Renewal | Alters to an Unknown God

Paul did not pull a punch. As a matter of fact, he rolled a grenade in before he walked through

the door and started talking. He says, "I see that you have this form of religion that you're

even building these temples. You're going through great labor for these things that

you say you believe, but you've even built an altar to what you call an unknown God.

Well, good morning, church. Good morning. Happy New Year, everybody. Boy, it's good to see

you. Today, we're going to start a new series called Renewal. I've entitled my sermon today,

Altars to an Unknown God. Altars to an Unknown God. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 4,

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

starting in verse 17. We're going to read through verse 32 together. It's going to set the basis for

this series. Before I get started though, I want to share with you something that the Lord laid

on my heart recently, and I'm going to give it to you today. Uh it's called 21 for 21. Uh

science has has shown us that it takes 21 days to create uh a habit. And so for the next 21 days,

starting tomorrow morning, we are going to share in 21 days of prayer and scripture

reading together as a body of believers. You can find this information at hopecc.com at the events

page. Uh there is a downloadable PDF there that you can go and you can see uh the dayto-day study,

the scripture reading and the prayer focus. And so I want you to join us over the next 21 days.

uh that will allow us to come into unity as a body uh but also start the year off right. Can

I get an amen? Want to do things God's way this year. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 17 through32.

Ephesians 4:17–32

Let's read. So I tell you this and insist on it in the Lord that you must no longer live as the

Gentiles do in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and

separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening

of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality

so as to indulge in every kind of impurity. They are full of greed. That however is not the way of

life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance to the truth that

is in Christ Jesus. You were taught with regard to your formal way of life to put off your old self

which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires. Anybody got deceitful desires in here? Three of

us. You bunch of liars. And it says, "You're being corrupted by those deceitful desires to be made

new in the attitude of your minds." How many of y'all need new attitude this year? Come on now.

We're getting down to the brass tax. And to put on the new self, created to be like God in true

righteousness and holiness. Therefore, each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully

to your neighbor. For we are all members of one body. In your anger, do not sin. Do not let the

sun go down while you are still angry. And do not give the devil a foothold. Anyone who has been

stealing must steal no longer, but must work, do something useful with their own hands. Y'all got

any any any son-in-laws out there? Parents, y'all need to be reaching with that one. That's a it's

a thing I see constantly. I wish my son-in-law just get in gear. I wish whatever. Listen, can

I tell you get in gear to let him see how to get in gear and it'll work out. Uh it says that they

may have something to share with those in need. Do not let any unh wholesome talk Oh my Lord Jesus.

That just that was a bomb dropped in my camp right there. Unh wholesome talk. You ever just get down

and just just just just let it all just you just going to let your frustration hang out a little

bit? You going you going to just process verbally for a little while? Listen listen. We got to be

careful with that. It says, "Don't let any unh wholesome talk come out of your mouth." Well,

you don't know what so and so and so and so did. No, but I know what the Savior did. Talk

about that. Amen. Uh, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs that

it may benefit those who listen. You know, every word comes out of your mouth is not beneficial

to the people listening. You need to ask yourself a question. Does it need to be said? And does it

need to be said by me? And does it need to be said by me right now? If it passes all three of those,

baby, go ahead and let her rip. Right. All right. Sorry, I'm not going to teach on that today. That

was a free uh sidetrack, free rat uh trail for you today. Uh it says, "And do not grieve the

Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." Anybody grateful for the

Holy Spirit today? Now, get this. It says, "Get rid of all bitterness, rage, and anger, brawling,

and slander along with every form of malice. Get rid of all the ugliness." He saying, "Be kind and

compassionate to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you." Now, here's

what's interesting about that. This discourse that Paul was giving to the church of Ephesus,

he was giving to the church of Ephesus. These people knew Christ. They were Christ's followers

and they were still putting it in the ditch. Can anybody relate to our Ephesian brothers

and sisters today? Anybody struggle? You're still dealing with putting the flesh away. You're still

dealing with unh wholesome talk. You're still dealing with greed. You're still dealing with Can

