“Grow in Faith” by Pastor Daniel Floyd

Welcome to Gateway Churches Podcast.

Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.

Hey, well, welcome to church, everybody.

We're glad that you're here today.

Everybody good?

You good?

Come on, let's put our hands together for Jesus at every location.

What a great morning in church.

I tell you, I was here Thursday night.

The women showed up.

Any ladies at women's name?

I pulled in at 6 30 and I don't know that there was a parking spot available.

And I think we ended up parking people on the grass.

It was uh a powerful night.

We have to figure that out next year, make more space.

Um but what a great night.

And I want to bring something to your attention that's coming on October the 24th.

Everybody say the 24th.

October the 24th.

We're doing something that we haven't done in this way before.

And uh it's called Serve My City.

And here's the heart is that we would mobilize our entire church.

Adults, young adults, students, children, for one day to go out and live on mission for Jesus and make a difference in the communities around us.

And so our team has worked very hard to put together tons of projects, hundreds of projects and opportunities where you can go and you can make a difference in someone's life.

And here's the thing the Bible says that we're supposed to give a cup of cold water, but we're supposed to give it in Jesus' name.

And how many of you know that someone may not listen to what you say until they know that you actually care about them?

And so I want to encourage you to do that.

They're family friendly.

My family, all six of us, well, no one won't be home, all five of us, uh, will be on a project that day.

You can give an hour, right?

You can sign up for an hour time slot.

And there's all kinds of opportunities.

Let me share with you a couple that we're doing.

Um, one, uh, we're partnering with uh longtime partner Embrace Grace, and we're gonna be packing love boxes from women facing unexpected pregnancies with just some things in there.

Let them know they're valued, they're loved, and they have another choice.

They can choose life for their baby.

Um we're gonna be partnering with an organization called Our Calling.

We're gonna help in the kitchen prepare meals.

We're gonna serve in guest services to provide resources and clean showers.

We're gonna help them process donations in their warehouse.

We're gonna pack hygiene kits for inmates so you can assemble hygiene kits that go to our area prisons.

Um, we're gonna have a project that is seniors, veterans, and first responders.

So we're gonna be visiting nursing homes, VFWs, fire stations, police departments just to say you're not forgotten and uh that God sees you.

And so there's gonna be really there's thousands and thousands of opportunities, and so many people have already signed up this morning.

So here's what I want you to do: you tap the disc on the seat back in front of you, and at the very top of what that pulls up, you'll see where you can sign up.

You can see all the projects.

Go ahead and plan out your day, and then once you sign up, you go into the four-year-ear campus, and there is a serve by city t-shirt, nice red t-shirt.

Um, and you can't get a t-shirt unless you serve.

So if you want a t-shirt, you gotta serve.

Um, but how about this, everybody?

Just picture this with me for one day.

Red shirts all over the DFW in Wyoming, just making Jesus famous.

How about that?

All right, so make sure you get signed up for that.

Of course, over the next few weeks you'll have opportunity to do that as well.

Well, we're in this series called This Is Us, and we've been talking about what is God's design for his church, what is his purpose for it, how does that inform our future as a church?

So we're gonna continue in that.

Before we do, let's pray real quick.

Father, our hearts and minds are open to you.

And so we say, Holy Spirit, speak to us.

We believe your word can change us, challenge us, encourage us, grow us today.

We want to be better because we came to your house.

And we pray this in Jesus' name.

Everybody said a big amen.

Amen.

So, quick recap.

If you've ever been watching some on Netflix, you know, they go recap of the previous episode.

Here's the quick recap is that here's God's ultimate desire for his church is that we're disciple makers.

The Great Commission says go and make disciples, not go and make conferences, not go and make events.

All those are wonderful.

I like them.

But he said primarily our number one mission is to go and make disciples.

Everything else should be a vehicle to do that one thing.

And so we said a disciple is this.

This is just an easy definition.

It's someone who is moving, so not stationary, it's a lifelong movement to deeper and deeper levels of commitment to Jesus and to the thing he's building, which is his church.

He's building his church.

We're so grateful for all the nonprofits that serve people and we're gonna partner with them.

But the thing that Jesus is building, I'll build my church and the gates of hell won't revail against it.

