Sermon

This Is Going To Be Different - Week 7 - I Am Different - Damon Moore, Anabelle Delima, & Angel Alvarez - July 26, 2026

City Place Church Audio Podcast

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  1. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the City Place Church Podcast.

  2. Please join me in a moment of prayer before we get started.

  3. Heavenly Father, thank you for the person listening to this prayer.

  4. I ask that you would help open their mind and their heart, and that you would speak directly to them through today's message.

  5. In the name of your son, my brother, Jesus Christ, I pray.

  6. Amen.

  7. All right, are you ready for God's word? Yes.

  8. If you have your Bibles, go with me to Joshua 1.

  9. We're gonna do a little, uh, tag-team preaching this morning.

  10. I'm excited to introduce my partners, uh, today as, as we share God's word.

  11. But Joshua chapter 1.

    Joshua 1 chapter mention

  12. We've been, uh, in a series called This Is Going To Be Different.

  13. And, uh, last week, I gotta get a f- a shout-out to Jacob for preaching last Sunday.

  14. He gave me that.

  15. Jacob, uh, I told him, uh, I got a chance, uh...

  16. We were, uh, on family vacation this week.

  17. Our oldest son, David, is getting ready to go off to college.

  18. Anybody else getting ready to go away to college? Oh, wow, we got...

  19. Okay.

  20. Got you.

  21. Getting ready to, uh...

  22. So he, he's getting ready to go away to school, and so we, uh, have been really intentional to make sure that we invest as much time, uh, as a family, um, before he goes away.

  23. And so all we need for him to do now is just finish these chores, uh- 'cause I, I'm just adding stuff every single day.

  24. And so actually, if you all have chores, uh, let us know.

  25. There's five young men that are ready so that they get that last impact before they really walk into adulthood.

  26. But we, uh, we, we were away, and, uh, Jacob said something last week in his message, and I was like, "Ooh, that was so good."

  27. W- I was watching in the airport, and he...

  28. I'm paraphrasing it, but he was talking about the impact that we can make in others, and he said, uh, "The generation is waiting for us, but you and I can be the generation.

  29. We just have to push past the fear."

  30. And I'm paraphrasing what he said, but I thought, "Ooh, that's so good."

  31. Some, so often it's the fear that causes us to want to hold onto what God is releasing through us to impact somebody else.

  32. And so over the last few weeks, we've been in this series called This...

  33. There's, uh, This Is Something Different.

  34. This Is Gonna Be Different.

  35. And I felt like, uh, the focus for this Sunday, uh, was going to be different.

  36. Same series, but just a little different perspective.

  37. And so over the last six months, we've been declaring Joshua 1:9, and I thought we'd just keep it going by declaring it again.

    Joshua 1:9

  38. I don't know, do we...

  39. Can we put that up real fast? And it, there's a blank that you can put your name in, and it just simply says, "Damon, have I not commanded you..."

  40. So I want you to put in your name, and we're gonna just declare this together on three.

  41. Ready? One, two, three.

  42. Damon, have I not commanded you And so we've been declaring this verse for the last six months that, one, we're gonna move from cautious to courageousness, and this summer we've been saying and just releasing into the atmosphere, declaring that this is going to be different.

  43. I wanna read a scripture verse to you that's gonna set the tone, and then I'm gonna invite up my friends.

  44. Joshua 3:1, there is this, uh, beginning of stepping into the promise that Joshua is about to lead the people.

    Joshua 3:1

  45. In Joshua chapter 2, we spent some time there, and this was actually where the thought of this is going to be different was started.

    Joshua 2 chapter mention

  46. They released the spy- uh, two spies go out, and they come back and they say, "Surely the people of Jericho are already defeated.

  47. They told us so."

  48. And so God truly has given us the land, and then by the time we get to chapter 3 verse 1, Joshua is getting ready to give marching orders.

  49. But there's gonna be one verse that I want us to focus on today that's actually gonna give us the title for today, and then I'm gonna invite my friends up.

