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

2025 was amazing.

You just saw some of the highlights of all the things that we did and we celebrate that today.

Come on, one more hand clap for what God has done.

Praise God, man.

You know, we have had challenges throughout the year, but in spite of that, God has stepped up and done amazing things.

And we not only do things here in this community, as you saw there in the video, through our partnership with Arc Church's Association of Related Churches, we have been able to start 55 brand new churches around the world together.

Come on, somebody.

We also partner with ministries like LLEM, Love God, who you see oftentimes, his wife was praying in here earlier in Nigeria, and you do amazing things there.

Eswatini down in South Africa, we have a campus and a work down there where God's doing amazing things.

So I just want you to make, I know that you're making a difference, not only here in this community, not only in our own neighborhoods, but around the world.

So thank you, church.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

And today, as we leave one year and we move in to another, I wanna talk about moving forward by faith.

I wanna talk about developing our faith so that we can walk radically by faith.

You know, God created you to walk by faith.

He desires for you to walk by faith.

He wants you to trust Him every step along the journey, and He wants to bless your life, and He wants to do great things in your life, and He wants to do great things through your life.

He wants you to have so much more than what we refer to as just saving faith.

Come on.

Where you're just saved from the penalty of your sin by believing in the work that Jesus did on a cross as He shed His blood.

That is the start of a journey where you can believe in that work was done for you, where Jesus did something for you that you couldn't do for yourself.

Come on.

He paid a penalty for humanity's sin on that cross, gave us something that we didn't deserve.

That is called the mercy of God.

Come on, anybody thankful for the mercy of God in this place today?

Come on.

Are you thankful for the mercy of God?

Where you didn't have to die in your sin.

He also resurrected from a grave.

And the Bible says that those who believe in him, now he deposits the spirit of God, the Holy Spirit in us to guide us and direct us along our journey.

And he empowers us to do great and mighty things.

And so God doesn't only wanna show you mercy, he also wants to show you grace.

Grace being the very empowering agent of God.

He wants to show you amazing grace.

Come on, how sweet the sound.

He wants to show you amazing grace and he wants to do powerful things through you, but you must trust God by faith and walk by faith.

And so today I wanna talk a little bit about faith.

And I do believe it's gonna speak to our hearts in an amazing way.

Not just saving faith, but faith that will sustain you, faith that will begin to make you successful with your life in the things of God and what he's created you to do.

The Bible says this in Hebrews 11, verse one and two.

It says, faith shows the reality of what we hope for.

It is the evidence of things we cannot see.

Through their faith, speaking of the people of the old, a lot of the people that we read about in the Old Testament, the Bible says the people in the days of old, they earned a good reputation.

So God desires for his people to have a good reputation.

And we earn that good reputation in the world, though the world sometimes is against us, it calls people out of the world whenever we have faith in God in troubling moments, through difficult circumstances, on the mountaintops or in the valleys.

When we display faith in God, no matter what the circumstances are, it begins to help other people see the one at work in our life and through our life, which invites them into a relationship with our heavenly father, the one that we have a relationship with.

And so the Bible wants us to be a people of faith, strong of faith.

You see, faith is a lot like a muscle in your body.

It has to be developed.

And so we're gonna talk a little bit about today about developing our faith.

And if you're gonna develop your faith, you gotta put your faith to work.

Come on, somebody.

And the Bible says this in Hebrews 11, verse six, as it continues there, it says, it is impossible to please God, your creator, without faith.

It's impossible to please God without faith.

Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.

Another word for that word rewards would be he blesses those who sincerely seek him.

So here's my question for you today.

Are you sincerely by faith seeking God and what he wants to do in your life and what he wants to do through your life?

Because my Bible declares and promises that he rewards or blesses those who sincerely seek him.

And what I desire for every person underneath the sound of my voice to experience is a saving relationship through Jesus Christ with the God of the universe and know who Jesus is.

But then you begin to sincerely seek God by faith all the days of your life so you can become everything he's designed you to be and not miss one blessing that God wants to reign into your life.

Come on, somebody.

Yeah.

