Just Like Jesus

We pray these things in Jesus's name And all God's people said "Amen". You may be seated. I got a lot to cover today and a short time to do it, So I hope you have either a notepad or notes in your phone or AI that can record what I'm doing Or, let's be real, this is going to be put up on YouTube for you to watch later. If you wanted to just go grab the transcript, drop it in the chat GBT and have points that you could put on your refrigerator. I'm not saying you should do all that, but you could do any number of those things to remember that which God gives you in this place.

We're going to be in various portions of what we call the synoptic gospels today, So I'm not going to have you turn specifically to a place, unless you just feel led to do it, and you've been doing that Bible drill for the past couple of years. Cuz it's going to be rapid fire today, I like to take the last Sunday of the year to do something a little different than normal. It's still me saying dumb stuff up here half the time, but it's going to be a little different than normal. So what I want to do today and I'm going to tell you what I'm going to do so that you can hold me accountable to it if I derail myself. You know what I'm saying.

It's not the Lord, It would be me who derails this conversation we're having. The first thing that I want to do is I want to celebrate all the things that God has done over the year, And by all I mean I. I want to take a little bit from the end of the Gospel of John, where he says: if we were to talk about all the things that Jesus did, none of the books in the world could hold or contain all his works. So God did so many things in your lives, in my life and in this church that I can't tell you all of them, but I can tell you a few of them that I think are significant. Be because of a specific reason At the beginning of the year.

God had given me a word or a theme that really took me into 2025. And, as the pastor, it's kind of relevant right to the church what God brings me into, And the word was momentum. Now, my belief was that my job in the momentum process was to take faith steps, And my expectation was that as we take faith steps, God meets us as we're taking them and does the things only he can do. So what I do is I hustle hard, trying to follow God, trying to do what Jesus wants me to do. I continue to take faith steps toward him and at some point he steps in and multiplies loaves and fish, makes the sun stand still, makes rocks cry out, makes mountains move right.

That's God's job. My job is faith and obedience. So that's what momentum meant for me is obedience mixed with God's work, And so that's what we tried to do. We tried to do some really bold faith steps this year. So what I want to do first is celebrate some of what God did.

The second thing I'm going to do is I'm going to talk to you about 2026, because the Lord's given me a theme that I believe will take us mostly through 2026. So the first part: celebrating. Second part: challenging, charging, calling, inviting, whatever word feels good for you today. But church was never meant to be a destination vessel. You know what I'm saying?

It's not supposed to be a cruise ship. Church is supposed to be a transport liner. I'm trying to get people from point A to point B. So when you come in here every week. If you leave the same, I'm not doing my job, You're not letting God do his job, And we're going to be one of those churches that we look at and say, "This is shallow, superficial and of the world.

I don't want to be that". So I'm gonna challenge you today, And if I get offensive, I don't mean to Just know that up front. Do I mean to Hannah? Do I ever mean to be offensive Sometimes, but I don't ever. Like, not here.

I don't mean to. All right. So first we're going to talk about some things to celebrate. It's important to celebrate a previous season because if you never coalate or look at what God did or what happened, what goals you met, what goals you didn't meet, then you're going to dive into the next season without a comprehensive understanding of really what you needed. Like, you need more than just to go through it, You need to process it.

Everybody look at your neighbor and say "You got to process this stuff". Good job, guys. The rest of you, you need to start processing this stuff out loud to your neighbor. So the first step we took that God met us in was kind of the subject or the goal of our year- end offering last year. It was to really focus on kids ministry, And the main action step we took was we hired Kaylee.

Su, Y'all like Kaylee. Kaylee [cheering], are you in here? She. You should be sitting in the front, Kaylee, Be better, I'm just kidding. We hired Kaylee last year and we didn't know how we.

We kind of had, like I have, we have reserves so we could have funded it if we, if we had to, by dipping into reserves. But our belief was that God was going to match our faith with, like monthly tithes and offerings that could meet that salary, along with all the ministry that we continue to do. And God met it at year end last year, so we didn't have to stress out about that. And then this year, God's continued to provide. But here's what's cool is: we took that faith step and yours truly was handling social media.

