Transformative Power of Serving Others with Purpose

### Bible Study Discussion Guide

#### Bible Reading
- **Philippians 2:3-8**: "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!"

- **Colossians 2:14**: "He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross."

- **John 14:27**: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."

#### Observation Questions
1. What does Philippians 2:3-8 suggest about the mindset we should have when serving others? How does this relate to the example of Jesus? [32:39]

2. In the sermon, how is the transformation of Scrooge from "A Christmas Carol" used to illustrate the impact of serving others? [29:07]

3. How does the sermon describe the process of releasing past hurts and failures, and what biblical reference supports this idea? [37:58]

4. What role does living in present peace play in our ability to serve others, according to the sermon? [45:38]

#### Interpretation Questions
1. How might adopting the mindset of Christ, as described in Philippians 2:3-8, change the way individuals interact within their communities and families? [32:39]

2. What are the potential consequences of holding onto past hurts and failures, and how does the sermon suggest we overcome them? [36:28]

3. How does the concept of living in present peace, as mentioned in John 14:27, empower individuals to be more effective in their service to others? [45:38]

4. In what ways does the sermon encourage believers to trust in God's plan for the future, and how does this trust impact their daily lives? [59:51]

#### Application Questions
1. Reflect on a time when you served someone selflessly. How did it impact your life and theirs? How can you incorporate more acts of service into your daily routine? [32:39]

2. Identify a past hurt or failure that you are holding onto. What steps can you take to release it and allow God to transform it into something positive? [37:58]

3. Consider your current state of peace. Are there specific areas in your life where you struggle to find peace? What practical steps can you take to ground yourself in God's love and promises? [45:38]

4. How can you develop a more intentional lifestyle of prayer? What changes can you make to ensure your prayer life is meaningful and not just routine? [53:08]

5. Think about your plans and goals for the future. How can you align them with God's will and trust in His plan for your life? [59:51]

6. Are you currently part of a life group or community activity? If not, what steps can you take to join one and foster accountability and support among fellow believers? [58:25]

7. Reflect on the story of Scrooge. What personal changes can you make to treat others with more kindness and compassion, and how might this enrich your own life? [29:07]

Day 1: Embrace Selfless Service
Serving others at their point of need is a transformative act that reflects the heart of Christ. By valuing others above ourselves, we not only impact their lives but also enrich our own with purpose and joy. This selfless service is not about seeking recognition or reward but about embodying the humility and compassion that Jesus demonstrated. As we serve, we become conduits of God's love, bringing hope and healing to those around us. Consider how you can actively seek opportunities to serve others, whether through small acts of kindness or larger commitments to community service. [32:39]

"Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God." (Hebrews 13:16, ESV)

Reflection: Identify one person in your life who is in need. How can you serve them selflessly this week, reflecting the love of Christ in your actions?


Day 2: Transform Pain into Purpose
Releasing past hurts and failures is essential for walking in the freedom and joy that God desires for us. By letting go of the burdens that weigh us down, we allow God to turn our pain into purpose. This involves a conscious decision to trust in God's plan and to rest in the assurance that He holds the future. As we nail our past to the cross, we are unencumbered by regrets and mistakes, enabling us to move forward with renewed hope and strength. [37:58]

"Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead." (Philippians 3:13, ESV)

Reflection: What past hurt or failure are you holding onto? How can you begin to release it to God and allow Him to transform it into a source of strength and purpose?


Day 3: Ground Yourself in Present Peace
Living in the present peace that Jesus offers is crucial for being fully present in our interactions with others. This peace, grounded in God's love and promises, empowers us to serve effectively and to face life's challenges with confidence. By engaging with God's Word and developing a lifestyle of prayer, we are equipped to navigate the complexities of life with a sense of calm and assurance. Consider how you can cultivate this peace in your daily life, allowing it to guide your thoughts and actions. [45:38]

"And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful." (Colossians 3:15, ESV)

Reflection: What is one area of your life where you lack peace? How can you invite God's peace into this area and allow it to transform your perspective and actions?


Day 4: Cultivate a Meaningful Prayer Life
Developing a lifestyle of prayer is about moving beyond rote prayers and cultivating a meaningful relationship with God. This deepens our connection with Him and brings power and purpose to our lives. Through intentional prayer, we align our hearts with God's will, gaining clarity and direction for our lives. Consider how you can make prayer a more integral part of your daily routine, seeking to engage with God in a way that is authentic and transformative. [53:08]

"Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving." (Colossians 4:2, ESV)

Reflection: How can you deepen your prayer life this week? What specific steps can you take to make your prayers more intentional and meaningful?