So we want to help move people, and we know people move in steps.

If you've been walking with Jesus any amount of time, you know you got there a step at a time.

And sometimes it was three steps forward, and sometimes two steps backwards.

Can I get an amen?

And then sometimes five steps forward, but it was a step at a time.

And so we want to help people take steps.

We want to help them, we don't want to saved.

So God wants everybody to know, come to salvation.

Then they need to be pastored because just because you accepted Christ doesn't mean you've dealt with some of the things that you got to deal with.

And then everybody needs to be developed because you were made on purpose for a purpose, and then you need to be mobilized to go make a difference.

Matter of fact, serve my city as an opportunity for you to live out part of our purpose, and that is live on mission and go make a difference in the world around you.

And uh, so we just decided to say it this way.

I didn't come up with this language, a lot of people in the church did, and we saying it this way: we lead people to know God personally, that is saved, to grow in faith, that is pastored and developed, and then live on mission, and that's mobilized, and that's all throughout the scripture.

And I went into detail on week one, so go watch if you missed it.

So today I want to talk to you about this idea of growing faith, that that middle phrase in our purpose statement.

What does it mean to grow in faith?

How many of you know that growth is natural and growth is expected?

Even in your life, right?

I mean, whenever you have a baby, they're born, you expect that baby to grow, do you not?

You get concerned if it's not.

At some point, if the baby's not growing, you go to the pediatrician and say, hey, something's wrong here.

We need to address this.

Why?

Because growth is expected and growth is natural.

Can I tell you the same thing is true in your relationship with Jesus?

Growth is expected and growth is natural.

Matter of fact, Jesus said it this way in Matthew chapter 5, verse 48.

Matthew 5:48

He said, Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect.

Now, some of you, if you're honest, you're like, closing the notebook.

I'm already, I'm already losing on this one, right?

But the word perfect there, a better translation, it's the it's the Greek word.

If you're new to the scripture, the original text was written in um in Greek in the New Testament, and it's the word telios, which really means mature.

It means wholeness.

It means to be fully complete.

So what it's really saying there is that God's expectation of you is that you would mature.

That you would grow, that you wouldn't stay at an infant stage, and we all start in infancy in our journey of faith, but it's not that you would stay there, but that you would mature and that you would grow into everything that God wants you to become.

And whenever we grow, then we become more like Christ.

If you're with me, say amen.

Let me show you another.

Paul said this in 1 Corinthians, he's writing to the Corinthian church, and they've got a lot of issues he's trying to correct.

But he says, brothers and sisters, I could not treat you or address you as people who live by the Spirit because you're still worldly, mere infants in Christ.

So he's not saying that you don't know Jesus.

He's just saying you're still infants.

The implication is we'd be we should be further along by now.

But he says you're mere infants in Christ.

He said, So I gave you milk, not solid food, for you're not ready for it.

Indeed, you're still not ready.

You're still worldly.

For since there is, now look how he describes worldliness.

You're jealous of each other, you can't get along.

Are you not worldly?

Are you not acting like mere humans?

For when one says, I follow Paul, and another says, I follow Apollos, are you not mere human beings?

What, after all, is Apollos?

What is Paul?

Only servants through whom you came to believe.

They were doing the assignment or the task God gave them.

Here, all Paul is saying is, I'm not the point.

Apollos isn't the point, Christ is the point.

In other words, Paul is saying, Some of you, you're coming to church and being like, Oh, he's not preaching.

I don't know if I'm not coming.

Oh, she's not preaching.

Oh, oh, he's not leading worship.

Are y'all with me?

Where's the regular guy?

Paul's like, what are you talking about?

It's not Apollos, it's not Paul.

They're just doing the assignment God gave them.

It's all about you knowing Christ.

And he says this, he goes, I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.

So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is, I love this, anything.

He says, but only God who makes things grow.

How many of you are grateful today that if you lean into God, God's gonna lean in with you?

Can I tell you something?

God expects you to grow and desires you to grow, but you have a part to play as well.

Growth isn't automatic.

Maturity isn't automatic, right?

Come on, you've met, you're like, yeah, I work for somebody.

Maturity is not.

