B (23:48)

And.

A (23:49)

And it's time for you to invite somebody to come with you. Or maybe it's to deepen with the family. Maybe this is the year that you'll take that step and surround yourself with some godly people in a disciple group. Or maybe it's to deepen your faith by, instead of just me spoon feeding you the Bible, you big fat baby, that you would begin to learn how to feed yourself a little bit. That's what that is. Or maybe for the very first time, you would begin to steward the resources that God has given you. Time, talent, and treasure. You begin to trust him with your first and most. Or maybe your next step is salvation. Or maybe you've put your faith in Jesus, but you've never gone public with that. And Your next step is to go public with your faith by being baptized for all the services for the rest of this month. As long as we have people to baptize, we are going to baptize people, and today we are going to celebrate a baptism. Dallas is here, and Dallas is about to go public with his faith. And there's two parts to this. Okay, Dallas, we're gonna hear his story. We're gonna have him confess Jesus in the water. He's gonna dunk, submerge. He's gonna be resurrected to newness of life, and we are gonna join with the angels, and we are gonna lose our mind to celebrate this new life. So let's watch his story, and then we'll celebrate his baptism.

B (25:03)

Growing up in my household, we didn't go to church as a family. My grandparents were the ones that took me to church when I was very little. In 2020, I lost my brother in a car accident. We were very close. And just the intense feeling of loneliness, you know, I felt like something was missing. And that's what led me to church and led me to discover Jesus again. The moment where I would say I surrendered was during the church service. It's almost like it was meant for me. When I felt Jesus love pouring in. At that moment, I guess I just finally understood I'm a sinner, and I'm in need of a Savior. And I felt like in that moment, I stopped running and stopped looking. I felt like I didn't have a need to look anywhere else anymore. Getting baptized, I feel like, is the good first step for me to just kind of move in that direction of, like, publicly being able to talk about Jesus as my Savior.

A (26:04)

Amen. Dallas, this is your faith family. Faith family, this is Dallas. Dallas, we have one question for you, brother.

B (26:15)

Who is Jesus, my Lord and savior?

A (26:18)