Day 5: Trust in God's Sovereign Plan
Trusting in God's plan for the future allows us to rest in the assurance that He holds our lives in His hands. By aligning our hopes and dreams with His will, we can experience victory, joy, and peace. This trust is not passive but involves actively seeking God's guidance and being open to His leading. As we surrender our plans to Him, we find freedom in knowing that He is working all things for our good. [59:51]

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." (Jeremiah 29:11, ESV)

Reflection: What is one area of your life where you struggle to trust God's plan? How can you begin to surrender this area to Him and rest in His promises for your future?

Philippians 2, 3 through 8 says this. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above yourself, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of others. Let's park here just for a moment. Think about it. If every interaction that we had with people, we thought about not our own interests. What can we get from the interaction? What can I get from the conversation? What makes my life better? But in 10, we flipped that script and we said, how could I serve someone else better? Paul goes on to write, And our relationships with one another have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who being in the very nature of God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant and being made in human likeness. Being found in the appearance of man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even. To the death of the cross. See, Jesus himself said early on in his ministry that the son of man, referring to himself, has not come to be served, but to serve others. [00:33:21] (79 seconds)


Just because I have the opportunity to stand up here on this platform, does not mean I don't go through that same pain as you. But today, right now, your heavenly Father is saying to you that he wants to take your pain. He wants to turn your graves into gardens. He wants to turn your seas into highways. He wants to turn the dead bones of your life into a mighty army for him. He wants you to walk in freedom and in joy with purpose and destiny this year. We have to give those over to him. We have to be willing to say, not my will, as Jesus said, but your will in my life, Lord. [00:36:32] (43 seconds)


So what if in 2025 we were to do this, live in the present peace and be in the moment with those around you? Now yes, we have to have a plan. The Bible tells us without a vision the people perish. But we we've got to remember to live in the present peace that Jesus wants to give us. I think sometimes we get so hung up in the situation that we see coming up. And oh God, what am I going to do? Because I know in three months this is going to happen and something else is coming down the pike here. God wants us to walk in the daily peace and joy that he gives us, that he provides for us. We need to be in that moment. [00:46:06] (43 seconds)


But as adults, we can find ourself in that same mode of just saying rote prayers without any true meaning behind them. Lord, bless me today, bless my family, even we go through all the names, bless, bless, bless, bless, bless. Lord, you know, I got this test coming up from the school. Lord, I got this hard day at work coming up. Help me, help me, help me, do this, do this, do this. You just... Jesus wants relationship. He wants to spend time with us. He wants to hear from you, and he wants to speak to us. And so we want to develop or redevelop a lifestyle of prayer in English and in our prayer language. [00:53:25] (39 seconds)


And then there's a whole group of people out here, and I got to be honest, I'm just a tad jealous of you guys. I'm a floater. I can just go where life takes me. I don't worry. I don't have to plan. I can just go with the flow. Trust me, as a worrier, I'm a little jealousy, y 'all. But however, sometimes if we're just floating too much float, we don't have that Jesus Christ purpose. Again, we need that vision. So to all three of us today, I say, what if in 2025 we would trust God's plan and rest in the assurance that God holds the future? Think about how much victory we can have in our life, how much joy we can have in our life, how much peace we can have in our life if we rest. That's the key word there. Rest in the assurance that God holds the future. [00:59:51] (55 seconds)


Heavenly Father, today, Lord, we say thank you for Christian men and women that are going to be in that operating room with Maggie today. Their hands are going to be guided by the very power of the Holy Spirit. Father, we claim that this, this is the answer for her, and that she comes out of here stronger. I pray over my brother Lonnie, Father, that he walks in victory today, Lord. I pray for everyone that's out here that has their hand raised, that has a need in their life, in their body, in their soul, in their spirit, their family. Father, you have the answer. You turn graves into gardens. [00:13:32] (42 seconds)


What if your goal was to serve others, treat others better, and lead others to Jesus Christ? I would like for all of us in here to make part of our goal moving forward that we will win at least one person to Jesus in 2025. Let's not let another year go by in which we have not fulfilled the Great Commission. And if we do this, do you think your church and your community would be better? Do you think you would be a better person, have a better life, have more peace, have more purpose, and have more joy? [00:32:21] (38 seconds)


Now look, I know that, you know, it's kind of not a normal prayer time, but right now, if there's a pain that you have in your heart, in your life, I want you to come down. We want to lay it down at this altar. Our prayer team is ready and willing to serve you and pray, and you know what? I know there's pain out there. I know there's hurts out there. Right now, I want you to just come down. Be the first one. Get up. Let's rock to this altar. Your heavenly father wants you to walk in victory in 2025, and he's saying, take that step of faith. Take that leap of faith this morning. Come down. Let's agree in prayer with our prayer partners today. [00:38:58] (41 seconds)


