Too Good To Be True | Doctrines Of Jesus Christ

Oh let's feel the dance Come on take it out, he's coming on the clouds.

He's coming on the clouds Kings and Kingdoms will bow Every chain will break It's broken arch declares For who can stop the Lord allcing out Our God is the Lion The Lion of Judah He's roaring with power And fighting our bones Every knee will bow me for me Our God is the Lamb The Lamb that will save For the sins of the world His blood grace will change And every knee you bow before the Lion and the Lamb Every new bow before Every new bows and I'll open up the gate So open up the gate Make way before the key of I gotta come to take It's gonna step the cat is who can stop the Lord Oh my deep I got it to lie The lion of Judah Enjoying the power In fighting of battle Every thou beau I got it to Lamb The Lamb that would stay For the tin to work His blood pain to change And every need will doubt for the Lion and the Lamb Every Evil Thou before Hill Jesus Who can stop the Lord Oh my stop the Lord Oh my stop the Lord I know Who can stop Come on church to clear that out today Who can stop the Lord Oh my story Who can stop the Lord Oh my Who can stop the Lord Oh my Who can stop the Lord I got it's the Lion The Lion of Judah is roaring with power Everyone Every will bow before it got it to Lamb The Lamb that was taken for the chin's abdoor is the day Every knee will bow before the lion and the lamb Every knee will bow before Jesus our God is the lie, the lion of Judah He's roaring with power and fighting every knee will bow before our God is the Lamb Our God is the Lamb The Lamb that will save for the sins of the world His blood breaks the chase Every knee will bow before the light and the lamb every knee will bow me before who can stop the Lord almighty Who can stop the Lord almighty?

Oh come on, let's sing this going into 2020, let's sing this.

Maybe it's been the worst year of your life for the absolute death.

But I want to encourage you that the power of the church is in unity and it's around the name of Jesus.

So we're gonna sing this song that talks about what we believe.

And there's something powerful when we sing it together.

I don't know if you love to sing, you might think this is the weirdest karaoke you've ever been to.

But this is the church, and this is what we do, and we do this as an act of worship.

And so if you don't know the song, the weirdest are on the screen.

But it's really simple.

Most of us will know this, and I want you to sing it with a conviction that way, there is a unity.

Our God is three and one.

I believe in the resurrection, thou we will rise again, for I believe in the name of Jesus.

Suffer then crucified, forgiveness is in descended into darkness, you rose in glorious alive, forever seated high.

For I believe in the name of Jesus, and I believe in you.

I believe that Jesus Christ is all me.

I believe that Jesus Christ is Lord.

I believe in life eternal, I believe in the virgin birth, I believe in the saints' communion and in your holy church, I believe in the resurrection when Jesus comes again, for I believe in the name of Jesus, I believe in God our Father, I believe in Christ the Son, I believe in the Holy Spirit, our God is three and one.

I believe in the resurrection, now we will rise again, for I money, in the name of Jesus, for I believe, in the name of Jesus, for I money, in the name of Jesus, oh it's dinner, stead could not hold you, the veil to be silence the boast of sin every heavens are roaring, the praise of me of the glory, for you are raised to life again.

You have no right, you have no equipment, now it's foreign to God you wake Yours is the kid, yours is the glory, yours is the leg of my voice in my heart, the temperature, the fail to be fine, it's time is the world of the day The heavens on the wall, the great For you are right to like the You have no right You have no equal Now in foreign team Your team Your is the name of the name What a powerful name it is What a powerful name it is The name of Jesus Christ, my king What a powerful name it Nothing can try to get What a powerful name it is The name of what a powerful name, what a powerful name it is, what a powerful name it is, the name of Jesus Christ my King What a powerful name it is nothing can scarcely What a powerful name it is the name of Jesus It's a powerful name It's stronger than cancer, it's stronger than the name of anxiety, it's stronger than the name of depression of hopelessness.

Oh, it's stronger than any other name, it's stronger than any other name, it's the name of our God, our King.

He's alive today, so I'm alive today.

It's Jesus, his name is Jesus.

We're gonna go back, we're gonna sing that bridge.

And I love that bridge because it talks about how God is risen from the grave.

And what the verse that I just read says that I am in him and he is in me.

And so when we're singing that he is raised from the dead, we're believing that we've been raised from the dead as well.