  50. Is that all right? Let's go.

  51. Joshua 3:1 says this: Early in the morning, Joshua and all the Israelites set out from Shittim and went to the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over.

    Joshua 3:1

  52. After three days, the officers went throughout the camp, giving orders to the people: "When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God and the Levitical priests carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it.

  53. Then you will know which way you will go, since you have never been this way before.

  54. But keep a distance of about 2,000 cubits between you and the ark; do not go near it."

  55. Joshua told the people, "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you."

  56. Joshua said to the priests, "Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on ahead of the people."

  57. So they took it up and went ahead of them.

  58. And the Lord said to Joshua, this is our focus, "Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all of Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses."

  59. Joshua, today everyone is gonna see publicly what I've been doing in you privately, and when they see you, they will know that it was me.

  60. This morning our focus topic inside of our series is simply this: I am different.

  61. I am different.

  62. When God begins to pull us to a public view after he's been working on us privately, it should be said about us that we are different.

  63. Come on.

  64. Not because they can see me, but that they can see him.

  65. Yeah.

  66. Like you and I, if, if I just told you that I got expelled My teachers that kicked me out should be able to go, "Damon, you're different."

  67. Yeah.

  68. Not because I had matured only, because listen, I can grow older and not be spiritually mature.

  69. Yeah.

  70. I can be 60, 70, 80, 50.

  71. Man, one day I look forward to being 50 I can be in my 30s.

  72. I'm different.

  73. But my age won't represent my spiritual maturity.

  74. But when I allow God to work on me privately, and then He displays it publicly, you should be able to go, "He's different."

  75. Yeah.

  76. And God is having this moment with Joshua, where He's like, "Joshua, for all of the pain, for all of the hurt, for all of the waiting, for all of the victories in the valley, all of the mountaintop moments, for all of the times you were in my presence, for your seasons of grieving, for your seasons of development, this is the moment by which now people will see that you are different.

  77. They won't even just view you as the leader of my people.

  78. They will view you as being different because they will see me when they see you."

  79. That's good.

  80. And so this morning, as we lean in, all I could think about is that there's a clear distinction between when I change and when God changes me.

  81. Have you ever been there where you tried to change yourself? I've been a pastor now for 24 years, and there's one thing when I've invited some of my unsaved friends to church, this is what they say, "Yo, Pastor, I'll come when I get myself right."

  82. And I'm like, "No.

  83. Come now.

  84. Come just like you are because there's a whole bunch of people just like you."

  85. Yeah.

  86. But there's a difference when God changes me than when I try to change myself.

  87. When I try to change myself, watch now how I feel will complicate my passion.

  88. Yes.

  89. Like, how I feel will complicate my passion.

  90. I, ah, I live in a community that has a gym, and, and I look at some of the, the people that are really fit, and I'm like, "You know what? I'm gonna do that."

  91. But when I wake up in the morning, if I'm tired I don't go.

  92. That's right.

  93. And just knowing that the gym is there doesn't change me.

  94. Right.

  95. Yeah.

  96. I don't change until I get in the presence where everything that I need to change me, I begin to interact with.

  97. Yeah.

  98. And so God speaks to Joshua, and he's like, "Joshua, for all of the seasons, for all of the times, you embraced those moments, and you allowed me to change you.

  99. And so I want you to know that you're different.

  100. But now the people will know that you're different."

  101. And I was thinking about the last few weeks, and I was thinking about all of the stories in our church.

  102. And sometimes you can just hear PD or Pastor Ty or Jacob or Sean, whoever it may be, up here communicating and go, "Well, that's what they're supposed to do."

