future. And VCLA has been incredibly successful. We've raised up so many amazing young adults. 10% of our staff are VCLA grads. The others are all over in different areas of life as hope carriers, doing amazing things in the world around them. See, here's what happens, we live in a world and in an area that sends kids off to college when they're not ready, and they go and get conformed by the world. And then they don't show back up here until they're 40 years old, and then we're left picking up all the pieces. And if you spent your life picking up all those pieces, you would get tired of pulling people out of the river, too. So instead of pulling people out of the river, we want to go upriver and figure out how to keep them from falling in. And if we can keep them from falling in, they then become the leaders who not only pull people out of the river, but they keep other people from falling into the river. See, we live in a world that overvalues academics and undervalues discipleship. We live in a world that's all about knowledge but could care less about character. We want to offer academic excellence, fully-accredited degrees but by focusing on the development of the whole person so they can become who God has created and called them to be – identity, relationship, and purpose; body, soul, and spirit; healthy, holistic people who can change the world. And not only that, but we will be able to take the best parts of VCLA and turn it into a nine-month adult leadership experience out of this training center, where any adult of any age who wants to grow in spiritual formation, leadership development, and being a hope carrier, relational skills. We all need relational skills. I know we're like, "Oh yeah, that generation." No, we all – ever talk to another adult? We all need relational skills in Jesus' name. But where we can focus on that because we believe God's answer to the world's cries are leaders, and the mandate on our family is the development of leaders. So let's stop waiting for the world to do what God has asked the church to do – train up our children in the way they should go. The commands He has given to us to impress them upon our children. And we're at a point of maturity where we could actually do it. So, just so you're clear, if you're catching it, you're not just going to church. You're just like, "I go in Valley Creek. I'm a part of a movement.” I'm a part of a movement. And we're creating a college that's going to raise up the next generation of leaders that are going to create the future. I know it's not for everybody, and we don't think everybody should go to it. But we're going to provide an opportunity for those God calls, those who are interested, and those who are looking for this in Jesus' name. Okay? Training center.

Third thing. The third thing is we want to go create the Argyle Campus. Now, if you've been with us since 2019, you're like, "Didn't we already do that?" Well, in 2019, we did Missional Move: Hope for the City. We wanted to double down and go from four campuses to eight – Gainesville, Online, Argyle, and University. We fully launched the Gainesville Campus; it's amazing. It's rocking in Cooke County. The Online Campus is thriving with people all over the world. And we were able to buy property in Argyle and at the University Campus. And so, the question you could just ask then is then, "Was that a failure? Was Missional Move: Hope for the City a failure because we didn't build the Argyle building?" No. We were able to get 33 acres for $1.6 million in 2019, 2020, which today would be about $500,000 to $1 million an acre. So, maybe, just maybe, God knew the great interruption was coming and He said, "Hey, let me get you that property now so you're prepared for what's coming because it would be almost unaffordable at this point in time." So I think that God saw what was coming. And because we're not in a hurry and we go at God's pace, we're perfectly positioned to go and serve that city. The other thing that I'm so grateful for is, if we would have started the Argyle Campus in this time run, it would have been the most consumeristic, good American church campus we would have ever had. The whole thing would have been about consumption, convenience, performance, and entertainment. And so, we needed a little more time to mature before we were ready to launch it. Because in 2019 and 2020, when people got excited about Argyle, just so you're clear, not one person, not one person, say, not one person, ever came up to me and said, "I'm so excited about serving the city of Argyle." People were so excited about the Argyle Campus for them. But we don't start campuses for us; we start campuses for them. And so, now, we're at a better position where we can say, "Yes, we're going to do it, but we're going to go and serve the city, bring a Jesus-focused, Spirit-filled, Life-giving harbor of hope into that space. And it's not about us. It's about them.” And when we make it about them, God does something great for us. So those of you that look forward to the convenience and the opportunity to be closer to wherever you live, that's going to be amazing. But the motive of going is not to save you drive time; the motive of going is to serve a city in Jesus' name. Which brings us to the fourth thing.

