The Believer’s Blueprint - Church Partnership - August 16, 2026

Hey, friends. Welcome to the City Hope podcast. My name is Bobby Thompson, and I have the privilege of serving as a lead pastor. I pray that today's message would inspire you, it would encourage you, and it would also challenge you in your walk with Christ. Enjoy today's sermon.

We're so glad that you decided to come. And the Lord's up to our teams here. Work really, really hard to make this church feel like your church. And so if you want to connect with us, if you haven't yet, there's a little tap thing on the back of your chair. You can tap that.

You can text connect to the number there on the screen. And we would love just to connect with you and get a little bit of information. We're going to change things up a little bit today. I've got a lot to say, all right? And so I want you to make sure you get all this.

So if you. Your got your phone or you got a notebook or whatever it is, I want to encourage you to get that out, because I'm going to give you some really, really helpful and insightful information today. We're in the second week of a series called the Believer's Blueprint. And I believe that the reason why we're doing this is because God's not silent on how we should live, right? He doesn't just be quiet about how his people should live.

He gives us a clear design. And if you want a fruitful life, if you want a joyful life, not a perfect life, but if you want the Lord to show up in your life, he gives us a blueprint. And so really, my heart for doing this, and you guys can see this in all of our lives, it's pretty easy to drift away, right? It's pretty easy to drift into. Well, this is what everybody does.

This is how culture lives. I got a lot of busyness going on in my life. It's really easy to drift away from living in the way that God wants us to. And so let me say it like this. It may be sometimes when we drift away, if you feel weak, spiritually weak, if you feel disconnected, if you feel isolated, if you feel like, man, my walk just doesn't have a lot of power.

If you feel incomplete, it's probably because you've drifted away from living according to God's blueprint. And a passive approach to God's blueprint is. Is always gonna leave us lacking. It's always gonna leave us wanting more. It's always gonna.

You know, there's always gonna be like, man, why is this Just not. And you fill in the blank. But I believe that when we intentionally live with God's blueprint in mind, that's when we grow. That's when God uses us. That's when we mature into the people that God's called us to be.

So last week, if you weren't here, you can go back and listen to this online. We kicked off our seven days of prayer and fasting. And I pray, and I've been praying for you all week. I pray that it was a fruitful week for you. I pray that whatever you fasted from and whatever you were asking the Lord to do, I pray that he just showed up and did something awesome in your lives.

We have a prayer table out in the landing today. We have some more bracelets. If you didn't get one, we got some pray first bracelets you can grab on your way out. Just to remind you that that is an essential thing that God asked us to do. So today we're going to be talking about what does it mean to be a church member?

Why does that matter? What does the Bible have to say about that? Now, before we get there, I want to take a little poll. All right? So everybody, Everybody loose.

Everybody ready this morning? All right, I'm embarrass, some of y'. All. I'm just kidding. Calm down.

How many of you guys would say, I grew up in church? I grew up going to church. My mom and dad made me go. I grew up in church. How many of you?

That's you. Okay. Lots and lots and lots of hands. Okay? How many of you are the opposite?

You're like, I didn't really grow up going to church very much. Anybody in here? Like, I didn't really go that much at all. All right, now, how many of you guys are somewhere in the middle? You're like, ah, we went sometimes.

And you know, you're like, the. Y' all heard the church, the Christian CEOs, the Christian and Easter only crowd. Like, y' all heard. Y' all heard that. Maybe I just made that up.

Church itself, it's not a new idea, right? It's not something that's. That's earth shattering that we're like, oh, it's been around for years. Many, many years. The church was first announced by Jesus when he told Peter, those of you Bible scholars, he told Peter, I'm going to build my church.

I'm going to build it. And then over in Ephesians, Paul teaches that. Now, this is very, very, very important. Don't forget this part. Paul teaches that Jesus loved the church so much that he gave himself up for the church.