  103. And I thought, "What if this morning we heard from people who actually God is putting them on display?" Yeah.

  104. And so I have two people that are gonna preach with me this morning.

  105. What? Because they're different.

  106. Yeah.

  107. I wanna invite up to the stage two of my friends, Annabel and Angel.

  108. Come on.

  109. Let's go.

  110. We got a now generation leader.

  111. Let's go.

  112. A high school senior.

  113. Let's go.

  114. Let's go.

  115. We got one of the best barbers in Orlando.

  116. Let's go.

  117. Here you go.

  118. Look, you went right to the podium.

  119. I like it.

  120. I gave them titles.

  121. I gave them, I gave them church titles.

  122. I gave, I gave them, uh, this is Deacon.

  123. And, and Pastor Annabel.

  124. Yeah.

  125. De- de- Angel was like, "Nah, just call me Angels, man."

  126. No, I'm just kidding.

  127. But hey, I thought that today would be good if, if we, we, we could capture what God is doing in the lives of people while we're all still in process.

  128. Yeah.

  129. Like, those who are growing in relationship with the Lord, because what God is doing privately, there are times when He begins to say, "Now I want you to bring that out publicly- Yes so that people can see me."

  130. That's right.

  131. And so this morning, as we are being challenged in God's Word, what they've been doing privately is now coming out publicly.

  132. Yeah.

  133. But God's gonna get the glory, so we need our hearts to be prepared for what God's going to say.

  134. That's right.

  135. Are you ready? Yes.

  136. Can we pray? Yes.

  137. Father, in Jesus' name, we're ready.

  138. God, You called us to be different.

  139. And so God, today, let us be bold enough and just like Jacob challenged us last week, that in the seasons of waiting, God, that we are the now generation that needs to sit in faith for what You wanna say and do through us.

  140. In Jesus' name we pray.

  141. Can you welcome Annabel? Amen.

  142. So we've been in this series all about being different, but do we really know what different means in this sense? So in biblical terms, different means being holy, set apart, and distinct.

  143. And as Christians, it is our job to be different and to show others a m- more pure way of living our lives.

  144. Today, I wanna show you how that faith makes us different through how we respond to hardships, specifically through the story of Joseph So for those of you who don't know Joseph, he was a 17-year-old who was his father Jacob's favorite son, and his brothers were already jealous of him for that.

  145. But then God started giving Joseph dreams of him leading the family, and their anger became so strong that they sold him to Midianite traders who sold him into slavery into Egypt.

  146. So Joseph's life, Joseph's life, sorry, changed overnight, but his faith never did.

  147. In Genesis 39, we see Joseph is now living in Egypt with his Egyptian master.

  148. Verses two to five state: "The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master.

  149. When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant.

  150. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned.

  151. From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph.

  152. The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field."

  153. So right now, Joseph is living a pretty good life.

  154. His master sees all the blessings that he's receiving because of Joseph, and because of that, Joseph now has a lot of his respect.

  155. But then if you keep reading to verses seven through 19, we see that Potiphar's wife has now taken notice of Joseph and is trying to convince him to be with her.

  156. He responds to her in verse nine by saying, "No one is greater in this house than I am.

  157. My master has withheld nothing from me except you because you are his wife.

  158. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?" Joseph wasn't different because he wasn't tempted.

  159. He was different because his faith was stronger than his temptation, which brings me to my first point: faith makes a difference.

  160. Temptation is something everyone faces, and like I said before, Joseph wasn't different because he didn't fall for it.

  161. He was different because his faith was stronger than his temptation, and it showed him and allowed him to respond to that temptation in the way he did.

  162. So she continues trying to lure him into the sin, and he keeps rejecting her until she eventually accuses Joseph of doing the thing he never wanted to do and sends him to prison.

  163. Most of us would probably be like, "Like, God, I did the right thing.

  164. Like, why am I going to prison, right?" But Joseph still kept his faith strong while facing adversity, and as a result, verses 21 through 23 state that: "While he was in prison, the Lord was with him.

  165. He showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.

  166. So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there.

  167. The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph's care because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did."

  168. So Joseph goes on to interpret the dreams of prisoners and eventually the Pharaoh, and the Pharaoh is so amazed by Joseph's gift.

