**Transcript:**
Idea: a world with no hate and no fear, all greats love and all cheers, families hugs and no tears.
Hey, let me just pass for a minute. Brand new whip, no windows tinted. Party in the street 'til the sun come get us and tell the whole crew they can all come with us. And we ain't gotta lock the doors, and we don't need cops, of course. And we don't care about your skin, we just want an all-out win. They tell me it's illogical, but anything is possible. If God be for us, we can overcome all obstacles. They say love covers a multitude of sins, so I'm here to put some love in the wind. Tell a friend.
Well, good morning, everybody. How's everybody doing?
Oh, we can do better than that. How we doing this morning? Come on, come on, come on, come on.
Well, I am excited to see each and every one of you this morning. In case you didn't know, we are in celebration mode here at Limitless. We are celebrating the goodness of God, number one, celebrating all that God did here in our church this past year.
And so if you could stand with me, we're going to go ahead and get a service started. But this is our focus for today and our focus for this service: celebrating the goodness of God.
And in this service, we're celebrating baptisms. So we have people getting baptized today, and we're excited to celebrate with them in that.
But we want to take this moment, and I just want us to get focused. There's a lot going on. There's a lot going on around us. A lot happened this week. Our expectations for the upcoming week, there's a lot.
But I want to challenge you in this moment to focus your attention here. To be present in this moment. To be present in this place. To see and observe all that God is doing.
I know your mind tends to drift, and you tend to go to the left or to the right. But there's something that God wants to do here.
And the challenge is, will you engage in this? Will you engage in this moment? Will you take this opportunity to see what He is doing right now?
So I'm encouraging you to lock in. I'm encouraging you to just say, "God, this is you and me in this moment."
Heavenly Father, I thank you for the opportunity that we have to worship you today. Thank you, God. God, I thank you for all that you are doing in this house and through your people. You are worthy to be praised. You are Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. You hold it all together, God. And we are so grateful for that.
You are faithful even when we are not. So, God, we take this opportunity to say thank you, Jesus. To acknowledge you for who you are. To acknowledge you for yourself. To acknowledge you for your goodness. To acknowledge you for your faithfulness.
To say thank you for keeping us this entire week. Thank you for protecting us this entire week. Thank you for waking us up every single day. Thank you for allowing us to be clothed in our right mind, God. Thank you for allowing your angels to be camped around us, to keep us safe as we slept and as we moved.
God, thank you, thank you, thank you. And as a result of that gratefulness, God, in these next few moments, we sing to you. We sing for you. And we pray that just like the children of Israel, that you would inhabit our praise. Thank you, God, for being God in our lives. We honor you. We praise you. We thank you.
Hey, Limitless! I'm excited to announce the launch of the Limitless Student Ministries. That will be the ministry that will minister to our middle schoolers and our high schoolers.
Now, if you would like to be a part of this ministry, we're going to have a training in February and March to prepare for our launch. And if you want to be a part of it, we need you to sign up.
I know a lot of people have come and said, "I have a drive. I have a vision. I have this desire to minister to middle schoolers or high schoolers. How can I do that?" Well, now the opportunity is available.
We'll have a training in February and March, but you need to sign up at the QR code on the seat pocket in front of you or outside at our connection table. I'm excited to start this ministry and have an opportunity to minister to our middle schoolers, to our high schoolers, and continue fulfilling the vision of Limitless Church. Can't wait to see you there.
Calling all members of Limitless Church! If you are a member here, we are calling a members business meeting Saturday, February the 8th at 10 a.m. We would love for you to be there as we go over some vision, as we go over our past year, as well as our upcoming year.
And so if you have completed the membership class and all the requirements to be a member, we want to invite you to this meeting. Please sign up at the QR code in the seat pocket in front of you or at the connections table. See you there.
Hey, y'all. How y'all doing?
This is a little back. I feel like I want to join y'all up here. There we go.
How's everybody doing this morning? Good, good, good. I'm excited. I know y'all are like, "What's happening? What's going on?"
Well, I'm excited that you're here. I'm excited to see each of you. I'm excited to see each and every one of you this morning.
I just want to do just something. I don't normally do this, and please don't be embarrassed, but I just want to, we're talking about celebrating all the good things that God has done this year. If this is your first time here today, could you just shoot your hand up for me real quick? I'm not going to make you stand up, but I do. Can you just, I know she's like, "No, make me stand up." Raise your hand.
