Latest / REZ CHURCH Podcast / Celebration Sunday - December 28, 2025

Transcript

Celebration Sunday - December 28, 2025 · REZ CHURCH Podcast

• 0:00
  Good morning, Resurrected Church.
• 0:02
  My name is Richard. I'm the high school youth
• 0:03
  director here at Rez. I want to tell you how excited I
• 0:07
  am that you're here today. I was at the gym this week, ran
• 0:10
  into an old buddy of mine, and he began to tell me his story,
• 0:13
  how his son is taking off and started living his own way and
• 0:17
  not living the way he raised him to live.
• 0:19
  And he gave me a chance to share the story that comes from the
• 0:23
  Bible where Jesus is talking about the prodigal son, how the
• 0:26
  son took off, turned his back on the dad and just lived a life of
• 0:31
  sin and debauchery and all the ways that dad didn't raise him
• 0:35
  to be. But that son finally came to his
• 0:38
  senses and made his way home. But what's key about that story
• 0:42
  is that the father was there waiting for him to come back
• 0:47
  with open arms. The father didn't say, hey, you
• 0:50
  did this, you did that. He didn't start bringing up the
• 0:52
  stuff that he did. He welcomed him home.
• 0:56
  And whether you've been here for years, been a Christian for
• 0:59
  years, or you're new to this whole Jesus thing, I want to let
• 1:02
  you know that the Father is standing there with his arms
• 1:05
  wide open saying, come home, I love you, I care for you, you're
• 1:09
  safe with me. So Jesus is the way to the
• 1:14
  Father. Would you stand and worship with
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  us this morning? Let everything there is breath,
• 1:36
  praise the Lord, praise the Lord.
• 1:39
  Let everything there is breath, Praise the Lord, praise the
• 1:45
  Lord. I'll praise in the valley, and
• 1:49
  I'll praise on them now I'll praise with them.
• 1:54
  Sure, I'll praise with them, I'll praise with our number,
• 2:04
  I'll praise with surrounding. This crazy is the water my enemy
• 2:12
  is rounding. As long as I'm breathing, I've
• 2:18
  got a reason to pray. The Lord, Oh my soul, praise the
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  Lord, Oh my soul. I'll praise when I feel you now,
• 2:38
  praise when I don't. I'll praise kiss.
• 2:43
  And no, your silly control. Because praise is whipping.
• 2:53
  It's more than it's my praise is the shout that brings Jericho
• 3:05
  to. As long as I'm breathing, I've
• 3:08
  got no reason to pray the Lord. Oh my soul.
• 3:17
  Pray the Lord. Oh my soul.
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  Oh, I won't be quiet. But God is alive.
• 3:28
  How could I keep it inside? Oh my soul, I got so good.
• 3:42
  He's been so good to us this year.
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  He deserves some praise this morning.
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  Here we go. I'll praise, I'll praise.
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  Kiss yourself. Praise.
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  Kiss you rain. Praise kiss.
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  You rose and defeated the great. I'll praise.
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  Kiss. You're faithful.
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  Praise kiss, you're true. I'll praise, Kiss this nobody
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  greater than you. I'll praise Chris yourself.
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  Praise Chris you reign. I'll praise.
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  Kiss. You rose and defeated the grave.
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  I'll praise. Kiss, You're faithful.
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  Praise kiss, you're true. I'll praise, Kiss this nobody
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  greater than you. Praise the Lord, Oh my soul, you
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  know. Raise the Lord, Oh my soul.
• 4:35
  Raise the Lord, Oh my soul. Raise Oh my soul.
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  Oh, I won't be quiet. My God is alive.
• 4:59
  How could I keep it inside? I won't be quiet.
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  My God is alive. How could I keep it inside?
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  No, I won't be quiet. My God is alive.
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  How could I keep this Lord? Oh my God.
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  Let everything, let everything that is great praise the Lord,
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  praise the Lord. Let everything that is great
• 5:53
  praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, Praise the
• 6:04
  Lord. Praise the Lord, Praise the
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  Lord, Praise the Lord. We're going to keep praising
• 6:17
  because our God's good and he deserves some more praise.
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  Amen. When he sees my soul, I'll
• 6:25
  testify the blessings on blessings and poured on my life,
• 6:32
  and I shall remember it. How could you be?
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  It turns away tears and new brains, chains of depression
• 6:46
  broken by cranes. When I start remembering.
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  How could you be? Yeah, you can so, so, so, so,
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  so, so care to me. You can so, so, so, so, so, so
• 7:07
  care. There's something there's always
• 7:18
  weapons fault in the ground armies with every always round.
• 7:25
  We now show from nether rain how you carry my cross.
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  You call me my name, love me like I was If you didn't leave
• 7:37
  me that way. We stand now on live get it let
• 7:41
  you take. Oh, you've been so so so so so
• 7:48
  so get to me. Can you been so so so so, so so
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  get to me from morning to night, girls in their eyes I look back
• 8:06
  on my life and no need to see. Can you been so so so so.
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  So good, so good, so good to me. Every day, every night, you're
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  always so good to me. We praise you, Jesus.
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  Say God is good, you say all the time.
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  When I say all the time, you say God is good When I say God is
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  good, you say all the time. When I say all the time, you say
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  God is good. When I say God is good, you say
• 8:55
  all the time. When I say all the time, you say
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  God is good. When I say God is good.
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  What will you say all the time? When I say all the time, you say
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  God is so, so, so, so, so. Guess me.
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  Yeah, you so, so, so, so, so, so guess me.
• 9:18
  Yeah. Good morning to God, the Lord in
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  the eyes. I look back.
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  My life can only see the morning tonight, those in the heart.
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  I look back on my life in order to see him in so so so so so so
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  good. Praise King Jesus, he's so good.
• 10:04
  All right, guys, take a seat. It's going to be a little bit
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  different of a Sunday. We started doing this a couple
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  years ago. The last Sunday of the year.
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  We take a little bit of time to look back at the year and
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  celebrate the things that God has been doing in the life of
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  our church. And so we're going to do that
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  today. Our church has the never ending,
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  never changing mission of the Great Commission.
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  Every church has the same mission.
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  If you are a Bible believing church, you were commissioned
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  with the Great Commission and that is our responsibility.
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  But we have a culture here at our church.
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  We have things that we value and, and the way a certain way
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  that we do things and that shapes how we go about doing
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  ministry, how we form our goals. And so we are on a journey right
• 10:48
  now, a vision that we believe that God gave us about two years
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  ago. And we think that often times
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  God will. You know, there's segments to
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  this journey. We're in kind of a three to five
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  year window of time where we set some goals of the things that we
• 11:02
  believe that God is leading us to.
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  And so we talk about those every once in a while.
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  It's part of our churches vision.
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  We are finishing up year 2 of this vision.
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  So we're going to talk about progress that we've made and
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  things that we see God doing in the midst of that over the
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  course of this past year. And so there are four major
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  parts to our vision. We'll talk about those today.
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  We'll kind of celebrate a lot of our celebrations inside the
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  context of those four areas. And we set some goals a few
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  years ago that are we, they're called B hags, big, hairy,
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  audacious goals. You ever heard those B hags?
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  Some of these are big, some of them are difficult.
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  And we know they're God sized goals.
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  And what that means is either God is going to show up in power
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  or we're going to look foolish. And that's really where people
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  of faith should live. And so God has called us to
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  invest in four areas. We're going to talk about each
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  of those today. Here's one of the reasons that
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  we look back is not to pat ourselves on the back, but
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  biblically, if you read the Bible, God consistently tells
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  generations in the Old Testament to remember the things that he's
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  done because we're such a forgetful people that it doesn't
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  take us very long to forget how faithful God has been in our
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  past. And so we want to pause for just
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  a little bit of time today and look back at this year and
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  realize God has done some tremendous things in the life of
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  this church. It gets easy to overlook when
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  life gets busy or you're going through suffering or pain.
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  It gets really easy to overlook the things that God has done.
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  And so this should do three things for us today.
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  I hope it should encourage you. It should excite you, and I hope
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  that it inspires you. And, and, and part of the reason
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  that I hope that is that I believe that complacency and
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  comfort are the primary enemies of the American church.
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  We get comfortable and we get complacent and we stop pursuing
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  Christ the way that we were pursuing him at one point.
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  And then we wonder why faith is boring and God hasn't changed.
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  And so I hope this stirs you up today.
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  I hope it stirs you up to take a next step, whatever that next
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  step might look like. We're going to give you lots of
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  information and opportunities to take a next step with our
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  church. We have handouts celebrating
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  some of this stuff. We, we have a handout of just
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  all kinds of next steps. I think there's like 9 or 10
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  different next steps of things that you might take over the
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  course of this next year as you pursue Christ In the context of
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  the Res Church family here, we're going to celebrate a lot
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  of numbers. I want you to remember this.
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  Every one of those numbers represents people who have real
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  stories, who are being transformed by Christ.
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  And so as we celebrate some of that man, there's so many fun
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  stories. We will call out a few of those
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  stories, but we won't even get to tell all those stories today.
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  But God has been good to a number of people in a number of
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  ways. And So what we want to celebrate
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  is not just to glorify Christ today, but we want to celebrate
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  when we see Christ in someone and we see Christ in a lot of
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  you. And we want to call that out and
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  encourage you with it. And so we're going to start with
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  a video. Logan is going to walk through a
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  ministry that launched in our church this year called Regen.
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  And I want you to check this out.
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  Hello, everybody. My name is Logan, and I'm
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  celebrating the work that God has done through the
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  regeneration ministry here at Res Church.
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  Earlier this year, myself and seven other individuals
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  commenced from this program, and what that means is that we
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  completed the 12 steps of regeneration.
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  In Regen, they really emphasize confessing your sins both to God
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  and to other people. And in that, it's kind of broken
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  down that idea that we have to have it all together, or at
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  least pretend that we do. Now, because Regen makes us
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  confront that sin, we're more comfortable talking about it and
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  in talking about it, that is how we find healing.
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  And it's benefited myself by helping me grow out of lots of
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  bad habits. It helped a lot of the other
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  graduates, and I know it's going to keep benefiting Rez Church in
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  that way. There are lots of stories
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  already from region. We had a pilot program where we
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  trained leaders for a year and they recently, about 2-3 months
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  ago, launched the first, the first iteration of region here
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  at our church. And, and so we're really excited
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  about having a recovery ministry here.
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  There are groups already in that that are going through that.
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  And, and Logan is just one of many stories.
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  We, I told you there are 4 main vision items that I wanted to
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  kind of classify or categorize everything by.
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  And the first is this concept of being known.
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  And here's what that means to us.
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  We believe that our culture has become increasingly isolated in
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  the past decades, in fact, particularly with COVID,
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  training entire generations to disregard intimate human
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  relationships in lieu of efficiency and convenience.
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  God calls our church to stand out brightly in The Dark World,
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  and we believe this means that Christians need to engage in
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  close relationships that look countercultural.
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  The hardest part of many disciplines in your life is
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  simply showing up. The hardest part of getting fit
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  is showing up at the gym. The hardest part of reading our
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  Bible is opening it. The hardest part of building
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  relationships is showing up for community.
