The Church of Eleven22 - Eternal Life - The Church of Eleven22’s 2024 Vision

Episode Date: January 7, 2024

Our focus for this year is ETERNAL LIFE. We have to be willing to get uncomfortable and get messy to get our One More's to Jesus. Find out more about our 2024 Vision at https://coe22.com/about/vision/ - The Church of Eleven22™ is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas.  To find out more about how God is moving at Eleven22, go to coe22.com

Amen and amen. How are we doing, church? Good. Well, happy 24. You look great. You look thinner already, okay? Congratulations on that. Hey, you need a couple of things.

One's way more important than the other. One is you need this vision piece that your campus pastors have already told you about. Make sure you grab that. We're going to walk through this. And more importantly, you need your Bible, okay? Because the Bible is the authoritative, inspired, infallible word of God

on which we base everything. It is our ultimate authority. And then this vision piece is just how we as a church are going to walk out right here in Jacksonville and around, you know, Jessup and all over the place, what the Bible says that we as believers are to do. And if you're new here, man, what a great day for you to be here. Because if this is your first time, you're going to hear all about what we are as a church.

And if you don't like it, no problem. Then at least you'll know what not to come back to. But we're going to spend about an hour going through like this, and then we'll be out in plenty of time to go watch the Jaguars whip that pagan God. The Titan. You know what? That's a Titan is a pagan god. Who in the world could like those people?

Okay, anyway. So we are one church in men. many locations. All right. We're just one church. I know we've got locations all over the place, but we're just one church. We have one vision. We have one mission, one message, same music, everything's the same.

We've got a campus in Arlington, in Bay Meadows, and Fleming Island, and Jessup, Georgia, in Mandarin, in North Jacksonville, in Orange Park, in San Pablo, St. John's at Creekside High School right now, going to be permanent soon. In Columbia Correctional, Union Correctional, Duval Women's Correctional. And for the very first time, please welcome our newest campus, Pontevigra, that right now is meeting at Ponderview High School, right? Way to go. All over the place. And then in addition to that, we have typically a typical weekend about 50,000 people or so that worship with us online, so glad you are here. And what we do every single week is, or every single

year at the beginning of the year, is we just walk through what we think God is calling us to do as a church. So you'll get this, okay, this is very, very important. And it is, it is made the way it is so that you can open it up. It's like an origami thing. Oh, ha, right? It's like a transformer. And I want, if I come to your house, which probably won't happen, but if I do, this thing needs to be hanging up somewhere where you can see it.

Now, don't open it yet. You'll never be able to get it back, okay? It's very spiritual. So right there on the front, it says 2024 vision, that we are, her vision has never changed, that we're a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. We're not just an organization. We're not a bunch of buildings. It's not what we are.

we are a movement for all people, which is really good news. If you follow in the all people category, this could be your church to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus. That means if you're brand new the Bible study, okay? And in a little while, when I say turn to Mark chapter 2, you're like, who's Mark? If you don't know who Mark is, no problem. I'm glad you're here. I'm going to teach the Bible in a way that you can understand it.

And some of you were in Sunday school with Noah. Praise God. So glad you're here too, all right? And you've been studying the Bible longer than I've been alive. Okay, we're going to dig into the text. And that's what we do every single week here. And this never changes. We just want all people, all kind of people, no matter what your background is, this is a movement for you to discover for the very first time and deepen.

And here's the most important part, a relationship with Jesus Christ. That's why we do what we do. Now, how we are going to particularly do that in this season of our church life, if you'll open it up one time, you'll see right up here it says 10-10 life. And you've heard this from your campus pastor that we are in the middle, we're in the middle, we're in the second year of a two-year discipleship journey that's rooted in John chapter 10 verse 10 so way back in COVID when churches were shut down and stuff like that the overwhelming thought I had is our people need a shepherd it led me to John chapter 10 verse 10 and that verse says the thief comes only to steal kill and destroy so first of all you have an

enemy he's a thief and the only thing he has for you is he wants to steal kill and destroy but all in John chapter 10, Jesus says, but I am the good shepherd, and I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly. And we know that the abundant life is not the abundance of possessions, because he goes on to say, I am the good shepherd and I lay down my life for my sheep. So the abundant life is found in a relationship with Jesus Christ through the good news of the gospel. He continues to go on in chapter 10, and he says this, and my sheep hear and recognize my voice, and they follow after me. So pretty much the crux of this whole 10-10 life journey is simply this is I want every single one of us at 1122 to hear the voice of the good shepherd and do what

he tells us to do. Because anytime we move in the direction of the good shepherd, we're always moving towards eternal life, towards the abundant life. And every time we reject him and say, forget you, I do what I want, we are moving towards kill, steel, destroy. That's what we're moving towards. And on this bottom section here, you'll see that there's three aspects of this 10-10 life journey that we're on. There's church life, eternal life, and abundant. We'll start with the abundant life. The abundant life is this. Jesus said, I came that you may have life and have it abundantly.

And so as I was praying through this a few years ago, I began to think, what would it look like for a church, not to simply be pro-life as a political stance, but what would it be like for a church to be pro-life from conception to the casket, from womb to tomb? And we would be the kind of church that would throw our hat in the ring, and we would go to war on behalf of every single image bearer of God from the moment they are conceived all the way to the moment they go be with the Lord. And so if you want to get involved in fighting for image bearers of God,

they'd love for you too. If you go to COE22.com slash 1010 Life, you could get into the fight for the unborn, for our foster care initiatives that we have. You could fight for our first responders, for our special needs folks. In fact, one of the ways you can serve right now is next month we help host the largest night to shine in all of the world, and so we need

some buddies for that, you could do that, whatever it is, serving in our senior adult ministry, that we are the kind of church that fights for every image bearer of God, because there are no accidental people, and every single human being, regardless of how they are, they bear the very fingerprints of the Almighty God. That's what abundant life is all about. Another thing that we're doing in this 10-10 life is what we call church life. That means we're just going to keep being the kind of church God has called us to be. That we make disciples that make disciples that make disciples. That's what we do. That we get together every single weekend and we glorify God in worship and word. That we are not primarily in the crowd business. We're in the disciple making business. This is important. If I just wanted to

draw large crowds, I'd quit this job and I'd work for Monster Truck. It's the biggest crowd we have in Jacksonville every single year, right? So that's not what we're doing. We're getting in here and we're glorifying God and worshiping word. We're going to continue to be a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. And so this year, we're going to focus on eternal life. Okay? That's going to be like the theme for the whole year, which is a part of the 10-10 life.

