Vision: 2026 | Rooted, Week 1

Yeah, you guys sound great.

So good to be uh, worship than we this morning, man, I'm

so excited for 2026, you know, we ended 2025

with a bang as a church family.

We had over 11,000 folks gather together across our

11 Christmas Eve services.

It was beautiful. Can we just celebrate that for a moment?

Yeah. And we don't just

celebrate that because it's a number.

We celebrate that because that's people who are searching,

people who are coming back to church

for the first time in years maybe ever at all.

And then those of us crazies that,

that are here just about every week, uh,

that just can't wait to get together

and celebrate the birth of Jesus

and the hope that we have in him.

I'm grateful to God for it,

but now we find ourselves in a new beginning.

Alright, we've got a new year.

How many of you have made New Year's resolutions?

Come on, be honest. Be honest. Alright. No shame here.

How many of you have already

broken your New Year's resolution?

Alright, we know it's possible.

And the the reason why it's possible is

because it's easy in life to have a moment like the start

of a new year or a Christmas Eve service, right?

You get a shot of energy, a moment of focus,

and then when life starts back up, uh,

it's just back to business as usual.

And, and I wanna share something with you that's a concern

that I have as your pastor, we can confuse a powerful moment

with lasting change.

It just happens. I mean, you had like a million people get

together and celebrate in Times Square,

new Year's Eve y 'cause it's a new beginning.

It's a new thing. Like how many

of those a million people were ready

to do anything on New Year's Day, right?

And so we gotta recognize

that we can confuse a crowded room at Christmas

with a rooted life in Jesus.

One feels good because it is,

but the other is what ultimately brings a life of hope

and peace and joy and stability that we've all longed for.

And so since we're at church, alright, uh,

we're not gonna start the year off

by me talking about your new weight loss goal.

We're just not I. And, but that's important to you

and I hope that you stick with it.

I'm all for physical fitness.

What we are gonna talk about is something far deeper.

How we can experience what's possible.

Because Jesus came to this earth,

and here's what I know is a fact.

Most of us, we don't,

we don't intentionally walk away from the life

that Jesus has to offer to us.

We don't do that. We, we actually have a tendency to drift.

We don't rebel. We just slowly drift away.

The calendar fills up, stress climbs,

anxiety sneaks into our life.

And here's what I know, the drift that happens

to us in our lives, it doesn't just make us busy.

It, it tires our soul.

And what I know is po what was true is you,

you can be doing a lot in your life

and you can actually still

feel like you're losing your grip.

Is there anybody that's with me on that

that knows what I'm talking about?

And so I want you to know our vision here at Hope.

It's for our communities, in our world to know

and experience the life that Jesus came to make available.

We want to know and experience the love of God that he has

for us in our life and the life that's available to us

because Jesus came to this earth.

And so I wanna tell you my heart, as your pastor,

as we head into 2026, I don't just want us to be a church

that gathers, I want us to be a church that's strong

and steady and on the mission that Jesus calls us into.

And more importantly than what I want, that's

what scripture calls us into.

And so I want our communities

and I want our lives to experience the life that Jesus came

to make available, not just at a high moment,

not just at a Christmas Eve service,

but in the middle of real life.

And so our theme is we head into thank you Mac for that.

Amen. We're gonna keep 'em coming.

Our theme for 2026 is this, it's very,

very simple rooted in the word communities on mission.

That's what we're heading into in 2026.

And so what we're gonna do is we're gonna kick off this year

with the four week series

and overview of the book of Colossians, the author Paul,

he wrote this letter to a church

that's being pulled off center.

They're being distracted from what's most important

and he encourages them in how to remain steady.

And so this week what we're gonna do,

we're gonna be primarily in chapter one.

Uh, it's gonna set the stage for this series

and really ultimately the year.

But I'm gonna share a bit about what it is

that God's calling us into as we head into 2026.

How do we remain rooted in Jesus in a world

that is constantly and consistently feeling chaotic?

And so if you have your Bibles, I want you to turn

to Colossians chapter one.

And uh, while you're turning there, uh,

I want to challenge you with a few things.

Number one, read along during this series.

And I don't just mean like when you're here.