So we hired her for kids and comms is what we say. I was handling social media and just look at me, I'm still wearing 2015 stuff. You know what I'm saying? Like I'm not the guy, I'm not that guy. U.

So she took it and I don't really care about followers on Instagram unless they're here, and most of them aren't here, But I, I got us to a certain point by developing a team and then I was like I'm, I'm beyond my depth here, So she takes it over. I think there's like 200, two, 2,000 followers, something like that. Now I was at like 9,000. Good job on that. Where they at, You know like your job will be done when they get here, But right now they're, they're, they're following on Instagram, but soon they going to follow Jesus.

Followers on Instagram means followers inspired. Eventually. Okay, cool, 60 plus child dedications this year, which is really great, And we only do it two times a year. So that's cool. And I'm less crazy thanks to Kaylee.

She doesn't know it, but y'all do, Y'all, could She? She gets all the crazy. Anyway, she's been so helpful. Grateful for you. We took a faith step and the Lord provided, for me, not for her, because she's got to deal with me every week-, the second thing that I've noticed is momentum in general, like when you move forward in a direction, it steals bandwidth from other directions, right, So?

So if I have a kid, it steals bandwidth from other things that I was doing. You all know what happens when you have a kid, especially if you're one of those parents. She's like: "Bed by 7:00. I can't do anything past 7 any day". I'm not judging you.

That's what you wanted to do me. I. I'm just not a great parent, So like that's how that works. But for me, this last year I was taking steps in the direction that God was calling us and it stole bandwidth that was being placed in other areas that maybe were unhealthy for me, Right? So when you, when you start a business, when you launch a church, when you build a group of people, especially in a big city like Phoenix, it's really easy, because you want to grow and learn, to look at what everybody else is doing.

But the downside to looking at what everybody else is doing is you compare, their highlight reel to your every single day, And there's a comparison that happens in that gap. And so for me in that first year it was a struggle. You know people call me up and say, "Hey, how are you guys doing over there? We had this many today", And I'm like: "We didn't have this many today", And I would feel so insecure. But when the Lord reminds you of your calling and you just run in that direction.

You forget about everybody else's stuff, And so it stole that bandwidth from the area of comparison that I struggle with, And so this year for me, I've been healthier. Now I didn't want to share too much about that with you because it's vulnerable, But at the same time, it's like as a leader of this church. I want you guys to know that some of these faith steps are for me too, And for you it might be something similar. Momentum in your life and obedience to God will still bandwidth from the things that are draining you, And so that's what happened for us this year. I am so much happier than I used to be.

I'll even tell you something. I just don't care as much as I used to. I still care deeply. At the same time, man, God's doing so much. How can I ever forget about that in lie of some superficiality around me, .

So that's another thing. Another thing we did was we did a lot of outreach, And it was scary to do a lot of this outreach. Some of the outreach was through, like this Easter egg drop that most of you have heard about. If you haven't get Instagram or something or newspaper, or go talk to the mayor who was like, do any of that stuff? Like it was a big thing and it was cool because we were.

I was they weren't. They just did what I told them to. But I was scared to death to do it because I was like, is anyone gonna show up? Is this going to work? Is there a team large enough to get this done?

I don't even know where to find a helicopter. And so I start moving in that direction and the team found the helicopter and the team came together. We had well over 150 volunteers serving that day and then 6,000 plus people came, and a lot didn't come, but we still got their data And right now, present day data is future. Deliverance in the Lord is what I'm believing, cuz I'm going to text them. I'm going to keep texting them.

Some of y'all came today after us texting you like every single week for two years And you- I'm glad you're here today, I'm glad you're here. Thank you for not unsubscribing, but we did a lot of other outreach. There was another situation during our serve week in July where we were going to distribute backpacks through, a local organization. Well, they ended up shifting the way that they did that backpack distribution and we had a couple hundred backpacks And so we- audible last minute- invited tons of people and they came here and we distributed backpacks to people who needed backpacks for their kids to go to school. That was a faith move is like, is anyone going to come gra backpacks?

