Welcome To The Family | Pastor Chris Kouba and Pastor Eliel Diaz

I want to start off before we get going today by just reading a passage of scripture, 1 Philippians chapter 2, verses 9 through 11.

Philippians 2:9–11

Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.

So that the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

I love this.

And every tongue confess.

And that's totally fine.

But here's what I want you to know: the God who one day we will all worship and we will all give praise to, the Bible says, in whatever language you use, God will hear it, he will be honored, and he will be praised.

Let's thank the Lord and praise him for all that he has done.

Grab your Bibles, open them up to Genesis chapter one.

Genesis chapter one, let me add my word of greeting to Dave's earlier.

My name is Chris Kuba.

I have the privilege of being the lead pastor at an amazing church.

This is one of our favorite Sundays of the year to be able to celebrate all of our new members.

If you are new to the church, or if you are new to your Bible, you're in luck today in Genesis.

It's the very beginning, okay?

The very beginning is where we're gonna be.

We're gonna look and start there.

We're gonna jump around just a little bit.

I want to take this opportunity, though, to greet all of those at our correctional facilities, all of those joining us on the Pando app, and all of those online or sick or whatever it is that you find yourself on the other side of that camera, let's give them a hand and celebrate how God is expanding and opening up those doors.

Let me ask this question as we start off 2024.

What is the better version of you?

Like, what does it look like to be the best version of yourself?

My son got mad in 2024 for Christmas, and I went in and he was playing the game, and I didn't recognize the colors of the team that he was playing there, and so I asked him, I'm like, hey, who are you playing with?

And he's like, Well, I'm I'm it's a custom team.

I said, Well, who's on the team?

And he said, Well, my running back is Barry Sanders, my quarterback is RG3, we're Baylor people, so we were appreciative of that.

Sicken Bears, okay.

He said, His receivers are Julian Edelman, Randy Moss, and Jerry Rice.

I said, Well, how are you doing?

He said, I'm dominating right now.

As he well should, because if you have a team that is a custom team where you get to pick and choose all of the different people that you want based upon different errors of a team, and you get to put them all together, you should be able to come up with the dominant team.

And it had me thinking this what if there was a Madden version for life?

Like, what if there was a mode that you could put it in or you could pick all of the best characteristics or attributes that you maybe have had in the past or that you desire to have in the future, you could put all of those together and you could live life like that.

What would it be?

For me, I wouldn't be 5'8, I'd be 6'2.

Just FYI.

You ask why 6'2?

Because I've never seen 6'2 before.

I don't really know what 6'2 looks like.

It sounds like a pretty good number.

That's what I would choose to be.

I would also, my physique would be what I did when I did CrossFit prior to getting injured doing CrossFit, right?

Because everybody that does CrossFit eventually gets injured doing CrossFit.

But back in the day before I got injured, I'm just telling you, I like that weight.

I like that physique.

That's what I would want to do.

And that's who I would want to be.

Let me let me think about this.

If I as well was trying to figure out what my life would look like, I would want my hairstyle to be what it was, my freshman year of college.

I know you don't know me from my freshman year of college, but that was a good year, all right?

Like things were working that year for me, okay?

Just in general and in all of life, I'd go back to that.

Now I know some of you are sitting here thinking, oh, that's kind of that's that's kind of silly, but what would you choose?

What would be your ideal weight?

What would be your ideal age?

What would be your custom level hairstyle?

What would be that decade in your life that you would say, Man, I just want to go back to when that was the case?

That is what an ideal, best version of me looks like.

I'm not sure if you're a resolution person or if you're a goal setter, but all of you have probably at least thought this at some level.

What does a better version of me look like in 2024?

If you want to have this to be the best year of your life, you may not have said that out loud yet, but you would love it if 2024 was the best year of your life.

If that was gonna be the case relationally, if that was gonna be the case financially, if that was gonna be the case in your marriage or in your family or in your finances, or if you're gonna have purpose in your life besides just going to work or going to school, what would a best version look like?

Let me just go and tell you the secret.

You will never have the best year of your life unless it is the best year of your life spiritually.

The series that we're starting today is called You, and we're looking at various ways that you can upgrade your life.

But here's what I want you to see from the very get-go is the secret to this whole series.

The secret for you to improve and have a better you is for the focus not to be on you.

In fact, here's the main point that will guide us the entire six weeks that we're gonna be together.

And here it is a better version of you puts God first.

A better version of you puts God first.

Everything in your life begins, is sustained, and goes on and ends ultimately with God.

He is the one who pursues you, he is the one who sustains you, he is the one who comes alongside of you.