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  And so we put a focus on showing up, being in community, and
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  growing spiritually. We want everyone in this church
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  to be in the process of building deep, meaningful relationships
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  with other believers and increasing in their love for the
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  Lord. We want to do things that foster
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  these deep relationships. Now, this means that we want to
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  keep finding new ways to introduce places for you to get
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  connected and to find people that are disconnected in our
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  church. And we want you to have real
• 16:44
  clarity on what it would look like to take a next step to grow
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  in community and in your relationship with Christ.
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  And so throughout this process, we want there to be a gentle but
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  consistent urgency to be known. We want the invitation to
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  intimacy to be ever present in every area of our church.
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  And should a person choose to attend regularly at res and not
• 17:06
  engage in community, I want that to feel uncomfortable because
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  you're missing out. I don't want you to feel like
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  you're missing out. And so we set some goals that we
• 17:19
  wanted our church to accomplish over the next three to five
• 17:21
  years. One of those is we want every
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  person at res to understand what a next step looks like in the
• 17:26
  growth process. We don't want that to be
• 17:27
  confusing. The second thing is within the
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  first three years, and we're two years in now, we wanted to see
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  300 plus people attending group every week and 60 or more groups
• 17:38
  meeting weekly. And we want every person in our
• 17:41
  church to be able to honestly say that you feel known by
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  others in the church. These are our goals for being
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  known. Richard.
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  We pray over that. Yes, Father, thank you that you
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  sent your son to show us what it's like to be in community.
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  He was never alone. He had his disciples with him.
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  Lord. So may everyone in here, Lord,
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  may our church be a church that we are known to each other, that
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  we would have intimate relationships with one another.
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  Lord that we would have 300 people attending group, that we
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  would have 60 plus groups meeting every week and every
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  person in this church could honestly say that they feel
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  known by other people in this church and that they could have
• 18:27
  real community. Lord, thank you for this and
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  bless it in the name of Jesus, Amen.
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  Amen. A couple of things to celebrate
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  and and if you just think about a lot of the things that we've
• 18:37
  rolled out over the last two years, you'll understand the
• 18:39
  link to this like why? Why do we have a check in system
• 18:42
  on Sunday mornings? Why do we print name tags and
• 18:44
  ask everybody to wear them? Because we want to continue to
• 18:46
  foster an environment where people are known.
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  Anonymity is not your friend, being known is your friend.
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  And so one of the big things that we track this year is how
• 18:56
  many people showed up to a community group in 2025.
• 19:00
  Yeah, this is amazing. So we have 289 unique group
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  attenders. That's an amazing number.
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  That's 200 and 92189 people getting in homes, sitting on
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  couches, getting vulnerable, confessing sins, gospel
• 19:19
  transformation in their lives, becoming known to other people.
• 19:23
  It's an amazing number. I, I, I think Sunday morning
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  attendance is important. Coming and hearing the word and
• 19:29
  encouraging one another is very important.
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  But you can really understand the health of a church by their
• 19:35
  small group attendance because it's easy to hide, you know, on
• 19:39
  on in a Pew, on a Sunday morning, in a crowd.
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  But you get in a small group with 8-9 people, you're known.
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  That's. Right this past year we want to
• 19:47
  celebrate this as well. We have 37 new members in our
• 19:50
  church and we'll talk about at the end here an opportunity, if
• 19:58
  you feel called to membership in the church, how you can take a
• 20:00
  next step in that area. We also had some women's
• 20:03
  brunches. Oh yeah.
• 20:04
  We had a couple women's brunches this year and we had 85 people
• 20:09
  attend, 85 ladies attend per brunch.
• 20:12
  The ladies are turning out. Yeah, that's amazing.
• 20:15
  They're turning out to get some good food and to get fed.
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  It's an amazing thing. We had 99 people this year who
• 20:22
  gave to Res Church for the very first time.
• 20:24
  That's pretty cool. You you actually have a story
• 20:29
  about you came to the last women's brunch.
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  Yes, I was here at the women's brunch.
• 20:34
  Tell me all about that. But my role is different.
• 20:37
  I was here with some fathers and some youth, and we were taking
• 20:41
  care of the kids so that the women can be over there getting
• 20:44
  ministered to. Well, what happens in that while
• 20:47
  there's goldfish flying juice boxes everywhere, Just help
• 20:50
  fathers watch kids. Let them make a mess.
• 20:52
  But. What we didn't do was let the
• 20:54
  women come in and clean it up. We cleaned it up.
• 20:56
  It was amazing times we see these fathers step up and help
• 21:00
  out with the childcare. It was amazing.
• 21:03
  We're going to have more of those.
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  We, we want to continue to find more opportunities for you to
• 21:06
  meet people in the church and spend time with them.
• 21:08
  And so we felt like those were really awesome opportunities for
• 21:12
  women to not only start to build some community, but to do it
• 21:15
  with the Bible open hearing from the Lord, you know, beginning to
• 21:18
  build relationships. Here's a couple things that are
• 21:20
  coming this year in February. It is my desire.
• 21:23
  It's been my desire for about 3 years, by the way, to build a
• 21:27
  photo directory of all of you. Now, I probably won't give it to
• 21:31
  you, but I want it. And the reason why is I pray for
• 21:35
  you by name. And there are a lot of you, a
• 21:39
  lot of you like, like a lot of you.
• 21:42
  And so as I pray for you, I actually want to pray for you by
• 21:45
  face and by name. And so in February, on Sunday
• 21:49
  mornings as you come in, there are going to be photographers
• 21:51
  here asking to take your picture.
• 21:53
  It's not so that we can create some sort of government
• 21:55
  database. Watch.
• 21:58
  You, they already watch you. You're on Facebook.
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  It's so that we, the elders who pray for you, can pray for you
• 22:04
  by name and by face again, because we think being known is
• 22:08
  actually really important. And so you're going to see that
• 22:10
  in February if you want to take your picture.
• 22:12
  There is a reason. It's because I told them to.
• 22:14
  You can blame me for it. 2nd is I want to encourage you if you
• 22:19
  have not yet attended a group, if you've not joined a group and
• 22:22
  I'm going to keep putting pressure on you to go sit in a
• 22:24
  group and and figure out if they're weird is you're weird.
• 22:28
  It's not whether or not they're weird, it's just whether or not
• 22:30
  you're weirds match. Let's be real.
• 22:33
  And so we're going to keep doing that.
• 22:35
  In fact, I want to encourage you with a story of of somebody who
• 22:40
  joined a group and found their weird was his kind of weird, and
• 22:43
  then Christ began to transform him.
• 22:45
  So check this out. So, Michael, we want to just
• 22:50
  talk about your experience and getting plugged in.
• 22:53
  First of all, how long have you been at Resurrection Church now?
• 22:57
  Consistently for about two years now.
• 22:59
  OK, two years, yeah. And you're in a community group,
• 23:02
  right? And tell me everything you're
• 23:04
  kind of plugged into right now. So I'm in a community group with
• 23:07
  Don Van Sickles Community group, which has been absolute blessing
• 23:11
  to be a part of. It's that has led to so many
• 23:14
  other chances to plug in here at church last year.
• 23:18
  And around December, I mentioned joining the worship team and Don
• 23:21
  kind of gave me the motivation to do it.
• 23:23
  And then by January I was, I was auditioning in February, I
• 23:27
  played my first, my first service.
• 23:28
  And it's just been amazing. And then just a few months ago
• 23:32
  you have, you invited me to your, your mentorship group.
• 23:36
  And that's just been oh man. And the mentorship group has
• 23:39
  been phenomenal. This has been so fun.
• 23:41
  It's awesome. It's been, and I love to see
• 23:44
  somebody that has just really taken everything that Rez has.
• 23:48
  Right, you, you've. Stepped into serving, you've
• 23:51
  stepped into almost every aspect.
• 23:53
  You even told me that it's kind of changed your family's ideal
• 23:57
  or view on on giving at 1.0. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 24:01
  You wanted to say anything about that?
• 24:02
  Yeah. We, you know, I, me personally,
• 24:04
  I would always kind of be a little hesitant when we'd tie it
• 24:07
  and be like, Are you sure that's, you know, OK, can we
• 24:10
  afford that? It's something we can manage.
• 24:11
  And then just recently, I've been like, take it, take it all,
• 24:15
  take it all, you know? So, yeah.
• 24:18
  And then just everybody at home has just been so, so, so
• 24:22
  astonished by how, like, the whole family dynamic has changed
• 24:24
  just from being able to serve in church and being involved so
• 24:27
  much. It's just like they see the
• 24:30
  difference. They see the growth.
• 24:31
  So it's just been a total blessing.
• 24:34
  Michael, thank you for talking to us.
• 24:35
  Thank you, Dave. You're welcome.
• 24:36
  Love you, brother. Love.
• 24:39
  You awesome. So our second vision category
• 24:49
  that we rolled out two years ago is this thing called Love the
• 24:51
  10, and I want to explain what that means to us and what we've
• 24:55
  been working on over the course of the last couple years when it
• 24:57
  comes to this. We believe that the church is
• 25:00
  Christ's plan for sharing the hope of the gospel to a broken
• 25:03
  world. And we believe that as a church,
• 25:05
  we are specifically called to impact the community that is in
• 25:09
  close geographic proximity to the campus itself.
• 25:12
  And so like, we believe that this church should be full of
• 25:15
  people from this neighborhood. And when we rolled out this
• 25:18
  idea, actually less than 50% of our church lived within 10
• 25:22
  minutes of the the church campus.
• 25:24
  And so as we looked around the neighborhood and realized that
• 25:28
  the demographics of this neighborhood changed pretty
• 25:30
  substantially over the last couple of decades.
• 25:33
  And so we spent a lot of time kind of looking at the
• 25:34
  demographics, like what what are the needs in these communities
• 25:37
  and neighborhoods around the church?
• 25:38
  And how can we go about meeting those needs?
• 25:41
  Because when you begin to meet those needs, you earn enough
• 25:43
  trust to be heard when it comes time to share the gospel.
• 25:48
  And so we have built outreach teams that would allow us to
• 25:52
  meet needs and to better understand those needs.
• 25:54
  We're going to celebrate a lot of areas in this this category
• 25:58
  of ways that we have engaged this neighborhood.
• 26:00
  And our goal is that our teams and these initiatives would help
• 26:04
  us to learn how to better care for the homeless, to make
• 26:06
  connections in this community at local parks, to establish a
• 26:09
  presence on our school campuses, which we've done and other
• 26:12
  potential engagement opportunities.
• 26:14
  And so we set these goals two years ago that in the next three
• 26:19
  to five years, we would launch an independent daycare or
• 26:22
  preschool that primarily serves this local neighborhood.
• 26:25
  To create a community centre that is accessible to the local
• 26:27
  neighborhood. To renovate our park for
• 26:29
  community use. To put ministry on campus at
• 26:32
  Bakersfield College and have 150 plus new people from the
• 26:36
  neighborhood attending church at Res.
• 26:39
  Elder Don, will you pray for our initiative to Love the 10 Love?
• 26:43
  To Heavenly Father, we are, in our view, your sovereignty,
• 26:49
  power, presence. We praise you at all things.