And it's shaping all of the sermon series. So for those of you are interested, here's the sermon series that you have to look forward to. Beginning next week, we're going to start a five-week series called testimony. And it's rooted in the book of Revelation chapter 12. Now, some of you get too excited about it. Some people are not excited enough. Don't worry about Revelation.

I'm a pro. I can get us in there without getting eaten by the dragon and we'll get right out. Okay, now, Revelation 12, 11 says this, and they, meaning the church, and they have conquered him

by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony for they love not their lives even unto death. That if you know Jesus, you have a testimony and your testimony is powerful and God wants to use your testimony

to change the world. So we're going to do five weeks on that. Then we're going to do a seven-week series called Titellistone. for seven weeks, we're going to study the seven last things Jesus ever said, and he said these things while he was on the cross. And the last thing he said is it is finished. So it'll be a seven-week journey to the cross. That'll take us all the way to Easter.

Then you're going to love this. For 14 weeks, we're going to do a study on the Book of Galatians. Woo! I know it's crazy. I mean, Galatians talks about circumcision mostly, and so that's going to be, you know, nothing to reach Jacksonville like circumcision. So you're like, what are we doing? Here's what we're doing, man. We just teach the Bible around here.

See, what happened in the church of Galatia is they began to believe a false gospel that they had to do certain things in order to earn God's favor. And Paul's ticked off when he writes this, and he's like, who has bewitched you? And so if we're going to understand what eternal life is, we've got to be rooted in the gospel. And it is for freedom that we have been set free is what Galatian says. So anybody that knows or wants freedom, that's who should come to the Galatians series. Then we're going to do a nine-week series on spiritual warfare called Stand Firm. Again, because if we're going to study eternal life, eternal life is not just what happens when you die.

Eternal life begins the moment you begin to know Jesus. And that we have an enemy, a thief that wants to steal, kill, and destroy. And life is not merely physical. Life is eternal. Everybody spends forever somewhere, and some of you are getting your butt kick because you don't even know you're in the fight. And so we're going to spend nine weeks on spiritual warfare. Then we're going to do a seven-week series called Run Over by the Grace Train. When you encounter the grace of Jesus Christ, it's going to change your life,

like as if you got run over by a freight train. And then we're going to do a six-week series called When God Asked. I don't know if you know this. Jesus asked 307 questions in the Gospels, and he only answered three. Reminds me in my teenagers. And so that's what we're going to do. We're going to look at six different questions that Jesus asked. Why?

Because that's what we do when we come in here. When we come in here, a part of what it means to be in this church is we're going to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Now, if you open up this top part, this is very important. Go ahead, open it up. There it is. There's your calendar for the rest of your year. Now, there will be other things for sure, but these are the four most important events, more important in your anniversary and your birthday and all the things, okay? You need to get out your phone and you need to invite yourself to these events right here.

You see, every healthy family has good family. These are the family rhythms of the church of 1122. This is when we all get together and this is what we're doing. The next event that you have to look forward to in regards to our church is Easter. Comes every year. Don't be surprised. We are going to celebrate Easter on March the 28th, the 30th, and the 31st. Why?

Because if the tomb is empty, anything is possible. And if the tomb ain't empty, nobody should be here anyway. It's all a waste of time. This is the granddaddy of them all. Okay. This is the Super Bowl for us. Then in May 5th, we're going to celebrate Beach baptism at the beach. Have you ever been to Beach baptism?

It's epic. Last year, we baptized 1,126 people on that one day. And so it's really cool. It's just all we're doing is celebrating the move of God as a church. We all come together. In September 11th through the 15th, we do saturated together. I think the problem with adult discipleship is adults quit going to camp. And we love camp around here.

And so saturated is like camp for a lot. us, for adults. And so we're going to show up Wednesday through Sunday. I invite some of my friends in to come preach, some of the best preachers in the world. This year is Jim Bergen, Matt Chandler, Derwin Gray, Ben Stewart, and then I'll preach on Sunday. Don't miss this. And then lastly, Christmas Eve. We kind of got a double-barrow Christmas Eve this year. We'll have services the 19th and 22nd, but also, you know what I mean? That's not Christmas Eve. I know, because guess who's supposed to Christmas Eve this year? You are. Yeah, we are going to provide you with all the materials that you need to invite your one more, your friends and neighbors,

to come to wherever you want to have it. And listen, man, I've already checked with Jesus. You can even trick your friends. You can be, hey, come over for Christmas Eve, got some spicy egg knob for you. And when they walk in, be like, ha, here's your eggnog. Watch this. And then you're going to show it, all right? And we're going to have our own.

We're going to have, like, thousands of worship services all over the place at Christmas Eve. Now, here, write those things down. Don't miss these things. These are really big deal. If you've already planned your vacation, then get your deposit back or lose the deposit. I don't care. Don't miss these things. You're like, why do you make such a big deal about these big four events?

Here's why. Jesus said that the number one commandment in all of the Old Testament is this, is to love God. I can't make you love anything, but we can set up the dates so that you can experience the living God. Amen? Don't miss those things. Those are our family events. Now, if you look right below this, this is how we are a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. This is called our discipleship journey.

