Most Important

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Well, good morning, Awakening.

Great to be with you.

Welcome to 2026.

You made it.

You're a year.

You did it.

Way to go.

I'm proud of you.

Brave.

Us Californians, we're weather wimps.

You braved the storm.

Um Happy New Year.

Happy New Year.

Happy New Year.

Try that one more time.

That was decent, but it's a new year.

Come on.

Happy New Year.

Happy New Year.

Thanks.

Thanks.

I love New Year's, by the way.

I love new months.

I love new weeks.

I yes, I love Mondays.

I know.

I too.

I love new beginnings, a fresh start.

I love mornings.

And here's part of the reason why.

And yeah, I love mornings to the extent I'm up really early, and then if you meet me at 8 a.m., I'm that guy that's got like, hey, how are you doing?

You're like, chill, okay?

But here's part of the reason why.

Like, when you woke up this morning, you didn't just wake up to an ordinary day.

Scripture tells us that God's mercy meets us every single morning.

You woke up to new morning mercy today.

Isn't that good?

Come on.

Like, this is the most amazing thing.

I love these new beginnings because we have a God who's about new beginnings.

We have a God who specializes, by the way, in turning things that are old into something new, taking what is dead and bringing it to life, taking graves and turning them into gardens.

This is what God is all about.

In fact, Jesus says it this way: Behold, I am making all things new.

So, whether you are or not a New Year's person, I love New Year's and we are at a New Year 2026.

Let me ask you this.

What will you do with your fresh start?

What will we do with your fresh start?

I've been telling some of my kids lately, just one of my favorite quotes, and one of my favorite quotes is simply this.

Though you cannot go back and have a brand new start, you can start today and have a brand new end.

Though you cannot go back and have a brand new start, and that's what some of us feel like, oh, 2025, or oh, the last 25 years, all this.

But you can start today and have a brand new end.

We live in a world, don't we?

That's kind of pessimistic.

It's um, yeah, don't dream you'll be disappointed.

Don't make New Year's resolutions.

Why, well, you're just gonna quit them.

You're like, yeah, already day four, Ryan, I'm done.

I made it two days and okay, but you can start now and have a brand new end.

What will you do with your fresh start?

Is it just more of the same?

Or do you want something different?

You want something different in your life, in your relationship, in your faith, in your future?

If you want to see something different this year, experience a fresh start, we need to begin by asking this question.

What are you really living for?

What are you really living for?

Not what you say you're living for, not what you virtue signal online that you want others to live for, your performative self that you're proving to everyone else, but what are you really living for?

And to discover that is pretty simple.

You just need to look at really basically three areas where you're spending your time, your money, and what has your attention.

What you give your energy to.

If you look at your bank account, if you look at your phone, you begin to see what you're really living for.

Another way to say it is simply this what's most important?

If we're going to see and experience life change, see real growth this year, we have to get clear on what's most important and begin to organize our life around that.

Is there one thing, think about this, 2026, is there one thing that you can build your life upon?

Organize your life around?

Is there something that will guide your dating, guide your friending, guide your working, your parenting, your Mondays, your Tuesdays, your Wednesdays, not just your Sundays?

Think about this.

If you could ask this question of Jesus, what is most important?

What would he say?

What would he say to you?

Title of the sermon today is most important.

Would you say that with me?

Try that again.

If you got your Bibles, would you turn to Mark chapter 12, verse 28?

Mark 12:28

One occasion Jesus is being challenged by some religious leaders.

They're trying to trap him, uh, get him to stumble in some things that he says.

And one of the experts in the law notices that Jesus is answering incredibly well.

And so we pick it up here in Mark 12, verse 27.

Mark 12:27

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating.

Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked them, of all the commandments, which is the help me out.

Oh, you're great.

Good job.

Fantastic.

Which is the most important?

No, uh in the Old Testament, the Hebrew scriptures, there's 613 laws.

Which of the 600 of 13 laws is the most important?

These are the laws upon which the Jewish people organize their entire lives around.

Now, the experts of the law, the religious people of their day, they weren't like, you know, content with just 613.

They wanted to like define those even further.