And the Bible says that God rewards those who believe he exists and sincerely seek him.

So today I want us to look at a story in our Bible where some disciples were with Jesus and they had undeveloped faith.

Their faith wasn't developed.

And I wanna show you this story because I think it can speak to our hearts today.

And it's found in your Bible in Matthew chapter eight verses 23 through 27, where some disciples were on a boat crossing a lake with Jesus.

And the Bible says this in this story that we pick up here in Matthew chapter eight, verse 23.

It says, Jesus, he got into the boat after he did a lot of miracles.

After he did some incredible things in front of these disciples.

The Bible says, and he started across the lake with his disciples.

Suddenly a furious storm struck the lake with waves breaking into the boat.

And Jesus was sleeping.

The Bible goes on to say the disciples went and woke him up shouting, Lord, save us.

Lord, have mercy on us.

Lord, save us.

And the Bible says that they said, we're going to drown.

And Jesus responded, why are you afraid?

You have so little faith.

You have another word there that we could substitute is, you have, he didn't say they didn't have faith, but he said they had little faith.

Or we could say they had undeveloped faith.

Can I tell you something?

Undeveloped faith will cause fear, will cause frustration.

It will cause all kinds of things in our life.

It will cause fatigue.

It will cause a failure.

And Jesus says to these disciples, they said, have mercy on us, save us.

And Jesus says, I'll save you, but I want to do so much more in your life.

You have undeveloped faith.

Look what he says, he says, you have so little faith.

And then he got up, rebuked the wind and the waves, and suddenly there was a great calm.

The disciples, they were amazed.

Who is this man?

They asked.

Even the winds and the waves obey him.

Do you really believe that about God?

Do you really believe that he has the power to not only save you, but he has the power to calm the storms in the middle of a storm and do powerful things in your life and through your life.

We would call that more of a developed faith if you do.

But see, undeveloped faith will begin to miss the blessings of God and what God wants to do in our life and through our life.

Remember, he said that it's impossible for you to please God without faith.

And those who sincerely seek God, he will reward that faith.

He will bless that faith.

So again, God doesn't only want you to have faith in his mercy and just go to heaven one day and praise God for his mercy.

Again, can we give God a hand clap of praise for his mercy?

He displayed on a cross.

Come on, somebody.

Can you give God a hand clap of praise if you believe in his mercy today?

See, I know what I did deserve and God gave me his son in my place.

And so he took my place and did something for me on a cross.

And I praise God for that amazing mercy because that's what mercy is.

It's not giving you what you do deserve.

But God also gives you grace.

And so what is grace?

It's giving you more than you do deserve.

And God wants to bestow his grace upon every one of our life.

But the question is, are we a people of faith and do we walk by faith or do we leave our faith undeveloped because we only have a saving faith and we're waiting to go to heaven?

And I'm here to declare to you today, I don't care what age you are.

I don't care what background you come from.

I don't care if you're a man or a woman in this room.

I don't care what your native tongue is.

Jesus came to give you life and give it to you abundantly.

My Bible says that the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy, but Jesus came to give you life and give it to you overflowing.

He wants to bless your life and do great things in your life and do great things through your life.

But I'm afraid that there's many people today sitting in the American church that have a saving faith, undeveloped faith, where they've trusted the mercy of God, but they're not walking in the blessing of God.

And what I want to say to you today is God don't want you to live undeveloped.

He wants to develop your faith and he wants to do great and mighty things through your faith in this world.

He's a good God.

He's the father of good blessings.

He wants to do great and mighty things in people's life.

But if we're going to have developed faith, you know what?

We got to put our faith to work.

And again, let's talk about what that means.

Practically, that means first and foremost, I've got to be obedient, obedient immediately.

Other words, not delayed obedience.

Be obedient to what God says and what God asks me to do.

I've been delayed in my obedience a lot of times and missed the blessing of God.

Can I tell you something?

God wants you to operate by faith in who He says you can be.

And exactly what He says He can do in your life and what He can do through your life.

But you have to respond by faith and begin to walk in obedience.

Everybody say obedience.