And I want you to know that all of your attempts, as good as they may be, to try to improve your life in all these other various areas, will still leave you at the end of 2024 saying, Yeah, but it wasn't enough.

But if you instead commit to making this the best year of your life spiritually, I will assure you you will end the year saying, I don't know if it could get any better, but I'm gonna ask the Lord to make it even better than it was.

Because you will see when you make God the priority, everything else falls into place.

The reason whenever we try to make life happen without God, that it doesn't work, is because He is the very one who we were created by, and He is the very one who we were created for.

Genesis chapter 1.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

Let's begin reading in verse 1.

In the beginning, God.

Everything starts right here.

If you want to have a great year, it must start with God.

If you want to have a great marriage, it must start with God.

If you want to have a great family, it must start with God.

If you want to have great success in your finances, it must start with God.

If you want to have great relationships, it must start with God.

Genesis chapter 4, verses 2 through 5, listen to what it says.

Genesis 4:2–5

And again, she bore his brother Abel.

Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground.

In the course of time, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions.

And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard.

So Cain was very angry and his face fell.

If you want a better version of you, it doesn't just mean that you include God, it means that you need to give your best to God.

How do you do that?

By giving him the first.

You can't give God just some of you.

You instead have got to give God the first and the best.

Matthew chapter 6, verse 33 says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Matthew 6:33

This verse introduces us to a very key principle when it comes to having a better version of you.

Here's what it's saying: it's saying that if you seek God first and you give him your best, you actually get everything else included.

And this isn't some magical key to unlock God basically being able to fulfill all of your hopes and your dreams for your life.

Here's what happens: when you make God first, and when you give him the best, he begins to change all of the things that you desire for most so that you begin to desire the things that you would have chosen to desire if you actually knew better in the first place.

And God begins to show you not only are those desires of him, but he delights in fulfilling those desires so that even if it's hard and even if it's difficult, you can still find joy in the midst of those things.

In the beginning was God.

And his ways are best for you.

Let me map out for you what the next six weeks are gonna look like.

Every week, we're gonna talk through a better version of you.

Today we're gonna talk through a better version of you, gives God the first day of your week.

We're gonna look at what that means here in just a moment.

Next week, we're gonna look at a better version of you, gives God the first of your day.

I'm gonna give you the most practical message I have ever given ever before, and I'm gonna teach you how to read the Bible and actually understand it.

We're gonna walk through and give you resources on how to help you to be able to give God the first part of your day and to actually get something out of what it is that you are reading.

The next week we're gonna talk about how a better version of you gives God the first of your year.

I wanna ask you right now to mark down your calendars, Sundown, January 21st through sun up, January 28th.

We're gonna be engaging as a church in our week of prayer and fasting.

I'm just gonna tell you right now, if you want to have an amazing 2024, you give the first part of your year by giving a week of prayer and fasting, seeking his face, learning who he is, coming after him and asking him what he wants for you.

I can assure you of this: it will not only change 2024, it will change your whole life.

It will be a radical change in everything that you do.

And so we want to practically talk through what does it mean to pray and fast together?

And here's the beauty you can know this, you're not gonna do it alone.

We're all gonna be doing it together that week, January 21st through the 28th.

The next week, we're gonna look at the better version of you, gives God the first of your money.

Okay, here we go.

Pastor brings up money.

I knew it.

I decided to give church a try, and now here we go, brings it up again.

Please hear me.

You're crazy if you don't think that you're gonna make changes in your life and it's not gonna affect the way you spend your money.

And I would be wrong to not try to help you in this area because the Bible actually says that your money is tied to your heart.

So I view this as a responsibility to help your heart to begin to be aligned with what God says is most important.

Some of you may look at your situation and you may say, Man, I'm in, I'm in a mess.

I'm in a mess with my finances, I'm gonna mess with debt, I'm in a mess where I don't have a plan.

And I want you to know this coming Wednesday night, we're starting up a new group for Financial Peace University.

It's gonna meet at 6 30 here on campus.

I want to encourage you to come and to be a part of it, to register online, and you can learn biblical principles when it comes to God's finances.

And I want you to see, it's important what I just said, it's God's finances, not your finances.

It's his money.

He's just letting you use it for a little while.

And he's gonna see how you do if he decides to give you even more of it, right?

And so we're gonna learn and see what it looks like, but it cannot come apart from uh giving the first of your money.

Let me give you the next one a better version of you gives God to others.

When you have something that is so good, you can't keep it to yourself.

Instead, what you do is you give it to other people.

