Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Exponential, Part 2: Right Place, Right Time

Episode Date: March 18, 2018

When you make a choice, its effects ripple further than you can see. When you plant a seed and nourish it, it can grow beyond your wildest expectations. And when you add to the work God is doing, He can multiply it into something Exponential. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey Life Church, welcome today to all of our different campuses. I want to remind you two weeks from now is Easter weekend. And if you can hit one of the non-Sunday morning services to make room for all of our new gifts, that would be amazing to me. If you can't tell, I'm incredibly excited about starting a new message series. It's called How Sweet the Sound. We're going to look at classic hymns, and we're going to preach on messages from those hymns, and we're going to have a chance to worship at the evening.

end of our message. I cannot wait for Easter weekend. It's going to be powerful. Today, we're in week number two of the message series called Exponential, and I am very excited to introduce someone today that is going to bless you in a big way. He is one of our staff members. I want to tell you about Pastor Bobby Grunwald before you honor him. Pastor Bobby Grunwald is an innovative technology genius. Literally, before he graduated from college, no lie, he built and sold two technology companies. He's been on our staff now for almost 20 years. He is revered and feared all over the world in the technology industry.

Not only has he been featured in the New York Times, CNN, TechCrunch, and the list goes on and on, but he was named literally in the top 100 innovative leaders in America by Fast Company magazine. He's a creator of the U-Version Bible app. It was his idea to give away free resources. U-Version, that's another one of his ideas, and we could just get going.

Not only is he one of my first one of my clients, closest friends in the world, but he can also bench press a lot of weight. Would you please help me welcome Pastor Bobby Grimwald? Well, I want to start first, Craig, by thanking you for the opportunity. This is a huge opportunity to be able to share today. And you and Amy have had a huge impact in my life and in our marriage, our family. We're super grateful. You're not just my pastor. You're also one of my best friends. And it's been a privilege to do life with you and to see the high moments and some of the low moments as well, but to watch how you've honored God in each of those moments is inspiring to me. And so we're very grateful for you. We're very grateful for you, Amy, as well.

Thank you so much for the contribution you make to our church. And for all the rest of you, if you've had the privilege of experiencing Craig's teaching each and every week for years, it might be easy for you to actually think that it's normal, but it's not normal. You know, what we get to experience is actually very, very special, and I don't ever want you to take it for granted. Now, they say that sometimes you need to have some potatoes so that you can appreciate the steak. So this week, I'm here to help you appreciate Pastor Craig.

So if you're posting on social media, you can just tag me. I'm at Bobby G.Walt, but you can also use hashtag Mr. Potato Head. I don't know what we're doing. But seriously, it's actually a huge honor to be here. I never expected to be in this place here at this time. I don't know if you've ever been in one of those places where you just found yourself in a place that you never expected to be.

I have that happen to me several different times in my life. And there's a time that I remember several years ago. It was actually when the Texas Rangers were one game away from going to the World Series. Now, if you're not a baseball fan, the Texas Rangers at that point had never made it to the World Series before. So this was a pretty significant game. And the day before the game, I was actually in South Africa, and I was getting ready to get on a plane to come back home. And right before I got on the plane, I got a text message from one of the owners of the Texas Rangers who I happened to know. And he offered me two tickets to the game.

I looked at my flight schedule and realized that I was actually getting at home in time. And so I thought, I'll just invite the biggest baseball fan I know to go with me, my dad. And so I flew back, picked up my dad, drove to Texas, met with the owner to get the tickets, and he said, hey, why don't you follow me over to the ballpark, and you can actually park underneath the stadium so you won't have to walk? And I just thought, that's pretty cool. So we're pulling in under the stadium, and the security folks come out and they search around the car, and then they give me two green wristbands and tell us we have to put these green wristbands on.

