Been.
I just want to tell you, David and his family spent Christmas
up in the mountains with a bunch of their fam,
with a bunch of their family members, and one of the
the men amongst them accepted Jesus while they were there, which is awesome.
And part of their question was, well, what's next?
They said, well, let's give. Once you get baptized.
And so they went out to the river was 30 something degree water.
And, baptized David baptized the guy.
He sent me a picture.
David's got this big smile, so it's like. Yeah.
And the guy came in for, like,
I got frostbite.
It was so awesome, though, at Christmas time.
David, thank you for taking the initiative and leading someone to Jesus
and baptizing them.
And now I know you and Sarah are trying to help walk them up north,
walk them through, what it means to be a part of a community.
I appreciate you being part of this community.
Thank you guys for this last Sunday of 2025.
Thank you for being at church.
It's, Thank you.
I'm so proud that, we're not one of those that has a found in a coffee shop
that cancels church on Sunday morning. Today.
So thank you for being here. Good on you, man. I'm proud of you.
That was my little thing, right?
Whatever, I don't care, I don't care, I don't care.
So what?
We started this tradition years ago
that on the last Sunday of the year
that we would do what we call five good minutes.
And so here's what happens.
Typically in a church.
Unless you're on staff,
what you see of the staff is when we're on,
when we're doing our jobs.
Most of you only see that on a Sunday morning.
So the
glimpses you get of us is our doing our jobs.
On a Sunday.
You come and see us go out,
there's
there's a lot that goes on behind the curtain.
A few of you have a relationship with some of us
where you get glimpses behind the curtain.
But most don't.
And so five good minutes is when we take as a step just kind of.
Let's just pull the curtain back a little bit.
It almost feels a little bit self-indulgent.
And I don't want to be that way,
because I don't want you to hear,
well, this is how the Lord has spoken to me and work through me.
Do you know what I'm saying?
Like,
I want to be one of those things
where we say, look, this is this was part of my struggle.
This is where I saw God show up.
Those are part of my questions.
Because we know that's where we all live.
And this is how we responded.
Sometimes really well and sometimes not well at all.
And so we just want to be able to take five good minutes
and say from each one of us, this is this has been my story in 2025.
And I pray that it resonates in some way.
And I pray that you start thinking through and contemplating.
What did I learn from God this year? Go to God.
Speak to me.
What did I follow? Well, where didn't I?
What's my next step?
And so I've directed the staff, as we've done for years and years and years,
five good minutes.
And so I have my timer
and, and two of you did great.
Trish and Michael. Oh.
And so,
and so, if I'm cutting me off,
it was just like, maybe I'm cutting you off at five,
and it has to be good minutes.
Five good minutes.
So don't give me four mediocre like,
You got it.
Trish. Trish is first up.
Trish. Jester. Thank you so much for your ministry. Trish.
I love you.
We love your family.
True.
Started serving in our church a few years ago.
And very slowly.
Little more little more little more.
We think I think you're capable of much more of what
you think you're capable of, and you're leaning into that.
And I love the fact that it's not just you, your whole family is serving
faithfully. Not because you're forcing them,
but because there's a joy in their heart in that.
So Trish, she oversees our children's ministry, does a great job.
You're doing a great job.
And so Trish you got five good minutes.
Thank you Carl.
Yeah.
So I'm going to just title.
Mine is trusting God and saying yes.
I've been a part of flip side staff
for the last three years and helping with children's.
And so for me, it was back in June after VBS.
I felt God telling me to say yes to Children's ministry full time
after praying over it, talking about it with, the staff.
I felt that I need to be a part of something
greater and bigger than myself, and I think that was VBS.
That really showed me that I'm capable of handling big things.
And so that's where I decided I remember that moment for VBS.
Emotional like teary eyed, like I can do this.
So by saying yes, I really felt that this last year,
I become bolder in my faith.
Bolder than I have in a long time.
I'm still constantly growing and learning.
I always let fear hold me back.
I was worried about not being good enough.
Having the pressure of children's ministry
always just kind of put a damper on my thoughts.
And a Bible verse that, keeps coming to my mind
since I've done a Bible study on
it is Second Corinthians ten five and it says takes all thoughts, captives,
and all those negative thoughts that I've had that I'm not good enough.
I can't oversee something so big.
Those were not of God.
Those were of the devil.
And so once I fully committed and surrendered and said, God, I trust you.
Do what I am.
Help me to do what I'm supposed to do.
And since then,
I've completely submitted, and I'm choosing to say yes to a lot more things.
And stepping out of my comfort zone with the events of children's,
and just seeing how God is working in my life.
Just shows that by saying, yes, I can do it.
So that with that, this last year,
I've seen my family become more bolder in their faith.
