Vision Sunday | Pastor Jay Stewart

Different kind of a day. If you've been around for a while, you're very accustomed to the fact that on the Refuge app would be some notes, on the screens would be notes. And you're going to find neither today. It's a different kind of message for me to share with you. In fact, I don't.

I guess it's a message, but I really want to cast vision for you, and I believe it's an important time for us to do so because I'm very convinced that God has uniquely positioned us for such a time as this. I'm not saying, and I have never said and never will say that the refuge is better than another place or that the refuge has things figured out and somebody else doesn't. I just know this the hand of God is on the refuge has been since the beginning. And that God has uniquely positioned us. Coming out of these last three years of so much chaos and deception and confusion and all kind of other demonic things that have gone on over the last few years, God has positioned us in a unique way to really represent hope and life to the people who are around us.

And so I want to share some vision with you today. And I had the opportunity this week to go away for a couple of days. I felt from God a few months ago that I was to begin this new decade of my life by committing myself for a few days in prayer. Three weeks ago today, I turned 60 on January 1st and I began brand new decade. And so I have the opportunity to go about two and a half hours away from here into the mountains in the middle of nowhere, at the top of a mountain, at a place that's dedicated to prayer and really just soak in the presence of God and to saturate myself in his presence.

And I went with great expectations and some of you maybe entered Salah with great expectations. And I went there with the expectation that I was going to have three angelic visitations. There was going to be a finger that would write on the wall of my cabin, that I was going to audibly hear the voice of God. I was going to open my Bible and oil, anointing oil was going to start flowing out of my Bible and feathers were going to fall from heaven. And none of that happened.

But let me tell you something, when you sit at the feet of Jesus, that by itself you cannot put a value on that. And so I had the opportunity to do that for about 48 hours.

And as I was there, and the things I'm going to share with you today are not the result of those two days of prayer. I just knew I needed to get away during Salem. I knew I needed to sit at his feet for a couple of days. The things I'm going to share with you today are the result of the last few years going into the pandemic, coming out of the pandemic, still in the midst of so much demonic deception that I feel like we're dealing with, that I've really pressed in over the last few years, asking God, lord, what do you want to do here at the refuge? I challenge our staff often that it's so important, and I've done this for 18 years.

It's so important that we distinguish between the good thing and the God thing. There's a lot of good things and good ideas and good visions and good plans and all of that. But we at the refuge want to apprehend and land on the God thing. How many of you appreciate that? Now listen, when we started the refuge, before we started the refuge, I had a vision.

I can't say that I've had like scores of visions in my life, but this was clear. I had a vision before we started the refuge. And the vision was of an arm from the elbow down holding a writing utensil. And I knew when the vision started that it was the hand of God and he was drawing blueprints.

And I knew that he was drawing the blueprints for the refuge, not for this building that we sit in, but the how the refuge should look, how the refuge should operate. And every time in the vision that we reached a place that we did not know what to do. We didn't know what the next step was. That hand would take the page and turn the page and commence to drawing again. And the history, the 18th, almost 19 year history now of the refuge is that that's exactly what God has done.

We've never tried to just duplicate or copycat what somebody else is doing. There's nothing wrong with being inspired by other ideas and other vision. And we have been for 18 or 19 years. But we really have tried to press in, in prayer for these years and hear what God is saying to us. That's one of the reasons that we are so intentional about building a culture of prayer and fasting.

Because it's in those seasons that God has spoken and directed and that we've seen the hand of God drawing and we knew what steps that we should take. Proverbs 29:18 is a familiar verse that says in some versions, without a vision, people perish. Another version says, without Vision, people cast off restraints. In other words, people just take the guardrails off when they don't know where they're headed or what's going on. And they just resort to wild living, careless living.

So this thing about vision is important for you and I, especially in the times which we live. We, of course, three weeks ago today, started a brand new year, 2023. But on the Jewish calendar, the new year for that calendar actually began. Rosh hashanah actually began September 25th of last year of 2022. That's when the new year began.

And it's the year 5783. 5783. Now there's significant meaning to 5783. I want us to just look briefly at that, especially at that last number, the three that's there. 5783.