And so everything that happens to Jesus, we have full inheritance to receive that.

And I don't know what you need to believe for something to be resurrected today, but we're gonna believe for it in worship.

I don't know if there's something that died in 2019, but I'm gonna speak that there's gonna be life in 2020 to things that have been dead for maybe a very long time.

And so we're gonna sing again, you have no rival, but I want you to sing it as in like I have no rival, because it's the power of Christ that lives in us, that lives in the church.

So we're gonna sing it again.

But I you don't have to be here, church.

You chose to be here this morning.

So I want you to sing it with conviction, like you're actually believing for something, because I don't want to just sing by myself up here.

We practiced for a long time, but we need your voices this morning.

Let's sing You Have No Rival together.

You have no rival, you have no equal now and forever.

Yours is a name above all names you have, you have no eye, you have no equal now and forever.

Your sister, your sister of the You have no art, you have no eat one forever, your title the glory, your teeth above, what a powerful name it is, what a powerful name it is The name of Jesus Christ What a powerful name it is nothing can stand What a powerful name it is The name of you not touching The Veils are before you silence above seen the heavens are rolling the praise of the morning for you are raised to life again you have no rival, you have no equal now and forever, yours is the kingdom, yours is the glory, yours is the name above all.

Do we believe as a church this morning in who our God is?

Amen.

Can you just take a moment and lift up the name of the Lord and praise him in believing in the Psalms that says, I would have lost hope unless I believed that I will see the goodness of God in the land of the living.

This morning, I'm believing that for people that have lost hope that in this church, that in Kelowna Christian Center in 2020, we are going to see the goodness of God in the land of the living.

We're gonna see the goodness of his healing in the land of the living.

We're gonna see the goodness of deliverance in the land of the living.

That this place is alive.

Amen.

That you, he made alive.

So this morning, I just want you to take a moment to lift up your voice and start to declare to God and the people around you what you're believing for this year.

That God, I'm believing for healing in 2020.

I'm believing for deliverance in 2020.

I'm believing for my kids in 2020.

I'm believing you're gonna do something in marriages in 2020.

I'm believing you're gonna make me alive this year.

I'm believing you're gonna set me free.

I'm believing my neighbors are gonna come to know you.

I'm believing my family's gonna come to know you.

I'm believing the things that have died with me last year are coming alive this year.

But he's a god who makes all things new.

He gives beauty for actions, he restores, he brings life for their steps.

And this year, I think we have an opportunity in the first week to just stay right here.

We believe the death could not hold him.

We believe he has an arrival, we believe he's silent supposed to be, we believe he's a healer, we believe he's a restorer for a minute.

I just want to believe to lift up your voice for a minute.

I wanna hear you, I wanna hear your voices be made for such a meet for your life, for your family, for your friends.

We believe for me.

I thank you, God, that we can come here on a Sunday and declare that we believe we will see the goodness of God in the land of the living, that this place in this church is a church that's alive, that we're not succumbing to whatever happened last year or last week, that we believe in you, God.

We choose to believe again and again and again that you're a healer, that you're a restorer, that you're a deliverer, that you're king, that your name is above every other name, that you have no rival, that you have no equal.

God, we just declare that we believe it.

We believe in God, our Father, we believe you're the risen Son, and God, we believe in you.

And we pray, God, for hearts that are feeling discouraged or down today, that you would come and encourage them, you would come and bring life, you would come and breathe on them again, God.

The dry bones would come alive even as we're singing today.

That literally everything that's dead inside of us would come alive in your presence.

We believe in you this morning and we give you all the glory in Jesus' name.

Everybody said, Give the Lord a It is a good Sunday to be in church, amen.

Happy new year to everyone.

If you haven't caught on this morning, we're pretty stoked that it's 2020 and a brand new year is coming in, and we are just believing as a church that God's gonna do great and amazing things in our midst this year, amen.

Amen.

You can have a seat, say hi to someone around you if you haven't met someone, introduce yourself.

Wow, how many of you uh love the treat we had with Moana today?

What a great treat.

Man, we are so blessed.

Um, good morning, and uh, I know it's 11:30, but we're in 2020, right?

We're in 2020, we're in the new year, and I know that uh there's been a lot of words that have been shared, and uh, I just want to just start off by saying that we're praying for Canada.