That's where I got emotional earlier, too.
Getting to serve alongside my family, Carl said.
As a mom, watching your kids in high school
and elementary school want to be at church.
Want to step out in their faith?
It's the best moment
as a mom, seeing your kids love God
and being a part of the youth and watching them with their friends
become bolder in their faith and praying with each other at school
and going through hard times and not being afraid to stand up for their faith.
They're serving alongside me,
and that's just the biggest joy that I've gotten out of this
last year is it's not only me, it's been a family event.
So I'm really grateful for God.
And the Bible verse that I had written down is, do not fear, I am with you.
Do not be dismayed, for I am your God, and I will strengthen
and help you and uphold you with my righteous right hand.
And that's Isaiah 4110.
And that's just been it.
Not be afraid. Trust him. Say yes.
So I would just say, like, if you're doubting yourself,
thinking ministry isn't for you.
I would encourage you to do it for your kids.
Your children are watching.
Your grandchildren are watching.
One thing I had written down is
we get to help shape the next generation, and we get to do in a church.
And this church is like a family.
And the fact that my family wants to be here
and we want to continue to serve together.
That's a very good and gracious God.
So that's what I have.
I also wanted to say thank you to the staff for,
the last three years I've had a lot of the staff, Heather,
for one, when I said, yeah, she's like, I knew you could do it.
And just having the support has been amazing.
So thank you.
Well done Trish.
Thank you.
You got one minute. You're done. Yes.
Okay. All right.
Yeah. Heather.
Well, Carl, you took like, 15 first.
I want to give you a, you know.
A I got the cheek mic.
That means authority.
Trish, I love you.
I'm proud of you. You've done a great job.
You took a huge risk this year in your mind
of changing up the harvest party.
It was a huge win.
You let it.
Well, you led the team.
Well, people enjoy serving with you.
It's great seeing Eric and your kids willingly be here all the time.
Love what God is doing in your life.
Thank you for being a part of this staff.
This is Michael Rondon, and
he oversees the next gen ministries of our church.
When Jeff knows we were back,
a year and a half ago and summertime and Jeff
and I had been leading the youth ministry junior high and high school for a while.
It was it was it was great.
It was fantastic.
But it was rough, man.
It was exhausting.
And and we were talking in June
and I just said, Jeff, we gotta get a youth guy, man.
We just have to get a youth guy.
And I said, we need one by Oxford.
But there's no way that we're going to get a youth guy in two.
We got a month and a half to find somebody and get him in and get them hired.
And there's no way.
Don't ever tell God. There's no way.
Unless you really want it to happen.
All of a sudden, we got
Ahold of Michael and we met with him, and he's like, yeah, I'll just.
I'll say, yeah, I'll jump in.
And Michael, you have been an answer to our prayers.
Been an answer to this church's prayers.
You've been an answer to a bunch of parents prayers on behalf of their kids.
You've added such quality to our ministry and our staff as a whole.
Michael and his wife, Jess, and their three kids
now drive up every time they come here from Visalia.
It is a commitment.
It's taxing, and you've done a great job with it.
And so, Michael, you got five good minutes.
I appreciate that, girl.
Yeah. 2025 was a good year.
It was challenging.
It was exhausting. It was fun.
One one
way in which I processed is just a year of change.
And so I know many of you have had a year of change.
Or maybe, you know, a year of changes coming in 2026.
And so, yeah, we added our third son, Levi, back in May.
My role here has shifted right from from just youth to helping with kids.
And then Ali and I jumping in and kicking off a young adult ministry.
And so it's been a good year, but a year of change.
And so I'm kind of going to piggyback off of what
Tricia said as I was looking back on the year.
I actually went back a little further, went back to the, you know, this service
last year and I my word was I just want to be available.
I, I wanted a genuine like heart of like, all right, God, if you say yes, okay.
I'm available.
And so what it really did was I had to cut things in my life.
I had to create margin.
I had to create space where I had the opportunity
to say yes or something, because if I didn't have the time
and the opportunity, then it just couldn't happen.
And so that was last year.
And so I was I look back on this year.
The answer is yes.
I just over and over again, whether it was,
with a roll shift here or something at home or with friends
or family, it was just I'm going to say yes upfront and we'll figure things out.
And so it's been a really,
trying year in that way because sometimes there's
uncertainty when you say yes, or maybe you still want to say yes.
And so that's been a lot of my years, actually.
I just didn't want to say yes fully because,
maybe I didn't feel qualified, or maybe I was just unsure or just overwhelmed.
And so it's been a good year where I could sit in uncomfortableness
and sit in, just, something new.
And so, one way in which this happened, it was really cool.
I was asked a few months ago to coach soccer.
I coached my son a little bit. He's eight.