Obedience.

See, we don't like that word.

You know why?

Because we want to live by faith in the Son of God and the power of the Holy Spirit.

We want to live by faith in our flesh.

And we want to be obedient to what I think in my natural man.

But the Bible calls us who are believers in Christ says that we have a natural man and a spirit man.

And the natural man or the man of the flesh or the woman of the flesh is at war with the spiritual man.

Jesus come into this world to make you spiritually alive but you got to engage with your faith to be rewarded by God and not operate by the power of the natural man.

Your feelings come on somebody, but by the power of the spirit that is alive in you and be obedient and do what God says.

Walking away from sin instead of walking towards sin.

And again, God's grace is abounding.

It's amazing.

But we have to begin to walk in it.

If we want the flow of God's blessing in our life, we have to begin to, yes, do the basic things, but build on the basics.

I want to read to you what Hebrews 6, verses one through three says.

The writer here says, "'Let us stop going over the basic teachings "'of Christ again and again.'"

He says, "'Let us go on instead "'and become mature in our understanding.'"

Mature, developed.

He goes on to say, "'Surely we don't need to start again "'with the fundamental importance "'of repenting from evil deeds "'and placing our faith in God.'"

We do talk about that basic truth over and over again in this church, because there's new people coming into the life of this church all the time.

And that's the first step of obedience in your faith is to trust what Christ did on that cross for you.

I and you deserve, because of our sin, to not have a relationship with God, but Jesus came and paid the price for our sin by the shedding of his blood so we could be in a right relationship with God, forgiving us of our sin, all of our sin, and have saving faith in that.

But don't just sit here and wait to go to heaven, develop your faith, because God wants to bestow blessings on your life.

And he wants to work in your life, and he wants to work through your life.

But the Bible says this, we don't have to keep going back to these basic things.

You don't need further instruction, he says, about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of dead, and eternal judgment.

He says, and so God willing, he says we'll move forward to further understanding.

And basically what he's saying is, look, we don't have to keep going back to the basics, let's keep building on the basics and watch God do greater things.

If you continue to read that passage of scripture, the writer here gives an analogy, gives a parable, gives a story to help us understand.

Look what he says in Hebrews 6, verses seven and eight.

He says, when the ground soaks up the falling rain, it bears a good crop for the farmer.

The farmer being the God, giving the rain.

He says, when the ground soaks up that, it bears a good crop and it has God's blessing.

But if a field bears thorns and thistles, it is useless.

The farmer will soon condemn that field and he will burn it.

And so what the scripture here is saying is not that you don't have saving faith in what Jesus did on that cross.

It just basically says, look, begin to build on that basic teaching, operate by faith, being obedient to what God says in his word, and watch the blessings of God flow in your life, over your life, and through your life, and produce great fruit out of your life, not produce thorns and thistles that is useless to the kingdom.

He's basically saying, be radically obedient to God immediately with your faith.

If you really want to develop your faith and live underneath the rewards of your creator, the blessings of the God who created you and me, it calls us to a life of obedience.

And again, most of us, we can repent of our sin, but understand what repent really means.

It means turn away.

Stop going in that direction and turn your heart in a new direction and trust the new direction that your leader, Jesus, is taking you in.

Come on, somebody.

And it's a battle.

I understand it.

And if your faith is undeveloped, what happens is it becomes hard to be obedient.

But I'm inviting you today, whatever that step of obedience, the Holy Spirit is asking you as a believer to take, I invite you to take it and begin to watch God do something amazing in your life.

And I can tell you right now, he's calling some of you to do something radically obedient.

Come on.

But are you being obedient in your relationships?

Are you being obedient with your sexual life?

Are you being obedient with your money and your finances?

Are you being obedient in what God called you to do as a husband or a wife?

Are you being obedient if you're a boss?

Are you being obedient if you're an employee?

See, God's word has instructions for every single one of those things I just said.

And you can go to the scripture and you can justify away all you want to justify, but the Holy Spirit will never leave you alone.

And he will continue to nudge you and say, you're not being obedient.

Take the step of obedience.