Now, if you've already watched the World Juniors, don't say anything.

I don't want any texts, I don't want any reports.

I want everyone just to keep it quiet.

I hear they were playing Russia, they may still be playing right now, and uh the world juniors, and so just please just keep that under wrap.

I have it recorded at home, okay?

La la la la la la.

That's the way it's gonna be.

Just pray, pray for Canada.

Um, there's a word oftentimes to define a season, and uh oftentimes the word for the season comes from a number of uh people who are leaders in the nation, and they they just uh associate and um and uh synchronize all their messages and their words as to what God is actually saying.

And I'm just believing right now that this is gonna be a year where we can just keep our heads up and look into the future.

The future ahead is bright.

I see this picture of a door, but not just a door, like double doors.

Something that you're not gonna have difficulty getting through, but the doors are gonna open up.

And I know this is everyone's lives have different uh variables associated with them.

It's either business or family or relationships or or uh health.

Everyone's situations are different, but in the process, I believe God's telling us to keep our head up and to keep watching, watch for the for what God is doing and look for those double doors, not just single doors, but double doors as to where God is wanting to lead you.

So could you say turn to your neighbor and just say double doors in 2020?

That's right, double doors.

It's gonna be open, wide, open so that you can actually see where God is leading you.

And so I so appreciate the worship today because I think it's as long, well I know, as long as we keep our eyes on Jesus, the future will be bright.

Our hope is there.

He is our hope, he is our our safe place, he's our strong tower.

But we have to keep our head up and keep watchful over to what over what He is looking out for us for.

And so this is uh this is a new year, it's a new beginning, and we believe everyone has uh a spiritual journey that they're on.

Uh, you may be here for the first Sunday in 2020 because you're thinking, man, I just want to make uh a change.

And maybe that means attending a church or or experiencing what it means or learning about God in your life, or or recognizing your spiritual, uh your spiritual person and helping it mature and grow.

And you might be here today and you don't know where you're you're at, and that's okay, because we believe everyone's on this journey and and we're just here to help you take these next steps.

And these next steps include just knowing God.

We believe everybody here needs to have a personal relationship with God, not the God of our parents or our grandparents or our culture, but that we have a personal relationship with God that's close to you.

It's it's defined by you and your relationship to Him.

Because once we realize what God has done for us and we settle our sin and it settles our past, then we can move into our future.

And oftentimes when we move forward, we realize that there are things that are holding us back.

And that's why God brings us around community, and and we're here to actually help one another achieve freedom and find freedom that was only found in Christ.

You know, there's that one scripture that says, the truth shall set you free.

And sometimes we don't see the truth.

Because of all the distractions and all the filters that are in life, we think, man, I I don't I don't know if I really believe that Jesus has forgiven me.

I don't believe that I can live my life without the shame or the guilt attached.

I deserve it because of what I've done.

But the fact is, Jesus has set us free from sin and death, free from the chains that keep us trapped.

And that's what we were singing today, and we can sing about it, but do we believe it?

So we move to find freedom.

And when we find freedom, we move into our purpose and what where God has taken us, and this is where we discover our purpose.

The the best days in your life are the day you were born, the day, the day you discover why you were born.

Why am I here?

What am I called to do?

Because when you discover that purpose, that's where you find joy in being able to make a difference.

Making a difference in your family, in your church, in your city, in your culture.

You're making a difference.

And our hope is that you make these steps along these along this journey, and we're there to help support you, we're there to help carry you.

So that number one step, know God, that's what we'll be uh focusing on during this month of January, knowing God for ourselves personally.

We're gonna spend time knowing God, and we believe the first uh all of our programs, all of the events that we're doing are gonna be based around this focus of knowing Him.

So we're gonna start this year with 21 days of prayer here at KCC.

It's not a formal like regular gathering.

We've got templates and books that are out in the lobby here to help move you forward into uh the days of prayer that are coming ahead.

We're gonna be praying together.

We're gonna be praying in our connect groups, we're gonna be praying at church, we're gonna be praying through all of the activities that we're doing.

We're gonna be moving forward.

And and you can follow us with the social on the Instagram and Facebook and the Instagram, Instagram, Facebook.

We're gonna be sending out emails, just helping keeping you on track as to where God is is moving the church.

Prayer is important.

