GET READY PT4 ALPHARETTA 2026 — ASK NOT (final)

January 20, 1961. Washington DC. 8 inches of snow the night before. The city shut down. They sent the army out with flamethrowers to melt the snow off Pennsylvania Avenue so the parade could happen. And a 43 year old man stands up in the cold with no coat and no hat and speaks for 13 minutes. 1,366 words. Shortest inauguration speech of the century. And out of 13 minutes, one sentence survived. ASK NOT WHAT YOUR COUNTRY CAN DO FOR YOU. ASK WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR COUNTRY. 65 years later. Every person in this room knows that line. Not one of you can tell me another thing he said that morning. Now watch what that sentence did. Six weeks later there was a thing called the Peace Corps, and it did not exist on the 19th of January. First group out was 51 people. 51. They went to Ghana. Then 500. Then 5,000. Then 15,000 at once. And since that morning more than 240,000 Americans have signed their name and gone to a country they had never seen and given away 2 years of their life for almost nothing. 240,000 Americans. Because a man asked them to. Then in May he said we're going to the moon before the decade is out. Nobody knew how. The technology did not exist. 400,000 people went to work on it. 8 years later 2 men were walking around up there. And it worked here because he was talking to a nation that already knew how. 2 out of every 3 firefighters in America are not paid. 2 out of 3. About 675,000 of them and they don't get a dollar. If they all decided tomorrow that somebody should really be paid to do that, most of America would burn to the ground by the weekend. He wasn't asking Americans to become something they'd never been. He was reminding them what they already were. But then Americans stopped joining things. The bowling leagues. Millions were in them. Gone. And americans did not stop bowling. More people bowl today than ever. They just bowl alone. And the church followed along. We got very good at building a place you can attend without ever joining. Park easy. Walk in late. Sit at the back. Get fed. Leave before the last song. And the way we made that work was we hired it out. We paid people to do what the body was meant to do. Ephesians 4:11-12 -- So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up. It does not say Christ gave the pastors to do the works of service. He gave them to EQUIP HIS PEOPLE for the works of service. My job is not to do the ministry. My job is to get you ready to do it. Ryan's job is not to do the ministry. His job is to get you ready to do it. The staff are not the workers. The staff are the trainers. The congregation are the workers. That is not my opinion. That is the verse. And there's a kind of church now that has it worked out. 40 paid staff and 2,000 spectators. Very smooth. Nothing ever goes wrong. Everything starts on time. It is not a body. It's a business with a worship set. And here's what nobody says out loud. It works. It works financially, it fills a room, and it produces almost nothing. Hebrews 5:12 -- You need milk, not solid food! There is a name for a body that has to be carried and fed and put down for a nap. It's called an infant. And there is nothing wrong with an infant. Unless it's 40. Jerusalem's wall had been rubble for 140 years. Every governor looked at it and did nothing, because it was too big to start. And Nehemiah 3 is the most boring chapter in the book. It reads like a phone book. And next to him, and next to him, and next to him, 30 times. The wall did not go up because somebody took on the wall. Every person in that chapter took one section. Each in front of his own house. Nobody was handed the wall. Everybody was handed the bit in front of them. And look who is holding the trowels. Goldsmiths. Perfume makers. Merchants. Priests. A man building beside his own daughters. Not one professional builder in the chapter. Now the sour note, and if you blink you'll miss it. Nehemiah 3:5 -- The next section was repaired by the men of Tekoa, but their nobles would not put their shoulders to the work. The only people there with the money and the standing. They looked at a foreman and decided they weren't taking instructions from him. So the ordinary people built it without them. And in verse 27 they show up again and repair a SECOND section. The working men did double while the important men did nothing. 2,500 years later we are still reading the name of the town that had to carry its own nobility. THE ONLY PEOPLE MISSING FROM THAT WALL WERE THE ONES WHO THOUGHT THEY WERE ABOVE IT. Nehemiah 6:15 -- So the wall was completed in fifty-two days. 140 years of rubble. 52 days. Not because they found a better contractor. Because everybody took a section. Come back to the snow one more time. That was the greatest political sentence of the last hundred years. And it was not enough. Because a country can ask you for your effort but it cannot do anything about you. It can send you to Ghana. It can't fix your marriage. It can put you on a rocket and it cannot forgive you one single thing. Ephesians 5:25 -- Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Before she asked. Before she deserved it. He gave first. So i am not asking you on credit this morning. I'm asking you on a receipt. And don't wait till you feel qualified. When you say i'm not qualified, what you're saying is my part of the body doesn't need to work. And the body believes you. 2 churches. Both love Jesus. Both preach the Bible. And in 4 weeks this campus becomes one of them. Here's the first one. You pull into the car park and somebody you've never met walks out in the rain to meet your car. You walk in carrying something heavy and 3 people notice. You cry in the third song and a stranger puts a hand on your shoulder. You come back next week and somebody remembers your name. And here's the part visitors never work out. Nobody is paid to do any of it. What they're feeling is 800 people who don't get paid and don't get thanked and did it anyway. It isn't the building. It isn't the band. It's the people. Now the second church. Beautiful building. Great band. Everything on time. A professional staff who do all the work, and a room full of good people who arrive at 10, get fed, get their children minded, and go home having been served. And nothing is wrong. And nothing happens. Now hear this. Nobody chooses the second church. Nobody ever stood up in a members meeting and voted for it. The second church is what you get when not enough people choose the first one. It's the default. It's what this campus becomes on its own, with nobody deciding anything, if a few hundred of us don't move in the next 4 weeks. WHICH ONE ARE WE. In 4 weeks we induct and coronate Ryan and Lindsey as the campus pastors of Alpharetta. Jane and i are not going anywhere. This is our home and we will be still preaching and here in this room. What changes isn't the address. It's the reins. In 4 weeks i take my hands off the reins of this campus. And reins don't hold themselves. And there's the list. Prayer. Car park. Hosts. Kids. Production. Media. Cafe. Set up. Pack down. Worship. Safety. Youth. Same wall. Different city. Read it and pick one. Not the one you'd be best at. Not the one that looks impressive. The one you can actually do 2 Sundays a month starting in September. And do it now, while i'm standing here. Not in the car. Not tonight when it goes quiet. Now. If you have never served in this house. Pick one. If you served years ago and quietly stopped and nobody chased you. Pick one. If you got hurt here and you've been coming in late and leaving early ever since. Pick one. If you're 15 and you think you're too young. Pick one. If you're 75 and you think you're too old, there are 4 on that list you can do sitting down. Pick one. 65 years ago a man stood up in the snow and turned the question around. The wall was rubble for 140 years. It went up in 52 days. Not because they found builders. Because every one of them took a section. The head is ready. Jesus has always been ready. The body is what we're waiting on. Don't leave here with a feeling. Feelings are cheap and they're gone by Tuesday. Leave with your name on something. Find your section. Take it.