So to assist us as a church in continuing to walk out the freedom, because we come up, we get prayed for, we feel great, we feel the presence of God just pouring over us, but then we have to go out and walk back into the life. Where we are, right? So we want to help you. We always want to stand shoulder to shoulder with you. Here at the Father's House, we have a group of trained freedom life coaches. If there's some issues going on in your life that you would like some assistance with moving forward into 2025, you can take out that connection card and you can just write on there, Tim, link me up with a freedom coach. [00:44:10] (40 seconds)


Moving forward in 2025, I want you to hear these words. It's called journey groups. And we're going to be training some journey leaders to release a journey groups later in the year. And they're going to help you learn why you do what you do. Why do we repeat the same negative behavior, have the same thoughts, and we can find freedom through the power of the Holy Spirit that is alive and working in our lives. [00:45:38] (28 seconds)


We encourage you all here in the Father's house to complete growth track. Find your place to serve in the house or in the community. Remember, we started off today talking about serving others, meeting them at their point of need. Join a life group in 2025. If you have not been in a life group, I challenge you in the spring semester, we'll be signing up in January, February, we'll be signing up. Join a life group. Commit to 10 weeks. [00:56:12] (30 seconds)


Plans to give you the future you hope for. What that tells me is that when I line myself up with Christ, He already knows the hopes and dreams that I have. And if I'm aligned up with Him, His hopes become my hopes, and my hopes are following His plan. He wants to give me the things that I want because they're the things that He has already picked out for me. He has already dropped them in my spirit. He has already showed me good things for my self, good things for my family. I just have to submit my way to His way in 2025. [01:01:16] (38 seconds)

On your heart, whatever's in your body that you need gone today, whatever healing that you need, whatever chaos is walking through your life today, it must go by the very shed blood of Jesus, by the power of one word, one name, and that name is Jesus.

Today, if you have a need in your body, would you just raise your hand? Or in your life? Do you see somebody with their hand raised? We are a family. I want you to just go and put a hand on their shoulder. Online church, if you would just put that in the chat, we want to partner in prayer with you today.

At 10 o'clock this morning, Maggie is getting ready to have surgery. She has a blockage in her bowel that they are going to do some reconstruction. And we are believing today that this is the answer. One surgeon told her that her body was too weak for surgery. Another surgeon came in and said, there's no such thing as your body being too weak for surgery, and showed her a picture of Jesus.

Heavenly Father, today, Lord, we say thank you for Christian men and women that are going to be in that operating room with Maggie today. Their hands are going to be guided by the very power of the Holy Spirit. Father, we claim that this is the answer for her, and that she comes out of here stronger.

I pray over my brother Lonnie, Father, that he walks in victory today, Lord. I pray for everyone that's out here that has their hand raised, that has a need in their life, in their body, in their soul, in their spirit, their family. Father, you have the answer. You turn graves into gardens. You turn seas into highways, bones into armies. I know that you can restore bodies back to perfect health. You can restore minds back to peace and joy. You can restore families back to the intimacy that they are supposed to be walking in.

So today, Father, we place our lives in your hands. Not by my might, not by my power, but by the power of the Spirit of the Lord today. We say we are healed. We are well. Our families are strong. Our marriages are strong. Maggie is healed. We walk in victory today. If you believe that, let's give...

Well, good morning, Father's House. And again, we want to welcome our online church. We're glad you're joining us. And if you're viewing this, we'd love for you to be a part of us in the house when you can. For those of you that don't know me, my name is Pastor Tim, and I'm honored to be the Freedom and Care Pastor today.

We have a great teaching today because the Holy Spirit designed this teaching, and it's called, "What If?" Heavenly Father, Lord, I just want to say thank you for this great opportunity that you have allotted to me to speak your words. Holy Spirit, speak through me. Let my words honor you, glorify you, and bring others closer to you. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.

So let me ask you a question here. How many of you, over the course of the holidays, looked at some version of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol"? Anybody? All right. Excellent. Excellent.

According to the media website, IMDB, between movies, TV shows, radio, et cetera, there are 227 or more adaptations of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." But they all answer one question: What if Scrooge, or the Scrooge character, made a purposeful change for the better? What would be the outcome? How would the future for him and others around him change for the better?

I'm going to give you kind of my top five favorite "Christmas Carol" adaptations, in no particular order, until we get to number one. First, let me throw an old school one out there, Mr. Magoo's version. Anybody remember Mr. Magoo? Thank you, Ray. All right. Amanda, you know Mr. Magoo? Really? Awesome.

I like George C. Scott and Patrick Stewart. I think they both do a great, great job. Okay. I don't need any emails on this one, because there is redemption in the end for the character. But "The Ghost of Girlfriend's Past," Matthew McConaughey. I really like that one. Okay. Of course, "Scrooge" with Bill Murray. I mean, that's just Bill Murray at his best there.

