Be The One: Growing in Freedom (James 5:13-20)

Open up with us to the book of Isaiah.

We are going to be continuing the second part of our series entitled Be the One.

Come on, Tim the TV.

Work with us here, Tim.

Come on now.

Tim has got a mind of his own sometimes.

Oh, it wasn't Tim, it was Siri.

Well, praise the Lord for the devil in Jesus' name.

All right, yeah.

Now it is it is so good to be with you.

If you want to get your message notes out, get everything.

We always tell you that at the first of the year, if you do not have a Bible journal, make sure you stop at the welcome center before you leave and say, I need a Bible journal because my favorite part of our service is not the notes that we give you, but it's what the Holy Spirit speaks to you.

And you need extra, extra places to write those things down.

And so want to make sure you've got plenty of paper to do that.

And if this is your first time joining us, we'd love for you to fill out your Connect card at some point in the worship experience.

You can drop it off at the Welcome Center because we have a free gift for you.

And we also want to invite you to the greatest party you're going to see all month at RLC Connect.

And it's an honor to be able to do that.

And also finally, before we get into the message, something that we have as a rhythm at our church is about once a month, once every six weeks, we receive communion together as a church.

And we're going to do that at the end of our worship experience.

And so I want to go ahead and prepare your heart for that.

And also to let everybody know who is sitting on the far right of your row.

You are the designated communion, communionista, okay?

However that works.

We're going to be uh celebrating that together.

Well, if you we all we do at the beginning of every year is we really want to take a moment and talk about the mission of our church.

And that the idea is that real life church exists.

Our mission is to make disciples.

And if you're gonna have fun with me today, look at somebody and say, I know that's right.

Good.

It's gonna be a good kind of day.

All right.

That we exist to make disciples by knowing God, growing in freedom, and then sharing Christ with everyone.

And we want to make sure that we do that because I don't know about you, but I had this happen to me this past week.

Some of you don't know, but I actually wear glasses most uh, well, not most of the time I wear contacts, but I do wear glasses.

And this past week, I was looking at my computer one day, and I just had spent hours just looking at it.

And when I finally looked up to see what was going on around me, I couldn't see anything.

Like slowly, I had been wiping my glasses and all this, and I had smudges everywhere, but I couldn't tell because I was so focused on what I was doing that when I looked up, that was when I realized, well, I can't see anything.

And so I had to go, I had to clean my glasses.

And that's what I think happens sometimes in life.

We just we get busy, we get our head down, we're doing what we're doing, and if we're not careful, the vision of what God is wanting to do in our lives individually and in our lives corporately can just get kind of smudged.

Things can get in the way.

And so we want to take time at the beginning of every year just to kind of clean our vision a little bit and remember that God has a purpose, that He has something for us to do as a congregation and something He has for us to do as individuals, and that is to make disciples.

And as I told you last week, one of the things that I like to do as we get toward the end of the year is I really just lean into a season of prayer and say, God, we're gonna continue to make disciples, because that's what you called us to do in Matthew 28.

But is there a particular way you want us to lean into the vision this year?

And I've been so excited, like ever since October, and to tell you, and I told you last week, I'm gonna tell you again that this is my hope for us, is that this year we will say to God corporately and individually, that God, we will be the one.

We we will be the one that will not be reacting, but or not but not reacting, but responding, not leaning back, but leaning in.

We we talked about before that there's so many things that's going on in our world that makes us want to just throw up our hands and just say, well, whatever.

I'm just gonna try to react and just try to let everything wash over me because that is too much.

And even this week, there's been more things happen in our culture that we just kind of, if we're not careful, we throw our hands up and go, Well, maybe 2027 will be a little bit better.

I mean, there's so many things already that wasn't on my bingo card that happened in the first two weeks, right?

But instead, we're gonna respond and we're gonna say, God, I'm going to be the one.

I'm gonna be the difference maker this year.

And it comes from this verse in Isaiah that the Bible says that it was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord.

I had an encounter with God, and he was seated, sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe, which is a symbol of his authority, filled the temple.

Attending him were mighty seraphims, the type of angel, and they were calling out to each other, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of heaven's armies.

The whole earth is filled with his glory.

Their voices shook the temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled with smoke.

And then I said, It's all over.

I am doomed, for I am a sinful man, I have filthy lips, and I'm among people that are worse than I am.

Yet I have seen the king, the Lord of heaven's armies.

And the Lord, or one of the seraphim rather, flew over to me with a burning coal, and he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs, and he touched my lips, and he said, See, this coal has touched your lips.

Now your guilt is removed and your sins are forgiven.

Then I heard the Lord asking, Whom shall I send as a messenger to this people?

Who will go for us?

And I said, Here I am, send me.

To which the Lord answered, Yes, go.

That's my hope for us this year, is that as we have count encounters with God this year, that God is going to ask every one of us, who will tell those around you, who will go to your sphere of influence and tell everybody that God is still on his throne and God is still doing great things.

