Harvest Season

Come on, lift up a shout of praise for our God, who is deserving of all glory, all honor and praise. I didn't hear nothing. Come on, woo, yeah, I don't know if you did it, but I feel it. I'm excited. Today you can have a seat.

Let me pray for us. Father, God, we thank you for today, January 5th 2025. We made it through 2024, maybe by the skin of our teeth, but we believe, in the name of Jesus, you're going to take these personality def effects we didn't fix in 2024. We're believing you're going to take these struggles that we had in 2024. We believe you're going to help us make a turn in 2025, God, by the power of your Holy Spirit as it manifests itself in our lives as we continue to seek you.

God, we're believing you're going to do a powerful thing. Maybe we're not believing that. Maybe there are people in this room who are like: I don't know what you're going to do. I, I'm believing that you're going to do a powerful thing, God. In the midst of our hostility toward you, you decided to send your son to live a life that was better than all the rest of us could live.

You enabled him to die a death that he didn't deserve and you resurrected him on the third day in power. So now I'm believing that the same power that Rose Jesus from the grave is going to dwell in and over my life in 2025. God, I'm believing that for every single person who's standing or sitting in this room, resurrection power supplied to us this year. I'm not saying we going to go stretch out our hands and raise other people up from the grave, but we're going to stretch out our faith and believe that you're capable of doing abundantly Beyond what we have been asking you for. So, God, we're we're praying right now for 2025 to be the good one.

We pray these things in Jesus's name and all God's people said: if you believe it, come on. Say amen, amen. I don't know. I was sitting back there in the back in my I. I found a little cubby.

Someone put out a chair. I probably stole their chair and I sat there for like five minutes. I was praying and worshiping and I remember thinking: , I want everyone in this room by the end of 2 to have some energy. Look at your neighbor. Say hey, hey, bring it in 2025.

Look at them, say it. Say it, bring it. I have learned this in leadership. Think what you want about me as a leader, but I'm leading a couple people here right. So I'm figuring life out and I've learned one thing: if nothing else is a leader is that the energy I bring to the conversation, to church on Sunday, to my family, to my kids, the energy that I bring has a significant impact on the results that I get.

If you believe that, just say: I agree, I agree, it sounds like a cult. When y'all do that, I love it. I'm gonna keep making y'all do it. I think this thing's broken. I don't know, we're g to have to work it out.

He'll turn it around. I'm gonna turn it around see if that helps. I'll turn it around. Don't know when it will work, but I'll figure it out somehow. That's what to do, guys.

We're going to be in John, chapter 4, today. I'm extremely excited about the message I'm bringing to you, Maggie-, ever so eloquently articulated, about the prayer and fasting that we're going to be doing over the next 21 days. Just to give you the, the specific frame of it, tomorrow morning is when I'm starting, so I think that's when most of us should start. We're going to go 21 days and, at the end of that 21 days- it'll be Sunday, the 26th, I believe- we're going to have a worship night all together. How many of you got to make it for Christmas Eve a couple weeks ago?

John 4 · chapter mention

Yeah, do you like it bringing everybody together? It feels so much better when everyone comes together. We don't have enough chairs. We had to bring in a lot of booths from the, the cafeteria area, so we have two services, but it's always fun to bring everybody together, and so worship night will be very similar to that. It's going to be the, the Frozen chosen, the ride or die, the people who decided to stick it out for 21 days.

We're going to come together, together after maybe not eating, Maybe not netflixing, maybe not getting on social media and ruining our lives for the next 21 days, and we're going to come in here. We're going to worship God together. It's going to be. It's going to be spirit-led, if you will. I'm excited about it, so you're going to want to get started now so that when the 26 comes and we have our worship night, it's just I don't know.

I'm looking forward to it already. It's going to be fun, and today, as we introduce this season of prayer and fasting, I want to introduce my, our sermon topic, for the next four weeks. I'm titling this series harvest season. I, I felt like it was poetic to have a series called harvest season while a bunch of people are fasting and praying. Just made sense.

Why, ? Because I like to be clever like that, but also because I believe in fasting and prayer. We're going to see a spiritual Harvest and ultimately that's what you showed up here for, I know we all show up here at church because we, we want a little bit more God as in it in ingredient in our lives. We want a little bit, more, you know, biblical friendships and Community, and we come for whatever reason. Maybe I just need to get out of some addictions and get my stuff together, but ultimately I'm believing God brought you here so that you could see him at a deeper level than you've ever seen him, and I, I think, through praying and fasting, you will reap a spiritual Harvest, and so I want to introduce that topic to you today, because it might be unfamiliar here for some of you.