They did, which was great. Like, yeah, it was, it was a great situation and, these faith, steps of obedience, God continued to meet and I- I don't share this frequently because I don't know. I think there's a part of me that knows how prideful I used to be, how prideful I still am, and so I don't like to do anything that tries to showcase anything that we have decided to do, and that applies to the church too, because I feel so interconnected to it, and so I don't ever want to sound prideful. But let me be frank with you. Like our church, your giving has gone out of our organization a lot.

This year- I was calculating it just really quickly- It was well over $100,000 that went outside of our organization toward local, national, international outreach processes, And, I think that's about 22% of our budget, guys, And so I'm really excited to see that, in our church. I do want to share a couple things that, your giving was a part of, and some of you actually know the people or the organizations involved. This is money given out to people or individuals that are connected to our church. This is not denominational. This is not like networks.

This is not. We give probably 50,000 to outside organizations- This is just from you guys to local ministries, for the most part has been given out. Earlier in the year, we gave $2,500 to Tribe City up in Surprise when their trailer got stolen. It's almost like, God continues to invite us to help others because we, if you didn't know, we got our trailer stolen right before we launched last year and that was crazy and it's our first miracle, and so we continue to sew into other churches who have real tragic moments like that. They ended up finding their trailer, but a lot of the stuff was stolen, And so that $2500 went directly to their new soundboard And so they actually just got into a new leased facility.

This year- And I'm not saying the $2,500 did it, but it didn't hurt them, And so you guys helped get a church really into this place where they're more permanent in surprise, amen, . We gave 5,000 to local organizations here. Which doesn't sound like a lot, but it's a lot. We gave 3,000 to social church. Just last month, if you don't know what social church is, y'all remember when Fernando came and preached?

. Yeah, Was he good? He was talking about Mary Magdalene and making jokes that I couldn't make cuz I'm white and so like. It was great. It was really enjoyable.

I enjoyed his message. We're we have a great friendship, and so we swed into their ministry. They're launching this month. If anyone here feels led, to go be a part of their launch, or, even further, if God just leads you to be a part of it, if you're sitting here but you would serve there. Man, I want that for you in your life.

They're literally down the street and we love them, So we've sewed into that. We gave $10,000 to local benevolence needs as a church And [applause and cheering]. Again, this isn't bragging, It's just telling you where the money went. To an extent, some of it was for local needs that you knew about and you've heard about. Some of it was for needs that you won't find out about because I'm not at liberty to discuss the full extent of the situation, but we go through quite the vetting process to make sure that the money that you tithe to orbit goes out to people who are in real need, not people who are maybe gaming a system or something like that.

And so the people who were helped this year not only had significant need, but we feel like that money given to them actually produced greater faith in them as well. We gave 5,000 to our Mexico missionaries, not just last year but also this year, which is an amazing thing. Eventually we're going to get a trip down there. It's going to be nice. It's just expensive to get down there, you know.

Then we gave 2,300 to missionaries in South Asia as well, And that's not the trip that I went on to visit. This was specifically to a business started to help them have a better foothold in the country that they're in, And it's. It's really cool, what we've been a part of in that situation. If you want to see people preach Jesus, go to South Asia. Can't tell you where it is.

You have y'all know where it is, . And then this year we are already at the place where, your generosity has gotten us, to our final amount last year at our year- end offering. So at our year- end offering last year we ended with about 78 to 80,000, depending on fees and stuff like that, And right now we're already there. Most giving tends to come in the last 3 days before year end, but I just want you to know God has done so many great things in this year year And if we don't celebrate those things, we're going to go into the next year and complain about the same things too. We got to celebrate what God did in the past to step properly into a new season- because I want it to be a new season, guys, I want to do same thing next year.