And my hope is to quote the philosopher Katniss Everding, I will volunteer as tribute, right?

I will go first.

And we talked about last week, we're gonna go first in knowing God, but then also that next step is our vision is that this year that we are gonna make a commitment that we will be the one to grow in freedom.

And if you're taking analog notes, I want you to circle that word we because it's gonna be a team sport this year that we will grow in freedom.

And if you're on your tablet or whatever, take a Sharpie marker and mark that down on there.

I promise it's fine, and that's a lie, don't listen to that.

But make sure you realize it's we will make a difference.

And it's the idea that what happened in the life of Isaiah is when he encountered God, it required a response from him.

Look, the Bible says that it was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord.

During a year of transition, during a year of confusion, during a year of unknown and not really knowing what the new leader was going to do.

Is he gonna follow God?

Is he not?

I don't really know.

It seems like everything's kind of going haywire.

It was in that moment that man, I saw God.

But what happened when I had an encounter with God, when I started to know him, is that he said, It's all over.

I am doomed, for I am a sinful man.

In other words, when I encountered God, I realized I haven't arrived yet.

I have another step I need to take.

The more I see God's glory, the more I realize that there's a work that God can do in my life.

Instead of it causing me to run away, it causes me to lean in and say, God, I want you to do more in me.

And then the response to that was is that God sent one of the angels to him and said, See, now your guilt is removed and your sins are forgiven.

And once he started to grow in that, when God asked, who's gonna go and share this with everyone else?

He said, I'll go.

And that's my hope for us is that as we have encounters with God this year and as we know him even more, it's not gonna cause us to lean back, but it's gonna cause us to lean in.

And I wonder if maybe this year that there are things that were in our life that we would have thought would have disqualified us, that it actually is going to qualify us to be the greatest messenger that we've ever been, because we say, Yes, I walked into God's presence that way, but I walked out of that season a completely different person.

And I come to tell you, it can happen for you too.

And that's my hope for all of us.

Look at somebody and say, Amen.

That's what we're going to do.

And here's the reason why we need to hear this idea that we're gonna be the one this year to grow in freedom.

We've never said this before, RLC, so brace yourself.

Here it is, and that is that everyone has a private battle you know nothing about.

Look at your neighbor and say, he's still talking about you.

We haven't made a t-shirt that says this, okay?

Because it's true.

The sweetest old grandpa you know has got a private battle that he's not gonna tell you about.

All right.

But here's the thing everyone has a private battle that you know nothing about, but somebody say, but this will be your best year ever if it's your best year spiritually.

I believe it, I've seen it so many times that I don't even think that's a guess anymore.

Everybody has a private battle that nobody else knows about.

Every one of us in here can take a step of freedom, but the idea is that this will be the year that we'll take steps of freedom.

It'll be our best year ever if it's our best year spiritually.

And here's my hope for us that how we're gonna be the one to grow in freedom is it reminds me of a friend of mine who told me, uh he told me uh right before Christmas that that during the summer of last year he had an opportunity to go scuba diving because he's crazy, okay?

He had an opportunity to go do this.

He was gonna go swim and see fish because he couldn't see them from the land, and he was gonna go take a look at these fish, and and I had heard this was a thing, and he said it was, and that is that as he was on the boat and they were getting ready, the the instructor got up in front of this group of like six or seven of them, and I didn't mean to do that.

Um, you know, you know, um, and and he got in there, and some of man, praise the Lord.

I said, just let it go.

All right, yes.

I know, I know, I yes, I know.

But as they were doing this, that the the instructor got up there and he said this.

He said, Everyone, we're gonna have a great time.

It's gonna be awesome.

But in the unlikely event of an emergency, which would have been when I would have said, Never mind, you know, if there's a chance, and no, thank you.

But he said, in the unlikely event of emergency, we are going to come over and we are going to save you.

But you have a part to play.

And he said this, you must become part of your own rescue.

He said, We are going to come over, we are going to do the saving, but you're not going to drown us.

You must become part of your own rescue.

In other words, you get to help us as we rescue you.

Can I tell you how we're going to become the one this year that grows in freedom?

Is we're going to partner with God to be part of our own rescue.

God does the rescuing, but we're going to let him rescue us.

We're going to work with God, not against God, as he rescues us and as he helps us to grow in freedom.

And really, if you want to think of it like this, that was what the whole book of James was really all about in the New Testament.

The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit descended on the day of Pentecost and there were 5,000 people there.

They had come there because of one of the feast days, the feast of Pentecost.

History tells us that most of them didn't go back home.

They just stayed there in Jerusalem as the new church was happening.

And so you had all these people from all these different places that now had to try to figure out how to do this thing called life and the kingdom of God together.

And one of the first letters ever written that became part of our New Testament was the book of James.

And he was talking to them about how to grow together.

And one of the first things he said was, is he said, When troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.

No.

He said, Yes, consider it a time for great joy.

For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.

So I say, Let it grow.

For when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

In other words, you will grow in freedom.