Yes, bring your bibles and read along while you're here,

but like read along throughout the month, okay?

There's four chapters in this letter to the Church of Colos.

Uh, we're gonna be in the series for four weeks.

So that's one chapter week.

So this week read chapter one every day. It's not that long.

Chapter two, next week, chapter three, chapter four.

So read along number two, I want you to be here every week.

This series is setting the stage for what it is

that God's calling us into as a church family.

So let's be committed to being here.

And then lastly, I wanna encourage you,

invite, invite other people.

We're covering the basics in this series of

what it really means to follow Jesus.

And you never know who actually needs this in their lives.

So let's invite those around us.

Uh, the text this morning, we're gonna start, uh,

in Colossians chapter one, verse nine.

As a heads up, we're not gonna read every verse in every

chapter throughout this series.

I would encourage you to do that

on your own as you're reading.

If you have any questions, we'd love to answer those.

Uh, you can email Aaron Nelson at Aaron [email protected].

He would love to answer those questions for you.

We're gonna start out today in verse nine.

And what I love is Paul is not writing

to a church that's rejected Jesus.

Remember, we don't necessarily reject

the life that Jesus has for us.

We just drift away because

of the things sneak into our lives.

But he starts out not just by telling him what to do,

he starts out by showing his shepherd's heart for him.

And in verse nine he says,

and so from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray

for you that shepherding language that's a pastor's heart,

he's saying, you're on my mind.

You're on my heart. And so I'm taking you

before the throne room of God.

What does he pray for them? He says, I'm asking

that you may be filled with the knowledge

of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

In other words, he's saying, I don't

want you to be confused.

I want you to be clear. I want you to be steady in the midst

of life's ups and downs, in the midst of the,

the potential to drift.

I want you to be rooted verse 10, so as

to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord

that's fully pleasing to him.

Now be clear. This is not to say to earn God's love.

He's saying live in a way

that appropriately responds to the gospel.

If you understand the gospel,

if you understand the good news of who Jesus is

and what he's done for us, then let's walk in a way

that's worthy of that.

And then Paul goes on to describe what that life looks like.

He says, bearing fruit in every good work

and increasing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened

with all power according to his glorious might

for all endurance and patience with joy.

And when we talk about what's the life that's available

to us because of Jesus, that's what Paul's saying,

stand a life filled with Jesus is a life

of fruitfulness, bearing fruit.

In every good work we're having an impact in our life.

Growth, increasing in the knowledge of God.

We can't love God if we don't know God.

We can't live the life that God has

for us if we don't spend time in his word.

How about strength being strengthened according

to his glorious mind?

Isn't it good news that we don't have to go

through life on our own strength?

And he said, no, I want you to experience this.

That's my prayer. And then endurance and patience with joy.

How with with those still up, up on the screen, how many

of us would love to say that we would love

to live a life marked by those things?

And if you, if you sit in those for a second, you realize

that's not hype, that's not adrenaline.

Like that's deep roots that can stand steady in the midst of

what life throws at us.

He goes on verse 12, giving thanks to the father

who has qualified you to share in the inheritance

of the saints in light.

In other words, he's saying, I want you

to regularly recognize and thank God for who he is

and what he's done, what he saved you from what he saved you

to and the life that's possible.

He said, I don't want you to go through life

bitter and angry.

You recognize one of the best ways

that we can combat bitterness

and anger in our lives is through a life of gratitude.

He said, I'm praying that you just remember how God,

how good God is to you in your life.

Verse 13 and 14, he says, here's why.

Don't forget because he has delivered us from the domain

of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom

of his beloved son

and whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Here's the foundation.

I'm praying that you are rooted in the truth.

That God has delivered you, has transferred you,

has redeemed you and has forgiven you.

And just for a minute, d does anyone in here need

to be reminded of that this morning?

Like if you have placed your trust in your hope in Jesus

going to the cross and paying the penalty for your sins

and that he rose from the grave three days later overcoming

sin to death, your sins are forgiven.

Amen. Paul said, I don't want you to forget that.

Like don't go through life

and get caught up in all the turmoil

and like lose sight of what's most important.

I had the privilege this past week

and I will try hard not to get emotional about this.