And the symbolism came in as a wedding, right? And the Bible says that Jesus views his church as his bride, right? So think about that for a second. He probably feels pretty passionate and affectionate to something that he calls his bride. So if you and I who are trying to follow Jesus and doing our best to live the way his blueprint gives us, then we probably need to sit up and listen to what he says about his bride.

It's probably a pretty big deal, right? And so we know kind of what church is. But before we get into belonging to a church and membership and partnership and all that stuff, what I want to quickly do is I want to give you some definitions, some biblical definitions and some Bobby definitions of what the church is and what the church isn't. Okay? And so we all know and understand the church is not a building.

The church is not a religious organization. So let me give you a longer definition, okay? It's going to be here on the screen. Check out this definition with me. Go ahead and throw that up there, Dave.

A group of people who have trusted Jesus Christ to save them. God has brought them together as a spiritual family to follow Jesus, love one another and help each other know him, help others to know him too. So the long definition. Now here's the short definition. The church is the family of people who belong to Jesus.

The church is the family of people who belong to Jesus. So this is what we call the big C church, capital C church, right? This is all people everywhere, no matter where you live, who belong to Jesus. The past, the present, and the future. All people who belong to Jesus are considered the church.

All right? So if you have asked Jesus to save you, come into your heart, Lord of my life. You are now a part. You are the. The church.

Okay, now let's shrink that down a little bit. Okay? What about the local church? All right, throw up the definition here. For the local church.

A family of believers in a particular place who regularly gather to worship Jesus, help each other, follow him, and share his message with others. All right, Pretty simple, right? The key there is in a particular place now, a local church led by elders, led by deacons, led by pastors. They practice. There's two things that God asked the church to practice consistently.

Baptism and the Lord's Supper. And they live as a spiritual family. Okay, now I want to jump in to Acts, chapter two. If you have your Bible, go to Acts chapter two. When you get into studying God's word, the beginning of Church is Acts chapter 2.

This is where the. The church is really presented clearly in God's word. So let me ask you to stand to your feet and honor the reading of God's word. We're just gonna read a few verses here in Acts, chapter two, and it'll be here on the screen. So this is Peter, and he's been preaching, and he's still talking, and he's coming out, and people are talking back to him.

And listen to what it says. It says, when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart. Said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what should we do? He just got done preaching the gospel. He just got done telling them what they need to do in their lives.

And they say, well, what do we do with this? Peter replied, repent and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call. Now watch this.

Verse 40. With many other words he testified and strongly urged them, saying, be saved from this corrupt generation. Peter's preaching. He's preaching a good message here. And so watch this.

So those who accepted his message right here were baptized. And that day, about 3,000 people were added to them. Now, what does that simply mean? Peter preached. People asked Jesus to be lord over their life.

They were baptized, and then they became a part of a local church. They were added to the role, if you will, of the local church now that there's 3,000 in one day. It says verse 42. They devoted themselves to the apostles, teaching to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. Let's pray.

Father, I just ask you to bless the reading of your word. Open up our hearts and our minds for these next few moments, for what you need for our lives. Lord, you've given us the blueprint. Help us to take just some clear, real inventory in our lives to see where we're at, if we're following that, if we veered off track, God, just speak directly to us. In your name we pray.

Amen. Amen. You can be seated. So the first local church begins in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, right here that we see in Acts, chapter 2. After the Holy Spirit came, Peter preached the good news about Jesus.

3,000 people came to know him, were baptized, and they believed in Jesus, and they added them to the role. So now they're all part of God's local Church there. Now what happened was really cool because these, these church members, now they begin to gather together. The Bible says they, they met regularly together and they devoted themselves. All right, don't, don't miss that.

To the apostles teaching. They devoted themselves to go and gain knowledge and learn more and be discipled. They devoted themselves to fellowship with one another. They devoted themselves to eating with one another. How many of you like that command from the Lord right there?