  169. But instead of taking credit, Joseph tells him that it is God who is doing the interpreting through him, and it's not Joseph himself.

  170. In chapter 41, verses 39 through 41, it says, "Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you.

  171. You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders.

  172. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you.'

  173. So Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt.'"

  174. The Bible only d- just doesn't only say that Joseph was faithful, it reminds us that the Lord was with Joseph.

  175. That's why he was different.

  176. He didn't rely on himself.

  177. He chose to rely on God.

  178. That's right.

  179. Which brings me to my second point, God is still working in adversity.

  180. That's right.

  181. Joseph being in prison was not the end of the story.

  182. It was merely God's, a part of God's plan for Joseph.

  183. By using the gift that God had blessed him with, and by being different through embracing that gift and using it the way God wanted him to and standing firm in his faith, Joseph went from being a slave to becoming the viceroy of Egypt.

  184. None of that would've been possible if he had said yes to Potiphar's wife that day, and none of that would've been possible if he wasn't different.

  185. Yeah.

  186. He stood out from his brothers, they sent him to slavery.

  187. He stood out to Potiphar and his wife, he went to prison.

  188. But because Joseph was still faithful to the Lord, God did not let those actions harm Joseph.

  189. In fact, he used them to benefit not just Joseph, but the entire land of Egypt.

  190. Only our God could take hardship and turn it into leading an entire nation.

  191. When we are faithful, we experience and witness God's faithfulness even in our hardest battles.

  192. Even in our hardest times, God has never kept His love from us.

  193. He loves us so much that He uses our storms to shape us into who and what He has called us to be.

  194. Joseph is not the only evidence of this.

  195. Throughout scripture, that same truth is repeated.

  196. James 1:2-3, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness."

    James 1:2–3

  197. Micah 7:7-8, "But as for me, I will look to the Lord.

    Micah 7:7–8

  198. I will wait for the God of my salvation.

  199. My God will hear me.

  200. Rejoice not over me, O my enemy, for when I fall, I shall rise.

  201. When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me."

  202. 2 Corinthians 12:9, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

    2 Corinthians 12:9

  203. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

  204. So church, I challenge you to be different and boast in your weakness because of the God who's gonna meet you in it.

  205. Boast when it feels like your entire world is shattering because God is leading you through that storm so that you can go on to do greater things in His name.

  206. Whether it is learning to help others through their own storm or to lead an entire nation just like Joseph, your trial is someone else's guiding post.

  207. Joseph proves that your trial today may become someone's testimony tomorrow.

  208. God is writing your story, even the difficult chapters.

  209. So be different and watch the difference He makes in your life Good.

  210. That was so good.

  211. Yeah So my name is Angel.

  212. I've been coming to City Place, I wanna say, for about two and a half to three years, going on three years.

  213. And a few weeks ago, I had the honor of doing the challenge in the morning for the serve team.

  214. Shortly afterwards, Pastor Damon asked me to share that same challenge with you guys during service.

  215. So let's talk about joy I became familiar with pain at a very early age.

  216. I experienced loss, grief, pain, and before I was 10, I had already seen and witnessed my cousins either incarcerated, never to see the light of day, battle drug addiction that eventually turned fatal, or just simply taken too soon due to street violence.

  217. I buried a lot of people that meant the world to me, and I grew up navigating the absence of those who should have been around most.

  218. You could say that that would be enough to have me be a troubled child or a sad and depressed kid.

  219. However, Nehemiah 8:10 tells us, "Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is our strength."

    Nehemiah 8:10

  220. All right, now.

  221. My whole life, I've been asked two questions: "Why you smile so much?" "Why you play so much?" And I'll tell you guys in just a second, but first, I gotta tell you guys that, uh...

  222. I lost it somewhere in here.

  223. I got it.

  224. Um, there's a, there's a family here currently who attends here faithfully, and all summer, their daughter has been battling an illness, right? And last week, prior to service, we were praying extremely hard for them.