2023. The third letter in the Hebrew Alphabet is the letter Gamil. And letters in the Hebrew Alphabet are what's called alphanumeric. They have a letter, but they have a numerical value that's assigned to them as well. And that word gamil, for the third letter in the Hebrew Alphabet means overflow or abundance.

Overflow or abundance. So I want you to know, as a church body, that we are in the year of overflow and abundance. How many of you would say, I would love to have in my own life some overflow and some abundance in 2023, or in my family, or in my kids or my marriage or my health or in my finances or in my business. I need the overflow and the abundance of God. Can somebody wave at me for a moment if that's you, if that's your desire?

I want the overflow of God in my life. And some of you might say that sounds like an oxymoron, because here we are in a year that represents overflow and abundance. And it really seems to be more of a year of struggle.

Gas prices are up, mortgage interest rates are up, food prices continue to go up, inflation continues to go up, and stocks continue to go down. But listen to me. The overflow and the abundance that God speaks of, and that's represented in this year, goes beyond finances. Although God has a great track record of blessing his people in the midst of famine and struggle. Can somebody say Amen to that?

We Talked about that three weeks ago in January, the first out of Genesis 26, that God blesses his people even in the midst of famine. But it goes beyond just financial blessing. The psalmist writes in Psalm 103, verses 2 through 4. Praise the Lord my soul and forget not all his benefits. Who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion.

Look at the first verse again, verse 2. Praise the Lord my soul and forget not all his benefits. In the Hebrew, that's the word gamil. Forget not all of the overflow of the Lord, Forget not all of the abundance of the Lord, Forget not all of the gamill of God. And then he begins to name what is the abundance of God.

He says he forgives all of our sins. Oh, come on. If you're thankful that he has forgiven you of your sins, you ought to make a little noise right now. Thank God. He says, praise the Lord.

That ought to evoke praise from you. When you think about the fact that he's washed you with his blood. I don't care if it was 50 years ago, you should never take for granted your salvation. Somebody say amen. The psalmist says, don't forget the overflow and the abundance, the gamil of God that he forgives you of your sins.

And then he says, and heals all your diseases. Come on, anybody in the room. Ever been healed physically by God, healed emotionally by God. Let me see your hand. Come on.

You've been healed by the Lord. I've been healed by God. He says that ought to cause you to praise God and to know he still Jehovah Rophe. He's still our health and our healer today. He still is in the healing business today.

And he heals all of your diseases. That's the overflow and the abundance and the blessing of God. He says he also redeems your life from the pit. Come on, anybody been rescued from a pit of addiction? Let me see your hand.

You've been rescued from a pit of immorality. Come on, somebody. You've been rescued from a pit of depression. Anybody know what I'm talking about? You've been rescued from a pit of fear or a pit of anger.

Somebody ought to just thank God that he redeems our life from the pit.

And then he says he crowns you with love and compassion. Crowns us with love and compassion. The overflow and the abundance, the gamill of God. Now the Bible says in Genesis 12, verse three that we have received the overflow and the abundance of God for a reason.

It's not so we can just hoard the blessings of God, but we are blessed in order to be a blessing. And the Jewish rabbis and you can Google this for yourself to see the symbol that represents God Meal. It's real easy. But the Jewish rabbis would say it looks like a man walking. And then they would ask the question, where is he walking towards?

Where is he headed? Now, when you read Hebrew, you don't read from left to right, you read from right to left. And that symbol that looks like a man is moving from right to left. And so the rabbis would say, where is he going? And then you look at the 4 4th letter in the Hebrew Alphabet, which is dalet and it means a poor person.

And the rabbis would say, the one who's experienced the overflow and the abundance and the blessing of God is walking and moving towards the poor person. Not just poor financially, but he's poor in spirit or he needs a healing in his body or he doesn't know Jesus or he's bound by depression. And those who have been given much, the Bible says, what church? That much is required. Much is required.