And the fourth thing is to go ahead and start our University Campus. We have two acres literally right across the street from the UNT Welcome Center – absolutely outstanding, prime location. Same thing, right at the COVID time, before it happened, God was able to give us access to that property where we were able to buy it, secure it. We've got it. We're ready to go. It's time to put a campus in the middle of a worldly institution – a worldly institution that is dark and has lost sight of Jesus and a generation that is hopeless. And if you would just go stand on that property in the middle of a school day, you will see hundreds, if not thousands, of students walking by all day, every day, just looking for hope in their life. A generation that the world has all but given up on. We're going to say, "No, we're going to go, and we're going to invest. We're going to go and reach you, raise you up, and offer you a harbor of hope in Jesus' name." It's time for us to go and serve that entire university area with college students, young adults, our young adult ministry. We have so many young adults in this church, but we don't want to do a young adult ministry. You're like, "Why?" Because we only do five things. We keep it really simple because we believe that's how you grow. So we're just going to let all these young adults that have come together be the launch team for that campus so they can have their own campus and keep reaching the generation around them. Okay?

And then the fifth thing, because if we're going to do it, let's do five, is what I would call the seven-continent strategy. Seven-continent strategy. You say, "What's that?" It means we want to identify a strategic partner on all seven continents and build a long-term strategic relationship with them, where we can send wave after wave of resources, support, relationships, engagement, prayers, where we can see a significant difference in that nation and, therefore, that continent. If you know anything about Pastor Koshy and our partner in India, for about 20 years, all the way back to 2013, is when we helped him build his ministry school for church planters. And he is the prototype of what we're talking about because, through him, over these last 10–15 years, we've been able to plant more than almost 500 churches. You have literally touched tens of thousands of slum orphan children with the gospel, with education, with food. We've helped them build probably the best church building in all of New Delhi. And now it's expanding to all of the nations around them. And so, we want to do that on all seven continents. So, Pastor Koshy is Asia. We're North America. So, we need South America, Europe, Africa, Australia, Oceania area. And since it'd be really hard to reach the penguins, we're going to replace Antarctica with Israel. And we're going to go find great people that are doing great things, that are crying out to the Lord for help, for resources, for partnerships. And instead of putting a little here, a little here, a little here, we're going to go find seven and invest everything we've got to see a significant return in Jesus' name.

Five things. Five things. Five years. We're called to create the future. But the future doesn't just happen. The future never just happens. It's not like coincidence or happenstance. It doesn't just appear. Somebody has to go and create it. And if we don't create it, it won't appear. And we were made in the image and likeness of God, which means we were created to create. Now, see if you can hang with me on this because this is as important as what we're going to do. See, the first thing that God tells us about Himself is that He is a creator. First line in the Bible, "In the beginning, God created." So, the first thing He tells us about Himself is that He is a creator. Now, the first thing you tell somebody about yourself when you're meeting them, it may not be the most important thing about you, but it's the most important thing about you that you want them to know.