I be honest with you? I'm grateful that this is talking to believers. Because today, I feel like I

can relate to the Ephesians. I can relate to what Paul was talking about where he says, "Listen,

you're you're believers, but these things need to stop." Can I tell you, in order for these things

to stop, you have to have a renewal take place. That's where this entire uh uh uh series came from

is how do we make changes? How do we have a better new year without renewing us? Can I tell you,

you can't do it. You can't do it. Today, I base my sermon on uh a reading in Acts chapter 17. Go

Acts 17 · chapter mention

ahead and turn in your Bibles there. It'll be on the screen if you didn't bring your word with you.

uh Acts chapter 17:22. Let me set this up. Paul had just left uh Berea, which is where we get the

term the Bereans. They were people who studied the scripture. They were very knowledgeable about the

things of God. And he was heading south. Berea uh is in current day Greece. And he's heading south

to Athens. About 141 miles uh trip there. It's like from here to Tallahassee. That'll give you

some relevance. Um he's traveling from Berea down to Athens and and when he's on his way he hears

about this place called the Aropagus. The Aropagus is um probably to put it in the best terms for us

in America today. It would be like combining the great institutions of thought like our colleges,

our our very high-end thought colleges with uh the uh um Supreme Court and then scattering a little

bit of Congress in there. It's where all of the legal, all of the philosophy, all of the religious

things came to uh be argued. And here's what's cool about it is when you hear Aropagus, you just

hear a weird word, right? That was hard to learn that. I had to get on YouTube and learn that word.

Uh because it doesn't just roll off the American tongue. But what you miss if you don't study this

is what's in the word Aropagus. Ary meaning to the god of Aries, battle. It was a place of war

and contention. The Aropagus was a place where you would take an idea and you would fight it out with

other highinking, intelligent people. And so when Paul hears about the Aropagus, he says,

"I've got an idea. I've got a religion. I've got a savior that can withstand the battle that will be

testing it at the Aropagus." And so Paul goes to the Aropagus to contend for the faith. And there

uh the scripture goes on. I think it's around verse 34. It gives a couple of names of people

uh who got saved there. Um a lady named Dearus got saved there. Uh Dianisis got saved there.

Uh several really highinking people got saved there. And I love that it says a man and a woman

got saved. Can I tell you uh there is no sexism in what we believe. Amen. And so, um, Paul is about

to lay down a discourse to the highest minds of the Greeks. He steps into the circle of the

greatest thought, the hardest arguments, and he says, "Our faith can withstand this." And so he

goes in to the Aropagus in Acts 17 22 and 23 are all we're going to read of this little excerpt.

But I want to show you what he says. It says, "Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Aropagus

and said, "People of Athens, I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around

and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription to an

unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship. This is what I'm going to proclaim to

you. Paul did not pull a punch. As a matter of fact, he rolled a grenade in before he walked

through the door and started talking. He says, 'I see that you have this form of religion, that

you're even building these temples. You're going through great labor for these things that you say

you believe, but you've even built an altar to what you call an unknown God. And I love what

Paul's saying is you're ignorant of the thing you worship. Can I tell you, if Paul was in America

right now, he'd probably say the same thing. We have become ignorant to the God that we worship.

We know him uh uh and we have information of him. But can I tell you this? Oh Jesus, help me. Help

me. Help me. Help me. I want to get this across to you today. Uh if information without intimacy, it

creates imitation, not transformation. And we've got to get past a place of just knowing him, book

knowledge, of just knowing him, Sunday knowledge. We've got to get to a place we're spending time

in the presence of the one true living God so that we might know the God that we worship.

I wasn't going to go this hard this early. Here's a key thought for you. You can be deeply religious

and still spiritually lost. You can worship something and never truly know the someone.

We can come in here and can I tell you if all you're doing is coming here on Sundays

and getting a little spoon feeding, you're anorexic. You you're you're you're starving

yourself. You're starving yourself. And then you wonder why when the the rubber hits the

road and things get hard that you don't have the anchors in your faith to hold you strong

to a God who can hold you in those times. You don't know what he's capable of when you need

him the most cuz you don't know him. You are ignorant of the God you worship. Of course,

this doesn't apply to everybody, but can I tell you, even preaching myself this morning,

I can know him more. I can know him more. There's two categories that I want to talk about quickly,

just briefly this morning, because I believe if we're going to have renewal in 2026, we've got to

acknowledge a couple things in us. And it starts with the church. Listen, if you're not a believer,

come back next week. I'm going to reach out for you. But this week, this is family chat. This is

the believers. I'm going after those who claim to be Christians, but they're Christian by name only.