Amen. Based on that profession of faith, we baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. And amen. And amen. Way to go, Dallas. Way to go. Praise God. So if you've never been baptized as a believer, you can go to the baptism class right after the service, and you could join Dallas and a whole bunch of other people and going public with your faith. And, Dallas, the service that you went to, when you felt the love of Christ, it was meant for you because Jesus knew that you were going to be here, and. And he coordinated everything so that you would hear the good news of the gospel. Amen. Amen. So what is your next step of obedience? A few other things in regards to making disciples around here. We're adding a new environment for us. It's brand new. We're adding an environment called Growth Track. Growth Track is a three week course. Two weeks you do on your own online, and then one week we all come together. And this will be the way, if you want to be a Covenant member here, that you become a Covenant member. We would like to invite every single 11 22er at some point to go through Growth Track. This is where you learn our doctrine, what we believe, who we are, and essentially Growth Track is. This Growth Track is us, the pastors, elders, deacons, staff, people, ministers here helping you. Like, our job is to serve you, not the other way around. Our job is to help serve you to figure out what your next step of obedience is. So we'd like for you to sign up for Growth Track also. This one kind of happened accidentally, but it's awesome. You remember that thing that happened a few years ago? It was about three weeks of disturbance around here called Covid. The rest of the country were paralyzed, but we were pretty good in Florida. Remember that? When that happened, right before COVID happened, we had decided to just go full throttle with 1122 online. Well, since then, what has happened is every single week, there's about 50,000 people around the country and around the world that worship with us live online. Like right now, there's tens of thousands of people, people worshiping with us live online. And for whatever reason, based on where people are, there's a lot of college campuses, there's a lot of military bases, There's a lot of people that just live in the sticks and for whatever reason, they feel most connected with 1122. And we can fight about it theologically if you want, but I don't have time for that. Here's what I've decided. I don't care where you live, because we're a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus. So if you live in Tupelo and you say, hey, will you disciple me? Our answer is, yes, we will disciple you. Well, what's beginning to happen is those people have been discipled and they start bringing people, which has turned into watch parties. And so what we're going to do is this year we're launching what we call 1122 outposts. And so if you're watching online and you're gonna meet regularly and you're willing to invite people into your outpost with you, we see you, we wanna equip you, and you are 1122. And I have no idea what's gonna happen and I don't really care. It could become a church plant. It could become a campus. It could become. It might meet for three years and not be anything. That's not the point. All we want to do is water the seed where God is planting it. So that's going to happen. In addition to this, I released a new podcast January 1st, me, my friend Kyle Thompson from Undaunted Life. And it's called the Daily Blade. So wherever you listen to podcasts, download it. And here's what it is. It's aimed at men and it's called the Daily Blade. Like sharpening the sword of the spirit. And it's five minutes in the word. That's what it is every single day. Now don't think devotional. Cause when I think devotional, I think like John Calvin or butterflies. It's neither one of those. Think locker room talk. It's aimed at men. Women you're smart enough to listen to. But I'm talking to your husband, so definitely make sure he listens. And it's just, here's what it says, here's what y' all to do. Ready, break. See you tomorrow. And so Daily Blade is to help make disciples. And then lastly, lastly, 1122 is going to begin to host conferences. We're gonna host three conferences next year. The first one that we're gonna host is March 28th to 29th and it's called a women's encounter. Alright, so for all of you ladies, you need to be here. We got some pretty, pretty stellar Bible teachers. Lisa Terkeurst, who I mentioned before, our very own Allie and Caitlin will be teaching the Bible. Worship will be by Meredith Andrews. She's kind of a famous worship leader. She's led here a few times. And so be here for that. Cause I'm telling you what you want to need or what you need in your life is an encounter with the Lord. And we're also hosting a church Leaders Conference, September 8th to 10th. Here's what I'm telling you. I'm not really telling you, I'm telling y' all that watch online because a bunch of churches watch us online and what happens is God has just breathed on this thing and churches call us every week, say, what are you doing? I'm like, I don't know. What have you heard? And we don't know what we're doing, but what we are, we're happy to share all of our mistakes and what God has been doing here with other churches. And so instead of spending all Day, every day. Doing that, we're gonna invite everybody at the same time September 8th through 10th, to a church leaders conference. And lastly, we have a men's conference October 17th and 18th. All right, men. Oh, that's. You sign up wives, sign your man up. Girlfriends, sign up your boyfriend. Part of the reason he's your boyfriend and not your husband is because he hadn't acted like a man yet. That's part of it. Probably sign up your sons. Bring your sons. And what we're going to do, I mean, the spiritual intensity is going to be through the roof. Okay, so we're not gonna sit in circles and hold hands and sing Kumbaya. That's not what we're gonna do. But we're gonna call men to stand firm and act like men. That's what we're gonna do. If you were interested in any of the things that we are doing, you could text the number 2025 to the number 4422. Also in your journal, there's a bunch of QR codes. So ask your grandkids how that works, and they'll show you that all the information you can find out