We might do some of the same stuff I'm trying to get some approval on Easter stuff. I'm trying to. I'm trying to take some big faith steps into the year, like we as a church are are trying to develop leaders, trying to make disciples, trying to make an impact in the community, And some of it's going to look similar. But I don't want to be learning the same old lessons. I want to be stepping into new mercies.

The Bible says in the Old Testament: "Behold, his mercies are new every morning". Which means, if I'm having to learn old lessons, relive old seasons, then I am only experiencing old mercies, And many of you, right now you're sitting in here. Maybe it's the first time you've come back to church in a while. Maybe it's the first time, you've like been out of church at all. Maybe you've been in church your entire life.

But you're just wishing and hoping you would get back to this interesting, nostalgic place that you experienced one time at a church camp or at that one church event, or or just sometime in your life. And when you come to church you're like trying to get back, You're trying to relive an old mercy. I'm not trying to do that. I want every year to be progressive and upward momentum as we go closer to Jesus, And so next year I want it to be much different. But I had to celebrate.

We had to celebrate Now I'm going to give you more detail and numbers- when we put out our annual report in February at our anniversary. Kaylee- that's this is deadline. Anniversary- has got to be out in front of front of people. He's going to do a great job. You going to make it look good.

I'm going to put the numbers in. I'm not going to manufacture numbers, It's just going to be real numbers. Some are going to look great, Some are going to be like "Oh, I thought we did better than that" And that's go. That's okay, It's true, And we'll give you that stuff later, But I wanted to celebrate a few things In the rest of the message. What I want to do is I want to jump into 2026 and give you our theme that I'm believing God for in this next year.

This is not my word. My word for this next year that I'm believing God for is surrender, That I'm going to hand everything over to him and let him do much more with it than I ever could. Anyways, but our word as a church came when I was at a little spiritual retreat in late July, early August, and I came back and I talked about it for a second, but now I want to introduce it as we're setting up 2026. And the, the word or the theme is three words: Just like Jesus. Three words- Y'all say it with me-.

Just like Jesus, . And a lot of us come in. We, we just like him And we think Jesus is cool. We'd like to be like, you know, church Hindus and add Jesus into our life where he fits And he makes me feel better because I've trusted in Jesus and so I can live my life my own way and then go to heaven eventually, even if I don't really care about Jesus. You like him but you don't really like you, don't have a deepening walk with him.

But there's a difference between liking Jesus and becoming like Jesus. Now, don't hear me the wrong way. I'm not trying to fill your 2026 with unnecessary obligation. I don't want this to be a performance metric. I don't think when we get to heaven one day, Jesus is going to be standing here.

We'll be standing right here And God looks at Jesus and says, ", you didn't measure up". No, this is not that. When Jesus died on the cross for our sins, when he raised to walk three days later, that sealed the deal for us who have confessed that he is Lord for all of eternity. It's sealed us. The Holy Spirit seals us into eternity.

I'm not talking about that. If you've trusted in Jesus, you're good, So you're not filled with obligation and measuring up. You don't need to measure up. At the same time, Paul does say: "Follow me as I follow Christ". Jesus is the light that came into the world.

He is the first fruits of a new creation, the firstborn of a new creation. He is the pioneer, the perfector, the forerunner. I'm just giving you stuff directly from the Scripture. He came first so that we would follow as sons and daughters of the most high God. We are called to become like Jesus, Amen, .

And that's not a lot of new stuff. You can actually rephrase it and make it a little more simple. Saurin Kirkugard is a Christian philosopher who I can't really understand most of what he writes, but my brother quotes him all the time, So I'm just kidding. I've read him a little bit. It's just not as fun as reading history.

Anyways, Saurin Kirkugard says this: that simplifying your mind is not what we often think it is. He says to simplify the mind is very simple, is to will one thing. To will one thing, that's what God wants for us, That's what I want for you, That's what I want for me And I think, even if you don't know it, that's what you want for you. You don't want a bunch of new obligations, new things in your schedule and on your calendar. You want to simplify your mind, to will one thing, And the will one thing that I want for us in this next year is one, It's one thing.