It is a very valuable spiritual discipline to me and you'll notice this over the next couple of years if you stick with us. A lot of the things that we're going to do corporately start because some of us have learned that this is something that God uses for us privately, and for me, praying and fasting has been something that, more than many other spiritual disciplines in my life, has connected me to my creator. But without further Ado, let me read the text For Today, Chapter 4. We're going to begin in verse 27 in a moment. Just a little brief context for those of you who maybe weren't here in the fall.

We were going through the first several chapters of the Book of John, and we started chapter 4 right before our- if you know, you know series, and what we see in the first part of John, chapter 4, is Jesus and his disciples. They're doing Ministry and on the way back to Galilee, where they all lived, the Bible says that Jesus had to go through Samaria, and so, on his way through Samaria- a place where a Jew in the ancient world typically wouldn't have walked- Jesus goes and has a conversation with a woman that typically a Jewish person wouldn't talk to- a Samaritan woman, and after this conversation, this woman realizes that Jesus is the Messiah. And this is where we enter in to our text today, starting in verse 27. Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman, but no one asked: what do you want or why are you talking with her? Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people: come see a man who told me everything I ever did.

John 4 · chapter mention

Could this be the Messiah? They came out of the town and made their way toward him. I had an issue with my Bible here. They made their way toward him. Where am I?

At? There we go. Meanwhile I can't read. Today it was right there in front of me. I don't know what I was missing.

Meanwhile his disciples urged him: Rabbi, teacher, eat something. But he said to them: I have food to eat that you know nothing about such an interesting statement. Then his disciples said to each other: could someone have brought him food? My food, said Jesus, is to do the will of him who sent me in, defend his work. Don't you have a saying?

It's still 4 months until Harvest. I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields. They are ripe for Harvest even now. The one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the swer and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying one SWS and another reaps is true.

I sent you to reap for what you've not worked for. Others have done the hard work and you have reaped the benefits of their labor. Verse 39: many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. He told me everything I ever did. So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them and he stayed two days and because of his words, many more became Believers.

Now here, this last verse, they said to the woman: we no longer believe just because of what you said. Now we have heard for ourselves and we know that this man really is the savior of the world. My hope to and introducing to you this new series and prayer and fasting is that you would move from the place where you've heard about Jesus to the place where you have seen and understood for yourself who he is and what he can do in and through your life. God, we thank you again for today. I thank you that you will reveal yourself to all of us when we seek you.

I pray that everyone in this room right now, regardless of how they come in, that you would give them a super natural level of motivation to seek you today, and it is my hope that by the end of this season of prayer and fasting, that the people in this room would be that much closer to you, that they would see the things they've yet to see, and that you would give them a vision for their life that they haven't. Maybe they've seen it, but they haven't leaned into it. So, God, be with us right now. Now, as we discuss your word, it is in Jesus's name that we pray, and all God's people said one more time: harvest season is the simple title for today. I'll give you some more clever titles later.

I want give you my first point. The first point, and this, this kind of matches up with our season of prayer and fasting: when you see this woman, you see that she left her water jar. My first point to you is that the woman left her sustenance. The woman left her sustenance. Now you can see this all throughout Scripture, but I'm going to utilize this text right here.

The woman left her water not because she didn't need water. She left her water because there was something that she was focusing on at the time that, to her was more valuable than the water she went to the well to fill the jar with, and it was Jesus. She had understood something about her purpose. He had told her everything about herself and when she understood that, it changed everything for her. So when she went back to sukar- the name of the town- she has an intent to tell everybody about what he had just told her, and she was so infatuated with this idea of new purpose in her life that she left her jar.

My point to you is: there comes a time for all of us when we need to- for now, it's just a season, but at some level, leave something that sustains Us in order to focus on something that adds greater value. Now, for her, this was water. I need to ask you a yes or no question. It's a very common sense question, so you can just say yes or no. Did she need the water?

Yes, it's very simple, very. Do you need water? Yes, you do. You need to stop drinking soft drinks and drink water once in a while. It be healthy For You, especially in the middle of the summer.