There's two categories of ignorance that pertain to the current day church. The first are those

who are worshiping false gods. Can I tell you everybody worships something? Your priorities

reveal your worship. [Laughter] Your priorities reveal your worship. Your time, your money,

your attention. You're you're building an altar. Whether you believe it or not, you're building an

altar of worship. See, our our our modern idols, they don't demand temples. They demand attention.

They demand attention. And so, whatever you give your attention to the most becomes an

idol. And so we have to be very careful that we will have no other gods in his place. Can I tell

you we all have things we have to get done. We all have hobbies. We all have interest. Nothing wrong

with that. But it's when we prioritize them in the place of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords,

you have established a false idol. And can I tell you this? Through prayer and

intimacy in the scripture, you can tear down those idols. But without intentionality,

you won't change. Can I tell you this? If it has your heart, it has your worship. Exodus

Exodus 20:3–6

20 verse 3-6, it says, "You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make

for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven, above, or on the earth beneath,

or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them. For I, the Lord your God,

am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents, to the third

and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those

who love me and who keep my commandments. Now, let me let me say this. this punishing upon the

children for the sin of the parents of the third and fourth generation. Can I tell you that science

is just now figuring out that it takes three to four generations to write emotional damage?

That means if great granddaddy put it in the ditch, you're the first person

who really has an opportunity to be free based on the world's currency.

And it's like we're sitting here looking at it in Exodus chapter 20 and God says,

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

"Listen, the way this thing works is sin has hooks. These problems, these addictions,

these these matter of fact, it's everything we just talked about in Ephesians chapter

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

4. All of these issues come with hooks. There's barbs that we think we're just,

oh, I'm just airing this out. I'm just It's just a little struggle.

Sister, can I tell you what I don't defeat spiritually? Gabe will have to defeat spiritually.

If you don't want to be renewed for any other reason than this, run a good leg of your race

genealogically speaking. Set up the next generation. Show them what it means to live

a renewed life. Men, can I tell you this? It It's rampant in the church. Pornography. Get away from

it. Purify yourselves from it. Why? Because what you don't defeat trickles into the next

generation. And can I tell you, you may be okay with living spiritually apathetic for yourself,

but do it for the next generation. Defeat the enemies in your leadership so that they won't

have to defeat them in their leadership. Can I get an amen? Gracious mercy. Here's some common

altars here. Let me let me just if you got on open to shoes, I apologize. Here's some common modern

altars. We deal with them all the time through counseling and prayer and I see them on connection

cards. Here we go. Success and career. See it all the time. This is particularly dangerous

because people will lay their family on top of this altar. They will sacrifice their children

at the altar of success and a career and then they will blame it on the children they're sacrificing.

Well, I'm doing it so they'll have a better life than I had. What they need is a parent,

not a paycheck. Come on now. Come on now. What they need is a spiritual patriarch,

not a paycheck. You've got to balance these things, church.

Can I tell you? You can have affluence without losing influence.

God can bless you financially while you have balance.

I did that. Sorry, y'all's mind went there, too, didn't it? Six. Jeez. Horrible.

Woo. Here's another altar. Comfort and convenience.

Well, I'm just I'm As long as my life is easy. Yeah, good luck with that. How's that working

out for you? Here's another one. Just pull your feet up. Sports and entertainment. Uh, is right.

Can I tell you that we are trusting sports? preach it.

I'm trying. I'm trying.

To do what God said he would do.

We are putting our children in all these travel sports. Oh Lord

Jesus. I can just save the emails. I ain't going to read them. No. Listen.

We're putting our children in these travel sports so that that travel

sport might be a place of provision for them for college tuition. When God said,

"I'll supply your needs according to my riches and glory. But you have to

seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness, then all these things."

Listen, if it hurts your feelings,

that ain't me. That's the word. Email new king james.com something. I don't

I don't know what to tell you. How about this one? the altar of self and identity.