Let me illustrate this to you.

I'm gonna have a friend of mine bring me out something.

Paul said, I wanted to give you milk.

I gave you milk, but I really wanted to give you brisket.

That's how I read the text.

How many of you remember, or maybe you have a uh cousin or a niece or a nephew or something?

How many of you remember when you first had your little baby or or or family member and and they were ready for the bottle, right?

And you're holding them and you hold the bottle.

Nobody remembers this?

Do y'all do it different in Texas?

How many remember you're like trying to multitask, so you got the bottle with your chin, you're like holding it with your chin, got your phone over here, right?

And then all of a sudden, at some point, their little fingers grab it and they're able to hold it.

But it's kind of heavy, so they and then it ends up on their chest.

But then are y'all following me?

And then they end up being able to do it themselves.

And then eventually you then you move to the high chair, and you're feeding them the gross baby food, the purated, all that, right?

And then eventually they start eating what you're eating, and then eventually they get out of the high chair.

This is what God expects for you.

Could it be that some of us have been coming to church for a long time, but we're still because we've been here a long time, but we still are rude to people?

We've been around church, but we're still better.

I mean we know attendance doesn't equal maturity.

Time in doesn't equal growth.

Paul says you're still on the milk.

When what I really wanted to give you was Hutchins.

Talk amongst yourselves.

What I really wanted to do was bring you to maturity.

What I really wanted to do was get you out of the high chair.

What I really wanted to see for you was not just time in, but I'm actually growing in this thing where I can take a steadier diet because here's the reality if all you ever do is the milk, you'll never get all the nutrients you need to grow.

Just like the natural body could not live off of this.

You may have really strong bones, but everything else will be messed up, right?

The same is true.

And so I want to talk about three questions today about growing, and then we'll land a plane with how are we gonna help everyone do that here at Gateway?

If you're with me, say amen.

If you want barbecue, say amen.

Okay, no.

That was a louder amen on the barbecue.

Okay.

Question number one: why grow?

Why is this important?

And the answer is this because God isn't finished with you.

I don't care how long you've been walking with Jesus or how short or if you're not even sure about him yet.

Can I just tell you God isn't finished with you?

God's not done with you.

Paul said this to the church in Thessalonica.

He said, May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you, mature you through and through.

May your whole spirit, soul, and body, this is a whole nother message for another day, but you are you are a trichotomy, you know that, right?

You're made up of three parts: your body, that's your flesh, your spirit, that becomes awakened when you accept Christ, your soul, which is your mind, will, and emotions.

And you need to be sanctified in all three areas.

Are you all with me?

You need your spirit and your soul sanctified so your body acts the way you want it should act, so that your mouth behaves according.

Okay, you all with me?

Okay.

Be blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.

Paul said this in Philippians 1 6.

He says, Being confident of this, that he who began the good work in you will what?

Carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Here's what the scripture is telling us is that you have a part to play in your growth, and God plays a part in your growth.

He said, Apollos watered, I planted the seed, but it's God who gave the harvest on the seed.

So here's what I'm trying to tell you is that you can't just like be stationary and expect to mature in your faith.

You have a part to play.

You draw close to God, God draws close to you.

You lean in to grow.

So here, maturity isn't about flawlessness.

Maturity is about the posture of your heart.

It's about the lean-in of your heart.

It's about you being able to say, I haven't arrived, I haven't reached the pinnacle, I'm still on this journey of faith, I still have room to grow, and God's not done with me yet.

I still have some steps to take, and we all have steps to take.

But I'm concerned sometimes in church, we can go, I've done it.

I come to church, check that box.

I used to serve, check that box, done that.

I went to a small group once, check that box.

When did this become boxes we check?

I thought this was a lifelong journey.

I thought this was a lifelong journey of knowing God personally.

I never arrived on that.

I thought this was a lifelong journey of growing in my faith.

I thought this was a lifelong journey of living on the mission of Jesus.

It's not that God wants me to make a difference one time.

He wants me to live a life of impact, of living on mission, a life of growing in faith, a life of knowing Him more deeply and deeply and deeply just as we grow.

It's it's it's our job to lean in.

Did you know you can't will or strive yourself to be taller?