And so, in other words, he's he's saying, Don't worry, everybody has a private battle, but I say, let God use it to do something so amazing in your life that it grows you in freedom in amazing ways.

And then he spends the book of James talking about the different private, not so private battles they deal with.

And you could look at the last few verses as a summary of what it looks like to grow in freedom in community.

And he said this he said, If any of you are suffering hardships, you should pray.

Are any of you happy?

You should sing praises.

Are any of you sick?

You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord.

And such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well.

Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other, so that you may be healed.

For the earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.

Elijah was a human just as we are, yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years.

He prayed again, and the sky sent down rain.

My dear brothers and sisters, if someone among you wanders away from the truth and is brought back, you can be sure that whoever brings the sinner back from wandering will save that person from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins.

In other words, we got some growing to do, and this is the place to do it.

We as a community are gonna be the one this year to say we are going to grow in freedom because everybody has a private battle that nobody else knows about, but this will be our best year ever if it's our best year spiritually.

So I say, let it grow.

Let God do what he wants to do in our lives because that's how we grow, is that we say, God, I'm not gonna work against you, but instead, I'm gonna be part of my own rescue by saying, God, I want to partner with you and my brothers and sisters to have the greatest year of my life.

And so here's the question as we dive in to this text in James this year, how will we be the one to become part of our own rescue so we can have the best year spiritual?

Look at your neighbor and say, This is my year.

You don't believe it.

Look at someone you actually can believe it just for a moment.

Look at them and say, This is my year.

This is this is my year.

If I'm gonna have a private battle, I might as well let God use it to rescue me and use it to get me deeper into his presence and find freedom.

And James is telling us, you want to have that kind of encounter like Isaiah had?

Here's what you do as a community.

Here's the first thing he said, and that is that be the one to take a step toward freedom.

You wanna take a step and grow in freedom?

The first thing is that we go first, that we take a step.

We don't take all the steps.

That's that's a lifetime of faithfulness.

It takes a lifetime to live a lifetime of faithfulness, but we take a step toward freedom.

Isaiah had this encounter with God, and out of that encounter, he says, I'll be the one.

James says, We're going to go through those private battles.

We might as well let God use it to grow us in freedom.

And the first thing he said was as a summation, is we need to take a step.

He said it like this if any of you are suffering hardship, what's the next word?

You should pray.

Are any of you happy?

Say again, you should sing praises.

And are any of you sick?

One more time.

You, I think he's trying to convey something to us, right?

You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord.

And such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick.

So, in other words, he's saying, Become part of your own rescue.

Like we don't get this twisted.

You know, obedience is not required for salvation, but salvation produces obedience.

And that as we start to say, God, I want to align myself with you, I'm now gonna take a step toward you and allow you to do the rescuing.

I bring to you my obedience as you rescue me of all these different things.

That's actually what the Bible says in Galatians.

Galatians says, so Christ has truly set us free.

Now make sure you stay free.

So, in other words, he does the freeing, but we have a part to play, and that is that we walk toward that freedom that he gives us.

When he comes to rescue us, we let him and we take those steps of obedience.

That's one of the things that I love about being part of the kingdom of God is that when we're in our lives and other things, there's so many other people and circumstances and brokenness of our past that try to define us.

If we're not careful, we try to define ourselves based on our most recent struggle or victory.

However, that's not what we do according to God's word.

As a matter of fact, freedom begins when we have a clear view of who God is and how he sees us.

That's where true freedom begins, because when we realize that God is great, that God is all powerful, that there is nothing that is greater than God.

There's nothing that goes on in our lives that makes God nervous.

There's nothing that makes him have to go drink, you know, like a power aid to get ready, because it's gonna take a lot, right?

Like you imagine, like if the instructor were trying to save people, and for some reason five out of the seven of them needed saving, I don't want to be number five.

Because he's probably tired at that part, at that point, and I hope he's still got some juice left, right?

But that's not our God.

He's able to work out freedom in my life and in your life and in your life and everyone who isn't here yet, that he doesn't run out of power.

And so we realize that God wants freedom for us more than we want it for ourselves, but then also we realize how he sees us.

And here's the thing I want to make sure I say this the right way.

When God sees you and me, he doesn't see a victim.

He he may see the bad things that happen to us, but he knows that those things don't define us.

Who he is is what defines us.

And so he sees someone who can be free, he sees someone who should be free.

He doesn't think that you should be defined by the worst moment of your life, it should be defined by the best moment of your life, and that's when you found Jesus.

That's who you truly are.

And when you begin to realize the greatness of God and how he sees you, then you realize God's word says, just as you accepted Christ as Lord, continue to follow him.

Let your roots grow down into him and let your lives be built on him.

Then your faith will grow strong in the truth that you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.

In other words, be part of your own rescue.

Dig down into the goodness of God.

The reason why we read God's word every day is because we want to get to know the God who loves us so very much.

And it's in the stories and in the principles of God's word that we slowly begin to realize how He's forming us in our lives.

Because for some of us, you know, we're our you know, the things we need freedom from, they're they're out there for everybody to see.