Watch your faith grow.

Watch me do something amazing.

And I will bless your life for the step of obedience.

Come on, somebody.

Give God a hand clap of praise in this place if you believe him by faith.

But obedience needs to start happening quickly.

Because when I'm obedient quickly, it allows me to be what I call under the spout where the glory of God comes out.

And my Bible says that my creator has created me to bless me.

But the question is, am I gonna allow Christ Jesus to put me in that right relationship?

And once I'm in that right relationship, am I gonna allow those reigns of blessing to fall on me and produce a harvest out of me and do great and mighty things?

My life ain't here to produce thorns and thistles and be useless to the kingdom.

And I got news for you too, my friend, wherever you are in here today, yours ain't either.

Come on, somebody.

It's here so we can begin to soak in the blessing, live by the blessing of God and watch God do amazing things.

See, he wants to mature your faith.

Wants to grow your faith.

He wants you to take a step of obedience.

He wants you to do the basic things and understand the basic things, but move beyond those things and begin to watch him do a mighty work in your life.

You see, faith in God is just like your muscle in your body.

If you don't work the muscle, the muscle don't get strong.

It don't develop.

You got to work your faith muscle and you work your faith muscle by being obedient and taking steps.

The second thing I wrote down, because I do believe God is calling his church to be people of strong faith, not undeveloped faith, not just have saving faith to get to heaven one day, but a faith that believes God for his bestowed blessings and live by those blessings and do great things in this world.

The second thing I wrote down is I have to be consistent.

Not on one day and off the next.

Being consistent with my faith, trusting in who God is, walking that out, putting some daily disciplines in my life, monthly disciplines in my life, yearly disciplines in my life.

Not just showing up every now and then.

You know what?

And being a part of God's family or church, put some discipline, make it a habit to show up and see what God wants to do in you and do through you.

It's not just about having a big attendance, but it's about having a big church family that's operating by faith.

So we change the world.

Come on somebody.

And God's calling some of you to do your parts.

But again, if I'm going to be consistent, I've got to trust the process.

What do I mean by that?

I don't get big muscles in one day.

I have to be consistent, go to the gym on a regular basis.

Can't just show up once a week.

I gotta be consistent with it, use that analogy.

And do workouts every day and work the muscles out every day.

You gotta work your faith out every day.

You can't get tired in the process.

Some of us believe this about God.

We believe that once we put our faith in the saving faith of Jesus in our life, that life is not gonna have difficulties and we're just gonna show up and everything's gonna be like chocolate ice cream or something.

But the reality of it is life don't work that way.

Jesus says in this world you will have tribulation, you have trials, you will have troubles, you're gonna have difficult moments and you better get some developed faith if you're gonna get through those difficult moments and those storms.

And I'll bless you and I'll help you get through them if you'll be consistent and not give up on me in the process.

You know when a farmer goes out and plants a field, he has faith that that field is gonna grow plants and eventually produce some sort of harvest.

So he plants the seed and he waits.

But we live in this culture where we plant the seed, put our trust in Jesus and Jesus, would you give us microwave popcorn and we need it right now?

And I need you to know God wants to produce a great harvest out of your life, no matter who you are.

But sometimes you have to continually show up and do the mundane things and let the plant grow, let the faith grow and then eventually it will begin to put out some fruit and produce a great harvest.

I grew up on a farm and we were what we called row crop farmers back in the day.

We planted a lot of corn and soybeans where I come from.

And as a kid, we would plant those rows, thousands of acres of corn and soybeans.

And we would wait, we would wait months for the corn to grow and the harvest to come.

And we would depend on faith that it would rain.

It wasn't nothing more I could do to make the corn grow than just wait.

I could do things and keep the weeds hoed out and do the hard stuff, the due diligence stuff.

So the corn stalk could grow above the weeds and we could do certain things in order to nurture the corn stalk.

But again, at the end of the day, if it was gonna grow and produce fruit, it was dependent on another source and I had to have faith in that another source.

I need you to know that your life is a lot like that corn stalk.

And God wants to produce not just a kernel of corn out of you.