We're gonna talk practically about what it means to share your faith with somebody else.

And then finally, the week of Valentine's Day, we're gonna talk about how a better version of you gives and receives God's love.

We're gonna see how we can live out in community and live in relationship with one another by living out the one another's to each other.

But today I want to talk to you about how the better version of you gives God the first day of your week.

But I want to first of all call up Pastor Eliel and let him give you the message in God's language, the message of Espanol.

I know it's gonna be hard for some of y'all that don't understand Spaniel, but if you see me passionate, just clap up, say amen, right?

Let's practice, say amen.

One, two, three.

Okay, ya está.

And the Spaniard, well, we asked you with me, no?

And it's how we can see the mejor version of each one of us.

If you want to me what is my version, I don't know if you're gonna make 5-5, sino six pies, right?

Pastor Chris did 5-8, somebody, I don't know if me fallacy a me or it has demasiado, but 5-5, no, no, six pies, possibly have the cabello del actor de Aquaman.

Then there's the cuerpoint of D.

Rock, have D.

Rock, impression, right?

The condition physical of Steph Curry, the agility of Lionel Messi, the velocity of Hussein Bolt.

And you say, This is the version of me, and possibly you have intent today to have the version of me, and vas al gymnasium the three days of the year, and then the members are not.

Come on to many salutable, right?

And then no matter what, and tratas and tratas, what is the more version of me?

But I want to say: the more version of us comments with our physical, no comments, pesando, the more version of us comienza when we put it.

No, no, others to take the version of one if you put in one place.

Génesis 1.1 dice lo siguiente: en el principio Dios.

Y es que todo comienza con Dios.

Todo comienza with Dios.

Dios nos formula, nos guía, nos persigue, nos sostiene, nos levanta, and comienza the buy in the world, and it's that comien with the Señor.

Y la idea no es que solamente comience with darle lo primero and the prime, it trying to do the more.

When created, he holds pastor of ojos, while Cain dedicated to cultivar the tier.

They said that he accepted, but no accepted a Caín ni to offrenda.

If there is the more version of you, necesitamos.

And not simply a Dios primer, necesitamos darle the more of us to nos, no looks that if I don't, no, no, no, necesitamos the more of us to the Señor.

Mira lo que dice the Play in Mateo 6, versus 33.

I'm sure that much of what we escuched a man, buy the reign of the life just, and Élice darons that we need.

No, no, no, no.

No lo que nosotros queramos, no lo que nos parezca a nosotros, no lo que nuestros ojos desean, sino que cuando usted y buscamos primeramente al Señor, Él da lo que Él tiene para nosotros.

Y no hay mejor cosa que anhelar lo que Dios tiene para nuestra vida.

Nosotros podemos pensar que tenemos las mejores ideas, los mejores planes, los mejores deseos, pero te quiero compartir algo: las promesas del Señor para nuestra vida son mucho mejor de lo que nosotros podemos pensar e imaginar.

Podemos pensar que queremos esto o lo otro, pero dice su palabra que sus pensamientos son más altos que nuestros pensamientos.

Yo deseo esto y aquello.

No, no, sus caminos son más altos que nuestros caminos.

Cuando ustedes buscan primeramente el reino de Dios, cuando usted busca su justicia, todo lo que Él ha preparado para nosotros.

Por eso necesitamos buscar.

Si quieres una mejor version of you, necesitas darle a Dios the prime of your life.

And how comienza this?

Come on, a lecture biblical diaria, a bit of oration, a relation personal with Dios.

Then in this version of you regala to Dios the first part of the air.

Devocionales, ven y comparte with the more version of you the dinner.

And Chris, oh, van a hablar de dinero.

Es parte de darle lo mejor al Señor.

Donde está nuestro tesoro, and if we amos a dinero, es la raíz de todos los males.

But we need to darle a Dios también the dinner, the version of you compared to Dios with others.

No se trata solamente of the island, to go, levant the money, and we compared with others, because there are gente who necesit escuchar acerca de la gracia and the misericordia del Señor.

Sabes qué?

The more version of us coming when we dedicate the day.

It is the Sabbath.

The Sabbath today from Viernes in the noche and Sabbath in the noche.

When you and you have a priority to be a I see, when you and you have a priority to exalt the others creyers in community, connect with different groups.

When you and you are part of a community that a chance and among the people, what we're going to do is transform by the Espiritu Santo.

We're going to come to gentlemen bautizing, we will have gentlemen because all this comes when you and you have the I have a priority.

In this ago, we will have much compromises.