That's a good one. They devoted themselves and they became the first local church. Now here's what happened. Many people around this area, the news began to spread. What's going on over there?

There's something really cool going on over there. We want to do what they're doing. And then guess what happened. Churches started popping up in Antioch and then over in Ephesus and then over in Corinth and then all over the area, churches just started crossing, started happening and people started joining the local church. And so then we see in the Bible, the second half of the Bible, what we call the New Testament.

A lot of those passages are written to these churches that were started. They're written directly to these people who go to church. So just a quick step back and big picture view. The big C church equals every single person who belongs to Jesus. Every person who belongs to Jesus made Jesus lord over their life.

That's the big C, big picture church. We're all, everywhere. We're all a part of the church, a local church, a real group of those people in one place who have committed to walk with Jesus together.

So hopefully that gives you a good understanding of church and what a local church is and it's supposed to be. So here's the question that I want to begin to tackle. Why is a commitment to the local church needed? Why do I need to be a part of a local body of Christ? Why is that such a big deal?

Well, let me give you the answer and then we'll dig in and talk about why. Being committed to a local church is a biblical expectation for a Christian. Being a committed follower of Jesus in a local church is a biblical expectation for all believers. God did not design Christians to live alone. He did not design you to be a lone ranger Christian, if you will, right?

When someone trusts Jesus. Now watch this. We always, probably for those of you who grew up in church, you always hear this, right? If you get saved, if you ask Jesus to become Lord of your life, what are you doing? You're being saved from a life of eternity in hell, right?

We've probably all heard that before, and that's true. But not only are you saved, are you being saved from something, but when you ask Jesus to be Lord, you are being saved to something. Okay. When I'm saved to something is I'm now a part of the body of Christ. I'm now a part of the church.

So, yes, I don't have to go to hell and spend eternity there because of Jesus, but I am also now I'm in a relationship with everybody else who claims Christ, who says they are believers. So there's this expectation that I'm saved into a people. So let me give you the four clearest reasons that Scripture gives us of why is it important for you to belong to a local church? I'm going to go through these quickly. You can dig in a little bit more deeper on your own at home this week.

Okay? Number one is because you are part of a body, and a body needs its members. You are part of a body, and a body needs its members. First Corinthians 12:27. Now you are the body of Christ.

Once you ask Jesus, first, forgive me of my sins. I trust you. I repent, I turn away. Now I'm a part of the body of Christ and individual members of it. A body only works, right?

A body only works when the parts are actually connected. Right? You were never meant to be a finger out here, just floating around by yourself, Right? You were never meant to be a foot just over here doing whatever you want to do while the rest of the body's over there. I belong.

When we understand that we're part of a body, here's our mindset. I'm a part of the body of Christ. I belong to them. I need them and they need me. All right?

I'm a part of the body. I belong to them. I need them in my life. They need me in my life. So you're part of the body, and the body needs its members.

Number two. God commands us to gather and not drift. Hebrews chapter 10. Let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works. Not neglecting to gather together as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other.

So the writer of Hebrews here, he's assuming that the believers will be in a habit of gathering together with the same group of people. Regular, committed presence. That's how we strengthen each other. That's how we mature in our faith. That's how we grow and encourage one another in our lives.

So God commands us to gather and not drift. Number three, you need shepherds and shepherds need to know who they're watching over. The Bible is very clear that you need shepherds, and the shepherds need to know who they're watching over. Hebrews 13. Obey your leaders.

Submit to them, since they keep watch over your souls as those who will give account. So listen to what the Bible's saying here. The. The pastors, the elders, those in those positions, they're going to be held accountable for the shepherding of the people that God's put in their life. So that's me.

Okay? That's me. One day I'm going to have to stand before the Lord and he's going to say, hey, I gave you some people to shepherd. How well did that go? Did you do what I asked you to do?