But there's others that they're invisible to everybody else, but they're no less as real to us.

And the amazing thing is that this year we're gonna be the one to find freedom, to grow in freedom in every area of life.

God cares about the things that nobody else can see.

It reminds me of a story I heard about a bear.

You might have heard this one, but there was a back in the 1960s, there was a traveling circus that traveled throughout the Midwest, and they had had um a bunch of different bears, and they had one that was born uh while at the circus, and it grew up and whole its whole life, all it ever knew was the circus.

And they kept it in a 10 by 10 foot cage.

And they said that that the whole life of this bear of just walk around in circles inside this 10 foot cage.

That was its life.

And then really at the point it got to where the bear was the oldest animal in this kind of moving circle.

Circus zoo and it got bought out by this wildlife preserve and they wanted to release all the animals.

Well, a lot of them were young, and so they were able to go and just you know go be free.

Well, the bear, because all it ever knew was this cage, even when they opened the door, it wouldn't leave.

Like there's freedom right there, but all it knew was bondage.

And so they had to get it out of there, and that it was actually some of the workers who thought that they should maybe euthanize the bear because it can take care of itself.

But some of the other ones said, no, no, it just give it time.

I think it can do it.

And so they that the bear got out of there and it ran out, and they went and found the bear three days later, and it had found a clearing.

And in the clearing, it was walking in a circle.

It was about 10 by 10 cage.

It was free on the outside, but it was still in prison on the inside.

And once again, they said, Well, we got to work with this bear.

And so slowly, what they did is they started leading the bear one way and leading a bear another way, and then finally leading it to a place where it began to slowly realize that it was more free than it could imagine until eventually it was able to live in freedom.

Can I tell you for some of us, we've got invisible bars that nobody else can see.

But can I tell you, Jesus sees?

And it doesn't matter what anybody else thinks, he still thinks you can be free.

And he's willing to take the long journey of leading you this way and leading you this way and slowly letting you see what freedom looks like, and he's never gonna give up on you.

And so the idea is don't give up on him, be part of your own rescue this year and follow wherever the Lord leads because he wants to lead you to freedom.

And this is my question.

This year, how will you take a step in your freedom journey?

How will you follow Jesus?

What is the next step that you need to make this year to say, this year, this is how I'm gonna grow in freedom?

If you don't already have one, today starts our annual 21 days of prayer.

Starting today, you're gonna see some social media posts giving you prayer prompts on how to engage with God in a different way.

And if and if you don't do the social media thing here in January, praise the Lord.

All I would tell you to do is whatever your prayer life currently is, add to it over the next 21 days.

I would encourage you, come to Tuesday night prayer.

If you don't know how to pray, come to Tuesday night prayer.

Get with one of these people.

And I'm gonna tell you the best and worst thing you can say to one of them is, can you teach me to pray?

You're not leaving anytime soon that night.

They're gonna come take you and you get up, you're gonna know how to pray.

But that's that's how you learn is having somebody else teach you.

And here's the thing this will be our best year ever, if it's our best year spiritually.

And for all of us, my prayer is that you will grow in freedom, that we will grow in freedom.

And the number one way we're going to do that is we are going to take a step and being part of our own rescue.

And for all of us, I would pray that it would be part of our 21 days of prayer because this is your year.

Look at somebody and say, This is my year.

Never talk to them again.

Look at your second choice and say, This is my year.

Yes, talk to them.

That was a good one.

This is my year.

You know why?

Because I'm tired of my invisible prison, man.

I'm tired.

I'm sick and tired of seeing that door open and not running through it.

This is gonna be my year of freedom.

Not only am I gonna take a step, but here's one that's amazing, and that is I'm gonna walk with others toward freedom.

I'm gonna take a step of freedom, and I'm gonna walk with somebody else.

This is my year to see a miracle.

This is my year.

It's gonna be amazing.

I'm gonna be part of my own rescue, and I have the honor and the dignity of being called by God to walk with somebody else to see freedom.

God's word says it like this confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.

For the earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.

Elijah was a human just as we are, and yet when he prayed, the sky sent down rain.

You know what I love about this?

Is while we are taking steps to freedom, there's also people around us who are taking steps toward freedom.

And everybody grows at a different growth rate.

Sometimes we're running, sometimes we're crawling, but we're all growing.

And one of the greatest things that we can do is when we lock hands with people beside us and we begin to grow in freedom together.

And that's an amazing thing that God does and gives us the opportunity of seeing in our lives.

I don't know if you've ever noticed this before.

Sometimes when God forgives us of our sins, He He forgives us and sets us completely free in a moment.

However, many times He does something else.

And that is this.

The Bible says in 1 John 1 9 that if we will confess our sins to God, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness or all wickedness.

And we have to make sure we remember that only God forgives sin.

But have you ever done this before?

You asked God to forgive you of a sin, but you still struggled with that sin, and you're forgiven, but you still feel a sense of bondage?