But I didn't really like that, so I walked away from that.
Yeah.
Not the little term for me in that way, but.
But then I was approached
to coach high school to be an assistant for a varsity program in Visalia.
And so I was putting this guy off of
saying, you know, talk to my wife like my wife, like my wife.
I just did not want to do it.
I was like, I don't have the time. I love the game.
I don't want to do this. I don't want another evening commitment.
And this is every evening, right?
We're coaching five days a week and games in and out of town.
And so I finally got to the point where I couldn't put him off any longer.
And I said, you know what? I'll do it. Sure. Why not? Let's coach.
And so I get out there in early October,
and the first, one of the first young men I see is a guy named Lincoln.
When I was the youth pastor in Visalia, he was in my youth ministry.
He was in my junior high ministry.
And so I was so good to reconnect with him.
I introduced myself to the team.
And the cool thing about Lincoln is he is an awful soccer player,
but he is an amazing individual.
Like, he's not playing much at all, but he is the glue for our team.
He is just the personality.
He has the demeanor. He's the attitude.
He is everything that you would want in a young high school guy like he is.
Awesome awesome awesome.
Young, cool. Man of faith.
But later that evening, I get home.
We're watching the World Series, having dinner, and I get a long voice text.
And I never get voice text
except for from one individual named one, which was Lincoln's dad.
So Lincoln's dad reached out that night.
Hey, Mike Lincoln told me you were going to coach.
He got in the car. He was so excited.
And he kind of unpacked for me that Lincoln didn't want to play this year.
He was really bummed because he's not very good.
But he also is.
He's great at track.
And so he uses soccer as like launching pad for track,
where he's like going to get in shape.
And again, just the camaraderie, the friendships, the fun, the competition.
He loved those things, but he didn't want to go back out.
And and his father was saying, hey, I'm kind of an inadequate,
I don't know, soccer. I can't help him in this way.
But he does trust you, right?
Because you were his youth pastor.
And so it was really cool.
And it got me to process really this last half of the year
or last quarter of the year, where I said yes
to Paul to coach because I'll just like, whatever, I'll just do it.
And what I realized was it was actually an answer
to Lincoln's dad's prayer for his son to find connection, and for his son
to be excited about soccer, for his son to be, to be,
joyful going out there and kind of grinding
and really having to work hard and again, not playing much.
It's not easy to to go through practice all week and not play.
And so it just got me to process in what ways, God, if I said no
to an opportunity and it would have been an answer to someone else's prayer,
and I know that that's the case for everyone in this room.
And it's not it's not doesn't always have to be a yes.
Sometimes a no is still an answer to a prayer.
But maybe, just maybe, there is a yes that you should lean into,
an invitation that has been extended to you
that you're kind of on the fence with, and you're still processing
where it's going to be an answer not only to
what God's going to do in your life
and how he's going to redeem you and work on your heart.
But it's an answer to some
another dad's prayer or a mother's part, a neighbor's prayer to someone's prayer.
And so really process that for yourself.
Lean into that.
And it really just kind of was full circle, that moment with Lincoln
and Juan and saying yes to God all year when our junior high high
school students were in the gospel, John and John two, verse five,
Mary and Jesus were talking about a wedding, and we need more wine.
We need more wine.
And Jesus like, okay, you know, it's not my time, but we'll figure it out.
And then Mary turned to the servant and he said, hey,
whatever Jesus says, you do whatever he says you do.
And so that's my charge for you and for me this next year.
Whatever Jesus has to do, don't say no.
Just do do it. Thank you.
Well done. Michael. Well done.
The last service, he had like, a minute left and he was done.
This service, you're getting more comfortable and.
Yeah, pushing the boundaries a little bit.
Michael, I love you. I'm proud of you.
You added so much to this staff, man.
Thank you very much, man. Super proud.
Ali Stemple, it has been a joy,
as your pastor, to watch you grow up in this church.
And to watch what God is doing
in your life and with you and through your life,
is, is a real honor to get to watch that.
From my perspective, your beautiful spirit,
a beautiful faith, a beautiful submission to God.
And you are a an incredible
a model for so many of these young ones that are, that are watching you
and coming up in your shadow.
I'm so excited for what God is doing already
in your life and for the future that he has planned for you.
And it is it's it's beautiful to get to see
you and your dad do ministry together.
So, Ali, you got five good minutes.
Thank you. Okay.
I went over last service, so hopefully that doesn't happen again.
When I was thinking about what
to talk about this morning, I came up with two things.
I came up with joy, choosing joy, and then the providential will of God.
So I'm gonna talk about joy first. And that's just kind of
an overarching thing that was present all this year for me.
The Earth kind of split up into different sections, different seasons.
I finished my bachelor's degree in May,
and then summer was like this waiting period and then fall.
