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

It is good to see you in God's house.

Welcome to Valorous Church.

And if this is your first time with us here at Valorous Church, we want to say welcome, welcome, welcome.

We are in the foyer of our new worship venue.

Come on.

Yeah.

And I do want to remind you that we're not finished yet.

We're in an unfinished space right now, using it for what it's not designed to be used for, but we're making do.

Come on, somebody.

Yeah.

And then eventually we'll move out of this unfinished space into the finished space over in the arena, right through that wall there.

We're gonna move into the arena here in just a few months, and then we'll come back and finish this space that we're in.

But we want you to continue to invite people to come be with us.

We believe that 2024 is gonna be an awesome year, an incredible year.

Come on.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And God is gonna do amazing, amazing things. 2023 has been phenomenal.

It has been a journey for our church.

We have moved our campus from Main Street here in North Myrtle Beach over to this venue, 2100 Fire Tower Road, Little River, South Carolina, 29.

I thought some of you would know it, 566.

Come on.

New zip code.

Trying to get used to that.

But it is awesome to see you in the house of God today.

And we're gonna close out 2023 in a powerful way, I do believe.

Prepare to move into 2024 as Christ followers, and we're gonna invite people to continue on the journey with us.

And maybe you aren't on the journey with God as a Christ follower yet, and 2024 is gonna be your year.

Come on.

That would be phenomenal.

Because we're just here to encourage one another as Christ followers on the journey when we meet together and gather together.

But not only are we here to encourage one another, we're here to invite others on the journey with us.

And we wanna continue to do that.

We don't want to just move into the things that God has for us alone.

We wanna bring those that are not in the family of God yet, bring those along with us.

We wanna bring the next generation along with us.

We wanna bring those who are behind us along with us.

You know, Jesus said something remarkable before he ascended back into heaven after he rose from the grave.

He told his early followers this in Matthew 28, verses 18 through 20.

He says, the Bible says, "'Jesus came and he told his disciples, "'I've been given all authority in heaven and on earth.

"'Therefore, go and make disciples.

"'Go and make disciples of all nations.'"

See, what a disciple is is simply a student or a follower of someone.

And Jesus says, go and make disciples of all nations.

No matter what someone's ethnicity is, no matter what someone's language is, Jesus commanded these early followers to take the message of who he is into all the world.

He goes on to say, "'Baptizing them in the name of the Father "'who is in heaven, the Son who is Jesus, "'and the Holy Spirit, "'the one that guides and directs us here each and every day.'"

He says, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

He says, teach these new disciples, these new students, to obey all the commands I've given you and be sure of this.

He says, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age.

Even to the end of what age would be a good question to ask.

And he's referring to the church age, the age that we're in currently right now.

Come on, somebody.

And he says, keep on keeping on, keep on making disciples.

So what we learn from this is, you know, disciples are not just born, disciples are made.

Now that's something to really begin to think about because Jesus commands those early followers to make disciples.

And that means if you're gonna make something, you have to get involved with it, right?

And so, you know what Jesus is doing is he's inviting those early followers to get involved with what he has already started.

But he says, I want you to extend it beyond just yourself and I want you to extend it into all the world.

And so we here at Valorous Church, here in 2023, as we prepare to move into 2024, that's exactly what our mission basically is, is to continue what Jesus commanded those early followers to do, is we wanna make disciples, we wanna make students, we wanna make followers of Christ.

We wanna invite people into the family of God and then we wanna build them up in their faith.

Come on, somebody.

We wanna equip them to do every good work that God has called them to do and then we want to extend them out into the world.

Slap your neighbor and say, it's time to become a disciple.

Come on, wake up.

Sounds so simple, doesn't it?

But sometimes it's difficult, because the reality of it is, is we are people, and we are messy.

And sometimes it's very hard to make disciples, but you gotta be willing to stay in the game and be a disciple yourself if you're gonna continue Jesus's vision and make disciples in this world.

You gotta stay connected, come on.

You gotta stay connected to the source, the one that can really begin to do amazing things in your life.