Prayer should be our first place we go when we're facing what like anything, it should be our first place.

God's heart is that He and you have a relationship that's close, and the best place to develop that is through a point of prayer.

Prayer is that important.

So we believe that this year the best place to start is in prayer, and you can join with us uh through these 21 days of prayer.

And so knowing God, this series, we've entitled it Too Good to be true.

Too good to be true.

In Hosea, there's uh a scripture that says this, Hosea 4, 6.

It says, My people are destroyed because they lack knowledge.

Knowledge.

They lack knowledge now.

In a culture that we're living in today, knowledge is not easy, not hard to come by.

We've got the something called the interweb, you know what that is, the internet, right?

We've got knowledge about anything.

We can Google it and you can find all information, we can find information for for whatever you may be looking for.

There's something out there that you can track down and you can find the knowledge for it.

But the Bible says that we die and people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because they're not pursuing the right things.

They're looking at the the how to get like the the best help books and the um how to how to grow your own uh person, but they they're not talking about the things that really matter.

The the attention isn't on those things.

So we the fact is we all have a knowledge of God and a framework of how we see the God of the Bible.

It's called our theology.

Now each of us has a theology.

It doesn't matter if you believe in God or don't believe in God.

We all have a theology because we all have uh a framework of how we see the God of the Bible.

We have a doctrine and each of us carry uh uh a perception of doctrine.

Doctrine is a uh it's a specific teaching about God, and Christian doctrine is really based around the teachings of Jesus.

He's the one who established a doctrine, a sound doctrine.

So the question isn't if you have theology or if you have doctrine.

The question is always, is your theology sound?

Is it worthy of being tested?

Is it strong?

Is it got a strong foundation to what you believe?

Because this knowledge of God is the foundation upon which you how and how you know God, what you know about Him.

So the question isn't if you have theology or doctrine, the question is rather, is it sound?

And there are two responses, whether you when you approach doctrine, you can either receive it or you can reject it.

You can either accept Jesus' teaching or you can adjust it to your own personal perspective and view.

And what we find today is that people have their initial view of God, and it's based upon public opinion or public culture.

And but they have this view of God that may be distant, and maybe and it's untrue.

It's that God is distant, that God doesn't care about you, that He doesn't care about your current state of being.

The fact that He doesn't, he He doesn't, he wants you to earn your salvation, He hasn't given you the free gift of salvation.

He we have this view of God, our culture has this view of God that God's intention is to punish you and not promote you or give you a purpose.

And all these views of God are really important because they're either they either have a foundation that's based on truth or a foundation that's based on a lie.

And the Jesus said, some men they build their house on sand.

And when the winds come and the rain comes, the sand from underneath the building gets washed out and the house crumbles down.

Then there are others who have a knowledge of God that's based on truth, and they build their house on a rock, and this rock can withstand the pressures and the storms of life.

And we need to be people who are building our lives on the rock.

And that comes from a sound that comes when we have a view of God, our theology is based on sound, accurate Christian doctrine.

Now, this doesn't sound uh for many people, this may sound like it's like Christmas.

You have all the treats that are out, trays and trays of like cookies and flesh.

How many of you had that over Christmas?

Like you had cookies and treats and peppermint and all these things that you we just love.

And you can eat and eat and eat and eat all these little cakes and and treats, but after a while you realize you can't live on that.

It's not something that you can live on.

You gotta go back to the basics, you gotta go back to the beginning and look at the things that are important and start feeding on the things that are important, like meat and potatoes and vegetables.

And they're not sexy, it's just broccoli and cauliflower and turnips and carrots and eat this.

It doesn't sound very fancy or or like a delicacy, but it's what you'll thrive on.

And so a lot of people resist going to doctrine, resist pursuing doctrine because it's not it's not um exciting.

But what's exciting is when you realize the truth of the of Christian doctrine, and you realize the truth behind it, and you start digging a little deeper, there's there's a value in what we oftentimes just dismiss.

Take for example, prayer.

Prayer oftentimes is something that is consistent with all of us in this room.

At one point in time, we've opened our hearts to pray.

Prayer is something that for some of us, or maybe you grew up in an environment where prayer was a duty.

Prayer was something that was just traditional, that you just did regularly.

Every meal you just turned and you prayed, or every time someone was sick, you just pray a prayer for them.