Just only like Jesus. You may wake up in the morning and say, "I got all these things to do", But you know what? Just like Jesus-, you might be stressed out about the future. Just be like Jesus, That's it. And if you do that, if you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness as brought by Jesus, if you seek Jesus and become like Jesus, everything else will be added.

And so what I did was I looked at the synoptics, which is Matthew, Mark and Luke. The synoptics is, like you know, syncopated, similar, like they synced up a little bit. Right, Matthew, Mark and Luke are very similar. John comes in with a heavy theological focus and, some saliloquis with Jesus. They're all true, but it's just a different, formula of Gospel than Matthew, Mark and Luke.

They're very similar. And so what I did was I looked through the Gospels- Matthew, Mark and Luke- and I said, "What are the things that we see that Jesus did in all three of these gospels", And I boiled them down to about 10 to 15 things. It's not really boiled down And I'm going to pretty rapid fire walk you through some of these things, And when you hear these things, you should write them down, You should record them. You should remember them. Or just watch the YouTube video and read the transcript.

You can. You can look at it later, but what I want you to do is think this is the, this is the 2026 standard for my life and for this church. Now there's more that I could add, but I'm just going to walk you through a few things And you'll notice that throughout the year, every sermon series, many of the events that we're doing are all intricately, incre in intric in intricately attached. I don't know what I'm doing. They're integrated.

That's what I'm trying to say. They're integrated into this theme, our first sermon series, during our 21 days of prayer and fasting. It's it's. It's about Jesus in the wilderness and how he utilizes the words of God to move forward in that season of not drought. But you know, fasting and dealing with Satan like that, Even that is attached to becoming like Jesus.

We're going to follow in his footsteps. So I'm gonna walk you through it and I'm going to try to do it quickly because I've got- [sighs] a few minutes. This is going to be fun. All right, cool, If I cut some out, it's okay, We'll go through them this next year. Make sense, Awesome.

First off, Jesus withdrew regularly and allowed time for interruptions. He withdrew regularly Like this was his custom. All all the synoptic gospels- Matthew, Mark and Luke- all say this, And they said it kind of as an aside. It was like an a taggedin statement to transition from one point in the narrative to another point in the narrative. Right, He, he, he fed a lot of people, He hung out with a lot of people, He was healing a lot of people.

Then Jesus withdrew into the wilderness and then he fed a bunch of people. It was a transitional statement And a lot of the transitional statements are the ones that are the most consistent And what we can consistently see about Jesus was that he withdrew to spend time separate from the noise, investing into his father. And I got to tell you this: if Jesus needed to do it, Jesus, we all need to do it. We all need to take some time and segment a portion of our life to focus fully on his attributes through his word, And we need to learn the art of appreciating his presence. But it's not just departing and going into the wilderness.

Guys, I won't think you got to be a parent, even when you're in the wilderness, You know you can't just leave your kids at home with I got to go get some time with God, I'm going up to the mountains, but you got two kids, you got to stay home, or four kids, or 20 kids, wherever you are, And so you can't give that up. And so what I think would be helpful for you in 2026 would be developing a normal rhythm where you can, in your mind, think on the things of God. This is it's hard to explain from here when I've got a limited amount of time, but I need you to know that there is a place where you're in the middle of all the stuff, but you can. You can, in your mind, meet Jesus and experience his presence. It doesn't just have to be during a worship service.

You can do it in the hardest time, the easiest time, the most relaxed time or the craziest time. We need to develop that attribute. Jesus, when he's walking through the crowd from one moment to another moment, when he's about to heal a person- he's on the way to heal a person and a woman touches the hem of his garment- he feels power go out from him, And he allowed this interruption in the moment, so that he could teach a lesson, so that he could see how this woman experienced that healing, So he could share with everybody else how she experienced a healing. My point is: throughout your day, you need to be able to allow God to interrupt your patterns, and you might not have any idea of how to do that. That's where you connect at a deeper level and he'll teach you how to do it.