So, when God tells us in the first sentence of the Bible that He is a creator, He wants us to understand that everything that exists exists only because He decided to create it. And if we know that God is love and God is good, then creativity is an act of love. Creating things that do not exist is literally an act of love. Remember, love is goodwill. So, we learn in the very first line of the Bible that God's will for us is good because He created a future for us that didn't exist, not for His good, but for our good. And we watch in Genesis as we see this pattern develop over and over again. God says, "Let there be. Let there be. Let there be." And it was so. And it was very good. Because His love and His will is good, He can only create good things. And as this pattern begins to emerge, He says, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness." And He takes the dust of the earth, scrapes it together, forms Adam, breathes life into Adam's body. And as Adam opens his eyes, He looks into the face of love. And God takes Adam, and He puts him in the Garden of Eden. And the very first thing God says to Adam, "Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and subdue it, using all its vast resources in the service of God and man." In other words, God creates Adam in His image and His likeness, puts him in a garden full of resources, and says, "Adam, use all these resources to create a future that doesn't exist, for the good of others and the glory of God." He puts him in a garden. Do you ever think about this? He didn't put him in a house. He didn't put him in a neighborhood. He didn't put him in a city. He didn't put him in a nation. Why? Because those things didn't exist yet. He put him in a garden of raw materials, of resources, and says, "Adam, what do you want to do with this? Hey, Adam, what are you dreaming about? What can you imagine? What ideas do you have? What's in your heart? Adam, you and me, are going to create a future together. What kind of future do you want to create?" This is like the cloud going behind the Israelites. See, God made Adam as a man, not as a child. If he was a child, He would have told him to color in between the lines. "Here's the Lego instructions. Follow everything exactly the way I'm telling you." No, Adam was a man, which means maturity is God asking you and me, "What's in our heart to create for the good of others and the glory of God?" Nothing existed except a bunch of resources. And God gave Adam, and only Adam, the responsibility and the authority to create the future that didn't exist. So, Adam got to start his life knowing he was loved because he woke up to the face of love. And then, he was empowered to create a future that didn't exist for others. This is why it's so important to know that you're loved and to become a person of love. Because then your will will be for the good of others and the glory of God, because you are empowered to create that which does not exist. True creativity only comes when we know we're loved. Adam wasn't to create to perform, to achieve, to earn, but out of security of love. And we watch as God creates basically three categories of things in Genesis. He creates creation, creatures, and creators. He creates creation – sun, moon, stars, earth, wind, fire, rock, sky, creation. Then, He creates creatures – the animals, the birds, the fish, the zebras, the mountain lions, the salmon, the penguins, the eagles, the narwhals, all the creatures. And then, He creates creators – man, made in His image and His likeness, with a commission to create the future that does not exist. And out of those three categories that He creates, He only gives language to man. He only gives language, the ability to speak, to man. He didn't give language to the wind, or to the rocks, or to the fire. He didn't give language to the narwhals, or the penguins, or the salmon. He gave language to man. Why is this important? Because God created everything by saying, "Let there be." Through language, God spoke, and it became so. This is why John 1, which is a picture of Genesis 1, says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And all things were created by Him and for Him, and nothing that has been made was made without Him." God created everything with His word, by saying, "Let there be." And then, He made creators, and He gave them language, and said, "Now, what you say on this earth, there will be." You have language to proclaim, to declare, to command, to prophesy, to communicate ideas and images and opportunities and design. You have the ability to declare, "Let there be," and it will be so. And you also have the ability to say, "Let there not be," and it will not be so. That's profound. Which means God is literally waiting on you to create the future. See if you can catch this, God is done creating for now. For six days, God created everything. Six days, we watch Him create all this stuff, and then on the seventh day, He rested. And do you realize after those first two chapters in Genesis, you don't see God create anything again until the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, where He makes new creation? Those who are in Christ become new creations in Him. Like, we lost it all, but He redeemed us and made us a new creation in Christ. And He won't create anything again until He creates the new heavens and the new earth. So, God creates everything for six days, commissions man with language and the authority and the responsibility to create the future with Him. We give that up. We lose our redemptive dynamic, and it's not redemptive at that point. We lose our commission, and we give it up. And then, God comes along, and He makes a new creation in Christ, and He gives us the commission again. Same thing in Genesis 1 as Matthew 28, "Therefore, go, make disciples of all nations." He doesn't tell us how. He doesn't give us specifics. He doesn't do all this. He just says, "Go create a future that doesn't exist." And He won't create anything again until He creates the new heavens and the new earth.