We live in a culture says be true to yourself. When the word says deny yourself,

I'm going to do me. You do you and good luck. Do you and good luck because you away from the word

is a mess. Enjoy that. And after you find out what doing you gets you, you can come crawling

back and the Lord will still love you and he'll still take you back. But can I tell you,

you can save yourself a whole heaping headache if you would just start that way. Just do it

his way. Deny yourself. Now this next one, uh, the altar of politics and ideologies,

there is not a greater area in my life as a pastor where people tell me what I should or shouldn't

say. Go ahead, who I should and shouldn't support, what I should and shouldn't uh uh get

behind politically, and well, this candidate's this and this candidate. If it ain't Jesus,

I don't teach it. Amen. You see, when I took this burden of Christianity, and it's not just the

pastor, it's Christians. I will not sacrifice my influence for the kingdom for a political party.

Stings a little. That's okay. Sometimes healing hurts. And until we understand

that the influence that God has entrusted to us has to be stewarded for kingdom purposes,

not temporal purposes, we ain't going to get it. We ain't going to get it. You see, there are a lot

of people who are Christians who put more hope in a political party than they do in heaven.

You you you you trying to create heaven out of a place that's going to stay hell.

Kenny, I don't know how I better tell you. That's what the word of God tells us. It ain't getting

no better down here. Can I tell you? We got to love the lost in a dark and dying world. You

ain't fixing it. Donald Trump ain't going to fix it. You can agree or disagree. I I ain't worried

about that. I'm not here to make friends. Can I tell you this? Joe Biden ain't going to fix it.

our local politicians ain't going to fix it. Cuz when the Bible has spoken on it,

it's a done deal. In the last days, darkness shall cover the earth. Groness, your grow,

it says darkness, yeah, gross darkness shall cover the face of the earth. That's what it says. So,

what's your Facebook post creating division going to help? Anything

you trust to give you what only God can give you becomes a god.

And if you think a political party can bring you peace, okay, there's your god. Go worship that.

Let me know how it works out. Can I tell you only the prince of peace can give you peace. Amen. Only

the one true living God of heaven can fix this world. You and I as Christians are the carriers

of the true hope. And if we use our influence to teach anything other than that, it it's it's

irrelevant. And at the cost of influence that you could use for the kingdom, you're pushing a party

that is here today, gone tomorrow. I just I don't see it. Here's number two. This is a uh uh this

is a second category of ignorance in the current day church. You're saved, but you don't know him.

You're a Christian by name only.

Here's a key thought. Proximity does not equal intimacy.

I want you to think about this for a second. Wendy and I have been married 21 years.

What happens after we got married? Uh,

I went back to my house and she went back to her house. That wouldn't be near as much fun.

[Laughter]

Come on. A healthy marriage is fun. Amen. Praise God for healthy marriage.

But what happens? We we we we got married on the beach down here in Dustin in 2004.

So we go down here. We get married. And then I say, "Hey, thank you." H

And then I go back to 110 Kingpine Drive and she goes back to her house and we just I'll

see you on the holidays. I maybe I'll see you once a week in passing. We'll meet We'll meet

at a local building and only when other people around. Wow. Yeah. That's not intimacy. That's

married by name only. You see, the Bible says that you and I are the bride of Christ. And see,

he he he sealed that marriage with his blood on the cross. And then we

the bride took the ring. We took the grace. We took the blessing. We took the eternity.

We took the we'll take all the benefits for eternity, but we're leaving so much

on the table. We are leaving some of the greatest benefits of knowing him behind.

Guess what I'm saying is you can be saved and still be stagnant.

Romans 12:2 says, "Don't be conformed to this world. Be transformed by the renewing of your

Romans 12:2

mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

It's one of my favorite verses because it gives us a promise that if we do this,

we can do this. If we'll fulfill this, then we can. Okay. So, how are we renewed? It says the

renewing of our mind. The Bible says we can renew our mind by the washing of the water of the word.

How is it that we say we desire to know God, but we're not even knocking the dust off our Bibles?

You see, I I'm I'm teaching this to you today so that your 26 might be better than your 25.