And so here we are, people who are blessed and we're experiencing the abundance and the overflow of the blessings of God. And according to his Word, we are to move towards those who are poor, who are in need, who need the blessing that you and I have received. That's the responsibility that we carry. And I believe in 2023, we need to remember, we need to re reattach ourselves to the benefits and the gamill and the blessings and the overflow of God so that out of that abundance we can freely give, freely we have received. Come on, are y' all with me today?

Y' all are way too quiet to be the 11 o' clock service. Let me tell you, the 9 o' clock was shouting you down right now to have the overflow and the abundance of God, there's a responsibility of that. We've received it freely now that we should freely give that to other people. And there's a second meaning to gamill that we also find related to the number 83. We talked about gamil being the third letter, but the eighth letter of the Hebrew Alphabet.

83, the letter pey represents the number 8 and it means the mouth. The mouth. And so the responsibility that we have is not that we just internally thank God for his blessings, but according to Luke, chapter 6, verse 45, it says out of the abundance of the heart.

Come on, y' all know where I'm going with this. What happens? The mouth speaks that we have a responsibility out of the gamill of God, that we testify that we declare that we boldly speak of what God has done in our lives. The letter gamill represents the Holy spirit. John, chapter 20, verse 22.

Jesus breathes on the disciples and he says to them, receive ye the Holy Spirit. Out of his mouth comes the overflow and the abundance. Jesus said, out of your belly will flow rivers of living water. And we have the ability. I'm so grateful for what God did last Sunday.

Let me tell you, there were many people in both services baptized in the Holy Spirit last week. Come on, somebody give the Lord praise for that. And we've been hearing testimonies ever since Sunday of people that have been baptized in the Holy Spirit that received their prayer language. It's been glorious and beautiful what God did. Some that have been seeking that for years, some that just all of a sudden last Sunday we're like, why would I want to live without him?

He came asking for the infilling of the Holy Spirit. By the way, we sent an email out this week and we said, listen, if you have questions still, we want a journey with you and you can email us. We gave you an email address. Email us and let us know. And we want to walk with you.

There might be people who walked out and said, I still have questions. There might be people who walked out and said, I'm a little frustrated because somebody right beside me received their prayer language, got baptized in the Holy Spirit, and I didn't. We've heard testimonies this week of others who they came and prayed and believed and it didn't happen for them. They walked out, but they just let that fuel their hunger and they just kept pressing in. And while they were somewhere else, nobody laying hands on them, God filled them with the Holy Spirit.

So I believe just keep pressing in. That's what I'm saying this week, this last week of salah, just keep hungering, just keep seeking, keep pressing into him. It says there, Jesus breathes on them. Receive the Holy Spirit, he said. Acts, chapter 2, 4.

The Holy Spirit is poured out on a group of people that are gathered and praying, and they begin speaking in this heavenly language. And they're given power in that moment. To do what? To stay there and just have some little cool clubs of saying, man, we got this unique club of 120 people that are speaking in tongues. No, he sends them out with the overflow and the abundance and the gamill of God so that they can go and testify about God all over the world and introduce people to Jesus.

And so you and I, with the overflow and the abundance of God are called with a responsibility to boldly declare who God is in our lives. And I want to say again, I am sick and tired of watching the enemy just one by one pick believers off and pick churches off and cause people to be so fearful and so intimidated that they refuse to speak of the goodness of God because they're afraid of mainstream media. They're afraid of what's politically correct. They're afraid of what somebody's going to think about them or say about them. And I'm telling you, God has put us here right now for such a time as this so that we can boldly declare who he is.

And let me tell you, church, I'm going to preach louder than I've ever preached. I'm going to preach with more anointing than I've ever preached. I'm going to preach with more boldness than I've ever preached in my 60s, because the enemy will not shut this church up.

He's not going to do it. And I want to challenge you that you do not allow the enemy to silence your voice. There's a strategic, calculated plan of the enemy to shut the church up and to shut the body of Christ up. And I just believe it's time that you and I, believers, stand up in 2023 with more boldness than we've ever known before, with the power of the Holy Spirit, with the anointing of God on our lives and say, I don't care what you think, I don't care what you say. I'm going to brag on my Jesus.

I'm going to talk about who he is because he changed my life and he's the answer for every single thing that's going on in our messed up, crazy world, can somebody say Amen?