As a church, we're going to learn to make adjustments as we focus on Jesus. I might get a month, six June, next year- and realize you know what we need to make an audible here, because God's leading us in this direction. If I do that all the time, it's just me, being ADHD, but sometimes God interrupts our patterns and I want to be a church that allows God to interrupt whatever it is. I don't care how big of a deal it is for you, I don't care if your kids got to play, I don't care if you've got the most important interview of your life coming up. If God interrupts, I want us to be able to access him in that moment and experience the presence of God.

God doesn't always this a really foggy God doesn't always do things when it's convenient. We should cut that off. He doesn't always do things when it's convenient, And so we need to be open for it. Second, Jesus ate with sinners and touched the unclean lepers- people they would have kicked out of the city- And he hung out with. One translation I read said he hungs out with wine bibbers and drunkards.

That was a, an accusation from the Pharisees. Jesus hung out with people, that the people in charge at the time did not appreciate Jesus hanging out with. Here's what I want to tell you and here's how it applies to your life. There's so many of us in this room who we still look at people superficially. But God does not judge man based on outward appearance.

He judges by the, the inward parts, the heart. And if we're going to be like Jesus, guess what? Just because they're fatter than you, skinnier than you, richer than you, poorer than you, smarter than you, dumber than you, it doesn't mean like, just because of that stuff, You, Oh gosh, we can't be judging people that way. I was talking to somebody recently [sighs] and they said: different church, different church, not our church, Golly. They said, I joined a small group but I didn't really like it cuz they were fatter than me?

No lie, I'm not even kidding with you, And I'm just like. What in the world is that? Any of you ever says that to me? Oh my gosh. James says this.

James, the leader of the church in Jerusalem, also Jesus's brother. There's a little mixture there in understanding our history. But it's James And we know it's James. And he says: "When you walk into a room, you're going to see people with gold rings. You're going to see people with nothing to offer you.

And you, you, you should probably teach yourself to default to the person who offers you nothing. Because we're so inclined to chase clout and do the things that the world wants, And we chase that because we want to be surrounded by people who make us feel better about ourselves. But we need to surround ourselves with people who we can invest in, develop and help get better and preach the Gospel to. That's what Jesus DID. HE DIDN'T GO TO THE people that I would have gone to.

I'd have gone to the Pharisees, and Sadducees said: "Lord, help me develop these people, because these are the ones with influence and clout in the community". Jesus didn't chase clout. Jesus went up to Galilee, hung out with some fishermen who can't get basic logic these days. You know it's like. It's like he told them three times he was going to be crucified.

They didn't believe him. He said: "How much longer should I deal with this generation". That's the type of people you got to hang out with. How much longer must I deal with this generation? You [sighs]- need to.

Oh gosh. We need to be a church that doesn't look at people based on-, what they offer us. We need to be a church that looks at people-, diverse groups of people- economically, racially, ethnically diverse groups of people- and says they're all accepted by Jesus if they confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in their heart that God raised them from the dead. So I don't care if they look like me or not. I'm going to get this homogeneous thought process out of my head that says: "Let me surround myself with people who look, act and think like me.

I'm going to surround myself with people who need Jesus and the saving knowledge of what he did on the cross. I'm going to surround myself with those types of people. So in this next year, I don't, I don't know, I don't care about what type of shoes you wear. I mean, Jesus came in the form of an averagel looking dude. Yet we're chasing clout because somebody wore the right shoes, because someone looks better or they work out just a little bit more than me.

So I want to surround myself with people who are just that step better than me. That's leadership tactics. That's not spiritual tactics. Oh no, Sorry, I'm not trying to be so intense with this. I'm just done with the clout chasing.

I'm tired of it. I, I, I'm not just talking to you, I'm talking to me too. I can't tell you how often I'd love to, you know, be on that podcast, or like that other pastor was on that podcast. But then you know what, When I focus on what God calls me to do, I just don't really care about that stuff anymore, because I'm loved, the same as the person that everybody's chasing right now, And so are you. So we're all going to experience heaven one day, And I don't think they go, they're going to be at a higher level.

