(This transcript was generated by AI. Apologies for any inacuracies)

Vision begins not with buildings and not with programs, not with a bunch of our personal plans, but vision begins with the heart.

And oftentimes God will reveal that he wants to do certain things and build certain things.

But I need you to know today, our God will deal with your heart before he'll begin to show you a vision.

And so many of us are seeking a vision for our life, a vision of how we plug in to something.

But the reality of it is, is God wants to show you and he wants to give you a clear picture that you belong to something greater than yourself.

He wants to give you smoking hot vision, but he wants to deal with your heart.

And again, until we let God, our creator, deal with our heart, we have a tough time making a vision come alive.

I think about my own self and again, over time, God has revealed more and more of his vision for my life and my life collectively together with a group of people as I've done the journey, as I've stuck with it and stayed with it.

But I can tell you right now, it was in 1998, God dealt with my heart, come on.

And my surrendered life to him dying on a cross for the forgiveness of my sin and his resurrection was where it began.

But God began to clearly show me that he didn't want to just save me, he wanted to lead me.

And he wanted to be the Lord of my life, not just the savior of my life.

And as I began to submit to that Lordship, God began to deal with my heart, come on.

And for many of you, you're new around here, but at that particular time, I was 32 years old.

I was running my own race.

I was doing my own thing.

I owned a small business over in the state of Georgia and God began to deal with my heart.

And he called me into himself and as we began to sit down, I felt like God was nudging me in the ministry.

I didn't know what it looked like.

Come on, somebody.

The only ministry I'd ever seen was a preacher in a little small church and a choir director.

Come on.

And that's what I had seen in a church.

But God called me in that environment and began to speak to me about doing ministry.

And it was later we went to seminary and began to learn some things.

But you know, again, it wasn't like something just kind of just fell out of the sky and all of a sudden I had this great vision for my life to see thousands of people give their life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ through a church that God would birth through me and my family here in North Myrtle Beach.

It wasn't like that dream just fell out of the sky.

No, no.

God dealt with my heart.

And as he dealt with my heart, my life began to change.

As my life began to change, I began to understand that God wanted me aligned.

Come on, aligned with his purposes.

And that's when we began this journey and how we're here today.

And God began to unveil what I call a vision for Valorous Church and it's his vision, not my vision.

I need you to understand that today.

It's his vision.

And he's used me as a spokesperson to speak that vision into life.

But at the end of the day, if God is calling you to be a part of this house, this group of people, I need you to know he wants to deal with your heart.

And again, he may want you to step in and serve, but I'm inviting you to let God deal with your heart.

And that's really what this particular message is all about today.

Because if our hearts are right, the house will be strong.

If our hearts are aligned, the future will be fruitful.

It's what I wrote down in my journal.

So let's let God deal with our hearts today.

If you've got your Bibles, I'm going to invite you to open up to one simple verse in the book of 1 Timothy as the leader Paul began to speak to a young pastor, his name was Timothy in this particular book.

And as he was speaking to him here in chapter 4, he was speaking to him about, listen, Timothy, there's a lot of things you can give your life to.

And he says, but what you need to stop doing is you need to stop just kind of listening to all the chatter and talk, all the wives tales and things around you, and you need to get focused in on who God is and what God wants to do in you and what God wants to do through you.

And then even though you're young, Timothy, because Timothy was a young man, I need you to know if you're young in this room today, God can use you.

He can deal with your heart and he can do something amazing in your life right now.

It's not later.

Come on, somebody.

It can be today.

But he speaks to young Timothy and he says, Timothy, don't let your youthfulness discourage you, but I need you to let your heart be dealt with and it matters.

And this is what he says in first Timothy chapter four, verse eight, he says, physical training is good.

How many of you know, going to the gym is a good thing.

Come on, somebody, anybody received that today?

It's a good thing.

Physical training is good.

Taking care of this earth suit is a good thing, this vessel, this thing that God has given you to do ministry here in this earth, taking care of that physical training is good.

Everybody say good.

But he goes on to say, he says, but training for godliness is much better.

He's not discounting physical training.

He didn't say it wasn't good.

That's a good thing.

He says, but I want to show you something that's even better.

He says, it's training for godliness.

He says, what godliness does is it makes promises.

It's, it's, it's better promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.

Did you catch that?

So he says, when you learn to train, not just at the gym and keep your body healthy, when you learn to train in godliness, it has benefits right now, I'm talking about this week, come on.

I'm talking about this afternoon.