• 26:53
  I bring before you the 148 thousandth souls who live within
• 26:58
  10 minute drive to reach our church's doors.
• 27:01
  Each carries joys and burdens, hopes and fears, stories known
• 27:08
  to you alone. Some are simply trying to
• 27:11
  survive, some on the streets. You know who they are.
• 27:15
  May you bless these families, these people, the workers, the
• 27:19
  children, the elderly, the lonely, and the thriving alike.
• 27:24
  Let your spirit move among them, bringing peace where there is
• 27:28
  conflict, healing where there is hurt, and opportunity where
• 27:32
  there's need. Make Resurrection Church be a
• 27:35
  beacon of welcome, a place where neighbors find belonging and
• 27:40
  where love overflows beyond our walls.
• 27:43
  Guide us to serve faithfully so that every person nearby may
• 27:47
  know that they are seen, valued, cherished, and loved.
• 27:51
  And may you, the Holy Spirit, work in their lives that they
• 27:55
  would know that God knows them, loves them, has a plan for their
• 27:59
  lives. And if they don't know you, I
• 28:03
  pray that they may come to know you, to have an encounter with
• 28:06
  Jesus Christ and their lives be changed for eternity.
• 28:10
  We pray these things in Jesus name and for His sake.
• 28:14
  Amen. Amen.
• 28:16
  One of the ways that we begin to to push into this area is we
• 28:19
  built some outreach teams to try to find a way to impact the
• 28:23
  local community and local churches, missions and outreach.
• 28:26
  And so we sent 67 different individuals from our church last
• 28:31
  year. Yeah, we did.
• 28:32
  To either other church campuses or to parks, outreach centers of
• 28:36
  the Daughters Project, I mean, Keepers of the Cross, you name
• 28:39
  it, we were sending people out. And we want to celebrate the 67
• 28:42
  individuals that went out into the community last year,
• 28:45
  specifically into our partners and partner churches.
• 28:48
  Because of what you have done, there are people in this room.
• 28:52
  I can't point at them because I don't want to call them out.
• 28:54
  That we have come to love, come to call as part of our family
• 28:59
  because you were willing to go out into the parks, into the
• 29:03
  fields, into the people and actually say, hey, the gospel of
• 29:07
  Jesus Christ is there. Come, come.
• 29:09
  Let us show you what's happening at Resurrection.
• 29:11
  Church in January, we're going to do something called scent,
• 29:14
  and we're going to blow these numbers away in January.
• 29:16
  Let's go. Yeah, we are.
• 29:17
  We are. Excited about that?
• 29:18
  Yeah. OK.
• 29:20
  Hey, this is Celebration service.
• 29:21
  Let's celebrate. Come on, this is our second year
• 29:24
  of doing a camp that we called Res Mania.
• 29:26
  Anyone remember that one? Res Mania.
• 29:28
  There we go. Come on.
• 29:30
  So 308 attenders, 158 volunteers.
• 29:34
  That was 466 people that participated in a kids camp 4.
• 29:38
  166, yeah. You guys showed up.
• 29:42
  When we say this is a all hands on deck, you guys don't mess
• 29:45
  around. You've brought the gospel.
• 29:48
  So many kids. How many kids made decisions?
• 29:51
  So 26 kids put their faith in Christ and gave us their name to
• 29:54
  follow up with because of a kids camp.
• 29:55
  Wow. Yeah.
• 30:00
  We also did a youth camp here on campus.
• 30:03
  We had 151 youth show up to our our youth camp.
• 30:06
  We had 101 volunteers. God bless your soul for a youth
• 30:11
  camp. So, so, so 252 people
• 30:15
  participating in a youth camp here, 17 decisions for Christ,
• 30:18
  22 people baptized. Yeah.
• 30:22
  Serious. That means.
• 30:23
  That means. Five people, 70 people made
• 30:26
  decisions, 5 people who did not make decision also decided when
• 30:30
  I need to take that next step into getting baptized and that
• 30:34
  that water was something else. Yeah.
• 30:36
  So by the end of 22 baptisms, that water might have been holy,
• 30:39
  but it was not clean. It was.
• 30:42
  It was pretty rough. It washed away all their sins.
• 30:44
  But yeah, it was. It looked like it too.
• 30:49
  So one of the, one of the events that we did trying to reach the,
• 30:53
  the neighborhood was something called Winter Wonderland.
• 30:55
  That was a year before, but Winter Wonderland, we put up
• 30:59
  little signs and balloons and banners.
• 31:00
  And there was a guy named Trent who's driving by, sees the
• 31:04
  signs, goes, you know, man, I, I need to go that I just feel like
• 31:07
  I should go. Shows up, ends up over at the
• 31:10
  prayer tent and realizes, man, God is calling me here and, and
• 31:16
  to salvation. So from, from no, not having a
• 31:18
  faith in Christ, not pursuing Christ, not in church, not doing
• 31:21
  anything faith wise. Winter Wonderland.
• 31:24
  I think we gave away like 2000 hot dogs or something.
• 31:27
  So some, some cheesy hot dogs end up reaching this man for
• 31:32
  Christ. And, and since then he's joined
• 31:34
  into he's become a member, he's joined the church, he's joined a
• 31:38
  small group. He's begin to serve all over the
• 31:40
  place, serve on one of these outreach teams.
• 31:42
  Absolutely crazy because of some hot dogs.
• 31:50
  Another way, and this goes further than just two years,
• 31:53
  another way that we have been making a consistent impact on
• 31:56
  our community is that the church operates a thrift store in which
• 32:00
  all the proceeds go to missions. That thrift store is called the
• 32:03
  Junkateek Outlet. In fact, they're about to open a
• 32:06
  second location and there's so many celebrations from that.
• 32:09
  We tried to pick one, and we asked Elder Don to share just
• 32:12
  just one celebration from that thrift store.
• 32:14
  So I'm going to go out script. I'm shocked.
• 32:17
  OK, so one of the one of the things I love to do is ride
• 32:20
  motorcycles. And the reason you ride
• 32:21
  motorcycles in the mountains is because you sit around a
• 32:24
  campfire and lie to each other about what you did that day,
• 32:26
  right? Yeah.
• 32:27
  You celebrate. Remember, I almost died.
• 32:29
  But I think this is what heaven's going to be like.
• 32:32
  We're sitting around, we're talking Nathan Haverfeld.
• 32:35
  I remember when you got baptized, baptized you, right?
• 32:38
  And Bryce, Bryce Ivy, I remember when you got baptized and then
• 32:42
  two days later you swap lanes on the 99 going north and wrecked
• 32:47
  your car, totaled your car two days after getting baptized,
• 32:50
  right? And then Michael Lee and
• 32:52
  Tiffany, we have all these stories, but we have stories
• 32:54
  that we celebrate. I think that's what heaven's
• 32:56
  going to be like. I remember when I was lost, but
• 32:59
  I was found. I just these crazy, I love
• 33:01
  stories. I'd love to to hear stories to
• 33:04
  celebrate. And I just love the idea that
• 33:06
  we're coming together on a Sunday and celebrating what
• 33:09
  God's doing in the lives of us. And I'm going to read this story
• 33:12
  because I'll totally screw it up if I if I don't, OK, Because I
• 33:16
  know this lady and she's an amazing lady.
• 33:20
  Keely at Jado, we are celebrating God's faithfulness
• 33:24
  through our partnerships with Keepers of the Cross.
• 33:26
  In 2025, we were blessed to hire our second graduate from their
• 33:30
  program, Keely Stokes. And on her story is a beautiful
• 33:34
  testimony of redemption, courage, and forward momentum.
• 33:38
  So I heard her testimony at a Jado lunch on Monday.
• 33:41
  They have volunteers and and employees have a lunch and they
• 33:44
  celebrate down there on Mondays. I heard Keely's story and it's
• 33:49
  just amazing. She talked about being on the
• 33:52
  streets for six years. Wow, six years.
• 33:55
  So Keely shows up every day with a sense of responsibility,
• 33:59
  diligence, and a heart anchored in prayer.
• 34:01
  She leads with humility, works hard, and doesn't miss an
• 34:05
  opportunity to glorify God and all that she does through faith
• 34:08
  and perseverance. Keely purchased her own vehicle,
• 34:11
  opening doors to greater independence and service not
• 34:14
  only for herself, but for others as she faithfully gives
• 34:17
  coworkers, rides and helps wherever she is needed.
• 34:20
  In a bold step of faith, Keely asked her parents who care for
• 34:24
  her daughter if she could return home after her graduation.
• 34:29
  They welcomed her back with open arms.
• 34:32
  Today, she is rebuilding a strong and loving relationships
• 34:35
  with her daughter and helping ease her parents financial load
• 34:38
  by contributing to rent. What God has restored in her
• 34:41
  life keenly pays forward with generosity, patience and
• 34:44
  kindness to volunteers and Co workers alike.
• 34:47
  Keely's life reflects the gospel and action, restoration,
• 34:51
  responsibility and a willingness to serve.
• 34:54
  We are deeply grateful for Keely and for the privilege of
• 34:58
  witnessing God's transforming work in her life.
• 35:02
  Amen. Amen.
• 35:08
  It's one thing to say that the the the Gospel transforms lives.
• 35:11
  It's another thing to literally walk through someone's life as
• 35:13
  it's being transformed and and watch as Christ changes them.
• 35:18
  Two years ago, because of this initiative, we decided we wanted
• 35:22
  to do something around Christmas time.
• 35:23
  And So what we did is we collected the names of families
• 35:27
  that needed a scholarship to one of the camps or they were part
• 35:30
  of our Children Hunger Fund. We have a couple different food
• 35:33
  programs. And so all those names, we
• 35:35
  contacted those families and we just asked the parents, hey, do
• 35:37
  you need help for Christmas for your kids?
• 35:40
  Then everyone that said yes, we got lists of what their kids
• 35:43
  were into. We bought them, you bought them
• 35:45
  gifts. We then called the parents, had
• 35:47
  them come and wrap the gifts so that the parent could give the
• 35:50
  child the gift from them and not from someone else.
• 35:54
  And so I want you to see a couple of the celebrations
• 35:57
  around a program we call Give Joy.
• 36:01
  It's beginning to look a lot like this everywhere.
• 36:08
  You take a look at the 5:00 and 10:00.
• 36:15
  It's listening once again with candy canes and silver lands
• 36:20
  that glow. Hi Rez Church, my name is
• 36:25
  Matisse Camelli and I have the opportunity.
• 36:27
  No, I have the privilege of helping with Give Joy this year.
• 36:31
  What a blessing you have been and you have really turned out
• 36:34
  again. This is our second year that we
• 36:36
  have the opportunity to provide gifts for families and it is
• 36:39
  such an amazing experience that I get to share a letter from a
• 36:43
  family that received gifts last year.
• 36:46
  I just wanted to say thank you for getting Christmas gifts for
• 36:48
  my kids. I really appreciate getting
• 36:51
  gifts for my youngest daughter who wasn't able to attend your
• 36:54
  VBS. My husband said when that he
• 36:56
  came to pick up the gifts, everyone was so sweet and kind
• 37:00
  to them. They were also really a surprise
• 37:03
  that everybody knew all of their children's names.