But my favorite is definitely, and this is a tradition for my wife and I every Christmas Eve, we'll watch this. It's the classic 1951 version starring Alistair Sims. And I really think that that is perhaps the best one.

But no matter which version you watch, the transformation for Scrooge was not about making his own life better. The times and places that the ghost took him to were to remind Scrooge of how bad he treated others along the way, especially those that were closest to him: his clients, people and children he met on the street, those in need, his own partner, his girlfriend, either Belle or Alice, depending on which version you watch, old Fezziwig, Bob Cratchit, and his nephew Fred.

But see, in the end, Scrooge's transformation was about treating others better, which truly enriched his own life and made him a better person.

In 2025, how do you want your life, your church, and your community to change? Ponder that just for a moment. What if your goal was to serve others, treat others better, and lead others to Jesus Christ?

I would like for all of us in here to make part of our goal moving forward that we will win at least one person to Jesus in 2025. Let's not let another year go by in which we have not fulfilled the Great Commission. And if we do this, do you think your church and your community would be better? Do you think you would be a better person, have a better life, have more peace, have more purpose, and have more joy?

Question here today, does your life need a change in 2025? Anybody else? Raise my hand. My life can definitely use some change in 2025. And if so, I have the perfect formula for all of us to follow. And it's very simple. It's the first fill-in on your sheet: Serve others at their point of need.

Philippians 2:3-8 says this: "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above yourself, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of others."

Let's park here just for a moment. Think about it. If every interaction that we had with people, we thought about not our own interests. What can we get from the interaction? What can I get from the conversation? What makes my life better? But instead, we flipped that script and we said, how could I serve someone else better?

Paul goes on to write, "In our relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who being in the very nature of God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant and being made in human likeness. Being found in the appearance of man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even to the death of the cross."

See, Jesus himself said early on in his ministry that the Son of Man, referring to himself, has not come to be served, but to serve others. Think about that for a second. If we spent our time and energy in serving others, how would our whole community, our whole circle change?

Husbands, let me speak to you just for a second here. Paul writes to us and tells us that we are to love Christ as Christ loved the church. Christ was the ultimate servant for the church. We should be the ultimate servants in our marriage and in our families and love our families as Christ loved the church. He humbled himself. He did not rule over the roost, but he was very humble in how he came across.

Even with our children, I think that if we consider their interests—now hold on, I'm not saying not to bring correction. 100%, we need to bring correction. But think about it for a second. Parents, grandparents, if we would spend time and effort in considering our children, and not just what they need at Christmas time or what they need to go back to school, but what they need to live Christian lives, to be successful young men and young women in the school system, standing up for Christ, standing up for what is right. Supporting them in that as we support them in the other interests that they have.

You might say to me, "Tim, how can I serve others? Because every time I put myself out there, I get hurt. I get stomped on. I get forgotten about. You don't know the hurt I carry, the pain I've been through."

Can I offer this to you today? I don't know your pain. But I know the pain that I've been through. Some of you out there, I do know your pain, because we talk. Just because I have the opportunity to stand up here on this platform does not mean I don't go through that same pain as you.

But today, right now, your heavenly Father is saying to you that he wants to take your pain. He wants to turn your graves into gardens. He wants to turn your seas into highways. He wants to turn the dead bones of your life into a mighty army for him. He wants you to walk in freedom and in joy with purpose and destiny this year. We have to give those over to him. We have to be willing to say, "Not my will," as Jesus said, "but your will in my life, Lord."

So what if in 2025, you would do this? Our next fill-in: Release your past. Let go of past failures. Give my hurt to him. I want you to say this with me, church: "In 2025, I will give my hurt to Christ."

Pastor Terry gave us this scripture in the first teaching of this series, and it's Colossians 2:14 in the New Living Translation. And it says this: "He, Jesus, canceled the record of charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross." No charges against you anymore.

I'd like to reread this to you, and I would just call this Pastor Tim's version of this verse. I know we're not supposed to add to scripture; we're just expanding it today, okay? So let me read this to you.

He, Christ, cancels, not just in the past, but in your present, in the future, cancels the record of charges, abuse, hurt, and sin. He, Jesus, canceled the record of charges against us and took it away. Hurts, betrayals, mistakes, and regrets done to us and by us, and he takes it away by nailing it to the cross. It's gone. It's done forever. He wants you to walk in joy today.

I want the prayer team to come down right now. We're going to stop for a moment, and we are going to pray over one another. We are going to pray right now that you will not carry those burdens, that abuse, the regrets, the mistakes, the pain into 2025.

Now look, I know that, you know, it's kind of not a normal prayer time, but right now, if there's a pain that you have in your heart, in your life, I want you to come down. We want to lay it down at this altar. Our prayer team is ready and willing to serve you and pray, and you know what? I know there's pain out there. I know there's hurts out there. Right now, I want you to just come down. Be the first one. Get up. Let's rock to this altar.