When we learn to train in godliness, it has benefits for this life.

And it says there, and the life to come, in other words, it has benefits for eternity.

So when I talk to our hearts today about training our hearts for godliness, how do we train?

Well, to train in anything, you have to what?

You have to show up, right?

And there has to be something you're training towards.

There has to be something that you're focused on.

Bible says train in godliness, and you have to have a goal to run to.

I mean, I think about today's Super Bowl weekend here in the United States.

Can I tell you something?

Those guys didn't just end up at the Super Bowl to play a Super Bowl game and make millions of dollars today.

No, no, no.

They trained to get where they are.

They would say, that was a good thing.

Come on, somebody.

They would say training their body was a good thing because, you know what?

They're going to get a check this afternoon.

Come on, somebody.

But the reality of it is, is if we're going to train, we have to show up.

And it's no different if you're going to train for godliness.

God calls you and God calls me, not to just salvation, not to just believe in the finished work of Christ on the cross, the forgiveness of our sin through his blood, in his resurrection, in his ascension, and just sit and wait until his return.

No, no, no.

God wants you to show up.

Look at your neighbor and say, are you going to show up?

Come on, ask them.

Don't show up, because you can't train in godliness unless you show up for the things that God wants to train you to be and do.

And so we typically, if we're going to train, we got to show up, we got to have a model, we got to study something, we got to join in, we got to go to practice.

Come on.

We got to listen, we got to adjust, because you don't arrive when you're training.

You're just constantly adjusting, right, so you can get better.

We have to improve, we have to celebrate, and we have to keep at it.

You don't become great at godliness by just doing it every now and then.

You become great at godliness, and it has a benefit for this life, this week, and the life to come, according to the scriptures.

You become great at godliness by being consistent, showing up, and having a model, and having something to run after, and then you choosing to follow after that, and running after it with your life.

You know, Jesus said something remarkable.

He said to his disciples before he ascended to heaven, he said, go into all of the world, he says, and make disciples.

You know what a disciple is?

A disciple is someone in training.

Come on, somebody.

A disciple is someone who has a teacher, who has a model, who has something that they're looking at and running after, who they believe and who they trust and who is training them and who is building them up, who is encouraging them to become all they are created to be.

And our model, our trainer, our leader is Jesus Christ himself.

He defeated death.

He lived life perfectly.

He wants to speak into your heart and he wants to speak into your life and he wants to train you up to do something great with your life.

But will you show up in discipleship and let the good God begin to train you and do amazing things in you and do amazing things through you?

Come on, somebody.

Discipleship.

And so if our heart is going to be transformed by God, God calls us to be disciples.

He doesn't go into all the world and make disciples.

He says, baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them everything.

I have commanded you, in other words, train.

And we're still doing that today in the life of the church.

God has a place for you to be trained and to be a trainer.

God wants to use every single one of us for that purpose.

God wants to put us together in something called the local church, a body of people who are called out of darkness into the wonderful light.

That is who the church is.

And you belong to the local church, and you have a position in the local church, and God wants to train you up to be the best he can train you up to be, no matter whether you're male or female.

God has a plan and a purpose for your life.

So God wants to train our hearts.

What does training do?

Well, training in godliness helps with our priorities.

It helps with our priorities.

Because if I'm committed to train in an area of my life, that means I prioritize that because it's important to me.

And I believe the trainer, in other words, I'm going to give my life to training when I trust that the trainer has me in his sights and he believes that he can grow me past where I am into something greater than I can even see myself.

What we value determines how we live.

In other words, godliness teaches us to value eternal things, not just temporary things.

Hear what I just said.

Godliness teaches us to value eternal things, not just temporary things.

Listen to what it says there in 1 Timothy 4, verse 8.

He says, physical training is good.

That's a temporary thing.

And he said it's good.

It's an amazing thing.

But look what he says.

But training for godliness is much better.

And here the writer, Paul, he's not condemning physical discipline.

He's just putting it into perspective.

And he's saying bodily exercise has a limited profit.

But it's limited.

It's temporary.

But godliness has unlimited profit.

In other words, he says it has value for eternity.

And so what I value most, is it just limited, temporary fixings?

Or is it eternal things?

Because what I value the most is what I'll begin to commit my life to, to see greater things begin to happen.

And so what godliness does, if I begin to focus on godliness, what it does is it gets my heart in order and my life in order so I can function and be everything that God has created me to be.

Jesus said it this way in Matthew 6, verse 33.

He says this, he says, seek the kingdom of God above all else.