Um, to go sit bedside by a man that I deeply respect

and he's been on this earth far more years than I have.

And um, he has an incurable disease.

And the reality is, and I don't wanna sound cold like it

could be six days, it could be six months.

And um, he shared with his wife,

and this is a guy, listen, this is a

guy who's been faithful to his wife.

They've been married almost 50 years,

he's retired the United States Navy.

He spent time serving as a pastor.

He's raised godly children who are raising godly children.

And he said to her with tears in his eyes, I'm just afraid

'cause I'm, I'm what if I let God down?

And so I had the privilege to go sit bedside

and open up God's word

and remind him that he has delivered us from the domain

of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom

of his beloved son

and whom we have redemption for the forgiveness of sins.

I had the privilege to open God's word

and get back rooted in the truth that man,

if we have called on the name of Jesus,

that we will have life and have it eternal.

That Jesus not only came one and went to a cross,

but he's coming back and one day he's gonna put all this

brokenness back together again

and wipe all these tears away from our eyes.

And then with tears in his eyes, he just looked at me

and he said, thank you.

We need to be reminded of these truths.

And so Paul's heart, he's saying with a shepherding heart,

I don't want you to live a thin,

distracted, exhausted faith.

I want you full and fruitful and strong and steady

and joyful because you know what you have in Jesus.

And hope that is my prayer for us as we head into 2026.

It's not, it's not about numbers. Alright?

Yes, we wanna have more people in our gatherings

and more problems in the parking

lot and all that kind of stuff.

Yes. But it's about remaining steady

and remembering who Jesus is and what he calls us into.

But Paul knows that the real way drift gets solved.

It's not to tell people to try harder.

The real way drift gets solved is

by giving people a bigger Jesus.

And so we're gonna read Colossians chapter one, verse 15

through 23.

And what Paul does is he lifts their eyes

and he says, let me remind you about our king.

Let me get your eyes off of all the other stuff

that you might be distracted by.

And so we started doing something towards the end of 2025

and we just stood when we read scripture,

especially large chunks.

And so just out of reverence for the word of God,

can I have you all stand across both of our campuses,

you two over at Apex by the way,

happy New Year too well as well.

And I want you to hear these words in the midst

of your potential drift.

I don't know what 2025 is like.

I don't know what New Year's resolutions you already

made that you probably already broke.

I don't know what those are. But in the midst of that,

in the midst of your pain, your shame, your fear, I want you

to hear this reminder about your savior

and King Colossians chapter one, verse 15, he is the image

of the invisible God, the firstborn

of all creation.

For by him all things were created in heaven

and on earth, visible and invisible.

Whether thrones or dominions or rulers

or authorities, all things were created

through him and for him.

And he is before all things.

And in him all things hold together.

And he's the head of the body, the church,

he's the beginning, the firstborn from the dead

that in everything he might be preeminent.

That means with him there is no rival for in Him.

All the fullness of God was pleased to dwell

and through him to reconcile to himself all things,

whether on earth

or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

This is the word of the Lord. Amen. Thanks sweet to God.

Yeah, you gotta celebrate that. That's true.

You can go ahead and have a seat

and I'm just gonna unpack it.

But this is one of the biggest

portraits of Jesus in the Bible.

And it's here because when Jesus is small,

everything else seems big.

That's just a reality. But when Jesus is big,

everything else starts finding his place.

When we see Jesus for who he is, we don't drift away.

We're actually drawn back to him.

And so that's what this text is all about.

Verse 15, he's the image of the invisible God,

the firstborn, overall creation.

Paul's saying, if you wanna know God, his heart,

his character look no further than the person of Jesus.

Look to the one who,

whose birth we actually celebrated in a

manger just a couple weeks back.

A small theological caveat here

that actually has significant implications.

When Paul says first born, he's actually,

actually doesn't mean that Jesus was created.

What he means is that Jesus is supreme.

He's first in rank, first in authority,

the rightful error over all creation.

That's who Jesus is.

Verse 16, for by him all things were created. You know what?

All things actually translates to all thanks.

Literally means all. Thanks. Jesus isn't part of your world.

Listen, Jesus isn't part of our world.