You have to come to know who God is.

And the way to come to know who God is is simply through Christ Jesus and what he came to reveal to us as he gave his life on a cross, defeated death, resurrected from a grave and ascended to heaven.

And that's the foundation of everything.

We just sung a song, I Thank God, come on.

He picked me up, he set me down on solid ground, or however how that goes, I'm not the lyrics guy.

But he put my feet on solid ground.

I thank God that my feet is on some solid ground.

You know, the writer in 2 Corinthians, Paul wrote a church Corinth early on, he says this in 2 Corinthians 6, verse 1, he says, as God's partners, now we are followers of Christ, we are to be his partners.

He says, we beg you not to accept the marvelous gift of God's kindness and then ignore it.

In other words, put the gift of salvation to work.

Begin to leverage what God has done in your life and begin to change the world around you.

Get involved with what God is doing.

There's nothing like being involved in what God is doing, the work that God is doing in this world.

Literally what a disciple is to do is to bring up there, down here.

You know what, to bring God's heart and God's will into a world that is broken and begin to shine the light of who God is in the world around us.

And God's inviting every single one of us into this journey, into this marvelous journey.

So today I want to talk a little bit about what it means to be a disciple, to get involved with what God is doing.

Because a lot of times we can begin to get delusioned in the journey and forget what it really is to be a disciple.

So if you're not on the journey yet, I think this is a great message for you.

If you are on the journey, I think it's an incredible uplifting thing for you so that we can continue to see God do marvelous things.

And so what is the heart of a disciple?

A disciple has to keep the heart of what they are really doing as they're running this race and making more disciples.

And so in order to keep the heart, I have to set up reminders.

I have to remind myself of basically where I've come from and where I'm going.

Lots of times people remember things they should forget and they forget things they should remember.

And what we need to forget as followers of Christ is the things that held us back.

We need to put the past behind us.

And we need to remember the good things that God has done in our life and remember the work that he's called us to.

And oftentimes we sit around and we bellyache about the past and we reminisce about the past and God says, look, you know, I have forgotten your sins as far as the east is from the west.

I don't need you just sitting around in groups talking about who you used to be.

Sit around in groups maybe and talk about who you used to be, but remind yourself of what God did in a moment to change your life.

Come on.

And who you are becoming.

Get some good reminders up of who God says that you are.

And I want to talk about some ways we can do that today.

We need to remember who we were before Christ.

We remember the power of Jesus in our life, what he did on that cross and what he did through the resurrection and what he came to give us.

He came to give us life and give it to us to the full.

Without Jesus, you know what?

None of this is possible to be this amazing disciple.

In 1 Corinthians 6, he reminds the church at Corinth, he says, don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who lives in you and was given to you by God.

You do not belong to yourself for God bought you with a high price.

So you must honor God with your body.

He says we must learn to put our bodies to work for the kingdom because of the high price Jesus paid for us.

You know, I think oftentimes as we go on the journey with God, sometimes we become inoculated to who we were when Christ met us in the place that we were.

And there's some ways that you can remember what God did as he gave us one and only son on that cross.

And one of those great ways to remember, you know what, what God did in your life is through something called communion, the Lord's table, the Lord's supper.

Maybe you come from different backgrounds, but I think communion is a great way for us to remember the high price that Jesus paid for us.

And you know, we don't take communion or the Lord's supper here every single week at Valorous Church, but we do it periodically throughout the year as a family.

But we also encourage you to do it as an individual to remember who Jesus is.

Remember that his body was given for you.

Remember the blood of the new covenant of grace that God gave you.

And so, you know, communion is a great way to remember what God has done in our life.

Without the blood shed of Christ on a cross, none of us would be in a right relationship with God.

It is by his blood and his blood alone that allows us to connect to the living God.

And we need to remember this often.

We need to remember what Jesus has done for us.

And so, you know, oftentimes when I take the communion cup, I reflect back to where I was before I truly met Christ.

And I remember what he did in my life.

It's not just a religious thing that I go through when I take communion.