But the value and the and the doctrine of prayer, the teachings of Jesus around prayer, is that God is our Father and we can approach him with our words.

That the God of the universe doesn't have a tier that you have to climb up to actually approach him.

He says, I'm as close as your cry for help.

You cry, I will answer.

You call, I will answer.

You're uh you you speak to me.

It says what Paul would say, all you in in, I think it was Ephesus at the time, where he says, You serve gods that have ears, but they don't hear.

They're just idols.

You serve gods that have mouths, but they don't, they can't speak.

But let me introduce you to one who has ears and he hears, who has a mouth and he speaks.

And God know it all not only can do that, he wants to do that with us.

Now, prayer is something that we may have considered to be something uh small, something common, something just regular.

But the fact that we can actually go to God in prayer is incredible.

That we can call out to God right now and he'll hear us and he'll respond.

This is the value of our our doctrine.

Matthew 22 says this in verse 36.

It says the teacher, the disciples are asking Jesus, teacher, which commandment is the greatest in the law?

And Jesus declares, and this is what a king does when he's asking, like, what about what's the greatest law?

And Jesus says, He declares a law.

He says, This is the greatest commandment.

It's the first commandment, it's the greatest commandment.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

With all your mind.

And this is a great commandment, we've heard it before.

And I believe the church has done a really good job in loving God with their heart and with their soul.

And it's really important that we learn to love God with our heart and soul.

In fact, there are times in our history where people became so academic of their faith that they actually lost the person that they were worshiping.

They knew about God, but they didn't know God.

There was no connection to God with their heart and their soul.

So we decided, you know what, we're gonna swing over this way.

Isn't this just the nature of people?

Swing over to one side.

Well, we're gonna have heart and soul conferences and heart and soul gatherings, and and but they don't have like a mind love, love the Lord with your mind conference.

It's not as familiar, it's not as popular because this takes work.

It takes engaging your your academia, it takes engaging your your cognitive senses and saying, God, I'm gonna pursue learning about you, diving deep into who you are until I know you in a deeper and more real way.

I if I knew Natalie, my wife, based on her Facebook profile, name, connections, family, friends, birthday, occupation, books she likes to read, movies she likes.

To go to hallmark movies, she loves, you know, the summer.

All these things.

I would only have a glimpse of who she really is.

It's when I dive deep into learning who she is.

I ask those hard questions.

I get down to the core of who she is, and I'm able to engage her on a mental space where I'm like, Natalie, share with me your dreams, share with me your hopes, share with me your views, your perceptions on life.

That becomes where our relationship actually grows deeper and deeper.

Loving the Lord your God with your heart and soul is very important, but it's not complete.

He also wants to love him with our mind.

And today I feel that a lot of people rule by their feelings.

They rule by their feelings and tend to be more, and their feelings tend to be more important than actually doctrine.

They don't go back to Jesus' teaching to determine the way they should live.

They go by their feelings.

And when Paul was asked, they say, Paul, share with us your doctrine.

Paul said, All right.

He says, this is the doctrine of Christ.

This is the doctrine of Jesus Christ.

He stayed away from sharing anything that was of himself.

He stepped right out of the picture.

He said, Let me share with you the teachings of Jesus Christ.

That's how you ought to build your life.

Because if you build your life on what feels good to Brody or what feels good to culture, we're just gonna the first storm comes, it'll wash our house away.

But you've got to build your heart, your life.

You've got to build your home, you've got to build your future on the doctrines of Christ.

Now that's a big word, but really it means Jesus' teachings.

Everywhere Jesus went, he would teach, teach, and he established doctrine.

And it doesn't sound cool, it doesn't sound like maybe like fancy, like the miracles or the signs and the wonders, but it was the primarily what he did.

He went about establishing doctrine.

That's how you get to know the Father.

That's how you get to know Jesus.

Know his instructions, sticking to his instructions.

It was Paul's challenge to Timothy.

Don't veer from the instructions that Jesus established.

Keep going back to it.

Don't get off course.

And so let me share with you just why I think people reject this form of worship.

The Bible says you worship the Lord in spirit and in truth.

It's true worship to know him that way.

And I think people believe that if they they they jump into doctrine, it'll somehow separate them from uh, it'll separate the authenticity of their relationship.