We all need water now, other than air. You guys could probably not argue me away from the fact that water is the most important resource that she could probably, you know, be AC crewing in life. I mean, water is more important than food. So, other than air, water is the most important commodity that she has, and she left it on purpose in order to fulfill some semblance of her new purpose. That's what prayer and fasting is about- at least fasting, fasting- is an intentional season or time where we choose to leave something that sustains Us in order to accomplish something of greater value or purpose in our lives.

That's why, when you hear about fasting, you often think about food. Now, in the ancient world, and most of the time today, when you talk about a fast, you're talking about intentionally taking away something that sustained you- that is, food- in order to focus on something more important. Now, many of us might fast because we're trying to lose weight, fast because we're trying to get in shape. We've heard about intermittent fasting and we realize that something about shock, proteins and absorption and amino acids. I have no clue, I don't know.

I just watch Tik Tok videos once in a while and I assimilate it randomly so I can espouse it to you and sound smart. But, you've heard about intermittent fasting. Spiritual fasting is something where we're almost forgetting something that is very important in order to focus on something that is much more important. And one thing that we recognize is that Jesus is the most important thing in the universe. He is more important than just about everything.

He's more important than my life. He's more important than your life. He is more important than your preferences and concerns. Jesus is like the most important being that exists. Now, if you believe that, I believe that that's what we believe as a church.

We believe that it's our vision and Mission to help people find peace and develop Purpose By revolving everything around the one thing, the person that is preeminent, the most important right. So that's our vision. If it's not your vision, you should assimilate because it's very valuable and helpful, and make your life much better, but that's what we believe. So, in order to understand and connect to our creator at a deep ER level, there will be Seasons where we forget something of lesser importance. Now, what I want to encourage you to do over this next season is pray about what it looks like to forget something that provides sustenance, something of importance in your life, for 21 days, so that you can focus on the most important thing and what I know to be true, at least in my own life, and if you've not done this you don't know, but I have and I've experienced it.

So try to trust me on this: when you forget something of importance in order to focus on the thing of most importance, you actually enjoy life better at the end of it, like this is better for you. So what I've done over the years is I've gone anywhere from something small like just forgetting something that I buy my time with, to going all the way to fasting from food- we would call that maybe a water fast. Last year, what I did was I took the first three days and I did a little water fast and went into the mountains and you know I went into the mountains on purpose so that there would be no food around me. And then I get there and it was like an Airbnb and they' put snacks right there on the counter and it was like miserable anyways. But I fasted for three days and I came back.

Trailer was stolen, so I kept like really focusing on Jesus, and then the rest of the month God continued to reveal himself to me, and so this year I've been praying to God about what that looks like for me, and so for me, over the next couple of weeks, what I'm going to do is I'm going to forget something that I spend a lot of time doing and I'm going to focus that energy that I would be putting into that thing, that I- even if I don't think it's important, I've been spending my time doing it. So, based on the value of my time, it has been important to me. I'm going to forget that and I'm G take what I: I'm going to spend time with Jesus in place of what I would typically do, and every single week, the first seven days, I'm going to do it one way. Then I'm going to intensify it for the next seven days and then for the final seven days, I'm will come and prayed up for that worship night. What is it going to be for you?

What is something in your life that you've been assigning time or value to that is less important than Jesus? That it would be helpful for you to forget about it for 21 days so that you can focus on Jesus. This woman left her water for a time. She was going to come back and get it, but she had something more important to do, guys, and God has put you on this Earth on purpose, for a reason, and he has a plan for your life, and if you're not seeing that plan for your life, it might be valuable to you to forget or set aside something that you've been spending important time or wasting time doing, so that you can understand more about what he put you on Earth, for this is what he created us for. The westmin confession says this: that the chief end of man is to know God, or to love God, and to enjoy him forever.

What does that mean? It means that if you are spending your days focusing on yourself, then you were missing out on something that is better and more valuable. So that's why we do it. I'm going forget something to focus on him. And this woman left her water.

What are you going to leave now? Let me, let me give you a caution. Let me give you a caution because I know a bunch of you out there. You about to go run this Marathon over the next 21 days and you wasn't ready for it. You haven't been training for it and you're like: I'm just going to fast from food for 21 days and you, it's not going to be fun for you.

You might not be ready for something like that. If God calls you to fast from food for 21 days, it's just between you and God-, and do what God tells you to do. Just do it as as as healthy as you can. But for most people, you're going to start with something a little bit smaller than that, and maybe over time, over the years, God will build you up to something super significant. There are people that I know who have fasted from Everything but water for 21 days.