there or on our website. Now, a part of the reason that we're doing that men's conference is because every single year, I focus us on something. This past year, we focused on eternal life. Maybe that's why over 3,100 people accepted Jesus as their savior. This year, here's the focus for the whole church. The whole church. I'm calling our church to stand firm and act like men. That's the focus. To stand firm and. And act like men. Now, ladies, if you say, well, what about me? What about you? I mean, let's. Do you think the problem in church, our culture, and our country is because the women aren't doing what they supposed to do? You really think that's the problem? I don't think it is. All the way back to the empty tomb. You know who showed up first to the empty tomb? A group of women. The backbone of the church for 2000 years has been some praying mamas and grandmamas. Okay? If you look at church attendance, if you look at who volunteers, if you look at who's in groups, if you look at who goes on mission trips, the women have typically done the things they are supposed to do. In fact, the problem in our country, the problem is, first and foremost, the gospel. Sociologically, the problem is because men have not stood up and acted like men. You think about this. Every. Virtually every nonprofit in our country is because some man did not do what he was supposed to do. And so the Bible says this in First Corinthians 16, 13, and 14 says, Be watchful. Stand firm in the faith. Act like men. Be strong. Let all you do be done in love. I think what Paul is telling us to do is write that act like men is like the hub in the middle of the wheel. And the way that we are to act like men are the imperatives around it. To be watchful, that means wake up, get off your couch, put down the Xbox, and get in the game. That means to stand firm in the faith. Stand firm is a fighting term. Quit abdicating responsibility and stand on that wall to provide and protect. To be strong. It is a great high calling to be called a man. And if you abdicate your strength, then those that need our strength are by definition, defenseless. And then it says, and let everything you do be done in love. First Corinthians 13, the apostle Paul. That whole chapter's on love. And in 1 Corinthians 13, the apostle Paul says, when I was a child, I acted like a child. But when I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. You know what this means? There's a bunch of dudes in our culture. You know what a dude is? A dude is a dangerous thing. A dude is not exactly a boy, but not yet a man. A dude is like a boy that can shave. And there's a bunch of dudes pounding their chest and they think they're being tough and they're actually acting like a toddler because everything to do is selfish. And instead of serving. And ladies, think about this. What if every man in your life, your dad, your uncle, your brother, your brother in Christ, your son, your nephew. What if every single man was convicted of the Holy Spirit this year and they were to stand firm and act like men? How would your life change? You see, when men lead and love the way God has called us to doing it his way, not this world's way. When men lead and love, well, everyone flourishes. And ladies, we're going to need your help. We always need your help. We can't do anything without you. This is why the Bible says it is not good for man to be alone. Oh, it's a terrible idea. Okay. And so we're going to need your prayers. We're going to need your encouragement. We're going to need your influence. And this year, we're calling our men to stand firm and act like men. If you look through your journal, I've already given you all of the sermon series that we are going to be going through throughout the whole year. I spend an inordinate amount of time seeking the face of God, diving into God's word to try to map this simple thing out. Every single week, say, Lord, they're your sheep. They're not my sheep. What do you want to say to your people? And so here is where I believe God is leading us with the banner over the all sermon series that we are calling men to stand firm and act like men. The first one sermon series starts today. We'll start in about three minutes in first Timothy. The reason for 12 weeks we're going to be in Timothy. The reason is because the Apostle Paul is going to help young Timothy stand up and be the man that God has called him to be. After that series, we'll do three weeks on the book of Titus. Why? Same thing. It's another young pastor that Paul is trying to raise up. Easter will be a standalone. Then we will do a six week series called Follow me Discipleship Journey. We're going to help every single man, woman and child understand what their next step of obedience is here at the church of 1122. The next series starts in June. It's a series on fighting. It's called in the Arena. We're gonna look at a bunch of fights in the Bible. We're gonna look at like David fighting Goliath, look at Jacob fighting with God. We're gonna look at the seven sons of Sceva. You're gonna love that one. This dude tries to fight a demon and gets his pants beat off of him. That's in the Bible. We'll talk about that. Then we're gonna do an eight week study on the person of Elijah the prophet in the Old Testament. He was a dude man lived out in the woods, had a big beard, called down fire on people. And we're gonna see what would it look like for us to live in that kind of godly courage. And then I'm really excited about this and it'll begin as saturated. We're gonna do a five week series on worship. We're gonna study hymns throughout the church. Alright? And it's called Worship is War. And why are we doing this on the year of manhood? Because men worship is war. We're gonna find out in first Timothy that Paul tells Timothy, you should tell the men in your church that, that godly men lift their hands in the sanctuary. And so this is not. We don't abdicate our worship men and just be like, ah, that's for the Students and the women. No, no, no, no. We're gonna do a five week series on worship and then we'll do a seven week series on stand firm and act like men. And that'll lead us to Christmas. And that one's called Real Men of Christmas. And it's gonna highlight Jesus. So that's where we're going. I hope you're excited. If you've got your bibles, go to 1 Timothy, or if you've got your journal, you can open up to page four or five, whatever it is. Four. We're gonna do two verses. Okay, two verses. So it should be like an hour on veach verse and then we'll be right out of here. Got it. The reason we're doing this again, you're gonna see it here in a second is Paul's relationship with Timothy. First Timothy, chapter one, verses one and two, starts out this way. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope. To Timothy, my true child in the faith. In case you're new to Bible study, Paul's name used to be Saul. Saul grew up. He had a law degree from Tarsus. He was dedicated and devoted to the Torah, to the Old Testament law. He was very arrogant. He was very egotistical. He was very driven. And when he began to hear these rumblings that people believed that Jesus was God, Jesus was the Messiah, he was trying to systematically squish this movement called Christianity Today. We would call this, call him a religious terrorist. And so he gets these papers together. He's going up to this place called Damascus because they had started a church there. And he was going to arrest men, women and children that claim to know Jesus. And on his way to Damascus, the resurrected Christ, post ascended Christ, shows up in the form of a bright light, kicks Saul off of his horse. He falls back. Jesus gets face to face with him and says, why do you persecute me? And in that moment, Saul of Tarsus sees Jesus for who he is and surrenders his life to the lordship of Jesus. He says, who are you, Lord? And he puts his faith in the resurrected Christ. And then over the next about three years, Galatians says that there's this like supernatural, revelatory, one on one disciple group that Paul is in with Jesus. And then he becomes the greatest missionary of all time. Well, after Paul's first missionary journey, he's got this kid named Mark who flakes out on him. So he sends him home, and he's about to go on his second missionary journey, and Mark's like, can I go? And he's like, no, we ain't got time for that. You go get your participation trophy from somewhere else, okay? We got stuff to do. And so he finds this new kid in a place called Lystra. And the kid's Name's Timothy. He's 15 years old, and he's got all kind of things working against him, but he's a godly young man. Paul leads him to Christ. And Paul begins to disciple Timothy. He takes him on mission trips with him. He goes to plant churches with him. Everywhere he goes, he takes Timothy with him. And when he writes this letter, by the time he gets here, he has appointed Timothy to be the pastor of the Church of Ephesus. Like in your Bibles, there's a whole book called Ephesians. Timothy is the pastor of this church. Ephesus is a big old city, and nobody would have picked young Timothy to be the pastor. And yet Paul has been discipling timothy for, like, 15 years. And then he says to Timothy, my true child in the faith, Let me ask you this. Does that phrase describe any kind of relationship that you have in church? It should. Do you realize that we are called to be disciples? And the greatest way to be a disciple is to make disciples. In fact, you might not be one if you've never made one. And we're not just talking about information exchange. Like, you show up every week and sit in rows and I tell you things that you didn't know and teach you a Greek word or two. No, no, no, no, no. That in the first century, discipleship was very relational and very personal. This is why disciple groups are such a big deal around here. Listen, by God's grace, I've had a few people in my life that have been fathers in the faith. Many of you have heard the name Bull Lee. Coach Bull Lee, the guy that led me to Christ. Now, he was a high school football coach. It's not like we did a ton of Bible study together. His discipleship plan for me was, boy, getting the truck. He didn't do anything alone. If he was cleaning out dog kennels, we were cleaning dog kennels. If he was preaching at a fellowship of Christian athletes, I was going. He would throw me up there and make me preach. We just did everything together. And he would just invite me along so that. Cause he would always say, hey, more is caught than taught. Then when I graduated from seminary, this guy named Dr. Bill Ross hired me to be the youth pastor at his church. And he and his wife Penny invited Gretchen and I into their life. He wasn't just my boss. He didn't just do my evaluations that Bill and Penny invited me and Gee into their home. He showed me how to do a funeral. He showed me how to do a wedding, how to do a hospital visit. But more importantly, he showed me how to love my wife and value my children and not sacrifice ministry, not sacrifice my family for the sake of ministry. He taught me how to do that. Then about 24 years ago, and I moved to Jacksonville and I get to work for Pastor Jerry Sweatt. And he is a father to me in the ministry. Again, same thing. He wasn't merely my boss. As we began to have kids and stuff. And even before that, he would invite. He and Denise would invite me and Gretchen into their home. And he showed me how to love a people and become a shepherd. He. As rough as I am now, imagine how rough I would be without serving under Pastor Jerry for 10 years. Okay? He taught me all kinds of things. And even when we were planting this church, Lars Peterson, who was the original chairman of the board of elders, he and his wife Deb poured their life into us. And again, like with Petey, it's, you know, I've got degrees in Bible, so it's not like we were necessarily just doing Bible study. But he taught me how to lead and how to grow and how to work with people. Who do you have in your life like that? And if you're like, well, where do I find somebody like that? Disciple group. This is why I tell you all the time. From the beginning of our church, we've always valued intergenerational disciple groups. This is why we don't put all the 20 year olds together in one room. Why? Because the concentration of that much ignorance in one place is terrifying. Because if you're 20, the two worst things about you is you know nothing and you think you know everything and then you tweet about it and it's evidence that number one is true. You don't know anything. Even our 18, 25 groups are led by grown people. Okay? This is what we were created for. Are you in that kind of relationship?