So with that being said, and that's the precursor to the things now that I want to share with you, but really what I shared with you is more important than anything I'm about to say.

But I do want to share with you some things I believe that God will be leading us into over the next few years as we've pressed into the Lord and ask God to differentiate between what's good and what's God that I really feel like I have enough clarity to lay out for you where I believe God is taking us. Some of the things you already know about. But I want to maybe unpack it a little further and give you a little more detail in the remaining time that I have. And the first one involves Refuge kids. Thank God that since the pandemic, our children's ministry has Exploded, because our church has exploded and it has created for us.

Not a problem. It's just created a challenge for us because we're out of space in Refuge Kids. How many of you know, that's a good challenge to have to figure out.

So we really asked the Lord, and we knew if we tried to build on to our building that it would take a minimum of 18 months. And we've got to figure things out now. And so the quickest solution that we could find was that we have ordered two portable buildings that will be a permanent addition to our campus. That directly behind you at the end of the building adjoining Refuge Kids, these two portable buildings that are brand new built for us will soon be delivered to our property. Now, when I say soon, I know you'd like to know what's the date, and we would love to know what's the date.

The buildings are ready. They've already been built. They're ready. But the city keeps holding us up. We had to hire a general contractor.

We had to submit plans. We had to show where the sidewalks are going and the fence and the. The handicap ramps and all that stuff. And so they keep coming back and we're back and forth. And I think we've gotten through every approval that we need.

Now, by faith, I'm hoping that all of that's happened and that soon those buildings will be delivered and we'll get them set up. When that happens, we're going to be able to expand Refuge Kids. And I'm praying and hoping within the next two months at the most that'll happen. Because once they're delivered, it'll take a little time to get them set and get them open. But our goal, we're always about the next generation.

I thank God for our children's staff and Pastor Prabhu and his team and all of our volunteers, because let me tell you, we have one of the greatest children's ministry in the nation. No joke, no exaggeration, but we want to provide the safest, funnest, cleanest environment for your kids and grandkids to learn about Jesus. And this is going to help us to do that. And there's two immediate needs related to this. Number one, we need more volunteers and Refuge Kids.

We do. And that's a great issue because there's so many kids showing up on Sundays. And so when you leave this service today, if you're willing to just say, I'll give one Sunday a month, maybe one service a month, there's a serve desk in the concourse. Mary will be at that serve desk. I want you to stop by that serve desk and say, I'll give a service a month, I'll give a Sunday a month, whatever it is, and help us in Refuge kids to raise up the next generation.

We have never just babysat kids. We pour into these children, raise them up for the destiny and the purpose of God. The second need that's related to that is those buildings and getting them set up and ready to go is costing us about 350,000. And we don't want to incur any debt whatsoever with that. And I'm asking you over the next few months that you would just ramp up your giving and you can mark kids, buildings, whatever, that you would help us to pay the $350,000 that we need to expand our children's ministry.

Here's the next thing that you already know about, or some of you may not, but on November 9th we announce something, an opportunity that God has given to our church and really to the body of Christ across the nation that is extremely exciting. And some of you maybe have started attending since November 9th. And maybe you don't know about this, but God deposited a vision in my heart 40 years ago and that whole thing has come to pass. And in 102 days, Tuesday starts the 100 day countdown because on May 4th I'll get on my bicycle in Corona del Mar, California and I'll be biking almost 3400 miles to Charleston, South Carolina over a seven week period in an effort to raise $1 million for Love Life and to see 1000 House of Refuge churches raised up for the glory of God. Now we are a House of Refuge church church and there's about 160 or 170 of those right now across the nation.

But we're believing for a thousand House of Refuge churches. I want to share the two minute video with you again. In case you've not seen that, say one or two other things about that. And then we're going to move on to some other exciting announcements. Check out this Life Ride video.

There's often a fine line that runs between a dream and insanity. A dream was deposited in my heart nearly 40 years ago and that line seemed to inch its way closer to the side of insanity the older I grew. I've often said that before a dream can become a reality, there must be something of a dying of the dream, a laying down of the dream. Like Abraham's willingness with Isaac. The dream in my heart lay dormant for decades, fading with time, but never into complete oblivion.

