Participant: Hey everybody.

Welcome back to another episode of
the Breakthrough Church Podcast.

Uh, I have some updates and I
really just wanna share some, uh,

insights or shifts I feel in my
spirit as we get closer to launch.

Um, I'm recording this on July 28th,
which means we have seven-ish weeks until

we launch Breakthrough Church publicly.

And, uh, I'll share a little bit.

I'll just, I'll dive into it right now.

You know, we're, we're, we're gonna launch
public services starting on September

13th, on Saturday at 5:00 PM We're
leasing space from Loft City Church.

Um, led by Sam Chaco and couldn't be more
grateful for him and their church and just

their generosity and kingdom mindedness.

It's been such a blessing to, uh, work
through this with them, and they just

bought a new facility and renovating it
and, uh, it's really, really cool timing

and it seems like the Lord has brought
us together for a time such as this.

And, uh, so we're very excited about that.

And, um, uh, when I've been
thinking about launch, I've, I've,

I've thought about a few things.

Uh, our team has been
meeting weekly since January.

Um, we haven't maybe been
doing it, how do I say this?

We haven't been meeting in
your typical pre-launch way.

Um, meaning we're not spending all
this time talking about launch day.

And getting things ready
and set programmatically

and figuring everything out.

Like, how are we gonna do this
big and how are we gonna make sure

that people want to come back?

And, you know, there's,
there's a spectrum.

I feel like there's, on the, on one
side, there's, um, as hype as you can

get, bounce houses, smoke machines,
loud music, um, all this merch, all

of these pathways, all of this stuff.

And, and then on the other side,
there's, you know, we're just,

we're not gonna do any sort of.

Marketing or any sort of, um,
hype to generate excitement about

the church that we're launching.

We're just gonna keep doing what we've
been doing under the radar, under the

radar and, and just go from there and
just move locations and do it in the

place that we feel called to launch in.

And.

Uh, I've really struggled to
find my place in that spectrum.

I've really, because as many
of you know, if you've been

listening, our highest priority
and goal is the presence of Jesus.

And, and when I say the presence
of Jesus, I'm talking about

the revelation of his heart.

One Kings eight, the building,
the house of the Lord.

Was the building that the manifest
cloud of God's glory fell.

But it was also the same house that
he would reveal his character and

his nature to and through his people.

And so when I'm talking about the
manifest presence of Jesus, I'm talking

about the revelation of who he is.

That is the presence of God When
you, when you've seen Jesus rightly

in your life, think about a time
when you've been like, whoa, man.

I can see Jesus with the eyes
of my heart, like Ephesians one.

The eyes of my heart have been enlightened
by the spirit of wisdom and revelation.

I'm seeing Jesus rightly
for who he truly is.

In those moments in your life, don't
you feel a shift happen in your life?

Even in the very room that you're having
that encounter with God and you feel just

everything changes and shifts because
God himself, the creator of the universe

is unveiling a part of his heart and
character to you in a moment of time.

And that's the, the church is
a place where that happens.

Regularly, and normally this is,
that is who we are as a church.

The presence of God is the very
thing we rally around and center

around, and the one thing we
seek and one thing we're after.

So if that, okay, if that is our vision
and our culture being a place, a house

that is filled with the glory of the Lord,
the revelation of his heart, where people

come and they see Jesus rightly because of
the Holy Spirit of wisdom and revelation.

Okay, if that's our value, then
how much marketing do we need?

I'm just telling you how I've been
feeling, how much marketing, how

much branding, how much hype about
breakthrough Church do we need, or

do we just trust the presence of God,
um, to reveal himself in powerful

ways so that people want to come back.

And the short answer is, do you do both?

Um, and I don't want to
throw, uh, all hype and hype.

I hate that word.

I don't wanna throw out, um, all marketing
and branding and, and, and communication.

Um, about who we are to
others who don't know us yet.

I don't wanna throw it out.

I think it's important we'll
utilize some of those tools.

We already have an Instagram and I have,
I have this podcast for crying out loud

that I've been doing for over a year.