I mean, if we could, I would have.

I always wanted to be a little over six foot.

Just wasn't in the genes.

Did you know you can starve yourself shorter?

That you can starve your body where it doesn't get the nutrients and you don't reach the full potential of what you should be.

Same thing in your growing in faith.

You can't strive your way more Christ-like.

It's the work of the Holy Spirit in you.

But you can starve yourself spiritually to become less Christ-like.

We have to have a posture of lean-in.

You have to go sow the seed.

Paul said there was a sowing, there was a watering, but it was God who gave the increase.

When I was 13 and 14, the summers of 13 and 14, I worked on a tobacco farm.

Some of you are like, oh wow.

I just my cousins, all right?

I needed a paycheck.

And I think my parents wanted me to learn a work ethic.

So every morning, 5 30 a.m., the truck would come pick me up, I'd go, and I worked the barns.

And um, I don't know if you've ever been around this type of agriculture.

But the the dew in the morning and the North Carolina sand on the leaves, um, they bring that in, then you have to hang them in the barn above you, and so sand and the dew and all that is coming down your head in your eyes.

I mean, you just it's the devil's work, everybody, okay.

But here's what I do know is that my cousin couldn't just stand in the field and be like, I hope we get a harvest.

No, he had to teal the soil, he had to plant the seed.

He had to do what he could do.

He couldn't control the rain, he couldn't control the sunshine, he couldn't control the climate.

What he could control was planting seeds.

What he could control was watering and nurturing this irrigating.

Are y'all following me?

What he could control, and you have to control what you can control in your growth.

And when you do, God will bring the increase.

Alright, question number two.

Question number two is this what does growth look like?

Here's the answer.

It looks like maturity, not just information.

Let me say it this way: information doesn't lead to transformation.

Information is needed and helpful, but information you can't assume leads to transformation.

Let me give you an example.

We know more about anxiety than we've ever known as a culture.

More writings, more research, more papers published, but yet we have the highest anxiety rates that we've ever had in America.

Because more information about it doesn't lead to transformation from it.

Can I tell you the same thing is true in our faith?

Just because we have information, just because we know, we have knowledge, we have Bible knowledge, doesn't mean that it's got into our spirit and soul, which it changed, where it has changed the way that we live.

So it's not just about information, it's about transformation, it's about maturity of our heart.

And so what is what is what does maturity look like?

And this isn't an exhaustive list, obviously, but let me show you in 1 Peter, he shows us kind of some stair steps.

He says this, for this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith, add what?

Goodness, and to goodness, knowledge.

So knowledge is a part, to knowledge, self-control, and to self-control, perseverance, and to perseverance, godliness, and to godliness, mutual affection, and to mutual affection love.

For if you possess these qualities, look at this, in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In other words, if you increasingly grow in these, then you won't be unproductive in knowing God personally.

So let me give you just a few examples.

How about this?

Here's a sign of maturity.

You treat people well.

If we can raise our hands on Sunday and cuss somebody on a Monday, that's immaturity.

Is this too much?

This is what Paul told the church in Corinth.

We just read it earlier.

You're still worldly.

And how does what is what are signs of worldliness?

You're jealous of each other, you fight among each other.

This is immaturity.

Just because I have a tendency somewhere doesn't mean I'm growing.

I have to keep growing.

So how do I treat people?

Here's a great diagnostic question.

Maybe you ask yourself, not right now.

Am I easier to live with today than I was a year ago?

Just a good test.

Moving along.

Do you discern well?

Look what Hebrews says.

I love this verse.

It says, but solid food is for the mature.

You know, connection back to what Paul said about milk and meat, who by constant use.

In other words, they're constantly in the word, constant use, have what?

Trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

So a sign of maturity is that you.

Can discern what is right and what's wrong.

You have a discernment for what is good and what is evil.

How about this one?

Sign of maturity is that you stand well.

That you're not tossed around.

It's what Paul wrote to the Ephesian church.

He said, You'll no longer be infants because infants are tossed around.

They're tossed by every wave and blown here and there by every reel and post, I mean every wind of teaching, and by the cunning and craftiness of people on Facebook and TikTok and their deceitful scheming.