Just because people chased around, because they had tattoos, gauges and shoes, I don't know. I just I don't know I'm. I'm done with this, I'm going to stop talking about it. But when you look at Jesus, you saw he didn't care who it was. He said: "I'm going to develop people with potential".

Paul says: "Remember where you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise according to the wisdom of the age, But God took those who were foolish according to the age-, wisdom of the age- in order to shame that which was wise in the world. So what does Jesus do? He takes duds and turns them into studs, And so that's what I want to do. I prayed a long time ago.

I said: "God, why haven't you sent me any procoders and developers so that they can do our website". And then pro musicians who have done church for years and they just want to follow us out here. And God said this to me. It wasn't audible, It was just a thought that made sense to me at the time that I can validate in Scripture pretty clearly. He said: ' Do you want develop professionals or do you want to be a professional developer?

. What do you want to do? I'm learning by looking. We going to be professional developers out here in the Southwest Valley? Buckeye's a little different.

I love it cuz God called me to it. Jesus asked a lot of questions. He, he says, all his disciples. They've been doing ministry together. Who do you say that I am?

And he realizes in that moment, by asking questions, that there's a gap between their understanding what he came to do. And so I, I think, if we're going to be like Jesus, we need to ask other people questions. When's the last time you asked someone down your row? Hey, do you know this person? I think you'd really connect with this person.

I'm going to, I'm going to send you guys some feedback forms this year. Why, some of it's going to be good feedback, some will be bad feedback. Some of it I'm going to listen to, some of it I'm going to ignore. I'm just going to let you know up front, because I'm just trying to do my best here, But I want to hear from you so that, as we grow together, we can, we can develop, But without authenticity and openness, we don't get to develop. So, just like Jesus asked questions, I want to ask questions.

If you never ask questions, if you never have curiosity, you're going to miss out on some of the growth that could be provided by God in your life. Jesus redefined leadership. We've been going long enough for people to leave our church because, they didn't fit our leadership standard. They said: 'I could be a leader at another church. I'm like: , we've got standards: Gather, grow, group, give, go.

That's a basic standard. But then there are leadership aspects to this And we've I've learned that people can come here and they'll chase leadership. Why? And if you want to do that, let's remember how Jesus redefined it. He said: 'If any of you wants to be first, you must come last?

He came to serve, not to be served. Amen, . He said leadership is not gaining clout in the community and becoming influential by being a patron of a bunch of different organizations, businesses and people. He said: "Leadership in the kingdom is taking up your cross and following him". Amen, .

It's mentoring others who need it. It's being mentored when you need it. It's loving on people in the midst of their burdens. It's receiving when you only want to shun somebody who's trying to give you something nice.

It's, it's. It's different. Jesus redefined leadership And: , here at this church, we're going to be servants, like Jesus was. Amen, . Not just lords or leads.

This ain't. This ain't no feudal system. So if any of you wants to lead here, you need to be a servant first- Servant of Christ, not a servant of me. Jesus gave a charge before he made a change. I remember the person that was lowered in the roof.

He said: "Your sins are forgiven". Before he said, "Get up and walk". People looked at him like he was confused, like "Okay, sins forgiven". But why? Why would he forgive him of his sins?

Before the healing, He? He goes to his disciples. He says: "Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of men". God gives a charge. Jesus gives a charge before he makes a change.

And for you? God's going to call you and challenge you to do something big in your life and you're going to think, "I'm not ready". Well, guess what? In the kingdom of God, none of us are qualified. The only qualification you need to enter into that is the way, the truth and the life: Jesus.

If you confessed with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believed in your heart, God raised him from the dead. There you go. That's what you need to enter into: his calling on your life. And guess what? No matter what you've done in your past, even if you haven't fixed it yet, the charge is still there for you.

Come, follow me. He says: "Come all who are weary, and I will give you rest for your souls". But you enter into the church, you enter into your Bible. You're like I don't feel the rest yet. He says: I will give you rest for your souls, But you apprehending that rest I've already provided, you takes a little bit of time, obedience and faithfulness, to fully experience.

