Not My Ground

but I want I want to get us into the word for just a moment. You can be seated. Uh tell someone you're you're ready for them to work today. Right. Many hands make light work. I do want to acknowledge though the emotionality of change. I mean, last weekend I moved this this p this week pastor moved and I helped move them. They helped move me. I mean, the emotionality of it for me is just let's just get it done. I'm just tired. But I I there is an excitement in the air.

There's a feeling of loss, though. Psych psychology has shown us that with change, doesn't matter if it's good or bad, there's always some part of us that looks back, man, if only. We kind of look at it with a little bit of sadness to us because there was something we enjoyed about something. Uh McKinley was talking yesterday. Yeah, that's what you get for talking to the preacher, Mckenley. You get called out. I'm sad. I'm leave this church. I was like, well, do you remember another one?

Well, yeah, barely. But, you know, like uh you know, we we get comfortable. There's the fear of the unknown. There's the break of routine. There's a loss of security. Any type of change, any type of change, there's excitement. There's overwhelming possibilities. I mean, this was, y'all, this is the funniest thing I've ever seen. Maybe not ever seen, but we were walking through that building for the for the first time with uh Dan Johnson, and I I kid you not, this is all he said the whole time.

I'm like, you know, he's he's a remodeler. He's got all kinds of all all he Man, it's big, man. It's real big. It's big. It's like 40 times. It's like, this is hilarious. Yeah, I was I was just calling you out. There's an overwhelming amount of work that we have there. There's a sense of excitement but also realization, right, of oh, of okay, if it's going to happen, it's going to be me. It ain't going to magically ain't nobody coming in here going. Now, I know I know that's the way our wives think.

houses get built, remodel. I'm sorry. I just been in a remodel. So, my wife just thinks, "Well, now we're now the work starts." Wait a minute. I need a break first, right? I got to I got to survive this. For some of you, you've been here through all the changes for CAC. Uh for some, you haven't. I I haven't been here for all the changes. That's okay. We're all at a different point. I I do want to I've got a I've got a graph if you know me at all.

Yeah, buddy. This how my mind works. Like, how do I visualize this? When there is something that happens, there's shock and disbelief. What just happened? Then there's denial. Nah, this can't be real. Now, this is not a perfect graph. There's going to be some misspellings in this. All right. Then there's frustration and anger. Why is this happening? Bargaining. It's this is anyone recognize this cycle? It's almost like a loss cycle, right? Grieving, depression, withdrawal. This is too hard. Acceptance. Okay, I get it. And then commitment and growth.

I see it. We have moved six times in like a very short amount of time as a church body. That's a big deal. That's something that uh I I uh I spend of I do a lot of study on corporate stuff like I I love management, love change management, I love all types of different things but it doesn't deal with uh just just those trainings and those researches. It doesn't deal with what we actually go through with change. It doesn't at all. Now I'm not here.

We're not having a funeral today. that that ain't what this is about. We'll get there. All right. But here's the thing is is as a body, we've went through this at different stages and we've had multiple moves and so we've we've been caught in a riding a horse. All right. All right. All right. I know. I know this is this has got everybody's question. Y'all see this? Y'all got to talk to Lauren about it. I just I just need to reel y'all in for a second.

We've been caught in this cycle, this this just this this constant, all right, how are we going to get here? What are we going to do? Right? And and it's not anyone's fault. It's just been part of it. I know the night that that there was a tornado and it took out our church that for some of us that was devastating for some people that are no longer with this body. That was a real devastating loss. I I'm not faulting that. It was just something there was just a almost a loss of connection.

It was a grieving that happened. For some of you guys, you went through a whole different process of grieving of grieving that it it just stretched out and you're like, man, why am I not connecting at church? Why am I not why am I not feeling and and and it was just a grieving process for some you guys are like, I I don't know what you're talking about. And that's okay, too. We're going to go through this again. We're moving today. We're going to go through a process again.