He's the creator of our world. Amen. Verse 17.

And he's before all things.

And in him all things hold together.

This is my wife's favorite verse in, in all of scripture.

And I just wanna allow us to, to be reminded of this

or accept it for the first time in the midst

of whatever seems to be falling apart in our lives.

I just want us to publicly remind each other of this.

So we're actually gonna say it together out loud

because some of us need to hear this out loud.

So across both of our campuses, in the midst of your pain,

your doubt, your shame, your fear, your drift.

And I'm trusting that the communications team is gonna have

verse 17 on stream.

'cause I know we don't all have it memorized.

There we go all together, we're gonna read it twice.

And he is before all things.

And in him all things hold together again.

And he is before all things.

And in him all things hold together.

Can we just recognize that some of us are tempted to try

to be the glue in our own lives, holding it together, work,

school, our marriage,

Kids sports,

Pressure, our emotions.

And Paul's saying, Hey, it's not your job, it's in him

that all things hold together.

Don't lose sight of it. We don't,

we don't need smaller problems in our lives.

We need to be reminded of the strength of our savior.

And that's not, that's not to to shortchange anything

that any of us are going through, but he created it all.

He has authority over it all and he holds it all together.

We've gotta be rooted in that truth.

Verse 18, I gotta speed up.

He's the head of the body.

The church hope doesn't center this church.

When I say hope, I mean like our local tiny expression

of God's global church.

Hope doesn't center around preferences,

personalities, or platforms.

It doesn't center around where the best preacher is.

It doesn't even center around where the live preacher is.

And we hear that from time to time.

Like where's the no no, Jesus is the head.

He sets the agenda, he's the focus always has

been, always will be.

Then you get to verse 19 and 20.

And most importantly he says, to reconcile

to himself all things, whether on earth

or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

That's why Jesus is enough.

He doesn't just inspire you, he saves you.

He Doesn't just guide you, he reconciles you.

He makes peace with God through his blood on a cross.

Amen. What does that mean?

Because I know there's gotta be some people around that

that don't understand that The Bible tells us

that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

The Bible also tells us that the wages of sin is death.

So it was a result of us not living the life

that God created us to live.

And and by the way, we'll cover this in a minute.

That's you, that's me, that's all of us. Alright?

Um, as a result of that, we deserve separation from God.

Hebrews tells us that for the forgiveness of sins,

there has to be shedding of blood.

That's why if you read the Old Testament,

you read about all these sacrifices that

that God's people were making.

It's because, because of their sins, something actually had

to die to pay the price for that sin.

Well, there's prophecies in the Old Testament

that says one day a savior will come

to take on the sins of all the world.

Jesus was that savior whose birth

that we just celebrated on Christmas.

But he didn't stay a baby. He grew into a man.

He healed the sick. He he preached good news.

He, he showed people this is

what a life following God is all about.

But then he unjustly at the end of his life, went to a cross

in his perfection.

He went to a cross and paid the price for our sins.

He died the death that we deserved to die.

And the Bible says that whosoever would believe in that

and that he rose again three days later

that would call on the name of Jesus would have new life.

That's what Paul's talking about. We'll see if that'll stay.

And then he makes it personal.

Look at what he says in verse 21.

He says, and you who were once alienated

and hostile in mind doing evil deeds.

So again, that's you and that's me.

Level playing field here at the foot of the cross.

And you who are once alienated

and hostile in mind doing evil deeds.

He is now reconciled in his body of flesh

by his death in order to present you holy and blameless

and above reproach before God.

If indeed you continue in the faith, stable

and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel

that you heard, which has been proclaimed

and all creation under heaven, of which I Paul

became a minister.

Paul reminds us of the gospel that we were once alienated,

that we were separated from God,

but now we've been given a life of hope.

We've now been reconciled.

And in verse 23, he calls us to, to this big if

to gives us this big if,

if indeed you continue in the faith, stable

and steadfast, not shifting from the hope

of the gospel that you heard.

He's recognizing the temptation is to drift.

And that word, if it should grab us like that says,

there's a contingency on what will experience.

And so we have a role to play.

So how do we continue stable

and steadfast in a world that constantly

and consistently pulls us off center?