In my 50s, I challenged myself with some obstacle course races. And a couple of years ago, someone asked me, what are you planning to do when you turn 60? I quickly answered, without really thinking about it, I'm going to ride a bicycle from the west coast to the east coast and raise money for an organization. The dream still had a home and began to take shape once again. On May 19, 2022, prompted by the Lord, I sat down with Justin Reeder.

The founder of Love Life shared my crazy idea and that day, Life Ride was born. On May 4, 2023, the National Day of Prayer for America. At the age of 60, I'll mount my bicycle at the Pacific coast in California, four decades after the dream began and ride over 3,200 miles to the Atlantic coast in South Carolina. Join me in the Life Ride team's effort to raise money to protect the unborn, to care for orphans, and to support mothers who choose life for their child.

Praise God.

So every single day since May 17th of last year, every day literally, I run the gamut of emotion from just sheer excitement to sheer terror. So here's what I need you to do. I need you to really pray for your pastor. Secondly, I need you to understand it's not an opportunity that God has entrusted to me, it's an opportunity that God has entrusted to us as a church family. Along with churches across the nation.

Here's what's going to happen in the next week or so on February 1st, on the website that you just saw, liferideusa.com or.org I need you to share that. Share that website with as many people as you can. Let them know what we're involved in. And I need you to let them know that they can also be involved because there will be people all across the nation that will be riding virtually with me across the country. So here's what's going to happen on the website will be an opportunity for people to form teams.

So it could be a business, say a business has 10 employees and they can say between the 10 employees, we're going to ride 2,000 miles over the seven week period. And they divide that up amongst themselves. Each person rides 200 miles over seven weeks. They can do it on their peloton, in the gym, out in the community, whatever. And every day that team will go in, log their miles on that site and there'll be a competition.

There'll be prizes for the team that rides the most miles and the team that logs the miles the fastest. And it'll be a way for not just businesses, families Churches, whoever, to form a Life Ride team and to ride with me and to be involved with that. And I'm asking you to get the word out, you know, other churches, you know, business leaders, business owners, families, whatever, get the word out to them and let them know about Life Ride. It's coming up soon. It's going to be exciting.

And by the grace of God and the help of God, we're going to raise a million dollars, more than a million dollars, and we're going to see more than a thousand House of Refuge churches raised up. Now, let me give you a little bit of an update, or really a lot of update concerning the 36 acres to your left that we call the Life Campus. And some of you might not know what that is, but in 2013, I wrote in my prayer journal that God would somehow miraculously give us the Boy Scout camp that was adjacent to our property, 36 acres. And then in 2019, God did that and we had the opportunity to purchase those 36 acres by the grace of God. It's tremendous.

It's beautiful. If you've never been over there, go over there and check it out. There's a beautiful lake, there's a nine hole disc golf course that we installed. There's a field you can hang out and it's a beautiful, beautiful place. On the campus is a house that if you've been around, you know, we did a $45,000 renovation to this house and we call it the Restoration house.

And it's a place where pastors or missionaries or leaders who are in crisis can come and stay for free and just get with the Lord. And so this month of January, there's three different people staying in the restoration house. The missionary that was here last Wednesday night, Nubia from Brazil, stayed in the restoration house. Right now there's a couple that are with Love Life and they just needed a place that they could come and get with the Lord and get refreshed. They're there.

And then this coming Saturday, I have a young pastor couple from the Nashville, Tennessee area. They've been through a really difficult time with their family and they're coming, they're going to stay in the restoration house and attend every single night launch. And so that's awesome. The restoration house is being used. It's a great place, a great thing that's happening over there.

But let me tell you some things that we're planning to do on the campus. Some of the things, you know, in 2019, when we bought the property, we had this entire vision and we put it in the form of a magazine. And we shared that with you. And we launched the Ford campaign. And it was all about the next generation raising up the next generation.