It's going to start over for some of us. Each location has brought new people. It's lost some people. It's it's brought a different dynamic. There's going to be changes. just is some of us are going to feel the loss of the closeness and some of us are going to rejoice in the loss of the closeness. It's going to change our worship dynamics if we're not careful. It really will. It's going to change how we uh uh Here's the thing. um you your time you get to church, it's going to take a minute because you're gonna be wondering around the building for like five minutes like, "Wait a minute, where am I going?" So, your arrival time's going to have to change.

I was talking to you. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. You're our whole where you sit, who you sit next to, and how you sit and how all that is going to change. There's going to be new faces. The fabric of our of our body is going to change. But it's not all bad. But let's let's look at how to deal with it. Jesus dealt with this his own self. Believe it or not, I'm going through change right now. I've got a little boy. I'm not used to taking care of a kid.

I am grieving that process. Lauren's like, "You can't go 1 th00and mile power anymore." I was like, "I don't really know else not to." So, we're working on it, right? Until he starts running, then we're good again. Right. In the book of Matthew, chapter 14, I'm going to start with verse eight here. And and this this we're going to start in midstream of a story. says, "Prompted by her mother, she said, "Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter." That's a gruesome story to just start out with.

And the king was sorry because of his oath, and his guest he commanded it to be given. He sent and had John beheaded in the prison and it was brought on a platter given to the girl and she brought it to her mother. All right. Will you guys bring out the as a joke as a joke? Right. We ain't we ain't getting that gruesome in here. The the this right midstream we're caught in a story of where someone requests for something to happen and it kills a man by the name of John the Baptist.

John the Baptist. Jesus said of John the Baptist that no greater man has walked this earth. He he was talking and and so cavalerely was his life ended. Turns out that John the Baptist was Jesus's cousin. He was also the person that baptized Jesus. He was also a prophet. He was, if I may, he was the last prophet of the Old Testament. Uh verse Verse verse 12. And his disciples came and took the body and buried it and they went and told Jesus. So John had his own disciples.

We find that now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. Jesus lost his friend, his cousin, maybe even his mentor as a person, the person that baptized him. Luke 16 and 15 he said to them you you are those who justify yourselves before men but God knows your heart for what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. This is what he says the law and the prophets were unto John.

Since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached and everyone forces his way into it or everyone is forcefully urged into it. Jesus was also understanding that John was a prophet and there's there was a change of time. Thousands of years of history, thousands of years of teaching, thousands of years of of the Old Testament was coming to an end. And Jesus realized, okay, he knew this, but this was the moment. This was almost this was the time, right? He's fully God and fully man.

So, he can have a full range of human emotions. And so as he goes and he realizes that John the Baptist is no longer here. What am I doing? It's now my time. It's now for sure my time. He'd already been baptized. He'd already performed miracles. He was already teaching. But now the full fulfillment, the ending of the old was right here. John the Baptist, he was in prison and he said this, "I must decrease and he must increase." If you're the greatest man that's ever walked in on earth, the only way for you to decrease apparently was death.

All right? Now, Jesus didn't kill him, but that was John the Baptist understood that for the Messiah to come that he had to some things had to change. Some things had to go. And so he goes off the scene and Jesus says,"I want to mourn this. I want to withdraw myself." Right? Full range of human emotions. I want to fill my I want to pull back for just a minute. Give me just a minute. It's only reasonable to give me just a minute. Right? Anyone like to sit with your arms crossed?

Not because you're cold, just because it's comforting. I'm not picking at you, brother Ed. I was I wasn't. Now it seems like I was I was not. Anyone like to just uh uh I don't know. I I don't know how shrink back into yourself a little bit every now and then, right? Introverts in the house. Hey, my introvert corner over here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He was like, "Oh, no, no, no, no. Found the darkest corner in the spot in the house to sit." This is the introvert corner, in case y'all haven't noticed.

These are the people that don't like to get out and shake hands. So, it's true. It's funny because it's true. Okay. They're going to shoot me now. I'm just dodging missiles. And so, so they just we would draw into ourselves because there's a change. There's something that's happening and we want to say, "I I just don't have it to give right now. I just don't have it. Just leave me alone. I I I need to process this. Yeah, there's a whole lot of that. I need to work through this.