And for those of you that are ready to take a next step in your walk with Jesus, then I want you to download our app, the 1122 app. And on it, there's a big old button that says, discipleship journey. And you push that button, and this picture of this little triangle thing shows up. And you'll notice there's no beginning and there's no end. You know why? Because everybody doesn't necessarily start in the same place.

The other reason is there is no end to your discipleship until you die and are glorified to be with him. and think about this. A really good definition for discipleship is simply asking this, what is the next step of obedience that God is calling me to take in his direction? What is the next step of obedience? And if you will just download that app and ideally sit down with another person and go through it. And ideally, it would be good if you either sat down with an older Christian or a better Christian. And so let's be honest.

It won't be that hard to find that person, right? and you just begin to just evaluate your walk with Jesus and ask this one question, what is the next step? Now let me warn some of you go-getters. Don't necessarily try to take six steps this week because you'll burn yourself out. Just take one step at a time. Maybe it's joined a disciple group or share your faith or share generosity or whatever it is. Just one step. Because some of you've already tried that this week.

Like you hadn't worked out since the Obama administration and you're like, you know what's there? I'm getting in shape this week. And you went to the gym and you did all. the body parts, right? You were there for an hour and a half. And then the next day, you couldn't get off the toilet. And you're like, I ain't doing that anymore. Okay, so, take your time, just take one, whatever it is, go through that discipleship journey,

and then whatever the next step is, and we would like for you to take that step, whether it's join a disciple group or it'll walk you through that. Now, one of the steps in obedience to Jesus is when you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ, Jesus commands us to go public with that through the ordinance that we call baptism. And baptism doesn't save you, but what baptism does is baptism is an outward and visible expression of a personal relationship that you have with Jesus Christ. And so all throughout this whole month, in all of our services and every one of our campuses, we are going to baptize folks.

And so maybe that's the next step for you, and we're going to celebrate baptism right now. Now, you have a role in baptism. We're going to hear from Hank and her story, and then after that, we're going to baptize her, and when we do, when she comes up out of that water, then you lose your ever-loving mind for the sake of Jesus. Amen. So take just a minute and watch her story. I came here for a very dear friend of mine's funeral service, and my best friend was coming here. I started coming with her regularly, and then there was one service, and Pastor Jovi said,

Is there anybody here who feels like maybe that they're not deserving of the love of Jesus? I just started crying. You know, letting that go was big. Jesus died for us. He took care of it. So the baptism for me is very personal and very intimate relationship that I have with Jesus. It's something that I want everybody. truly want everybody to be able to experience. It is my opportunity to share that with everybody.

Jesus paid the price for all of us, and you can have that personal relationship with Jesus too. It's possible for every single person to have that personal relationship with Jesus. Amen, church. This is Hank. Hank, this is your faith family. Hank, I have one question for you. Who is Jesus to you? My Lord and Savior. Amen. Based on the profession of faith, I baptize you. you my sister in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen and amen and amen.

And so if you haven't ever done that, as a follower of Jesus, that is a next step for you. We have baptism classes at all of our campuses after all of our services, and we're going to be baptized the folks in the service all months long, so make sure you do that. Now, the next thing, below the discipleship journey, this represents what we call eternal life, that God's plan to take the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth to share the good news of eternal life is through his local church. And so we have some goals. We have some things that we are trying to accomplish by 2009.

And one of the things that we'll do this year in 24 is we will plant another 100 local churches, which will take us to 690 churches that we have planted as a church on our way to planting 1,000 churches by 2029. Amen? Let me tell you why it's a big deal. It's a bigger deal than you realize, apparently, because you didn't get into it. So listen, every single week, even though there's a lot of people at 1122, every single week, there are more people that attend the churches that we have planted around the world than attend at 1122. Because we are not a cul-de-sac of the grace of God.

We are a conduit, and we have been blessed, therefore we need to be a blessing. We're also going to partner with 10 more people to send them as long-term, full-time missionaries to the ends of the earth, which will take it to 62. We have sent out, by the end of this year, we have sent out 62 full-time missionaries on our way to sending 100 to the ends of the earth, and one of them might be you. So be praying about that.

In addition to that, we're going to continue to plant campuses everywhere the Lord gives us an opportunity to. So again, like I said, today is our first official day of our Pontobedger campus. In January of 2025, we're going to launch a portable campus

up in the Yuley area across from the Wild Light neighborhood community that's going in. That's happening. And in fact, we already broke ground on the permanent facility there. Pray about this, that we are looking at launching a campus in Orlando. Every single weekend, we have about 4,000 people or so worship with us online in Orlando. And so we're looking at going to Orlando. We're going to St. Augustine in August of 2025. Right?

I see it, man. Weirdos need Jesus too. There's a bunch of weird people down there. I just say that for Walker, who's one of our pastors from there. And we've already purchased a place there. It's happening, okay? January or August, 2025, and St. John's permanent is under construction across from Creekside.

August of 2025 is when we plan to open that. In addition to that, we're still seeing what's happening in Palacca and Sarasota in places like this. And almost every single weekend, as I'm standing out in the lobby, somebody comes up and says, you need to plan a campus in. Name your town. Sweet, man. into it. And so if that's what you think, praise God for that. Start a disciple group there. Let us know.

Start a watch party and we'll just see what the Lord calls us to do. Because it's not like, we don't have like a strategic plan of how to take over the southeast in the name of Jesus through 1122. That's not what we have at all. All we try to do is listen to the voice of the good shepherd and do what he tells us to do. Okay. Now, here's what's key. I know we've talked about a bunch of numbers, but we've never really tried to be a big church. That's not. the point whatsoever. All we've ever tried to do is make room for one more, right? We just try to make room for one more. And God has been really, really, really good to us. I mean, I think it's appropriate for us to celebrate some of the things God has done in 2023. It's a really big deal.