Like I'm, I I, God, I really don't want to fall back into that sin again, but I know me, and I know that there's a 99% chance over the next 24 hours.

You ever have that moment?

Just me.

Just polish your halo.

That's fine.

Okay, just me, okay?

But here's the amazing thing.

We go to God for forgiveness, but you know what he does for us so many times?

We just read it.

Confess your sins to God for forgiveness, but we confess our sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be, say it with me, healed.

You know what God does sometimes is we go to him for forgiveness, but it's in walking with our brothers, walking with our sisters that we find healing.

Because you know one of the greatest things I've ever heard somebody say to me, when I finally, when trust is earned and I'm in a life group situation, I'm finally just get honest and I tell them what I'm going through, you know what they say?

I've been there.

I know what that's like.

I know exactly how to pray with you.

I know exactly how to walk with you.

There's almost nothing better in the world than when we walk together toward freedom.

And I want to tell you, if this year, if you want to see a miracle, don't go looking for one.

Go looking to be one for someone else.

And you'll find them everywhere.

If you go looking to find, to see a miracle, you may, you may or you may not, but I want to promise you that if you go looking to be somebody's miracle, I want to be the person somebody else has been praying for.

I want to be that trustworthy person.

I want to be the one who brings somebody up.

I want to be the one who not just helps my own rescue, but helps in the rescue of others, you'll see miracles all over the place.

What if God has called you, not to be disqualified because of your private battle, but to be qualified because you know how it feels.

And so you're able to reach into things like nobody else can.

And when we focus on that, and we focus that we are gonna be the one to step with others, it's amazing what God will do.

As a matter of fact, Jesus challenged us to think through this in a story when someone asked him one time that who is his neighbor.

There was a time when they were questioning Jesus and they asked him, Jesus, what's the most important commandment?

Like if there was a cheat code for the whole Old Testament, what would it be?

And he said, Well, you got to love God with everything you have.

And then the second one is to love your neighbor as yourself.

And then the Bible said that the man wanting to justify his actions asked Jesus, Well, then who is my neighbor?

So in other words, he's saying, Who's who's gonna come be my neighbor?

He was in the position of that consumer, who's gonna love me?

But then Jesus replied with a story.

You've probably heard this.

So there was a Jewish man traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits.

Can we not can we start using that word again?

That's awesome.

Bandits, right?

By chance a priest came along, but he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by.

Not a good thing.

Then a temple assistant walked over, but he also passed by on the other side.

Then a despised Samaritan came along.

Now, to understand, a Samaritan was the worst person for them.

Like, like whatever.

Like, like right now, uh, anybody who you don't like, it was worse than that.

Okay, like like the worst person you can imagine, that's who Jesus says.

Okay, your enemy came along, and when he saw that man, he felt compassion for him.

He soothed his wounds, he bandaged him, and he put them in on his own donkey and took him to an inn where he took care of him.

Which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?

Jesus asked the question, and the man replied, The one who showed him mercy.

Well then Jesus said, Yes, now you go, and notice he didn't say, Now you go and receive from all of those people.

He said, You go and be the one.

You go and do the same.

Isn't it amazing that in this story, this man was trying to identify as the victim when Jesus said, No, you don't understand.

Because of who I am and because of what I'm doing in you, I don't want you to see yourself as the victim.

I want you to see yourself as the one who's helping.

I want you to see yourself as the one who is gonna be the one to be the difference maker.

That God gives us the opportunity to say that the bad things that's happened in our life doesn't disqualify us from making a difference.

It's the very fuel God wants to use to qualify us to make a difference.

That as we grow in freedom, we're able to take the hands of the people beside us and say, let's grow in freedom together.

And so here's my question for you, and that is this year, how will you become a part of someone's rescue?

How will you do that?

There's a bunch of ways to do that, but can I tell you, one of the greatest ways I can think of to make a difference in somebody's life is through life groups.

One of the reasons why we talk about them so very much, and you're gonna hear us because life groups are getting ready to launch here in about three weeks.

One of the reasons why we love them so much is not because we're bored, not because we don't have something else to do.

I'm already busy eight nights out of the week.

Okay, I don't I don't need something else to do, but you know what I do need?

I need brothers.

I need sisters, I need people who are walking in the same direction I'm walking in.

People that when trust is earned, I can walk in.

Because here's what's gonna happen when you get into a life group that for the first three or four weeks, everybody's got on their prettiest smile.

Like it don't matter.

They could have got a speeding ticket on the way there.

They come in.

Well, the Lord is good.

God is good all the time.

You know, they're just having a great time.

But somewhere about week four or five, that mask slips a little bit because something happens and it gets real.

And can I tell you, that's when life change starts to happen.

Because as one person says to another, I know where the goodness of God is, let's go find him together.

And I want to encourage you, as you're taking steps this year, as you're finding that freedom, you're growing in that freedom, what will you do this year to also take someone by the hand so that we can grow in freedom together?

Because here's the thing this is gonna be the best year ever if it's our best year spiritually.