It was the start of my post-grad credential program.
And so through all of that, I found myself just needing to choose joy.
And then Pastor Carl talked about it
when we went through this Christmas series and he preached on Joy.
He talked about Mary finding her joy from not a perfect situation,
but the trust that she has in our perfect Savior.
And I feel like looking back on this year, that was what I did,
because a lot of the times, there is no nothing in your situation
to take joy from.
And it has to be the fact that God is good and he's present
in your situation no matter what's going on.
And so I think choosing joy was a big one.
So John 1511 was a verse that I went back to a lot says,
I told you, I've told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy.
Yes, your joy will overflow.
And he mentioned in his message, like the different stages of life
and why joy is so, necessary and in your early 20s, there's so much
that's unknown because, like, you may be graduating.
I was graduating with no, like, job lined up.
I didn't know what my credential program was going to hold.
There's so much that's unknown and so much, so much that's changing.
That that's all you can do, really, is to joy.
And so to find that in there.
And so that passage was
when Jesus talked about being the vine in the branches.
And so that was when I went back to a lot.
And then so the providential will of God,
I'm going to try to make this quick, and I'm going to try to summarize it.
But so I graduated in May and then summer,
like I had gone into the credential program,
but I didn't know where I was going to be place.
And so an opportunity came about during the summer
that I was super excited for.
I thought, I'm going to be in my home district that I grew up in.
I'm going to be able to work with these kids that I know.
And then that ended up falling through, and I ended up being place in Clovis.
So I was like praying and asking God, like, why?
I was devastated.
I didn't get that opportunity.
I just remember asking like, why?
Like, this is it makes sense in this moment, like it's meant to be.
This is why I'm meant to be.
And so then to be placed in Clovis, which going from Liberty
to a Clovis school was such a change.
There's like 8000 kids at that school.
But then just seeing the way everything lined up.
So I was I didn't get that opportunity during the summer.
Ended up in Clovis in this amazing, like atmosphere.
The kids were so great.
I ended up getting to teach like a Bible lit class,
which was something I never thought I'd be able to do.
And so then to see like where this opportunity
that I have for this next semester to finish out my credential,
just to see the way everything lined up and how there was rejection.
And I thought that it was the end of the world,
and I didn't know or see what God was doing.
But then to see, like, I was trying to put it into words,
I put it in first service and I really can't now.
It's just crazy.
Just every little thing that fell right, exactly the way it was supposed to,
and to see, like where I am now and how it's led up to this is so insane.
But like, obviously it's going to be perfect.
Like it's his plan. It's not mine.
And so but I think just realizing that and that's why reflection
and what we're doing is so important, I feel because
when you're able to look back and say, okay,
like he did that for me, I was feeling this way in this situation.
I got rejected, whatever.
And then to see how faithful and how his will has played out in my life
and in our lives, I think it's easier to then when you are
in those situations in the future, because there's going to be hard times.
Obviously, when you are in those situations.
Again, you're trained like your mind is trained to say, okay, this may be wrong.
I may think it's wrong, right now. I may not be comfortable.
This is not what I want, but I'm able to look back at this situation
and see how everything fell into place so that you could be aware you're on now.
And I'm not saying it's going to take like exactly a year like it did
in my situation, but just being able to look back and reflect and thank him.
I find myself constantly this year like I just wake up
and my first thought is like, thank you for all of these opportunities
that I'm getting, like serving with the youth program.
Young adult ministry.
Just, yeah, look for opportunity
and look for ways to thank him and just remember that.
So remember that, he's working.
He's always working.
He's never not working in your life, and it's leading up to something.
Well done. Ali. Thank you. Good job.
You know,
Ali, it's one of the things I've been so impressed about
with you about is,
especially for young people who grow up in church
when they come into these seasons where stuff just falls apart.
It's so easy and typical
for the reaction to be, God, I've.
I believed in you my whole life.
I've served you faithfully.
And then this is how you repay me?
It almost to feel like a rejection from God and then to push that away.
And so fine, I'll just go on.
I'll do my own thing then.
You didn't do that when so many young people do
who are in this stage of life where it's there's just so much I know you
pressed in rather than running away and I'm so proud of you for that.
You told me after the job, didn't,
come to fruition.
It's okay.
It's all part of God's plan.
Those are your words.
Like he's got it.
And I don't know if you're saying that just because I, as your pastor,
you're supposed to.
But you said it because you believed it.
And now to watch God get you back to where you wanted to be
in a lot better scenario
is, is proof of his mercy and his grace and your faithfulness.
So thank you for everything that you are.
Jeff Stemple, you've been working with, me on staff for coming up on ten years now.
Yeah. Ten years. Yeah. That's awesome.
