Yeah, you guys sound great.
So good to be uh, worship than we this morning, man, I'm
so excited for 2026, you know, we ended 2025
with a bang as a church family.
We had over 11,000 folks gather together across our
11 Christmas Eve services.
It was beautiful. Can we just celebrate that for a moment?
Yeah. And we don't just
celebrate that because it's a number.
We celebrate that because that's people who are searching,
people who are coming back to church
for the first time in years maybe ever at all.
And then those of us crazies that,
that are here just about every week, uh,
that just can't wait to get together
and celebrate the birth of Jesus
and the hope that we have in him.
I'm grateful to God for it,
but now we find ourselves in a new beginning.
Alright, we've got a new year.
How many of you have made New Year's resolutions?
Come on, be honest. Be honest. Alright. No shame here.
How many of you have already
broken your New Year's resolution?
Alright, we know it's possible.
And the the reason why it's possible is
because it's easy in life to have a moment like the start
of a new year or a Christmas Eve service, right?
You get a shot of energy, a moment of focus,
and then when life starts back up, uh,
it's just back to business as usual.
And, and I wanna share something with you that's a concern
that I have as your pastor, we can confuse a powerful moment
with lasting change.
It just happens. I mean, you had like a million people get
together and celebrate in Times Square,
new Year's Eve y 'cause it's a new beginning.
It's a new thing. Like how many
of those a million people were ready
to do anything on New Year's Day, right?
And so we gotta recognize
that we can confuse a crowded room at Christmas
with a rooted life in Jesus.
One feels good because it is,
but the other is what ultimately brings a life of hope
and peace and joy and stability that we've all longed for.
And so since we're at church, alright, uh,
we're not gonna start the year off
by me talking about your new weight loss goal.
We're just not I. And, but that's important to you
and I hope that you stick with it.
I'm all for physical fitness.
What we are gonna talk about is something far deeper.
How we can experience what's possible.
Because Jesus came to this earth,
and here's what I know is a fact.
Most of us, we don't,
we don't intentionally walk away from the life
that Jesus has to offer to us.
We don't do that. We, we actually have a tendency to drift.
We don't rebel. We just slowly drift away.
The calendar fills up, stress climbs,
anxiety sneaks into our life.
And here's what I know, the drift that happens
to us in our lives, it doesn't just make us busy.
It, it tires our soul.
And what I know is po what was true is you,
you can be doing a lot in your life
and you can actually still
feel like you're losing your grip.
Is there anybody that's with me on that
that knows what I'm talking about?
And so I want you to know our vision here at Hope.
It's for our communities, in our world to know
and experience the life that Jesus came to make available.
We want to know and experience the love of God that he has
for us in our life and the life that's available to us
because Jesus came to this earth.
And so I wanna tell you my heart, as your pastor,
as we head into 2026, I don't just want us to be a church
that gathers, I want us to be a church that's strong
and steady and on the mission that Jesus calls us into.
And more importantly than what I want, that's
what scripture calls us into.
And so I want our communities
and I want our lives to experience the life that Jesus came
to make available, not just at a high moment,
not just at a Christmas Eve service,
but in the middle of real life.
And so our theme is we head into thank you Mac for that.
Amen. We're gonna keep 'em coming.
Our theme for 2026 is this, it's very,
very simple rooted in the word communities on mission.
That's what we're heading into in 2026.
And so what we're gonna do is we're gonna kick off this year
with the four week series
and overview of the book of Colossians, the author Paul,
he wrote this letter to a church
that's being pulled off center.
They're being distracted from what's most important
and he encourages them in how to remain steady.
And so this week what we're gonna do,
we're gonna be primarily in chapter one.
Uh, it's gonna set the stage for this series
and really ultimately the year.
But I'm gonna share a bit about what it is
that God's calling us into as we head into 2026.
How do we remain rooted in Jesus in a world
that is constantly and consistently feeling chaotic?
And so if you have your Bibles, I want you to turn
to Colossians chapter one.
And uh, while you're turning there, uh,
I want to challenge you with a few things.
Number one, read along during this series.
And I don't just mean like when you're here.
Yes, bring your bibles and read along while you're here,
but like read along throughout the month, okay?