And this year, I want every one of us to have encounters with God and that as we get to know God more every day, we realize, man, I've got a next step I can take.

I can grow in freedom.

And that instead of fighting God, instead of fighting all of that, we're gonna lean into it and be part of our own rescue and say, This year, God, I'm gonna take the private battles that's been happening in my life, and I'm gonna use those things to step in to everything you're calling me to do.

Look at somebody one more time and say, This is going to be my year.

Now look back at them and say, How about you?

They weren't expecting that, so don't expect them to answer, okay?

Yeah.

If you want to, just say, Yeah, yeah, yeah, me too.

Yeah, me too.

All right.

Here's the thing.

You know why?

Because we're gonna take a step, then we're gonna do it with somebody else, and this is my favorite, and that is that we're gonna celebrate every return to freedom.

We're gonna celebrate every return, every time.

Everybody's story is worth telling.

You know, one of the saddest things that happened to me in my life earlier as a Christian is I thought, because I didn't have one of those crazy stories, that I didn't have one.

Only to find out later, we do, because all of us needed Jesus at some point.

And so the great stories are wonderful, and the other stories are wonderful too.

And that's what James is saying as he's ending all this.

Remember, he starts off with saying that he counted all joy when you experience private battles, not because you want anything to do with them, but because God will use even those things, you can know him more.

And then he talks about at the end and said, Therefore, let's take steps of freedom, let's walk with others.

And then he says this, my dear brothers and sisters, he grew up in the church I grew up in.

All right, and dear brothers and sisters, if someone among you wanders away from the truth and is brought back, you can be sure that whoever brings the sinner back from wandering will save that person from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins.

He said, Whoever comes back and they get brought back again, man, don't forget how powerful that is.

I know we live in a culture full of gotchas and and and one-upping everybody and all this kind of stuff.

And it seems like we celebrate when people leave.

But James says, don't forget to celebrate when people come back.

That we always open the door for people to come back over and over again.

You know, Peter asked Jesus one time, how many times should I forgive my brother?

Seven times?

And Peter, and Jesus' like, no, man, 70 times seven.

That's like a lot, Jesus.

He's like, exactly.

Always open the door with proper boundaries, but at the same time, always open the door for people to come back again because the goodness of God is so good that he's never gonna give up.

And he's always gonna be drawing us back together again.

And that story is worth celebrating.

It reminds me of a story that happened in the book of Mark, chapter five.

There was this moment where Jesus had crossed over uh the Sea of Galilee and he comes up on the shore.

Can you imagine having a story like this?

The Bible said that as he was getting out of the boat, a guy came running from the cemetery.

What's he doing there?

All right, nothing good, apparently, because he comes running from the cemetery.

And the Bible said that he was possessed of a devil, also not a good thing to put on your Twitter profile, and he's coming, running this way, and he's coming after Jesus.

And Jesus starts rebuking him.

I kind of have this picture of he's kind of running, and all of a sudden he just like falls, you know?

He's like, Okay, there is one greater than me that is here, right?

And the Bible said that he he cast the devil out and he was in the process of doing that.

Like that the devil was talking to him, and it was just this crazy story.

You really got to read it, Mark chapter five.

But what happened was the people that were there were terrified and said he ran off.

Thanks, thanks for staying with me, guys.

You know, but but Jesus is there, he didn't need a he didn't need a crowd, he's he's awesome all by himself, right?

And he delivers this guy.

And the Bible said that when they came back again, they saw this guy that they had been afraid of, and he was sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, learning from Jesus.

What an amazing story.

But the Bible said that they asked Jesus, the people were so afraid of what happened, they didn't know what to do with the power of God that they said, Um, can you leave?

I mean, sure.

I mean, why not?

So Jesus gets back in the boat because they didn't know what to do with Jesus.

And as that's about to happen, Jesus was getting into the boat, and the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him.

But look what Jesus said.

No, you go to your family and you tell them everything that the Lord has done for you and how merciful he has been.

So the man started off to visit the ten towns of that region and began to proclaim the great things Jesus had done for him.

And everyone was amazed at what he had told them.

This is my hope for us is that this year we will be the one to celebrate every story.

Can I tell you?

Every person in here has a story, and every story in here needs to be told.

Now, you don't have to get to the end of your story.

The Bible didn't say that now this guy was perfect, he didn't have any issues, none of that kind of stuff.

Jesus said, Go and tell what I just did for you.

Like, don't don't you don't have to have it all figured out, all that stuff.

Go tell your salvation story and everything that I have done for you.

And he went and he told people, and the people that needed to hear it heard it.

Can I tell you there's somebody this year who needs to hear your story?

And can I tell you, my hope for you is that at some point this year you will tell somebody your story.

Let them see what a work in progress looks like.

Let them see what it looks like to not be finished, but to be well on our way and celebrating who God is.

I want to ask you this question: who needs to hear your story of salvation?

Because there's somebody in your life, and I think God does this.

I've seen it happen so many times.

There's somebody in your life that will relate to your story, no matter how unique it is.