They've been a part of the church for longer than that. Yep.
But but, Jeff has played a lot of different roles.
He served as our youth pastor.
He served as a just helping in the worship ministry.
He's leading is our worship leader now, worship pastor
in charge of tech and media.
And it, he's my executive pastor.
The longer you work with me, the more hats that you end up.
Essentially just hearing that,
Off and on at different points.
But, Jeff, you are my right hand guy, man, I love you, I trust you,
you are more capable than what you you realize that you are,
and, worthy and deserving of every bit of honor this church can give you.
So you got five good minutes.
I appreciate.
That, 2025. Wow.
It's it's done.
I'm. I finished off last week.
Going back to a devotional that I started the first week of this year, and,
I just, I came back to it because I really liked it,
and it really kind of exemplified the way the year went.
And I think we have a slide.
It was called, the Importance of understanding your assignment,
and that's a phrase that's gotten a lot of publicity over the last couple of years.
It's like, I'm sure I've used it with Heather before,
you know, you walk into the room and the coffee is where it needs to be.
The music's just right. The light is just right.
Heather understood the assignment.
And then I'm sure you've been in areas before.
Where you walk. Into the room and you're like,
I don't think they understood the assignment.
They just didn't get it.
Or, you know, if you think back to grade school,
it's like, you know, the projects do and you show up and you're like,
why does might have stairs and nobody else's does.
I didn't didn't understand the assignment.
And what what hit me as I, as I came back to that was how
there's nobody in this room who would reject the favor of God.
If I came up to you and I said, hey, would you like the favor of God
on your on your on your finances, on your family, on your career?
You be like, yeah, sign me up for a double dose.
I want the favor of God.
Well, if we look at that idea biblically,
the favor of God never goes to the individual.
The favor of God goes to the assignment.
No, it didn't get the favor of God because he was Noah.
He got the favor of God because there was a flood coming.
And the assignment was build a boat.
Joseph didn't get the favor of God because he was jealous.
If you got the favor of God because there's a, there's a famine coming
and God said I gave you these gifts, dream interpretation, leadership
so that you could step into my assignment.
There's a story in the Bible about a girl named Esther.
There was a genocide coming, and God said, I have an assignment for you.
And actually that story, he even says, God's going to get the job done.
You can choose whether you want to be part of it or not.
And so I kept coming back to this idea of the favor of God
does not go with the individual.
The favor of God goes with the assignment.
Good.
And so as I started to reflect
and ask myself the question, you know, what is your assignment?
I've realized my assignment.
Now as my kids are getting older, I've got one teenager left and boy, she's on.
She's she's almost done.
Is my assignment has changed.
And I actually kind of liked the assignment that I'm.
I like the assignment that I have right now.
I'm more of,
an advisor, an influencer.
And so for for kids in the if you're under the age of 25,
in the room, figure out what God's assignment is for you and step into that.
If you're over the age of 25, maybe you have kids.
Understand that your assignment when they're little,
you're you basically whether whether or not you like it,
you've opened up an influence account like a checking account or a savings account.
You've opened up an influence account just by the fact that you're a parent.
And when they're little, it's all deposits.
There's no withdrawals.
And when they get to be teenagers, you're like, everything's down into the right.
Like, IRA, is there ever going to be an ROI on this investment?
And then as they get older, you realize you start to make withdrawals
from that influence account.
And I've realized that my assignment has changed now that I've become
this person who can give instead of when they were little direction.
Sometimes it's like, no, go here.
Now it's like, you know what?
Let's let's talk about this.
We've we've we have this we have this account.
And I want to I want to coach you through this,
I want to I want to advise you and influence you through this.
And that was just that really
brought me back to how fundamental it is of the favor of God
falling on the assignment, not necessarily the individual.
And I think our culture gets that backwards sometimes we're like,
I got a great assignment.
God favor bring it.
And God's like. I don't work that way.
I've got an assignment that I've called you to step into.
As a matter of fact, I think there's a verse up there.
If you spend any amount of time in church, you probably heard this verse.
We are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do
good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
We then prepare the assignment.
God did, find out what that assignment is.
Step into it.
That was 2025.
Jeff. Awesome, awesome.
Yeah.
You have 30s left, man.
Oh my God, do you do you see why he's so good to have on staff?
Wasn't that good stuff
like God doesn't put his favor on you but to favor on the assignment.
So find out what it is and step into it.
That's Henry Black Abby stuff right there.
That's like good old school stuff.
I love it. Good for you, man. Good for you.
Hey, Heather, you have been on staff with me since 2013, 2012.
2012. 2012.
Heather's the one who's been fired.
The most of it is staff member, and I keep turning
right back as soon as I fired her, but, Heather,
Heather plays a lot of wears a lot of hats as well. She.