I want you to wake up, sleeping giants. If you for one second saw in the spirit the dominion

that you have, boy, you'd make knowing God the priority of your day. You you you would

you would push everything aside to make knowing him your priority. I'll never forget, you know,

I I didn't know how to be married when I got married. Can anybody else relate to that? You

knew you wanted to be married, but you didn't know how to do it. You know, I saw it, but

nobody taught me how to do it. My parents always had a good marriage, but I Nobody ever said,

"Don't do this. You got to stop doing that. You got to start doing this." No. No. Nobody taught me

these things. And because of that, two years into our marriage, Wendy and I almost called it quits,

because I valued self more than I valued knowing her.

And and and use me uh as the mistake you can learn from. When I'm teaching my kids,

I call it cheap wisdom. Learn from my mistakes, not your mistakes. And can I tell you this? I've

also been guilty of being in a relationship with God that I was completely stagnant in. And and

the truth is is there were characteristics and I'm going to see if any of these characteristics line

up with maybe where you're at today. The the first is is you pray only in crisis. I know that doesn't

apply to anybody here. that the only time you pray is when uh you're absolutely uh facing demise.

Can I tell you that's okay? There's no judgment here. I I' I've been guilty of

that. Why do I bring this stuff up? Because I'm trying to show you characteristics. You might

not know that you're spiritually anemic unless I tell you. You see, until we're taught things,

we don't know. How about this? Your your your Bible is quiet, but your opinions are loud.

That was a zinger, wasn't it? Like, oh, Pastor Josh,

I didn't come here. Fourth day of the year. Holy smokes, man. What are you doing?

Can I tell you, I see it all the time. I see people who are trying to score

political points and they are completely anemic spiritually, but yet they have the

audacity to claim Christianity. How about this? We have worship songs memorized, but

the obedience is missing. We know how to worship, but we've lost connection to the one we worship.

We'll come in here, we'll sing a song, but when it comes time to actually living different hard pass,

no, no, nobody wants to live changed. We just want to worship a little bit. We just want the

feel-good of Christianity. Can I tell you that's the same thing as going to a

doctor and telling him to mask your symptoms. Just just just give me some pain medication,

but don't fix the brokenness. Let me keep a broken leg. Just get me high.

All right. How about this? We have more trust in our

past encounters instead of a present surrender.

Well, I've known him in the past. Yeah. But do you know him right now?

Can I tell you I am so blessed to know Wendy Neil today because she has blossomed into

something so beautiful in 21 years that if I leaned on year three or year five or year 10,

there's something rich about who she is today that I'd be missing and and and and

and God is that way. That yes, it's great that you had an impact in your teens. It's

great that you went to church camp and got a shout about you. It's great that you met the

Holy Spirit and it changed everything. But what has he changed in you lately?

What is it that needs to be renewed by his current presence?

You see, somewhere along the way, we we we we become callous. And we say, "Well, you know,

I I'm living off these past experiences, and I just I don't buy it." Can I tell you this? You

You can't accidentally drift into intimacy. You decide into intimacy. You have to start

making decisions to know him today. You see, if you go back to the highest point in your faith,

it took a decision to get you there. And guess what? If you're going to the next mountain top,

guess what it'll take to get you there? Another decision. You see, too many people

in the Western church in America specifically are basing their faith on how they feel.

But see, if you want to get down to the brass tax of this, your choices lead,

your feelings follow. I tell this to our staff all the time. We we we if you want to follow emotion,

you need to be in a different line of work because you're not always going to feel like serving,

especially mobile. Good Lord Almighty. You think we feel like coming to set all this

up and then tear it back down six hours later. We don't feel like doing that,

but we decide to do it. Why? Because somebody might meet Jesus.

Here's point number three. I'm I'm going to hurry.

I got to close. Here's the best part. God desires to be known.

Man, this is good news. I was thinking over the past few weeks just how good he is because

he desires to be known. You know, when Paul is teaching in Athens, he's giving them a discourse

about a God that desires to be known. And and and and point one and point two are a moot

point. If God holds himself away from this from from from these approaches, from our attempts,

from our desires, it matters nothing. You could not approach an unapproachable God.