Our in-person weekly attendance has grown by over 30 percent last year. We grew about by almost 7,000 people last year. Our average online weekly attendance is just shy of 50,000 people every single week. That's crazy. This last year at Christmas Eve, we had about 29,000 people in attendance, and 187 people surrendered their life to the Lordship of Christ in one of our 66 services in 26 location. Praise God. In 2023, we baptized 1,690 people declared Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and got dump. And last year, 2,102 people trusted Jesus Christ for the very first time in their life as their Lord and Savior. Amen. We sent 607 missionaries on mission trips. And in addition to this, we as a church sponsored, have sponsored 21,176 compassion kids as a church, all right? And I've told you before

it's not a competition, but we are, we're like the back-to-back-to-back world champions when it comes to that. And the participation in disciple group grew by 37%. We added 188 disciple groups. If you're paying attention to any of that stuff, man, things are going really, really good. And a big part of the reason that's going good is because we don't really set any goals on attendance or any of that kind of stuff. What we try to do is just be the kind of church that wants to reach that one more person. You see, one of the things that I get asked because of that, because our church has grown fast and all that. I get asked by other pastors and I go to conferences and stuff like that. The reason I get invited is not because they want to hear me preach. I get invited because of you.

And they ask, what's the secret sauce? What's the secret sauce at 1122? And I go, all right, well, write this down. First, you've got to find a Walmart. Right? Oh, man. I don't know. I can tell you this, that the Bible says in Ephesians chapter 4 that God is doing exceedingly more than we ever hoped or imagined in the church. And I can promise you that God is at work here and he's doing exceedingly more than any of us ever hoped or imagined. None of this was my idea. None of this was my idea.

And I don't even mean like, you know, planting a church. I'm talking about being a Christian wasn't my idea. I mean, I just showed up to camp. under court order. So I was there to cut grass and met Jesus there. I'll tell you more about that next week. Sure enough. And then a few years later, a few years later, I'm back at that camp at Camp Pine Hill that my coach was leading.

And I was just, man, I was on staff, but I didn't have like a, I had like the maintenance crew job. I cut grass and did some wreck and I was a lifeguard and stuff like that. And then during the like singing time, it's about 100 high school, middle school kids in Benettsville, South Carolina. Okay? It's a suburb of Dylan. Like the people from Veniceville had to go to Dylan to go to the mall, but that was Walmart.

We called Walmart the mall. And so tiny little place, and that's where we were. And the guys up there singing, man, he's singing. This is before, like, Louis Giglio and Chris Tomlin invented worship. You know what I'm talking about? This is, it was, I am a C. You all know that song? Anybody know that?

I am a C.H. I'm a C-H. I'm a C-R-S-D-I-N. See, most of y' y'all don't know that song. That's why we used to sing on overhead projectors. You don't even know what that is either. Don't worry about me. Now, we were singing.

I'm a Christian, but I was from Dylan, so I was like a sophomore in college before I realized we were spelling Christian. I thought they were speaking in tongues, and I didn't know. I didn't know. Coach Lee leans over to me and says, boy, when they're done with the singing, I want you to go talk. And I'm like, what? Like in two minutes? I said, well, coach, I'm not comfortable speaking in front of people. He said, boy, did you say comfortable? I said, yes, sir? He goes, boy, do you think Paul and Silas were comfortable in prison? Boy, do you think Daniel was comfortable in the lines? Boy, do you think Jesus Christ was comfortable on the cross? I was like, no sir, I don't think he was.

And I go, well, coach, what do I talk about? He said, boy, that's easy. You talk about Jesus. You talk about 30 minutes. So I did. And I've been doing that pretty much for the rest of my life since that moment. Okay. Now, a few years later, I'm like a junior in college and I'm serving at my local church.

It was a First Baptist downtown church. And I'm attending there and I'm teaching the Bible on Wednesdays. Sunday nights, the high school kids, and stuff like that. And I feel it's overwhelming call to the ministry. And I don't know how to explain it. I just can't deny it. It was as clear as when I, when the scales fell off of my eyes and I realized that when Jesus died on the cross,

somehow that counted for me. It was that clear. And so I went and I talked to my pastor and said, I think God might be calling me in a ministry. And so he said, why don't you come here as an intern? And so I did just to kind of see if make sure it wasn't just some emotional decision. Because I was doing like the fun part of ministry. I didn't give you the behind the scene stuff yet.

And then I had to go and tell my dad, hey, Daddy, because I was in a pre-med program. I just gotten accepted to med school. Imagine me as your doctor. Just imagine that for just a second. I don't know why you laugh. I hurt my feeling. But anyway, I had to go tell my daddy, we didn't even grow up in church, okay? So, Daddy, I'm not going to med school.

I'm going to seminary. He's like, what is seminary? I said, well, let's preach your school. And he goes, what? Why do you need a whole school for that? You only study one book. We're half a day a week. I'm like, I don't know, but you got to go.

He's like, well, what are you going to do? And I said, well, I'm going to youth ministry. He's like, boy, you don't get them, go to fun. You get them and go to work. And I was like, that's good advice. So I got them when to work, man. And then I became a youth pastor. And I thought I would be a youth pastor forever because that's where the action is.

Old people are crusty, stuck in their ways. 90% of people get saved before they're 18 years old. Why waste your time with all the old people is what I thought. Now I work with you people, but anyway. And the little kids, they're, they're going to. clues. They don't know what's happening. So I was like, I'm going to do student ministry forever, bounced around a couple of churches. And then Gretchen and I, through an interview process, felt called to move to Jacksonville Beach. And we worked, I worked at Beach, at that time,

Beach United Methodist Church. Now it's called Beach Church. And I worked for the best Christian I know. I'm just telling you, Pastor Jerry Sweat. That brother just gets up, reads the Bible, and acts like it. He just does. And it was just, I mean, I thought I'm going to to do this forever. I'm going to work for him and I'm going to work right here forever and ever and ever. Some of the funnest years of our entire life. And so after a few years, our church came up with an idea to start a brand new service. Beach Church came up with this idea to start a service and somehow they put me in charge of it. And so I said, why don't we just, we'll call it 1122. They're like, what's that mean? You don't mean nothing. That's what time you show up. And I figure if we just tell

people what time to show up, they'll be here on time. Well, that's not right. Have you get here about 1140, but don't worry about it. That's a different sermon. And so it took off, man. We started. And I got our team together, and I said, all right, here's what we're going to do. It's just some friends of mine in my kitchen. It's like Ben and Carrie and Stacy and Ryan and just a few people.