I remember actually what Jesus did for me personally and what he did for my brothers and sisters in Christ.

And we're in community together all because he chose to come and be with us, walk among us.

He chose to be born in a manger, which we celebrated last weekend, grow up, you know, and give his life on a cross so we can make an eternal connection to our creator.

And it's his blood and his blood alone.

That's a great way to remember who you were.

The Bible says that God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.

And oftentimes I think we forget, you know, where we come from and what Christ has deposited in us and the calling he has on our life, which is to build his kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven.

And we're like, you know what?

Thank you, savior.

And I check out until, you know, I leave this earth and maybe go to heaven one day.

God didn't call you to check out whenever he saved you.

He called you actually to check in.

And he calls you to check in to what he wants to do in this world in and through you.

And I invite you into that and I invite you into knowing what God wants you to do.

I was I did some research several years ago and I discovered that there was actually an article written.

It was a business article and it talked about generational, generational businesses.

And whenever great businesses were started, the first generation, the people who started those great businesses, they had the heart and they had they had the morals and they had the values and they had the vision of what they wanted to accomplish.

And they got after it.

Come on.

They got to the down and dirty and they hustled and they made some amazing things happen.

And the article I read said then the they grew up and they passed it on.

They passed it on to the next generation.

And as they pass it on to the next generation, 65 percent of those people that it was passed on to actually failed.

And and and the business went in the wrong direction because because they they taught them the strategies.

Come on.

And they taught them.

They taught them business strategies and tax loops and all these kind of things.

But they didn't teach them the heart.

Of what it was all about.

And because they didn't teach them the heart of what it is all about, they lost heart and they failed.

They were focused on the wrong things.

The same study I read said that third generation businesses, those those 35 percent that that made it passed it on to the third generation.

Ninety percent of those failed.

In other words, when they gave the business to the grandkids, the grandkids burn up all the money and forgot about what produces the money.

And it failed.

And the reality of it is, is a lot of times in in our Christian journey, though we're multiple generations down the line, what we forget is the high price our Lord and Savior paid for us to begin with.

Come on.

And we forget the value system.

We forget the vision that he cast and saying, go into all the world and make disciples.

And again, I can sit here and teach you strategies all day long.

But if you lose heart in who Jesus is and why he came to earth, you'll never truly make disciples and change people's life, because the reason God came from heaven to earth to come into your life and my life is simply this, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, whoever would believe in him would have eternal life.

They would not perish, but have eternal life.

He did it because of his amazing love for humanity.

He wanted to do amazing things in your heart and your life.

My friend, never lose this love principle.

Jesus once was asked, what is the greatest commandment?

And Jesus says, love, love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

And the second is just as important.

Love others as I have loved you.

My friend, we can't lose the heart of the love God gave to us on that cross and forgive us of our sin.

Set up reminders, go back to that spot when you realize God's love for you in those first few moments.

And then let's take heart and begin to get his value system, his way of doing things and begin to do amazing things.

Another great way to remind you of what God has done is throughout the year, and I'd encourage you this as we move into the new year, into 2024, is maybe get a journal or write some things down that God is doing.

You know, God had feasts for the people in the Old Testament as he brought them out of slavery into freedom, out of the Egyptian slavery into freedom.

God had feasts he wanted them to celebrate as reminders of his goodness.

You know, and again, we need to figure out some ways to remind us of God's goodness.

Write some things down.

Begin to journal maybe about God's goodness.

Don't just journal about your big toenail fell off or whatever else.

Journal about the goodness of God.

God's been good to us, my friends.

You know, I know you have trying moments and difficult times, but God's goodness can show up and begin to do amazing things in your life.

Write it down.

Maybe this is something you might want to do.

Is write God some thank you letters.

I mean, we're good about sending thank you letters out to people, you know, but maybe write a thank you letter to your creator and begin to just journal some thoughts and appreciation of what he's done in your life.

Never forget from what he brought you from and where he has taken you to.

Just be proud and begin to take it as I'm accomplishing all this.