There's four chapters in this letter to the Church of Colos.
Uh, we're gonna be in the series for four weeks.
So that's one chapter week.
So this week read chapter one every day. It's not that long.
Chapter two, next week, chapter three, chapter four.
So read along number two, I want you to be here every week.
This series is setting the stage for what it is
that God's calling us into as a church family.
So let's be committed to being here.
And then lastly, I wanna encourage you,
invite, invite other people.
We're covering the basics in this series of
what it really means to follow Jesus.
And you never know who actually needs this in their lives.
So let's invite those around us.
Uh, the text this morning, we're gonna start, uh,
in Colossians chapter one, verse nine.
As a heads up, we're not gonna read every verse in every
chapter throughout this series.
I would encourage you to do that
on your own as you're reading.
If you have any questions, we'd love to answer those.
Uh, you can email Aaron Nelson at Aaron m@gethope.net.
He would love to answer those questions for you.
We're gonna start out today in verse nine.
And what I love is Paul is not writing
to a church that's rejected Jesus.
Remember, we don't necessarily reject
the life that Jesus has for us.
We just drift away because
of the things sneak into our lives.
But he starts out not just by telling him what to do,
he starts out by showing his shepherd's heart for him.
And in verse nine he says,
and so from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray
for you that shepherding language that's a pastor's heart,
he's saying, you're on my mind.
You're on my heart. And so I'm taking you
before the throne room of God.
What does he pray for them? He says, I'm asking
that you may be filled with the knowledge
of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
In other words, he's saying, I don't
want you to be confused.
I want you to be clear. I want you to be steady in the midst
of life's ups and downs, in the midst of the,
the potential to drift.
I want you to be rooted verse 10, so as
to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord
that's fully pleasing to him.
Now be clear. This is not to say to earn God's love.
He's saying live in a way
that appropriately responds to the gospel.
If you understand the gospel,
if you understand the good news of who Jesus is
and what he's done for us, then let's walk in a way
that's worthy of that.
And then Paul goes on to describe what that life looks like.
He says, bearing fruit in every good work
and increasing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened
with all power according to his glorious might
for all endurance and patience with joy.
And when we talk about what's the life that's available
to us because of Jesus, that's what Paul's saying,
stand a life filled with Jesus is a life
of fruitfulness, bearing fruit.
In every good work we're having an impact in our life.
Growth, increasing in the knowledge of God.
We can't love God if we don't know God.
We can't live the life that God has
for us if we don't spend time in his word.
How about strength being strengthened according
to his glorious mind?
Isn't it good news that we don't have to go
through life on our own strength?
And he said, no, I want you to experience this.
That's my prayer. And then endurance and patience with joy.
How with with those still up, up on the screen, how many
of us would love to say that we would love
to live a life marked by those things?
And if you, if you sit in those for a second, you realize
that's not hype, that's not adrenaline.
Like that's deep roots that can stand steady in the midst of
what life throws at us.
He goes on verse 12, giving thanks to the father
who has qualified you to share in the inheritance
of the saints in light.
In other words, he's saying, I want you
to regularly recognize and thank God for who he is
and what he's done, what he saved you from what he saved you
to and the life that's possible.
He said, I don't want you to go through life
bitter and angry.
You recognize one of the best ways
that we can combat bitterness
and anger in our lives is through a life of gratitude.
He said, I'm praying that you just remember how God,
how good God is to you in your life.
Verse 13 and 14, he says, here's why.
Don't forget because he has delivered us from the domain
of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom
of his beloved son
and whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Here's the foundation.
I'm praying that you are rooted in the truth.
That God has delivered you, has transferred you,
has redeemed you and has forgiven you.
And just for a minute, d does anyone in here need
to be reminded of that this morning?
Like if you have placed your trust in your hope in Jesus
going to the cross and paying the penalty for your sins
and that he rose from the grave three days later overcoming
sin to death, your sins are forgiven.
Amen. Paul said, I don't want you to forget that.
Like don't go through life
and get caught up in all the turmoil
and like lose sight of what's most important.
I had the privilege this past week
and I will try hard not to get emotional about this.
