It is Vision Sunday at Epic and I want to give you the end of the message right here at the beginning. This is the vision I want us to be compelled by. This is the picture I want us leaning into with our whole being.

Matthew 25:21 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

This is THE vision. This is what we’re aiming for. This is what we’re going after. Yes, we are going to give some updates today about where we’ve been and where we’re going. We’ll share some metrics with you and some exciting initiatives that are in front of us. But each of these is a means to this end.

Close your eyes and picture the scene just for a moment. Jesus, our King, looking us directly in the eyes and saying these words, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Come and share your master’s happiness!” Whatever it takes to hear that from Jesus, that’s what I want to give my life to. How about you? Everything we’re pursuing as a church should be with this end in mind and it’s the title of my Vision Sunday message today – “Going After Well Done”.

Matthew 25:14-25 “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received give bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with give bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’ His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’ His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.”

We can only invest what God has put into our hands. In this parable, it is not up to these 3 individuals to determine how much they’ve been given. The master is obviously wealthy, but he does not divide his wealth equally between them. We never need to feel superior or inferior when it comes to what we have or haven’t been given. When some of his disciples were urging John the Baptist to consider how many people were leaving him to go follow Jesus, listen to his reply.

John 3:27 To this John replied, “A person can receive only what is given them from heaven.”

It is good to regularly take inventory of what God has given us. Let’s thank Him and use our Spirit-led imagination to consider how we’re going to invest what God has given to us.

While it is up to God what He puts into our hands, it is up to us what we do with what He has put into our hands.

In our early days as Epic Church, we had much less than we do today. Less experience. No property of our own. Way less wisdom. Much less influence. Less financial resources. And you might wonder, “How did things change between then and now?” Is it because our church has grown? Perhaps. Is it because we have 15 years of history and experience? That probably has something to do with it. But here’s what Jesus seems to indicate in this story: How we invest in one season will determine what we receive in a future season.

Matthew 25:16 The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more.

He went at once. He put his money to work. He gained five bags more. Some of us feel like we need to have more before we feel like it’s enough to put out there. More money. More experience. More wisdom. More influence.

It doesn’t tell us how he put it to work. We can get so afraid of doing the wrong thing that we often just do nothing. Let’s have faith and try some things we believe God has put into our hearts. The path to more in the future often comes down to doing something with what we have right now.

The only way to get from being a church of 100 to a church of 1000 was to use what we had at the time and put it to work. When we think of all of our partnerships and how much we’ve given to The Hope Project. We had to start somewhere and do what we could and over time, it multiplied.

God tends to put something into your heart before He puts it into your hands.

What is in your heart? That’s about a vision or a dream you want to see God bring to fruition in the future. A lot of us don’t steward or invest what we have because it seems too small and because the dream in our heart is so much bigger. One of the best ways to see the vision in your heart become a reality is to invest whatever is already in your hands. Invest the time you do have, the wisdom you do have, the financial resources you do have, the spiritual gifts you do have.

What has been happening lately:

163 Baptisms the Past 3 Years

Year of Discipleship: 422 People in Daily Scripture Engagement, 714 Prayer, and 760 People in Groups this Spring

Goal for The Hope Project: $600,000

Amount Given to The Hope Project as of February 15: $688,779

Because of your generosity we have been able to make a huge impact here in San Francisco and across the globe - providing resources to those who need it most.

This is how we fund our global trips - you can join us for two of those.

One to Guatemala this summer and Eswatini this fall.

What’s Coming:

Alpha launches on March 3. Alpha is the perfect environment if you are exploring faith or you’re interested in what it means to be a Christian.

One thing that has multiplied recently is the number of worship leaders and songwriters in this Epic community. I love what has happened within the worship culture here.

Our worship team is putting out our first family worship album. The full album releases April 10 and the first single "Roots" features John Hubbard and this song releases March 13.

The largest outreach we will do this year in San Francisco is the Egg Hunt. Last year, we saw right at 3,000 people attend the Egg Hunt. This is something we can all step into together. Will you join us for our largest outreach of 2026?

We care deeply about the next generation here at Epic. We have a passion for Epic Kids, Epic Students, and Young Adults here at Epic.

It has been on our heart to open the Center for Sacred Vocation. LaVonda Baldwin is our director for the center. Are you ready to see the logo for the Center for Sacred Vocation?

The logo refers to the impact of the center and the ripples that will extend outward, fostering transformation from the square to the circle.

The center launches on April 6 and this course + all other resources will be available on the Sacred Vocation website. One anchor for the center is the Sacred Vocation 101 course.

And we’ll be launching four of these groups within Epic, beginning the week of April 19.

There is so much that we’re looking forward to for our future together. And I believe there has to be something we’re going after that captures your heart too. Maybe it’s kids or worship or prayer or Alpha or Sacred Vocation or our local, national or international partners.

Can I tell you a secret? We showed up to start Epic with what we thought were massive dreams. We brought what we had. And God has far exceeded our hopes. So do we just tell God, “thanks” and kind of coast from here??? I don’t think so. We keep saying thank you, but we also keep putting what’s in our hands into play with the goal of seeing it multiply.

God has entrusted us with so much. And we feel the weight of it, but God isn’t putting pressure on us to get this perfect. He’s inviting us into greater partnership with Him because He wants us to use what’s in our hands to invest in what’s on His heart.

In the parable, they were all given different amounts, according to their ability. But the question is the same for each of them and each of us: will we invest what we have been given? One commentator said this.

Good stewardship of little things brings greater privilege and responsibility. Poor stewardship leads to losing even what one has.

The one who was given one bag of gold was afraid, hid it and lost it. Let’s go back to where the parable begins.

Matthew 25:14 “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted HIS wealth to them.”

It’s His. He’s entrusted it to us. His intention is for us to put it to work and see it multiply for His glory and the good of so many.

Let’s go after a “Well Done” from God. Responses:

-Is there anything you are holding onto that God is asking you to put to work?

-Would you pray for us as a church to steward well everything God has entrusted to us?