And I'm gonna have to stand there but for you, your job, unless you're called to be an elder or a pastor, your job is to listen and obey. What does the Bible say? Obey your leaders. Submit to them. Now, I know in our minds when we think obey and submit, it's, you know, sometimes we get like, you gotta do this and you gotta do this.

It's more of, like, this mutual commitment to one another. It's more of a understanding that knowing who I'm shepherding, knowing who my shepherd is, helps me be more committed to Christ. I know who is responsible. If I have something going on in my life that I really need some help with, I made a bad decision. I did something stupid, something terrible happened.

I got to know, who do I turn to? Who is the one that is supposed to help me walk through these really difficult things? So as a church member, you know who that is. And as the pastors and leaders of churches, we need to know who it is that we are responsible for before God. So you need shepherds.

Shepherds need to know who they're watching over. Number four, last one. Real spiritual growth and mission happen in a committed community.

Real spiritual growth mission happen in a committed community. Ephesians, chapter four. Listen to what Paul says. We will grow in every way into him who is the head Christ. From him, the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love by proper working of each individual part.

So here's what he means. Your gifts, your gifts, your growth as a Christian, your ability to make disciples that God's called us to do, all of that is designed to happen inside a local body together. All of that is designed for you and I. So the things that I go through, I've got my people to lean on. So the things that other people are going through, I know that I can help them and I can take what I've been through and I can help them.

All of this growth, all of this that God's given us, to make disciples, to grow, to use my gifts, it was all designed to use inside the local church. Now, I don't have time to do this, but there are over 30 more verses alone that cannot be fulfilled. That cannot be fulfilled if you are not in a local church. Can't be fulfilled if you are not a part of the body of Christ. You cannot fulfill these verses.

Now we've laid the foundation. I hope you get a good understanding of what the church is, what the big C church is, what the local church is. Now, here's what I want to do. I want to give you some specifics about City Hope Church, because I want you to know today. Now, here's what I don't want to do.

Here's what I've been praying all week long, okay? I don't want to give you what I call the Jesus juke, okay? I don't want to give you the Jesus juke. I might be stealing if you're. If you're.

If you sell houses, I might be stealing one of your little things here. But you have an open house, right? And you want everybody to come in and look at how nice the house is, and it's all beautiful and it's all clean. And one time we were selling a house in Tennessee, and I was like, hey, somebody told me that if you bake cookies and make the house smell like cookies, like, the people who come in will want to buy it, right? And I was like, cool, let's do it.

And so I made some cookies. You remember that? I made some cookies, and I think I burnt them a little bit, but it still smelled good in the house. And the person bought the house. I'm like, it works.

It's crazy.

I don't have any cookies to bake for you this morning, okay? I do not want to. I'm not trying to sell you on anything. I'm not a good salesman. What my heart is today.

I mean, this with everything. What my heart is today is to give you enough information for you to say, yes, I want to be a part of City Hope church or no, that's not for me. I mean that with all of my heart. But I also want you to hear this, and we say this a lot, Whether or not it is this church or another church, you need to be involved in A local church. You need to be a partner of a local church.

You need to be a member of a local church. Okay? And so all I want to do is give you enough information to be able to make that decision in a wise way. And then here at the end of the service, I'm going to give you an opportunity to make that decision. Okay?

So let's jump into some of the nuts and bolts, alright? Here at City Hope, you probably heard this, we use the word partner instead of members. Okay. Why? Because I think there's a real difference between people who attend and people who are partners.

Okay? I think there's a big difference. Attenders often come as consumers, right? The question, and it's usually a quiet question, we don't ask it out loud. But the attender's mindset is, well, well, what can this place do for me?

Right? How can this place fulfill my needs? If the preaching's good, okay, if the music's good, all right, if my kids are happy, okay, we'll stay. But when something starts to feel a little bit off, guess what happens? We start seeing the attenders take a step back and they begin to drift.

They show up, but they don't really belong. They receive, but they never take responsibility and give. That's a consumer mindset. That's an attender mindset. I heard somebody say this this week and I debated whether or not to say it, but I think it's good and I just need to say it.