Um, to go sit bedside by a man that I deeply respect
and he's been on this earth far more years than I have.
And um, he has an incurable disease.
And the reality is, and I don't wanna sound cold like it
could be six days, it could be six months.
And um, he shared with his wife,
and this is a guy, listen, this is a
guy who's been faithful to his wife.
They've been married almost 50 years,
he's retired the United States Navy.
He spent time serving as a pastor.
He's raised godly children who are raising godly children.
And he said to her with tears in his eyes, I'm just afraid
'cause I'm, I'm what if I let God down?
And so I had the privilege to go sit bedside
and open up God's word
and remind him that he has delivered us from the domain
of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom
of his beloved son
and whom we have redemption for the forgiveness of sins.
I had the privilege to open God's word
and get back rooted in the truth that man,
if we have called on the name of Jesus,
that we will have life and have it eternal.
That Jesus not only came one and went to a cross,
but he's coming back and one day he's gonna put all this
brokenness back together again
and wipe all these tears away from our eyes.
And then with tears in his eyes, he just looked at me
and he said, thank you.
We need to be reminded of these truths.
And so Paul's heart, he's saying with a shepherding heart,
I don't want you to live a thin,
distracted, exhausted faith.
I want you full and fruitful and strong and steady
and joyful because you know what you have in Jesus.
And hope that is my prayer for us as we head into 2026.
It's not, it's not about numbers. Alright?
Yes, we wanna have more people in our gatherings
and more problems in the parking
lot and all that kind of stuff.
Yes. But it's about remaining steady
and remembering who Jesus is and what he calls us into.
But Paul knows that the real way drift gets solved.
It's not to tell people to try harder.
The real way drift gets solved is
by giving people a bigger Jesus.
And so we're gonna read Colossians chapter one, verse 15
through 23.
And what Paul does is he lifts their eyes
and he says, let me remind you about our king.
Let me get your eyes off of all the other stuff
that you might be distracted by.
And so we started doing something towards the end of 2025
and we just stood when we read scripture,
especially large chunks.
And so just out of reverence for the word of God,
can I have you all stand across both of our campuses,
you two over at Apex by the way,
happy New Year too well as well.
And I want you to hear these words in the midst
of your potential drift.
I don't know what 2025 is like.
I don't know what New Year's resolutions you already
made that you probably already broke.
I don't know what those are. But in the midst of that,
in the midst of your pain, your shame, your fear, I want you
to hear this reminder about your savior
and King Colossians chapter one, verse 15, he is the image
of the invisible God, the firstborn
of all creation.
For by him all things were created in heaven
and on earth, visible and invisible.
Whether thrones or dominions or rulers
or authorities, all things were created
through him and for him.
And he is before all things.
And in him all things hold together.
And he's the head of the body, the church,
he's the beginning, the firstborn from the dead
that in everything he might be preeminent.
That means with him there is no rival for in Him.
All the fullness of God was pleased to dwell
and through him to reconcile to himself all things,
whether on earth
or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
This is the word of the Lord. Amen. Thanks sweet to God.
Yeah, you gotta celebrate that. That's true.
You can go ahead and have a seat
and I'm just gonna unpack it.
But this is one of the biggest
portraits of Jesus in the Bible.
And it's here because when Jesus is small,
everything else seems big.
That's just a reality. But when Jesus is big,
everything else starts finding his place.
When we see Jesus for who he is, we don't drift away.
We're actually drawn back to him.
And so that's what this text is all about.
Verse 15, he's the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn, overall creation.
Paul's saying, if you wanna know God, his heart,
his character look no further than the person of Jesus.
Look to the one who,
whose birth we actually celebrated in a
manger just a couple weeks back.
A small theological caveat here
that actually has significant implications.
When Paul says first born, he's actually,
actually doesn't mean that Jesus was created.
What he means is that Jesus is supreme.
He's first in rank, first in authority,
the rightful error over all creation.
That's who Jesus is.
Verse 16, for by him all things were created. You know what?
All things actually translates to all thanks.
Literally means all. Thanks. Jesus isn't part of your world.
Listen, Jesus isn't part of our world.
He's the creator of our world. Amen. Verse 17.
And he's before all things.