  225. Fast-forward, we go into worship, and we were told they probably not gonna be here today.

  226. We go into worship, in middle of the worship, I look down the aisle, and I see this little girl walk down the aisle, not just with walking down the aisle, but radiating joy.

  227. Oh, yeah.

  228. Right? That did something to me because it's...

  229. I could tell, I could tell that this girl knows something, and that's that Psalm 16:11 tells us- The path of life or...

    Psalms 16:11

  230. Look, I lost it.

  231. Whoo.

  232. Hey, I got you guys right now.

  233. Come on.

  234. Yes, yes.

  235. You make known to me the path of life.

  236. In your presence, there is fullness of joy.

  237. Can y'all say fullness? Fullness.

  238. Fullness of joy, and at your right hand, there is pleasures forevermore.

  239. Forevermore.

  240. Right? That tells us that joy is in the presence of God, not in our circumstances- Yeah or in our possessions, right? And then James 1:2-3 tells us, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, when you're facing trials of any kind."

    James 1:2–3

  241. That's right.

  242. Right? Because the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

  243. Can y'all say perseverance? Perseverance.

  244. Yes.

  245. So when you hear that verse, to me, it flips the world's view of joy upside down, right? Because the world tells us that joy comes when everything is good.

  246. Yeah.

  247. However, God tells us that joy can remain- All right now even when everything is going wrong.

  248. All right.

  249. So why do I smile so much? Because I have the joy of the Lord with me.

  250. Yeah.

  251. Why do I play so much? It's my way of spreading the joy.

  252. Yeah.

  253. Right? So I challenge all of you here, can you rejoice in the Lord in everything you do? Yeah.

  254. Right? So while I was preparing for this, God revealed something to me.

  255. You mind if I share? Yeah.

  256. Yes? So my grandmother was a, a God-fearing woman, right? And every Sunday she would wake me up, "Let's go to church."

  257. "I don't want to."

  258. "We could do this the easy way, we could do it the hard way."

  259. I chose the hard way, right? And I was always hoping that she was bluffing, but one thing about Grandma- she was never bluffing, right? So what she would do, she would drag me out of bed, take me in the bathroom.

  260. She didn't waste no time trying to figure out which toothbrush was mine, right? Rub some finger on her toothpaste, grab me by the hair, I had hair.

  261. And she would get to scrubbing, right? So I would think, "Why me? Why not anyone else in my family," right? And then it hit me, it dawned on me.

  262. My mo- my grandmother said, "This time will be different," right? Yeah.

  263. See, while I thought that my cousins who I was losing and I only knew from my short years of life, she was losing her grandbabies.

  264. Yeah.

  265. Men that she helped raise, right? She watched that.

  266. So she must have looked at me and said, "This time's gonna be different," right? Yeah.

  267. And she wasn't thinking about a week.

  268. She wasn't thinking about a month.

  269. She was thinking legacy.

  270. Yeah.

  271. Right? So I say, what if, like my grandmother, instead of us, you know, trying to be different and shrink the message...

  272. 'Cause like Pastor Damon said, for the last few weeks we've been in the, in the series called This Time Will Be Different, right? That's what my grandma was saying.

  273. This time will be different.

  274. But if we're not careful, we could shrink that message to something like, tomorrow will be different.

  275. Yeah.

  276. I'm not gonna go out and drink no more.

  277. Yeah.

  278. I'm gonna go ahead and just not lose my temper.

  279. And those are cool, don't get me wrong.

  280. Those are great goals to have.

  281. But what if thinking about this time will be different, we're not thinking about changing habits- Yeah we're thinking about changing a generation.

  282. All right.

  283. Right? What if in this time will be different, we're thinking- This time will be different simply because I'm not g- I'm gonna stop taking God's grace for granted.