Now, if you can jump one more with me, it's like God puts man in the Garden of Eden with a bunch of resources and says, "Create a future that doesn't exist." And when we go create a future that doesn't exist, we create all this stuff that becomes the resources that God will build the new heavens and the new earth with. You say, "What?" God puts us in the Garden with resources. And how we live our life, 1 Corinthians 3 tells us that one day we will all stand before God, and we will give an account for how we lived our life. And our works, what we did, will be tested by fire. And everything we did in a worldly way will be burned up, wood, straw, hay, stubble. But everything we did for the good of others and the glory of God will become gold and precious stones. What is the new heavens and the new earth made of? The streets are made of gold, and the walls are filled with precious stones. So, it's almost like God puts you in a Garden with resources and says, "Create a future that doesn't exist." When we create a future that doesn't exist, those become the very resources that He will use to create the eternal Garden City that we will dwell with Him forever. That's how empowered you are, that your life right now, the way you're living, is literally creating the future materials that God will use to create the place that we will dwell in all of eternity. You're created to create. You're not created to consume. And when you start consuming, you stop creating. When you stop creating, you'll start consuming. And if you stop creating, you'll start consuming. And when you start consuming, you'll start dying. What happened to Adam and Eve? When they stopped creating, they started consuming. They ate from the tree of the knowledge of good, and they consumed. And in that moment, they died. Adam and Eve should have been so busy creating a future that didn't exist that they literally should have been able to say to Satan, "I don't know what you're talking about, but I'm so busy creating a future for humanity that I ain't even got time to come down and talk to you. I'm carrying on a great project. I got no time or interest to engage with you and where you are." In fact, one of the greatest ways to defeat temptation in your life is to create a future that doesn't exist for others, because then you got no time to consume and come down and get lost in nonsense. And what happens is, once we start consuming, we start consuming everything, including time. And we've bought into this dynamic in this world that we want to control our own time. That we just want to sit there and decide what we want to do, when we want to do it, how we want to do it. And then, we sit in judgment of the world, a tree of knowledge of good and evil, complaining, criticizing, good, bad, right, wrong. But catch it, only God owns time. And only God has the character to judge the world. And so, time is one of the greatest resources that He has given us. For what purpose? Why are you alive today? Because He gave you time as a resource to create a future that doesn't exist, for the good of others and the glory of God. You now get to decide whether or not you do that.

You with me on this? All right, let me try to make it real practical here for you. Some of you that are like, "Cities, resources, jewels, I don't know." Apple. Think about Apple products, okay? The average person consumes $500 a year of Apple products. You say, "Ah," you start thinking about, okay, you buy a phone one year, it's 1,000 bucks, you don't buy something for two years, then you buy a computer for 2,000 bucks, you don't buy, okay, $500 a year, the average person. Let's say, let's go back to 2010, 15 years ago, when this era of Valley Creek was born. Let's say instead of consuming Apple products for those 15 years, you took that $500 a year and we're a creator, an investor in Apple in 2010. Do you know how much that investment would be worth today? $200,000. Instead of consuming, if you would have been creating, contributing, and investing, it'd be worth $200,000 today. Okay, Amazon Prime. The average person spends $1,200 a year on Amazon products. Now, let's say you're not a consumer, you're a creator, an investor. And you go back 15 years, and you take that $1,200 a year, and instead of consuming, you were a contributor, an investor. And you invested in Amazon 15 years ago. That $1,200 a year, today, that investment would be worth $650,000. One more. Tesla. Let's go back to 2010 and say you had an opportunity to buy a Tesla. Tesla was a $100,000 car. You're a consumer. You use your money, you consume it, you get that car. Instead of being a consumer with that $100,000, if you would have taken that $100,000 and invested it as an investor into Tesla, things would be very different. If you consumed that car for $100,000, you probably don't have that car today. It's probably run out. You got your use out of it, and it's over. But if you invested that $100,000 instead of consuming, in 2010, today, that investment would be worth $27 million. That's the difference between being a consumer and a creator. Here's my question for you. What's this worth? What's this worth? The difference between the people that were consumers and the people that were creators, what's this worth? Put a price tag on this. If you got saved here, it's invaluable. If your marriage was restored here. If you found healing here. If you're able to raise your children here. If just having this place kept you from drifting into the world. If you got revelation, experiences, and encounters, what's this worth? What's this worth? What was it worth