I called the the executive administrator, just of all things
flip side from bills to scheduling to just,
all things Maywood with all the leases
and our tenants and the problems that come up with that,
the lawyers that come up with that and a lot of my stuff that I do with Excel
around the globe, travel stuff and detail stuff you do a lot,
and, and kind of hold the whole administrative stuff together.
I'm really proud of you.
It's been great working with you for so long.
And watching you grow.
So thank you, Heather.
Love you and your family dearly.
You got five good minutes. Heather.
Okay.
Last year, I accidentally deleted my note,
so I printed it this year, so that couldn't end.
And I am going to try not cry.
I cried last time, so I'm Heather. I'm a crier.
So this past year really wasn't one that I would have planned.
It was at times really scary, difficult.
And if I'm being honest, it was very, very overwhelming.
In a relatively short time span,
my husband had to have unexpected triple bypass surgery.
I had two discs replaced in my neck, and our daughter
got injured at work and is still awaiting surgery.
It felt like as soon as we caught our breath, the next wave would hit.
There were
moments when I felt fragile, uncertain, and completely out of our control.
And if you've spent any length of time with me, I really,
really, really like control.
So. But I wanted to share.
Today is just it's not just about what happened to us.
It's what God did with us through it all, in every hospital room,
every recovery day, every unknown outcome.
We were never alone. God was present.
Not distant, not silent, present.
Isaiah 4110 says, so do not fear, for I am with you.
Do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you.
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
And he truly did very often it was through his people,
friends and family showed up for us in ways we will never forget.
People brought us coffee to the hospital, sat with us
sometimes quietly, sometimes praying, sometimes just being there.
Or in Carl, in Chili's case, picking up mackey, buying her a new phone
and take her to never to get to Phoenix
is what what's best is when these,
And she made an order in that way too.
Okay.
So sometimes, I'm sorry.
Our family really, really rallied around us.
Our family is this huge, messed up family tree that nobody understands.
But it's the best family out there.
So shout out to them.
They showed up big time people.
We visited John where it may not have been comfortable to see him in that way.
Those moments spoke volumes.
They reminded us that love doesn't disappear when things get hard.
It leans in our church.
You guys were incredibly gracious and supportive during this season.
From prayers and checking in to flexibility
and understanding, we felt genuinely cared for.
There were so many people
who were just a beautiful reminder of, to us that the church isn't just something
we attend, it's a family that walks with you through the hardest times.
One of the biggest lessons we
learned was to let go of pride.
I have a really bad habit of saying and Carl gets on.
To me. It's just easier if I do it myself.
So we had to learn to say we need help.
We can't do everything right now.
And instead of weakness, we found grace.
God met us there, and so did his people.
So many people showed us so much grace here at Flip Side.
And I'm so thankful for this church family.
What surprised me most was
how God used such a difficult season to draw my family even closer.
We slowed down.
We leaned on one another.
We prayed way more honestly,
and we laughed when we could, which is usually not at the most appropriate time.
And we learned again that
God's presence is not dependent on things going smoothly.
I also wanted to share how encouraged I've been by the resilience
we've seen in Madison.
Our daughter, our Machias.
Most of you know that's actually her given name.
She had a rough year
watching both of her parents go through some really rough recoveries.
And through it all, she drew our focus back to God
being in control of all of it,
even while waiting for surgery and living in the unknown herself,
she's continued to trust that God has a plan, that he is ultimately in control.
Her faith has been quiet but powerful reminder to us
that God is still at work, even when the answers haven't come yet.
Romans 828 reminds us, and we know that in all things
God works for the good of those who love him
and who have been called according to his purpose.
Not some things.
All things.
Another verse that carried me through this year was my life verse,
which is Joshua one nine.
Have I not commanded you?
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid.
Do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.
That promise that God goes with us wherever we go,
that's into our hospital rooms, into waiting rooms, into waiting seasons
and hard conversations has meant everything to us.
Looking back, I would definitely not call this year easy,
but I would call it faithful.
God was with us every step of the way and he showed his love
not only through his presence, but again through his people.
And if there's one thing I've learned, it's this that God
never wastes a season and he never leaves his people.
That's it.
Well done.
With two seconds to spare.
How much? Two seconds.
Two seconds.
Good job. So you're saying I do the best?
I know
how there's been great watching you and your family, navigate difficult seasons.
Not that the difficult season has been great to watch you have, but
how you guys have navigated that well, because you get through one
and you think, oh, finally.
And then here comes the next hit, right?
And so, yeah.
Thank you guys for your faithfulness.
Yeah.
Here's what I want to do.
I want to hear from you.
What what's resonated and what you've heard.
Patients that story.
Oh, good.
Yeah.
God's in everything.