That's what this series is all about.

How do we remain rooted?

And so I wanna show you really our theme verse for the year.

And so I want you to highlight this,

write it down in your journal, uh,

put it up on your refrigerator, put it on your visor.

Parents read it to your kids on the way

to school, college students.

Put it up in your dorm room. If you're a professional

and you have a desk job, if people do that anymore, uh,

I want you to frame it and put it up on your desk.

I know everybody, a lot of people work remote,

but man, we've gotta remind ourselves

of this Colossians chapter two verse six and seven.

Therefore, as you received Christ, Jesus the Lord,

so walk in him rooted and built up in him

and established in the faith just as you were taught

abounding in Thanksgiving.

The way that you started is the way that you grow

as you've received Christ, walk with Jesus, remain

with Jesus, become rooted and built up in him.

And so here's the theme again,

rooted in the word community's on mission.

And that's not because it just sounds good.

That's because we've gotta keep Jesus at the center.

And so throughout this letter,

Paul's gonna remind us of a few things.

Uh, this is how we've got the rest of the series mapped out.

Next week we're gonna look at Colossians chapter three,

verse 16, rooted in the word.

Paul says, let the word of Christ

dwell in you richly not visit, dwell,

not skim, but soak.

He says, let the word make a home in you

because what dwells in you will shape you week

after that will look at what it means

to be rooted in prayer.

Paul says in Colossians, chapter four,

to continue steadfastly in prayer.

Prayer is how we start living.

Like life doesn't actually depend on us.

That's where we find peace.

And then Paul ties prayer to mission.

He says, pray for the door to be open for the word.

So prayer doesn't just calm us, it actually orients us

and it sends us out in Jesus's mission on

Jesus's mission to the world around us.

And then we'll close out the series by looking at

what it means to be rooted in community on mission.

We're gonna see our call Paul, the way Paul says it is

to walk in wisdom towards outsiders.

See a Jesus centered a Jesus' mission oriented church.

It lives outward, wise and gracious and intentional.

See Rose that we're in right now, this,

this can inspire people

but life together, it it sustains us.

It gives us purpose. It it's where we get formed.

It's where we're cared for.

And it's what we're actually sent out from

rooted in the word communities on mission.

I want you to know we are so committed to what this means.

Uh, we're launching a new effort here at Hope this year, uh,

that we're calling Rooted very appropriately named.

We didn't come up with it. Um,

it's actually been used all over the world, uh,

as a discipleship environment, uh, for God's people.

So rooted is a 12 week discipleship experience.

And the best description that I've heard of it

and I've gone through it, um,

is it's a discipleship bootcamp, okay?

Without the pushups and the burpees.

So you don't have to worry about that though.

It would help you with your fitness goal if you have those.

Um, but you wanna find the strength

and stability that Paul's talking about

and discover the life that Jesus came to make available.

This is foundational. You're gonna learn how

to engage God through reading your Bible.

You're gonna learn how to pray.

You're gonna learn how the spirit

of God can free you from addiction and shame.

And you're gonna actually learn what it means to live life

as a part of a community experiencing

belonging and purpose together.

And so when you're talking about

12 weeks, what does that look like?

It's not really a bootcamp where you like go away

for 12 weeks, but it's one night a week for 12 weeks

and you're thinking, man, 12 weeks is a long time.

I know it's a long time. It's worth it. Okay?

Remember the drift, the things that that can happen.

And so it's one night a week

and uh, our pastors have already gone through this.

We've had our staff go through it.

We've had 40 to 50 key leaders here at Hope kind of go

through what we call rooted underground to experience

what it's, and so for 12 weeks you get together,

you have daily devotions.

When you come together, you actually have a group of people

that you share what it is that God's doing in your life.

You talk through what it means to be rooted in your faith,

and I'm telling you, it's life changing.

And so we'll be talking about

that quite a bit over the next, uh, few weeks.

Uh, it's gonna launch in February.

If you're interested in this, which I hope you are,

if this is your church, I'm telling you you need to go

through this text, the word rooted to 7 2 9 8 9.

You're gonna be hearing that a

lot over the next couple weeks.