And the vision for that property still is the same in terms of that. But when the pandemic hit, we really felt that we were to zoom out and to ask God if the things we had planned were really the things coming out of the pandemic that still needed to happen. And we realized the needs had changed some. And so along with that, the plans changed some. Some of the things that we had envisioned doing, we're still going to do, but they're going to look a little different.

And then there's some new things that we hadn't planned to do that we are going to do. So let me lay those out as quickly as I can for you. Y' all still with me? I'm not boring you, am I? I know this is different, but you need to hear this stuff.

First of all, there's a building that was built in 1937 on that property called Eagle hall, and we use that all the time. As a matter of fact, Refuge Kids has grown so much, they're down there on Wednesday nights. And this past Wednesday night, there were 71 third, fourth and fifth graders packed in Eagle Hall. So every Wednesday night, Refuge Kids is using that. RDS uses it all the time.

Young adults use it, our staff uses it. Other groups use that place. But as soon as our buildings for Refuge Kids are delivered and we get the kids back up from the Life campus here on Wednesday nights, we're going to start a full renovation of Eagle hall. And we're going to. That place doesn't have central heat and air.

And there's other things about the kitchen, all this. We're going to renovate that whole building, and we're going to turn that into an event space and utilize that more. We have an event room here. But let me tell you, every square inch of this building is used almost seven days a week. So we need more space.

We're going to be doing that in 2023. Here's something else that I believe is going to happen by Faith in 2023. One of the things that we really pre Pandemic wanted to build on that property was a place for our students. If you are here on Wednesday nights, this place is buzzing with children. It's buzzing with middle and high schoolers.

And when they break into small groups, our youth, our students, they're in every single available room on the campus, and they're utilizing Hallways for their small groups. That need has not changed. In fact, it's increased for them to have their own place.

The county is growing by leaps and bounds. You pass any school in our. In our school district, and there's probably 20 or 30 portable buildings outside of every single school because there's so many people moving into this area and so many young people. So we still want to build a student center. I think it will look different than what we had previously planned.

It's not going to be the same type of building, but we know the need is still there. And so by faith, in 2023, we will start construction. Now, don't hold me to all of this. I'm just believing, by faith, we're going to start construction on that student center sometime in 2023. We're soon going to be meeting with builders, architects, drawing up the plans for that.

Then we have to secure the permits. We have to start preparing the site for the building. That'll take a while, but we want to build that building for our students also in 2023. At the same time that we're building the building for the students, we want to also build another building. And I don't yet know what we're going to call it, but for now, I'm just going to call it storehouse.

Like Joseph's storehouse. Right. How Joseph was uniquely positioned by God to preserve the Israelites, to preserve the next generation by storing up grain for them in the midst of a famine. And so you know the story. So for now, we'll just call it a storehouse.

Not that that's necessarily going to be the name, but that building will be a place that people from all over our community can come and they can get clothing items, baby items, furniture, resources. They can shop in the store. It'll be a great place. We're modeling this off of a ministry who is doing this better than anybody I've personally ever seen. They're giving me the blueprints to the building.

And so we really envision a place that we can bless the community and meet the needs of so many people that are in our area. Now, along with that, tied in with that, over the next few weeks, I'm meeting with a group of people from this congregation who have knowledge about agriculture. And we're going to be taking about two acres of the Life campus and farming that in order to raise food that we can give away to the community.

I'm excited about that. I'm excited about all of this. Listen, I think all of us understand and we're going to distribute that food through the storehouse. I think all of us understand that food costs are up. In fact, over the past year, they're up 13.5%.

And that's a government study, so who knows if that's accurate or not, but they're up at least 13.5%. You also know, if you do any shopping, eggs are up 47%. You've probably seen some funny TikTok videos or memes or whatever about eggs and how valuable that they are. But I really envision this building being a place that can be a tremendous blessing to our community.

And we're also, along with that storehouse, we plan to have a box truck and once a month, load that thing up with items from the storehouse and go to communities that are in need and just give stuff away to them. And I'm so excited about doing that.

So those things that I just named the storehouse, the student center, the renovation to Eagle hall, and the farming, we really want to set those things in motion in 2023. It doesn't mean they'll be open. It doesn't mean we'll be fully functional in those things, but we want to set those things into motion. And let me just say this. If you're here, maybe you're watching online and you have knowledge or experience with agriculture or with farming, let me qualify that a little bit.