And I was like, what if we just did church the way we always dreamed of doing church, you know? And here's what I mean. Like when I was in college, I was a part of this, like, very traditional Bible. church, which is super great if you're a traditional Baptist. But when you try to bring your lost fraternity brother, who still spends a house like the fraternity house, it ain't great. You know, like he didn't have pleaded cackies. He didn't know after the offering that everybody just stands up and goes, praise God

from whom all blessings flow. Why you slow down the flow part? I don't know, man. I don't know. Okay. There was like a secret club. And so I would try to take him to that. He didn't understand.

He didn't have the right dress. code. It just didn't work out good. And then, but then I was running this Bible study in my fraternity house, but there was this campus organization, and it was more alive, like we got a dude on a guitar and just a guy teaching this Bible, and it would be super solid for like four weeks in a row. And I'm like, okay, cool. And then sure enough, the day I would bring my lost friend, they would walk in, and the strange girl and the flowy dress would have her banners doing her like Jedi mind trick on everybody. And I was like, oh no. And my boy was like, dude, What is, this is a cult?

Is this a cult? I'm like, yeah, probably. It might be. And so I got a little crew together, and I was like, what if we just glorify God in worship and word? Like, we're not just trying to attract people. We're just making much of Jesus through song and unpacking the scripture. And here's what a terrible leader I am.

Ben's right here. He was part of the founding with me. And I was like, all right, Ben, here's what we're going to do. Just worship your face off. And he's like, that's all I know how to do. And I was like, I'm going to teach the Bible for like an hour. hour every time. I said, I only text me. He's like, all right. And I go, and nobody's going to come. I mean, you ain't going to have time for that. An hour Bible study and every other song, you'd be

crying. Who will see a grown man cry every weekend? Nobody's coming to this. I was like, but I think we can disciple about 300 people. Jesus started with 12 and changed the world, so we can disciple 300 people in Jacksonville. Man, we can make a difference. So let's go. So we never tried to make it work. We just tried to like read the Bible and do what it says. And so here we go. So we take off. And then by that first Easter, something broke loose. And about 1,500 people showed up. We only had 800 seats. And so we started another service and another service and another service and another service. I think we got to about five services. And about that time, the 1122 services that had outgrown beach and Pastor Jerry, my pastor, best Christian I know,

I'm telling you, he comes to me. Now, what do you think most senior pastors would do in denominational churches. They'd pat the youth gal on the head and be like, that's adorable. Hand me the keys. I'll take it from here. Not Pastor Jerry. Pastor Jerry said, hey, I think Beech's church needs to plant a church with you as the senior pastor.

I don't want to be a senior pastor. And he'd spent all night, we had this big meeting in St. Augustine to figure out what we were going to do. And after he stayed up all night long praying. And after the end of that sleepless night of prayer, he says, God has spoken to me and I think we should plant a church with you as the senior pastor. And then he said this, and I have a real peace about this. And I thought, well, that's interesting because I just threw up in my mouth a little.

So it's weird how the spirit manifests himself differently in different people. And no joke. I tried to talk him out of it for about a half hour. I was like, nah, let me just stay with you. And he's like, no, this is what we need to do. And I was like, all right. And so I took a magic marker and went to a whiteboard in this room where we were a meeting. And I wrote down that we would be a movement for.

for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. And then in September 2012, we launched. And listen, Beach Church was so good to us. You realize this. They let us live there and raise money and train volunteers and renovate an old Walmart. They looked like the end of a Terminator 2 movie. It was a lot of work, okay?

And then we launched, and when we launched, I don't know how to explain it, but God just breathed on it. And a part of the reason, I think, it's because we were, we fully understood. What we're doing is not new. It's just our turn. That we are standing on the shoulders of generations of faithful men and women

who have been praying for a revival in Jacksonville. And for whatever reason God decided to breathe on us. And so our very first service in September of 2012, 3,364 people showed up. We're like, uh-oh. So the first staff meeting we ever had, I said, like, all right, we're launching another campus. Some people got excited. people cried, whatever. And so we went to work. Next couple of years, we just had our nose down, just doing what we do. Just make disciples and make disciples, glorify God and worshiping Word,

you know, nothing fancy. Just kind of the same stuff we've always done. After a couple years, two years, I went on my first trip to Israel. And pray for Israel, pray for peace. Can't wait to go back and lead some more trips there. But one of the places that we went is we went to this place. It's in Matthew chapter 16 called Cessari of Philippi. Cessori of Philippi. Sessori of Philippi is the place where Jesus pulls his disciples to this, to Sessoriah Fulipa, which was like a nasty town. It was a pagan town. They had this, it was all kind of shady stuff there, super shady. It was like the Vegas of the first century.

And he asked this question. He says, who do people say that I am? And people had religious answers, much like people would say today. And then Jesus says, the most important question you will ever deal with. But who do you say that I am? And who's going to talk first, who's going to talk most? Peter. Peter's like, ooh, I'll talk.