But you just text Rudy to 7 2 9 8 9 a link's gonna be sent

to your phone and you can go through, uh, and jump in, uh,

and get all your questions answered.

If we can answer some questions that you might have

before you do that, you can just head to next steps.

We'd love to help you out there. Um,

but listen, as we head into 2026,

what does it look like for us?

What are we trusting God for

as we put our roots down into the foundation of the gospel?

I'm gonna share a few things here with you.

Um, this is what we're asking God for in 2026.

Number one, we wanna see 800 men and women

and students go through the rooted experience.

800 you think, well, I thought we had like five, six,

7,000 people who call Hope Home.

Yeah, we do, but we can't do it with everyone at one time.

And so we're starting, uh, with 800.

So, uh, that's gonna be 400 in February.

So 200 at the Apex campus, 200 at the Raleigh campus,

and then again in the fall, 200 at the Apex campus,

200 at the Raleigh campus.

But that's not just to fill a room,

it's, it's to form a people.

It's to bring deep, strong roots to, to men and women

and students so that they can fully experience the life

that Jesus came to make available and to be able to go out

and share that hope with the world around them.

So that's rooted number two.

We want to have see community group leaders

that are equipped to shepherd and disciple

and to lead their communities on mission.

We wanna see men and women

and students who are equipped

to lead communities on mission in their neighborhoods,

in their workplaces, in their schools,

on their college campuses.

I mean, if you could just imagine thousands

and thousands of men, women

and students who are equipped with the gospel,

who are rooted deeply in their faith, who can go out

and share that faith with the world around them.

This is a big one. Um, we're trusting God

for 500 baptisms in 2026.

Men, women, and students.

And listen, this is not a goal, okay?

But this is a prayer we saw over 300

baptisms in 2025.

Uh, and that's more than we've seen dating back

to 20 18, 20 19.

We wanna trust God for more, more new life in Christ.

The Bible says that God can do immeasurably more than we can

think to imagine or ask in the Book of Acts,

you see a picture that was devoted to the apostles teaching

to the breaking of bread and prayer.

They had all things in common.

And you know what the Lord did,

the Lord added to their number daily.

We want to trust God to be that type of church.

We want the water stirred all year. Okay?

I am praying that God would bless us

with a bigger water bill.

I'm also praying that he would give us the means

to be able to pay that water bill.

It's a whole nother message, but it's

not for the sake of a number.

It's because each one of those that were baptized has a name

and each name has a soul.

And they have a life of belonging

and purpose that Jesus wants them to experience

and created them to experience in life.

We want to trust God for it. We want to grow.

We impact locally and globally.

Um, if you've been around here for any length

of time at all, you know that we're involved in meeting

tangible needs for the sake of

the gospel all over the place.

And we don't have time to get into it right now,

but it happens probably as a result

of you right in your backyard.

It happens in schools,

it happens in the foster care system, the food insecure.

We're meeting needs for the sake of the gospel in Haiti,

Nicaragua, Costa Rica, India, Uganda, uh,

I'm probably missing some France.

Um, but this church is continuing to make an impact

and will, and you're gonna hear a little bit about

that in a few weeks when we get

into our next series of the year.

Uh, and then lastly, this is a big one

and it could seem like it's outta nowhere and it's not.

But I believe that God wants hope Community Church

to be known as a wildly generous church.

And you know, we celebrated earlier at the beginning

of our service, $65,000 for a Christmas e offering

that goes back into the community.

That's phenomenal. But here's what I know.

When Jesus is at the center

and we understand how good God is, our hands open

and this is my conviction, the world needs Jesus.

We know that that happens through a church

that makes disciples.

We are trusting God to be that type of church.

We also live in one

of the most affluent in areas in the history

of the world, in the triangle.

What does that mean? We live in one

of the most wealthiest areas in the history

of the world here in the triangle.

And look, I'm not knocking anybody, okay?

I drive a nice truck, I love my truck.

But if you go through the parking lot

and look when you go to your vehicle at the end of service,

I don't want you to be in shame, okay?

I'm glad you got your vehicle. But when you go

through our parking lot at Hope Community Church on Sunday

morning, and I know this isn't the case for everybody,

but for a lot of us, you see, we don't have a money problem.