And so they took painstakingly time of like going into the minutia of every single law.

So it created not just 613, it really created thousands of laws for the people to try to uphold.

Which of these is most important?

And at the same time, as they would go through this whole process of expounding upon all of these laws, they then began to ask also, like, how do we define, is there one of these commands that is most important that we can center our lives?

Can we sum up everything in a single sentence?

And this was the conversation of the day, because it was so hard to keep all of that in front of you.

And Jesus answers, the most important one, Jesus answered, is hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one.

The most important one, and he begins with what every Jewish person would have recited that morning, is the very first prayer that a child learns in the Jewish culture.

It's called the Shema.

He begins with the Shema, it's found in Deuteronomy chapter six.

Hero, Israel, and Shema just means to hear, it's the imperative word in the he in Hebrew, hear, it's the very first word of this.

And they would recite this daily in the morning and at night.

He says, Hero Israel, the Lord our God is one.

And it goes on.

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

You want to distill down life into what is most important.

It begins right here.

Listen up, don't miss this.

Hero Israel, Hero Awakening.

There is one God and love him with all of your heart.

Not some of it.

Not part of it.

We're half-hearted creatures, aren't we?

We give our lives and energy and time to so many things.

We're stretched in so many ways.

We find ourselves running and barely able to keep up.

And we feel the spinning and the turning of our culture and the trend of like, I just got to keep up with the people around me.

And we lose sight, don't we, of what matters most?

We lose sight of the things that matter most.

And we look, we maybe you've had this where you look back on 2025 and you're like, what in the world?

It was just a blur.

What was that all about?

Or maybe you had a crisis and you began to evaluate how you're spending your time, your energy, and your money.

You're like, wait a second, am I really living for what's most important?

And then Jesus does something to the Shema.

He adds to it.

He adds this scripture out of Leviticus.

And up to this point, see, we're so familiar with this, we take this as ordinary, as like, of course.

No one had ever done this, had united these two commands together.

In Leviticus, he says, the second is like it.

In other scriptures, it will say these two are intricately connected.

You can't separate them.

Love your neighbor as you love yourself.

There is no commandment greater than these.

He took the old law, filled it with new meaning, and so doing created a new creed, a new way to be human.

Now, what was interesting of what he did with Leviticus 19 here is in the context, this love your neighbor was intrinsically, it was already a part just other Jewish people.

And especially in that day, they had a special hatred for Gentiles.

And he augmented and cut it out so that it expanded love for all people, not just the people you deem worthy to be loved.

And what Jesus is saying here is what matters most is a whole life devotion and love to God that expresses itself in a way that is loving to every person on the planet.

Because there's a form of religion, there's a form of way we can think about knowing God, of like, I can be good with God, but I'm not good with you.

And Jesus says, that doesn't cut it.

That is not it.

That's not what's most important.

Now, what's interesting is the teacher of the law, he's beginning to get it.

He says, Well said.

And he says, You're right in saying that God is one and there's no other but him.

To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and and and he's getting it.

He's like, uh, and to love yourself uh neighbor as yourself is more important than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.

That was the centering organizing factor for the Jewish people was offerings and sacrifices.

As long as you're doing that, you're doing what's most important.

He's going, like, ah, I'm starting to get it, Jesus.

And Jesus sees that he's beginning to get it.

And when Jesus saw that he'd answered wisely, he said this.

I love this line.

You're not far from the kingdom of God.

You're not far from the kingdom of God.

Like you're starting to get it.

I think there's some of you in this room right now, you're not far from the kingdom of God.

Like you've been going about this kind of church thing, but you've never really centered your life on Jesus.

Or maybe it's the very first time you're here and you're starting to discover like more of life.

There's more to life.

And Jesus would look at you and go, Oh, you're not far from the kingdom of God.

What is most important?

Is there one thing to build your life upon, organize your life around, that'll guide your dating, your friending, your working, your parenting?

Not just your Sundays, but your Mondays and Tuesdays and Wednesdays is simply this.

Love God, love others, nothing matters more.

Can you say that with me?

Love God, love others, nothing matters more.