Instead, this is the contrast, speak the truth in love, and we'll grow to become in every respect the mature, the teleos, same Greek word in Matthew chapter 5, body of him who is the head, that is Christ.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

Can you stand well?

Are you easily influenced by lies and heresy and scheming of the enemy?

Can you mark a maturity is that you stand well?

How about this one?

We don't like to talk about this in church, but do you suffer well?

I don't have a theology that says God sends suffering, but I think if we'll let him, he can use it.

Romans 8 says he works all things together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

That means the good and the bad.

Hear me.

I believe God's blessing and favor, I believe in all that, but I also believe we live in a fallen world with broken people that cause hurt to each other sometimes.

And so how well do we suffer?

March, I'm gonna do a whole series on Romans 8.

We're gonna take a whole Sunday on it, so just be ready.

He says, consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith, it's doing something, it's producing perseverance, and let perseverance finish its work so that you may be tellyos.

You know what Paul is saying?

Trials are part of the curriculum.

Tough times are part of what is maturing you.

And if you've walked, talked to anybody that has walked through something in their life, they will tell you, I would not want to repeat it, but I would not trade it because how I know God now is so much deeper.

So, how do you suffer?

Yeah, if we're gonna clap, let's all do it.

Do you suffer well?

Mark of maturity, mark that you're growing.

It's not how high you raise your hands, it's not how loud you sing, it's not how many years you've been in church.

Are you growing?

Are you maturing?

Some of you are looking at even that short list, which is not exhaustive in any way, and thinking, yeah, there's no hope for me.

But I want to encourage you with the words of the Apostle Paul.

He says this, not that I have already obtained all this.

Man, how good is that?

The guy that could have said, kind of figured it out, y'all.

I mean, wrote over half the New Testament, planted so many churches, great impact, still his name is synonymous with Christianity.

I mean, he could have said, I've arrived, but here's what he said.

He said, I haven't obtained all this, or I haven't already, I'm not already at my goal, but here's what I do.

I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do, I forget what is behind.

I'm straining towards what is ahead.

I press on towards the goal to win the price for which Christ has called me heavenward in Christ.

In other words, every God took a hold of my heart and I want everything that God has for me, is what Paul is saying.

And he said, All of this, all of us then who are teleos mature, should take such view on things.

What is the view he's talking about?

The view is this if a mark of maturity is realizing I haven't yet arrived.

He said, everybody should take this view.

What is the view?

That I haven't obtained it, that I haven't reached the goal yet, but I'm pressing on.

I gotta lean in in my spirit.

I'm more hungry for God than I've ever been.

I want to know him better than I've ever known him.

I want to be more like him than I ever have been.

I want to shine his light to the world around me like I never had before.

Paul goes, I've done a lot, but I haven't obtained it all.

And I'm pressing in.

This is why maturity is less about perfection and more about posture.

It's about what is the posture of your heart?

And I'm wanting to activate something inside of your heart today, stir something in you.

If you've been like just kind of coasting along and kind of like, yeah, I know the verse, I know the thing, I do the prayer.

No, no, no.

Let something reignite in you that goes, I'm not there yet, but man, God, I want more of you.

I want everything that you have for me.

I'm pressing in towards the goal of the upward call of God in Christ.

So God's not finished.

Maturity isn't just knowledge, it's a transformation of your life.

And so then, question number three we've got to ask is so how do we grow?

And here's how we grow.

We grow together.

That's how we grow.

It's how God designed it.

We grow together.

We grow together.

In other words, the whole way God made this is that you need each other to get where God wants to take you.

I didn't set it up that way.

You're like, why introvert it?

I don't like that.

Well, God knew your personality and he made the church like this anyway.

He made it where we grow together.

We need each other.

Iron sharpens iron.

We make each other better.

There's some things in your growth, right, that you can do alone.

You can have your own time in the word, you can have your own time in prayer, you can have your own time in worship, you can fast, you can have solitude, you can do all these spiritual disciplines.

But there's some areas of growth that you can never do alone.

So here's the deal.

You can isolate and do solo Christianity, but you'll never mature to brisket.

Some of you that motivated you right there.

You're just like, okay, okay.

Because there's some things that can only happen together.