• 37:06
  They enjoyed the opportunity to be able to wrap up their own
• 37:09
  gifts. They had a lot of fun
• 37:11
  experiences while they were here.
• 37:13
  They had two birthday parties in the coming months and they also
• 37:17
  had a daughter a couple months later.
• 37:19
  So being able to be provided with Christmas gifts was a huge
• 37:22
  blessing and a joy to their lives.
• 37:24
  Thank you again for sharing your love and encouragement to all of
• 37:28
  our families. All right, let's stand up and
• 37:34
  worship some more. I searched the world, but he
• 37:45
  couldn't feel me messing to Prince treasures the pain and
• 37:55
  never real. And then you came along.
• 38:05
  We'll be back together every time is now satisfied hearing
• 38:16
  alone. Oh, there's nothing better than
• 38:27
  there's nothing better than Lord, there's nothing.
• 38:46
  Now I'm not afraid showing my weakness, my fair is and floors,
• 39:00
  but you see them all and you still call me pray because the
• 39:07
  God of the the mountain is the God of the valley and there's
• 39:18
  out of place your mercy, grace won't fly me again.
• 39:37
  Better deed, Lord, is there deed?
• 39:42
  Nothing is better than you. Lord, is there deed?
• 39:52
  Better deed There's gotta be. Better deed, Lord, is there
• 40:00
  deed? Nothing is better.
• 40:16
  You turn lordy to tense in, you give beauty for answers.
• 40:26
  You turn shame into glory, and you're the only one you can.
• 40:36
  You turn lordy to tense in. You give beauty for answers.
• 40:46
  You turn shame into glory and you're the only one you can.
• 40:57
  You turn crazy into college. You turn falls into armies.
• 41:07
  You turn season 2 highways. You're the only one you.
• 41:16
  You're the only one you have. Lord is nothing singing out.
• 41:34
  Lord is nothing. Nothing is baby.
• 41:44
  Oh it's nothing that is nothing that in the Lord is nothing.
• 42:06
  You turn crazy into goddess. You turn falls into armies.
• 42:16
  You turn season into you're the only one you can.
• 42:27
  You turn graves into garden, and you turn seas into Holland.
• 42:41
  You're the only one you can. Come on, give God some praise.
• 42:57
  He's turning graves into garden. The way to explore all, the
• 43:22
  wonder of His grace, the power of salvation, all that pulled me
• 43:30
  from the brain. This hope is not empty.
• 43:36
  And forever He will reign. He won't be put to shame.
• 43:46
  Oh my soul. Sing to the God of the ages.
• 43:52
  Sing to the Lord of creation. Sing his praise again.
• 44:03
  Sing like the heavens away. Roar like an army of ages.
• 44:11
  Sing his praise again. The moment of rest.
• 44:19
  I have never been the same. His love took me calm.
• 44:27
  My sin was washed away. Now I stand here, forgiven and I
• 44:34
  know that I am safe. I won't be good to shave.
• 44:44
  Oh my soul, sing to the God of the ages, sing to the Lord of
• 44:52
  creation, sing his praise again. Oh my soul, sing like the
• 45:02
  heavens awake. Roar like an army of angels.
• 45:09
  Sing His praise again. Remember how our God has never
• 45:18
  failed, never failed us. Remember that His name will make
• 45:25
  away, He'll make away from the cross to the grave.
• 45:32
  He is risen and he reigns. Praise the Lord.
• 45:37
  Sing His praise again and remember how our God has never
• 45:47
  failed, never failed us. Remember that His name will make
• 45:54
  a way. He'll make a way.
• 45:57
  He is risen and here. And praise the Lord in his grace
• 46:07
  Sings to the God of the ages, sings to the Lord of the
• 46:20
  creation His praise again. Roar my soul, sing like the
• 46:30
  heavens away, roar like an army of angels, Sing His praise
• 46:38
  again. Call my soul, Sing to the God of
• 46:45
  the ages, sing to the Lord of creation, Sing his praise again.
• 46:55
  Oh my soul, sing like the heavens away, roar like an army
• 47:03
  of angels, Sing His praise again.
• 47:07
  Sing His praise again. Oh sing his praise again, Oh,
• 47:24
  sing us praise again, Oh sing us praise again.
• 47:35
  Oh, how our God has never failed, never failed.
• 47:54
  From the frost the great he's rising, and he brings praise. 1
• 48:03
  Seeing his career, life has never failed, never failed us.
• 48:16
  Remember that his name will make a way else to the great he is
• 48:27
  rising, and the praise to the God of the ages.
• 48:44
  Sing his praise again. Sing like the heavens are away,
• 48:58
  More like an army of angels. Sing his praise again.
• 49:05
  Sing his praise again. All right, have a seat.
• 49:22
  The third of our vision items that we're celebrating and
• 49:25
  looking back on and remembering is this idea of reaching our
• 49:30
  circles. And here's what that means.
• 49:31
  We believe that one of the most powerful signs that our church
• 49:35
  body, that's you all say me, is living out gospel culture, is
• 49:41
  that you would begin to display a willingness to engage those
• 49:46
  people that are in your sphere of influence with the gospel.
• 49:50
  And so our job is to boldly speak the gospel, but also to
• 49:55
  humbly earn the right to be heard by serving them and loving
• 49:59
  them. And so I think one of the, one
• 50:02
  of the travesties of, of Western culture is this myth that we
• 50:07
  separate our lives and that there's a sacred part of our
• 50:09
  life and that there's a secular part of our life.
• 50:12
  And if you read the Bible, that's not in there.
• 50:16
  Every part of our life should be lived on mission for Christ.
• 50:21
  Everything that we do should be for the glory of God.
• 50:24
  And this means that every aspect of the common life is a
• 50:27
  testimony to the lost world. We're called to live our entire
• 50:32
  lives as ambassadors of the gospel.
• 50:36
  And so in a world now that is where people live these
• 50:40
  artificial lives on social media, if you will simply invite
• 50:45
  people into the messiness of your real life, it will have
• 50:49
  massive gospel implications. And our conviction as a church
• 50:53
  is that we should be following the Bible's consistent command
• 50:57
  for hospitality by opening up our homes and doing missional
• 51:01
  work at our kitchen table in the company lunchroom and the ride
• 51:07
  to work with a Co worker. And so we set some goals around
• 51:10
  this concept two years ago that in the next three to five years
• 51:14
  we would have 300 or more gospel stories where you have invested
• 51:20
  in someone for the sake of the gospel.
• 51:22
  That we would see 400 or more new guests in the first three
• 51:26
  years and that in our annual survey we would see a 90 plus
• 51:30
  percent response that you invited someone to church.
• 51:36
  Vance, will you pray over this? Sorry, like Heavenly Father, we
• 51:41
  just thank you Lord so much for the opportunity we have to be
• 51:45
  salt and light to those around us.
• 51:49
  Help us Lord to be good witnesses.
• 51:51
  Help us Lord be authentic to be real in those areas where we
• 51:57
  struggle to not try to put on a face trying to be something
• 52:00
  other than we are. The Lord, help us simply to love
• 52:05
  others with your kind of love. Give us hearts.
• 52:09
  Lord, we thank you for how you're working in our lives.
• 52:13
  We thank you, Lord, for how you're working in our community.
• 52:17
  And we lift this next year up to you.
• 52:19
  Help us Lord, to love those around us in Christ name.
• 52:24
  Amen, Amen, Amen. So I I know that this is working
• 52:27
  and here's why. We said two years ago we set a
• 52:29
  goal, 400 or more guests would come and and that would largely
• 52:33
  come because you are inviting them.
• 52:35
  Last year alone. How many first time guests do we
• 52:37
  have, Vance? 276 it's happening folks.
• 52:44
  It's happening. We're.
• 52:45
  Going to have to set a new goal. We're going to set a new goal
• 52:47
  before we leave today. Those are rookie numbers.
• 52:49
  We got to pump those numbers up, all right, Decisions for Christ.
• 52:53
  This past year we had 43 people give their life to Christ.
• 52:59
  That is awesome. That means they made a decision
• 53:05
  to surrender their life to Christ.
• 53:07
  They went to the back, they, they gave their name to someone.
• 53:10
  They, they, they asked us to pray with them, to celebrate
• 53:13
  with them, to follow up with them because they wanted to
• 53:15
  pursue a relationship with Jesus.
• 53:17
  Now, let me tell you why it's such a big deal in America right
• 53:20
  now. Only 20% of churches are
• 53:22
  growing. 80% of churches are in decline.
• 53:25
  Of the 20% of churches that are growing, only 2% of churches are
• 53:30
  growing because people are coming to Christ.
• 53:31
  The other. The other 18% is people just
• 53:34
  transferring from the 80% they're dying 2%.
• 53:38
  That's. Sad.
• 53:40
  First of all, that's sad. Second of all, that means we're
• 53:42
  the 2% because people are hearing the gospel of Christ and
• 53:50
  in transformative things are happening in their life.
• 53:52
  Yeah. Most definitely, Most
• 53:53
  definitely. As a result of the last two
• 53:56
  years of people meeting Jesus, that means we have a bunch of
• 53:59
  baptisms this year. How many?
• 54:02
  83. 8083. Baptisms now how?
• 54:07
  How? How many did we have baptisms
• 54:11
  just a few weeks ago? How many total?
• 54:13
  18 baptisms a couple weeks ago. Thanks God.
• 54:15
  So let me give you some context for that.
• 54:19
  In America, we're a Southern Baptist church.
• 54:20
  The average Southern Baptist church in America right now in
• 54:23
  2025 had 2.5 baptisms this year. Wait, wait, wait a minute 2
• 54:29
  Where did they get the? Hat they just put their legs in.
• 54:35
  I want you to understand that to have 43 people come to Christ,
• 54:40
  to have 83 people be baptized, means that God is doing
• 54:43
  something transformative and miraculous in our midst.
• 54:47
  And I don't want you to miss it or think it is commonplace,
• 54:49
  because it's not. No, no.
• 54:51
  It is God's working. God is working.
• 54:53
  It's not us, folks, it's the Lord.
• 54:55
  IA couple years ago, Sean, who's going to join me up here in a
• 55:00
  minute was, was far from the Lord.
• 55:03
  Life was a mess, all sorts of craziness.
• 55:06
  And as he begins to pursue the Lord, people in his life in his
• 55:11
  circle noticed. And as God began to transform
• 55:15
  him and do something miraculous in his life, people saw it.
• 55:20
  And and I want to tell you it is one of the most compelling,
• 55:23
  contagious things that will ever happen as you begin to see God
• 55:26
  miraculously transform someone who you thought could never
• 55:29
  change. And so as a result of what was
• 55:32
  happening in Sean's walk, his family started showing up to
• 55:36
  church and then he got to baptize his sister.
• 55:44
  And it's got to begin to change her life at work.
• 55:47
  She begin to just live differently.
• 55:51
  And as a result of that, the people at her work begin to
• 55:54
  notice and she begin to talk to people who are hurting and
• 55:57
  suffering. And I got a phone call out of
• 55:59
  the blue at church the other day and I pick it up and there's a
• 56:01
  lady that I've never met asking how, how do I buy my husband the
• 56:05
  Bible? Like what does that look like?