It can be done, and if God calls you to do it, do it. But for the most part, are some things you're assigning value to in your life that you need to step aside from for this season in order to focus on Jesus. It could be something as small as TV or social media. Now, I don't I don't want to make it too easy on you, because this whole faith is meant to be a challenge in a lot of ways. The Bible says we were refined as Through Fire, he didn't invite us to you know, just bear our comfort.

He said: come, bear your cross, and- and there is an aspect of refining that happens through praying and in fasting, and so I don't want you to just say, all right, cool, well, I'm just going to hold off on, you know, caffeine for the next seven days, or I'm going to wait until 8- 8: am to do caffeine. If God calls you to do that, that's fine. But I want you to challenge yourself and put aside something that you've been assigning value and taking time to do in order to focus your energy on God. It could be food, it could be time spent on TV, it could be time that you've been wasting in something that is of lesser value. Whatever it is, I want to encourage you.

Pray about what it looks like to forget that for this season. I think it would be helpful. I think one of the difficulties that I run into, as I try to Pastor a church, is on one side. I want to be gracious and patient, because God calls us to do that. And I recognize that in your life-, all you have to do is confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and you will be safe for all of eternity.

Some, some might call it the get out of hell free cart, but that is for Real. The Bible talks about it. That is the way that you inherit eternal life- is you confess through your mouth. Jesus is Lord, believe in your heart. God raised him from the dead.

It is that simple. At the same time, I think in the American church we have made that the destination, and I think God saved you for a purpose. God gives you eternity with him for a purpose, and so when he saves you, he does it with the intent that you would continue to follow him and develop a close-knit relation, relationship with him. You might say it this way: confessing with your mouth is a starting point, not the, not the, the be all end. All this is where we start, and so I guess my first point in telling you to forget something, when I'm speaking to a church who, in the American sense at least, is used to it's like hey, just be gracious.

It's like no, I want to challenge you. I don't want to just be a copy and paste Church where we copy worship songs and do it the same way here. I want to do what Paul says. He says in chapter 5: we're called to live by his Spirit. He says, if we're going to live by the spirit, we should also keep in step with the spirit.

I had a Greek Professor one time. He said keeping in step with the spirit might be better said if you walk with the Swagger and the tendency of the Holy Spirit. And yet, when I look around at the world, many of whom would claim Christ they've got their get out of hell free card, but there's no Swagger of the Holy Spirit supplied to them in their life because they're not connected at a deeper level with God. That's what I want. I want to see the Holy Spirit of God moving in the West Valley through people at this church, because we grew closer to God and in order to grow close to God, who is the most important, like I said, preeminent being in all of the universe.

He is what everything in existence bows to. So he is more important, Hannah. He's more important than you. He's more important than Lucas and Micah and Grandma- I love you, Mom- and achilles, definitely Bella, our cat. I hate that cat.

He is more important than that. He is more important than my hopes, my dreams, my ambitions. He is more important than my preferences. He is more important than my job. He's more important than my 401k, which I've got a 403b, but you know what I mean.

He's more important than everything in your life and if you can, if you can remind yourself of how important he is, it makes it much easier to forget the thing for a season. You might be thinking it's like, yeah, I can, for I can forget some of this stuff. Yeah, it's, you should forget Netflix for a season in order to focus on God, if that's what's distracting you. But I'm not just talking about the things that typically distract us in our world. I'm talking about the things that you live for in this world.

It is worth it to, like, push those aside for a season in order to focus on God. Like, did you realize that? If you? I want to be very careful with the way that I say this, cuz I'm a parent too and I love my kids better than any of you. I think they're amazing and they've got a calling and, in the name of Jesus, if I keep being a good parent, then one of them might lead worship one day.

One of them might be a doctor one day. I don't know what's going to happen for them, but I know they're going to do something way cooler than I ever did. I want to put the pressure on them to do it, but I'm believing big things in the name of Jesus. They're way cooler than any of you- at least in my opin opinion- and there are still times where I need to put my time with them to the side so that I can focus my energy on God, because I'll be a better parent when I focus my energy on God. Anyways, if you don't put your own breathing mask on, what good are you going to do as a parent or a husband?

I'm a better husband when I know Jesus better. I'm a better father when I know Jesus better. I'm a better Pastor when I know Jesus better. I'm a better leader when I know Jesus better. I'm a I'm a better everything when I'm more connected to Jesus.