for Pastor Kevin in 1992 to plant that original seed, that original idea and imagination of Tesla and what could be? What's every one of these, what's it worth? What's it worth for all the people we have yet to reach if we decide to be investors instead of consumers today? What's that worth? See, I don't picture Adam and Eve sitting around in the garden talking about what they can consume and what they can do for themselves. I picture them being like, "Oh my God, we get to create the future. What do you want? What's in your heart, Eve? Here's what's in my heart. Let's talk." And they go create a future together. See, the greatest way you can create the future for yourself is by creating the future for others. Greatest way you can create your future. We all want to create a future for ourselves. The greatest way to do it is by creating a future for others. You say, "How? Why? What?" Because think about the paradox of the Bible, "Give, and it will be given to you." "Sow, and you will reap." "He who refreshes others will Himself be refreshed." The world of the stingy, consumers, the world gets smaller and smaller. The world of the generous, creators, givers, gets larger and larger. Serve, and you will become great. Whoever loses his life for the gospel will save it. Whoever tries to save his life will lose it. In other words, the greatest way to create the future for yourself is to create a future for others. Think of grandparents. What do grandparents want more than anything else in that season of their life? They want a great relationship with their kids and their grandkids. But you can't just go and buy that off the shelf. That comes from 40 years of creating a future for your children and your grandchildren, not 40 years of creating your own future, hoping that when you're ready for them, they'll be interested in you. The greatest way to create a future for yourself is by creating a future for others. I mean, this is why Jesus said, "Unless a seed falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself. If it tries to hold on to its own life, it stays by itself. But if it dies and falls to the ground, it will bear much fruit." This is Jesus. You realize Jesus created a future for you that got the future He wanted. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross. He laid down His life to create a future for you, to become a new creation. And in the process, He got the joy set before Him, an eternal dwelling with God and man. It's in creating the future for others that you'll find the future you're longing for in your life. In fact, the greatest way to deal with your anxiety, your depression, your stress, your fear, your sense of overwhelming, is to create. Because you were made for it. You're not made to own your own time and sit on TikTok and just consume. There's a reason the Apple logo has a bite out of it. I'm not a consumer. I'm a creator. You say, "Create what?" Music, art, family, opportunities, environments, cultures, memories, experiences, moments, friendships, all kinds of things. Create. Here, you want some free marriage advice? Create the future together. Think about when you first got married, for those of you that are married, and you were so madly in love, and you were so aligned. Why? Because you were trying to create a future together. You were trying to create something that didn't exist. You were trying to create a family. You were trying to create a life. You were trying to create a future for the good of the other person, maybe the children that you would have, maybe your extended family. But you had the sense of creating the future. What happens over time? We go from creating to consuming. And what happened to Adam and Eve in the garden when they were creating a future? They were naked and unashamed and unafraid and walked with God. But the moment they went from creating to consuming, they hid, avoided each other, and Adam started to blame Eve, and Eve tried to rule over Adam. If you find yourself in marital problems, I can promise you, you're not creating a future together right now. So, maybe we just start there. And I get it. Some of you are like, "Bro, this is a lot." It is. See, here's what we want. We want safe church. We want safe life. We want safe home. We want safe calendar. We want to control. We want to hold it all together. God didn't create you to be safe. There's nothing He says to Adam in the garden to be safe and hang out and go on vacation. He gives you safety. And He loves hanging out with you. And He loves it when you enjoy vacation with Him. But you weren't created to be safe. You were created to risk and go into the unknown and be full of faith and go defeat giants and go subdue darkness and be a person of passion. It wasn't safe for Abraham to get up and go. It wasn't safe for Noah to build the ark. It wasn't safe for Moses to confront Pharaoh. It wasn't safe for Nehemiah to go and rebuild the city. It wasn't safe for David to fight Goliath. But in stepping outside of themselves and creating a future for others, they found the future they longed for in themselves because Abraham got to become the father of many nations. Noah, in saving the world, saved his own family and found a future. Moses, confronting Pharaoh for the Israelites, gave him a future of being the person who talks face-to-face with God and doesn't have to be a shepherd on the backside of the desert. Nehemiah went from a cupbearer to being a governor. And David became the king over all of Israel. There is something about creating the future for others that allows us to create the future for ourselves.