Two, three, four. I saw one hand over here. Five. Anybody over here to the left?
Okay. Can we make some noise for our first-time visitors? Amen. Will, you're lucky I didn't put you on the front row since you're late.
Well, I'm excited. First-time visitors, thank you for being here. This service is going to be a little bit different. We're celebrating today, and you may ask, "What are we celebrating?"
Well, this week, I wanted to take a second and just celebrate all the things that God has done in our church. This past year has been amazing. It's been something out of a storybook, and a lot of times we get so caught up in what's happening that we skip over what God is doing because we're in anticipation of what He's going to do.
But I wanted to take a second this week and really sit back and just take a second to celebrate all the things that God has done in this year.
Very quickly, if you joined Limitless Church in 2024, could you raise your hand? If you say, "Hey, I just decided to come here this last year," my goodness. Y'all look around.
Come on, somebody. Come on, somebody. God has done some amazing things, and I'm truly excited about that.
So let me get started. So I got two things for you real quick.
The first thing is, for those of you who gave last year, y'all know it's tax season. I know y'all like to get y'all taxes done early. Y'all can't. I get it. I get it. They're like, "Give me mine, please."
So we are sending out your tithe giving statements. It is so good to see you, sir. It is so good to see you. I'm glad that you are here. Glad that you are here with us.
I know it's been a road, but it's good to see you. Thank you, Ms. Leona, for taking care of your family and taking care of her. And Mom, thank you for taking care of your husband. I appreciate that.
All right, that was a little pastor moment.
But we are sending out our giving statements. And so because we are sending out our giving statements, we want to make sure that you get those statements. But we're not going to print up 300 giving statements and then y'all let them sit there for the rest of the year.
So what we want to do is we want to email them out to you to make sure that you get them. But there are a few names of people who we don't have email addresses for.
So what I need you to do is if you should see your name on this list, you in trouble. No. What I need you to do is I need you to please come to the connection table, which is at the right of the stage because it's a little windy outside. So we brought it inside. It's at my right, your left at the back.
And if your name is here, we need to get your email address. So immediately after service, please go to the back. And we want to make sure that we get your email address so that we can send out your statement.
And we would like to send those out this week so that we can make sure that you have them. Because I don't want y'all calling Daniela, "I need my tax statement. I'm at the office right now. I need it."
We want to make sure you're prepared. So please, please, please, if your name's on this list, we want to make sure that we give you your giving statement.
All right. Now hold on this next slide, and I will give you the cue, Omari. So don't go yet.
The second in my two things is that we talked about this, what God had done last year in your giving. And the ability for us to now move from phase two to phase three of our building project.
And not only that, remember I told him the whole, not only that, but with that now, because of your giving, some of you have already begun to give and been able to take care of some things as it pertains to phase three.
So now on the screen, we have the list of the things that we have left. And there are some big things that we need to take care of. And there are some small things that we need to take care of. But either way, we need to take care of them.
So that when December comes, we march in next door into our new building and our new home.
So our total that we have left is four, huh? Should the Lord move? Yes. I like your faith. I'm with it. You ain't going, yes. Easter service in a new building.
Okay. All right. So we have $468,000 left to raise. Now somebody might come in here and you might look at that and say it's a lot of money.
Let me tell you about the God I serve, number one. Number two, we started this project with, I believe, $1.5 million that we needed to raise to do this. And now we've gotten to the tail end of our project.
And so we're excited about all that God has done. And so you will see on the back by the restrooms and right here on this wall, we have the exact amounts it is for each project.
So what we're saying is, please, wherever you can. Little, small, big, whatever that might be, consider giving to Phase 3 to help us move into our new home next door.
One of the great things we got to do yesterday, we had a visioneers meeting. The visioneers is all of the people who serve here at our church. And we had an opportunity to, yeah, let's make some noise for our visioneers. I love that.
We had an opportunity to show them the inside of the building. And so they got a chance to see all of the different things that are going on, the electrical that's being put in, our tech room, the new bathrooms that have been built, all of the stuff.
Some people were up on the balcony and they got to watch what it would look like for somebody to sit on the balcony in service and see service happening. And so we're excited about that.
That is a, we're excited about what God is doing and we're in faith. So please pray with us. See what God would have you to do as we move into Phase 3 and complete it.
And what I am going to do is as we knock out a project, I have one of those signs. So if you see me walk up here with a sign, that means it's time to start screaming. Because that means we have finished one of the projects on our list and we're going to mark it off.