So it's worth it to put some stuff to the side for a time in order to focus your energy on getting to know God at a deeper level. This woman understood that. It was kind of natural for her. She was so enamored and excited she just left her jar. You got to leave something once in a while.

I'd encourage you pray about what that looks like over the next 21 days. Point number two: Jesus suggests a new appetite. So you don't just fast from something, you fast for something, a new appetite. This is something different. Right, let me read it for you.

I love this interaction. It's like one of the most weird, confusing, one of the most confusing interactions in Scripture, in my opinion. Verse 31 says: meanwhile, this is the woman goes back and she's telling everybody about Jesus. Meanwhile, his disciples urged him: Rabbi, teacher, eat something. But he said to them: I have food to eat that you, you don't know anything about.

It's this is put yourself in this position. The disciples went to town, probably to get some food and some other stuff, and they come back in their like: hey, Rabbi, sir, Jesus, savior of the world, eat. He says: I've got food you know nothing about. That's a weird interaction and you know. It's weird because of how they respond to it.

And I don't think it's because the disciples are dumb. I think it's because they're trying to make logic out of what Jesus is saying. And in verse 33 he says they say this: the disciples said to each other: does someone bring them food? They're confused because Jesus said something confusing, it's okay. And then, in verse 34, Jesus says something that I think will be helpful for you: my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

What is Jesus telling us here? He's telling us, greater than food. We see what the woman, greater than water, is: the will of God for your life. In order for you to feel fulfilled in life, you were called to do God's will right, like if you've got some random tree out there that is not producing the fruit of that tree. If you got an apple tree and there's no apples, it's not doing what it's supposed to be doing.

And we got a bunch of people out here. You're supposed to be producing apples, but you're just a tree right now and you're not producing. Why? Because you're not connected to the source of your strength, and many of us, we would feel fulfilled if we would simply connect at a deeper level with God. You would.

You would feel fulfilled. So what do we do? We fast from something that we've been assigning value to in order to focus on something of greater value, and many of you, you showed up here at church or you open your Bible once in a while because you want greater levels of peace in your life and because you want that fulfilling purpose that you know God has given you, but you haven't figured it out yet. The way to get there is to connect at a deeper level with God. And Jesus responds to him.

He says it's so interesting. He said I got food you don't know about. And I guess I'll say it this way. I said it this way in the first service. I know many of you- maybe you went to church when you were growing up and maybe you have a culture, in your family where you're Christian or you've been following Jesus- say, maybe you're super spiritual.

I don't know what your background was growing up, but I want you to know this: regardless of where you are in your faith, there's something deeper that you had experienced yet. There's something you don't know about yet and- and I know this to be true because I remember when I became a Christian, I was in eth grade. I've told you guys this story, so I'll keep it short. I do remember one guy said: you look like a chicken walking around with your head cut off. That's how not used to church I was.

I'm a twin and I grew up with my mom and she was a single parent and you know I had those typical quirks, like any other kid who didn't have a, the dad's not around long enough, a little social awkwardness and all that other stuff. So I'm walking around legit like a chicken with my head cut off and, I became a Christian. I started following Jesus, but I didn't know anything about him, so every bit of my relationship with God was based on what I had heard. Other people say: what do you do when you go to church? You open your Bible.

Well, I remember the first time I opened my Bible I was like what I? It was dumb, because I was around people who were telling me about their relationship with God. But their relationship with God is like most of us, where they never really opened the Bible and they didn't know much about it at all, and so they didn't really know what to tell me. So they just told me what they had heard about someone they didn't have a real relationship with him, so they just like recited, copy and pasted what they had heard from somebody else that they never really implemented themselves. And so what they said was: yeah, you know, they told me back in the day: just open up the Bible to wherever and God will speak to you.

And so I opened up to like first Samuel, which is a historical document. It literally tells you the story of David, and I'm like I'm trying, I'm looking at this. Okay, all right, David has six brothers or seven or however many, I don't even remember, I haven't read in a second. He has a bunch of brothers and they're better than him according to their dad, but according to God he's cool too, because he's the last one. And then he goes up there, but he doesn't really get position yet, but he's got the audacity to go tell people that he can slay, play Goliath, and who's going to stand up against the armies of the Living God?