We're created to create. I got so much more to say to you, but I'm telling you, it's a six-week message. You're just going to have to string with me on this. So, some of you are like, "Okay, so then what does that mean?" Here's what it means. To create the future that we see in front of us, that we feel like God is inviting us toward, is $50 million. It's $50 million to create the future because it always costs those who want to create that which doesn't exist for the good of others and the glory of God. The amazing part is, we already have $25 million in hand from generous giving and great stewardship. So, we are set up to move forward. We own all of our buildings. We're a debt-free church. Everything is in excellent shape. So, we're right here, "To whom much has been given, much is required." And we get to now decide, what do we want to do? So, there's three things I'm asking every person in Valley Creek to do to create the future that doesn't exist. First thing is just this, commit to Valley Creek as your church. It's impossible to create a future you're not committed to. At some point in time, here's what missional moves do, they always are activation points. At some point in time, you have to say, "This is my church." It's time to move on. To move on from shopping and tire-kicking and checking out and coming and going and going and coming. "I was here for a while, but then I went there for a while, and then I came back here for a while." Like, at some point in time, you have to say, "I'm not choosing this, God has chosen to put me here. This is the body he's assembled me in. This is the family he's placed me in. This is the garden He has planted me in. And so, this is my church. For such a time as this, I am here." And if you hear me say that, and you're like – if by the end of this missional move, you're not like, "This is my church", my encouragement would be for you, then find a place where you can say that. Not because you're not welcome here. You're always welcome here. But because you can't create a future that you're not committed to. And at some point, how do you build a family if you don't get married and say, "We're committed to each other"? This is one of the great reasons that those families often struggle. Because this is like, at some point in time, "I'm committed to you, and you're committed to me. We're going to create something that doesn't exist together. And it ain't going to be easy, but we're going to do it. And we're going to grow in the process, and God's going to do a great thing." So, the first thing is just this, commit to Valley Creek as your church. Second thing is, I'm asking every person to give a significant gift above and beyond what you already give over the next two years. What you will give already, if you give, tithes and offerings, that funds the present. Missional move giving creates the future. If we all just give what we're currently giving, all we can do is what we're doing. But if we give missional move, giving, above and beyond what we're giving over the next two years, we can literally go create the future. And I'm asking every person to do something sacrificial, like something that costs you something. It costs you consuming. "I'm not going to build that house right now. I'm not going to buy that car right now. We're not going to go on that vacation. We're not going to remodel. I'm not going to go to Starbucks."

"I'm going to give up Netflix." I don't know, but wherever you are and whatever God has entrusted to you, what would it look like to give something that costs you something over the next two years? Here's a great question, and I'll answer it for you later in the series, why has God given you resources in the first place? And then, do you use those resources mostly to consume or to create? Do you buy the Tesla, or do you invest into Tesla? It's a great question. And I'm not just praying we give God our scraps and just get to the $25 million. I'm praying for all $50 million. I'm praying that all $50 million is given. Why? Because then we'll have $25 million more for the next thing that God wants us to do. And everything we need is here. Remember I told you? The past creates the present, and within the present is everything we need for the future. All $50 million is right here. That's the comment we don't like. It's right here in the room. The question is, "Is your money for you and consuming? Or do you believe that it's a resource God has given you to create a future that doesn't exist for others? And somewhere in sowing that seed, I'm going to reap the future that I long for." And we got real quiet there. We were excited about creating the future until it cost us something. Thereby is the point, right? Thereby is the point. And the third thing is, I'm asking every person that's here to take one significant step of faith every year over the next five years so we become the kind of people that can steward the future well. We can't just create it but then not be able to steward it. We've actually got to move. And you say, "What does that mean?" That might just literally mean your step this year might be to make a missional move commitment. Or to say, "Valley Creek is my