It's not just a like bumper sticker slogan here.

You're like, yeah, yeah, love God, love others, that's cool.

No, no, you don't get it.

Nothing matters more.

If you're gonna do anything this year, 2026, love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, everything, wholehearted devotion, and then have it expressed in the way we treat and love others.

I like how N.T.

Wright in his commentary on this talks about this.

He writes this.

He says, the Jewish law begins with worship, with the love of God, because if it's true that we're made in the image of God, we will find our fullest meaning, our true selves, the more we learn to love and worship we're designed to reflect.

Friends, we got a whole generation, a whole people trying to find their most authentic, truest self.

Be your true you.

And then you're like, oh, what's the new you for the new year?

Hello! Love God, and as you do that, you'll find who you truly are.

Because you're made to reflect him.

The Shema.

Jesus says, This love the Lord your God.

Many of us have heard this.

But I want to suggest we haven't heard it in the sense that Jesus intended.

Because when we hear this, love God, love others, it almost feels like, ah, this is good advice, right?

Ah, that's nice.

Take it.

Until life gets hard, or I find a circumstance, uh, you know, it's too busy to do this, um, uh, the workload is really intense.

That coworker is a jerk.

Loving him or her is not possible at this moment.

They stab me in the back.

We take it as good advice.

Here's what's Jesus saying this is a new way of living, a new vision for being a human.

Now, when he talks about this immediately in the people's minds, they go back to the full prayer of the Shema.

Shema, like I said, just means to listen, to hear, to pay attention.

In Hebrew, hearing is not passive.

You hear me, but you might go out and go like, well, I heard that, but I didn't do anything with it.

The sho to Shema God is to listen, receive, and respond with obedience.

It is not just about knowing who God is, it is about ordering your entire life around him.

Deuteronomy 6, I want to go back because what I want you to see is what comes after this part that Jesus talks about.

That is not just what we're called to do, but you'll see this formational process that we're invited into.

Hero Israel, the Lord your God is one.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength.

These commands I give to you today are to be on your hearts, like written on your heart.

And then notice what comes after that.

It says, impress them on your children.

Parents, don't outsource your kids' spirituality.

One, we have an incredible kids' ministry led by Ashley and others.

We're so excited for that.

They're getting loved and served and taught so well right now.

And our goal is to come alongside you as parents to help equip you to disciple your kids, impress them upon your kids.

Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up, talk about them.

It should be a part, like if you really love someone, you just talk about them.

Have you ever been in love?

Most of you haven't, obviously.

Okay.

Oh, I don't know, I don't know.

You remember like those early days of like just that like infatuation, that puppy love?

You run into somebody like this, right?

They're like, they just can't stop talking about their person.

Oh, she's amazing, she's the best, she's the greatest.

Eventually you just become nauseated, talk about something else.

I can't, I'm in love, and I want everybody to know.

Right?

Because you just can't help but talk about the one you love.

Because it just flows out of your conversation because they're the most important.

You know, it's interesting.

I was hanging out with my daughter uh yesterday, and we were at um, we were at coffee, and she had her Bible, and we're talking, and then she began to tell me about her Bible.

She just got back from a study abroad in France, and uh all her friends they didn't know Jesus.

In fact, some were pretty anti-Jesus and the ways of Jesus, and she just was this beautiful beacon of light, like winsome in the way she talked about Jesus.

We'd have these incredible conversations of like, Dad, how do I respond to this and some of these sort of things?

But here's the like one of the most coolest affirmations, like her friends are like, you know, we don't believe what you believe, but the way you loved us, we don't feel judged by you at all.

She was strong in her convictions and love for them.

And she took with her by with her, you know, she's in school there, but she brought her Bible everywhere she went because it became this kind of conversation piece.

And um, she had her Bible and she just began to put in it the memories along the way, the special moments.

And so, you know, they'd go do a photo booth uh with her friends and she would put it in her Bible.

Um, one friend didn't know Jesus, she's like, This is so important.

Can I have your Bible to read?

Her friend took her Bible for a whole week to read her Bible.

Another friend, by the end of the time, simply said, Hey, you know what?