Your heavenly Father wants you to walk in victory in 2025, and he's saying, take that step of faith. Take that leap of faith this morning. Come down. Let's agree in prayer with our prayer partners today.

As you're out there in the audience, if you would pray over these yourself, take their burdens and give those to God today. And as this prayer is going on, I want to prophesy to you over a song that God brought to my attention this morning. It was one of my favorite songs. I hadn't listened to it in so long, but the words kind of just generally go like this: that you're not alone. You think you're alone, but there's a fourth man standing there in the fire next to you. Just as the Hebrew boys were not alone, you're not alone. God is coming down. Your Father's coming down. He'll shut the mouths of the lions, just as he did as Daniel was in the lion's den.

There is nothing God wants you to carry into 2025 that's holding you back from walking a purposeful, fulfilling life in him today. This is the time. This is your opportunity. But see what's going to happen after you lay this down right out those doors as you leave today. Satan's going to be right out there with that burdened backpack. He's going to say, "Pick that thing up, put it back on," but you got to tell him, "No, I've left this at the cross. It's nailed. It's nailed to the cross. My hurts have all been nailed to the cross today."

Just want to say thank you, God. Lord, we thank you for all that you do for us. We thank you that we can stop in the middle of whatever we're doing and give you the pain that's going on in our lives, Lord. Be that physical, be that emotional, be it family chaos. I prophesy right now that families come back together in 2025. Marriages are strengthened in 2025. Children and grandchildren return to that place where they were brought up to love and to serve Christ.

We walk in the authority of Jesus Christ. We walk by the power of the Holy Spirit, not by our own might, not by my power, but by the Spirit of God who leads us in victorious living and a victorious life this year. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Heavenly Father.

Oh, God, just show us, Father, lead us to people this year that we can serve at their point of need. Never, Father, let us miss a moment where we have not served someone at a point of need in their life, Father. Just want to say thank you, Lord. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much, Lord.

Jesus, Jesus, we thank you. Thank you, and we pray, Lord, just for whatever is going on. Again, Lord, the burden of families is laying so, so much on my life, Father God, so much on my heart, and we just pray that there'll be chaos is gone. Victory. We walk in victory this year, Lord. Just want to say thank you. Thank you for that. Thank you for the victory that we walk in, Lord.

We're going to let our prayer team continue to pray up here. I want you to think about a place in your life where you can meet a need. Right now, as I'm saying that, the Holy Spirit's bringing that to some of your minds right now. Who can I serve this year? What person in my circle can I serve this year? I know some of the things that they're going through.

While we can't meet every single need in their life, we can meet that need of sharing the gospel with them. I want you all to pray for boldness this year, the boldness to share that gospel in Jesus Christ, the boldness that we would move forward, and we would always be looking for opportunities to say, "God, how can I meet this need? How can I help one another?" In Jesus' name, amen and amen.

So to assist us as a church in continuing to walk out the freedom, because we come up, we get prayed for, we feel great, we feel the presence of God just pouring over us, but then we have to go out and walk back into the life where we are, right? So we want to help you. We always want to stand shoulder to shoulder with you.

Here at the Father's House, we have a group of trained freedom life coaches. If there's some issues going on in your life that you would like some assistance with moving forward into 2025, you can take out that connection card and you can just write on there, "Tim, link me up with a freedom coach." They're trained, but more than that, they're your brothers and your sisters. They want to walk with you. They want to help you find that freedom that God has for you.

Every Monday night, we have Celebrate Recovery. Our Celebrate Recovery leaders are probably some of the most humble, behind-the-scenes leaders because they are here every Monday. It doesn't matter whether it's a holiday, whether it's raining, whether it's sunshine, they are here. And Celebrate Recovery is a group for anyone that needs help with a hurt, a hang-up, or a habit. You come, you can find community. You can find encouragement. You can find accountability. Celebrate Recovery every Monday night.

Moving forward in 2025, I want you to hear these words: It's called journey groups. And we're going to be training some journey leaders to release journey groups later in the year. And they're going to help you learn why you do what you do. Why do we repeat the same negative behavior, have the same thoughts, and we can find freedom through the power of the Holy Spirit that is alive and working in our lives.

So what if in 2025 we were to do this: live in the present peace and be in the moment with those around you? Now yes, we have to have a plan. The Bible tells us without a vision the people perish. But we've got to remember to live in the present peace that Jesus wants to give us.

I think sometimes we get so hung up in the situation that we see coming up. And oh God, what am I going to do? Because I know in three months this is going to happen and something else is coming down the pike here. God wants us to walk in the daily peace and joy that he gives us, that he provides for us. We need to be in that moment.

Because when we dwell in peace and live in the moment, we can better serve others at their point of need. You say, "Okay Tim, how do I do that?" But to do this well, we have to ground ourselves in the love and the promises that God has for us in his word.