Um, so I don't wanna throw all of it out.

But in my spirit, I've thought I
do not want to spend time, much

time at all on being high profile.

Being, generating a bunch of
excitement about breakthrough.

I really, I just, in my spirit, I
feel like we're supposed to stay

really low profile and organic.

I think about how people have
shown up to our launch team so far.

There's one woman that, that
has joined our launch team in

the last week who accidentally.

Came to our meeting on Saturday night.

She accidentally came to our gathering.

She was looking for another meeting,
and she accidentally walked in on our

launch team and said, oh, you know what?

I've actually been wanting to come
check out anyways, so I'll just stay.

She stayed and then she came and
prayed with us on Tuesday morning, she

got touched by the Lord couple times
and that time and, and then time.

The, the next week on Tuesday
morning, receive some words

from the Lord, from people.

I wasn't even there that time,
but others prayed for her and, and

she received a word from the Lord.

I met with her this last week
and she says, I can't not

be a part of breakthrough.

I didn't even look, I
wasn't even looking for it.

It came looking for me.

I, I'm like, okay, that's why,
that's organic, that's low profile.

That's people coming, getting touched by
the spirit and wanting to stay, and, and

that's, that's our heart for launch day.

We're not doing anything different.

What we've been doing
is what we'll do now.

There are things we want in
place for launch day, right?

We want kids' ministry.

I want kids to be able to learn
about Jesus and for parents to trust

their kids to, to trained adults
that can teach them about Jesus.

And so adults can freely
worship, uh, in our gathering.

Like I want that.

I want a hospitality team where we
just welcome people really warmly and.

Honor them for their presence
in our building and in our

space, in our gatherings.

I want a connections ministry where
people get followed up with, they

get, Hey, we're praying for you.

Hey, we wanna meet up
with you and all that.

And so we want those things in place,
but um, it's all organic and low

profile because we wanna highlight
Jesus and we don't wanna take his glory.

Like, we don't wanna touch his glory.

We, we want him to get all the glory, uh,
with, with our launch and with our church.

And, and so anything
that might, um, distract.

From him getting glory like our
hype or our generating excitement

about breakthrough just in our
flesh, man, I don't wanna do it.

And so I just feel a, a relief
in my spirit that we don't have

to sacrifice our pursuit of his
presence, uh, on launch day.

In fact, we're just inviting others to
encounter the presence of Jesus with us

as they just join us to do what we've
been doing for almost eight months now.

Since January.

So, and speaking of which, I wanna speak
about our gathering on Saturday night.

I got home after Saturday night
and my wife Abby, she asked,

Hey, how'd you think it went?

And I said, that was the
closest we have been to being

who I think God wants us to be.

There were 20, 22 adults in the room.

Felt like more just 'cause
the room is kind of small and

that's not even the point.

I don't even know why I said that.

I mean, growth matters and
people being there matters.

That's, and that's very, that's like,
you know, we have about 35 on our launch

team, so, um, it wasn't even everybody.

But, uh, that's not,
that's besides the point.

What, what I, my point is, um, oh gosh,
man, the Lord just revealed himself.

I'm just thinking back into the
moment, and the cloud was in the room.

Jesus was revealing himself.

We worship Sal, let us
beautifully and worship.

Um, I feel my heart coming
alive as I'm telling you this.

Um, we worshiped King Jesus.

We blessed him, we exalted him,
we extolled him, and we just

put him in his rightful place.

And, and the Holy Spirit came.

And I, I read a, a large chunk of
the book of Ephesians during worship,

just out loud as Sao was playing.

And, uh, there were
two things highlighted.

It was the immeasurable greatness of
his power towards us who believed.

And then in chapter two, the
immeasurable riches of his grace and

kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

So his power is towards us,
and his grace is towards us.

And I just, I prayed for the group
that, that his power would overcome

the obstacles and the things in our
lives that are holding us down, but

also that his grace would reach us when
we feel disqualified and, and feel,

feel sick and, and gross and dirty.