And he says, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus is like, winter, winter, chicken dinner, man. You didn't make that up. That's from the Lord, okay? Now that's a loose translation, but that's what he said. And then he says, and I'm going to call you Rocky, the rock. And upon this rock, upon that thing that you just said, upon this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

The gates of hell were, it was an actual place there. There was a big cave in Cessaria of Philippa, and they believed that was the place where demons entered and exited this world. And the first time, the idea of church, church was ever mentioned out loud was right here on this mountain Sestria of Philippi. Now the word Jesus used was ecclesia. It means movement. And about 300 AD they started using this German word, Kirche, which means the Lord's House, Church. It's a real shame that went from movement to a building. That's why we're a movement. And so I show up to this place with a small little

group of people, and I had seen pictures of Sessaria Philippi. I know Matthew 16. I know what happened in this place. And it hit me like a ton of bricks. And I thought, oh, This thing that I have given my life to, the first time Jesus ever utters the idea of this thing out loud was in this place on one of these rocks around here somewhere. And so I told our crew, we're done for the day. I got some work to do. And I got out my Bible and I went and I sat on A rock and I began to pray, Lord, is the thing that you were talking about on one of these rocks around here? Is that the thing we're doing in Jacksonville and the old Walmart? If not, you got to tell me because I got to do something else with my life.

But if it is, I'm going to dedicate the rest of my life. life to being about what you said would be prevailing, and that is your church. And I had this overwhelming, I'm telling you, the Lord spoke to me and said, I put you on this planet to love and serve your family and to love and serve your church family, which is the church of 1122. And that's what we have been about from that moment to this moment. So how do you explain what God is doing here? I don't, you can't explain it, man. I don't know. I don't know how to explain it. Because the Spirit of God is like the wind. He just goes where he goes. and does what he does. He's sovereign. He does what he wants. But there are certain ways that you can

align yourself with the principles of the kingdom of God to make sure you are in place for his blessing. You see, the fruitfulness is not up to us, but we get to decide if we're going to be fateful to him in his mission or not. Like see, Matthew chapter 25, parable of the talents. He didn't say, well done, good, and fruitful servant. He said, well done good and faithful servant. So I've been thinking about this. So what's the secret sauce? Man, I don't know. How do you answer that? but I do want to give you five things that I think have positioned us to be a recipient of the blessing of God here at the church of 1122. And they're not in order of importance, okay, at all. In fact, number four is probably the most important.

Number one is probably the second important, but whatever. So on my out-of-order list, number one, the secret sauce of 1122, the spirit of God is welcome in this place. I'm telling you the spirit of God is welcome here. Do you know what you need? You don't need more information. You need an encounter with the living God. Every single time we gather together as a church, listen, man, this is the thin place. You realize this?

This is where the almighty sovereign king of the universe shows up and interacts with his people. And throughout modern American church history, people have decided that they were going to be one of three different types of churches. There's some what are called Bible churches, there's just doctrine, doctrine, doctrine, doctrine. There's some like people churches that are served people, serve people. And there's some that are like experienced churches, you know, you go in there and the Chicago Glory Falls. Well, I don't know why you've got to make a decision. We're a Bible church. Are you kidding me?

We stand on the authority of the Word of God and walk verse by verse through the Bible every single week. This is our authority. And we love people. We are fighting for the justice for every single image bearer of God on the planet. And what we know is when we show up the presence of God here and he is welcome in this place. And we are praying for signs and wonders and miracles. Amen? That's a part of it. That's a part of. Secondly, another part of the secret sauce of this place is the blessing of Pastor Jerry Sweat. I don't know how this works. I just know that

God works in and through authority. Like after Peter said, you are the Christ, the Son of a living God, Jesus says to him, I'm going to give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and the things you bless on earth will be blessed in heaven and the things you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. and God works in and through authority. And by the grace of God, I got to come up under the authority of Pastor Jerry's sweat. And this thing was not birthed out of division, but out of a blessing. And my pastor put his hands on me and said, I bless you and sent us to come and do this thing. And I don't know how to explain it, but somehow in the heavenlies,

it sets us up to be blessed by God when the people that he has put over to you bless you and say, go and do a thing. Which leads to number three. I think a part of the secret sauce of this place is because we, We as a church operate under the authority of a group of elders. Just in case you are new around here, I am not in charge. Thank you for not amening that, all right? I am not. I'm the lead pastor for sure.

I have a role. This is a big old team with a whole bunch of people pulling their weight. But every single one of us on staff submit to the authority of some godly, biblically qualified men. And when you hear elder, don't think like a guy on us. bicycle with a tie on a short-sleece. Sir, that ain't an elder, a little 23-year-old kid, right? No, no, no, no. These are actually old men that have eled some things.

And I knew when we launched this thing that I needed to protect me from me. And so I am submitted, me and our whole staff are submitted to a board of elders that oversee this church, that guide this church, that govern this church. And the reason we do that, I didn't make it up. The reason we do that is because that's how the New Testament lays it out for the church to be organized. The fourth thing of the secret sauce, and this is probably the most important. I think a part of what makes 1122 and 1122 is this, is that the power is in the gospel, period.

Romans chapter one says this, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. That's why people are here, because the gospel changes life. Not me, not our music, not our kids programming, but it is the gospel. And then the fifth secret sauce is you. It is. It's you. This has never been corporate. It's always been very, very personal.

You people are crazy. You are willing to do whatever it takes. You have a tear-the-roof kind of mentality to get your one more to Jesus. Now, if you're going to hang around 1122, you're going to hear this phrase, one more. And here's where the phrase came from. When Coach Lee, the guy that led me to Christ,

when he was buried, the guy that was doing his eulogy, he preached on Acts 1124. And it says this, and he was a good man full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord. And a great number in the kingdom of God is not 30,000 people on Christmas Eve services. A great number in the kingdom of God is just one more because we serve the kind of shepherd that will leave the 99 and go after the one. So the question is who is your one more? at the bottom of this vision thing there's a space for you to write your one more. And you can have eight one more, that's fine.