So if I spend time and I'm I'm learning about you and and learning your teachings, I'm gonna miss out on the heart.

But in fact, when you learn the doctrine of Christ, the teachings of Christ, your relationship will actually grow stronger.

Um if you engage with God with your mind, there's this other sensation that if you do that, then what will happen is you'll drift away from people who don't know God.

You'll just kind of separate yourself from them.

But the reality is if people have questions, you better know how to answer and have a clarity of knowledge as to how to address the problems or the questions that they might have.

And that only comes by you diving deep.

And so people get confused.

Like, should I go for it?

Like, if I do it, I've got lots of questions.

Good.

That's why we're here.

Good.

That's why Malachi's here.

Pastor Malachi.

Good.

That's why you have a small group leader and a connect group leader.

Good that you have questions.

When you come to a small group and you come to your Kinect group, you should sit around the table and say, I've got a question.

And that's good.

We're never afraid of your questions.

You this ought to be a place where you can, as the in the book of Acts, the people they would come and they'd sit at the feet of the apostles and they'd learn sound doctrine.

That's what they would do.

They'd come with their questions and they'd go to the scripture and they'd work it out and they'd figure it out and they'd dive deep.

But if no one's asking questions, how are we to grow in our faith?

How can we grow in the richness of our faith and our relationship with God?

How do we know God in a richer way?

I hope this isn't coming across hard.

This is, I'm just, I want this to be in your heart this year for 2020.

That you're not just gonna skip across the surface this year, but you're gonna go deep.

And I like what the Holy Spirit says, it the Spirit of God, it's like it calls deep unto deep.

It's like it goes deep and it goes even deeper still.

And if there's one challenge in our culture, we always stay on the surface.

Stay shallow, it's safe.

And the Bible says, go deep, go deep.

That's why the Holy Spirit came to counsel, to teach, to instruct, to give you the mind of the Father, the Spirit of the Father, so that you can understand the deep things of God.

Go deep.

Don't be afraid of this in 2020.

Don't be afraid.

Walk with your head held high and say, I've got questions.

I've got I want to go deeper.

I want to reach out, I want to do what needs to be done.

All this is so important because doctrine itself is important.

Jesus, when he began to speak in Matthew 7.28, it says that crowds of people were amazed by his doctrine.

We think people were amazed because he healed people and the miracles and the signs and all those things.

The Bible would say he would teach first, he established doctrine first, he taught about the Father, and then he did the miracles.

There was a miracle was based on the faith of the people, and the faith was established by what they had heard from Jesus first.

So we need this faith.

Faith comes by hearing, hearing the word of God.

And when people's faith was alive, they just spoke and things happened.

And that's where the doctrine was valued.

The doctrine of God of the Lord caused people to believe in him.

We read about this in Acts when there was a pro-council who saw what had happened in the way that Paul had dealt with a sorcerer at the time, and he believed because he was greatly astounded at the teachings about the Lord.

It wasn't that Paul was a fantastic teacher.

Paul said, I like Peter said, I decrease so that he would increase.

Compared to knowing him and the knowledge about him and the knowledge of his death.

Like imagine that, that I might know him, just understand the cross, the richness of the cross, the richness of the good news, the gospel message.

When the gospel is truly understand, understood, the scripture says it's like insanity, it's craziness to those who don't believe.

But to those who believe, it's the power of God into salvation.

But how can a cross be so wonderful when you learn about what happened at the cross on that day, in that moment, you realize the power of and the and the wonder of what God did for us, the Father did for us.

And that's where we step back and we go, Wow, this is too good to be true.

You mean there's grace for me?

Unmerited favor for me?

Do you mean I'm made righteous because of Jesus?

Nothing compared, nothing based upon what I did just because of what he did?

Do you mean my I'm justified?

Like my sins are no more.

It's like I've never sinned.

I can walk boldly into the throne room of Christ because of what Jesus did for me.

When you realize the depth of this, which I can't cover in 30 minutes, when you realize the depth of becoming a part of the family of God, where just the the fact that we can call out Abba Father and we become a son of God, that's a rich, rich uh part of our faith.

The fact that the name of Jesus is the name above every other name what we were singing about today, and we say, Jesus, that is power in the name of Jesus.

Every knee will bow in the name of Jesus, before the name of Jesus.

No weapon can stand against the name of Jesus.