But the scripture says, "Draw near to me and I'll draw near to you." I want

you just a mental exercise. Just think for a second what it means that you can know God.

That's right. You can know God.

He has laid out a clear path. He has given you himself in this text called the Bible. And he

says, "Chase after me as I'm chasing after you." and gets to a place to where you look

up one day and you just don't recognize your old self because you're so blended into who he is.

You see, I don't have to think that hard to remember the old Josh. A matter of fact,

he tries to snap at me every once in a while. Even now, I still got to crucify the flesh every day.

But can I tell you, the more I know him,

the more I want to know him because he has loved me when I was unlovable.

He desires to know you and he desires for you to know him.

He says, "I stand at the door and knock."

He says, "If you'll let me in, I'll come in and we'll dine together, man. We we we'll we'll

take time and we'll just know each other." He's knocking. He never stops knocking. Can I tell you,

that's the best part of this whole sermon is that no matter what's happened up till today,

today's a new day. No matter what you endured in 2025, can I tell you 2026

is a fresh start. And my prayer is that we have this renewal take place. Jeremiah 29:13-14 says,

Jeremiah 29:13–14

you'll seek me and you'll find me when you seek me with all your heart. And then it says this,

I will be found by you, declares the Lord. I will be found by you. Now,

here's the interesting part about that. When you look at it in the Hebrew, it says,

"I will like it's my will to be found by you." It is my ultimate desire to be found by you. Do you

see that God desires to be in a rich relationship with us? You see, here's the greatest tragedy in

the current day church. It's not that God is unknown or unknowable. It's that he's ignored.

Sorry, I got this I got to go do. Yeah, but if you Yeah, I just

Please let me in. You're You're dealing with some pain I can take

from you. Just Just Dad's here. Just let me please. Would you please please please?

You're heading down a path that's destructive. Please, please, please, please,

only you can save you from your selfishness.

So, I asked God in prayer. I said, "How can help me chise this in? I've got 10 questions for you.

Open your hearts. Open your ears. Hear what I'm about to ask. These are 10 questions that you have

to answer. Number one, if someone audited your schedule, would it reflect that God comes first?

If someone audited your schedule, would it reflect that God comes first?

Can I tell you there's one thing I can tell you about Wendy Neil? Every morning at 4:30,

you ain't got to worry about you being prayed for. If I miss it, she won't. If I look at her

schedule, I know she loves God and I know she loves you. Her schedule shows it. Number two,

do I enjoy God's presence or do I merely respect his authority? It's not the same thing.

When is the last time you have been in awe of him? Can I tell you? It's the last thing I do

before I go to bed at night. I go outside with the dog and I have some of the most

rich moments because I look up at the sky and whether it's cloudy or whether I can see stars,

I'm in awe because I'm seeing a picture that I will never see again. And it's

just for me and it's just for him just in that moment together.

And I'm caught up in his presence in those moments. How can you watch a sunrise? How

can you watch a sunset? They have never been duplicated. They It's It is a masterpiece

twice a day that is painted to remind you that he loves you. How about this

one? Do I protect time for God with the same seriousness as work or family commitments?

There are times where you need to let the phone

ring. I'm sorry. I'm in his presence right now. And I can do more in this

30 minutes with him than I can do with a lifetime with somebody on the phone.

How about this? Is my love for God increasing, stagnant, or slowly fading?

When I'm stressed, where do I instinctively turn first, prayer or distractions? When I'm stressed,

where do I instinctively turn first, prayer or distractions? [Music]

These are questions that can reveal whether or not we we we are prepared to know him

more. How about this? Where do I feel safest? In God's promises or in my own preparations?

You see, there's times that his promises are not going to make sense to your ability to prepare.

I sat out there with Sherrod at the the building this past week, which praise God,

some of you guys gone out and put your your verses and on the slab and gate. That's still open today.

Go out there and do that today. Um I implore you, go be a part of that. What God's doing out there

is amazing. But I've had pastors call, especially in the past two weeks. We've been social media

heavy toward what God's doing out there at the property. Just kind of keep you guys in the loop.

I've had pastors call and they want a formula. You know, a startup church, it's three years old,

building a building this fast, it doesn't make sense. It's it those kind of things don't happen.