Um, could I be added to your Bible?

Because she had, I mean, her Bible's like got all these sheets of paper in it, you know, of memories and moments that are connected.

A friend like was the most anti-Jesus, anti-God friend is like, I want to be in your Bible, Ella.

Like, because why?

She loves God and is not ashamed, just like, here's who I am, and and other people are like, man, I'm drawn to that.

You just walk along, you sit at home, you talk about them.

Tie them as symbols around your hand and bind them.

Uh, Jewish people still do this, devout Jewish people still do this today.

They tie a small leather box called the Teflon containing handwritten passages of the scriptures around their arm or hand, devotion expressed through action.

What do I do?

On their forehead, devotion expressed through thought, what I think.

Now, I gotta be careful here.

I am not promoting tattoos, but I do have a couple.

Um, and I have one on purpose.

I have a cross right here.

And part of it is for me as a daily reminder of he's my Lord and Savior.

I want to keep that before me of my hands and what I put my work to and what I uh will not do.

Now, kids, don't tell your moms that your pastor told you to get a tattoo.

That's not what I said.

I think this generation is doing this amazing, by the way.

Gen Z is incredible.

In fact, they're wearing clothing so bold in their faith that Jesus saves the essentials, clothing, fear of God.

There's so many clothing items out there where I'm just watching, we were in Santa Cruz uh last week, and we see this young girl walk into there in Santa Cruz, so anti-Jesus is where I grew up, and I love it.

It's funky, it's weird.

Uh, and she just walks in and got a full-on scripture.

Why?

Because Jesus saved her.

She loves God with all her heart, soul, mind, and strength.

She can't help but talk about them, write them on the door frames of your houses and your gates.

No.

This is not just a Sunday thing.

This is a way of life thing.

Why does all this matter?

All this instruction, these it wasn't just like, oh, these are I came to church and I heard this, but I'm incorporating it into every aspect of my life.

Because you know this.

We know this.

Whatever has your focus is forming you.

Whatever has your attention is shaping you.

Whatever you give your focus, your attention is turning you into who you'll become.

See, nobody ever drifts into a better version of themselves.

Nobody just wakes up at the end of 2025, now in the beginning of 2026, and drifts into A more Christ-like person just woke up and I just woke up, I'm more loving, I'm more peaceful, I'm more kind, I have more.

Nobody drifts into that.

It takes a devotion and a focus and a vision.

And so what I want to do with the remainder of our time is give us an action plan.

I want to be really practical.

I don't want to just give a sermon and for some people to be stirred, but to walk out and do nothing.

I want us to hear.

I want us to shema.

Not just hear and go on our way, hear and act and respond.

So let me ask you this.

Who or what is at the center of your life?

I want you to take these notes and use them this week as a process and as a guide.

Wrestle with that question.

Who or what is at the center of my life?

Remember, your time, your attention, where you spend your money and energy?

Is it your work?

Is it your family?

Is it your ambition?

Is it other people's approval?

Who or what is at the center of your life?

If we're going to organize our lives around what Jesus says is most important, step one is we must clarify our focus.

We must clarify our focus.

What has your focus?

What has your attention?

One of the practices we've done at awakening for years and bringing back is just a tool that helps you do this.

The first is it's just two questions.

I want you to wrestle with these this week.

First question is what do one word would you use to describe 2025?

Look back last year.

There's things to grieve, there's things to celebrate, and as you do that and you track through it, look for a theme.

Okay, try to find a singular word.

That really sums up last year.

You can use a hyphen if needed.

But what one word would you use to describe 2025?

Look back and then look forward this year.

What one word do you hope will describe 2026?

Now, with this word, uh I I want us to not like choose performative words, um, accomplishment words.

I want to be, I want to do.

Think about who you want to become in 2026.

Think about what you long for God to form in you in 2026.

Obviously, I've been thinking about this for a long time and praying for awakening.

What is our word for 2026?

And it's actually my word personally.

And if you're like, you know what, I'm not real good with the whole vision stuff, you you can still this word.

You can have it, you can borrow it, it can be our word.

We can we we can have a word together, we can have our word, right?