And in him all things hold together.
This is my wife's favorite verse in, in all of scripture.
And I just wanna allow us to, to be reminded of this
or accept it for the first time in the midst
of whatever seems to be falling apart in our lives.
I just want us to publicly remind each other of this.
So we're actually gonna say it together out loud
because some of us need to hear this out loud.
So across both of our campuses, in the midst of your pain,
your doubt, your shame, your fear, your drift.
And I'm trusting that the communications team is gonna have
verse 17 on stream.
'cause I know we don't all have it memorized.
There we go all together, we're gonna read it twice.
And he is before all things.
And in him all things hold together again.
And he is before all things.
And in him all things hold together.
Can we just recognize that some of us are tempted to try
to be the glue in our own lives, holding it together, work,
school, our marriage,
Kids sports,
Pressure, our emotions.
And Paul's saying, Hey, it's not your job, it's in him
that all things hold together.
Don't lose sight of it. We don't,
we don't need smaller problems in our lives.
We need to be reminded of the strength of our savior.
And that's not, that's not to to shortchange anything
that any of us are going through, but he created it all.
He has authority over it all and he holds it all together.
We've gotta be rooted in that truth.
Verse 18, I gotta speed up.
He's the head of the body.
The church hope doesn't center this church.
When I say hope, I mean like our local tiny expression
of God's global church.
Hope doesn't center around preferences,
personalities, or platforms.
It doesn't center around where the best preacher is.
It doesn't even center around where the live preacher is.
And we hear that from time to time.
Like where's the no no, Jesus is the head.
He sets the agenda, he's the focus always has
been, always will be.
Then you get to verse 19 and 20.
And most importantly he says, to reconcile
to himself all things, whether on earth
or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
That's why Jesus is enough.
He doesn't just inspire you, he saves you.
He Doesn't just guide you, he reconciles you.
He makes peace with God through his blood on a cross.
Amen. What does that mean?
Because I know there's gotta be some people around that
that don't understand that The Bible tells us
that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
The Bible also tells us that the wages of sin is death.
So it was a result of us not living the life
that God created us to live.
And and by the way, we'll cover this in a minute.
That's you, that's me, that's all of us. Alright?
Um, as a result of that, we deserve separation from God.
Hebrews tells us that for the forgiveness of sins,
there has to be shedding of blood.
That's why if you read the Old Testament,
you read about all these sacrifices that
that God's people were making.
It's because, because of their sins, something actually had
to die to pay the price for that sin.
Well, there's prophecies in the Old Testament
that says one day a savior will come
to take on the sins of all the world.
Jesus was that savior whose birth
that we just celebrated on Christmas.
But he didn't stay a baby. He grew into a man.
He healed the sick. He he preached good news.
He, he showed people this is
what a life following God is all about.
But then he unjustly at the end of his life, went to a cross
in his perfection.
He went to a cross and paid the price for our sins.
He died the death that we deserved to die.
And the Bible says that whosoever would believe in that
and that he rose again three days later
that would call on the name of Jesus would have new life.
That's what Paul's talking about. We'll see if that'll stay.
And then he makes it personal.
Look at what he says in verse 21.
He says, and you who were once alienated
and hostile in mind doing evil deeds.
So again, that's you and that's me.
Level playing field here at the foot of the cross.
And you who are once alienated
and hostile in mind doing evil deeds.
He is now reconciled in his body of flesh
by his death in order to present you holy and blameless
and above reproach before God.
If indeed you continue in the faith, stable
and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel
that you heard, which has been proclaimed
and all creation under heaven, of which I Paul
became a minister.
Paul reminds us of the gospel that we were once alienated,
that we were separated from God,
but now we've been given a life of hope.
We've now been reconciled.
And in verse 23, he calls us to, to this big if
to gives us this big if,
if indeed you continue in the faith, stable
and steadfast, not shifting from the hope
of the gospel that you heard.
He's recognizing the temptation is to drift.
And that word, if it should grab us like that says,
there's a contingency on what will experience.
And so we have a role to play.
So how do we continue stable
and steadfast in a world that constantly
and consistently pulls us off center?
That's what this series is all about.
How do we remain rooted?