• 56:09
  How do I tell the what? And I'm like, what a what an odd
• 56:12
  random call in the middle of a day.
• 56:13
  You know, I'm just talking about, OK, here's how you find
• 56:15
  the ball. You know, and I and we, we end
• 56:16
  up, we have our staff is really good investigators.
• 56:19
  And so they space book stocks and people.
• 56:21
  And I didn't say that out loud. And they found out was a Co
• 56:26
  worker of Shawn's sister. I don't want you to miss what's
• 56:31
  happening. It's not people that went to
• 56:34
  seminary, that's some people that got ordained right.
• 56:38
  It's it's people that love Jesus.
• 56:40
  Jesus begin to do transformative work inside their life.
• 56:43
  They begin to actually pursue Christ wholeheartedly.
• 56:46
  And then everything changed. And when everything changed,
• 56:48
  everyone noticed. When everyone noticed, more
• 56:50
  people changed. That's actually the gospel.
• 56:54
  That's being solved in. Life Vance, you and I do
• 57:00
  something with some elders and deacons and prayer warriors
• 57:02
  every single Sunday morning. We have for almost 2 years now.
• 57:05
  Well, we get up early, we get here at 6:30.
• 57:07
  What? What do we spend our time doing?
• 57:09
  This is great. 6:30 at the building, at the very back of a
• 57:14
  property behind the gym. That's our office building.
• 57:17
  A group of us. Some are elders, some are
• 57:20
  deacons, some are just folks that have a big interest in
• 57:23
  prayer. We gather at 6:30 and we pray.
• 57:27
  We pray to not just for our church, we pray also for
• 57:31
  churches in the communities. We pray for lots of other things
• 57:34
  as well. And in that time, we've got to
• 57:37
  know another pastor who also has a heart for prayer.
• 57:40
  And this is Pastor Johnny from Columbus Street Baptist Church.
• 57:44
  It's a little church just a little ways up on the Bluffs
• 57:47
  above us. And he has become a regular at
• 57:51
  our 630 prayer meeting. So by the way, this is a bit of
• 57:54
  an ad, OK. If you're interested in prayer,
• 57:57
  we would love to have you join us.
• 57:59
  We we pray, we pray for about 40 churches by name, their pastors,
• 58:03
  their family members, their kids, their wives, their
• 58:05
  congregations, the life of the church, most of them here in
• 58:08
  Kern County, some of them all around the world.
• 58:10
  We pray for them every Sunday morning.
• 58:11
  Then we send them text messages during the week to let them
• 58:14
  know. We got a lot of people praying
• 58:15
  for you and Pastor Johnny started joining us and praying
• 58:19
  for those churches as well. We've been praying for his
• 58:21
  church for a while and we want you to hear from him.
• 58:23
  Good morning, Rez. This is John Lucero, my pastor
• 58:26
  down the street at Columbus Street Baptist Church.
• 58:29
  I just want to give a word of encouragement that the body has
• 58:32
  done to allow your elders, allow your pastors of this church to
• 58:37
  join together in prayer. For other churches.
• 58:39
  I have witnessed it first hand, week after week after week.
• 58:43
  I've been given the privilege and opportunity to join in with
• 58:46
  that. And it's, it's a very powerful
• 58:49
  source of encouragement, knowing that the local church is doing
• 58:53
  its job and praying for the rest of the body of, of Christ.
• 58:56
  I witnessed it first hand. Thank you all the Saints at Rez
• 58:59
  for allowing your staff and your pastors to to do this.
• 59:03
  And just want to thank you for the investments you've made in
• 59:06
  our church and the other churches here in Kern County.
• 59:09
  God bless. Amen.
• 59:12
  Amen. The fourth thing that is on our
• 59:18
  vision roll out that we rolled out two years ago that we've
• 59:20
  been working on is preparing people to lead.
• 59:24
  And, and here's what I mean by that.
• 59:25
  I'm going to read this to you, but I also want to explain
• 59:28
  something. This is the second largest
• 59:29
  Southern Baptist church in the county of Kern.
• 59:32
  And I, we, we begin to realize that if we aren't producing
• 59:37
  pastors, ministers, directors for ministry to plant churches
• 59:40
  and revitalize churches, who is it that we expect to do it?
• 59:46
  We're the second largest church in our denomination in this
• 59:49
  county. And we're not doing it, are we?
• 59:50
  I mean, there's one left. I mean, I don't know that we
• 59:52
  have any excuses. And so the, the Bible is
• 59:55
  extremely consistent on 2 values that we often set apart.
• 59:58
  We, we, we set them almost at odds at one another because on
• 1:00:01
  one side, the Bible would say there's this clear call for, for
• 1:00:05
  older, more mature Saints to lead and to guide the church.
• 1:00:09
  And on the other side, there's a clear call for the church to
• 1:00:12
  invest in and raise up young leaders.
• 1:00:15
  And in the past 20 years, the American church has shown a
• 1:00:18
  really troublesome trend. Church congregations are getting
• 1:00:22
  older twice as fast as the national population.
• 1:00:28
  Churches are dying because they're getting old fast.
• 1:00:31
  The average clergy person is getting substantially older.
• 1:00:36
  And so we believe that it is our job to raise up and train the
• 1:00:39
  next generation of church leaders.
• 1:00:42
  And if we want to empower them, we're going to have to make
• 1:00:44
  space for them in positions of authority in our church.
• 1:00:47
  We're going to have to be open to God calling them to do this
• 1:00:50
  in other places, to send them out.
• 1:00:53
  And so we want to intentionally investigate more ways to do
• 1:00:57
  this, from internships to co-ops, to takeovers to church
• 1:01:00
  plants. We've been working on this for
• 1:01:02
  about two years. We're going to announce some
• 1:01:03
  stuff today to reach other neighborhoods and other
• 1:01:06
  communities in Bakersfield to plant more churches, to
• 1:01:09
  revitalize more churches. And so two years ago, we set
• 1:01:12
  some goals for the next 5 years. Number one, we want to formalize
• 1:01:17
  our ordination process to ordain and send ministers.
• 1:01:20
  Secondly, we want to build a pipeline of pastoral training
• 1:01:23
  and opportunity to produce ministry leaders to send out,
• 1:01:26
  not just to keep. And 3rd, we want to proactively
• 1:01:29
  seek partnerships for planting, replanting, revitalizing
• 1:01:33
  opportunities. We pray over that, Sean.
• 1:01:35
  Yes. Lord, we are humbled at the move
• 1:01:41
  of your spirit in this church, that on this Sunday we get to
• 1:01:45
  sit and experience the fruit of our labor in Your spirit.
• 1:01:50
  That we get to rejoice that people are coming into this
• 1:01:55
  church building and hearing the gospel for the first time.
• 1:01:58
  We rejoice on salvations. We rejoice for baptisms.
• 1:02:03
  And God, we rejoice that you are equipping the Saints for the
• 1:02:06
  work of ministry is that you simply do not call us into
• 1:02:10
  salvation, but you call us to equip us for the work of
• 1:02:14
  ministry. So God, that is our prayer as
• 1:02:17
  that we become a light, a beacon on the hill for this community
• 1:02:22
  that is lost, that you would continue to equip and raise up
• 1:02:25
  ministers to proclaim the good news of the hope of Jesus Christ
• 1:02:29
  to those who are lost. And it's in Jesus name we pray.
• 1:02:32
  Amen. Amen.
• 1:02:35
  One of the churches that we got to support of the last two
• 1:02:38
  years, we got to support a church planter.
• 1:02:40
  Send Network has is part of the SBC.
• 1:02:44
  We partner with them to plant churches.
• 1:02:46
  And so someone that's near and dear to our heart is planting a
• 1:02:49
  church in Pasadena. In fact, you know him because he
• 1:02:52
  was your first small group leader, right?
• 1:02:53
  Yes, so. My wife and IJC, we've been
• 1:02:56
  coming to rest for about 5 years.
• 1:02:57
  When we moved to Bakersfield from Orange County, our first
• 1:03:01
  group leader was Derek Berry. A lot of you probably know
• 1:03:04
  Derek, and I don't know about you guys, but have you ever
• 1:03:06
  looked at a pastor and he just had head pastor vibes?
• 1:03:09
  Yeah, Yeah. That was that's Derek Berry,
• 1:03:11
  man. His, his theology is so
• 1:03:13
  encouraging. He puts Jesus so high.
• 1:03:16
  And, and it's an honor to say that we've been able to partner
• 1:03:19
  with Derek Berry and his church plant in Pasadena.
• 1:03:22
  Because of the the giving here at Rez and the way we we
• 1:03:25
  formalize missions, our missions department sent their church
• 1:03:29
  plant $20,000 to get started. Praise God.
• 1:03:37
  And since they planted, we got to go down to their inaugural
• 1:03:39
  service when they commissioned and had their their first
• 1:03:42
  members. They have since merged with a
• 1:03:44
  church in Pasadena and have a permanent church building now.
• 1:03:46
  And so we're very excited for them.
• 1:03:48
  Yeah, We've also, we've also gotten to partner with a church.
• 1:03:53
  There's a little church in Wasco called Griffith Ave.
• 1:03:55
  Baptist. And we got to go out there.
• 1:03:57
  We've we've sent teams out there, we've helped them with
• 1:04:00
  their harvest festival, with outreach events.
• 1:04:02
  We've gotten to send some of our preaching team out there at
• 1:04:04
  various times in order to give their pastor a break because he
• 1:04:07
  doesn't get a lot of breaks. And since then, Pastor Kevin has
• 1:04:10
  actually come. He joins us now weekly on
• 1:04:12
  Wednesdays at our preaching team meeting when we're working
• 1:04:15
  through preaching and sermons. And he drives in from Wasco and
• 1:04:18
  sits with us, gives us ideas and a lot of rez series that we
• 1:04:22
  preach here. He'll take some of that creative
• 1:04:24
  stuff and he'll go back and preach those same series at his
• 1:04:27
  church in Wasco. And so we're really excited at
• 1:04:30
  what God is doing out in Wasco. We've, we continue to try to
• 1:04:33
  find new ways to partner. If you hear a call for Griffith
• 1:04:36
  Ave. Baptist around here, that's
• 1:04:37
  probably us trying to find more ways to partner with them.
• 1:04:40
  And so make sure you jump in. There's another church plant
• 1:04:43
  that's not our church plant, but we've been partnering with as
• 1:04:45
  well, and that's Northside. Yeah.
• 1:04:47
  You want to talk about them? Yeah, I think it's super cool
• 1:04:49
  here at RES it's, I mean you can see that we're equipping leaders
• 1:04:52
  to go into the mission field. We want teachers, preachers,
• 1:04:55
  administrative workers. So we're planting, but not only
• 1:04:58
  that, we're also revitalizing. So I think it's super cool.
• 1:05:01
  I look at Wrest Mania and I'm looking at all these amazing
• 1:05:03
  bounce houses we have and the go Kart track.
• 1:05:07
  And it's amazing that we've been able to sew into North Side to
• 1:05:09
  revitalize the church and also with all of our cool toys.
• 1:05:12
  Yeah, so Valley Baptist has sent two families in the last year.
• 1:05:18
  I'm sorry, 2 pastors and then a bunch of families from their
• 1:05:20
  church and financial support to revitalize 2 local churches.