Now, those are those wristbands that if you don't, if you don't line them up just right, the sticky stuff sticks to your skin or your hair. I mean, I hate those things, but we had to put them on, and we walked inside and went through this secure area until we got over to the elevator that took us up to our seats. Now, my dad and I, we were just, like, feeling really fortunate, just to even be in the stadium that day, but we actually got to be a part of history because the Texas Range, won that game, and for the first time ever, we're going to the World Series. So, I mean, it was, it was like such a special moment, but I never even expected that I would be there. Now, here's a

picture that I took that shows what the celebration was going on in the field afterwards, and Dad and I are just kind of taking in this experience and just appreciating the moment. And I was starting to get a little tired. I'd been up for probably 30 hours at this point, and I was ready to go. But then I realized, how am I going to get? get back down to that area where we parked the car. So I walk over to the elevator that we came up on and talked to this security guard there and was trying to explain how our car was downstairs and I know the owner and all this stuff because it's a secure area. And he just looks over at my arm and just kind of then presses the button and takes us downstairs. And I thought, oh, that green wristband.

That's what that's for. I think I actually like these green wristbands. And so we're going downstairs and we're walking back towards the car, and all of a sudden, we get stopped by this crowd of people that are blocking the hallway. I mean, they're literally going in front of the hole. I walk up to him and kind of just see what's going on, and there are players that are coming in off the field into the clubhouse. So this is one of those awesome behind-the-scenes moments. We're just standing there kind of watching what's going on, and they go in, and the media go in behind him. And then there's kind of this opening where we could get by, so I start to walk by in the hallway. And then I notice one of the security guards is talking to one of the people,

in the group, and he points to her green wristband, and he says, family will get to go in after the media come out. Like, dad? Bring it on back. And so we just stood there, and five minutes later, the media leave, and then we get escorted into the clubhouse where the players are celebrating. I took this picture, because you won't believe I was actually there. I'm not making this up. We're in the clubhouse. And here's another picture. We're actually holding the trophy, the American League Championship Series trophy. This is crazy.

I mean, 48 hours earlier, I'm in another country. I'm not expected to be at the game. Not only do they win the game, but I'm standing with my dad in the clubhouse holding the trophy. I mean, you talk about crazy. I mean, this is one of an epic father-son moments, the biggest I've ever had. My dad still has that picture on his desk because he was so proud of that special moment. We didn't deserve to be in the clubhouse, but we had a green wristband, right? And we're in the right place at the right time.

Now, this phenomenon is actually addressed in scripture. If you look at Ecclesiastes chapter 9, verse 11, it reads, the fastest runner doesn't always win the race, and the strongest warrior doesn't always win the battle. And those who are educated don't always lead successful lives. It's all decided by chance, by being in the right place at the right time. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm pretty encouraged by that verse,

because I'm not the fastest, definitely not the strongest, not the wisest, not the most educated, but you're telling me there's a chance. That's right. I need that. I need a chance. And when it comes to eternal things and spiritual things, I think we have even much more than just a chance because God is the author of time and space, and he's the one that places us in those right place, right time moments.

Now, you might think that never happens to me. You might think, I don't find myself in those right place, right time moments, and I would challenge you because I would say I think you probably do, but what if you just aren't looking for them? What if you didn't have the eyes to see them? See, one of the key ways, actually, we can find those right place, right time moments is by actually looking for where God's already working

and what God is already doing. And if you turn to John chapter 5, verse 17, Jesus is talking to the Jewish leaders who are harassing him for working on the Sabbath, and he says, my father is always working, and so am I. You see, God is always working. He's working all around us. And a couple of verses later, Jesus continues. He says, I tell you the truth, the son can do nothing by himself. He only does what he sees the father doing. Whatever the father does, the son does also.

Do you see what the father is doing? Do you see where God is working? He's working, he's always working. He's working all around us. But when we can see where God is working, when we can see where God is moving and what God is blessing, that's where you need to be. That's the right place at the right time. And when we join what God is doing

by sowing our resources at the right place and the right time, guess what? God multiplies it. He does the exponential. We've seen him do this at Life Church, many, many times. The exponential, do you realize we're part of an exponential church? I mean, do you really realize it?