He wants to produce multiple kernels of corn out of you so that it can be sowed and produced even more.

But you've got to be consistent with the small things, everybody say small things, and build upon them and add greater things in order to see that prosperity and what God wants to do in your life as He blesses your life and works through your life.

You've got to be obedient, but you've got to be consistent.

Look what the Bible says in Galatians 6, verses 8 and 9.

It says, those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature, that's that old man, old woman, will harvest decay into death from that sinful nature.

If you're only operating by your feelings, the Bible says, you know what?

That's what you're gonna reap.

But it says, but those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit.

Do you really believe that?

And then the writer goes on to say this, so let's not get tired of doing what is good.

At just the right time, we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't give up.

Again, I'm inviting you into the new year to sit underneath the blessings of your creator.

God sincerely rewards those who, or rewards those greatly who sincerely seek him is what the Bible tells us in Hebrews 11.

And trust him, not just saving faith to go to heaven, but people who walk by faith and not by the spirit of the flesh, and they believe God for the blessing.

Are you sitting underneath the blessing and are you consistent with the things that God asked you to do as a believer in Jesus Christ?

And he's calling you to not live by the flesh, but to live by the spirit and be consistent.

And I can promise you this, when you become consistent with one small thing and you keep doing that over and over and create habits in your life and put another one on there, eventually you'll wake up and say, how did I get here?

And it's gonna be amazing.

To illustrate this point today, I saw this video on Instagram, so I thought I'd share it with you.

Check this out.

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[Video Clip from “Make Your Bed” by Admiral William H. McRaven]

Every morning in SEAL training, my instructors, who at the time were all Vietnam veterans, would show up in my barracks room and the first thing they'd do was inspect my bed.

If you did it right, the corners would be square, the covers would be pulled tight, the pillow centered just under the headboard, and the extra blanket folded neatly at the foot of the rack.

It was a simple task, mundane at best, but every morning we were required to make our bed to perfection.

It seemed a little ridiculous at the time, particularly in light of the fact that we were aspiring to be real warriors, tough battle-hardened SEALs, but the wisdom of this simple act has been proven to me many times over.

If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day.

It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task, and another, and another.

And by the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed.

Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that the little things in life matter.

If you can't do the little things right, you'll never be able to do the big things right.

And if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made, that you made.

And a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.

So if you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.

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Come on, somebody.

That's a good word right there.

And our great God works a lot that same way.

You wanna change the world?

Start off by doing the small things.

Do it consistently every day.

And watch God work.

Have the faith that God is at work in spite of what you see.

Believe that the corn that you're gonna grow up and you're gonna produce a great harvest and God's gonna produce something great out of you, he's gonna put something in you and he's gonna produce greatness out of you.

He's gonna change the world.

Come on, but you gotta have faith.

You gotta be consistent about that over and over and over again.

Some of us get weary.

The Bible says, don't get tired of doing what is good.

Even when the evil comes against you, my friends, you don't stop doing the good that God calls you to do.

You will produce a great harvest.

And God's not calling us to just saving faith and waiting for you to get to heaven one day.

God desires for you to start living eternal life right now, today, by putting faith in the Son of God and begin to walk by the power of the Holy Spirit in a world that has evil in it.

He will one day return and put all evil in the abyss.

But in the meantime, we gotta have great faith, stay dedicated, be obedient, and do the right things.

Come on, somebody.

And watch God work.

Don't stop, don't stop, don't pull over to the side.

Don't give up.

God is calling some of us to change some things, to do some things.

But the question is, are you willing to turn from your sin and do it?

Or are you too busy worrying about what your flesh feels instead of what the Spirit says?

Because the Spirit of God will build you into something great, but you gotta believe God.

You gotta trust God.

And God is gonna do what he says he's gonna do.

You know, Jesus promised to do something.

You know what it was?

To not just save people, but Jesus said, I'll build my church.

Do you really believe he's building a church or called out people to do great things in this earth?

Jesus said he would build his church.

And here's the deal.

If Jesus is building a church, that means he wants you to be a part of it.