• 1:05:23
  One of those was Northside and so we got to partner with them
• 1:05:26
  by sending all of our bounce houses over for, for some of
• 1:05:29
  their events and sending teams over to help them.
• 1:05:31
  And our, we have a little pine Derby track we got to send over
• 1:05:33
  and all sorts of fun stuff like that.
• 1:05:35
  And so very excited. They have grown substantially
• 1:05:37
  since they have started here this year.
• 1:05:40
  They're not even 12 months in and God is already saving people
• 1:05:43
  at that church. It's, it's pretty amazing.
• 1:05:46
  And then also had an opportunity this past year to go and partner
• 1:05:49
  with Grace Baptist Church and go to their men's retreat and
• 1:05:52
  preach at those men's retreat. And I'll be honest, whenever I
• 1:05:54
  go preach at something with guns, I'm always worried that no
• 1:05:59
  one's listening because they're just ready to get to the
• 1:06:01
  frisbees and the firearms and the food, right.
• 1:06:04
  And so, but I will tell you that as a result of getting some of
• 1:06:09
  these men's events that I get invited to speak at, we've
• 1:06:11
  gotten to see people sometimes years later show up and go, Hey,
• 1:06:15
  I, I heard the, the gospel, I heard you preach this scripture
• 1:06:19
  two years ago, three years ago, four years ago.
• 1:06:22
  And, and I just wanted you to know.
• 1:06:23
  And so like we continue to find ways to sew into other churches
• 1:06:26
  and other organizations. I do want to celebrate a couple
• 1:06:29
  things. One of the first things I want
• 1:06:30
  to celebrate is you've heard this before.
• 1:06:32
  We're going to keep talking about it.
• 1:06:33
  Mentorship, which is a 2 year commitment, usually very early
• 1:06:37
  in the morning. It's a lot of reading, it's a
• 1:06:38
  lot of work, it's a lot of discipline has borne just
• 1:06:42
  amazing fruit in the lives of people in our church.
• 1:06:44
  We currently have 50, four people going through a
• 1:06:47
  mentorship right now. Amen.
• 1:06:48
  Yeah, Praise God. Sean, you went through a
• 1:06:51
  mentorship and now you're leading a mentorship group.
• 1:06:53
  You want to talk about that? I also tell myself when I get on
• 1:06:56
  stage, I'm not going to cry. I might cry.
• 1:06:57
  I think all of you have seen me cry at this point.
• 1:07:00
  Yes, we have. Yes.
• 1:07:01
  So yeah, 2 1/2 years ago, my my life was at a rock bottom.
• 1:07:05
  Alcoholism, drug addiction. I had quit a career job, was
• 1:07:09
  getting kicked out of my apartment.
• 1:07:10
  My wife was moving to South Carolina and I met with the
• 1:07:13
  elders and they said, hey, we want to be your accountability.
• 1:07:17
  We want to love on you to get you through this time.
• 1:07:20
  So I started mentorship and I was half brain dead at the time.
• 1:07:24
  I mean, I could barely think, but I praised God that there
• 1:07:27
  were men in my life who rallied around me, who encouraged me,
• 1:07:30
  who held me to account. And I can say today that not
• 1:07:34
  only have I graduated mentorship, my relationship with
• 1:07:38
  my wife is being restored as we speak.
• 1:07:40
  But now I am a mentor, helping men walking the same path that I
• 1:07:45
  once walked. So Amen.
• 1:07:46
  It's amazing. Amen.
• 1:07:48
  Very cool. One of the so many stories you
• 1:07:56
  guys just don't get to see one of the dreams that we've had for
• 1:07:59
  a couple years again for raising that next generation.
• 1:08:02
  We we've poured a lot of resources and time into hiring a
• 1:08:05
  full time high school pastor and a full time middle school pastor
• 1:08:09
  because we really think the next generation gets ignored
• 1:08:12
  unfortunately at too many churches.
• 1:08:14
  It's why America is in the position that it's in today
• 1:08:17
  where churches are getting really old, pastors are getting
• 1:08:18
  really old. There's no one to raise that
• 1:08:20
  banner up. And so we've poured a lot of
• 1:08:22
  energy and resource into those. One of the things that's come of
• 1:08:24
  that, it's not just the the growth and the pursuit of Christ
• 1:08:27
  in the middle school and, and the, the high school rooms, if
• 1:08:30
  you've been in there, but they have actually begun to develop
• 1:08:33
  their own worship team. And so they're now youth that
• 1:08:36
  lead youth in worship on Wednesday nights.
• 1:08:44
  We're going to talk about some stuff in just a minute that's
• 1:08:46
  coming because of how hungry our young adults are right now for
• 1:08:51
  Jesus. There's some there's some great
• 1:08:52
  stuff coming. Before we do that, I want you to
• 1:08:56
  see two more stories of God raising people into leadership
• 1:09:01
  that had no idea they were ever going to be in leadership.
• 1:09:03
  But as God begin to work in them, what you saw developed in
• 1:09:08
  them through a sanctification process LED them to leading
• 1:09:12
  ministries in this church. So take a listen to this.
• 1:09:15
  Hi, I'm Chris Heinberger and this is Brenda Mayer.
• 1:09:19
  We are here to celebrate Brenda's journey through
• 1:09:22
  leadership and guest experience. So you don't know it, but Brenda
• 1:09:27
  started in the coffee shop. And once Brenda raised up
• 1:09:30
  leaders that she was able to hand it off to, she became a
• 1:09:34
  door holder, a grader and a bulletin passer router.
• 1:09:37
  I know it's not proper English. It's OK.
• 1:09:39
  And then she moved into service lead on a Sunday morning, and
• 1:09:44
  then we moved her into guest experience director.
• 1:09:48
  And that conversation began at a Starbucks where I said, hey,
• 1:09:52
  you're already doing this. What do you think about taking
• 1:09:55
  it on officially? What was your reaction to that?
• 1:09:58
  Holy cow, what am I doing? And you're doing a great job.
• 1:10:06
  So what have you been your wins in guest experience this year?
• 1:10:11
  I have really gotten to enjoy meeting new people, helping
• 1:10:18
  hopefully my team gain new skills, stretch them a little
• 1:10:23
  bit. I've been asking people to do
• 1:10:25
  jobs that they don't normally do.
• 1:10:27
  So that because that's kind of the way I came up is Chris would
• 1:10:32
  say, hey, can you drive the car today?
• 1:10:34
  Hey, can you do this today? And when you have all of those
• 1:10:39
  pieces, then it's easier to jump into something like this.
• 1:10:43
  Absolutely. So what are your goals for 2026?
• 1:10:47
  I think my goals for 2026 are to get more people good plug, good
• 1:10:53
  job, get more people into guest experience and and just do the
• 1:10:59
  best we can to serve our church. All right, fist bump girl.
• 1:11:03
  Thanks. Hi, I'm Jessica and I'm so
• 1:11:07
  excited to be here with Brandy. This is Brandy lease and I've
• 1:11:11
  got to know her very well. And one of the things that I've
• 1:11:14
  really enjoyed is just seeing her grow.
• 1:11:16
  She came to church, she started serving and then I could see
• 1:11:20
  this natural leader come out in her.
• 1:11:22
  So I made a big act. And what did I ask?
• 1:11:25
  I asked her if she would like to be our RES Kids Sunday director.
• 1:11:30
  What did you feel when I asked you that question?
• 1:11:34
  Honored but overwhelmed. Honored Roblox and scared that I
• 1:11:37
  could not fill the shoes of the previous Sunday Director.
• 1:11:42
  You're doing you're doing wonderfully.
• 1:11:45
  All right. So can you share with us some
• 1:11:47
  really like big wins that you've had in kids recently?
• 1:11:50
  Volunteers? I've been able to shoulder tap
• 1:11:53
  and get more volunteers that I have to choose from.
• 1:11:57
  Our numbers have been consistently up.
• 1:11:59
  So kids are coming, parents are coming.
• 1:12:01
  So growth, too many kids is an amazing problem to have.
• 1:12:06
  And just the Sundays are running very smoothly now.
• 1:12:09
  They've just become like second nature.
• 1:12:11
  Awesome. All right, So what are you
• 1:12:14
  looking forward to in 2026? More.
• 1:12:17
  Kids, more volunteers, more fun days, and just sharing the love
• 1:12:23
  of Jesus with these young hearts.
• 1:12:25
  But come on campus. Awesome.
• 1:12:26
  We're so glad that we can celebrate Brandy's leadership.
• 1:12:37
  All right, I'm going to holler at you for just a minute because
• 1:12:41
  I don't believe in having a Sunday where the Bible is not
• 1:12:44
  open. And we're not, we're not talking
• 1:12:45
  about just at least a little bit.
• 1:12:48
  So if you have your Bibles, turn with me to Matthew 28.
• 1:12:51
  We're just going to read a couple verses today, and then
• 1:12:53
  we'll end our service. This is Jesus.
• 1:13:00
  Now the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to
• 1:13:04
  which Jesus had directed them, and when they saw him, they
• 1:13:07
  worshipped him. But some doubted.
• 1:13:09
  And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on
• 1:13:14
  earth has been given to me. Go therefore, and make disciples
• 1:13:21
  of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of
• 1:13:25
  the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all
• 1:13:30
  that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you always to
• 1:13:33
  the end of the age. We call this the Great
• 1:13:37
  Commission. It is the same gospel message
• 1:13:41
  throughout history, for the last 2000 years, across different
• 1:13:46
  cultures, across different regions, ultimately to multiple
• 1:13:50
  generations. We have been commissioned, if
• 1:13:54
  you call Christ King, to go and make disciples.
• 1:13:58
  He gave us Scripture, He gave us prayer, taught us how to do it,
• 1:14:04
  and he gave us the Helper, the Holy Spirit.
• 1:14:06
  And it is our job, we believe, to diligently seek God and to
• 1:14:11
  pay attention to where He is at work.
• 1:14:17
  We get ourselves into a lot of trouble when we try to dictate
• 1:14:20
  where God should move. You ever done that?
• 1:14:25
  You decided you had some dreams and God just needed to come
• 1:14:28
  fulfill them for you. Bill Clem tells a story in his
• 1:14:33
  book Disciple about moving his family to the Midwest.
• 1:14:36
  And on the first of those dark and starry nights out in the
• 1:14:39
  Midwest, his kids encountered fireflies.
• 1:14:42
  I don't know if you've ever seen fireflies.
• 1:14:43
  It's quite the phenomenon. And so they captured a bunch of
• 1:14:46
  the fireflies and they put them in a glass jar, only to wake up
• 1:14:49
  the next morning and they were all dead.
• 1:14:53
  Just dead bugs you see free and flying around.
• 1:14:57
  They were vibrant and amazing, but stuck in a jar.
• 1:14:59
  You don't get light and life, you get death.
• 1:15:02
  And we do that often when we lean on religion instead of
• 1:15:05
  seeking God. When we think that God will
• 1:15:07
  respond in a certain way to our emotions, our incantations, our
• 1:15:11
  Pretty Little traditions, and that God will just do whatever
• 1:15:14
  the formulaic thing is that God does.