I think God puts us in those environments.

I was talking to someone just the other day, and I was talking to him, and I started talking to him about my story, which is I grew up in a pastor's home, but I became an atheist as a teenager.

And then, and through an amazing thing that God did, God saved me.

And then after I started in ministry, I struggled with doubts again.

And I was like, I know this guy thinks I'm crazy.

No one's got this story.

His story was almost exactly the same, only he hadn't come back to Jesus yet.

I said, Well, sir, let me tell you the rest of the story, and that is that God will never stop until you come all the way back home to him.

I would have thought that my story wouldn't have been within 10 miles of him, and it was exactly the same.

God put us together at the same time for the right reason.

God's gonna do that in your life.

Don't let anybody ever tell you that your story is not worth celebrating, but your story is important, and this is gonna be your year.

I'm praying this is your year, that you have an opportunity to celebrate your story of how God has moved in your life.

And that's what I hope for all of us is that this year we will be the one to make disciples by knowing God and then growing in freedom, that we're gonna be part of our own rescue this year, that we are gonna allow God to move in our life, and we're gonna take a step in the right direction with Him.

And then as we do that, we're also gonna walk with others, and then we are gonna make space to celebrate every salvation story, which is why we receive communion.

If you've been reading God's word with us, we're in the book of 1 Corinthians right now.

And if you want to join us, you can text RLC Bible to 94,000.

First Corinthians is about, you know, it was the Las Vegas of the New Testament era, by the way.

It was uh it was definitely Sin City of the of that area.

And there were all these different people from all over this port town who decided they were gonna come together and they'd become Christ's followers.

And the whole book is about growing in harmony together, learning how to do life with different people.

And as they are doing that, they talk about communion.

And Paul is having to train them about what communion is.

And he says this he says, every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you're announcing the Lord's death until he comes.

He's saying, never get it twisted.

Because what they were doing is, is they were coming in to church to have a potluck.

Anybody that old?

Okay, some of y'all, yeah.

They were coming in and trying, you know, Sister Susie's new meatloaf, you know, that kind of thing.

And oh, by the way, pass the bread and the cup.

You know, that's what they were doing.

And he was like, No, no, no, no, this isn't a system, this isn't just a thing that we do, this is a celebration.

This is reminding ourselves what God did for us.

And you know what I love?

I love when we receive communion, it is also reminding our neighbors, this is what God has done for me.

It's celebrating our story.

My story is I grew up around church but never met Jesus.

And one day, through a crazy set of circumstances, I was sitting in a church and someone said, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whosoever believes in him would not perish.

To have eternal life, and then he said, I want you to take out the word world and put your name in there instead.

And when I heard that for the first time, though I'd heard that verse a thousand times, it made sense that Jesus didn't just die for my neighbor, he didn't die for the sins of the world, only he did it for me.

And I was like, God, if you would do that for me, what else can I do but give you my life?

Take all of me, take all of my sin, take all of my worries, take all of my joys, take all my plans, take everything.

I give my life to you.

That was in 1996.

And can I tell you?

I'm still thankful to celebrate that story.

Because the goodness of God is still good, and that's the promise that God has for us, and that is that you have been called to live in freedom.

My dear brothers and sisters.

But don't use your freedom to satisfy sinful nature, instead, use the freedom to serve one another in love.

In other words, God has called you to live in freedom.

Don't use the freedom to stay where you are.

Take a step and take somebody with you.

That's my hope for us this year.

And that's what I want us to do in just a moment.

In just a moment.

We're gonna pray and then we're gonna receive communion and we're gonna have a time of worship together.

And and you're if you're in here and you know Jesus, but maybe you just kind of need to kind of clean your spiritual glasses off a little bit and remember that your story is important, that this year will be your best year ever, if it's your best year spiritually.

This year we're gonna grow in freedom by taking a step of faith ourselves, and we're also gonna take someone else by the hand and say, Come on, man, we're going to the kingdom of God this year, and we're gonna celebrate every story.

Maybe this needs to be that moment from this day forward, January 11th, 2026.

I'm gonna act as though it's January 1, and I'm gonna celebrate what God's doing in my life.

I'm gonna celebrate that he is still good, and we receive communion, it's gonna be a celebration that Jesus is still good and that what he did on the cross is still enough.

And then we're gonna have a time of worship.

And maybe you're in here and you don't know the Lord.

Can I tell you, thank you so much for being here today?

You've never been more loved than you are right now.

What if you were to take out the word world and you realize that God so loved you, that he gave his one and only son, so that if you would put your trust in him, you would not perish but have eternal life.

Today could be the day of your salvation.

Inside your worship God on the back of that connect card we talked about is the plan of salvation.

And I want you to do something.

We've never done it like this before, but in just a moment, we're gonna stand, we're gonna receive communion.

And if you're in here and you don't know the Lord yet, but today is your day, you're ready that Jesus, you can have my life.

I'm just gonna give you my worries and fears and sin, I'm gonna give you everything.

That's what salvation is.