I I'm this way. Lauren would be like, "Hey, can we can we talk about Got to give me like a week and four days." Like, I got to process this. That's me. You guys, y'all may all be like, "Let's just let's just get it on right now. I need to process." And and and so we find that Jesus was doing this. He said, "I've got to process this." But then verse 14, people followed him. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

In my time of mourning, in my time of hurting, in my time of needing to process, compassion was the answer. So if I am what a testament even in his weakness, even in his time of I don't even want to be around my disciples. What was his antidote? Let me heal him. Let me serve them. Let me do the work that I'm here for. Let me find a way to to step into my calling to fulfill my calling. Help me. Help me. I don't have the strength to do it.

I don't even I don't even have the wherewithal to do it. I don't feel equipped. This is not the time. I am emotionally unavailable right now. This is not the best thing for me. But guess what? I have compassion. I must I must be driven by compassion. There is a lost. There is a dime. There is a hurting world. I must be driven by compassion. This church is not driven by money. It's not driven by gold. It's not driven by fame. It's not driven by good singing or loud worship.

It's driven by compassion, church. The moment we forget that we are driven by compassion or the moment we miss the boat. We must be we must have compassion on those that are hurting, those that are lost, those that are dying. It doesn't matter if we feel like it right now. It doesn't matter if it's the most inconvenient thing in the world. It doesn't matter if it brings us out of our comfort zone. We must be driven by compassion. You see, in the time that we've been moving church to church or place to place to place, these haven't been churches.

But guess what we've done? We have more than doubled in size. We've kept reaching new souls. We've had baptism after baptism after baptism. People filled with the Holy Ghost. We've started new ministries. We've reached more than we've ever thought possible. Not because we sat back and said, "Well, we'll just wait till we get a building." No, because we're driven by compassion. We're driven. This is not my church. This is not your church. This is God's church. We're driven by compassion. I must go. I must serve.

I must reach. I must save. I must heal. I must fulfill the gospel. We're driven by compassion. We've given more to missions and we've impacted more in this community than we ever thought possible. We're driven by compassion. I'm not even preaching about compassion today, believe it or not. Now then, when it was evening, the disciples came to him said, "This is a desolate place and the day is now." This is verse 15. Now when it was evening, the disciples came to and said, "This is a desolate place, and the day is now over.

Send the crowds away. Go into the villages and buy food for themselves." This is what the disciples said. These guys are fishers. Fishermen. They don't know anything about ground. They don't like it. Most of them are fishermen. They said, "This is desolate." You ever been to like Copper Hill? Especially after like nine o'clock, nothing's open. It's a desolate place. I mean, it's about like Colin Wood. I mean, even on Sunday in Colinwood, not a sing where I'm from, not a single store is open. I mean, everything's closed.

It's a desolate place. Now, of the two stores that are there, you know what I'm saying? It's a desolate place. They said now the ground and and it's by the sea, so the ground's probably not good to grow food on. There's no McDonald's there. There's no Taco Bell. There's no Tony's pasta. There's no Main Street Meats. There's no Taco Mama. These are all my favorite places to go. I don't know where y'all like to go, but I was hungry, I guess, when I was working on this sermon.

They were in the middle of nowhere. In effect, they were telling Jesus, "This is this we're not from here. This is not our stomping ground. We don't know anything about this. Can we just send everybody away?" They said, "This is not my ground. I'm unfamiliar with it. It's not even good. Why are we here? Can you I mean, you're surrounded by You ever been in a big crowd, 5,000 people, 5,000 men, and then there's a bunch of women and children running around? And this isn't like modern day where everybody's like having one and a half kids.

This was like when they were having 15 and a half kids. So, like, who knows? I know. I know. They were probably from CAC. The disciples are saying, "Can we not just send them away? This is not our ground. It's not familiar. It's not mine. This is not how we do things. This is We're fishermen, not farmers. This is not our style. This is not what we do. This isn't our ground. This is not my ground." Where do we have church at? A studio? Someone else's church, your house, a warehouse, an expanded warehouse.