This makes like zero sense. How is this going to help me spiritually? Oh, slay the Giants. That's what I heard from somebody else. It's like no, but I'm reading this text in 1 Samuel and I'm like I don't know what to do with this.

Why? Because it was only what I had heard. And so I did a little bit of research and I started to go deeper, and deeper, and deeper and I started to learn what Jesus said: that he has food I had not understood or heard about yet, and there is deeper. And so what did I do? I went, I went deeper and so I kept reading, cuz I'm a geek like that.

I'm such a geek that I learned some Greek in the process. And, I learned that the Bible in the Old Testament was written in Hebrew and Greek. And, you don't start there. Don't start there. If you start there, you're going to get frustrated real quick.

And then I started to learn Greek, and so I started to read, and then I went deeper and I was like, oh, this, this is an inflected language, Greek specifically, which means if the ending is different, that means it takes a different part in the sentence and it can mean something different. And then there's syntactical Arrangements where, if it's a preposition, or if it's an object of the preposition, or if it's a direct object and all this other stuff, it can mean totally different things, which means it changes the translation. I keep reading and reading, and reading, and reading, and I've learned something. You don't have to know all of this, but I need you to know this. There is food you don't know about, and unless you forget something that you've been assigning value to in your life and like cling to God, who is above all things, you're going to be experiencing life at a at a mediocre level compared to what you could.

I'm trying to say that there is food that you don't know about that offers you greater levels of sustenance than you're currently experiencing and in order to get there, it you got to move away from something of value in order to obtain the greatest levels of value- and maybe I bring this up during a series called harvest season, and maybe we're praying and fasting during this series- because the spiritual Harvest that you can reap- if you forget something for a moment to focus on what's going to last for an eternity, then you'll start being sustained at higher levels. You want to live to the greatest capacity. You could do this. Jesus is standing there, not eating, in the middle of the afternoon, right, because it was noon when he met this woman. He would.

He could be hot, tired. He asked the woman for a drink. She left his jar. The disciples come back and they're like: heyy, it makes sense for you to want food right now. He says: nah, I'm good.

They're like: do you give them something? Do you give them something? He's like: no, I got food you don't know about. And that is what I have learned in my life: that no matter how much suffering I'm going through, no matter how difficult it can get, no matter like how intense a season it might be, that the power of God to supply me peace in a moment is still of available. I have learned that when I'm sitting right here in the front row, about to come up here and preach- which I don't know if you've ever done this before, but in order to pour your heart out to a bunch of people, many of whom won't, don't know you at all, many of whom haven't been to church, many of whom have been to church, which means they've got their opinions on Church, many of whom are never going to come back again, many of whom are going to keep coming and they expect something of you.

And then you're sitting there as a normal human being, having invited five to seven people every Sunday. You invite them and you're just praying and wishing all week that they'll show up, and you realize they didn't show up. You're about to have to come up here and talk to people, and I have learned in my life that the food that helps me in that moment is not the, is not the. What do they call them? Pigs in a blanket that my wife made last night for our volunteers at breakfast.

It is me being able to capture in that moment the food that many of you have never experienced. It's like, it's like the piece of God which surpasses all understanding if I just stretch for it in that moment. That's the food I need to guard my heart from the lies of the enemy, from the insecurity that I might feel in that moment. And whatever your life is like right now, you have those same feelings of insecurity, you encounter the same attacks from the enemy, and if you want to live a life that is able to attain the food that Jesus is talking about, you got to forget important stuff in order to obtain the most important stuff. I- I've said it too many times, I'm gonna move on, but I was insecure in the first service when I said this.

I think I was scared, to tell a bunch of people whose kids are their number one priority, that you need to put them behind Jesus. I think, like, propositionally, it makes sense to us. You be like, yeah, of course, God's more important than the kids, but practically most of us don't even think about applying that like. What would it look like for you to put your kids second behind Jesus? And I want to be super clear for anyone who's misunderstanding me right now.

I love my kids and I love them too much to put the pressure on them of being my sustenance. I love my wife too much to put the pressure on her for her to be my purpose. My purpose and your purpose is best fulfilled when Christ is the center of it, and unless Christ is the center, you're putting pressure on people who were never meant to Bear the weight. In fact, the only one who can bear the weight of your sin is Christ Jesus. So don't put the fact that you didn't show up at church on Sunday on your kids because they made you busy.