All the time. Good and everything.
He's never not working.
To truth. It's truth.
Keeping the faith more.
Keep in faith during the hard times.
Yeah. When it's easier to walk away, maybe.
Yeah.
Good.
Decisions. Us.
I love that idea.
Remove yourself from the equation because it's God in his mouth, not.
Yeah. That's good.
Saying is one thing.
You know. It's not.
It wasn't that good.
Like my yes might be an answer to someone else's prayer.
Yeah that's powerful stuff.
Good.
Choosing joy.
Yeah.
What else is good all the time.
Yeah.
But the flavor is on the side.
But isn't that powerful?
Yeah. Favors on this island, off the person.
So just say yes.
Yeah.
I do better at utilizing our hindsight.
Yeah.
Yeah. I use the hindsight.
Yeah.
And that's a lot of what, what thankfulness comes from
is looking back and being thankful. Yeah,
right.
There is no bigger surrender.
Let his will be done.
All right.
Wasn't that the great prayer?
Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Surrendering to that.
Yeah.
It is.
It's a privilege,
to serve alongside these staff.
It's a privilege to serve you as a as our church.
So thank you for that honor.
God continues to, to to to work on us.
You've heard some of those stories I want to share with you
some things that God has impressed upon me again,
looking back on this year, these things that God has said, Carl, this little
I don't want you to lean into.
And then I've been leaning into,
scripture, for second Timothy three, 16
all Scripture is breathed out by God
and is profitable for teaching, reproof, correcting, and training for
righteousness, that the man of God may be a complete equipped for every good work.
One of the things that God has impressed upon me
is a priority the
foundation, the bedrock of His Word.
It is the breath of God, his words that he's breathed out.
And it does four things.
It teaches us truth.
And in the teaching of truth it reproved us, which means it.
It illuminates error.
And it doesn't just call out error, it corrects,
so it corrects error.
And then it trains into truth and righteousness.
And I've been reminded of that again, that when the God's Word
isn't given to me, to inform me, it's
given to me, to transform me.
And it teaches me, reproof me, corrects me and trains me.
And I've been driven back to the foundation of the word
Scripture above all things,
that when life is chaotic, God's Word is the verdict.
It has the final say, has the only say.
God's drawn me back to this a time and time and time again
that so for the foundation of my life,
if you ask me what I think, I'm going to try to tell you what the Bible says.
If you ask for my pin, I'm gonna try to tell you what the Bible says
it must be.
And it is the foundation for my life and the foundation for this church.
It's the Scripture,
and I'm drawn back to it because it tells me what my job is.
And God's reminded me of this a lot this year.
Acts six.
For this whole little passage in the first part of acts chapter six,
when the church is just beginning
and there's all kinds of activity and momentum and, and stuff
to do and everybody, well, why don't we do this ministry?
What did this man write in this ministry?
And the apostle got together, said, listen, it's not wise for us
to give ourselves to all these areas of ministry and neglect our job.
Our job is the ministry of the word and prayer.
Will you all do the work of the church?
My job is the ministry of the Word of God and prayer.
And God reminded me of that again this year, and I'm trying to press into that.
Listen, there's a lot of stuff the church should be doing.
That's your job.
My job is the foundation of this,
and you need every day
I'm on my knees praying over this church,
our present, our future, many of you by name.
Every morning
and given myself to the study, the and the diligent,
intense study of the Word of God.
Because that's my job.
It's the foundation and God's bringing me back to this more and more
and more and more powerfully.
There is a lot that this church has to do.
It's not my job.
I'm pressing into my job,
and he's reminded me of this over and over and over.
This is the foundation of everything.
Psalm 119 105 Your word.
So lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Here's what I know that a lit path beats
a lucky guess every time.
And I don't want to live my life by lucky guesses.
Happened to get that one right.
It's the Word of God.
And he said, impressing this upon me this year.
This is the foundation of all that we do.
And my job is this teaching and preaching this
and going to God on our behalf.
And I'm going to do my job.
And I've leaned in, not just that, but Romans 828, I think.
Ali, did you talk about Romans eight who had your way?
Romans 828 A soft pillow for a weary heart,
for we know we don't guess, we don't hope.
We know that God works all things together
for the good of those who love him, called according to his purpose.
It's the sovereignty and the providence of God.
The sovereignty of God
says he orchestrates all things the globe like it's his plan.
And within the sovereignty is the providence.
All the little details, all the interruptions, all the nos, all the yeses,
all the ups and all the downs, the providence of God leaning into that.
Listen, nothing is random when God is reigning.
And I've got to remember that
in the life of a church, after 20 years of doing this,
this is the the sovereignty and providence of God.
And when I can lean into that, listen, this is what I'm learning.