So what if in 2025 we took time to get into the word, to read our Bible? And let me just talk about that for a moment. Probably some of us started out real strong in 2024, right? All right, we got the YouVersion. We got it set up. We got our place, our chair that we're going to be, our alarm clock set, coffee pot ready, and we start doing really good in that.

And then life happens, and a couple different things come down the pike. And so sometimes we'll miss a whole bunch of days, and then we'll try to catch them all up at once, and we're just listening, listening, listening, listening, here and here and here. Okay, check that off.

Or we say, "Man, I've just missed it. Too many of them. Why even go on? I'm kind of a failure at this Bible reading plan." No, you're not. Or it becomes something that we just, you know, March or April, I got to get up, got to listen to that. So I listen to it, check, check, check.

But I'm not hearing what God wants to say to me in that time. See, there's such a difference in just listening to it or quickly reading through it, but not hearing what God wants to say.

I'd like to give us all a starter verse for 2025. This is John 14:27, and it's out of the Message. And it says this: "I'm leaving you well and whole." Think about that. This is your heavenly Father saying, his son, "I'm leaving you well and whole. That's my parting gift to you."

We just got done giving out Christmas gifts. This is his ongoing, everyday gift to you: "I'm leaving you well and whole. My parting gift to you is peace. I don't leave you the way you're used to being left, feeling abandoned, bereft. Don't be upset. Don't be distraught. Walk in the peace and the joy that your heavenly Father wants you to walk in every single day."

But we have to be purposeful to walk in that peace. I can say it up here in my mind, but if I don't get up in the morning, and if I'm not determined to walk in peace, if I'm not determined to walk in joy, I let the pressures come against me. And before you know it, I look up and I'm saying, "Oh, I'm having a bad day."

Or you get up and you spill the coffee. And you know, you go to squeeze the toothpaste and it comes out all over the place. Or you drop your razor in a trash can and you're like, "Oh, it's going to be one of them days." No, it's not going to be one of those days. It's going to be a day that the Lord has made for you. This is the day the Lord has made. I want you to rejoice and be glad in it.

Coming in 2025, Pastor Terry released this to us last week. Instead of reading the Bible completely through, we're going to concentrate on the New Testament. We have two YouVersion plans that are a good way to start. We're going to focus on the New Testament in a year. And it begins on January 1st. You can shoot that QR code or you can go to our website and you can pull that up. Let's join together.

All right, please, let's do this together. The next one that we have is going to be going through the Gospels. And this one won't take us through the whole year, but it's the Gospels. And that's Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And again, shoot that QR code.

Because you know what? It's not every day that I read the Bible and I get this angel singing and I get this great inspiration. No, it happens, but it doesn't happen every day. But you know what? On days maybe when it's not happening for me and I see what Mike Blackhall writes in the morning, right? Or I get online and I see a video that Serenity Strack has posted about what God has said to her. That encourages me.

Helps hold me accountable to continue to do and continue to put the time into it and say, "God, speak to me." And then maybe there's something that I put in there that encourages you. And we do this together as a family.

We also have, and I really am excited about this. Pastor Terry showed us this last week. And this is a spiral-bound journaling New Testament. And it's in the ESV version. And if you open this up, there's great places to take notes. So, maybe in our New Testament through the year, you would change that version of the Bible in your YouVersion to the ESV.

Maybe you get one of these and you open it up and you follow along. And as God is speaking something to you, you journal this down so you can go back over the year and see everything that God is saying to you this year. His word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.

We also have Right Now Media. If you don't have Right Now Media, I want you to write that on your connection card. We will give that to you. It's free. It is a collection of Bible studies. It is a collection of just different studies, kind of, we call it like the Christian Netflix. There's everything out there that you need. Parents, grandparents, great stuff for your children on Right Now Media, and we give that to you for free.

Perhaps the biggest one, and the reason I say that is because this is the one God is dealing with my heart and has been as we're moving out of this year into the new year, is to develop or redevelop a lifestyle of prayer.

See, it's so easy to pray, but not have a lifestyle of prayer. Probably a lot of us, when we were little, were taught some specific prayers, you know, "God is great, God is good, and I thank him for the food," or "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep." And those are good for our little ones because it teaches them prayers.

But as adults, we can find ourselves in that same mode of just saying rote prayers without any true meaning behind them. "Lord, bless me today, bless my family," even we go through all the names, "bless, bless, bless, bless, bless. Lord, you know, I got this test coming up from the school. Lord, I got this hard day at work coming up. Help me, help me, help me, do this, do this, do this."

You just... Jesus wants relationship. He wants to spend time with us. He wants to hear from you, and he wants to speak to us. And so we want to develop or redevelop a lifestyle of prayer in English and in our prayer language.