  284. What if this time will be different means I'm gonna start treating my body like the temple that God created me to be, right? What if this time will be different means I'm gonna go ahead and stop leaning on my own understanding and lean into God's Word, right? What if this time will be different means that we are just gonna give all our praise to God and we're gonna stop worrying, right? So I tell you guys this, joy, right, is not the absence of hardships.

  285. Joy is the presence of God through the hardships, right? So how about the minute that we understand that in the presence of God we have joy, then maybe this time will be different Deacon Angel looked at me and was like, "Can I take my time?" It's literally what he said.

  286. That's how I heard it.

  287. "Can I take my time, PD? Can I take my time?" See, what I love about the journey is that God will take the private moment- Yeah and allow it to be displayed.

  288. Yeah.

  289. And this is not a finished product.

  290. This is a work in progress.

  291. Yeah.

  292. A work in progress.

  293. Yeah.

  294. And with the same boldness that it took for them to say yes, it's the same boldness that God makes available to us for the person beside us.

  295. Yeah.

  296. What if today we boldly declared, like point number three, "I will be different"- Yeah spiritually.

  297. Yeah.

  298. So I want you to write down a couple of things, and I'm, I pray that you wrote down those things.

  299. Because all throughout scripture we see that there's this change that God makes in people's lives, whether it's with Joseph, whether it's with Joshua.

  300. It happens with Saul becoming Paul.

  301. It happens with the disciples, where they're fishers of men, and now there's fishers-- I mean, from where they were fishermen to being fishers of men.

  302. Where Jacob becomes Israel.

  303. You know, Abram becomes Abraham.

  304. Like we, there's, there's shift constantly.

  305. But you and I have to embrace the fact...

  306. Write these things down.

  307. The first thing is that we are God's handiwork.

  308. We are God's handiwork, and so we have to display His handiwork We're a billboard.

  309. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10 says, "For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

    Ephesians 2:10

  310. I love how Angel took his time.

  311. And like, just a moment of preparation behind the scenes caused him to remember and now appreciate the fact that grandma put toothpaste on her finger No, it, it's appreciated now.

  312. Watch, because, uh, is grandma alive right now? She's, um, with the Lord.

  313. And so like now if grandma could see The kids that's been baptized.

  314. Yeah.

  315. And the invitation that he got from a student in this church to come to City Place.

  316. Yeah.

  317. Could've been anywhere, totally fine.

  318. But now you just took your private and it became public.

  319. Yeah.

  320. That's good.

  321. Like, what if we realized that we're God's handiwork- Yeah and that there's something that He prepared for us before time ever began? That's good.

  322. That's the moment that Joshua was experiencing.

  323. Yeah.

  324. It's just that it took him 40 years.

  325. 40 years.

  326. He got the title and God was just like, "Hey, the title means something, but it means more when people can see me in the moment."

  327. Write the second thing down is, uh, you and I, we can never make life about us God's like, "Hey, look, I'm gonna raise you up."

  328. And, and team, you can come on back up, worship team.

  329. We're wrapping up.

  330. But, uh, like, God's like, "Hey, listen, I'm gonna raise you up, but people are gonna see me through you.

  331. It's not about you, it's about people seeing me through you."

  332. And so even today, one of the ways that we can be different is just simply to walk in spiritual humility.

  333. Yeah.

  334. Spiritual humility.

  335. I loved y'all's humility as you guys were teaching this morning, because again, we are all works in progress, and we're telling stories, and we're telling what God's doing in the moment.

  336. And so what if we shelved our ambition and took His? Yeah.

  337. Which then leads me to number three, is that we're called to win people to Christ.

  338. You know, in Joshua's day, it was all focused on the God that was leading them.

  339. Jacob talked about it last week, how the people wanted a king, and they chose a natural king rather than the spiritual leadership of a God who was present- Yeah in their camp every place they went.

  340. Yeah.

  341. Like, we're called to lead people to the ultimate champion, to show Jesus to every single person that we meet, and that's gonna require you and I to live a life where we just reflect Him.