And they they they want a formula. They want to, you know, they want to know the board. And we have

an amazing board, but Troy, I think you would agree with this. We're we're not smart enough

to make happen what's happening. It's not us. It's not us. Kenny, you agree, right? It's not us. It's

it's standing on God's promises. It's it's walking in faith. It's it's it's it's it's yes, it's being

a good steward, but it's it's realizing that if God's hands not on it, it doesn't increase. That's

right. And that all of our preparation, it falls so short of the power of his promises. Couple

more questions. When facing uncertainty, do I rely more on my planning or prayer?

How about this one, man? I fought this for a year.

Are there areas of obedience that I delay because they cost me comfort?

Yeah, this next one wrecked me this past week. Do I grieve more over sin against God or

inconvenience to myself? [Music] Do I grieve more over sin against God or inconvenience to myself?

God forgive us. [Music] How about this one? Boy,

this one stings. Would people say I love God by observing my private life?

There's no judgment in this. But the reason I bring these things up is because if if if we're

going to do what he's called us to do in 26, which is a monumental undertaking, and I look

forward to sharing with you guys on the last week of this, what I feel like God's calling us into,

then then every pillar of the house has got to strengthen. uh the old adage, we're only as good

as our weakest link. Well, the truth is is there's people that you're called to reach this year. That

you are currently not equipped to reach. That's why you have to grow. That's why you have to

get stronger. That's why you have to know him more. You see, every one of us is on this path.

And irrelevant of what you do for a living, irrelevant of what age you are, irrelevant of

what season of life you find yourself, can I tell you God has a desire to maximize your potential

for the kingdom, but he is faithful in this that he will not draw you into waters to drown you.

He, the Bible says, he leads us from glory to glory, not

inefficiencies to insufficiencies. [Music] He he he he takes us little by little as we grow. And

see, some of us are experiencing spiritual stagnation because we're not growing. We're

we're we're not doing the things necessary to graduate. See, in we we go to the school and

if a kid doesn't pass the classes, he goes through it again. and and we see that in

our school system and we go that makes sense. But then in the spirit we go but God that's not fair.

You see some of us want to operate and function under responsibilities

that would crush us under our current abilities spiritually.

Can I tell you? I I would be tickled one day to pastor a church of 100,000 people,

but not right now. You know why? Because I'm still flexing my muscles and learning 7800 people. I'm

still learning. I'm still getting stronger at this level. But if we're not faithful where we are,

you don't have to worry about growth. You don't have to worry about it.

And so here's the way I'm going to close this message. Is first there is no condemnation to

them that believe. I love you. I want you to know that. I want you to hear the heart of your

pastor. I am proud of us. But I would be doing us a massive disservice if I left us where we are.

We have not got to the promised land. We are currently somewhere between Egypt and Jordan. And

let's not stop now. Let's keep going. Let's just see what we can accomplish for the kingdom. But it

starts here. The Bible says, "Let correction begin in the house of the Lord." So, let's start with us

individually. And and and if we do that then then then God will take care of his part of things. And

it's my prayer and and I have been praying and I'm continuing to pray and you can join me in

this prayer that if we don't do anything right except this in 26. May we know him intimately

because that's it. That's the beauty. That's why we do what we do is to give

you an opportunity to come here every week and learn a little bit more about him. But listen,

you can still approach him tomorrow. He's not just reserved for Sundays. He's not just reserved for

small groups, as great as they are. He's not just reserved for times where we're,

you know, writing our verses on the new slab at the building. It's it's No, no,

no. It's every moment of every day. you and the more you pursue him, the more you're aware of him,

your your your your God consciousness increases. The more you know him, the more you want to know

him. You you you'll never be unsatisfied chasing after him. [Music] Bible says, "Blessed are those

who hunger and thirst after righteousness." Here's the promise. You'll be filled. That's my prayer

for us that we live a full 26 and who God is. Amen. Stand to your feet. Let me pray for you.

So you say, "Well, how do how do I do that?" Well, that that brings me back around to how I started.

Uh 21 for 21 21 days of committing 21 minutes to the Lord. I've done all the hard work for you.