We may have a desire problem in our life,

we just want more and more.

We all struggle with that, I struggle with that.

But if we truly become rooted in Jesus, the author

and sustainer of life, we have the means

to see the gospel go forward

and make an impact in a way

that I believe we've never even began to actually trust God

for Got Landon Fuqua.

We want to see developed.

We gotta start planning that,

get those Fuqua folks outta Apex

and get 'em back out in their community.

There. There's, listen, there's 30 women in Haiti right now

who are looking to join Suave Bond.

It's a, a ministry that we actually helped create,

which helps vulnerable women get back on their feet,

get rooted in the gospel

and equipped to be leaders in their community

across resources.

There's foster children that don't have a home.

God's positioned us to make an impact

like we've never believed.

God wants to grow us as a wildly generous church,

but it starts with centering on Jesus

and us as a church family, being committed to loving God,

following Jesus and sharing hope.

Rooted In the word, a community on mission.

And don't miss this, we are not trying to manufacture fruit.

We're trying to cultivate roots

deep into the gospel by centering on Jesus.

And so as we wrap things up, um,

we're not gonna start this year as a church

with a resolution.

And you know, we, we've kind of mapped this out

as like week one of the years, a big vision message.

And you, you heard some vision.

What I really wanted us to do was to get centered on Jesus.

I think we did that. And I think one of the best things

that we can do is not to make a resolution

but to come back to the cross.

We saw in Colossians chapter one verse 20,

that Jesus made peace by the blood of his cross.

That's not a metaphor, that's our foundation.

And so what we're gonna do to kick off our year,

I don't believe there's a better way to remember what it is

that we're actually rooted in than

by celebrating communion together as a church family.

And so we're gonna do that if you don't

know what communion is.

Uh, communion is a time that Jesus actually

before, uh, the night

before his crucifixion, he got together with his disciples

and they shared a meal and he passed around some bread

and he said, listen, this, this bread is representative

of my body that's gonna be broken for you.

And then he passed around a cup afterwards

and he says, this is representative of my blood

that's gonna be poured out for you

for the forgiveness of the sins.

And so as often as you do this, do so in remembrance of me.

And so if you've placed your hope

and your trust in Jesus, this is a time

where we remember together.

And if you've never made that decision, I invite you to make

that decision right now

and enjoy this with the family of God.

But before we take it, I do want to give you just,

Just about a minute, maybe some space with God.

If you felt drift throughout 2025

or maybe in the brief start

to 2026, I want you to confess it.

If you've been carrying something, whether it's sin or shame

or guilt,

disappointment, I want you to confess it.

And if you're tired, I just want you to come to Jesus.

So I'm gonna give you a moment now

before God to do just that.

I know most of you received the elements when you came in.

If you didn't, you can just raise your hand

and someone can bring it down to you.

But in one Corinthians chapter 11 says, the Lord Jesus, on

that night when he was betrayed, he took bread.

And when he had given thanks, he broke it.

And he said, this is my body, which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me. Church, family.

May we remember Jesus' body that was broken

for us can take and eat.

Verse 25, 1 Corinthians 11, it says, in the same way,

he also took the cup

after supper saying this cup is the

new covenant of my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

For as often as you eat the bread

and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death

Until he comes church.

May we remember Jesus's blood that was poured out

for the forgiveness of our sins may take and drink.

Let's Pray together. Lord Jesus,

as we head into 2026, may this not be a year

of short resolutions.

Would this not be a year where we put goals up on the wall

and forget about 'em in a week, in a month?

Would this be a year of newfound, steadiness

and steadfastness and following you?

God, I pray that you would root us in your word,

that you would teach us to pray,

that you would form us into the communities on mission,

that you would have us to be

and you would let the fruit of changed lives

through the power of the gospel overflow in 2026.

Lord, we love you and we pray these things in Jesus' name

and everyone said together.

Amen. Church,

don't let Christmas be a moment that you attend.

Don't let New Year just be a a moment

that you attend this first service of the year.

Let it be a direction that we take.

May we as a church family be rooted in God's Word,

be rooted in prayer

and be sent out on the mission that Jesus calls us into.

Love you guys. We'll see you next week