B (44:06)

You.

A (44:06)

You see, because what we're gonna find out in a little while as we read through 1 Timothy, and if you look at 2 Timothy is, Timothy had all kind of strikes against him, man. First and foremost, Timothy was not raised by his father. His dad has never mentioned my name. He was raised by his mama and his grandma. And so, I mean, you wanna talk about a father wound as bad as it is. Now, think about the first century, and yet the Apostle Paul meets Timothy in chapter 16 of Acts. And by the time you get to chapter 20, they've been on a couple of missionary tours together.

B (44:36)

And.

A (44:36)

And Paul is gonna get together Timothy and the other elders for the church of Ephesus. And the Apostle Paul is gonna lay his hands on young Timothy. This kid who is timid, this kid who's scared to do everything. This is why Paul is gonna tell him, timothy, God has not given you a spirit of fear, buddy, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. See, if you struggle with fear, fear is not a feeling. Fear is a spirit that does not come from God. And pray. Paul is laying his hand. This kid didn't grow up with a dad. And he. Maybe for the first time, Timothy hears from this man, the most spiritually powerful man on the planet, and he hears for the first time, I see you, and God's got a plan for you. And I believe you can do anything God has called you to do, because if it's his idea, he's gonna give you everything you need to accomplish it. And he lays his hands on him and he commissions him. So in 2 Timothy, chapter 1, verse 4, when Paul remembers the tears that they cried together, those are the tears that he's talking about, because there ain't a man in here. You let your dad or your spiritual father put his hands on you and start speaking blessing over you, ain't no way you can hold it back. The night before we opened the church, we were next door at the Walmart trying to get everything clean for all the people that are going to show up. It looked like the end of a Terminator 2 movie. It was rough. And I'm nervous. Oh, my gosh, I'm nervous. I'm thinking, what if nobody comes? I mean, what are we going to do? And the elders of our church, we had four founding elders, and they had me kneel down at the altar, and those four men laid their hands on me and they spoke life into me, like Paul did to Timothy. Do you have somebody like that in your life? It's what you need. Men, women, teenagers. And by the way, if you serve in our kids ministry, our student ministry, our 1825 ministry, as parents who have raised two in this church. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. We could not do it without you. This is exactly what you're doing. And here's what. Listen. In 1 Corinthians 4:15, Paul says this. He says, for though you have countless guides in Christ. He's like, you can YouTube and Google anything. You do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. The number one problem in America is obviously the gospel. Sociologically, the number one problem in America is fatherlessness. You cure that, every problem goes away. Every single problem goes away. And so Paul looks at Timothy. He says to Timothy, my true child in the faith, grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Here's what church. Here's what I'm praying for us in 2025. It's four words that are in the introduction of Paul's letter to Timothy. Just four words. The first thing I'm praying for you is this hope. I'm praying hope. It starts off, paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope. Please don't lose hope. Some of you have put your hope in your circumstances and you feel like you're losing hope. And to give up on hope is to give up on Jesus. Because we are called to a living hope. I mean, if the tomb is empty, anything is possible. I know we say it all the time and it's written on the walls and you can read books about it, but the reason we say this is because God entered into the most hopeless situation on the planet. The Son of God has been killed and his dead body is laying in a grave. And I'm sure the disciples are thinking, well, what do we do now? And God Almighty is saying, just give me the weekend. Cause I've got a plan. And God breathes new life into his dead son. And if Jesus can come walking out of a hopeless situation, then there is hope for you too. And the empty tomb and your alarm clock is empirical evidence that God's not done with you. Don't give up on hope. Cause hope has never given up on you. He loves you. He's got a plan for you. This is why we're gonna sing that song made for more about 100 million times between now and Easter. Cause you were made for more that you weren't made to be tending a grave. That's not what you were made for. That why would you make your bed in shame when a fountain of grace is coming your way? You and I were made for more. He's forgiven our past. We're not going back. You and I were made for hope because Jesus gives us a living hope. I'm praying that you would not give up hope. The Bible says hope deferred makes the heart Sick. I think I'd rather have a sick body than a sick heart. And