This place, it's not my ground. They weren't churches, were they? Jesus said, "They need not go away. Give them something to eat." Said, "We only have five loaves here and two fish." He said, "Bring them here to me." Verse 19. Then he ordered the crowns to sit on the grass, taking up the five loaves and the few two fishes. He looked up to heaven. He said, "A blessing." Can I just say all the places that we've been, they haven't been church buildings. They're not things that we would normally do or ways we would normally go around them.

They were not our stomping grounds. They're not our ground. They're not our normal way of doing things. But what has God done? God's blessed. He said, "Just give me your what? Your fishes and your loaves. Just just give me what you got. I'm going to bless it. Just take You may be in a studio in some random building somewhere, but I'm going to bless it." You may be in a borrowed church, but I'm going to bless it. You may be in a living room. You may be in a warehouse with rats the size of dogs, but I'm going to bless it.

You may be in a little cracker jack of a box, but I'm going to bless it. Come on, somebody. When God says this is mine, it's not our ground. It's his ground. He's going to bless it. Come on, somebody. God's blessed us. God's blessed us. Oh, God has blessed us. We're punching so far above our weight, it ain't even funny. God blessed us. You see, Moses was in the wilderness. And he's just wandering around in the wilderness falling stinky sheep. and he sees a bush of burning and he says, "Man, I'm going to go check that out." And he gets close to it and God speaks to him from the bush.

He says, "Stop where you're at." Stop where you're at. What's he say? What kind of ground? Holy ground. Holy ground. You mean it was some special type of sand? It was some special spot that we should build a temple. It was something, oh, this was the bush that we're going to worship now because it was a burning bush that didn't burn up. No, it was holy ground because God was there. That was it. Plain and simple. It's not our ground. It's his ground. It's not my ground, church.

Oh, come on. When when when when you go to when you go to dig in some ground and you go to plant some seed, go even if Jesus says the parable, it's going to be some good ground, some bad ground, some stony, some thorny. But guess what he didn't say? If it's my ground, it's holy ground. I need somebody to declare no matter where this church is, no matter what time of day or night it is, this is holy ground. This is God's church. It's not my church.

It's not your church. It ain't got nobody's name on it. It's God's church. This is not our ground. It's his ground. It's holy ground. Here is the thing. And when they had all eight and were satisfied, they took up 12 baskets full of broken pieces. When God blesses it, you better not say, "I didn't like that meal." All right. When God blesses it, you better not say, "Well, I'm just tired of fish. When God bless Oh, I I hang on." When God blesses it, we better not say, "Man, I remember what that used to be." When God blesses it and gives the increase, what do we say?

We think, "Thank you, Lord. This is your ground, not my ground. This is your church, not my church. This is not about me. This is not about you. This is about God and his kingdom. Verse 22, immediately, he finished that up. Verse 22 said, "Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side while he dismissed the crowds." He said, "You guys don't get it yet." He dismissed them. They were excited. They wanted We want to get back to our own turf.

They wanted to get back to what they were familiar with. These were fishermen. They wanted to feel the the rocking of the boat, the spray of the of the just that wind. I mean, everybody want to go to the beach about right now, right? March is March is the time you're like, "Let's go to the beach. It's been cold all winter and rainy and all that. Let's go to the beach. Let's get that salt air going and that nice wind. Let's get the smell of fish." Okay.

Well, you know, if you're a fisherman, it smells like money. They got back on that familiar territory. Verse 23. After he dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone. But the boat by this time was a long way from land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. In the fourth watch of the night, it's like 3 to 6 in the morning. He came to them walking on the sea. Now, this was a stormy sea.

They were where they were familiar with, but it was stormy. It's like every story with them on the sea. Like, like these guys were fishermen, but no wonder they left and went with Jesus. They were probably starving to death. They couldn't catch fish. They was always in shipwreck problems. They had to have VM to calm the the waves. They didn't know what they were doing. I mean, every story about them on the sea, it's like this is another catastrophe. It's just they said verse 26, when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified and said, "It is a ghost." They cried out in fear.

But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, "Take heart. It is I. Do not be afraid. Peter answered him, "Lord, if is you, come to me. Command me to come to you on the water." Have y'all ever thought about that? Peter didn't. He did not think about that. That's a really dumb like what kind of reasoning and logic's in there? If it's you, just tell me to come there. If it hadn't have been him, if it'd been me, I would have said, "Yeah, get out of the boat, dude." you know, like just to see who, you know, like that was terrible logic.