But I want you right now to write down the name of the person that you're praying for and that you're praying that God would use you to share an invitation to come here or share the gospel or share your story that God might use you to save them this year. Now listen, just take this and put this in a place where you're going to pray for it. Don't like set it on your desk.

and then your coworker comes by and be like, hey man, why's my name on you, the little thing right there? Like, oh yeah, because you're going to hell, and I'm trying to keep you from going, okay? Don't do that. It's just a reminder to pray, pray, pray. You see, this church has been the kind of church. It's been very, very personal, and we've been willing to do whatever it takes to get that one more into the presence of Jesus and then just trust and watch him do what he does. Mark, Chapter 2.

I didn't leave myself enough time to preach, but you. You're going to have to listen fast. Ready? Mark chapter two, and when he, that's Jesus, returning to Copernium after some days, it was reported that he was at home. This was actually Peter's house. And many were gathered together

so that there was no more room, not even at the door. Why? In chapter one, he's healing people. When lives start getting changed, people start showing up. That's why people show up here, because they bumped into you

and your life has been changed. And Jesus was preaching the word to them. and they came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. First of all, let me ask you this. As an aside, do you have four people that will tote you to Jesus? If you don't, that's what you need to do. That's your next step. We can help.

Get into a disciple group. You need at least four brothers or four sisters that when you are on the mat can tote you to Jesus. Everybody needs this. And if you wait until you need it to try to build it, it won't work, man. It's like a retirement account. You've got to invest now so that when it's time to cash in, they're ready. Do you have four people? I don't mean theoretically.

I mean, write their names down. I mean, I got Lars and Charles and Jeff and Ben. And I can go again. I got Kelly and Justin and Ryan and Russ. Like, well, that's eight. Well, I probably need twice as much toting as you do, all right? Get into it. Here's the thing.

You know who loves a growing church? You know who loves a church that's willing to tear off the roof to do whatever it takes to get the man on the mat to Jesus? The person that's been on the mat. You ever been on the map before? You ever find yourself in a place and you can't tote you to the Lord? You ever find yourself in a place where you need somebody else to do for you what you can't do for you?

You ever been there? This church is full of people like that. I'm telling you. I've been there. I've shared this with you before. My whole view of church changed three years ago. It was October. The elders had given me and my family a gift of a sabbatical.

and so we were, me and some of my friends were stag hunting in Scotland. It was awesome. We were up in the highlands chasing stag around. And I took one of my best friends, Brad Bowen, he built this place. And he had a massive heart attack on the hills during the hunt and doesn't make it home. It was awful, man. It was awful. And we get all this stuff back.

And here's the thing. All I could think about was getting in here with you. That's it, man. And even though I know God manifests himself everywhere, right? He is present in all places, see Psalm 139. I know that when the people of God gather, something's different, man. Something is different. And there are people that are sabbatical coaches.

I mean, that and pastor in the church since, you know, the Bush administration, but that's fine. And they told me, whatever you do, don't go to your church. That's not the place to go. And I was like, what is wrong with you? You're doing church wrong, man. Because this is my family. And my friend, Leonce Crump was preaching. And I have no idea what he preached on it.

I don't know any of the songs that we sang. I can't remember. But all I knew that I needed to do was get in here with us, my church family. I wanted to hear the sermon. I wanted to pray the prayers. I wanted to sing the songs. And I could not wait for the end of the service when I could sprint down here and get on my face before God and say, I just need you. I need to be in your presence.

You ever been on the mat? You see, this is the kind of church that's going to do whatever it takes to make sure that the man or the woman on the mat has a place in here to encounter. to Jesus. And so are you that kind of friend? This whole year we're focused on you being that kind of friend that does whatever it takes to get your friend on the mat to Jesus. Or if you're on the mat that you could come to Jesus. And you say, well, it's hard.

I know it's hard. It says, and when they could not get near him because of the crowd. See, that's what's tough about church. Church leaders love full rooms. Full rooms make me nervous. Because God wants people with a full heart for him. He's not super concerned about full rooms. get it? The reason that we continuously open up new rooms is so that none of our rooms will be

all the way full, so there's always room. When they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him. And when they had made an opening and let down the bed on which the paralytic lay, you know what I love about this? Matthew chapter 9 records the same event. Matthew does not mention the roof. He just mentions the healing. Mark mentions the roof. You know who Mark interviewed to write the gospel of Mark? He interviewed Peter. this was Peter's house so Peter remembers it say hey what about the paralytic it calls me a roof you understand here's the thing man if you're going to be a part of the church that's the kind of church that makes room for the man on the mat it's very expensive it's very expensive virtually everything

we're doing in a 1010 life to the glory of god is doing whatever it takes to bring men and women on the mat into the presence of Jesus so that he can do what he does two it's very disruptive can you imagine if sitting there with Jesus, like you got there early, you had a good seat. And all of a sudden you hear a noise. They're like, can y'all be quiet? He's teaching. It's very disruptive to the people that already have a seat. I'm telling you, man, church folk can worship at the altar of comfort like this and take their eyes off of the mission really, really quickly. And then three, it's messy. It's very, very messy. And check this out. So they tear a hole in the roof. They let it, they let him down. And when Jesus saw their faith, when Jesus saw, not felt their faith,

not perceive their faith, but when he saw it, how can you see faith? Because we studied the book of James last year because faith without works is dead. Faith is the evidence of things unseen. If you really believe in Jesus, you're going to act like it. Let me ask you this. Do you have the kind of faith that your friend on a mat could borrow for a minute? And when he saw their faith, he said to the paralytic son, your sins are forgiven. In the first century, Jewish thought was that sin.

sickness and sinfulness were conflated. They were the same. John chapter 9 makes this clear that it's not, the whole book of Joe makes this clear that that's not how God works. And so this man had been called all kind of names in his life, but the name that Jesus uses is son. Here's what he's telling him. Your past does not define you, nor does it determine your future, but I'm the one that

gets to tell you who you are, and you are son. And son, your sins are forgiven. Can you imagine if you're one of the friends? and you drop him down. And you're like, what did he say? He says his sins were forgiven. Cool. Did he say anything about his feet?