Awakening's word for 2026 is pursue.

It's pursue.

The question that I've been wrestling with is what does it look like to passionately pursue the heart of God?

Like one of my prayers for so long, even as a little kid, is God, would you make me a man after your heart?

Like I long to be that kind of person.

I, in a world of half-hearted devotion, would you make me a whole-hearted man after you?

I long for that.

Would you make my heart beat for the things that your heartbeat may break for the things that it breaks your heart?

And I want more of that.

And I'm not there yet.

In fact, what would happen if a church passionately pursued the heart of God together?

Just imagine.

If we said for this year, which is really, I mean, I think what the church, what we should be every year.

There's a lot of things that are gonna happen.

I don't know about the economy, and I don't know about politics, and I don't know about, you know, the future and all these other things, but here's what I do know is I want to be a person that is running after the heart of God with a community that says, let's get after it, and let's see what God might want to do with a people whose hearts are fully for and his, fully for him and all his.

Step one.

Would you clarify?

Focus.

Now, the interesting part, and you know this, um we don't grow because of good intentions, we grow because of the level of our commitments.

How many of us have had good intentions at the beginning of the new year, and then we look back and go, oh, I didn't end up there, I didn't end up where I was.

I mean, that's what the whole Shema is.

It's it's outlining a commitment, a way of living.

You're gonna mess up, we're gonna mess up, I'm gonna mess up.

There's gonna be days where I didn't run after the heart of God, there's gonna be weeks where I drifted, there's gonna be weeks where you're gonna, and you go, like, you know, I'm returning to my commitments.

Think about this, okay.

Um, if you want to get stronger, one, you need to lift heavy things and eat a lot of protein.

Way more protein than I can't do that.

I've tried.

I'm working on it, but I can't.

Uh, but if you want to get stronger, those are two things you need to do.

If you want to have a great marriage, Jen and I just celebrated 23 years of marriage in December.

Yeah, thank you.

A great marriage began with a great commitment, standing before the altar, before God and these witnesses, till death do us part, come hell or high water, uh, you know, in sickness and in health.

I am yours, I'm all in.

And so for every season of life, because on the sunny days it's great, and we've had lots of those, and on the stormy days, you go, you know what, there is no eject button, there is no back door.

We are gonna work through it together.

Why?

Because you grow to the level of your commitment.

For some, this is this is you this morning.

I just talked with a young man after our service.

He said that you were just speaking right to me, and I feel like I've been that person that's been one foot in with Jesus.

I've grown up in the church, he was from Santa Cruz as well.

I'm like, awesome.

Uh one foot in, and today I'm gonna be both feet in.

How about you?

What would you say today?

January 4th, 2026, I'm all in.

Jesus, you're the leader of my life.

I am following you.

This year, I give you everything.

It's a decision you will never regret, but and if you do not make it, this Christian life will never make sense.

So let me ask you.

What are the rhythms shaping your heart, your mind, your desires?

What are the rhythms?

What are the habits?

What are the patterns of your life that are forming you?

What are the commitments you need to become more and more like Jesus?

Step one, clarify your focus.

Step two, activate daily formation.

Activate it.

One of the things you're gonna hear a lot this year is our discipleship pathway.

I'm gonna explain it in more detail in week three.

But come to know Jesus.

Come to know him personally.

Come to know him where you say, you're the rescuer, you're the leader of my life.

Grow, make a decision that I'm gonna grow as a disciple of Jesus.

I'm gonna begin to serve in the name of Jesus, like the Holy Spirit has deposited spiritual gifts inside of you to bless you and build up his church.

And then I'm gonna share the love of Jesus because he's given you and trusted the ministry of reconciliation to bring those who are far from God, close to God, through the atoning work of Jesus Christ.

And we go, this is the pathway and the process, but we need to activate daily formation, not just a day, not a Sunday kind of faith.

And so I want to give us one formation practice, just one.

Just one.

Can we do just one?

Yeah?

Okay, one practice.

Here we go.

Let God have the first word and the last word of your day.

Let God have the first word.

The Shema was the very first thing a Jewish person when they woke up in the morning would recite and pray.