No, it's God accomplishing something amazing in us and working something through us.

Again, one of the ways we learn from the Israelites is the Bible tells us we're to learn from that Hebrew journey, that of slavery into freedom.

But one of the things we learn from the Israelite journey is this, is oftentimes they would begin to forget the God who brought them out of slavery.

God opposes the proud and they would forget that God and they would begin to think it was all about them and them and them alone.

And God simply gave a promise to their father, Abraham.

He says, I'm going to bless you so that, everybody say so that, you can be a blessing to the nations around you.

I'm going to work in you, Abraham, and I'm going to work through you and your descendants are going to be as numerous as the stars.

But Abraham, I'm going to bless you so you can bless others.

Remember Jesus' call.

He says, go into all the world and make disciples of all nations.

I'm going to work in you so I can work through you.

And the reality of it is this, what God has blessed us with this good news of Jesus.

We're to take heart with that good news, apply it to our life, but never forget that it's God doing the work for us and in us so he can work through us and we need to pass that on.

Don't be like the Israelites often got and begin to think it's us producing this only for us.

No, it's so we can begin to be generous with what God has done in our heart and our life and pass it on to others.

God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

Gives empowerment.

That's what that word grace literally means is he empowers you with something.

Okay.

He gives you grace, unmerited favor to the humble.

Don't you want God's favor on your life?

People talk about the favor of God all the time, but the way it happens is we begin to turn our heart towards him.

Never forget what he's done for us and continue to take that on and move forward with his empowering grace, his unmerited favor and pass it on to others.

God is amazing.

Another thing a disciple does is basically they don't only set up reminders, but they leverage their resources.

They leverage their resources.

You know, as a follower of Christ, you've been given some resources and the first resource you've been given is basically an instructor or a guide or a teacher the Bible refers to the Holy Spirit of.

And again, you know, I wrote down in my journal years ago, the Holy Spirit's a lot like a great coach.

You want to be a great player, you got to have a great coach.

And again, it's great to have human, you know, inspiration and coaching.

But the Bible says that the Holy Spirit is our teacher, is our counselor.

This is what Jesus said to those early disciples before he ascended back to heaven in John 16, verse 13.

He says, when the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.

He will not speak on his own, but he will tell you what he has heard from the father.

And so the Holy Spirit, a disciple of Christ, one who has believed in the finished work of Christ on a cross and he has ascended to heaven.

What we began to have as our coach is the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit will nudge your heart to do what is right.

Sometimes he will encourage you to do things, and oftentimes he will encourage you not to do things.

And how he aligns you, how he, the Holy Spirit, works in your heart is he works in concert or unison with the word of God.

That's sort of like the playbook.

In other words, these are tools that God gives you as a disciple, gives you the Holy Spirit, and then he gives you his word, the Bible.

It's like the playbook.

Listen to what 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17 says.

It says, all scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives.

It corrects us when we were wrong and it teaches us to do what is right.

God used it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.

And so when I read the scripture, you know, that's one thing, that's getting knowledge of the play I need to run in a certain situation.

But then it's the nudging of the coach, it's the nudging of the Holy Spirit that gets me to run that play in the right moment.

In other words, it's God, the Holy Spirit working alongside of his word in my life.

These are tools he's given me as a believer.

It's simply amazing.

And so when I understand, you know, God tells me certain things and not to do certain things and to do certain things, then when I get in a moment when the enemy is at work in my life trying to discourage me from moving forward with God, it is the voice of the Holy Spirit that comes in and partners with the word of God and says, you know what?

No, no, no.

Walk in this way, not in this way.

Come on.

He says, walk by this, by faith, walk by the Spirit of God.

Follow me.

Don't go in this direction.

And so you have to pay attention to what's happening.

You know, when the Bible says things like, forgive as you have been forgiven, you know, well that's easy to do until it's time for you to forgive.

I'm talking about truly forgive.

When somebody hurts you, when somebody says something about you, when somebody does something against you, you know, what I want to do is I want to punch you in the face, right?

