Embracing New Beginnings: Cultivating Faith That Works

"Confidence in what we hope will happen next, but assurance in what we can't see, whether it's right here in front of us or even into the future. We have assurance in it, right? It's knowing the goodness of God, even if we can't physically see him or it with our own eyes. Like we still know, we have confidence, we are assured in what he is doing, that what he's doing is good. The question again is, can we perceive it? It's about faith, right?" [00:09:51] (32 seconds)


"We want to be known by our faith. And so that's why this year, for our theme of the year, as we look forward to all that's happening coming up throughout the course of this year, right? As we grow together as a church, we want to develop a faith that works. That's our theme. That's what we're talking about all throughout this month of January for sure. But really all throughout this year, we want to talk about what does it look like to have a faith that works? And what is that? It's an actual belief in God that impacts our perspective and responses in visible ways." [00:12:16] (39 seconds)


"Stephen had an active belief in God that impacted his perspective and responses in visible ways, in tangible ways. His faith was so real and so powerful in his life that he lived his life from his perspective of faith, right? Right? It was so powerful in his life that he lived his life from that perspective. His faith determined his actions and his actions reinforced his faith. This is a faith that works. And this is why we're going to be talking about this all month long, guys. This is so important because one thing leads to another and reinforces the other, right?" [00:21:40] (41 seconds)


"And the first and most important thing that we need to do is declare that Jesus Christ is the Lord of our life, right? We've got to declare with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, right? And be saved. Like that's what Paul says. And so that's the first and most important thing that we need to do is Paul tells us is the way to salvation. Simply declaring that he is the Lord of our life, believing that God raised him from the dead, right? We've got to be a Christian first before any of this matters. You've got to receive his grace and place your faith in him." [00:24:06] (27 seconds)


"But what we also want to do is we want to get communal with our faith, right? We want to be together as a church, right? Whether that's us meeting in person or even out here online. Like, I don't know if you noticed this, but when you come out here to one church at home, you are not alone. You are not alone. You are not alone. You are not alone. You are not alone. You are part of a community. You are together with others, right? And so if this is you, if you are not geographically close to us, I encourage you, keep on coming, right? Keep on being a part of our community." [00:25:37] (27 seconds)


"And then the final thing is we're going to go external, right? We're going to be giving of ourselves, right? And we do this by giving generously, right? We give it with our finances. We give it with our time, with our talents. We want to be generous as a church, but that requires each one of us to be generous with ourselves, right? So we want to be generous this year. And then with our first Saturday serve, we want to come together and serve our community to go out of our church walls and go into our community like we have for the last three plus years." [00:26:33] (29 seconds)


"Guys, this is why even though we don't know what's happening next still, right? This is why we will never change who we are. Our vision as a church will never change. We will continue to get out into the community, right? We're going to continue to rake yards and do car washes. We're going to continue to represent Jesus because that is fundamental to what faith will look like. My question for you is, do you want to be a part of this? Are you on board, right? I hope you are, guys, because we're excited about what God is doing. We may not know all the details yet, but we do know this. He is doing a new thing." [00:29:52] (36 seconds)