I don't know what Peter was doing. But he said, "Come." So Peter got out of the boat boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. When he saw the wind, he was afraid. Beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save me." I brought this shovel today. This CAC 2013, this was the the groundbreaking shovel for the building that was completed in 2017. Josh, you signed this. That's a long time ago. What? Still got some dirt on October 6, 2013. Somebody stepped out of a boat.

For whatever reason, this church decided to step out of the boat. Buddy, it's been rocky, hasn't it? I was talking to my uncle and me. We were we were at a conference in Memphis about a month ago. We we eating breakfast and he's a he's a pastor up in Cookville. He was talking about his church. He was talking about some campuses. He's he's he's started one, wanting to start more. And I was like, you know, I was I was, you know, I was jing with him.

We were just going on. And I was like, yeah. And I said this. I said, as soon as we get our footing, we're going to do the same thing. I don't know if it was God that convicted me or if it was just common sense that convicted me. I don't know. I can't say. But I know exactly where I was standing. I remember that. It's been setting on me because and this story came to mind. Now, I'm not saying you all said this, but I have a feeling that I'm not the only one that's thought that.

Okay. What that what that showed me was I was putting my faith in the stability of something. I was putting my faith in Well, when we get this phase done, then we'll be able to Now, I get it. There's pragmatism to this, okay? I'm not I'm not throwing pragmatism out the window, but spiritually speaking, I failed to check. Not because I was being angry, not because I was doing something wrong, but because I was being too pragmatic for my own good. I wasn't operating in the faith I was supposed to.

You see, when Peter got out of that boat, that wasn't ground. That wasn't I don't know if any any of any of you guys ever walked on water. You ever tried? How about drowned coming in today? Any anybody here figured out how to without freezing it turn water into something you could stand on? And even when you freeze it, it's still not easy to walk on. But you see, I serve a God. Through all the sifting and the shaking and the moving, I hope we have learned a lesson that our our strength, our purpose, our faith, our our ability to minister.

Our our our body, our church is not wrapped up in a building. It's not wrapped up in if we can just get to here. It's not wrapped up in in in any amount of dollars. just not wrapped up in any amount of of of physical location. It is wrapped up. This is not our ground. This is God's ground. He will plant us where he wants us planted and he will move us where he wants us moved and we will grow and we will falter and we will grow again because of we.

This is not our church. This is God's church. This is not our ground. This is God's ground. You see, we can't wait. We haven't waited, but we can't say, "Well, now that we're here, we can do this." No, we just keep on doing. We just keep on growing. We just keep on ministering. We just keep on serving. We just keep on saying, "You see, somebody hear me. Chattanooga needs revival." Chattanooga needs to know the oneness of God. Chattanooga needs to know salvation and filling with the Holy Ghost.

Chattanooga needs to know deliverance from hurts, hang-ups, and habits. Hallelujah. Oh, you want to hear? You hear? Chattanooga needs four one God services on a Sunday. Chattanooga needs a hundred one God churches in it. We need campus after campus after campus. We need Jesus. And it's not found in a building. It's not found in a dollar amount. It's found in faith in him. Well, y'all wore me out today. You guys have that picture I I I sent you. Now, this picture doesn't make any sense. I'm going to give you some context to it.

Okay, this this picture is in Lebanon, not Lebanon, Tennessee, right? Lebanon and Lebanon is a different place. Beirut, Lebanon, Middle East. In this picture is the fir front and center is the is a missionary there. His name is Brother Aar. behind him. Some of you may know uh Kenny Chester and then his brother to the right there is Jamie Chester. And I don't I don't know the rest of the people in the photo. What he is pointing at. All right, they were walking down the road.

They're not under a canopy. If you pay real close attention to this, on both sides of them, around them, there's no rain. The ground's dry. There's no canopy there. The reason I know this is my dad took that photo. He said we were walking down. He's like, "Man, I really really wish we wouldn't get wet wet. I really don't want to get wet today." And he noticed they wasn't getting wet. He's like looked around, just kind of stepped out. He snapped that photo. I show you this Because something as simple as that is impossible for me.