Because we brought him to get his legs fixed. You know what I mean? And in fact, that's a whole bunch of what this year is about, man, that we wouldn't just be focused on the temporary things, but we would be focused on the eternal on what's most important. Now, I'm going to have to speed up, but there's a group of religious people there. And they're mad because Jesus isn't playing by the rules

that they made up. And they're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, who do you think you are? And Jesus begins to have a conversation. He's like, I am who you think I am. They say only God can forgive sin. He's like, right. And so just to prove to you, I am who I say I am, he asked this question.

He goes, so what's easier to say? Your sins are forgiven or get up and walk? Well, it's easier to say your sins are forgiven. Because how do you know it works until the great judgment of God? But if you say, get up and walk in, three, two, one, go. You're going to find out if it worked or not, right? But you know what's easier to accomplish? Well, if you're the God of the universe that spoke everything into existence,

if you're the one that came up with the idea of legs, you realize that God invented legs. We all could slide around like slugs. You realize that. He's like, no, put legs on them, right? Yeah, if you invented legs, then you go, legs work. Boom, he can make that work. It doesn't even, like the lights in heaven don't even dim down a little bit for this brother to get up. But you know what it takes to accomplish the forgiveness of sin?

That the Word has to become flesh and dwell among us and live a perfect life and accomplish every promise and prophecy of the old covenant, to be tempted in every way that we have been tempted and yet choose the will of the Father every single time and be crucified to go to the cross and not only die for us but die instead of us, push up on his nail-pierced feet and say, it is finished. What is finished? What it takes to forgive sin? and that anyone who would believe that when Christ died on the cross,

somehow that counted for me, that you would receive the right to be called son or daughter of God. And that's what Jesus does. And then he tells the guy, take up your mat and walk. So the thing that used to inhibit him and define him and prevented him from walking in the front door, now he's going to roll that thing up under his arm, and he's going to walk out the door that he couldn't walk in,

and now he is toting that testimony. Hope you'll come back next week. we're going to talk about how important your testimony is. And guess what happens? Everybody there sees this miracle, and here's what they say. It's the last line in the text we're looking at. And everybody, they were amazed and glorify God, and they said, we never saw anything like this.

My hope and prayer is that every single weekend when we gather together as the people of God and the presence of God, that every single time people would walk out of an encounter with the living God, and you would say, we never saw anything. like this. That I don't know what's going on, but I can tell you the blinds see and marriages are healed and addictions are broken and sins are forgiven and eternities are changed and generational curses are stopped and God is glorified and the gospel is proclaimed and that thing is a

movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. That's what we're about. And so if you know and love somebody that's on the mat or you are on the mat, this church is for you. and some of you have been carried in here today and you are on the mat of depression or the mad of betrayal or the mad of addiction or the mad of financial catastrophe or the mat of kid pain

that's a tough one or the mat of loss or the mat of pride or sexual sin or the mad of shame or divorce or the mat of physical sickness or the mad of fear or the matter of discontentment with all the temporary things of this world then you have come into a place where you are not only welcomed here but wanted here and the presence of Jesus is in this place and we will do whatever it takes to get you into his present because he and he alone is the one that can do something about it.

And here's the thing, though he is, though he can and will handle those circumstances, the first thing that he wants to handle before he fixes your legs is he wants to fix your heart. Because there's some of you, many of you, and spiritually speaking, you were toaded in here today on the mat of your own sinfulness, that you have never come to the place in your life

until right now where you've admitted it. You know what? My problem is not circumstantial. My problem is spiritual, that I'm a sinner in need of a Savior. And today, for the very first time, you believe somehow that when he died on the cross and he said, it is finished.

Somehow that counted for me. And if you're at that place where you believe, you're ready to put your trust and faith in Jesus, and that when he died on the cross, that counted for you. Then the Bible says, all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. And so I want to give you that opportunity to believe, to put your faith in him,

to receive the right to be called a son or a daughter of God, to call on the name of the Lord and you will be saved. Would you bow your heads? Would you close your eyes? And if that is you, as a demonstration of your faith, if today, for the very first time, you are believing in the finished work of Christ for your salvation, and you are ready to confess him as Lord, call on the name of the Lord, then I want to invite you to lift your hand as high as you can so that Jesus would look at you

and say that he sees that faith. It's not a hand in the air that saves you. It's putting your faith in Jesus Christ that saves you. You raise your hand and you say, Jesus, here I am, save me. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we love you more than anything because you first loved us. And God, I thank you that there is salvation in your movement. Lord, I pray that your love would not get stuck in the people of this church, but it would flow through us to the people that you put us eyeball to eyeball.

God, we pray for our one mores. We dedicate ourselves in this year to you to do whatever it takes to get that man, that woman, our brother, that son, that daughter, that friend, that parent who's on the mat in the presence of you so that you can change their eternity. God, we thank you. We thank you for all of your blessings in the past. We take none of them for granted. but with the great anticipation, we know that our best days are still ahead of us.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Church, would you please stand as we respond? We respond to the gospel. This matters a bunch. We bring our tithes and our offerings. Every single time we bring our first and our best, we are leveraging that to tear more holes and more roofs to get more men and women on mats in the presence of Jesus.

That's what the whole 10-10 life is about. And we're going to pray. Maybe you're on the mat. Or maybe you've got a friend that's on a mat. And they need Jesus to do in their life what they cannot do for themselves. Wouldn't you come and kneel before the almighty king of the universe and make your request known to him? It matters more than I can explain.

And we're going to sing. We're going to sing the gospel. And then we're going to sing about the faithfulness of God to answer the prayers of his children. So let's sing, let's bring, let's pray. Let's respond.