I'm going all in for Jesus.

If that's you, I want you to receive the cup as well, but I don't want you to, I don't want you to use it yet.

I want you to be with us as we receive communion, and then when we begin to worship, I want you to take your card and I want you to take your communion elements back to our prayer table.

And we want to lead you to the kingdom of God, lead you to Jesus, and then we want to have the honor of being with you as you receive communion in the kingdom of God for the very first time.

We want to do this with you as a new member in the body of Christ.

Today's your day.

Let this be the beginning of your salvation story.

Let's pray together right now.

God, thank you so much for today.

Thank you, God, that you are with us and that you are for us.

God, I'm so thankful for the opportunity that you have given us that we can have a salvation story, and that we can receive communion as a reminder that you are bigger than anything else that we go through.

And God, that doesn't mean that because we're saved, we don't have private battles.

Two things can be true at the same time.

We can be saved and we can be in the process of growing in freedom, and that's what communion can be for us as a reminder that beyond all the things and beyond all the circumstances, you still reign.

And that Jesus, nothing has changed about your love for us.

That you have many enemies, but no rivals for our heart, and it reminds us of your goodness.

God, I pray that as we receive communion together today, Lord, that you remind us that you are bigger than any challenge we face, you are bigger than any insecurity, any addiction, any difficulty, and that you are in the process of setting us free in Jesus' name.

And God, I pray for maybe somebody in here today that today is the next step in their salvation story.

Today is the day they're gonna go all in with you, Jesus.

Today's the day.

I pray you'll give them the courage to take these communion elements to join us at the prayer table so that we can watch them be born into the kingdom.

Today's the day.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

You may stand with me all over the house this morning.

If you on the right hand side of the line, you are the designated communionista to pass over the communion elements.

As always, you don't please don't feel obligated to receive communion with us if you don't feel comfortable doing so, or if this is not what you're used to.

You do not have to do this.

The Lord loves you either way.

At the same time, if this is you, that today's your day of salvation, I want you to hold that with you.

This is gonna be the greatest joy in our heart is to watch you receive communion for the first time in the kingdom of God in just a moment.

But for the rest of us, let's prepare our hearts.

They're gonna sing through this a couple of times, and I just want to quiet our soul and just prepare our hearts to celebrate communion together.

Your name is power, your name is healing, your name is life.

Shine through the shadows, the life your name is high, your name is Hilly, your name is Break every stronghold.

Song to the song Come on, sing it one more time.

Come on, sing it, see this chorus with us, come on.

Your name is it is the Lord Praise Come on, come on.

Come on, let's focus our attention on Jesus.

Come on, let's sing it to him.

Your David Fall Yes it is your David King.

Your David.

Thank you, Jesus.

Shine through the shadows alive.

Thank you, Jesus.

If you want to open up the first tab to reveal the bread, the Bible said that on the night that Jesus was going to be betrayed, supper having been ended the Passover Seder.

The Bible said that he took the bread and he blessed it and he broke it.

He began to pass it around and he told his disciples, He said, When you eat this, think of me.

For this is a representation of my body which is broken for you.

And when we receive the bread, we follow what Jesus said and we think of him and we remember that that cross did not belong to Jesus, it belonged to us, but he stepped in the way and took our place.

And the Bible said, For the joy set before him, he endured the cross.

We were the joy that was before him.

Let's raise this and celebrate it.

Jesus, thank you for your body, which was broken for us.

Thank you, Jesus, that you took our cross, that nobody put you on that cross.

You went willingly for because your love for us was so strong, and because of you, we have a story of salvation.

Because of you, nothing that we go through in this world can touch the salvation that you have given us.

Nothing can separate us from the love of God, and we celebrate that today.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

You may receive the bread in Jesus' name.

Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, Jesus.

Now, if you'll peel back the second, more difficult tab that reveals the juice.

The Bible said that after he had done that, he took the cup, he lifted it to heaven, and he blessed it.

And then he began to pass it around and he said, I want you to drink this, for this is a representation of my blood, which is shed for you.

And I love how Peter says later, he reminds us of the Old Testament.

He said, It is by his stripes that we were healed.

What I love about salvation is it takes everything and it puts it under the blood of Jesus, and that we can now be washed free and walk in freedom in every area of our life.

Let's celebrate that today.

Lord, thank you so much for your blood, Jesus, that was shed for all of us.

That every single drop of blood was for us, for our salvation, for our healing.

And so everything is under your blood.

That you have many enemies but no rivals, and because of you, Jesus, all things are possible.

Thank you for the celebration story that we have of salvation because of you.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

You may drink the juice.

If you feel comfortable, let's just raise our hands to the Lord right now.

Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you for your blood.

Thank you for your body.

Thank you that it announces that, Lord, you are still good and you are still able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all we could ask or think.

Let's worship the Lord together and just take a few moments and celebrate Him.

And if today is your day of salvation, I want you to join us at the prayer table.

Today is the day that's going to make your life world never be the same again.

Let's worship the Lord together today.