When you realize the value of the name of Jesus, how rich is our faith.

The doctrine will help us, and the Bible says it's it's something that we're constantly growing in.

Hebrews 6 talks about it as our that we progress among, we progress from elementary instruction.

I like the message translation.

The message says we graduate beyond uh finger painting, elementary finger painting, and we move into the richer, more mature parts of our faith, and that's where there's value.

Amen.

And the reality is this that without doctrine, we don't have the direction that we need, we don't have the the resolve to fulfill our relationship with God.

And we need to have that knowledge of who he is.

So over the next month in January, I'm really excited about this.

It's a huge, it's it's a big step because it really is meat and potatoes.

It's it's the place where the enemy would put the most lies, energy towards confusing and just dismissing parts of the gospel so that we don't quite understand it.

But we I want to bring up in the next few weeks the richness of the gospel, the richness of what Jesus has done for us, so that we could just celebrate it and realize afterwards, go, wow, this is too good to be true.

Can you imagine?

Can you imagine?

Oftentimes people think that this is all about legalism, and it's not, it's not about just going to the scripture and doing everything the scripture says.

We see the value of that, but legalism really is about our salvation being based upon our works, and we can say confidently today that when you understand what Jesus has done, it's not our works that saved us.

We're saved by grace through the work that He accomplished on the cross.

And so today, would you just join me in that next step for 2020 in actually moving our faith forward, moving our relationship forward by pursuing a deeper relationship with him through the through the study of our doctrine, the study of the doctrine of Christ, the instructions of Christ.

And I can guarantee it's gonna be an exciting journey.

It's gonna be an exciting time.

Would you bow your heads with me this morning?

Father, we thank you today for your message, for your word.

And uh, for those in this room, there may be some in this room today, and as I'm speaking, you're just you said you can recall a time in your life when your relationship with God was deeper than it is today.

And as I've been preaching, as I've been speaking, these words are ringing off your heart.

And they're ringing off your heart, and the and they're challenging you to dive deeper, to go deeper.

And that's the Lord today, and he's drawing you close.

He's saying, I want to know you, I want to know you more, I want to pull you close, I want you to realize the the depth, the height, the breadth of my love for you.

I want you to know the joy unspeakable.

I want you to know the peace that passes understanding.

I want you to know the the the capacity that you can have to be able to walk in boldness because I've made you righteous.

And if that's you today, I want to pray for you.

I want to pray that the Lord anoint you with a fresh start in 2020.

And so if that's you today, just prepare your heart to receive as I pray.

Father, we thank you for your word.

We thank you that you love us and care for us, and we're like children.

You're our father, our father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Father, you want to establish yourself in our hearts.

Over 2020, Father, we ask that your spirit would be close to us.

Lord, that the hunger would begin to uh churn in us, that we would begin to desire the deeper things, that we would begin to desire the the rich places of the gospel, that we would go from deep unto deep, that we would worship you with our body, with our mind, with our soul, with our heart, that we would worship you in spirit and in truth.

The Father today, you would help us grow in this year, grow in our relationship with you, grow in our knowledge of you.

We ask, Lord, that you would keep us from any lie of the enemy that would keep us uh that would distract us from the truth, and we ask, Lord, that you would pour into us living water in Jesus' name, in Jesus' name, in Jesus' name.

If you're here today and you've never received Christ, you've never connected with Jesus, and this is your first time, and you're you're thinking, I just want to start this relationship with him.

Today's your day.

And if you would like to do that today, we're gonna lead you in a prayer.

And this prayer is a simple prayer, it it has huge implications.

When you pray this prayer, it's opening your heart to Jesus to come and be with you.

And it's a huge step, but you don't need to be afraid because he's in every piece of the process, he's in every part of the journey.

You don't have to be perfect, you don't have to be uh, you don't have to even have full confidence, you just have to take that first step and he'll take the rest.

And if that's you today, I'm gonna lead you in a prayer and I'm gonna invite the congregation to pray with me to get together.

Would you pray this?

Jesus, I need you.

Forgive me for living my life without you.

Today I surrender control of my life to you.

Be my Lord, be my savior, forgive me of my sin.

Help me as I move forward with you.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Would you give the Lord a hand this afternoon?

Thank him for what he's done.

Thank him, Amen.

Thank you, Trisha.