Punch the flesh.

But the Spirit says, forgive as you have been forgiven.

You hurt me, you cause tears, you cause pain, cause difficulty.

And see, when I harbor that unforgiveness, the enemy is just stalemating me from progressing and doing the things that God wants me to do.

Some of you are held hostage because you won't forgive something somebody did to you five years ago.

You're not operating in the local church because the church hurts you.

Because somebody in the church, somebody that called themselves a Christ follower hurts you.

And again, I understand it.

I get it.

But the reality of it is, you got to forgive that, you know, and you got to put that behind you.

You got to move forward what God wants to do in your life and through you.

Why would you let the enemy stalemate that gift that is in you, my friend?

Because you're unwilling to forgive what has happened.

It becomes very, very difficult.

And God is at work, but He gives us the Holy Spirit.

He gives us the playbook.

And then I wrote this down because, see, using your resources, it all kind of works together.

But He's also given you a spiritual gift or a talent to leverage and use.

The Bible says this in 1 Corinthians 12, verse 7.

It says a spiritual gift is given to each of us who are disciples, followers of Jesus, so we can help each other.

So we can help each other.

In other words, you know what?

I look at all these Christ followers out here, and you're here to help me.

Good night.

That's pretty awesome.

A lot of help.

Come on, somebody.

A lot of help.

But it's to help each other what?

It's to help each other carry out God's work in the world.

It's to help each other, build each other up in our faith, in our journey, so that together we can begin to bring up there, down here.

Man, I'm telling you, God doesn't give any of us all the gifts, and we need each other.

You know, I get it.

Flesh don't want to need anybody.

But we lean in on Christ.

We build our life on Christ and what He's done for us.

And then we want to lean into others to help us up, and we want to help others around us.

God has given you a spiritual gift.

I don't know what everybody's spiritual gift is, but I know your gift can go to work in the local church.

Man, this is a beautiful place, my friends.

This is a beautiful family.

This is a beautiful congregation.

There's billions of people across the planet.

But I love this place because the gifts are at work in this place, and God's doing amazing, amazing things.

And it's because people are willing to bring those gifts together, operate in God's family, and do amazing things that we're able to do what we're able to do.

Which I want to remind you, if you're not a part of a local church, that's another thing that God has given you is an encouraging team.

You want to play well?

Man, you need to get on a team that encourages you.

Come on.

Georgia Bulldogs, go play for them.

They're pretty encouraging.

Come on.

I had to work that in there today, huh?

Good night.

Man, they killed those people.

I mean, fourth string, man, I'm telling you, fourth string.

Fourth group of people.

They played well.

I mean, even the coach's son got to play in the game.

Good night.

Crazy.

He was encouraged.

I'm going to get back to this.

But you know what was amazing?

This guy that used to be the South Carolina coach, what's his name?

Muschamp or something.

Anyway, he now works for the University of Georgia.

He's like one of their defensive coaches.

And his son was in the game.

His son's a junior.

He's really not all that awesome.

But he got in the game, and he went for a run on his own and the stuff and all.

And the dad was just on the sidelines.

He was smiling, running up and down the sideline.

You know, wow, that's my boy.

You know, that's awesome.

And when I saw that, I thought, man, that's kind of like God in me.

I'm really not that good.

But when I get to play, come on.

You know, God's hollering for me.

You know, he's doing some of that.

He's all, that's my boy.

Come on.

That's my boy.

Get on an encouraging team.

Get on an encouraging team.

Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 12, 7.

It says a spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.

Man, get around some people, you know, that will help you not fumble the ball.

Get around some people that help you go the distance.

Get around some people that say, we can do this.

Get around some people, you know, that's going to lift you up and say, you know, we're in this together, even when it gets trying.

And I want you to know, these are resources God gives the disciple.

And I realize that, I mean, you know, you've heard me say this before.

You know, some people, they don't get connected to a local church because in the local church there's crazy people.

And I get that.

I really do.

But the reality of it is, I tell them all the time, there's crazy people in Walmart too, but you still go there.