  342. It is possible.

  343. It is possible to be a reflection of the King of all kings and the Lord of all lords, but it does take us getting out of the way.

  344. Yeah.

  345. And so this morning, the, the challenge from all of us is that God's called us to be different.

  346. The question is, is will we embrace the fact that He's changing us to be different? None of this is, uh, a, a natural thing.

  347. This is all the spiritual work that God wants to do in us, that exudes His presence and His power.

  348. I love the fact that there are young people being baptized today.

  349. There are men and women being baptized today because they're recognizing in the middle of the story that I'm different.

  350. Yeah.

  351. That God's changing me.

  352. That even if I said yes to Him yesterday, I'm not the one that I used to be.

  353. Come on.

  354. That if I've been on the journey for year after year after year, I'm not who I used to be.

  355. Like, how many of y'all would still want to be termed how people formally termed you? You're not who you used to be.

  356. God's changing you.

  357. And when we embrace the fact that He's changing us...

  358. Please don't call me Damon from the block.

  359. No, listen.

  360. I need help.

  361. I'm different.

  362. No, listen.

  363. Like, don't, don't keep me where I used to be.

  364. Right.

  365. Like, I'm changing, but I gotta give the one who's changing me credit He deserves all the glory and He deserves all the honor.

  366. Why? Because if I can tell you what He's doing in me, then maybe I'm watering, I'm planting, or maybe while I'm talking to you, I'll see that you're ready to meet Jesus the same way I did For some of you today, your next step is baptism.

  367. I mean, they preached about Jesus and shared about joy.

  368. You embrace the fact now that in any moment when it seems like it could be heavy, you're there to spread joy, man.

  369. You recognize that now.

  370. You recognize that just through your study through Joseph, through the highs and the lows, Annabelle's a walking miracle.

  371. We prayed for her a little over a year ago, and now for her to be able to s- declare the word of the Lord is not because there wasn't heartache.

  372. She was laid up in a hospital You just never know what God is doing privately, that when it becomes public, it impacts others.

  373. For others of you in this room, today is your first day to say yes to Jesus Christ and accept Him as your personal Lord and Savior.

  374. He's already been writing your story, but you are on display as His handiwork.

  375. All of the bumps, all of the bruises, the highs and the lows play into how He's forming you.

  376. Will you bow your heads and close your eyes this morning? You walked in here today and you don't have that relationship with Jesus that we've been talking about, and I'm gonna give you an opportunity to come into the family of God, come into a relationship with Him.

  377. And that's simply by accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior.

  378. The Book of Romans says that if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died and rose again, He comes in as Lord of your life.

  379. The Bible says it's through the confession of your faith.

  380. Says that all that call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

  381. So in this moment, I'm gonna lead us in prayer.

  382. But if you say, "Damon, I am ready to give my heart to Jesus and accept the free gift of salvation," I want you to raise your hand on the count of three high enough and long enough for me to see it.

  383. Ready? One, two, three.

  384. I'm ready to see Jesus.

  385. I'm ready to accept Him as my personal Lord and Savior this morning.

  386. You can put your hands down.

  387. CityPlace Church, will you pray this prayer with me? 'Cause there have been hands going up all over the building this morning.

  388. Say, "Dear Jesus, on this Sunday, I acknowledge that I need you.

  389. You died for me, and you rose again so I can be different.

  390. Today, I accept you freely as my personal Lord and Savior.

  391. I receive your forgiveness, and I acknowledge that I'm yours and you are mine.

  392. In Jesus' name, amen."

  393. Come on, can you give Jesus some praise this morning? Thanks for tuning in.

  394. We hope that you've been encouraged by today's message.

  395. Stay connected by subscribing to the City Place Church Podcast following us on Instagram, checking us out on Facebook or by visiting our website, www.cityplacechurch.com.

  396. Enjoy the rest of your day.