It was just, it was powerful.

You felt just the Holy Spirit's presence,
increase the volume, turn up a little bit.

And then Sal led us into, I,
I exalt you, like I exalt you.

Um, and we just sang that.

And then, um, I had Sal actually share.

Because the Lord had spoken to him clearly
that week and it was definitely for him.

But I just have learned, man, like
if God speaks to me so clearly about

something in my life, it's probably
for our community as well as the

leaders, um, as leaders of breakthrough,
we're not better than or leveled up.

We are in front though.

And we don't wanna just be in
front strategically, but we

want to be in front spiritually.

So learning how to stay in front of our
people with the Lord means spending a

little bit more time with them than maybe
we had initially thought we should have.

Um, spending a little
bit more time in prayer.

So Sal and I did, we prayed on Thursday
morning all by ourselves just to stay

in front and, um, it was powerful.

And, um, the Lord spoke to Sal
powerfully and tangibly this last week

about Jesus being the water that we
drink, the well that we drink from.

Um, so he's the source of the water.

He's the water itself, and he's
the one who leads us to the water.

So he's the, well, the water and
the way, and he just shared from,

uh, the Old Testament how when,
when Jesus would come, he said,

if you come to me who are thirsty.

Um, and you drink then from your heart
will flow Rivers of living water and

where he's speaking of is a bunch of
different places in the Old Testament,

but in Isaiah and Jeremiah, maybe a couple
of other places, it talks about what,

when that day will come, that the people
of God will be a well watered garden.

And Sao just leaned into that of idea
of when we come to Jesus and drink,

we become well watered gardens.

And he talked about the thing that keeps
us from being, well watered gardens is

actually broken cisterns that we dig.

So he dug deeper into the Old Testament
about, um, the rebuke of the Lord

towards the people of Israel when
they go and forsake Jesus, the,

the source of their, um, water.

And they go and they.

They dig their own cisterns.

And these cisterns they dig,
are broken and can't hold water.

And, and when, when, when people
run to those cisterns, they

don't get drinks, they don't get
quenched, they don't get satisfied.

And Jesus is standing up on the last
day of the feast in John seven saying,

I am a cistern that does not break.

I'm the source of water.

I'm the water itself, and I will lead
you to myself, um, because you can't

get there without me and my spirit.

So he shared that word.

It was powerful.

Um.

And lemme just tell, uh, lemme just
tell you what I'm learning, like during

worship, and when I was reading the
scripture and just contending and

we continued to worship, I really
sensed the Holy Spirit settle in

and the presence of God was with us.

It was like, God is in this
room with us right now.

Uh, we were all collectively aware
of it and I had this thought, I was

like, Lord, how do we stay here?

Right?

Like, how do we, Lord?

How do we move on?

With our night, with the things we
really feel like you've called us to

do, like preach the word and stuff.

I said, how do you, how do we stay here?

And we had, we had just been singing,
open the eyes of my heart, Lord.

Um.

We had just been singing that.

And, and Luke 24 came to mind when Jesus
was on the road to Emmaus and he broke

the bread and it says that their eyes
were opened in the breaking of the bread.

And so I passed out communion and I shared
a little bit from that story about how

it's the breaking of bread and communion
that opens our eyes to see Jesus.

And, and so I, I prayed into that
and we took communion together and

it was a really cool moment because I
said, Hey, before you eat the cracker,

I want you to actually break it.

And then eat it.

And so I said, okay,
break the body and eat.

And you heard everybody this like
little like click, click, click around

the room of people breaking the bread.

It was a powerful moment to hear that.

And we took, and then we drank
the blood, um, the, the, the juice

that symbolizes the blood and, and.

My goodness guys, I'm sharing this.

I'm like, this is it.

This is the presence, this is the goal.

This is how to gather in the presence.

It's worship him with songs
and praise and thanksgiving.

And he comes and remember
his body and his blood.

It was like, it was like his
presence was turned up again.

The volume was increased again.

And then, and then, um, uh, and then we
got to, um, after communion, I, I was

asking the Holy Spirit in the moment.