And so I wanna show you really our theme verse for the year.
And so I want you to highlight this,
write it down in your journal, uh,
put it up on your refrigerator, put it on your visor.
Parents read it to your kids on the way
to school, college students.
Put it up in your dorm room. If you're a professional
and you have a desk job, if people do that anymore, uh,
I want you to frame it and put it up on your desk.
I know everybody, a lot of people work remote,
but man, we've gotta remind ourselves
of this Colossians chapter two verse six and seven.
Therefore, as you received Christ, Jesus the Lord,
so walk in him rooted and built up in him
and established in the faith just as you were taught
abounding in Thanksgiving.
The way that you started is the way that you grow
as you've received Christ, walk with Jesus, remain
with Jesus, become rooted and built up in him.
And so here's the theme again,
rooted in the word community's on mission.
And that's not because it just sounds good.
That's because we've gotta keep Jesus at the center.
And so throughout this letter,
Paul's gonna remind us of a few things.
Uh, this is how we've got the rest of the series mapped out.
Next week we're gonna look at Colossians chapter three,
verse 16, rooted in the word.
Paul says, let the word of Christ
dwell in you richly not visit, dwell,
not skim, but soak.
He says, let the word make a home in you
because what dwells in you will shape you week
after that will look at what it means
to be rooted in prayer.
Paul says in Colossians, chapter four,
to continue steadfastly in prayer.
Prayer is how we start living.
Like life doesn't actually depend on us.
That's where we find peace.
And then Paul ties prayer to mission.
He says, pray for the door to be open for the word.
So prayer doesn't just calm us, it actually orients us
and it sends us out in Jesus's mission on
Jesus's mission to the world around us.
And then we'll close out the series by looking at
what it means to be rooted in community on mission.
We're gonna see our call Paul, the way Paul says it is
to walk in wisdom towards outsiders.
See a Jesus centered a Jesus' mission oriented church.
It lives outward, wise and gracious and intentional.
See Rose that we're in right now, this,
this can inspire people
but life together, it it sustains us.
It gives us purpose. It it's where we get formed.
It's where we're cared for.
And it's what we're actually sent out from
rooted in the word communities on mission.
I want you to know we are so committed to what this means.
Uh, we're launching a new effort here at Hope this year, uh,
that we're calling Rooted very appropriately named.
We didn't come up with it. Um,
it's actually been used all over the world, uh,
as a discipleship environment, uh, for God's people.
So rooted is a 12 week discipleship experience.
And the best description that I've heard of it
and I've gone through it, um,
is it's a discipleship bootcamp, okay?
Without the pushups and the burpees.
So you don't have to worry about that though.
It would help you with your fitness goal if you have those.
Um, but you wanna find the strength
and stability that Paul's talking about
and discover the life that Jesus came to make available.
This is foundational. You're gonna learn how
to engage God through reading your Bible.
You're gonna learn how to pray.
You're gonna learn how the spirit
of God can free you from addiction and shame.
And you're gonna actually learn what it means to live life
as a part of a community experiencing
belonging and purpose together.
And so when you're talking about
12 weeks, what does that look like?
It's not really a bootcamp where you like go away
for 12 weeks, but it's one night a week for 12 weeks
and you're thinking, man, 12 weeks is a long time.
I know it's a long time. It's worth it. Okay?
Remember the drift, the things that that can happen.
And so it's one night a week
and uh, our pastors have already gone through this.
We've had our staff go through it.
We've had 40 to 50 key leaders here at Hope kind of go
through what we call rooted underground to experience
what it's, and so for 12 weeks you get together,
you have daily devotions.
When you come together, you actually have a group of people
that you share what it is that God's doing in your life.
You talk through what it means to be rooted in your faith,
and I'm telling you, it's life changing.
And so we'll be talking about
that quite a bit over the next, uh, few weeks.
Uh, it's gonna launch in February.
If you're interested in this, which I hope you are,
if this is your church, I'm telling you you need to go
through this text, the word rooted to 7 2 9 8 9.
You're gonna be hearing that a
lot over the next couple weeks.
But you just text Rudy to 7 2 9 8 9 a link's gonna be sent
to your phone and you can go through, uh, and jump in, uh,
and get all your questions answered.