See, the domain will be the invitation to the playa, the doming will be the torneo X, the Domingo, but when we family and person decided to separate, no, no, el Domingo is for the Secret, because if you ask you.

And we congregate, as we say.

Necessitamos of the Iglesia a priority.

You and you necessitate decisions for start here today.

Una persona who va a la iglesia usually viene un domingo al mes de los cuatro.

Una persona que está un poco más comprometida viene solamente dos domingos al mes de los cuatro.

Una persona que está realmente comprometida viene solamente tres domingos de los cuatro.

Y al staff, pues no nos queda otra que estamos cada domingo, ¿no?

Pero qué tal si nosotros hacemos de la iglesia una prioridad.

Y yo decido que este año, no, no, yo no voy a regalarle solamente un domingo al Señor, no voy a regalarle dos domingos al Señor.

Quiero estar cada domingo en la casa del Señor, levantando mis manos, alabando al Señor y compartiendo con otros hermanos de la fe.

De eso se trata: de venir a la casa del Señor, de exaltarle a Él, de levantar nuestras manos, de compartir lo que Cristo ha hecho con nosotros.

Pero esto comienza cuando nosotros hacemos de la Iglesia una priority.

Esto comienza cuando nosotros decidimos separar para leer la Biblia, for escuchar el mensaje, fora, para confesar a Jesús como nuestro Señor andro.

When we have to the Iglesia a priority, nuestras familias are bendecidas.

El mismo Jesús, mira lo que dice Lucas 4.

When you got to Nazareth, the idea that he crecies was a sinagoga, the day of the descans, and he pushed the pie for learning the scriptures.

Incluso él separaba tiempo, el primer día, el sabat, para dedicarse al Señor, para estar en las sinagogas.

Separar un día para venir a la iglesia.

No sé si has escuchado, ¿verdad?

Por años, no, yo no voy a la iglesia, total está lleno de pecadores.

Bueno, hay espacio para uno más.

Because the iglesia no es un lugar de perfecto, siempre lo digo, si no no estuviésemos aquí.

Me encanta porque Jesús in one occasion said, You no vine for aquellos que se creen perfectos, sino for aquellos who are pecadores.

And when you y yo reconocemos la necessidad that we have de Cristo, sin duda hacemos de la iglesia a priority.

Escucho a la gente, no I have to sit at the Iglesia for seriousness.

He tiene toda la razon.

La salvación is also a travel of the feeling of Cristo unicamente.

But no tienes to volunteer a casa para casarte.

But if you alejas, the relation afectada.

No, yo no tengo que ir a la iglesia.

Yo lo veo online en Facebook es más cómodo.

Estoy comiendo el scramble mientras veo.

Ay, si no me gusta la canción, no miro y veo.

Es más cómodo desde la casa.

Lo veo en YouTube.

Lo veo grabado.

Necesitamos venir a la casa del Señor and otra hermanos de la fe.

The Iglesia is perfect.

But it's a little bit that God has designed for every one of us who confess to Jesus as our Second and Salvador.

Necessitamos and serve the Signor, experiment and ministries with others, and the Iglesia is the esperanza del mundo.

Mateo 16, 18.

Ahora te digo que Pedro significa roca.

Android roca edificar and the poder of the mortality no la conquistará.

Sabe que this versic not trying to that Pedro is the Papa or the Prime Papa, it tried to that Cristo is the roca de la Iglesia.

And the Iglesia está fundamentada solamente in Cristo.

Andristo es la cabeza de la iglesia.

Andamos la novia del Señor.

Y un día estaremos cara a cara con el Rey de Reyes y Señores, señores.

De eso se trata.

De eso se trata.

No hay otra manera.

Y me encanta porque dice las puertas del infierno no podrán contra ella.

No hay nada que pueda derrumbar una iglesia porque la iglesia está edificada sobre la roca.

Y el enemigo va a intentarlo una y otra vez y va a tratar de derrumbarnos una y otra vez.

Y va a querer cerrar la puerta una y otra vez.

Pero una y otra vez el Señor va a decir, esta es mi iglesia, esta es mi novia y sobre mí están edificados.

No hay manera.

No hay manera.

No van a prevalecer contra la iglesia.

Dios ha estado haciendo cosas hermosas in medio de United City.

Y es solo el comienzo de lo que él va a seguir haciendo.

Pastor Chris.

Better version of you gives God the first day of your week.

This is the principle of the Sabbath.

This is whenever you prioritize, you emphasize, you prepare, that's a key thing.

You prepare for the corporate gathering where we all come together under the umbrella of worshiping Jesus and come to be a part of his church.