Pastor Terry has really been helping me along with this by sending me some YouTube follow-alongs of daily confessions, and then, especially kind of old school, with Pastor Hagen, praying in tongues. We don't emulate what those... We don't try to say the same words. We pray in our own prayer language. And if that's something you're interested in developing more in 2025, if you put that on a connection card, I'd be glad to share that with you. It will bring power to your life. It will bring Holy Spirit purpose prayer time to your life.

The Word tells us that when we don't know what to pray, the Spirit prays through us, and this is how the Spirit prays through us. This is actually my personal what-if for 2025, laying that all out to you for encouragement and accountability to pray more in my prayer language.

I'd like for us all to incorporate fasting into your prayer life. Now, we are going to have a 21-day corporate fast, but the Bible says this in Matthew 6:16, and this is the Living Bible: "When you fast, declining your food for a spiritual purpose." Okay? My dad told me this years and years ago. Remember, no spiritual purpose, it's just a diet. That's it.

What is your spiritual purpose? We are going to have a corporate church-wide fast. We normally start the year out. It will begin on January 6th. It will culminate on January 26th, where we will break the fast as a church family with communion. That gives us seven days to pray and ask Holy Spirit, what is going to be my purpose? What is my focus for the fast? My fasting for something that I need, something you want to show me, my fasting for family, what is it?

But let's just not go into this fast just willy-nilly. Let's all be purposeful and have a direct purpose and reason on why we are going to fast beginning on January 6th.

We encourage you all here in the Father's House to complete Growth Track. Find your place to serve in the house or in the community. Remember, we started off today talking about serving others, meeting them at their point of need.

Join a life group in 2025. If you have not been in a life group, I challenge you in the spring semester. We'll be signing up in January, February. We'll be signing up. Join a life group. Commit to 10 weeks. Life groups are where we find accountability. We find encouragement. We find accountability. We find encouragement. We find a family of believers outside of the Sunday morning service.

Did you know, let you in on a little secret? Y'all want a secret? Let you in on a little secret. There is a whole nother group of people, about 300 to 400 people that walk and come in these church doors every Sunday. A whole nother group that you don't even know. Why? Because we're all creatures of habit, right? You guys come to the 11 o'clock service, they come to the nine. Not only that, most of you sit in the exact same seats.

Unless you walk in and there's somebody new sitting in your seat. Remember that when we had pews and they had the little markers on the pews on whose pew they were? That's super old school. Anyway, so even when during our time when we're led from the stage to turn around and greet one another, we're sitting in the same spot. We greet the same five or six people.

We're sitting in the same spot. We're sitting in the same spot. Life group is a way to get out and meet other people. Join them because you know what? You have the strength when they're weak. They have the strength when you're weak. Together, we come together and we grow as a church family. We grow and we're able to meet the needs of the community.

But more than that, we go a little bit deeper into what God is saying to us so that we can win our community for Jesus Christ. Got a challenge for you. If you give it 10 weeks and you give it your all, at the end of those 10 weeks, you say, "I have the worst 10 weeks of my life." You call me, schedule an appointment with me, and I will listen and we will figure it out together. I guarantee you.

So what if we just would join a life group? You say, "Tim, you know, this all sounds good, but you know, I'm kind of one of three different people." Probably we're all one of three people. First is this: I'm a worrier and I'm already worried about 2025. What's it going to bring? What's going to happen? Am I going to be sick? My family, what's going to happen? I can tend to lean more towards that worry side.

But I want to tell you today, I confess right here in front of you, I will not be a worrier in 2025 by the power of the Holy Spirit that lives in me. I'm going to walk in victory. I'm going to walk in wholeness. I'm going to walk in perfect mental health as God leads me and as he pours his spirit through me.

And for those of you that lean toward that worry side, I want you to lean more towards that worry side, to come alongside with me and let's walk a victorious life in 2025.

You may say, as Jimmy was telling us from the stage a little while ago about being a planner and needing to map out everything in 2025. I got to figure it all out so that I can be in control of my 2025. How'd that work out for you in 2024? Being in control.

Maybe it's time that we turn that control over to Christ. I'm not saying don't have a plan again where there's no vision that people perish, but let's have God's plan, not my plan.

And then there's a whole group of people out here, and I got to be honest, I'm just a tad jealous of you guys. I'm a floater. I can just go where life takes me. I don't worry. I don't have to plan. I can just go with the flow. Trust me, as a worrier, I'm a little jealous, y'all.

But however, sometimes if we're just floating too much, we don't have that Jesus Christ purpose. Again, we need that vision. So to all three of us today, I say, what if in 2025 we would trust God's plan and rest in the assurance that God holds the future?

Think about how much victory we can have in our life, how much joy we can have in our life, how much peace we can have in our life if we rest. That's the key word there: rest in the assurance that God holds the future.