Come on.

Get connected to a local church.

That's how God's working, man.

He's working through the Holy Spirit.

But if the enemy can isolate you and your gift, and you're not there to help others with your gift and you're like, man, it's just my gift and me and, you know, again, it's a personal relationship with God through Christ Jesus, but he gives you others to do the journey with.

Get around some people that's going to say, we can do it.

It's going to be amazing.

It's going to be incredible.

God's going to work in us and God's going to work through us.

Let's work those gifts.

Let's use the Word of God.

Let's depend on the Holy Spirit to guide and direct us and let's see what God can do.

A disciple remembers where they come from.

A disciple leverages the tools.

And then a disciple is someone that is committed for the long haul.

Committed for the long haul.

They work hard.

They got a good work ethic.

You look a little at what the Bible says in Philippians 2, 12 and 13.

Paul tells the church at Philippi, I need you to work hard, work hard to show the results of your salvation.

Obeying God with deep reverence and fear, respect.

He says, for God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

So God working in us that gives us the desire and the power to do the work of the ministry and do what pleases him.

He says, you know, work out.

Salvation is free.

It's a free gift from God.

But the reality of it is, is when you are salvaged, what does that mean?

That means you are fully forgiven.

Now you can be put back in right relationship with the God of the universe.

Put in that relationship.

Communion with your creator.

The Bible says now that you have communion with the creator because of the blood of Jesus, he says, commune with him.

And as he gives you a download to get busy with building up there, down here, his kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, he says, work hard, work your gift, work it out, continue to work out this good salvation and do amazing things in the world.

I can tell you right now, kingdom work is, it can be joyful, but it can be difficult.

Sometimes it's hard.

Sometimes you got to do the donkey work.

I say that all the time.

Somebody has to do the donkey work.

Plow the field.

Get it ready.

Set the environment.

Clear the way for the king to show up.

Somebody's got to do the muscle and do it.

You know, some people plant the seed.

Other people water the seed.

We're working together for an amazing harvest for people to meet Jesus.

And I need you to tell you right now, you know what?

Doing weekend and week out local church ain't easy work.

Somebody's got to do the donkey work, the muscle, work it, work it, work it.

Come on somebody.

And when we do, when we do, God does amazing, amazing things.

I read years ago where Thomas Edison defined genius as 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration, perspiring.

And you know, many of us, perhaps most of us don't wish to perspire that profusely.

And the reality of it is, is get what he said.

It's 1% inspiration.

It's 99% perspiring and doing the work.

And it's great to come here and get that 1% inspiration on the weekends.

You know, sometimes I can get you fired up about doing the work, but then you have to set your mind to it.

And it's the 99% of you working it out in your everyday life as God's working some things in you.

The Holy Spirit will work in our life.

He will inspire us to do great things.

But we have to put our faith to work and begin to let him work in us and work through us to see these amazing things happen.

I want you to know that we're a church that we're going to challenge you to work.

I'm not just talking about physically.

I'm talking about spiritually, because it's the work that makes us strong in our faith.

See, just like, you know, right now I'm recovering from neck surgery and I have to go, you know, I start going to this physical therapist.

I call them physical terrorists.

You know what I'm saying?

They encourage you to work your muscles, you know, so that you can become strong again and your muscles help you become strong again.

But the reality of it is you have to work your faith that way too, because your faith doesn't just grow by itself.

It has to be worked.

You have to get in the game and begin to work your faith.

But think of the tools and the people that God has given you to come alongside of you, the local church, and we're working it together and we can begin to see God do the amazing.

The last thing I want to say about being a disciple is a lot of people say, you know, yes, man, you know, Jesus saves me.

He forgives me of my sin.

I'm going to an eternal heaven one day and it's going to be amazing.

But I want you to know he's given you all these resources and he's asked us to be committed here on earth and work these things out.

A lot of people would say, well, why would I do all that?

Well, again, I do think God has put motivation for believers in his word for you to know that your work won't go unnoticed.