There's some things in the freedom God wants to give you that can only happen in community.

I just want to show you something about freedom real quick.

If you're with, are you all still with me?

You're writing this down?

I want you to understand this, and this is, I'm gonna get to where this happens in community, but follow my train of thought.

Number one, you've got to know this, your past is forgiven as it relates to freedom.

So this is positional.

The theological term is justification.

And the easy way to define that and think about it is just as if you'd never sinned.

That's how I remember learning it as a kid.

Justified.

Because of Jesus and his blood.

We've you know celebrated communion today.

That blood has made it just as if I never sinned.

This is the way the Bible says it, that as far as the east is from the west, your transgressions have been removed from you.

So that's positional.

That's in the in the courtroom of heaven, your past is forgiven.

Number two, though, your past no longer defines you.

This is about identity.

You are not your worst day.

You are not your lowest moment, and you are not your worst sin.

You are who Christ says you are, and that is forgiven, loved, accepted, valued with a purpose, for a purpose.

That is who you are.

That's your identity.

And Paul is reminding of the church in Corinth, which they had some crazy things happening, people that were in their church, the life they used to live.

He says, and that's what some of you were.

That's not who you are anymore, but that's who you were.

Well, who were they?

Sexually immoral, orgies, drunkenness, I mean, just some crazy sexual sin going on in Corinth.

And Paul goes, That's who you were.

Aren't you grateful that the grace of God can cover any sin?

There's no one that's outside the reach of his grace.

Can I just say that to you today?

I don't know what you walked in with and think God can never forgive me.

Well, go talk to the people in Corinth because they were in some wild stuff and God rescued them because that's what he does.

But he said, That's who you were, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God.

That's who you were, but you've been watched.

So every time the enemy reminds you of your worst day, you can say, I've been watched, I've been sanctified, I've been justified by the Lord Jesus Christ.

That may be who I was, and it may be something I did, but it is not who I am.

I am a child of the most high God.

That is my identity.

I am not what I wrestle with.

I am who God says that I am.

But here's the best part your past no longer controls you.

And this is the part that you can't do alone.

God does this, God does this.

You have to walk this out.

Galatians 5 1 says this it is for freedom that Christ set us free.

So stand firm.

You've got to stay in your freedom.

And don't let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

A yoke is the piece of wood and the things that I don't know how to scrub it, that hold two oxen plowing in the same direction.

And what happens is his yoke is burdened and as easy as light.

His burden is light.

So what Christ did whenever he saved you is he took the yoke off you.

But Paul is telling the church in Galatia that some of you have got back under the yoke and you don't have to.

It's like someone who's been set free from prison but keeps walking back in the cell because it's comfortable and familiar.

And some of you do that spiritually.

Christ has set you free, but you find yourself re-yoked because you don't know how to walk it out in freedom every day.

And it's because you can only do it together in community.

That's why James tells us in James 5.16 that you have to confess your sins to each other and pray for one another so you can get healed.

Well, I confess them to God, great, because 1 John 1.9 says that He's faithful and just to forgive you and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

But you've got to talk to another believer to find freedom.

And that's how you grow as you grow together.

You've got to have a place where you take the mask off.

And we are so good.

So good at putting the facade on.

The family's great, the kids are wonderful.

I'm doing wonderful, it's great.

God bless you.

Great.

Smile, walk in, shake a hand.

The outfit looks nice.

Everything's put together.

On brand, on point.

Fit check is good.

That's great.

But you know you d you don't even sleep in the same room anymore because you're so at odds in your marriage.

And you're not gonna find freedom till you find a place to get the mask off and go, here's what's really happening behind closed doors.

And you know that when your wife goes to bed, you get on your phone and you're looking at porn, and it's destroying your intimacy.

And you're bound, and you hate it, and the shame of it kills you.

But you can't get free from it.

Because there's some things you can't get free from alone.

And you're building the business, and you're working 12-hour days, and then you get home, and you're on edge because of the stress, and you're frustrated with kids, and so you lash out in anger, and you hate that about yourself, but you seem to repeat that pattern because there's some things you can't get free from by yourself.

You need community.

And you will only grow so far in your walk with God sitting in here on the weekends.