You see it. We've seen God place us in those right place, right time moments, multiple times. Let me give you some examples. About four years in after Craig and Amy started the church, the church was growing. It was growing really rapidly. We were adding services. There were lives that were being changed, and we were just about to outgrow the building that we just finished building,

which is not usually, it's a good problem, but not a great problem. And on the other side of town, there was a church. It was a great church. They had a great building, but they hadn't been growing for several years, and they had a pastor that had recently retired. And they asked Pastor Craig if he would be interested in coming to be their pastor. And he said, I could never leave what I see God doing at Life Church, and I don't feel called to leave it, but you're welcome to join us.

Now, he never actually expected that that offer he made or that proposal he made that they were actually going to take that seriously. But what he didn't realize was that they were looking for a place where they could see where God was already working. And they believed this was one of those right place, right time moments. And so 30 days later, after they had the conversation, just 30 days later, they did what I believe is a miracle. They voted to take everything that they had, all the buildings, the land, the resources they had, and to sew it into Life Church and to join Life Church 30 days later, something that's just crazy to think about. Do you know what God does when he sees his people do something like that? He does the exponential. That's what he does. The very first week that we became one church in two locations, the very first week, it wasn't one plus. 1 equals 2, or it was 1 plus 1 equals 10. There were thousands of people that came. And now we had two locations with capacity to be able to reach even more people. Now, we learned something back then. We learned that when God moves, that sometimes and oftentimes we actually have to leave or even

abandon our plans to be able to join what he's doing. You see, we had a plan to expand our We had drawings to build a three to four thousand person auditorium. And this was kind of the master plan that we had kind of put together. But when we begin to see how God was working through one church that met in multiple locations, we said, this is probably one of those right place, right time moments where we should actually sow our resources into what God's already blessing and what he's already doing. And so we sowed our resources into launching our third location in Tulsa. Now I know this really well because every week I would go to Tulsa with one of our other leaders, Kevin Penry, and we'd go there every week. We met with a core group of 30 people, started in a house,

and then we went into a hotel ballroom. And God took the seed that we invested and planted in Tulsa, and today we have over 22,000 people in Tulsa meeting in six campuses with thousands and thousands of people whose families are changed and marriages are restored because of the seed that. that we planted. Well, we saw what God did, so we planted more seed and more locations. And today, God has done the exponential because we have 27 locations now in eight states. And next week, next week, we're going to launch our 28th campus in Catusa, Oklahoma. That's right. And the week after that, we're going to launch our 29th campus in our ninth state in Omaha, Nebraska. And the 30th And 31st and 32nd are going to come later this year.

You see, it's exponential results. When we invest our resources where God is already working, the right place and the right time. Now, in 2006, we were growing rapidly as a church, but we were struggling financially. You see, we had borrowed as much money as the bank would loan us because we were trying to build buildings as fast as we could to keep up with the growth in what we saw happening. And at that same time, there were publishers. that were offering to take all of our resources, the videos and graphics and sermons that we had, and to package them all up together and to sell them for other churches so that we could have an additional revenue stream. It seemed to make a lot of sense. But in January of that year, 2006,

as a leadership team, we were meeting just on the other side of this wall on a small room over here. And in that meeting, we really felt like God was saying, this is one of those right place, right time moments, to do something irrational. We felt like God was saying, I want you not to sell those resources, but I want you to sow those resources into other churches, give them away for free. Now, this was a big step of faith because we actually needed the money, and it was actually going to cost more money to build a website, to have staff, to actually give the resources away. I mean, free is not necessarily free, you know, to give. But we knew that this was a lot. We know, was the right time and the right place. And God did what only God can do with that step. He did the

exponential. Today, we have over 500,000 pastors and church leaders around the world that have downloaded those free resources and used them to reach countless millions of people in their church. And we can trace back to that day, to that decision, God, financial blessings on this church. Since that day, we've never had to borrow more money. Since that day, we've never had to borrow more money. And today, we're completely debt-free. That's right. And we've been able to invest more resources in global, local, and digital missions today on an annual basis that we had in our entire budget back then, which is just incredible to think about. So we're always looking for where is God working, trying to see what