He says: I'm going to make a change in your life, but I'm going to give you a charge first. And so for some of us, we're expecting all the change without charging forward in our relationship with God. And so I'm going to give you a charge: Be obedient, Be faithful, Lean in, Open your Bible. Sometimes a charge sounds almost like a rebuke. But guess what Jesus did those two, didn't he?

Jesus definitely rebuked people. What did he say to his? What did he say to Peter? Right after he, like, called Peter a rock, He said: "Get behind me, Satan. You're not thinking of the things of God, You're thinking about the things of man".

Sometimes I say that to my wife. It don't work out well for me, But it's like she knows what I mean, though Some I say it really nicely. I don't say it with a harsh tone. I say: "Get behind me, Satan". I say it like "You know what I'm talking about, sweetie.

You think of the things of man, not the things of God" And it's not a good thing to do regularly. You should not do that You. You might not have that like in established of a relationship that that we have, But sometimes you need to be rebuked, Isn't that crazy? Everybody likes rebuke when it comes from one pastor that has become big in Georgia or something like that, But when it comes from all the other pastors, they're like "That's one of them churches". I need you to know.

Sometimes you need rebuke, . Sometimes you're going the wrong direction And the way to get in the right direction is a big about face a turn, . Sometimes you're thinking about the things of man And you need to be thinking about the things of God And guess what? You want to be thinking about the things of God, . But if there's one thing I've learned, when I did personal training one time I wasn't the trainer, I was the trainee And I was not good at it, And every week I'd come in.

He said, "Hey, tell me about your calorie counting". I'm like "Mhm, Wasn't good" And he was kind and patient, But sometimes he'd lean in. He'd say "Well, if you. I mean, I've only got so many clients and I really need them to be progressing". It's like "Dang, then I need to progress".

Sometimes you need that rebuke. But here's the beauty of Jesus: When he rebukes, he doesn't do it because of hatred, because of disgust. He does it because he knows the stakes of the calling that he has. And the calling that he has isn't rooted in rebuke. It's root rooted in love, For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever may believe in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

So when he rebukes us, he does it for the purpose of our own redemption. And so Jesus not only rebukes, he redeems. And- and I want to be just like Jesus, I want to, I want to be some. I'm going to call you out, but, but my heart- I hope this is your heart, man- My heart is that that people would see Jesus and the way that he can be seen and experienced. I want them to hear what I hear, I want them to see what I see.

I want them to experience the depths of Jesus. So the rebuke is just a checkpoint in the process of redemption. And so, if I may rebuke you today, if you've been living in a way that's hostile to God, stop, Turn around, Because he doesn't want to rebuke you, He wants to redeem you, And when he redeems you, he'll continue to prune you, Because sanctification is arduous but it's worth it, And so for anyone in this room, you're entering into 2026 without hope, without peace, without life, without Jesus. I want you to challenge. I want to challenge you right now, before you see the change.

I want to challenge you to try, just like Jesus, to be just like Jesus, to only like by itself, just just love, and become like Jesus. You won't see the fruit until you do it anyways. But in order to enter into that process is an important action step, and that step is to trust in Jesus with your life, by simply believing and receiving his grace. So if everybody would bow their heads and close their eyes, we'll pray this prayer right now, out loud, together, for the benefit of those praying it for the first time. It's a prayer of salvation that is followed by, hopefully, a 2026 all the way through the end of your life, of becoming like the very one that saved you and redeemed you.

So repeat after me: Say God, I believe that Jesus is your son. I believe he died on the cross and rose from the grave. Forgive me of my sin, Make me new. Challenge me, Lord, to follow you, Change me, mold me, make me into what you've called me to be. I commit to you today.

It's in Jesus's name that we pray, And God's people said: "Every head bowed, every eyes, every eye closed". If that was you, why don't you just lift up your head and look at me for a moment? Let me know about this decision you just made. I see you. I see you.

Since I see you in the eyeballs, what I want you to, Can we just celebrate real quick, Those who just looked at me? Amen, Oh man.