They said something like this, and I might be butchering it, but they said if you go to church just to get out, it's better that you don't go.

If you show up to church just to get out, what an insult to God, right? The thing that he calls his bride, if you show up to church, just. That's an attender mindset. That's a consumer mindset. What we want to see are partners.

Partners are different partners. Someone said, I am going to intentionally say, this is my spiritual family. These are my people. These are not consumers. These are contributors.

They take God's word seriously. They place themselves under the spiritual care and accountability to the leaders. They use their spiritual gifts to serve. They gather regularly. They pray for the church.

They give generously. They make disciples. They do God's blueprint that he asked us to do. One is spectating, the other is all in. We're looking for committed partners to help us reach the mission that God's given us.

Now, what is that? You've probably heard it. Everybody that gets up here, butchers It. And so hopefully, you know, some version of it.

To lead people to experience Jesus and follow him in ways that change the world. That's our heart.

Why? Because here's what I believe. I believe the world needs more Christians and the world needs better Christians. Right? We need more Christians in our world.

We need more people to fight this fight with us, to live and to help and to bring heaven to earth. We need more Christians and we need better Christians. And so when I tell you that our desire, our mission, is to lead people to experience Jesus, here's what I want to do. I want you to experience it for yourself. I want you to experience his love and his grace and his goodness and all the attributes of God, his forgiveness and his mercy.

I want you to get all of that. And then I want you to go into the world and I want you to help other people experience that. I want you to go to work every day and help somebody else know the love of God. I want you to get on the phone and be so kind to somebody that they say, what in the world is different about her? I want you to experience Jesus and then follow him, like, live according to his blueprint and go change the world.

That's my heart for you. And this is the lens as we make decisions as a church staff, as a leadership, this is the lens through which we strive to make decisions. Okay? Now, I'm not going to go into all these areas and you probably can't even see them, but we have on our website, we have a page that's called Our Beliefs, okay? And you can go on there and you can read in depth all of these.

They've got tons of scripture that go along with these. And you can read exactly what we believe as a church. Okay? But I want to hit just a few. Just.

Just a couple, I promise, because these are. These are very, very, very important things. Okay? Now, but before I jump into these, I want you to know that some of the things that churches talk about, I call these granite issues and sand issues. And I'll explain that.

Granite issues are ones that never change, Right? This is who we are. This does not change. All right? Sand issues are kind of secondary.

Non essential issues are things that, you know, they're shifting, they're sand. And I'll dig into that. But what I want to show you right here are some essentials. These are granite issues that we believe in our church. And everything on that website are granite issues.

Okay? God. God is the creator and ruler over the universe. He externally existed, eternally existed in three Persons. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

These are co. Equal, but one God. This is what we call the Trinity. That's what we believe about God. Scripture, the Bible, is God's word to us.

Every bit of it is real. It is inspired. It is from God. It is written by human authors under the supernatural guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is the supreme source of truth for us.

Everything that we do must align with God's Word. We believe that Christians should live according to God's word. It should be believed, it should be obeyed, and it should be trusted in all of its teaching. That's what we believe about scripture. Man.

Humanity. Man and woman was created in the image of God. Male and. And female. Only two genders.

Okay, just making sure y' all understand that because of sin, sin entered to the world. We are now broken. Humanity was broken and separated from God. And we needed to be and still need to be reconciled to God. That's man.

Salvation. Salvation is a free gift to us. But we must accept it by faith. By faith is the only way we can never make our sins better. We can never do enough good works to outweigh our bad.

We are never going to earn our way into heaven. Professing my faith in Christ alone is the truth and the only truth that gets me to an eternity in heaven. We believe that salvation is for anyone who repents, who confesses, who turns their life over and makes Jesus Lord over their life. That's salvation. Now, baptism in the Lord's Supper, we practice what is called believers baptism.