he's doing. And today there's an area that we believe that we really see some momentum. And that's where the resources that we're putting to try to help business leaders and marketplace leaders grow. If you've not subscribed to the Craig Groschell Leadership Podcast, you've got to do so today. I'm telling you, there were over half a million downloads of that last month, which represents millions of people because leaders are taking their teams through it. Business owners and business leaders are having their entire organization. Watch it. It's completely free like everything else we do. And God is using it to reach people in the workplace. And so we see God moving. We see God doing something. So we're going to invest more

resources and sow more into it. So if you don't have it, you need to get it because it's going somewhere. I'm telling you, it's going somewhere. Now, a final example I want to use is U-Version. You've probably heard Craig talk about U-Version. You may even heard me talk about U-Version before. And I want to tell you the story again one more time briefly, but I want to tell it to you because I want you to catch something really specific. In 2007, we launched U-Version as a website that was designed to try to help us engage in the Bible. And it failed. It didn't work. And we're processing why didn't it work? What was wrong? And And one of the ideas, one of the things we felt like was that we were not able to access it on our smartphone,

and we were using our smartphones all the time. And so we redesigned it so that we could access it on our smartphone. And when we did, it was profound how we were able to connect with Scripture in a new way, and just wherever we were. And we could see that God was doing something. We could see it because we could just sense it. And at that time, Apple announced that they were going to make it possible to develop apps for the iPhone.

And they were going to create this thing called an app store where you could download the apps. And so we thought, maybe this is one of those right place, right time moments. And so we began to invest some more resource at a part-time project to build a Bible app that we gave, submitted to Apple. And then in July of 2008, almost 10 years ago,

they launched the app store, and it was on a Thursday, and we were among the very first 200 apps that were available the day that the app store launched. That was a Thursday, and by Sunday, we saw 83,000 people install that app on their iPhone, and we were blown away. Now, you know what we do when we see God move. We stop our plans, and we join him.

So Monday, Monday morning, this is a full-time thing for our team, and we're taking whatever resources we can have and reallocating them to be able to invest in this. And there is a lot more to the U-Version story, but what I want you to catch it really quickly is the sequence of what just happened. You said, we did our plan first, and it failed. But when we took our resources and we put it behind what God was doing, he did the exponential. And he's still doing it today.

Those 83,000 devices that were installed that first weekend, now are over 315 million growing by... That's right. growing by over 4 million every single month. And it's every country. It's countries where you couldn't get access to a Bible, countries where it was illegal to have a Bible, and we're seeing triple-digit growth in those countries. We're seeing billions and billions and billions of minutes spent using the app to engage in God's word. I could go on, but I'm just trying to show you this is the exponential that God's doing, and he used the seed that our church planted to do it. So we're

We're always looking. We keep looking for where is God working? What is God doing? And in U-Version, one of the specific areas is he's using a feature called verse images. Now, verse images are where someone takes a verse, and they take an image, they put the verse on the image, and then they share it on social media. We see that happen right now 350,000 times a day. 350,000 times. Yeah, so 350,000 times a day, someone's taking a verse, post it to an image, and putting it on social media. And so our team sees that, and they come up with an incredible idea, one that I'm super excited about. And it pushes in to what God's already doing with this momentum in verse images. So I'd actually like to show it to you.

Maybe do a sneak peek. Yeah? Now, my team has advised me that this is a terrible idea. They've told me that it's not ready, that it's nowhere close to being ready. In fact, even before I got up here, someone was saying that it's really okay, you don't need to do that demo. It probably takes too much time, et cetera. But I'm a risk taker. I'm not going to insult God with small thinking, safe living.

This is Life Church. Come on. So now, now here's the disclaimer, though. This may not work. It's a prototype. The actual thing will look better, it will work better, it will be faster. So if this works and you like it, the one that will actually release, you'll really like. And also, it's possible that you could get injured in this demonstration.

You've been worn. We're good? You want to see it? All right. All right, let's see here. All right, so this is a camera. See? Hi.