And I want you here.

I want you to bring people with you.

But you've got to take a step beyond this and get together with people.

So, what are we gonna do to help you do that?

Something we've been doing, but we're gonna give even more energy to it, and it's this create small groups where people can experience community.

Where you find people you connect with.

Well, what if I go to a group and they're weird, then go to another one?

What if I go and I don't like them?

Well then don't go back.

Sign up, but find one you do like.

Or maybe some of you have been walking with Jesus for so long, start a group, lead one, start pouring back out.

You've received enough.

Okay, just a okay.

And here's why.

Because groups are the biblical model.

They're not Gateway's idea, they're God's idea.

Acts chapter 2, go read it.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Number two, because life change happens best in relationships.

We learn some things in rows, but we get transformed in circles.

You could probably name five or six messages maybe in your lifetime that have really impacted you.

Maybe.

But I I bet you could name a whole list of people that have really impacted you.

I think about Pastor Rob Morgan, who took me under his wing, and he was a writer, so that he let me go to the library and do research, and then we would talk about it and change my life.

I think about my own dad watching him as an intercessor pray two hours every morning, change my life.

I think about the professor that told me week one how to live in the tension.

That you live in the center of biblical tension.

He's also the professor that took me to lunch and said, Daniel, God's hand is on you.

He's gonna use you in a powerful way, but you're so arrogant he can't use you.

That hard truth changed my life.

I wouldn't be here today if he hadn't taken the time.

Because freedom happens one-on-one in relationship.

So life change happens there.

And then finally, because people need to be known.

Everybody, we've got to get this big church to feel a whole lot smaller.

Does it mean we stop getting big?

No.

We gotta keep reaching people and helping them know God personally, but at the same time, we gotta help them be known.

I know your name, I know what you're going through, and I miss you when you're not here.

Everybody needs that.

Everybody needs that.

So longevity doesn't equal maturity.

And God doesn't want you to stay here.

He wants you to keep growing.

He wants you to know God personally and wants you to grow in faith.

And I hope you never get this image out of your mind.

Is that helpful?

Let's pray together.

With every head bowed, every eye closed.

Maybe you're here today and you've never taken the first step in the journey of what it means to grow in faith, and that is to meet Jesus.

That's to surrender your life to Him.

To say He's the Lord, He's the one in control.

Maybe you've never taken that step, or maybe you're with us today, and there was a time in your life where you were really walking with the Lord, but you know in your heart he feels a million miles away right now.

Can I tell you, you don't have to live that way.

You don't have to walk through life wondering, does God accept me?

Does God love me?

Can I tell you something?

God so loves you that he gave his only son Jesus to die for you.

He so loves you.

And I just want you to know today there's nothing you have done or ever will do that is outside the reach of his grace into your life.

So if you say, Pastor, that's me today, I need a fresh start with God.

The Bible says that if you're in Christ, you're a new creation.

All the old passes away, and everything becomes new.

So maybe today you need a fresh start.

In just a moment, we're gonna pray together, and that prayer is simply us helping you express to God the desire of your heart.

But it's about the motive of your heart and your faith.

And so before we pray, I just want to know who I'm praying with.

No one's gonna come to you or point you out.

But I just want to know who I'm praying with, myself, the campus pastor at your location.

But if you say, Pastor, that's me, I need a fresh start in God, then when I count to three, I just want you to shoot your hand up high enough, long enough for myself or the pastor at your location to see that we're gonna pray together.

But if that's you, God's speaking to you, you shoot your hand up high and boldly, all right?

One, two, three.

You just lift it up high all over the room.

God bless you.

All over the room.

Keep it up, keep it up.

Incredible.

So many hands, Church.

Beautiful.

All of heaven is rejoicing over you right now.

You need to know that.

You can put them down.

Church, will you pray this out loud with me for the benefit of those who just slip their hand up?

Just say, Jesus, I need you.

I ask you to forgive me of all my sin.

I believe you died for me.

I believe God raised you from the dead.

Today I make you my Lord and Savior.

Thank you for a brand new beginning.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen and amen.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you'd like to connect with us, text Connect to 71010 or visit gatewaypeople.com.

We hope you have a great week.