Jeremiah 29:11, right, Pastor Andrea? Not 19, but 11. I always say 19. I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out. Plans to take care of you, not to abandon you. Plans to give you a future that you hope for. That's from the Message.

And during first service, Holy Spirit showed me something in this verse. I mean, if you are walking with Christ, you know this verse, right? We quote it in all kinds of circumstances. Plans to give you the future you hope for. What that tells me is that when I line myself up with Christ, He already knows the hopes and dreams that I have.

And if I'm aligned up with Him, His hopes become my hopes, and my hopes are following His plan. He wants to give me the things that I want because they're the things that He has already picked out for me. He has already dropped them in my spirit. He has already showed me good things for myself, good things for my family. I just have to submit my way to His way in 2025.

On your note sheet there, you have a next step. So in 2025, what if you placed your trust in God for the year ahead and just enjoy the peace of living out His sovereign plan? I want you to take a moment and write my 2025 what if.

Now, I filled mine out this morning. I already knew what it was. God told me to do it. I already knew what it was. I already knew what it was. I already knew what it was. God showed me this weeks ago, but I filled it out this morning, and mine is my 2025 what if. I prayed in my prayer language in the morning three times a week, building up to 30 minutes seven days a week. That's my 2025 goal. Feel free to encourage me and hold me accountable.

As we kind of bring this series to a close, I want to go back to the Christmas story. The Magi. The Magi. They saw the star in the east. They put together the gifts. They came and they found Herod, King Herod. And they said, "We saw his star in the east. We came to worship the king."

Herod gets scared. A king? No, I can't have another king. Calls all his magicians and Bible scholars. And they say, "Oh yeah, this has been prophesied. Dude, you should know this. You're the king."

He lies to the Magi and he says, "After you have found him, come back and tell me so that I can go and worship him too." It's a straight lie. It's manipulation. He wants to kill the Christ child. The Magi warn not to do that. Do not go back. They go home by a different route.

Herod does not go and worship the king. Let's do a what if for a second on Herod's life. What if Herod maybe made a different decision? Let me tell you a little bit about King Herod. Over the course of his rule in Jerusalem, Herod was not a nice guy. He married 10 different women. He killed his favorite wife and her mother. He imprisoned and killed some of his own children. He tried to kill himself.

His son heard that he was dead. This is one of his sons that was in prison. Demanded to be let out so that he could take the throne. Herod found out about it. He found out about that and killed him. We know that he tried to kill Jesus by slaughtering all the boys under the age of two.

Herod died with symptoms including severe abdominal pain, gangrene, worms emerging from his rotten flesh. He knew no one would mourn him. So he gave orders to round up between hundreds and thousands of Jewish leaders and execute them on the day of his death just so there would be mourning in Jerusalem. Thankfully, that plan was not carried out. He died an agonizing death alone, just with his family, but who were more concerned with his throne than with him.

But what if? What if Herod had sought out and worshipped the Christ child? Depending on the time frame of some of these incidents, how many lives could have been changed? How many lives would have been different?

I want to read you a quote from Max Lucado. He said, "God did everything necessary to get Herod's attention. He sent messengers from the East and a message from the Torah. He sent wonders from the sky and words from Scripture. He sent the testimony of the heavens and the teaching of the prophets, but Herod refused to listen. He chose his puny dynasty over Christ. He died a miserable old man."

Bow your heads with me, please. What signs has God been showing you? What wonders has God been using to you to try to draw you back to him? What if your what if in 2025 would be for the first time or as a rededication of committing your life to God and saying, "Hey, try it in my way in 2024."

And I'll have to like that song. It doesn't line up spiritually on how I am, but I do like the song. But what if I try it in God's way? What if you were to say to me right now by just raising your hand, "Raise your hand, Tim. I want to put my faith and trust either for the first time or as a recommitment to God in 2025. I did it my way in 2024. It didn't work out real good for me."

If that's you, would you just raise your hand and make eye contact with me? Thank you. Thank you. I want to pray for you today. And you know what? As a church family, thank you in the back. As a church family, we're all going to pray together because we are never going to let you stand by yourself in this.

So let's pray this prayer together.

Dear God, I want to put my faith and trust in you. I've tried it my way. I want to try it your way. I acknowledge Jesus as my Savior. Please come into my heart. As best as I can in 2025, I am going to walk. And I am going to walk a victorious, joy-filled life because of your spirit that lives in me.

In Jesus' name, amen and amen. Church, let's celebrate today with those that have made this decision. If you made that decision here in the middle and in the back, right over here on either side of the church, we have a first step table. Please stop by there. Just swing by there on your way out. Have some material I want to put in your hand.

Let's stand. Let's stand and worship. Let's not run out. And let's get dismissed from the stage.