Don't put the fact that I got two, in sense, there for a second. Don't put this stuff on your kids. Don't put it on your spouse, because the reality is they don't want to be in that position. They want you to be in your optimal State, and your optimal State at all times will be when Jesus is at the center of your life. This is something that the woman kind of recognized by nature of that interaction.

This is something that Jesus was trying to communicate to the disciples. I've got food you don't know about, like there's. There's about to be a harvest that you're not even currently understanding. Right now, Jesus suggests a new appetite and this, this just kind of encapsulates this 21-day season that we'll be in. Let me read the verse-, these verses for you, verse 40: , it says this.

So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged Jesus to stay with them. And he stayed with them two days and because of his words, many more became believers. They said to the woman: we no longer believe because of what you said. Now we have heard for ourselves and we know that this man really is a savior of the world. My point here is I said this.

I don't know if it helps, but the Samaritans took PTO. Those guys had a life to live, people to parent, people to husband and wife. They had jobs that they had to work, but for two days they said: we want to hear from you, Jesus. And at the end of that two days they went to the woman and they said: we no longer believe just because of what you said, but we've experienced it ourselves. So for the next 21 days, whether you have a relationship with Jesus or whether you don't, I want to encourage you: spend some time with him for the next 21 days so that you can move from the place of hearing about Jesus us, to truly experiencing the love, the grace, the purpose, the peace- all of the adjectives I could list- that come when Jesus is at your Center 21 days.

I want to challenge you to lean into it: fasting, forgetting something of sustenance, praying, choosing to focus on something of true substance. Just take that time. Who knows what God might produce. I was telling someone earlier. I say I have learned that when I fast and pray, there's never been a time where I fasted and prayed and God did not revealed something to me significant.

It's not always a trailer that gets stolen, but when it is, it's clearly God. Someone said to me yesterday said: hey, trailers's locked up this year. Right, because because we're fasting and praying. And last year, when we fasted and prayed, the trailer got stolen. But God used it mightily.

I don't know what's going to happen this year, but I want you to be a part of it, so I'd encourage you: opt in. They're going to put the, the QR code back behind me again, and yesterday you should have received a text from us that had a link to where you could register what that mean when you register, . We're going to be sending you a text message every day with prompts for prayer, so that you can stay focused during this time, because you might be thinking like I don't, I don't know how to pray and fast, I don't know what to do when I wake up in the morning. Do I just talk to God? We, we want to help you with that.

So you'll get a little video from me and some Scriptures that you can actually focus on, because we want to be helpful. You also get an email with some other content that you can look at, maybe some worship songs for those of you who really just just connect through the music, and we'll provide that for you every single day. But you only get that if you opt in. You only get that if you opt in. So opt in through there, opt in through the link that you have, .

I think I saw that we had 60 to 80 people opted in so far. I want to see that number go past 100. Let's do this together to start off 2025. And there's some in this room. Maybe you came for the first time or maybe you've been really exploring your walk with God.

I want to give you an opportunity right now to do what the Bible says, to step into this relationship. It is very simple: confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. Believe in your heart that God raised him from the debt. That is the prescription for salvation that seals you for all of eternity in heaven with Christ Jesus. It's not the only destination, it is the starting point, but I want to, every week, give you that opportunity if you've not stepped into that, so if everyone would bow their heads and close their eyes, we're going to pray a prayer together of alignment to God, for the benefit of those who are praying it for the first time.

So please repeat after me: say God, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Jesus Christ, Son of God. I believe he is the most important. I believe he died on the cross. So, father, forgive me of my sin, make me a new creation and I will follow you for the rest of my life.

It's in Jesus's name that I pray. Amen. Heads bowed, eyes closed. Just like last service, every service, we've done this. I've seen somebody ready to make their faith public.

So, at the count of three, anyone who just prayed that prayer for the first time, trusting in Jesus. I want you to just shoot up your hand. No one's looking around at you, but it helps us identify you, to help you take your next step toward God. So, at the count of three, just shoot that hand up. If that was you, one, two, three, three, come on, come on, come on, Amen.

I see you. I see you, . Let me pray for you, God. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for this decision.

I pray that you would help them continue to take steps toward you. I pray that they would fill out of card. I pray that they would opt in the prayer and fasting. I pray that they would see you the way that I see you, or better, God. I pray that they would see the food that you speak of, that they would experience you in a fresh and sightful way.

It's in Jesus name that we pray. God's people said: hey, y'all celebrate those who just trusted in Jesus. That's exciting.