you have hope because Jesus is alive. In fact, in about four minutes, when we close, we're gonna sing. Because he lives, I can face tomorrow that's what we're gonna. Because he lives, all fear is gone. That's what we're gonna sing. Why? Because he is our hope. I'm praying for you, Hope. And I'm praying Grace. Grace. Some of you still don't understand what grace is. You know the church definition, unmerited favor. But you don't know what grace is. Even if cognitively you believe that when Jesus died on the cross, it counted for your sins, yet somehow you can't let you off the mat. Some of you are debilitated because your standard of forgiveness is somehow higher than the standard of the almighty sovereign God. It's because you don't understand the grace of God. Listen, man, I'm not even. I'm not saying you didn't mess up. I'm not saying it wasn't a sin. I'm not saying you're a snowflake and you did it, all right? You're not. You're not. You're jacked up. You're wretched, crooked to play sinner. You are. And Jesus died for you anyway, and he paid the full bill. And I want you to be able to walk in the kind of freedom that grace allows. Not freedom to keep doing the dumb stuff you've been doing, but freedom to follow after Jesus and understand you don't have to earn his approval. His approval was purchased for you at the cross. And I want you to be able to walk in that kind of grace. Because if you do, it'll change everything. The people you live with and work with, they'll say, what happened to you? And you'll be able to say, I gotta run over by the grace train. I don't even. I have so many things I should be ashamed of. But Jesus nailed my shame to the cross. And I don't make my bed into shame anymore. That's what I want for you. And the third word is mercy. We live in a culture that is void of mercy. We live in a culture of. It's nothing but judgment and condemnation and comparison and bitterness and sorrow and cancel. And yet the Bible says that God is rich in mercy. I mean, Ephesians, chapter two, it diagnoses us as bad. Worse, it diagnoses us as dead in our trespasses and sons and daughters of wrath. You know what mercy is? Mercy is not Getting what you deserve. We deserve judgment. And you know what we get? But God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he has loved us, that God lavishes his love upon us, that we might be called children of God. Do you know what rich means in the Bible? It means more than enough that God did not give you just enough mercy to make it through the day. But new mercies come every morning. He's got as much mercy for you as he has sunrises for you. And his mercy keeps coming and keeps coming and keeps coming. And I want you to be able to walk in that kind of mercy. I want you to understand that when God looks at you, he doesn't look at you with a furrowed brow like he's mad at you, because he ain't mad at you. Through the blood of his son Jesus, he has poured mercy on you richly. And you have been called a son or daughter of God. And the last word, he says, peace. I want you to have peace in 2025. Not a peaceful, easy feeling. We ain't talking about vibes, whatever that means. Those dumb shirts, okay? That's our problem, man. See, so many people have taken the trust that God has given to us, and we have placed our trust in a set of circumstances. And we think when these circumstances all get perfect, then we'll be fully and finally satisfied. That's why you live with worry. That's why you live with fear. That's why you live with anxiety. Because all of your hope and all of your attention is focused on the temporary circumstances. And they're never gonna be fully and finally satisfied. In fact, one of the reasons you're going to be so disappointed in yourself is because you've got great plans for 2025 with all your New Year's resolutions. Yeah, there's a myth of there. Do you know what I mean? So many of you think, when I get there, oh, like when I get the degree, when I get the job, when the scale says this, when I finally get married, when I get there, the there is no there. We're all right here. And Jesus has peace for you right here and right now. Can you imagine living in a supernatural peace? The Apostle Paul says this. The Apostle Paul says, be anxious for nothing but by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving. By the way, the higher degree you live of gratitude and thanksgiving, the higher. The more your anxiety and worry will diminish. And he says, be anxious for nothing but by prayer and supplication. Make all your requests known to God. And the peace of God that transcends understanding, like, regardless of your circumstances, will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Listen, this is the offer of Jesus. Jesus offers hope and grace and mercy and peace. What I'm praying for us as a church this year is that I want us to have hope and grace and mercy and peace. And if you don't want that, you're in the wrong place. Go to the DMV or something. You won't get any of that there. But if you want hope and you want grace and you want mercy and you want peace, and you say, how do I sign