And you got a gift and something to use.

But the question is, are you stepping into it?

I mean, I can sit at home and watch TV, but that ain't operating by faith in who God called me to be.

And at the end of the day, God has called every one of us to an assignment and it is to change the world.

But we gotta be consistent.

Understand, God is not calling you to just have faith.

He wants to develop your faith.

And the way it develops is through obedience, through consistency.

And the last thing I wrote down is stop dwelling in the past.

You know, the God gave us an illustration in the Bible of calling a whole people group out of slavery bondage.

They were known as the Hebrew people and they were in bondage for over 400 years in the nation of Egypt.

And God says, here's the deal.

I'm gonna come with my strong hand and I'm gonna bring you out of Egypt and take you into a land of plenty.

Bible calls it the promised land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

You'll have everything you ever need.

And God says, that promise is for you if you'll walk by faith and trust me.

And the Bible says God came and did exactly what he said he'd do.

He brought the people out of Egypt.

He punished the Pharaoh, the one that was holding them in a slavery and that whole Egyptian army and drowned them in the Red Sea and the people began the journey to go to this promised land.

But you know what they did?

They kept looking back.

In their rear view mirror and thinking about the past.

When they had to trust God by faith in their daily bread to get to the promised land, God said, it's gonna be there.

You just hang on and trust me by faith on a daily basis.

The Bible says, instead of trusting God, they begin to complain against the one leading them, Moses, and say, let's go back to the promised land.

We have plenty of groceries there.

We don't have to trust God.

They just showed up, fed us.

We were slaves, but they fed us.

Come on.

Well, God was feeding them too.

And God was gonna continue to feed them in a powerful way, but they had to trust him by faith in the little things and develop their faith.

And the Bible says they kept wanting to go back, go back, go back, go back.

Look in the past, look in the past, look in the past.

And the Bible says this, that they didn't enter, the whole generation didn't enter the promised land because of their disobedience of faith.

And they spent 40 years on the outskirts of the promise because they kept looking back.

My friend, you got to move past the past, the mountaintops and the valleys, and they can't hold you back from the future that God is calling you to.

And again, I'm not saying you don't learn from the past.

You don't, you know, you don't look back and learn from the mistakes.

You don't learn from the successes, but you don't stay in those places.

You believe God is calling you to greater, more.

This is a challenge with some churches.

They like the warm and fuzziness of no new people.

We're all saved, hallelujah.

And you know what, if someone else comes in here, you know what, we're going to have to pay them attention in their unsavedness and they're going to be a little messy.

And the reality of it is churches, they don't grow because they don't keep their focus on being the people God called them to be.

They like the warm and fuzzy, us for and no more.

And God says, no, no, no.

I called you to change the world and stop looking how it used to be.

You know, we started this church nearly 25 years ago.

And I remember the first couple of months we sit in our living room with about a dozen people and we shared the vision for where we wanted to go.

But I made a statement in that living room to those people.

And some of them are still my dear friends today.

Some of them aren't, they're not here anymore.

But I said, look, I love the way this feels.

It's awesome, but it ain't gonna always be this way.

And I'm not gonna be able to always have a barbecue with you in my backyard.

But together, we're gonna change the world.

And we're gonna do as barbecues as much as we can.

Come on somebody.

And we're gonna be as relational as we can.

But there's gonna be other people coming and we gotta make room.

And by faith, we continue that process until this day.

But you need to understand something, God is building something greater.

And you gotta hang on to that by faith.

And if you look back, you're gonna become stalemated and you're gonna miss the blessing of God, the outflow of God in your life and through your life.

Are you being obedient in your relationships, in your finances?

Are you being obedient to your wife, to your husband, to your children?

Are you being obedient?

You know what, in this life, to what God has called you to do, if you have a calling on your life, are you sitting on the sidelines and saying, I'll get to it next year?

Are you being obedient to the great things that God is doing to this earth?

Nothing is promised to be here tomorrow.

And God is calling us into greatness, but the question is, are we gonna step into it?

Are we gonna keep looking back to how it used to be?