All right. Now, let's try this. There's a lot of risk to this. All right. Here's a picture. Wait for it. Wait for it. Remember that faster part.

There it is. For husbands, this means love your wives. As Christ loved the church, he gave up his life for her. Ephesians 525. All right. I think you got what it did, but I'll explain it to you. I took a picture. It saw what was in the picture.

It found the best verse for that picture. And then it styled it. I watch this. Look, I can just keep doing different kinds of styles. Just different ways to show it on there. Okay, let's try. We got time. Let's do it.

Okay, let's come find something else. What can we take a picture of? No, I don't know, it's fine. There's nothing back here. Let's try. Let's see if this will work. Risky, risky. Come on.

The same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see so that everyone appraise your heaven or father. All right, all right. Let's do another. Okay, somebody, you, come here, front row. Stand right here. smile all right risky what's it going to say i've written to you who are god's chill let's see here let's try this one for i can do everything through christ who gives me strength so i recommend having

fun because there's nothing better for people always be full of joy in the lord i say it again rejoice okay that's pretty good that's pretty good i think that works that's good okay all right so you good. So here's the deal. That's just the beginning. That's the first part. There's more. It will go back through your camera roll to the pictures you've already taken, the moments you've already captured, and find the best verses for those moments. Just, yeah, just like the day I was with my dad, took that picture in the stadium, and there's still more. And if it finds a selfie, right? Right? It's going to take that picture, that selfie, that you might have intended for someone else to see so that they could possibly tell you what they think about how you look

or what you're wearing, right? And we're going to be. We're going to be a little. We're going to to take that selfie where people are trying to find approval from other people, and we're going to find a verse that shows them what God thinks about them. Yeah. We're going to redeem the selfie is what we're going to do. Come on. Now, can you see it? I mean, can you see it in Wellington? Come on. Can you see it in Fort Worth? Can you see it up in Overland Park? Can you see it right here? Can you guys see it? Can you see what God can do? Can you see what he's getting ready to do? Can you see that we're in the right place at the right time? I mean, can you see it? You don't have to start a movement to be part of a movement. You know that? You don't have to start a movement

to be part of a movement. You just have to see where God's working. and join them. You get that? You see it? Any one of those things that I mentioned, any single one of those things, would be worth spending your entire lifetime investing yourself,

investing yourself in just to be a part of it. And we actually get to be a part of several exponential things that God is doing through this church. I mean, we get to be a part of a church that is in the right place, in the right time, in several different places. I mean, it's incredible. But what's more important,

or something that's even missing that I haven't said yet, that is in all of these stories that it's not just recognizing when we're in the right place at the right time. But it's also having the right response, right? Each of those stories,

it wasn't just the right place and right time, but it was having the right response. Because seeing what God is doing and where he is working is how we find the right place and the right time. But sowing our resources, our time, our talent, our treasure, that's the right response. Because when you're in the right place, at the right time, with the right response, that's when God does, the exponential.

Let me say it again for you. When you're in the right place at the right time with the right response, that's when God can do the exponential. Now, when I was walking down the hallway, that day in the baseball stadium, I was presented with a choice. I had an invitation to join what was happening in the clubhouse. Or I could have gone to the car. Right?

Now, once I was presented that opportunity, even though I was tired, do you think that even for a second I was just going to walk to the car? Not a chance. I'm going to the clubhouse, right? Some of you here today,

you're cheering, you're excited about what God's doing. And that's because this is your church. Right? It's because you've sowed your time and your talent and your treasure. You've been serving in life kids. You've been volunteering. You've been tithing, and you're already in the clubhouse. Right?