The idea of the Sabbath doesn't make any sense.

I mean, if you think about it, why would you take a day off of school?

Why would you take a day off of work in order to do nothing, thinking that somehow that's going to produce more?

Yet the Bible shows us from the very beginning that is how God created and made us to be.

Not to just work and do and do, but instead for us to work for six days, for us to give attention for six days, but then to give a day where we don't work, we don't go to school, and not just that we don't do those things, but instead so that we could worship.

God has hardwired us to be able to not just produce, but also to see the limits of our production.

Because God wants us to see that He is the one who gives us the ability to produce anything from the very get-go, and so therefore he is the one who is to be worshipped.

Hebrews 10, verse 24 and 25.

Hebrews 10:24

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

I want y'all to hear this loud and clear.

Sunday morning is a Saturday night decision.

If you decide whether you're going to go to church when you roll out of bed on Sunday morning, you've already lost the battle.

But instead, if you orient and prepare your week in such a way where Sundays are sacred and the gathering is sacred, then what you will begin to discover is not only do you come here on time, ready to worship and to meet with God, but what you will find is that He is so faithful to meet with you.

Folks, we want you to prioritize the gathering, not just because we want a lot of people here.

We want you to prioritize the gathering because you need the gathering.

You need the rest and you need the worship and you need the mind to be reoriented.

But here's what I want you want, also I want you to see.

Other people need you.

I would tell you this: if you want to have a better version of yourself this year, it cannot come apart from the church.

Luke chapter 4, verse 16 says, and he came to Nazareth, speaking of Jesus, where he had been brought up.

Luke 4:16

And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up to read.

If Jesus, the Son of God, who came down on this earth and only lived a short amount of time relatively, and he thought it was important enough for him to go to the temple in order to worship and to pray and to hear the word of God taught, how much more is that the case for us?

Pastor Tony Evans in Dallas, he says this.

I hear people say, I don't think you have to go to church to be a Christian.

And they are absolutely right.

Salvation is through faith alone in Christ alone.

But you don't have to go home to be married.

Stay away long enough, and your relationship will be affected.

The church at large, in our church, is not perfect.

But we are a place that God has designed where sinners come and experience the highs and the lows of life together.

This is the place where we rejoice with those who rejoice.

We weep with those who weep.

This is the place where we serve on mission together.

This is the place where we can come and with multiple languages give glory to our Father.

And it reminds us this world is bigger than just me.

The church is the hope of the world.

Matthew 16, 18, I tell you, Peter, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.

And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

The church is the hope of the world.

Because as many attempts have been made to destroy it, to minimize it, to defame it, or to remove it, the gates of hell will not prevail against his church.

And praise God, he has chosen to allow this church to be a place where we've been able to see a community transformed.

Where we can see the Church of Jesus Christ transforming a neighborhood.

We can see the Church of Jesus Christ transforming a family.

We can see the Church of Jesus Christ transforming individual lives.

God has been so faithful.

We have so much to celebrate for all that he did in our midst in 2023.

Take a look at the strings to get a glimpse of what he did.

And he's gotta translate, which means we'll be here all day, so we have traducir as a year.

But I want to speak to this group first.

And that God uses you far beyond what you could have ever asked or imagined.

I hope that you will prioritize the first day of the week.

And we desire that God would use your worship to him.

I've been doing that.

Let me speak to you.

Some of you are here today and you wonder what your next step is.

Very first thing you need to do is you need to put God first.

The Bible says that all of us are sinners, every one of us here on stage standing before you.

And you need to stand on this stage one year from today.

Because you took that step to come and join this church.

Let's pray together.

Father in heaven, we come before you and we say thank you.

For all that you have done in our midst.

And we stand here in faith this first Sunday of the year.

Asking and believing that you will allow 2024 to be yet another time of your grace and your mercy.

Father, I pray you'd use this time of decision right now.

You would lead people to respond to you.

I pray God that they would make life-changing decisions today.

Thank you in advance for all that you're going to do.

In the days ahead and this morning, right now.

In the name of Jesus I pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Wow, what an amazing message we got to hear this morning.

I hope the Lord showed himself to you in a fresh, new way.

Hey, if you made a decision today to follow Jesus or a decision for Christ, we would love to process that with you.

And so text the word next to 55498, and someone from our team will be more than happy to reach out and process that with you.

If you missed the message or you missed the note or two and you want to go back, don't worry.

We've got the option for that as well.

It's going to be available on Spotify as well as Apple Music.

This has been an amazing morning.

We love you guys so much, and we hope to see you next week.

Bye bye.