• 1:15:16
  Here's the thing. You cannot put God in a box.
• 1:15:21
  The whole point of the second commandment isn't simply about
• 1:15:23
  idolatry. It's the idea, the hubris, the
• 1:15:26
  arrogance of mankind to think that they could ever represent
• 1:15:31
  God with a statue or a picture. He's God.
• 1:15:36
  That's why when they asked his name, he said, I am, I am.
• 1:15:41
  We cannot contain or control God.
• 1:15:43
  Instead, our job is to follow him.
• 1:15:46
  We worship him, and we go where he leads.
• 1:15:49
  I didn't come to this church as a pastor with a plan, a little
• 1:15:53
  plan of, oh, here's exactly how God's going to work.
• 1:15:55
  I had no idea. Instead, the elders and I humbly
• 1:16:00
  sought God and we observed where we saw him at work and we built
• 1:16:04
  the plan. And we will change the plan when
• 1:16:06
  we see where God is leading, what he's doing, because we're
• 1:16:10
  two years in to following God, because we see him at work.
• 1:16:14
  And as we followed God the past few years, we have celebrated
• 1:16:18
  tremendous things that we have never celebrated before.
• 1:16:22
  Not because we came up with the ideas, but because we got on our
• 1:16:26
  knees, We poured our hearts out to God, and then we paid
• 1:16:30
  attention where he was moving. And so now two years of just
• 1:16:34
  following where God's leading to be known, to love the 10, to
• 1:16:41
  reach our circles and to prepare people to lead, we are making
• 1:16:49
  significant progress in those areas.
• 1:16:51
  So we have not hit sixty groups yet.
• 1:16:53
  We haven't hit 300 people every single week showing up to a
• 1:16:55
  group. But man, we're making progress.
• 1:16:57
  And if you aren't, if you're not in a small group, I'm telling
• 1:17:01
  you, it will change your life. It will change your life.
• 1:17:05
  If you're in a small group and you have heard our call for
• 1:17:09
  needing more leaders, more small group leaders, the first step to
• 1:17:12
  that is you need to be a member. So if you're not a member, but
• 1:17:15
  you feel called to be a member of this church, I want you to
• 1:17:17
  ask your small group leader, hey, how do I do that?
• 1:17:20
  And we will get you started becoming a member of this
• 1:17:22
  church. We have five year goals to
• 1:17:25
  launch a daycare to put a ministry on campus at
• 1:17:28
  Bakersfield College in Cal State.
• 1:17:30
  And this year we plan to put a full time missionary on campus
• 1:17:34
  at the college campuses in Bakersfield.
• 1:17:43
  Do I know how exactly yet? I do not.
• 1:17:46
  But I see God at work. I see Him at work in the young
• 1:17:50
  adults in this church. I see him growing a hunger for
• 1:17:53
  the Lord and people from 16 to 26.
• 1:17:56
  And I'm not going to ignore it. We set a goal for 150 new people
• 1:18:01
  from this neighborhood attending res and we're well well on our
• 1:18:05
  way to finishing that well before the five years.
• 1:18:08
  We set a goal of 400 plus new guests and we hit 280 this past
• 1:18:13
  year alone. We're well past that number, and
• 1:18:22
  we are on our way to preparing leaders.
• 1:18:26
  We will finalize this year an ordination process, and we will
• 1:18:29
  launch in the spring a test version of our pastoral
• 1:18:32
  residency program here at RES to start ordaining and sending
• 1:18:36
  pastors from this church to plant churches, which means
• 1:18:45
  there's going to be some gospel goodbyes.
• 1:18:47
  They're going to be people that you absolutely love that are
• 1:18:50
  going to leave here, not because they're mad, but because God has
• 1:18:52
  a call on their life that they cannot ignore.
• 1:18:56
  We're not going to get mad at that.
• 1:18:57
  We're going to give God glory for that.
• 1:19:01
  And every single one of you can be a part of what's going on
• 1:19:03
  here. Say me listen every there are so
• 1:19:07
  many ways to take a next step and step into what we see God
• 1:19:10
  doing as you begin to notice what's God is doing in your life
• 1:19:14
  and in the context of this church family to step into that
• 1:19:17
  1st is this. If you don't know Jesus in a
• 1:19:19
  personal way, I in just a minute, I'm going to explain
• 1:19:22
  what it looks like to meet him and to understand that he is
• 1:19:24
  king and and this is the most important decision you're ever
• 1:19:27
  going to make. Secondly, throughout this year,
• 1:19:32
  you're going to hear us talk about it over and over again to
• 1:19:34
  get into community group, to serve and to give.
• 1:19:37
  We, we think that there are 4 signs of engagement to show up
• 1:19:40
  on Sunday, to show up to a community group to serve and to
• 1:19:43
  give. They're just the four consistent
• 1:19:44
  things you see in Acts. We're going to talk about them
• 1:19:47
  all the time. They are healthy, they're
• 1:19:50
  biblical, and God will use them to transform you.
• 1:19:54
  We talk about them every single month at a lunch for people that
• 1:19:57
  are disengaged. We're going to we're going to,
• 1:19:59
  we're going to have a lunch every single month in 2026 just
• 1:20:03
  for people that have not been able to find a way to get
• 1:20:05
  engaged yet, for you to come to that lunch and hear more about
• 1:20:07
  how to get engaged and take a next step.
• 1:20:09
  And we're going to continue to offer you opportunities.
• 1:20:16
  And, and some of these sound maybe like very basic goals.
• 1:20:19
  And for some of you, that's all you really need right now is a
• 1:20:21
  basic goal. You just need to take a next
• 1:20:23
  step. Here's what I believe.
• 1:20:25
  I believe that a church maintains and builds momentum
• 1:20:30
  not when a small group of people go and do supernatural crazy
• 1:20:34
  things, but actually when when a majority of the church begins to
• 1:20:38
  be captivated by who Jesus is and what he's doing here on
• 1:20:42
  earth. And when we begin to see that as
• 1:20:47
  a majority of a church, as we, as this happens and spreads in
• 1:20:51
  the in the pews and around our church, it has an exponential
• 1:20:56
  effect. And what it leads to is revival.
• 1:20:59
  It leads to a city turned upside down in the most beautiful
• 1:21:02
  possible way for the glory of God.
• 1:21:06
  You see, every single one of us has been commissioned by Christ
• 1:21:09
  to go and make disciples. The Great Commission was not for
• 1:21:13
  pastors and preachers. The Great Commission was for
• 1:21:17
  auto mechanics and school teachers, Stay at home moms and
• 1:21:21
  baristas. Pastors are called to equip the
• 1:21:25
  Saints for works of service. You are enlisted in his army if
• 1:21:32
  you call him king. You were called to live like it.
• 1:21:36
  And here's the thing, Kings don't make suggestions.
• 1:21:42
  Someday I will stand before Christ, and I will answer for
• 1:21:47
  every moment of my life, and I will answer for everyone of you
• 1:21:50
  too. And I want to answer well.
• 1:22:03
  I want to hear well done, my good and faithful servant, and I
• 1:22:08
  want you to hear it too. So maybe you know, Christ is
• 1:22:14
  King and you want to know what's next for you.
• 1:22:19
  Well, I've got a few things and we handed them out on a little
• 1:22:21
  paper today. There are a bunch of things
• 1:22:25
  coming this year. There's so many that if I just
• 1:22:28
  tell them to you verbally, you'll forget about them.
• 1:22:30
  So I want to give you a, a take home to look at them.
• 1:22:36
  Here's something I want you to think about because you might
• 1:22:37
  need to start planning now. There's a conference April 30th,
• 1:22:42
  May 1st, 2nd, right in that time frame, very beginning of May
• 1:22:44
  called Thrive. I want every single one of you
• 1:22:52
  to go, man. I would like the hotels that
• 1:22:55
  have space problems because there's too many people from
• 1:22:57
  Bakersfield up there. It's in Sacramento.
• 1:23:00
  We will carpool up there. We'll be in vans and minivans
• 1:23:03
  and cars and do Rd. trips and all sorts of fun stuff.
• 1:23:06
  But it's our opportunity as a church family to go up
• 1:23:08
  somewhere, to be encouraged, to be inspired, to spend time
• 1:23:12
  talking about what God is doing, to begin to dream about what God
• 1:23:15
  can do. So I want you to go and, and
• 1:23:20
  you're absolutely right, you're going to have to take time off
• 1:23:22
  work and you're going to have to, oh, there's complexities to
• 1:23:25
  it. It is difficult and it might
• 1:23:26
  cost some money and you might have to get a hotel room.
• 1:23:28
  But listen, once you all do that for Disney anyways, right?
• 1:23:34
  Because here's the thing, we don't have any problem spending
• 1:23:37
  and investing money in the things that we love.
• 1:23:41
  So take the risk. Worst case scenario, it was a
• 1:23:46
  trip to lovely Sacramento. Most churches have about 2 to 3%
• 1:23:56
  of the members of their church doing all of the inviting in the
• 1:23:58
  church. That is the statistic. 2 to 3%
• 1:24:01
  of the people in the church do all of the inviting, all of the
• 1:24:03
  evangelism. Say me, I want you to commit to
• 1:24:08
  reaching the lost in 2026. Not 2%.
• 1:24:11
  Not 3%. If you call Rez your home, I
• 1:24:15
  want you to commit to reaching people who are far from God.
• 1:24:18
  Every single one of you. We're going to spend the next
• 1:24:20
  month, all of January, on a series called Sent.
• 1:24:25
  Because you have been sent, you have been commissioned.
• 1:24:30
  And we're going to talk through ways that you can begin to learn
• 1:24:33
  what evangelism looks like, the ways you can begin to explain
• 1:24:36
  your faith, ways you can partner with organizations all around
• 1:24:39
  Bakersfield to make an impact in people's lives.
• 1:24:44
  We're going to offer you ways to join in local partnerships.
• 1:24:47
  We're going to invite you to an evangelism conference here in
• 1:24:49
  town at Valley Baptist in February that you can sign up
• 1:24:51
  for. That's free.
• 1:24:52
  All you have to do is show up on a Saturday.
• 1:24:53
  We're going to have two guest speakers in January specifically
• 1:24:58
  invited to come and share with you about missions and reaching
• 1:25:01
  the lost. This year it is our goal to put
• 1:25:05
  a full time missionary on our college campuses here in
• 1:25:09
  Bakersfield for them to raise up teams from this church to go do
• 1:25:16
  events at Bakersfield College and Cal State Bakersfield.
• 1:25:21
  I believe that right now Cal State Bakersfield is the black
• 1:25:25
  hole of the gospel in Bakersfield.
• 1:25:30
  There are no churches within 3 miles of that campus that
• 1:25:34
  actually match anywhere close the demographic of the campus.
• 1:25:41
  I think if you wanted to find the place most devoid of the
• 1:25:43
  gospel in all of town, all you have to do is walk to Cal State
• 1:25:46
  Bakersfield. So we're going to go get it
• 1:25:52
  because they need to hear about Jesus.
• 1:25:56
  This year. We're going to start a residency
• 1:25:58
  program to begin to prepare pastors to send away.
• 1:26:01
  That is the scariest thing I've said all day.