You're celebrating what God's doing. But there's others of you that you're spectators. You're just watching it. You don't feel like you're apart. And maybe even before today, you didn't actually have eyes to even see what God was doing. but regardless, I've got really good news because each of you have a green wristband. You've got an invitation to join God

and to join what he's doing. Now, now that you know that, right, now that you know that you have that opportunity, are you going to go to the car? Are you going to go to the clubhouse? Are you going? Are you going to join what God is doing and sow your resources into where he is working? So are you going to, there may be some of you here today, maybe many of you here today,

that your right next step, your right response is to actually invest your time by serving in life kids or the host team, or perhaps even as a switch leader. You know, I think there might even be one person, maybe more than one person here today, that God's calling you to a career change. perhaps you're a developer. You've got skills, computer programming skills, ninja skills. And God's calling you to sow those unique gifts and talents that he's given you into where he's working.

You may have been waiting for an audible voice. Here it is. You've got a green wristband, right? You've got a chance. There's others of you. And you've been looking for places to invest your financial resources that have the greatest return, and now you can see it. You're not just going to honor God with a tithe, but you're going to go well beyond the tithe with an offering because you want to be a part of the exponential blessings of what

God is already doing here. And it might be that several of you don't even realize this, but we all have the opportunity to actually hand out green wristbands and to invite people to be a part, just like I invited my dad to come to there that day. We don't have to keep this to ourselves. It's not a Secret. We have a choice. You have a choice. You can go to the car or you can join God in what he's doing and invest your time, your talent, and your treasure. I have no question that we're in the right place. I have absolutely no question that it's the right time. The only question I have is what is your response? Because it's a If we position ourselves in the right place at the right time and we make the right response, then I believe that God is going to do immeasurably more than we could ever ask than we could ever imagine. And he's going to do it through his people, through you, his power at work within us, not so that we can receive glory, but so that he can receive the glory.

So we give God all the glory in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you very much. Well, can you see it? We're going somewhere. We're going somewhere. We're going somewhere. We're going somewhere. God is moving.

God is moving. God is moving. God is moving. God is moving in a big way. All of our churches. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for the move of your spirit. We thank you, God, for what you're doing.

We thank you how your word is alive. And, God, that we have the opportunity to join what you're doing. all of our churches as you're reflecting in prayer today. Some of you, you've been going to the car, you realize it's time to go to the clubhouse. You're not quite all in. You're not yet serving. You're not completely involved. You realize God is moving and you want to take a step toward the movement of God and say, yes, I want to be even more involved. Whatever that means to you, you're listening for the audible voice. You just heard it. It's time to step into it. All of our churches, those who say, yes, I want to take a step toward where God is moving. Lift up your hands.

High right now, God, thank you that you're speaking to people, right place, right time. Stir within them, God, the gifts that you've given them to use to make a difference in your church, as your church, letting your light shine all over the world. God, thank you. You're speaking to hearts even now. As you keep praying today at all of our different churches, guess what? There are those of you, you are in the right place at the right time. You may recognize that there is a big void in your life.

spiritual longing. You know there must be something more and you don't know what it is. Let me tell you what it is. It is peace with God, a living relationship with God, a life transformed by the grace of God. At the appointed time, our God sent his son, born of a virgin, perfect in every way, never ever sinned, died the most brutal death on the cross on the third day. He rose from the dead. Why? So that anyone, and this includes you who calls on the name of Jesus, would be so. saved, forgiven, and made completely new by the grace of God. At all of our churches, there are those of you you recognize. You have sinned.

You need forgiveness. You feel empty. You need filling. You're turning from your empty way of life, turning toward the grace of God. As you call on the name of Jesus, you will never be the same. All of our churches, those who say, yes, I need his grace. Yes, I want new life. Today, I turn from my sin.

I turn toward Jesus. I give him my life. That's your prayer. Lift your hand right now, all over the place. Lift them up high and say yes, right here and back over here and back over here. Other saying yes, Jesus, I need you. Follow you guys right over here, man, this whole section together right here. Church online, you click right below me, right place, right time.

You're here to meet the grace of Jesus. Would you pray with those around you? Pray Heavenly Father, I give you my life. Jesus make me new. Forgive my sins. Fill me with your spirit so I can follow. you for the rest of my life. My life is not my own. I give it to you. In Jesus name I pray. Life Church, would you worship big welcome those born into God's family.