He says, and live righteously.

And he, God, will give you everything you need.

And in this particular context where Jesus speaks this particular word in Matthew 6, verse 33, he's basically saying, why do you keep worrying about everything else in the world?

If you would train in godliness and put godliness first, then all of those other things would fall into place is what Jesus is saying.

It's interesting because if you study this verse in the Greek, that word first is a word where he says, seek first his kingdom.

That word first is a Greek word called protos, and it means first in rank and first in order, but it means something else very significant.

It means that which everything else revolves around.

And so what Jesus is saying here is let everything in your life revolve around a godliness, revolve around the kingdom of God and who God has created you to be.

Kind of like a hub in a bicycle, he's saying, look, you know, a bicycle rolls and it has all these spokes on it.

Maybe an old wagon wheel, you know, it has all the wooden spokes on it, it has a hub.

Jesus is saying, make me the hub of your life.

Seek me first, put me in the center of your life.

And all of these other things will come together and make sense and work for you too.

But the question is, are you training in godliness?

Are you truly seeking him first in all your life?

Or is one of those other things in the center?

Because Jesus says, you know what?

All those other things will begin to make sense that we tend to worry about when we'll seek him and train in godliness that has benefits in this life.

What does that exactly mean?

That means, you know what?

It has benefits today, right now, not just in the future.

It can begin to benefit you this afternoon if you will train yourself in godliness and put Jesus in the center of your life.

Again, he's so much more than just a savior, but training can begin to help us on this journey.

My wife and I have a golden doodle.

He's six years old.

He was six years old on February the 5th, this past week.

Happy birthday, Jetson.

Come on, somebody.

He's an amazing, amazing animal, and he's incredible.

But can I tell you something?

When he was just a little pup, I'm talking about like just a few weeks old, we got him before he was supposed to be away from his mama, and we began to nurture him, but immediately we began to train him.

And at that particular time, we were around a bunch of guys who trained dogs and stuff for the military, and they spoke to him in German commands and stuff and all, so we learned all those commands and how to talk to our dog in German and all these kind of things.

And so we'll give him German commands and stuff.

And what, what, what do we do that because we just want him to listen to us and do what we say?

No, we do it for his benefit.

And again, so we trained him when he was young.

We began to train him because it was for his benefit in this life.

And so when we say sit or lay down, we say we're not, we're not really good.

We're kind of like grandparents to this dog.

We're not as consistent as my son probably is with the dog.

But what I'm trying to say is, is we, we give him these commands when he was young and trained him in this manner because we wanted his life to be successful.

Like for instance, if he sees a squirrel running across the road and his instinct, his flesh says, Hey, you know, I want to chase that squirrel and a truck's coming down the road.

He don't need to chase the squirrel.

He needs to be trained in the way we trained him.

He needs to sit his butt down.

If I see a truck coming and he's got this urge just to run after a squirrel.

Now what he does is he now listens to the training over his own desires.

And I tell you something, this is what it does in your life.

You need to understand something.

God wants to train you in godliness, so when those temptations come in your life, you're able to say, no, no, no, I'm gonna listen to the command.

It might not feel good when God snatches my chain, but I understand the scripture says God loves those and disciplines those he loves.

He cares about me, he cares about you, he cares about your relationships, he cares about your daily life, he cares about your health, he cares about your desires, but God desires for you to train in godliness so you can run this race and run it well.

Come on, somebody, and he will snatch your chain.

Because again, my wife and I are a little loose on the animal, but if you let my son step into the room, it's amazing because my son disciplines that dog.

And he don't discipline it because he's mean.

He disciplines them because he cares about him.

And he really don't want him to be a nuisance.

He wants him to be respectful of his environment.

And he wants him to be respectful of taking, not doing something that's gonna hurt himself.

And so my son, if he steps into the room and he says it, he says, foos, can I tell you what that dog does?

That dog comes right up next to him and get in military style and sit right beside him.

Because he knows, he knows my son has his benefit in mind.

God wants you to train in godliness.

Even when you're a young age.

Parents, listen to me for just a minute.

It's really important.

It's really important for you to begin to train your kids.

Even whenever they are small.

You think it might be insignificant and mildly difficult to train them to say, you know what, God's gonna create you to be a part of something bigger than yourself.

And getting them to church on a consistent basis every single weekend.

We got a great ministry that begins to teach them about Jesus and in their age group, who they can become about Jesus.

But I can tell you what's gonna begin to change that kid's life so that they begin to understand that they are created for a purpose.