How do we stay here, Lord, how
do we stay in your presence?

And I heard him say, go to the scriptures.

And so I said, okay guys,
Sal has a word for us.

Sal, open the Bible, man.

Teach us, what did you learn
this last week from the Lord?

And he opened it for about 20 minutes,
just shared all these scriptures

about broken cisterns and about Jesus
being the water, the well and the way.

And um, man, it was you
just sense the Lord.

Oh my gosh, I have so much, I
just wanna like shout right now.

Like I'm, oh my gosh, it's just so good.

When the Lord shows up, I
just se you just sense him.

It's like there's no other way to gather.

There's no other way to
gather than in his presence.

It's like we took a step into the
tabernacle, the holy place, the most

holy place on Saturday night, and, um.

So he taught the scriptures.

I'm so proud of Sal and I told him
this because he didn't just teach

and say, all right, see you guys.

Later.

He taught and said, here's
the invitation for us tonight.

He said, if you've been digging broken
cistern, the Lord is calling you to

repent and to turn to the source,
the true cistern, the well water,

and the way Jesus Christ himself.

And, and he is like, here's how you drink.

You drink by looking at the cross.

When you look at the cross, you see him
because it says that he was gonna pour

out his spirit once he was glorified,
meaning lifted up on the cross.

And, and so if you want to
drink from Jesus, you have to

look at the cross on Calvary.

Look what he did for you.

Remember his love and his
blood and his broken body,

and, and you'll begin to drink.

That's how you drink.

And so, man, it was so powerful
and we just prayed for people.

There was about.

There were three people that raised
their hands saying that they needed

prayer because they felt dry, that
they'd been, they hadn't been drinking.

And, and we gathered around
them just corporately, like a,

a few little groups of prayer.

Um, and I had a word for someone
I went up to, and Sal just

kept praying and, and leading.

And then he sang, worthy Is The
Lamb, which is such a hit man.

Um, and we just prayed and we, we just let
the Lord settle in and, and counter us.

And I just wanna go back, man.

Here's what, here's what's so exciting
is that's every Saturday night.

This isn't a one time deal, and
there's not like crowds flocking.

Guys, this is what's so awesome is
just like Jesus says, the kingdom

of God is like a mustard seed.

It starts small.

It's starting small.

It's, it's starting with the woman who
says, I can't not be a part of this.

It's starting with the woman
that I've been ministering to at

Starbucks who's now starting to
come to us every Saturday night.

It's starting with the people who have a
long history at the branch, encountering

the presence of God again and again.

It's small, but I just know this is big.

This is a big deal.

God is establishing his presence in our
midst, and it's only a matter of time.

Um, no, it's not.

It's not only a matter of time.

What I mean is it's happening now.

Um.

And he's establishing his
presence with us and among us,

and there's just nothing like it.

So, um, once again, I just wanna say like.

We're launching September 13th on
Saturday at 5:00 PM uh, at 1320 Holly

Drive in Richardson, Texas at Loft
City Church, and it's in Richardson,

just north of Richardson High School.

And if you, if what I just
described, we plan on doing again.

On September 13th as a community,
um, hope hopefully with

some things in place, right?

Kids ministry and
hospitality and, and a band.

And we're looking for drummers.

So, um, man, I just am so excited
about what the Lord is doing and I

can't wait to meet with him again
on Saturday night with the team.

Um, so, uh, we're meeting right
now, this coming Saturday.

We'll meet at the Farmer's Branch
campus again, uh, and, and, and

Farmer's branch at the Branch Church.

But, uh, the next week will be our
first time in Richardson and we'd

love to see you there at Loft City.

Um, 1320 Holly Drive.

Um, if you wanna encounter God's
presence with our community, we would

love to see you, um, be praying for us.

Um, join us in person as well.

Follow us on Instagram, and, um,
continue to tune into this podcast.

God is on the move and
we're seeing it every day.

Um, and so, uh, love you guys.

Thanks for tuning in, and
we'll see you next time.