There's a problem with looking back, and it's illustrated by a lady that's known in the scripture as Lot's wife.

It doesn't call her by name, it just says she's Lot's wife, Lot being the nephew of a man named Abraham who was called by faith.

And God called Abraham and his people out of bondage by faith and says, you know what, I'm gonna do great things in you and through you, and Lot and Abraham divided some land.

Lot had a wife, he had two daughters.

And they chose this green pasture land, and they went to this green pasture land that was filled with all the earthly riches you could ever imagine.

But sin was rampant in this place called Sodom.

It was really evil.

And a lot of things were going on there.

And God says, you know what I'm gonna do?

I'm gonna rain judgment on this place called Sodom and Gomorrah.

And Abraham begged God because his nephew Lot lived there and his wife lived there and his two daughters lived there.

And Abraham went to God and said, would you have mercy?

Oh, my nephew Lot, mercy.

Would you save him and his family?

You know what God did?

God promised Abraham he would do it.

He sent two angels there to warn Lot to leave the country, leave the city and get out.

And as they were leaving the city and the country, the angel said, here's the deal.

I'm gonna have mercy on you.

You need to leave here and don't look back.

The Bible says that the wife of Lot looked back and she turned into a pillar of salt, frozen, stagnant, a statue of worthless salt because she would not walk by faith.

God had mercy on her, but she missed the blessing of God in her life and on her life because she looked back.

That story is there for a reason.

Not that God's gonna turn you into a pillar of salt, but he wants you to understand something.

If he says, don't look back, don't look back.

Be obedient, walk by faith, and trust in what God is doing in this world.

When Jesus was approached in the scripture asking about the ends of time, when they would come and all this sort of stuff, Jesus begins to give a lot of dialogue and talk about things of the past.

And he talks about this story of Lot's wife.

And I want to show you what he says in Luke chapter 17, verses 32 and 33.

He says, remember what happened to Lot's wife.

Come on, somebody.

Remember what happened to Lot's wife.

If you cling to your life, you will lose it.

And if you let go, let your life go, you will save it.

What does that scripture mean?

That scripture simply means this.

If you let go of who your old man was, and you cling by obedience, and you cling to be consistent, and you cling to stop looking back at the past, and you cling to this new life that is found in the God of the universe, and stop looking back and dwelling on the past, and dwelling about yesterday like Lot's wife did, and move forward, you will walk underneath the blessing of God.

You will not grow stagnant.

You will not grow weary.

You will not grow faint.

You will be lifted up on wings like an eagle, and you will fly, and you will soar.

But my friend, you got to stop looking back.

Desiring the things of this world more than you desire of the things still yet to come.

I need you to know what God has promised is so much greater than what you've experienced thus far.

It is gonna be beyond our imagination.

And God is asking everyone underneath the sound of my voice, will you choose to walk by faith in the son of the living God, and live under the blessings of God, and watch me do miraculous things in my church and through my church, not just when they get to heaven, but here on earth as it is in heaven, I wanna bless you.

But we gotta choose to be obedient.

In just a few moments, we're gonna close this service out, and we're gonna have a water baptism out in our foyer.

And some people are gonna take that next step of obedience and put their past behind them and look forward to their future.

See, water baptisms is simply an outward expression of an inward change.

It's a way for us to say, you know what?

I've trusted in Jesus.

I'm gonna follow him by faith all the days of my life, and I'm gonna walk through these baptism waters as a symbolic way to show that I've put my old self under the water, buried like Christ was buried under that water, and I've been raised to new life in Christ Jesus.

It's putting the past behind me and having faith for the future.

And it's believing that God is who he says he is.

And my question is, have you ever took that step of obedience?

Because the scripture calls us to put our faith in God, and that's the first step of obedience is to be baptized as a believer saying, I belong to God's team.

I belong to the family of Christ.

And I'm inviting you today, if you've never been baptized as a believer, maybe God's talking to you right now and saying, you know what?

You need to join the rest of those people out there that's gonna be water baptized today.

Because you're gonna take your first step of obedience, and you're gonna be consistent with your faith as you move in to 2024.