And we baptize those who have put their faith and trust in Jesus. Now, stay with me. We do not baptize infants. Okay? Now, I know I asked you last week.

There's a lot of different traditions sitting here in this room, right? There's a lot of different kinds of church background in history, and I want to be respectful of those, okay? Every one of them, ours included, has its strengths and has its weaknesses. But I want to make this very clear. If you are called to be a partner of City Hope Church, and maybe this happened to me, maybe your parents told you when you were a baby, you got baptized, you got christened, or you got sprinkled, maybe that's you, okay?

But if you're called to be a partner at City Help, we're gonna ask you to be baptized by immersion. And here's why. Okay? I'm not taking anything away from what happened. Here's why, and we can have a conversation.

We can dig into this a little bit more. Baptism is the first clear step that scripture consistently links to happen after you believe in Christ. Okay, let me say that again. Baptism, over and over and over in scripture consistently links baptism to right after you believe. Okay?

And so not taking anything away. Would love to have more of a conversation. If you feel like your situation might be different. Let's have a conversation. Okay?

But we believe that baptism also is a symbol into the entrance into a new community of faith. Right? And so baptism, the Lord's Supper, last one. It's a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, we memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate his second coming. So that's just a few of those.

And you can go to our website and you can read all the essentials. Those are the granite things that do not change. And I want to encourage you. Go look at that. We hold to like this orthodox Christian, pretty conservative in our theological beliefs.

Okay? Now because we all come from different denominations, different backgrounds, different traditions, the essentials we stand firm on. Okay? But what I want to look at for just a second is then some non essentials, what I consider as sand issues, okay? That on the granite issues, we believe the same and we behave the same.

Okay? On these granite issues, there's no difference, Right. If you're a partner City Hope Church, I'm all in, okay? I believe what they believe. I'm going to live like they live right now.

The sand issues, secondary issues that are important, but they're secondary things like women pastors views on end times. How do spiritual gifts work? Do we talk in tongues? Is healing still a thing? Those are secondary, non essential, non salvation issues.

We can believe differently and still partner together in the same church. All right? These are not matters of salvation. All right? I say this all the time.

I got some of my, some of my best friends are like, yes, women pastors, they need to be preaching, they need to be all over. Some of them are like, nope, that's just for men. And guess what? We're all going to be in heaven together and we're going to ask Jesus one day, okay? These are secondary issues.

Another portion of what I call sand issues are sometimes referred to as tertiary issues. Okay, example, let me give you a couple examples. What's your stance on drinking alcohol? What's your stance on politics? What's your stance on education?

Are you homeschool? Private school, public school? What about versions of the Bible? How many churches fight over versions of the Bible?

There's hundreds of these, right? There's hundreds of these. We can all believe differently and still be a part of the same church together. These are personal convictions. These are not and cannot be church dividing doctrines.

The sand issues should never divide us. We stay unified by holding tightly to the granite things. We stay unified by knowing and understanding that everything else we hold with an open hand, we hold with grace. And we can have conversations and we don't have to get mad at one another. Now, any of these things that we've talked about, if you have questions, if something's popping up and you're like, man, I need to know something, we can chat through this, reach out, I'd be happy to have that conversation.

Okay? Now, I know that we're not the only church in the area. There are some awesome churches in our area. But what I do want to share with you now is some things that I'm really excited about, what God's doing here at City Hope Church. Okay?

This is what our ministry looks like. This is where we're headed. This is the vision that God's given us. If you decide that this is going to become your home church, there's a lot of great churches, but my job is to tell you about this one. Okay?

So I'm going to, I'm going to tell you about this one and then you can determine whether or not this is your church home. And I want to give you this lens. I'm going to give you these 10 things, alright? I'm not going to go through them, I'm not going to go through each one of them. I just want to throw them up here on the screen.