Honestly, the spirit did it for me. I wish it took me about 30 minutes to write this whole thing out.

It came so fast. It was just just the spirit hit and just wrote the whole thing. It's so fast how

it hit. And I want you to go to hope cityc.com. You can do it through the app. You can do it

on the website, go to events, you'll see 21 for 21 is 21 days of prayer. It's a spiritual focus

for 21 days to start the year. Starts tomorrow morning. Now, you say, "Well, pastor, I can't

do it in the morning." Well, great. Then do it at lunch. Well, I don't get a lunch break. Well,

listen. You can make excuses or you can change. You find your time and you make it happen. Do

you know if if I'm A lot of pastors think I'm weird. I am weird. Wendy would concur. Uh,

I do my time with the Lord before I go to bed at night. Now, I pray in the mornings, but my

intimacy, my rich time is, boy, it's at night time, late. And so, however it works for you,

Wendy, she wants to get up at 4:30. I'm not conscious. I have no desire to be conscious at

4:30 in the morning. But can I tell you, make time 21 days, 21 minutes. We've even got it broke down

on how to use the 21 minutes. We've made this so simple for you. So simple. We've given you

the verses. We've given you what to pray for. We we we've done everything but moved your chin for

you. That's all you got to do. creating spiritual principles and habits that will make us a renewed

people for 2026. Can I pray for you? Come on, let's go. Father, thank you. Thank you. Thank

you for being a God who desires to be known. If it wasn't for that, there'd be no hope. We we we we

could chase after you and never find you. But you make yourself knowable. You make it the desire of

your heart to be known. And so I just want to say thanks for that. Father, would you hear our heart

in 2026? I just want to say thank you for 2025. I want to give you glory for what was accomplished,

but I I I'm I'm not going to dillydally in it. I'm going to push on into 26 with great expectation

of your goodness and your grace and your mercy pulled poured and just absolutely just dripped

on us so that we might be living testimonies of the benevolent father that we love. So thank you

for the opportunity to be renewed. Father, I thank you that we don't have to stay stagnant.

We don't have to stay apathetic. We can step in to a purposeful spiritual existence in 2026 because

it's your desire for us. So, thank you for that. Lead us into it. Create a desire in us this year.

Father, give us an insatiable appetite for your presence, an insatiable appetite to know you,

that you might draw us by your holy and precious spirit to the word and to times of prayer and a

time of meditation. Father, draw us to you. I pray that you would remove distractions. I pray

that you would bind up destructive relationships. Oo, there's a touch on that. Father, whatever has

been in the way, would you just just just shuffle it out so that we may approach you with a fullness

of joy and focus? I thank you for it. I thank you for each person here. spark a fresh flame in them.

A fresh wind. A fresh wind of heaven. Holy Spirit,

breathe on us. Breathe on us. Set us on fire, Lord. And for if if for only one other reason

that the world might come to watch us burn, set us on fire for your presence.

You're a good and a loving and a benevolent father. Help us to reciprocate just a little

by tearing down these other false altars. By leaving these false and fake gods in

our rearview mirrors, by letting them die in 25 that we might pursue you clearly in

26. Help us. Give us the strength. Give us the focus. Give us the urgency to love you better

and bless us and keep us. Be gracious to us and show us your favor. Make your face shine upon

us and give us peace both now and forever more. Cover us with the blood of Jesus from the top of

our head to the soles of our feet. I thank you that no weapon formed against us prospered in

25 and no weapon that's formed against us is going to prosper in 26. You hold us up. There is no God

like Jehovah. We worship you. You are a strong tower and the word says that the righteous are

running into it and we're safe because of it. So help us, Father, to run to you like never before,

to know you like never before, to be renewed by you like never before. We're going to give you the

praise for it. Bring us back next week on fire. The beginning of the renewal. Let the race begin

that we might run with endurance and fury again. Chasing after that great calling that you have on

our lives individually but also corporately. Bring us back next week with more of your wisdom and

more of your word. And we'll give you the glory, the honor, and the praise for it. In Jesus holy,

mighty, precious, capable, absolutely stupendous name we pray. And everybody said,

"Amen." God bless you. We love you. Happy New Year. We'll see you next week.