And what's gonna benefit them day in and day out is this relationship they have with Jesus, but it's important for you to train them.

What are you showing them?

What are you telling them?

What are you displaying for them?

And again, I'm not here to beat anyone up.

I'm here just to help encourage all of us to understand how significant training is.

And again, it matters not just to me and myself, it matters to my family, it matters to my neighbors, it matters to my kids, it matters to my grandkids, it matters to the next generation.

And when I choose to follow God and His purpose for my life, it has tremendous impact on the world around me.

And it has benefits in this life and the life to come.

Again, are you training in godliness?

Are you preparing, letting God prepare your heart?

Are you allowing God to speak life into you?

God don't tell you all of these things just so, you know, to keep you from something, He wants you to become something.

And so godliness strengthens our present life.

Godliness isn't just for heaven.

It transforms how we live.

It transforms how we love today.

It transform how we serve today and what we give our life to.

Look what it says in 1 Timothy 4, verse eight again.

Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better.

Promising benefits in this life.

And so when you and I, we choose to begin to let God train us on a consistent basis.

We get in his word, we begin to study his word.

We begin to be a part of his word.

We begin to be a part of what he's building in this earth because the Bible says Jesus is gonna build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

But can I tell you what Jesus is building this church out of?

It's called people.

It's not blocks, it's people.

And what Jesus does is he changes hearts.

And what he does is he takes people, plucks them out of life and puts them in a family and puts them together and they are mortared together for a bigger purpose and they become a house in this world that the gates of hell cannot prevail.

See, God wants you to be a part and it has benefits.

Again, the Bible says that God gives each of us a spiritual gift when we come to Christ.

But notice it doesn't say he just gives us the spiritual gifts so we can have the spiritual gift, it says he gives us a spiritual gift so we can what?

Help each other.

And again, help each other on this journey to be godly and to also help each other accomplish the task of bringing up there, down here and expressing, everybody say express, the presence of God in a community and make a difference in people's life.

It has benefits for now, godliness brings peace.

Godliness will begin to bring you wisdom in difficult moments, in difficult circumstances.

Godliness will give you endurance.

It'll help you persevere.

Godliness will begin to bring you joy even when some things are not so joyful around you.

It shapes our relationships.

Godliness shapes our relationships.

It shapes our work ethic, come on somebody.

It shapes our unity as a church.

Godliness produces, it produces fruit that I can see out of my own life.

Did you know the Bible says the Holy Spirit comes into our life and the fruit of the Spirit, what does that mean?

My life is expressing, it's not perfect.

But what I should be able to do is look at my own life.

Not just my neighbor's life, not my wife's, not my kids, but look at my own life.

The Bible says the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

And of those things in your journey, I don't care if you're in the journey for a week, you're in the journey for 20 years, you're in the journey for 80 years, whatever how long you're in the journey, understand the Spirit of the living God is working those things in your life, and He's working the old things out of your life so that you can be who He's designed you to be, and you benefit from it in this life and the life to come.

Did you know that if you're kind to people, even when they're unkind, guess what?

Typically, you benefit from it, come on.

And they don't suck you into being mean just because they were mean.

You benefit from it, and eventually, it might even rub off on them and change them, come on.

And again, but this is training.

None of us show up perfect.

There is no perfect Christian.

There's no perfect pastor.

There's no perfect church.

But we are a people in a process being transformed by the goodness of God, training in godliness, looking to Jesus as our leader, operating underneath the power of the living God who lives in us, and we're allowing him to put the old things out.

So when temptation comes, we say no to the flesh.

We say yes to God.

We become stronger and become a great expression to him in this world.

Come on, church.

I wrote this in my notes.

Vision without godliness leads to frustration.

In other words, if you're trying to run after a vision in God's family, and you're not willing to be transformed and become more godly by the Holy Spirit, you'll be frustrated with your life.

And let me give you an example.

You'll be like, well, flip.

I'm serving my guts out.

But I'm serving, I'm serving, I'm serving.

Why am I not getting and moving forward?

Because serving isn't the answer.

Godliness is the answer.

And no, you do need to be serving, but if godliness is not coming into your heart, you're missing the whole thing, and you'll become frustrated in the vision of trying to express God to the world because you're trying in your own spirit, and instead of letting the Holy Spirit transform you and begin to change who you are.

Come on.

See, the reality of it, it has benefits in this life, but we have to come underneath His Lordship and His leadership, and we gotta be about the Father's business.

Training in godliness means, you know what, there is no option.