If you want to know what City Hope Church is all about, if you want to say, you know, if I get to become your pastor, if you get to become a part of this local body and you say, I'm a partner, I'm jumping all in. This is the kind of church that we're trying to build. This is the kind of church that we're praying and we're asking the Lord that we feel like these are from him. This is God's blueprint for his people. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.

People ask me all the time, are y' all this denomination? Are y' all this religion? I was like, man, we just, we just love Jesus and we just try. We're trying really hard to follow him and live in a way that, that brings a smile to his face. We're all about Jesus.

We want to be a pray first church. I don't want to be a church that says Some prayers every once in a while. I want to be a church that is considered a praying church. I know the City Hope Church. Those people are praying for me.

Scripture. Scripture is God's truth. We're not going to ever, ever, ever get away from living according to God's scripture. I want to see bold discipleship. I want to see men discipling men, women discipling women, adults discipling our students and, and teenagers.

And we need discipleship. That's a call from the Lord. That's what he's asked us to do. That's what he's commanded us to do. Healthy families, people who serve often, people who give generously.

That's the kind of church we're trying to build. A church that's not just about what goes on in this room, but we go out into the community and love people and care for people and give Jesus to people. We have a kingdom mindset that we're always a worshipful people. These are the values that I believe help us live out our mission that I gave you a few minutes ago.

If we're going to lead everyday people to experience Jesus, these are the values that we have to live by. And this is what we're going to live by. Now I want to begin to land the plane here. I'm going to ask the ladies to come back up. We're going to end a little bit different today.

In the short, a little over four and a half years now that we've been a church, God's done some really amazing things.

As we started about two years in, we were, we were growing a ton. We were over at John Paul and some of you guys remember that room was pretty small and we had to go to two services pretty quickly. And everybody was like, man, we need our own building. We need our own building. And God, as clear as day, told me, bobby, before I give you more people, I want you to shepherd the people that I've given you really well.

You need to shepherd them really well before you trying to go get more. And so I just felt in my spirit that, hey, what does that look like? I began to pray and the Lord put the hope center on my mind. He put the hope center on my heart to say, you know, this is the best way that I know how, that we can have a place where people can come and be discipled in and through the word of God. And that whatever you're going through in your life, this is the place.

And not only is it a place where you can come and be loved on and be shepherded, but is also a hub so that we can take our church and go out into the community and love on other people. So think about it with me so that I can experience Jesus and then I can go into the world and follow Jesus in ways that change the world. And so God put it on my heart. He said, before you build anything, I want you to build a Hope center. And guess what?

This past week, our Hope center began taking its first counseling appointments.

We have, we have full time counselors in the Hope center ready, not only ready to shepherd and not only ready to help people, but listen to this, ready to train some of you in how to do that. Because some of you in here have a heart for that. And God's been stern and you know that that's your gift and that's the part of the body, that's the. That's the hand that you are. And we've got people ready and willing to, to train us so that we can shepherd our community well.

So here in just a couple days on August 29, from 10 o' clock till 12 o', clock, we're going to have a big grand opening. Right? It's just a stop in thing. You can come by, it's on a Saturday and just come in and see it and walk through it. So many of you have given to this.

So many of you have prayed for this. Come walk through it. And, and I pro. It's. It's amazing.

God has just used so many of you guys and, and, and just, man, the, the, the amount of awesomeness that, that when you just walk through there, it, it's overwhelming. That's what God's done. When we started the church, our family, we had sold our house and we didn't know where we're gonna live. And I don't know, many of you may not know this. We lived in a hotel for a month.

Five people, one room and a dog. Okay. Four girls. So one bathroom. That was awesome.

Okay, I recommend all of you guys do that.

But we began to pray and God, where are we going to go? Where are we going to go? And as we started the church and I saw this piece of property and I was like, that needs to be where we put the church one day. And so we found a house out there near there. And it was an old gross Shira walked in, she goes, nope, and turned around and walked out.