When I can lean into that, there's no stress,
there's no worry, there's no revenge, and there's no payback
if he's orchestrating it
and he worship together.
The final thing that God is pressing into and leaning into
the asking me to lean into is Matthew 1618.
When Jesus is talking to the disciples and he says these little words,
I will build my church.
And what God is impressing upon me
is this it's not my church.
This is not my work.
It's not my church. It's God's.
And I'm learning to be content to let
God do what God wants to do.
That he's ultimate responsible.
Alabama football.
In their team facility, they have one sign in the entire facility.
And the one sign for Alabama football
is this do your job.
That's it.
Just do your job.
And so one thing that God has been impressed
upon me this year, he's sovereign and he's providential and I can trust him.
And that's so important when you watch when you're in the season, like Jeff
and I, where you're watching your kids now do their thing,
where it's no more directive and now it's influence,
and you have to trust
the influence that you've laid when they were little,
that they'll come back to you and seek that advice and influence
and then trust the the providence of God in their life.
Boy, that's tough.
And God's impressing upon me.
Listen, trust me and do your job.
And so, my dear friends, I'm going to tell you this.
He's impressed upon me this year.
I'm going into this next year.
I'm going to work my tail off, doing my job.
But I'm not going to do your job.
You do your job,
and we'll trust God
for his church.
And so as a pastor, as I look back, and that's what God told me.
But as a pastor
and as the pastor of this church, there's always a challenge that I bring.
Because why?
Because Scripture is profitable for teaching and reproof
and correcting and training.
And so here's the question.
You look back now over 2025 for yourself.
You look back for yourself.
Ask yourself the question,
did you do your job?
As far as the kingdom of God is concerned, as far as the ministry of the Kingdom
is concerned through the your church, did you do your job?
Many of you have, and it is a joy to say.
It's a joy for us to serve alongside of those of you who understand the assignment
and are doing your job, thank you.
You make it a joy
to serve alongside you because you've understood your assignment
and you've done your job this year.
Thank you.
But the challenges.
Do you know your assignment and have
did you do your job in 2025?
As we look forward to 2026,
the mantra is this
do your job.
Say yes on the front. It
let God worry about the
details be available and say yes.
Trust him in the ups and downs
that is, Providence is going to.
Understand your assignment.
There's going to come things you don't see and aren't ready for.
But God's there.
So do your job.
Isn't it?
Isn't it so wonderful how you like?
We didn't talk about any of this stuff, but like how the common theme
kind of runs through all of it.
Because we share the same God, listen,
same spirit.
And so, church, thank you.
Thank you for the honor of serving our God by serving you.
Thank you for partnering with us
and each other and doing your job.
God is doing great things.
You're such a generous church and such a giving church.
Let me tell you this.
I asked you at the beginning of at the end of November for $20,000
for our church planters.
Someone asked me, you really think we'll get that?
I said, no, I think
we're going to go far beyond it.
$40,000.
Thank you.
And and like I said, it
all goes to our church planters and church plant leaders.
You're an amazing church.
Your generosity and your faithfulness
to serve every so consistently.
Let's just keep doing our job.
My prayer every day for us
is that God will bless the work of our hands
and the growth of our church for the expansion of His Kingdom,
that we would reach the Ranchos and Riverstone.
And to serve you.
It's his church
and we trust him to do it however he wants to do it.
Our prayer, my prayer every day,
bless the work of our hands
and the growth of our church for the expansion of your kingdom, not us.
That we will reach all of the Ranchos and Riverstone into Cerro Viejo.
He'll do his job.
I'm going press into my job.
You do your job.
You got it.
Let's not love you.
I'm proud of you.
It's been great to serve alongside you.
We got a lot of work to do.
You have a lot of work to do into 2026.
You understand?
Father, thank you for
what you're doing.
Thank you for your sovereignty.
Thank you for your providence.
Thank you for the truth of your word, that you work all things together
for the good of those who love you, or the called according to your purpose.
Thank you that your word is a light to our path, a lamp to our feet.
Thank you that it is trustworthy.
Thank you that you are sovereign.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for this church.
Thank you for their generosity.
Thank you for those who have
understood their assignment, who have said yes to you, who are doing their job.
Thank you that you're calling others of us to hear from you.
Your assignment to commit to doing our job that you've given us.
Thank you for the honor.
It is to know you and to serve you.
Help us to love you more.
Father, I ask in the strong name of Jesus because this is your church,
that you bless the work of our hands,
that you bless the growth of this church and these services
for the expansion of your Kingdom,
that through us you would reach the ranchos
and Riverstone, and to sorrow
and anywhere else in the world
you want us to be a part of building your Kingdom.
We love you.
Thank you for this church.
In your name I pray. Amen.
Let's sing one more.