I have to be a part of the church.

Because that is what Jesus is saying He's gonna express God to the world through.

Jesus said clearly, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not hold it back, will not prevail against it.

And Jesus is building His church through people who are willing to be trained in godliness and step into their rightful position and become a people who are together and we're here on mission with God to change the world with the goodness of God, the love of God, the kindness of God and who God is and express Him to the world around us.

Come on somebody, no matter who the world is.

God's calling you to be a part and we'll get more into that on the journey but understand if you're really going to begin to have success in your present life, you have to train yourself in godliness.

I'll use my wife and I's relationship.

We've been married almost 33 years now.

Okay, listen.

But she's not in the center of the hub and I'm not in the center of the hub.

And guess what?

Our son, we have one son, his name's Cole.

He's not in the center of the hub.

Even Jetson's not in the center of the hub.

Can you believe that?

Jesus is the focus of our relationship and what I mean by that is together, we know what the word of God says in what Jesus has said about building his church.

And though we are very different and she rubs me the wrong way sometimes and I rub her the wrong way, the reality of it is is we know the vision and because we're putting Jesus in the center and we're training ourself to put him first on a continual basis, it helps us in this journey to keep on going and keep moving forward and it's a benefit to train in godliness on a weekly basis.

In other words, Jesus is really the glue that holds our marriage together.

Come on, somebody.

He's the glue that holds our marriage together.

And it's putting him first, not my own flesh and my own desires.

Because I can tell you right now, you all got flat.

You're dealing with your old self.

And the Bible says that God gives you a new self and that new spirit is always trying to dominate that old spirit and the one you give your attention to, you make priority, the one that you train yourself with is the one that will become the more dominant force in your life.

In other words, if you're feeding your fleshly desires and you're not feeding yourself godly things, then chances are you're gonna move more towards the things that don't benefit you in this life.

You're gonna move more towards things that begin to destroy you.

The Bible says that godliness has a promise now and I want you to trust that with your life.

But it says something more remarkable because the reality of it is, godliness has a benefit for the future.

Godliness strengthens my eternal future.

How does it do that?

And I wanna share it with you today.

I want you to understand clearly, the Bible says that salvation, your connection to God, is not by any work that you do.

The Bible says that salvation and your connection to God for eternal life comes through what Christ Jesus has done.

It's not any work any human being does that earns them a right to be a part of God's eternal family.

It's the work that Christ did on the cross.

For God so loved the world.

That means your neighbor.

That means the person you don't like.

It means the person across the world.

It means all of these things.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son for whoever would believe in him would have eternal life.

And so I wanna be crystal clear today that the only way to spend eternity with God is through the work and your faith in Jesus, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

In other words, Jesus paid a penalty on a cross that no human could pay.

He lived a perfect life and he gave his life for the sin, missing the mark of humanity's sin.

And my faith in that is what gives me an eternal home with God.

But the Bible says godliness doesn't only give me an eternal home, it strengthens my eternal future.

What does that mean?

Well, I wanna show you today because godliness means, you know what, I keep my eyes on eternity.

And as I keep my eyes on eternity, I can have hope in this life through the difficult circumstances, but godliness cares in eternal promise.

And look what it says.

Training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and the life to come.

So as I fix my eyes on Jesus, the champion of my faith, the Bible says he's the author and the perfecter of my faith.

What does that mean?

He's the one that gives me the ability to put my faith in him, and then he's the one that perfects my faith on the journey as I look to him as my leader and become more and more a godly.

He's the champion of, I keep my eyes on the champion who endured the cross, the Bible says.

But what's interesting is why do I keep, what benefit do I have in eternity by training myself in godliness in this body?

Look what it says here, 2 Corinthians chapter five, verses two through 10.

The writer says this.

He says, we grow weary in our present bodies.

That means the earth suit that you live in right now.

It says, we grow weary, he says, in our present bodies.

And we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing.

For we will put on heavenly bodies and we will not just be spirits without bodies.

In other words, you know what that says?

That says you're not just gonna be floating around as a spirit, you're gonna be, you're gonna have a heavenly body and it's gonna be recognizable just like you're recognizable right here, right now.

I don't know completely what that heavenly body looks like but it's gonna be a brand new body.

It's not gonna ache, it's not gonna feel pain, it's not gonna decay.

The Bible says that God is going to one day give us a heavenly body.

You're not just spirits without bodies.

While we live in these earthly bodies, he says, we've grown inside.

But it's not that we want to die and we want to get rid of these bodies that clothe us.

Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life.

God himself has prepared us for this.

And as a guarantee, he has given us the Holy Spirit.

My friend, when your flesh is weakened and you feel like you have no purpose in life, I invite you to train yourself in godliness and put hope in what this just said.

And the Holy Spirit of God will begin to show you, you know what, it ain't gonna be like this forever.

There's an eternal home for you.

There's an eternal body for you.

So he says, we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies, we are not at home with the Lord.

For we will be, we live by believing and not seeing.

Yes, we are fully confident and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies and then we would be at home with the Lord.

So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is what?

To please him, to train in godliness.

For we must all stand, look at this, before Christ to be judged.

He's speaking to you, believer in Christ.

We must all stand before Christ to be judged.

It says, we will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.

So what does that mean?

That simply means you don't work for your salvation, Jesus has done that work for you and he has secured you an eternal home and he's gonna give you an eternal body to live in.

But the Bible says, you know what you're gonna do?

You and I, me personally, though Jesus has made my home in heaven, I'm on my way to heaven, I'm going to heaven because I have believed in the work of Jesus Christ on a cross, I trust it with all of my heart.

It's not by works that I can boast in anything, but I'm doing all I can in this earth suit to stand before Jesus one day because my Jesus is gonna ask me this question, what did you do with what I gave you?

My Jesus, I'm gonna stand before him one day and my eternal reward will be given to me based on what I did with what he has given to me to live in this body.

Eternal reward in heaven and salvation is secure, but the reality of it is, is Jesus is gonna ask me, he's gonna say, you know what?

That person that I gave you the opportunity to speak Jesus into, to speak life into, to begin to help them train in Godliness and become all they were created to be, why did you just put them to the side when I gave you the opportunity?

And you know, I know that I've walked by some opportunities in this life and they're gonna cost me something in eternity.

But my prayer is that when I get there and I stand before Jesus, is he can say, every opportunity you have with everything I entrusted to you, you did what you could to bring up there, down here and make a difference in this world.

And I do believe that the Bible says there's gonna be eternal benefits for what I did with what he entrusted to me.

I wanna show it to you in another place in the scripture in 1 Corinthians 3, verses 11 through 15.

It says, for no one can lay any foundation other than the one we have already have, Christ Jesus.

Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials, gold, silver, wood, hay, or straw.

But on judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder, or you could put each believer, has done.

The fire will show if a person's work has any value.

If the work survives, the builder will receive a reward.

But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss.

The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through the wall of flames.

So what I'm saying here today is we need to train in godliness.

We need to let God train our hearts because there's benefits here this week, this month, this year, and there's benefits in eternity.

But we gotta trust God with our heart and let Him do the work, and we have to show up and continue to be all He is making us into.

And so I'm inviting you today to consider letting God do a work in your heart.

No matter who you are, no matter what background you come from, understand when you start this relationship with Jesus Christ, what He wants you to do is become a disciple, a student, a follower, and He wants you to train in godliness so you benefit in this life and the life to come.

And so next weekend, when we begin Heart for the House, we're gonna begin to invite people in to what God is doing in and through this local church.

That's why I want you to show up because I believe if you start praying now and you start trusting now that God wants to use you for great things, and again, if it's not a part of this house, it's perfectly fine.

I would invite you to go find the house that you're supposed to be a part of.

But at the end of the day, I do believe that God's gonna begin to speak to many of us how to begin to get our heart right so that he can be fruitful and do amazing things and build his church here through this series.

And so the whole reason for sharing this today is because I wanna prepare our hearts to be trained in godliness so that you're benefiting in this life and the life to come.

Let me pray for you.

God, I thank you so much for Jesus.

I thank you, God, for him coming and giving his life on a cross and shedding his blood to create a new covenant between you and humanity.

Jesus, thank you for giving your life so that we could have a life.

Thank you for enduring that cross and resurrecting from a grave so that we know that we have an eternal future because of the work that you have done.

God, I know there's one here today that have never trusted Christ to make that connection, to be in that right relationship with you.

May today be the day of their salvation.

May they understand it's a gift that you offer to anyone and everyone, no matter what their background is, that you invite them to believe that Jesus died and pay the penalty of their sin.

So God, I pray today that if there's one here that they would trust Christ.

For the rest of us, God, I pray we would step in, we would step up, and we would become all you've created us to be.

So God, as we sing this last song today, I just pray, God, you would speak to hearts and you would begin to speak to lives.

And we pray this prayer in Jesus' name, amen.