up for that? Paul says to Timothy, that's from God and Jesus our Lord. The peace is not found in a set of circumstances. Peace is found in a person. His name is Jesus. In fact, Jesus gives this invitation. Listen, I know I'm biased. I teach the Bible, I'm a professional Christian, have been a long time. I get it, I get it. But the offer of Jesus is peace and grace and mercy and hope. The offer of this world is at best entertainment and temporary happiness and some stuff and pop psychology that changes every three months. I don't know why everybody wouldn't take this offer. In Matthew, chapter 11, Jesus gives this invitation. He says this. He says, come here, look at me. Come here. Come to me. All who labor and are heavy laden. It's one thing to be externally tired. It's another thing to be trying to manage hope and peace and mercy based on your own strength circumstances, isn't it? Any of you worn out after the holidays? The holiday's supposed to give you a break. You got to go back to school and work and get some rest. Anybody trying to earn the favor of God with religious activity and right behavior. Anybody try to wake up and manufacture all the circumstances to turn happy on, and you just can't get happy to turn on. Anybody got all of their hopes out there somewhere, and you can't experience peace here and right now. Jesus says, okay, well, then come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He says, take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your soul. A way I would define that is you will find hope, grace and mercy and peace. And you say, how do I do that? For all who believe you receive all of those things, that you admit it, my way ain't working. I'm not just a bad person that needs to try harder to do better. I'm a sinner and I need A savior. And I believe, I trust that somehow when Jesus died on the cross, that it counted for me. When he said it is finished, he paid the bill for me. And the Bible says when you do that, you confess him as Lord and you will be saved. The Bible makes this incredible promise in Romans 10:13. All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. That's a prayer that he answers 100% of the time, that if I admit it, I'm a sinner in need of a savior. I believe when Christ died on the cross, that counted for me. And you say Jesus saved me, he will answer that 100% of the time. And with that comes hope and grace and mercy and peace. That is the offer of Jesus in this moment. Would you bow your head? Would you close your eyes? And if you were ready to receive that offer for the very first time, and you want to start this new year with a brand new you, for the very first time, to crucify your flesh, to receive Christ as your savior, to admit it, I need a savior. I believe when Christ died on the cross, somehow that counted for me. And today, for the very first time, you're ready to call on the name of the Lord. Will you lift your hand as high as you can and will you just tell him, lord, save me. And he answers it every single time. Our good and gracious heavenly Father, God, we love you because you love us first. God, I thank you and I praise you that right now that you are saving men and women and God, it's not the hand in the air that saves us. It's you, crucified, dead and resurrected. It's these men and women putting their trust, their faith in you for the very first time. And God, I thank you that you meet us exactly where we are, but you never leave us there. And so, God, I pray for our church. God, I pray for hope, that we would never give up on hope because you've never given up on us. God, I pray for grace, the kind of grace that would save us and change us. God, I pray that we would be a merciful people because you are rich in mercy towards us. And Lord, I pray for a peace that is only found in the person and work of Jesus. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Church, would you please stand? We are going to respond. We're going to respond in three ways. We're going to bring our tithes and offerings, our first and our best. The majority of us do that online, either through the app or you can text the word give to 4, 4, 1, 1, 2 2. If you're old school and want to drop a check in an offering box on the way out, feel free. No problem. And we're gonna pray. So anybody that thinks they need the help of the Lord through 2025, you should sprint to the front and get on your face and pray to a God that invites you to come to him. And we're going to sing now. We're going to sing two songs back to back. All right. We're going to sing because he lives that old hymn. It's awesome. And there's a verse in there about holding babies. You're like, what is that about? The people that wrote this, the Gaithers, wrote it in the late 60s when the world was burning down in America. At least it looked like it. And they had a brand new baby. And the reason that they could trust to. To parent this kid is because they knew that God was still in control of all things. I think it's very applicable for today. And then we're going to close with Made for more. Let's sing. Let's bring, let's pray, let's respond.