• 1:26:05
  As much as you go, man, we need a lot more help.
• 1:26:06
  We sure do. And we're going to send people
• 1:26:07
  away anyways because that's the gospel before you leave today.
• 1:26:13
  They're going to be QR codes and there's a link on our website
• 1:26:16
  just in case you miss it. You just go to resurrect dot
• 1:26:19
  church slash Bible. We're going to start a new Bible
• 1:26:21
  reading year reading plan January 1st.
• 1:26:23
  I want you to join with us. This be our third year doing it.
• 1:26:26
  We're going to do it via the EU version app this year so you can
• 1:26:29
  all friend one another and we can see who's not not reading,
• 1:26:33
  That's all. You can't see that it's a joke.
• 1:26:39
  I want listen, you want to grow in Christ, open your Bible.
• 1:26:41
  You want to hear from God, read your Bible.
• 1:26:45
  You want to hear from God out loud, read your Bible out loud.
• 1:26:54
  This year we're going to invite 1000 people to church and we're
• 1:27:00
  going to see at least 250 of those actually say yes to that
• 1:27:04
  invite and come and hear the gospel preached.
• 1:27:07
  And many of those people are only going to come if you invite
• 1:27:11
  them. So what we decide is we're going
• 1:27:15
  to have a fun time measuring this.
• 1:27:16
  Here's what we're going to do. We have someone building this
• 1:27:18
  big wall of plexiglass that you can see through.
• 1:27:21
  And we're going to take ping pong balls.
• 1:27:23
  And every time you invite someone, when you come in on a
• 1:27:25
  Sunday, I want you to take one. I want you to write the name of
• 1:27:27
  the person you invited. I want you to put it in.
• 1:27:29
  And they're going to start stacking up.
• 1:27:32
  And every time one of those invites comes, there's a
• 1:27:35
  different color ball. And I want you to celebrate the
• 1:27:38
  fact that that person said yes. And I want you to put your name
• 1:27:40
  on that. And I want you to put it in.
• 1:27:42
  And every time someone gives their life to Christ in 2026,
• 1:27:46
  we're going to write that down. We're going to put it in the
• 1:27:48
  wall. And every time someone follows
• 1:27:50
  salvation with believers baptism in 2026, you have whatever color
• 1:27:53
  you're going to put their name on it.
• 1:27:54
  You can put it in that wall. And by the end of the year,
• 1:27:56
  we're going to have a whole lot of ping pong balls.
• 1:28:02
  We celebrated 54 people are in mentorship right now, but the
• 1:28:06
  next round of people who's going to go through mentorship, you're
• 1:28:10
  sitting in the pews right now and God's been at work in your
• 1:28:13
  life and you've been hearing about this and you're like, man,
• 1:28:15
  I wish I was in that. Well, guess what?
• 1:28:17
  You can be in that. You talk to your small group
• 1:28:20
  leader, they'll get in touch with us and we'll do another
• 1:28:23
  round of people that are really going hard after Jesus.
• 1:28:29
  Baptisms are coming up. Again, if you have not stepped
• 1:28:31
  forward in obedience and never been baptized believers baptism,
• 1:28:34
  we're doing that in February. You can sign up for it right
• 1:28:36
  now. I mentioned a moment ago that
• 1:28:43
  the most important decision you'll ever make is to know
• 1:28:45
  Christ personally as king of your life.
• 1:28:49
  So if you're here today or you're watching online and
• 1:28:51
  you've never done that, I want to give you an opportunity to do
• 1:28:53
  that. You see, for so many of us, this
• 1:28:57
  is how it works. God has been wooing us and
• 1:28:59
  working on us, sometimes for years, and we wonder what it is.
• 1:29:04
  See, we think we're the one that has actually been seeking Jesus,
• 1:29:08
  But the fact of the matter is, most of us have been rebellion
• 1:29:11
  against God, and He's in the loving, gracious way, pulling us
• 1:29:15
  to Him. And so maybe that's you today,
• 1:29:19
  maybe you showed up or you're watching online and God has been
• 1:29:22
  after you for some time and you weren't sure what that really
• 1:29:24
  was. And you're realizing in this
• 1:29:26
  moment that is actually Jesus trying to save you.
• 1:29:31
  The message of the Bible is that every single one of us was born
• 1:29:34
  dead in sin, under the curse of sin.
• 1:29:38
  And it is only Jesus redemptive sacrifice on the cross that
• 1:29:42
  enables us to have any sort of relationship with God at all.
• 1:29:47
  And so if you desire that, I want to give you an opportunity
• 1:29:51
  to surrender to your life to Jesus today.
• 1:29:53
  Will you bow with me for just a moment as we close our service?
• 1:29:57
  If that's you. Someone that's never put their
• 1:29:59
  faith in Christ, but is is realizing that God is calling
• 1:30:02
  them to salvation. The Bible says in Romans 10 that
• 1:30:05
  if we would declare with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and
• 1:30:09
  believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead, that
• 1:30:11
  we can be saved because with the heart 1 believes, with the mouth
• 1:30:17
  1 declares and is justified. So if you want to give your life
• 1:30:21
  to Christ today, I just want you to with everyone, heads bowed
• 1:30:26
  and eyes closed, say this prayer quietly or silently after me.
• 1:30:31
  Jesus, I know I am lost and I need to be saved and I want to
• 1:30:43
  put my faith in you, surrender my life to you and be adopted
• 1:30:50
  into your family so I give everything to you, Be my Lord.
• 1:30:57
  Please Jesus, if you said that prayer for the very first time,
• 1:31:06
  will you be brave and raise your hand for me to see?
• 1:31:10
  Thank you, thank you. Put your hands down in Jesus
• 1:31:17
  name, Amen. You said that prayer for the
• 1:31:22
  very first time. Welcome to the family.
• 1:31:25
  We're going to close and I'm going to get you out of here,
• 1:31:34
  but I want to leave you with a story.
• 1:31:36
  I believe that we are, we sit at a tipping point right now in our
• 1:31:39
  church. God has not given us a small
• 1:31:43
  blessing, Amen. These past two years have been
• 1:31:46
  tremendous. He has been so gracious to us,
• 1:31:50
  but my question for each of you is what what will we do with
• 1:31:54
  what God has done for us? God has provided for us.
• 1:31:58
  He has moved tremendously in our midst of the we could be
• 1:32:01
  encouraged and see it. What's next?
• 1:32:03
  When I was thinking about this over the holidays as at home and
• 1:32:09
  all the family at home, you know, as a kid, I grew up really
• 1:32:11
  poor and so soda was a luxury. We bought 12 litre and you
• 1:32:16
  weren't allowed to drink it during the week.
• 1:32:17
  You had to stare at it. And then on Sundays after
• 1:32:22
  church, everybody could get a cup of soda.
• 1:32:26
  And so as a dad, it bothers me like to no end to walk around my
• 1:32:30
  house and there be these soda cans have been left out and
• 1:32:32
  they're like 3/4 full all the time, right?
• 1:32:42
  Like, are you wasting all this soda?
• 1:32:47
  My daughter was home for the holidays from out of town, and
• 1:32:50
  she took our car to the store on Christmas Eve.
• 1:32:53
  And as she's leaving an intersection, right as the light
• 1:32:56
  turns green, she she pulls forward in the car and it
• 1:32:58
  shudders and stops. And she's like, yeah, Daddy just
• 1:33:02
  shut off on me. And then right after it did, a
• 1:33:04
  car blew the red light at 50 miles an hour, missed her by a
• 1:33:10
  foot. You see, the car has a safety
• 1:33:13
  feature and it saw that the car wasn't going to stop in the
• 1:33:16
  intersection and it shut the car down and lock the ABS up.
• 1:33:23
  That was Christmas Eve, and I was thinking over the holidays.
• 1:33:27
  Oh how different my Christmas Day could have been in the ER or
• 1:33:34
  at the morgue instead of sitting at home with my family around
• 1:33:40
  the fire And it made me think. I wonder how many times God has
• 1:33:44
  saved me and I didn't even realize it.
• 1:33:51
  Friday I I was walking through the house and only to find
• 1:33:55
  another can of lukewarm Dr. Xevia.
• 1:34:04
  You know what's funny is it didn't bother me at all.
• 1:34:09
  She's just happy to have my daughter alive and healthy.
• 1:34:16
  There are countless number of things at this church for you to
• 1:34:18
  complain about, to be annoyed by, to wish were different.
• 1:34:23
  It's totally true. In fact, if you're to look for
• 1:34:26
  them, it won't be hard to find them at all.
• 1:34:29
  We tend to find what we're looking for.
• 1:34:33
  But what if you and I overlook? I I think we get in a habit of
• 1:34:39
  overlooking all the time what a treasure it is for God to be
• 1:34:43
  moving in our midst in such a way that he is, God is at work
• 1:34:52
  in our midst. We see it, we see miracles
• 1:34:55
  happening. I get the benefit of sitting
• 1:34:57
  with pastors in this town and, and they ask, hey, what's going
• 1:35:00
  on? And I get to share just little
• 1:35:01
  bits of what I shared today. And they cannot believe what is
• 1:35:06
  happening here. It is such a tremendous thing.
• 1:35:09
  And I don't want you to miss this.
• 1:35:13
  I don't want you to miss what God is doing in this moment just
• 1:35:16
  because there are things that are uncomfortable here or I
• 1:35:19
  can't imagine missing a move of God.
• 1:35:26
  And so I don't want you to simply see that it's happening
• 1:35:30
  and not be part of it. I, I, I don't, I don't want you
• 1:35:36
  to hear about these stories and wish you were part of it, but
• 1:35:38
  never, never be part of it. I don't want you to get to the
• 1:35:40
  end of your life and look back and go, man, all those things
• 1:35:44
  were happening and I never stepped into it.
• 1:35:48
  So I just want to encourage you to step into what God is doing
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  to this church right now. Don't be passive.
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  Don't spend your energy and time looking for the things that are
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  wrong because I guarantee you will find them.
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  Rather, notice what God is doing and step into what He's doing
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  and it will never be the same for you.
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  Our prayer team is going to come up right now to pray with you.
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  No matter what's going on in your life, we want to pray for
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  you and with you. If moments ago you made a
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  decision, a declaration to follow Christ with your life.
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  There are tables in the back. They say I raised my hand.
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  We want to celebrate with you. We have a gift for you.
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  So will you stand? We're going to sing a song and
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  we're going to respond as the Lord leads.
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  As you leave today, let me pray over you for 2026.
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  Father, we thank you for this people and this time and this
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  place that you have called and commissioned.
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  You call them your own. You call them your sons and your
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  daughters. You've put Your spirit in them,
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  that you've called them on mission to live out the
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  remaining days of their life, however many, however few, they
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  may be on mission to know you because there's a day you're
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  going to call them home and there will be no more tears and
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  be no more pain. So God help us to step into that
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  in 2026. Father, shine your face upon
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  them. Be gracious to them.
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  Pour out Your blessing upon them.
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  God, help us to turn to this Dark World and let them know the
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  only thing that really matters, God, that you are real and you
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  are true and that you love them and you're calling them home.
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  Protect this people as they go out.
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  God in Jesus name, Amen. Be well Church, see you next
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  week.