That doesn't mean that last year that you planted three tomato plants and you got some tomatoes or that you, you know, got a few zucchini squash from one plant that you put in the ground. I'm talking about, like, you, you know, you could lay out a plan with us of how do we develop that property, get it ready, and start growing stuff over the next few months over on the property. But those things. Oh, if you have experience. I stopped.

If you have experience with those things, if you'll reach out to the church, get in touch with my assistant, let him know that you want to be a part of that meeting. That meeting's already on the calendar, and there's people already attending. But if you want to be in that meeting, you feel like that you have some things that you could offer that would be helpful for us to set this in motion. Reach out to my assistant, and he'll take your information. Now, in 2024, one of the things that was on the original plan that I feel like is still a great need for us is housing for RDS.

We currently spend $100,000 every year to house our students. Now, it's a part of their tuition. But we would much rather have housing on our property that's right here where they could help with the farming, they could help in the storehouse, they could serve in the student center, they could be right here with us and not have to travel from the apartments that we put them in. And so my hope and my prayer is that in 2024 that we start building housing for RDs. And then in 2025, one of the things that was on the original plans for the Life campus that I still envision happening is that we're going to build a beautiful chapel that overlooks the lake, a prayer chapel.

And it'll be a place that's dedicated for prayer, that'll be used by groups throughout the church that can go into that chapel and have a beautiful view of the lake and just get along with God like I did this past week in the mountains. Here's the last thing. And then we're going to pray. Don't hold me to this. Let me say that again.

Don't hold me to this. I had a lot of people after the 9 o' clock service that said, I want to confirm what you said. This is God. We know it's God. Well, I'm glad you know it's God.

We're trying to figure out if it's God or not. But we are investigating the possibility building a daycare over on the Life campus. We're just investigating that. We're vetting that. We have paid a man.

And this week, just a few days ago, I got 30 something pages of data as thorough as you could ever imagine about daycares in our area and what it would take for us and every number you could imagine. So we're just still exploring that possibility of building a place for children that need a Christian environment where the government can't tell us what to say, what to teach, what to do.

Band, come on out, would you? We're just exploring that possibility. Come on. How many of you are excited about where God is taking us in the years ahead? What God's laying out for us now?

Let me just say this. It is our great desire and it's our hope that the things that I've just described to you over the next few years, that we can do those things with as little debt as possible. Now, I've worked hard and some of you are new here at the refuge, but I've worked hard for 18 years to esteem, establish financial integrity with you. And this place operates with the highest level of financial integrity in the past we have laid out for you a fundraising campaign at different times. When we built this building, we did that.

When we bought the property, we laid out the Ford campaign. And many of you have been faithful to sow into that. And that's been a blessing that's allowed us to do the things that we've already done over there, along with paying the payment, paying that property down as quickly as possible. But my plan at the, at the moment is that I do not plan to launch a fundraising campaign for all of the things that I just laid out for you. I just don't feel from the Lord right now that we're determined do that.

What I feel from the Lord is I'm to let you know what God is putting on our hearts and ask you to believe with us that God, this will take millions of dollars to build what I just described. But believing that God will supernaturally provide what we need in order to do that with as little or no debt. I know that's sounds crazy, but how many of you believe God is capable of doing that if he owns the cattle on a thousand hills? Can we just ask God to sell a few cows for the refuge and to provide what we need to just quickly and immediately pay for those children's buildings and get moving on the students center, get moving on the storehouse and on farming and on housing for RDs and on that prayer chapel. Will you believe with me today that God will do exceedingly and abundantly above what we can ask or think if you'll join your pastor in faith.

I need to see your hand today. Come on, Will you pray with me? Come on. Stand to your feet today. Father, thank you that you lay out for us vision for the future.