If we can answer some questions that you might have
before you do that, you can just head to next steps.
We'd love to help you out there. Um,
but listen, as we head into 2026,
what does it look like for us?
What are we trusting God for
as we put our roots down into the foundation of the gospel?
I'm gonna share a few things here with you.
Um, this is what we're asking God for in 2026.
Number one, we wanna see 800 men and women
and students go through the rooted experience.
800 you think, well, I thought we had like five, six,
7,000 people who call Hope Home.
Yeah, we do, but we can't do it with everyone at one time.
And so we're starting, uh, with 800.
So, uh, that's gonna be 400 in February.
So 200 at the Apex campus, 200 at the Raleigh campus,
and then again in the fall, 200 at the Apex campus,
200 at the Raleigh campus.
But that's not just to fill a room,
it's, it's to form a people.
It's to bring deep, strong roots to, to men and women
and students so that they can fully experience the life
that Jesus came to make available and to be able to go out
and share that hope with the world around them.
So that's rooted number two.
We want to have see community group leaders
that are equipped to shepherd and disciple
and to lead their communities on mission.
We wanna see men and women
and students who are equipped
to lead communities on mission in their neighborhoods,
in their workplaces, in their schools,
on their college campuses.
I mean, if you could just imagine thousands
and thousands of men, women
and students who are equipped with the gospel,
who are rooted deeply in their faith, who can go out
and share that faith with the world around them.
This is a big one. Um, we're trusting God
for 500 baptisms in 2026.
Men, women, and students.
And listen, this is not a goal, okay?
But this is a prayer we saw over 300
baptisms in 2025.
Uh, and that's more than we've seen dating back
to 20 18, 20 19.
We wanna trust God for more, more new life in Christ.
The Bible says that God can do immeasurably more than we can
think to imagine or ask in the Book of Acts,
you see a picture that was devoted to the apostles teaching
to the breaking of bread and prayer.
They had all things in common.
And you know what the Lord did,
the Lord added to their number daily.
We want to trust God to be that type of church.
We want the water stirred all year. Okay?
I am praying that God would bless us
with a bigger water bill.
I'm also praying that he would give us the means
to be able to pay that water bill.
It's a whole nother message, but it's
not for the sake of a number.
It's because each one of those that were baptized has a name
and each name has a soul.
And they have a life of belonging
and purpose that Jesus wants them to experience
and created them to experience in life.
We want to trust God for it. We want to grow.
We impact locally and globally.
Um, if you've been around here for any length
of time at all, you know that we're involved in meeting
tangible needs for the sake of
the gospel all over the place.
And we don't have time to get into it right now,
but it happens probably as a result
of you right in your backyard.
It happens in schools,
it happens in the foster care system, the food insecure.
We're meeting needs for the sake of the gospel in Haiti,
Nicaragua, Costa Rica, India, Uganda, uh,
I'm probably missing some France.
Um, but this church is continuing to make an impact
and will, and you're gonna hear a little bit about
that in a few weeks when we get
into our next series of the year.
Uh, and then lastly, this is a big one
and it could seem like it's outta nowhere and it's not.
But I believe that God wants hope Community Church
to be known as a wildly generous church.
And you know, we celebrated earlier at the beginning
of our service, $65,000 for a Christmas e offering
that goes back into the community.
That's phenomenal. But here's what I know.
When Jesus is at the center
and we understand how good God is, our hands open
and this is my conviction, the world needs Jesus.
We know that that happens through a church
that makes disciples.
We are trusting God to be that type of church.
We also live in one
of the most affluent in areas in the history
of the world, in the triangle.
What does that mean? We live in one
of the most wealthiest areas in the history
of the world here in the triangle.
And look, I'm not knocking anybody, okay?
I drive a nice truck, I love my truck.
But if you go through the parking lot
and look when you go to your vehicle at the end of service,
I don't want you to be in shame, okay?
I'm glad you got your vehicle. But when you go
through our parking lot at Hope Community Church on Sunday
morning, and I know this isn't the case for everybody,
but for a lot of us, you see, we don't have a money problem.
We may have a desire problem in our life,
we just want more and more.