church." Or to start giving. Or to move from giving to tithing. Or to do the reading plan. Or to do your practice plan. Or to get in a circle. Or to join a serve team. Or to become a leader of one of those spaces. There are plenty of steps to take. If we each take one every year over the next five years, then we don't go to Argyle for convenience, we go to Argyle to serve a city. And then we have the kind of leaders that are required for a training center. And then we become the kind of people that actually goes and pray in the prayer center, and so on and so forth. Does that make sense? So, those are the three things that I'm asking you to do. And I realize you're like, "Okay." I know. And we're going to talk about it over the next few weeks. But March 2nd is going to be our commitment weekend. I want you to start praying about it. I want you to start thinking about it. In a minute, when you leave, you're going to get one of these that has all the information in it, like, a financial commitment card in there. Man, I used to hate these things. I used to just wish, "If everybody would just give, we wouldn't ever have to do these." That's not reality. But I'm at a place in my life where I'm so excited about the future that's in front of us that I boldly say, the $50 million is here. The question is, do you want to create a future? When was the last time you created the future for somebody else? If all of your stuff, your money, your time, your energy, your thoughts, goes into the consumption of the world, if it's all buried in the world, you're kind of already missing the point of life. Why has God given you time and money? Genesis 1:28, see, if you lose your story, you lose your identity. You lose your identity; you lose your future. You lose your story. Genesis 1:28, "Why am I here? I lose my identity, who am I and what am I created for? And then, therefore, I have no ability to create a future that doesn't exist." So, my question is, can you see it? Can you see it? Can you see a prayer center, a sacred space where the presence of God is, where people's lives are transformed? Can you see a training center, where the next generation of leaders is developed and raised up to become future creators? Can you see an Argyle campus, in a city that has everything but, without Jesus, has nothing? Can you see it offering hope? Can you see a University Campus, right in a dark, worldly institution, offering the hope of Jesus? And can you see people of peace, right now, on the seven continents, crying out to God, saying, "God, we need help to do that which you've asked us to do," and we get to be the answer to their cry?

Can you see it? Can you see it? So, we're way over time. But this is why it's one big message for all these weeks. And here's what I just want to say prophetically, I think that word for the church is the word for you. It's time to move on. Time to move forward. Time to move forward from pajama pants and the past. It's time to move on from being a Christian consumer. It's time to move on from being a church shopper. It's time to move on from, "My whole portfolio is about my retirement." Which, if you don't like that comment, you're not going to like the next couple of weeks, because, man, I'm going after that one. Because our whole goal in life can't be to accumulate resources, to bury them into the past, to take care of me, myself, and I. I have resources to create. Imagine, you wouldn't be here, if Adam and Eve would have sat. If Adam and Eve would have just dreamed about their vacation house and said, "Let's just be like Tarzan and live in a tree together." They had to harvest and cut and give and sacrifice and serve. But every day, they woke up walking with God, creating that which does not exist. And here we are. Thousands of years later, and you get the opportunity to create that which does not exist, for the good of others and the glory of God. Some of you are like, "Hey, I joined after all this thing happened. I came here later. I kind of missed out." Ready? You didn't miss out, because here is where we are. Here's where we are. It doesn't matter when you got here. Here's where we are. Here's what's in front of us. What kind of future do you want to create? This is one of those deals, I can't create it by myself. I can't create it by myself. We have to decide, what kind of future are we, as the people of Valley Creek, going to create together? Three things, to pray about committing to this as your church. Give a significant gift, above and beyond what you already give, over the next two years. One next step every year for the next five years. What a gift for your own life that would be. March 2nd will be our commitment weekend. You can start praying about it. Stay with me over the next few weeks. I'll try to pull it apart more, because I know that was a lot today. There is a great future to go create. We get to decide what it looks like. So, Jesus, we want to create the future with you. I think that's all I want to say. We want to create a future with you that doesn't exist. Give us courage and faith and vision, to see it, to dream it, to design it, to fund it, to build it, and to steward it. In Jesus' name, amen.