And God, you have positioned this house in a unique way for such a time as this. And I thank you, God, for the amazing people that you've brought in over the last three years to be a part of the refuge. So many people that you've brought and God, I believe you've brought them here to help us to take ground for the kingdom, to help us to pour into the next generation, to help us to make a difference in our community. And I pray, God and we agree together there's going to be miracles of provision, miracles of provision that you'll do more than we can ask, more than we can imagine. And I just pray, God, that you would pull everything together this year, 2023, so that we can, we can really move forward in this thing.

We're trusting you for that. God, we don't know how it's gonna happen. We're just laying out, laying it out before you and saying, God, we believe that you're able. We thank you for what you're gonna do on the front end of the miracle. In Jesus name, we pray.

Listen, I've gone over just a little bit, had a lot that I needed to share with you. I appreciate you being patient. Here's what I want to say to you. Scripture 29:18, Remember Proverbs, without a vision, people perish. And it's easy for us to say, yeah, people perish.

Here's the reality. Without a vision, you perish. There might be some of you who would say in 2023, I need clarity from God for my life. I need fresh vision from God for my life. There's some things I've been praying about during Salem, and I'm just trusting that God is going to give to me the clarity that I need for my family, my business, my finances, my future, my destiny, whatever it might be.

If that's you, God clearly spoke to me this morning, said, get you to the front. We're going to lay hands on you. We're going to pray for you. So if that's you, you just need clarity from the Lord. Come right now.

I want you to come quickly. Come right here to the front. Some leaders are going to come and meet you. They're going to lay hands on you. We're going to pray with you.

But you need vision. You need clarity. Because without a vision, you're going to just cast off restraints. You're going to live recklessly. But you're saying, I'm trusting God for vision today.

Anybody else? Come on, quickly. Come on. Hey. Vision.

You've been praying about launching that business. You've been praying about homeschooling the kids. You've been praying about your finances, about how you could do more for the kingdom's sake. You've been praying about direction for your whatever it might be. Come on.

Right now. We're going to pray for you. Come on. Pastors, elders, deacons, I want you to start moving amongst these. I want you to start laying hands on them and agreeing with them today for the clarity to come.

The clarity to come. Those of you that are at the front, just lift your hands for a moment. Father, we just lift up hands in a posture of receiving and in a posture of saying, dad, we need you. We reach for you. We long for you today.

So, God, I pray for every person who's come. I thank you, Lord, that they want the God thing. They don't want to settle for a good thing in 20, 23, in the year of abundance and overflow. They want the God thing. And I pray right now you would begin to download to them the clarity that they need.

God, let them hear the whisper that rolls off of your lips. Let them hear what the spirit of the Lord is saying for them. God, Father, I thank you that that voice speaks without confusion.

God, we just block out every bit of interference, the white noise of the enemy to hear from you. And we thank you that you're faithful to answer. Listen, those of you that are at the front, let me say this to you a couple of things. Listen to me. Don't put God on the clock and say, God, you have to speak to me.

Say, let's come into an end. I need to know. Don't put him on the clock. You just trust. He's going to guide you.

He's going to direct you. You say, God, I'm seeking you. Second thing, listen, there might not be the full vision that God lays out for you. It just might be one step that he tells you. He's done that with me many times.

He didn't lay out the full thing. He just told me this is what I'm to do next. It might not make sense. You might not understand how it fits into the bigger picture. Here's the key.

When he tells you what that one step is, you take that step without hesitation. You obey God. You move in the direction that God tells you to move. And then, like the page turning, God's going to give you the next step. Let's just trust him for that today.

Father, we trust you for that. We want to be faithful to obey. We want to hear what you say to us in 20, 23. And out of the abundance and out of the overflow that you give to us, let rivers of living water flow out of us so that we can meet the one who's poor in spirit, the one who needs a healing, the one who doesn't know Jesus, the one who needs to be filled and baptized in the spirit of God that we can meet their need. Oh, God, we as an individual and we as a church can meet the needs of others.

Now listen, I want you to just lift a song of worship. Here we go. We're gonna. We're going to walk out of this place in about two minutes. My son's going to come back, he's going to close the service.

The team's going to lead us in this song. Here's what it says. We're just making room for you, God. We're making room for you, God. Come on in 20, 23.

Let's make room for him. Come on, Milana, let's sing it. Let's worship him.