We all struggle with that, I struggle with that.
But if we truly become rooted in Jesus, the author
and sustainer of life, we have the means
to see the gospel go forward
and make an impact in a way
that I believe we've never even began to actually trust God
for Got Landon Fuqua.
We want to see developed.
We gotta start planning that,
get those Fuqua folks outta Apex
and get 'em back out in their community.
There. There's, listen, there's 30 women in Haiti right now
who are looking to join Suave Bond.
It's a, a ministry that we actually helped create,
which helps vulnerable women get back on their feet,
get rooted in the gospel
and equipped to be leaders in their community
across resources.
There's foster children that don't have a home.
God's positioned us to make an impact
like we've never believed.
God wants to grow us as a wildly generous church,
but it starts with centering on Jesus
and us as a church family, being committed to loving God,
following Jesus and sharing hope.
Rooted In the word, a community on mission.
And don't miss this, we are not trying to manufacture fruit.
We're trying to cultivate roots
deep into the gospel by centering on Jesus.
And so as we wrap things up, um,
we're not gonna start this year as a church
with a resolution.
And you know, we, we've kind of mapped this out
as like week one of the years, a big vision message.
And you, you heard some vision.
What I really wanted us to do was to get centered on Jesus.
I think we did that. And I think one of the best things
that we can do is not to make a resolution
but to come back to the cross.
We saw in Colossians chapter one verse 20,
that Jesus made peace by the blood of his cross.
That's not a metaphor, that's our foundation.
And so what we're gonna do to kick off our year,
I don't believe there's a better way to remember what it is
that we're actually rooted in than
by celebrating communion together as a church family.
And so we're gonna do that if you don't
know what communion is.
Uh, communion is a time that Jesus actually
before, uh, the night
before his crucifixion, he got together with his disciples
and they shared a meal and he passed around some bread
and he said, listen, this, this bread is representative
of my body that's gonna be broken for you.
And then he passed around a cup afterwards
and he says, this is representative of my blood
that's gonna be poured out for you
for the forgiveness of the sins.
And so as often as you do this, do so in remembrance of me.
And so if you've placed your hope
and your trust in Jesus, this is a time
where we remember together.
And if you've never made that decision, I invite you to make
that decision right now
and enjoy this with the family of God.
But before we take it, I do want to give you just,
Just about a minute, maybe some space with God.
If you felt drift throughout 2025
or maybe in the brief start
to 2026, I want you to confess it.
If you've been carrying something, whether it's sin or shame
or guilt,
disappointment, I want you to confess it.
And if you're tired, I just want you to come to Jesus.
So I'm gonna give you a moment now
before God to do just that.
I know most of you received the elements when you came in.
If you didn't, you can just raise your hand
and someone can bring it down to you.
But in one Corinthians chapter 11 says, the Lord Jesus, on
that night when he was betrayed, he took bread.
And when he had given thanks, he broke it.
And he said, this is my body, which is for you.
Do this in remembrance of me. Church, family.
May we remember Jesus' body that was broken
for us can take and eat.
Verse 25, 1 Corinthians 11, it says, in the same way,
he also took the cup
after supper saying this cup is the
new covenant of my blood.
Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
For as often as you eat the bread
and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death
Until he comes church.
May we remember Jesus's blood that was poured out
for the forgiveness of our sins may take and drink.
Let's Pray together. Lord Jesus,
as we head into 2026, may this not be a year
of short resolutions.
Would this not be a year where we put goals up on the wall
and forget about 'em in a week, in a month?
Would this be a year of newfound, steadiness
and steadfastness and following you?
God, I pray that you would root us in your word,
that you would teach us to pray,
that you would form us into the communities on mission,
that you would have us to be
and you would let the fruit of changed lives
through the power of the gospel overflow in 2026.
Lord, we love you and we pray these things in Jesus' name
and everyone said together.
Amen. Church,
don't let Christmas be a moment that you attend.
Don't let New Year just be a a moment
that you attend this first service of the year.
Let it be a direction that we take.
May we as a church family be rooted in God's Word,
be rooted in prayer
and be sent out on the mission that Jesus calls us into.
Love you guys. We'll see you next week