You're not working for your salvation.

Jesus did that work for you on a cross when he shed his blood and defeated death and rose from the grave.

I want you to know your work as a believer will not go unnoticed.

It says it this way in 1 Corinthians 3, verses 11 through 15.

The writer says, for no one can lay any foundation other than one already we have laid, which is Jesus Christ.

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

But on judgment day, on the judgment day of the believer, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder 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 and the builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through the wall of flames.

So what he's referring to here is, if you don't put your belief and trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin and let him give you communion with God, then the Bible says there will be a judgment that separates the believer from the non-believer and that judgment is known as the great white throne judgment and non-believers won't even get the opportunity to be at this judgment.

But this judgment is for believers.

It's known as the judgment seat of Christ.

And so non-believers will be separated from believers and now believers, you know what, based on what you did with what God put in your hands, the kingdom work that he called you to do and how you did it for his glory and his majesty, it will begin to be evaluated.

And some people, you know, they're going to be saved by the blood of Jesus, but they're barely going to get in and escape, you know, like someone escaping the flames.

But the Bible says those who do the work, come on, the work of the ministry and they do it for the glory of God and they do it to build and bring up there, down here with their heart and all that's in them.

You know, the Bible says it's going to be a great reward.

You know, as I look at like the college playoffs and all this stuff, you know, those guys, they play for the reward.

I mean, now they got this crazy thing in college football, you can opt out of playing and do all these things or whatever else.

And usually the champions, they keep on playing.

They keep on playing because, you know, there's a reward out there for them.

God has placed a reward in front of the believer.

And you know, I believe that God did it.

Our creator did it to motivate us to keep on keeping on when it gets difficult.

To keep a goal in mind.

And I believe that God calls us to run this race and run it well and do great things.

And I want you to know that there's a great reward banquet that is going to happen one day at the end of all of this.

And there is potential for you to make heavenly deposits based on what you did with your Christian life if you're a Christ follower in here.

But it'll work.

Disciples of Christ keep the vision out in front of them.

They understand that it ain't going to always be like this.

It's going to be amazing.

It's going to be incredible.

There's an eternal kingdom waiting on us.

And my friend, I can't wait to get there.

I am so thankful that God has given me another opportunity and possibly another year to do the work of the ministry.

Come on.

There's a group.

There's a group.

And He's given that opportunity to you too.

Let's see what God can do.

The Bible says in Hebrews 12 verses 1 and 2, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off the weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up.

And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.

We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.

Because of the joy awaiting Him, He endured the cross disregarding its shame.

Now He is seated in the place of honor beside God's throne.

My friend, let Jesus be the one that continues to motivate you through life.

He endured the cross and scorned its shame.

He rose from a grave and the Bible says now He is seated in the place of honor.

If He got through all of that, you and I can get through a whole lot.

Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things.

And let's see what God can do in 2024.

Come on.

Father God, today we pray.

We pray we would be a group of people that become fully devoted followers of Jesus.

We become disciples.

We become students of Your Word.

We become people who are empowered by Your Holy Spirit and we work together to bring up there, down here.

May we be great disciples.

And God, I pray today if there is a person in here that's not in right relationship with You, may they come to understand the gift of salvation which comes through Jesus.

May they put their faith and trust in Him and Him alone, not in what they do, God, not in where they've been, but God, may they understand that He is Your one and only Son that came to give them eternal life by giving His life on a cross and forgiving them because they couldn't do anything to deserve this relationship.

My friend, if you're here today and you need to put faith and start this journey, start this new year that is right in front of you as a follower of Jesus, maybe you just want to say today, God, forgive me.

God, I turn from my old ways and I turn and I want to follow You so I want to receive the gift of salvation through the blood of Jesus and His resurrection.

And today I'm going to receive that gift and I'm going to move forward with my life.

And my friend, if you said that prayer, I want to say welcome to the family.

Let's get on with what God wants to do and let's be this group of disciples that see God do the amazing in and through us over the next year.

We pray all of this in Jesus' name, amen.