Love to give you a copy of God's word.

Pick it up and read it.

If you don't have a paper copy, use your electronic copy.

I mean, we have access to the word of God.

Read what it says, be challenged by the word of God.

We got copies for you out in the foyer.

If you need a copy today, love to give you one.

But God wants you to read his word and let the word get in you and saturate you and change you and be baptized with his word so that you turn from your old way, trusting the new way and walking in the fullness of it.

The question is, what step of obedience do you need to take?

Maybe some of you need to commit with your finances to the Lord this coming year.

Do what God asks you to do.

I mean, you can write it off all kinds of ways you wanna write it off.

Oh, that's Old Testament, not New Testament.

Listen, at the end of the day, the Bible says, if you're a believer in Christ Jesus, bring the whole tithe, the whole tenth into the storehouse of God.

Oh shoot, that's Old Testament.

That ain't for me, that's for somebody else.

Are you living under the blessing of God?

Are you trusting what God says?

Again, I know these are some hard truths, but the truth of the matter is that God cares more about you and wants you to be a person who walk by faith and live under the spot where the glory comes out and live under the blessing and the hand of God to be rewarded for your faith.

Are you consistent with what God is asking you to do?

If you need to take that step of baptism today, in a moment, we're gonna have some changes of clothes for you, we've got dressing rooms for you to change in, you can go through the baptism waters, and many of us are gonna go out there and celebrate.

But I'm gonna ask you, in a moment, we're gonna sing a song together, and I'm gonna ask you to stay and worship God during this next song, because maybe he just wants to touch your heart during that song.

Maybe some of us are just in too big of a hurry and we need to slow down and listen to what God says.

You see, God speaks through his word to his people and to your hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit.

But sometimes you gotta calm yourself and listen.

You're gonna be challenged this week when you go home.

Your skin is gonna tell you to go back and do the thing.

You're forgiven of that sin, just do it again.

Have the discipline to say, no, I'm not gonna do it again.

I'm gonna choose by faith to trust in the son of God and the power of the Holy Spirit who lives in me and I'm turning away from that and I'm walking a new life following Jesus.

Come on, somebody, come on.

So I'm gonna pray for us.

The band's gonna come out and sing.

There's gonna be prayer partners in the front if you need prayer today during this song.

If you wanna come forward and pray with them, they'll be here to put their arms around you and pray with you.

If you need to be baptized, in a moment we'll dismiss and you can be baptized.

But I wanna encourage you in this today.

Maybe the simple step God is asking you to say is, would you give me five more minutes instead of disrupting everything because you're in such a hurry?

And see what I wanna do in somebody's life.

These next moments are important moments in people's heart and life.

And again, God is calling us to be a people of faith and trust what he wants to do in the hearts of people.

Let me pray for you today.

God, as we prepare our hearts to stand in worship, God, there's so many here today that need to surrender to the Lordship of Jesus.

They need to be forgiven today of their sin and trust the blood of Christ.

The one who gave them his life on a cross so that they can have eternal life and have saving faith in a resurrected Jesus.

That is you today.

Say, God, today I turn away from my sin and I turn my heart towards the forgiving sacrifice that Jesus made on that cross and I trust Christ to be my savior.

I trust in his resurrection.

And as he resurrected, I'm gonna resurrect too and I'm gonna live a new life by faith and take my first step of obedience today.

If you said that prayer, I wanna say, welcome to the family of God.

It's a gift that you can't earn, you can't boast about.

It's a gift that comes from God.

But my friend, I invite you today to work your faith from this point forward and watch God bless you and change you and rearrange you and do great things through you.

God, we all pray this prayer today and we believe you for great things, to do great and mighty things.

And for those who prayed that prayer today and they've been saved by the blood of Jesus, I pray they'd go ahead and take their first step today, not be delayed, but be immediate and go out and be baptized in those baptism waters, announcing they put their old life behind them and their new life in front of them.

God, I pray for the rest of us that we would be obedient, be consistent, put our past behind us and move forward into this new year by faith.

It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.