Something as I know you can't see the context. You're just going to have to trust me on this context, okay? But have you ever been walking down the road and God just put something around you protect you? I can't tell you time after time I I ride a motorcycle. Love it. Let me just tell you, I get real close to God on that bad boy. Because there has been time after time after time, just a hair, just a hair, guys. God hasn't brought us this far to leave us.

The world can fall down all around us. The world can go to a hell and a hand basket. Whatever that means, God's got his hand on us. Would you stand with me for just a moment? Now, I told him because we were waiting on the rain to pass. I was going to preach two hours and brother said, "No." Okay. All right. Yeah. The rain's gone. I'm done in this move. There's going to be a lot of emotions. There's going to be a lot of change. There's going to be a lot of things that are going to leave us unsettled for a little bit.

There be a lot of things that we're going we'll stutter step on. But I want you guys to know this. God's made a way. This wasn't the beginning of the story, okay? This was just a this wasn't 2013 wasn't the beginning of the steps of faith, but it was one step of faith. 6314 East Brainard Road is not going to be the end of the storm. It's going to be one step. One step. We can't save Chattanooga from there. we can start. My only my my my my my my reservation is exactly what I've delivered to you today is that for one moment we would allow something to take place of our trust and our faith in God.

We just h Man, I shouldn't have done that. Now, it's not fatal. Doesn't have to be. But guys, there's going to be I We're moving into an old building. There's some old things that are there spiritually. I don't mean that in a bad way. I'm I'm not I'm not downing anyone, okay? This is a young church. A young church moving into an older place with some older spiritual things. Okay? I'm not trying to get all this isn't Ghostbusters either. All right. All right. But but understand me though with those movings of things, there's going to be some things that shake us, that try to settle into us, that try to get a hold of us, and we think, well, this is just normal.

Doesn't matter. Somebody say, "It's not my ground." Whose is it? It's God's. Can we all just lift our hands where we are for just a moment? God, I love you. God, I thank you. God, I praise you. God, I worship you. God, you've brought us so far. But for you, it's just a half a breath. It's half a step. It's half a thought. God, for us, it's a whole journey. God, I pray, Lord, in this next step, God, that you would put your hand of protection round about us.

God, I don't know what we're going to come up against. I don't know what we're going to face, but God, I know this that we only trust you. We don't trust anything else. And God, I pray I pray I pray God that you would settle upon us a spirit of faith unlike we have ever seen. Faith expecting, growing, and and exceeding more than we can imagine. God, faith, Jesus, we trust in you, God. We trust in you. I wonder if you can if if you're near your family, pray with your family for just a moment.

If if you're if you're not, just pray with someone near to you. And I want you to pray for us to process this change to grow through this change to allow the spirit to change us. God, this is going to be the place that some of us raise kids that some of our kids are kids are raised in. God, this is going to be the place that that steps of faith and and and and filling of the Holy Ghost are going to happen, God. And and baptisms in Jesus' name are going to happen.

These are going to be this is going to be a place. But God, our our faith is not in this place. Our faith is not in this building. Our faith is in you, God. We pray, Lord, that upon I pray God upon every family, upon every home, God, upon every individual, God, that you would let your spirit to settle in upon us, God. Help us, Lord, to feel the full burden, the full compassion for the souls of men in Chattanooga. God, help us, Lord, to not be limited in and of ourselves, but God, help us, God, to do our meager part and allow you, God, to give the increase, Lord, to do our part, God, but protect us, God.

Help us to work through it. Give us faith. Give us strength and glor God. It's not for us. God, I pray against every spirit of tradition, every spirit of compromise. I pray, Lord, against every spirit that would get a hold of our families, God, that would seep in, God, and it would every spirit of possess possesses possession. And I pray Lord that you would let a free flow of the spirit of the Holy Spirit to move upon us, God, to move upon our families, upon our homes, God, but to seep into our souls, God.

Lord, to guard against all the things that can come against us. But God, I pray, Lord, that you would help us to continue to walk in faith believing