Am I lying? Am I lying? That's exactly what she did. And God's blessed us. And I want to tell you today, I've been Praying for this.

On Friday, we signed the papers and we're now owners of that property at 50 Callawassee Drive.

What? It doesn't make sense. I don't understand it. It's the Lord. Today, when you leave this picture here, we've got one out there in the landing.

Stop by and look at it. It's 25 acres. This is kind of the vision. This is the long term vision that I believe the Lord's given to us. And it's probably not going to look exactly like that, but pretty close.

And I can't wait. I can't wait to see what the Lord does. God's moving here at City Hope Church. We got baptisms coming up here next week and just got back from camp and baptizing students. I mean, God's moving.

God's doing some really, really, really cool things. And so here's what I want to ask you to do today, okay? You should have got a piece of paper, a card when you came in. Grab that card for me and just take a hold of that. And I'm not going to walk you through through it.

You're smart, you can read unless you're from Kentucky like me. But when you came in, you should have got this card. And I want to take just a second. And here In a moment, Ms. Sharon and Brittany, they're going to sing. And while they're singing, I want to give you a moment.

If you need to pray with your family, if you need to talk about it, if you need to, you need to just take a moment and maybe you're ready. And just while they're singing, just begin to fill this out. And here in just a few minutes, when we collect the offering, we're going to collect those. But if you're ready to take a step and say, I'm ready to commit, I'm ready to be a partner at City Hope Church, then I want you to take this card. And very clearly, I try to put on there so clear, this is what I'm committing to.

Four things on there that you're committing to do. Four things that you're committing to be. Okay? And on the back, it's just a little bit of info. Now let me say this.

If you've already done this, obviously you don't have to do it again. Okay? If you're unsure, then go ahead and fill it out and you can be a double member, okay? Your vip, all right. It just means you have to tithe twice.

I'm just kidding. Just kidding, just kidding.

But as they spin as they sing. I want you to pray. I want you to ask the Lord, talk to your spouse, talk to your family. And if you're ready to make a commitment to be a partner at City Hope Church, then this is that opportunity to do that. Now, if you have questions, you need more time, take this home, bring it back next week, okay?

Give us a call and say, hey, I just want to ask you about this. Totally fine. I get that you can bring it back. But I want to give you the opportunity and here's how I want to end this. And I'm going to pray and shut up and let them sing.

If you've been in church any amount of time, you've probably heard this, right?

There's enough people dating the church, right? There's enough people dating churches all over the world. God didn't create you to date the church. God created you to be a member of a local body of Christ. And I want to just encourage you today, make a commitment.

If it's not City Hope, then go somewhere and make a commitment. I pray it is. But if it's not, mean it with all my heart. Go commit to the bride of Christ somewhere so that your family can experience and live in God's blueprint that he has for us. Let's pray.

Father, I just ask you right now that you would use this moment in all of our lives. Maybe this is a battle for some people. Maybe this is a struggle. God, maybe this is an area that they've been burned before. But God help us to just know that your word doesn't give us instructions with what if clauses.

Your word gives us command. Your word gives us the blueprint of how to live our lives. And you call us to be in a local body, to be a partner of a local body. And Lord, I just pray for everyone in this room that is faced with this decision that it would be clear, yes, no, somewhere else. I'm all in.

I'm out. Lord, just let it be clear to all of us. And I pray, Lord, that you would bind the enemy. The enemy doesn't want conflict, commitment. The enemy doesn't.

The enemy loves it when we date the church. Lord, I just pray that you would raise up some committed, some more committed followers of Christ, committed followers of you that are that are going to live according to your blueprint. And I pray that many under the sound of my voice would do that right here at City Hope Church. So we love you, we praise you, we thank you, we ask for your wisdom and guidance in Jesus name. Amen.

Thanks again for tuning in with us today. We would love to connect with you and the best way to do that is through social media or go straight to our website. God bless you and have a wonderful day.