The Shema was the last thing at night a Jewish person would pray before they go to bed.

Let God have the first word and the last word of your day.

You know what gets the first word and the last word of our day all the time?

Wake up, often it's our alarms that wake us up, and then we use the bathroom.

By the way, um, we would have spent far less time in the bathroom if we didn't have phones.

That's a sermon for another day.

Um but this often gets the first word, doesn't it?

No wonder we're filled with anxiety, stressed out, hurried.

Our souls are rushed.

This often gets the last word as we scroll before we go to bed, or we watch Netflix.

I watch Bobby Flay before bed.

That's my true confession.

I've been doing this last week, um reciting this in the morning.

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

Love your neighbor as yourself.

And then as I go to bed, I'm just reciting it.

Again, it's starting to reshape how I sleep and how I live.

So here's what we're doing in 2026.

This is, I like, we're gonna, I'm going old school honest.

We're having memory verses.

All right, you and we're gonna have memory verses.

This is our first memory verse.

Uh Mark 12, 29 through 31.

We're gonna have this memory verse for two weeks, okay?

I want you to recite it in the morning, and then I want you to recite it at night.

That you put this in your heart.

One of the ways that we're gonna do this tomorrow, we're gonna post on Instagram.

I'm not like totally anti-social media, it just can't control our lives.

But what I what we're gonna do is we're gonna post a graphic with this so that you can make this.

How good is this?

You can make it your locked home screen.

That's my wife, by the way.

So every time you pick up your phone, you're reminded of what's most important.

Every time you some people pick up their phone over a hundred times a day on average.

You can be reminded of what's most important a hundred times a day.

Isn't that great?

Let's start using this thing for like a tool of formation for good.

Yes! All right, all right, just calm down, Ingram.

Let's finish up.

All right, step one, clarify the focus.

Step two, activate daily formation.

You gotta do something.

Memorize scripture.

Begin and end the day.

Let him get the first and the last word.

Step three, pursue God with others.

The Christian life is not impossible on your own, or is it not difficult on your own, it's impossible.

Somewhere along the way, we believe that we can do this on our own.

It's my spiritual life, and I don't even need church or people, and I'm gonna do my thing.

That's a lie.

Because Jesus connected those.

Love God, love others.

You need others to love.

Two questions.

Once you wrestle with these.

What are the people you need?

Maybe it's friends, mentors, spiritual encouragers?

For some, you're looking for a friend, and it could be a person that is most unlikely that maybe even annoyed you at the beginning, but now they might become your best friend.

Maybe you need a spiritual mentor.

There's wonderful mentors here in our community.

Go around, just ask them out for coffee and bring a list of questions.

Maybe you need a spiritual encourager.

Who are the people you need in your life to help you pursue the heart of God?

And then, who needs you?

We get so focused, don't we, on just like, oh, it's all about me and I want my needs.

No, you give, like, who needs you?

This is one of the reasons we kind of opt out of small groups at times, is because there is that person there.

We sometimes call them EGR, extra grace required people, you know, and we're like, oh, I don't know.

They take a lot out of me because they need you.

There's some people that need your presence, your voice, your heart, your life, and we need both in our life.

Focus daily.

Clarify your focus daily, activate formation, and then pursue God with others.

Though you cannot go back and have a brand new start.

You can start today and have a brand new end.

What's most important 2026?

Love God.

Love others.

Nothing.

Matters more.

Don't just hear this sermon.

Take your next step.

Jesus, thanks for my friends.

Thanks for this time.

Thank you for new years that remind us that you're a God of new beginnings and fresh starts.

And I pray for the person right now that feels like they've had so many fresh starts they feel ashamed to even come back again.

And you're the God that says, welcome home.

Would you give them courage to come back home?

Gotta pray for our friends here that are on that deciding line, they're one foot in.

Would you give them the courage to take two steps and decide today?

Today, you are the leader of their life.

They commit their whole hearts to you.

And Jesus, would you make us a church?

Would you make us a people that pursues the heart of you with all that we have.

In Jesus' name.

We hope you are blessed by this message.

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