And like, why are you going to write on the paper? Because once we're done with this one, we ain't going to need it no more. So we'll come up and we're going to celebrate all of the things that God has done in our church and celebrate.
I cannot wait to rip that paper in half. I can't tell you. But thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
So those are my two things. Be in prayer with us and get your tax statements and let's get your emails.
All right. So the idea for today, as I said, is really to celebrate all that God did in our church in this past year.
And so what I'd like to do is take the next couple of minutes and I want to share with you all the things that God has done in this past year.
And I think that it's important because we can get in a habit or we can get into a place to where we're just going and we're not recognizing God for what He's done.
It's like when you're sick, you're like, "God, give me a healing. Give me a healing." He gives you the healing, and then you're just like, "Okay, let me just continue on doing what I'm going to do."
And I said this at first service. I said, "If I give my kids something that he doesn't say thank you, it's going to be a minute before I give him something else."
And I'm human. And I'm not saying that God does that at all. But I'm not taking no chances.
So I want to make sure that we as a church are in a habit of celebrating the goodness of God and celebrating all the things that He has done in our lives and through us.
All right. So Omari has some party music or some celebration music that he's going to play there. He's going to turn that up just a little bit for me.
And so I'm calling this series or this day, we'll call it "Look at God." It's called "Look at God 2024."
So let's look at some of the things that God did this year.
Let's go to our first slide. In 2024, we welcomed 52 new families with kids.
Oh, come on, kids ministry. We can go better than that.
All right. Not only that, what do we have next?
In 2022 and 2024, we celebrated 54 people joining the Visionaire family.
What else do we got?
In 2024, we celebrated 80 decisions for Jesus. Come on. That's 80 people on their way to heaven. Come on.
What else do we celebrate?
In 2024, we did a couple of outreaches and we got a chance to be the hands and feet of Jesus in this city as we partner with Convoy of Hope, as we partner with the YOLO Food Bank and Davis Christian Fellowship. Come on.
In 2024, we celebrated 75 water baptisms.
I feel like we might double those numbers this year.
What else did we celebrate?
In 2024, we welcomed 166 first-time visitors.
A time where people are saying that nobody's coming to church, in a time where people are saying that nobody wants to be a part of community, nobody wants to be in service, we're celebrating that God is sending people to Limitless Church.
What else are we celebrating?
In 2024, we raised over $20,000 towards missions. Yes.
Yeah, our missionaries are happy. We're celebrating right now. Come on.
What else did we do?
You got another one for me, Amari? Please.
All right. Is it on me? Okay.
So, not only that, one of the big things that I'm most proud of that we did this upcoming year was being the hands and feet of Jesus, not only here in the city of Woodland, not only here doing the things that we do here, but we got the chance to be the hands and feet of Jesus all the way across the world in Zambia.
And a lot of you know that I had the privilege of being asked to go on a missions trip to Operation I Dream in Zambia and just witnessing all of the hurt, all of the pain, all of the need that was there.
And, of course, there are people who say, "Pastor, you know, why are we sending money to help people across the country and we're not taking care of the people that are here?"
And I believe that we can walk in two directions. We can come at the same time.
And so we support our local missionaries that are here and we support what's happening across the world. But being there myself, I've seen it.
And I've seen the hurt and I've seen the need that is desperate. I was talking to Pastor Sam yesterday and I said, "Hey, I just want to let you know to this day I have a Zambian coin that's right by my water faucet. So when I wake up in the morning and I turn the water on, I see that coin and I'm reminded that there are hundreds and thousands of people in Zambia that don't have the privilege to simply turn a faucet on."
And I'm reminded of that and I'm reminded to not take it for granted and to be aware of the need that is desperate, not only here in our city, but there as well.
So I want to show you some of the things that you may know and you may not know that because of you, this church, because of your giving, because of the things that you've done, that we were able to celebrate that we did.
We have a quick video.
All right. So as we walked in, they came and they grabbed our hands and began to sing to us. And they're excited that we were there.
But I had no idea and they had no idea what Limitless was about to do.
And so as we, one of the things that we did is we donated funds and completed the construction of the only library in Indola.
And we delivered over 1,000 books to be added to this library, the only library in the city.
We raised funds to purchase and install solar water, solar panels so that we could install a solar pump so that there's constant running water at Operation I Dream, not just for the compound, but the whole town now has water because of your giving.
We extended the Mercy House. This is a place, a critical care center for the most at-risk people at I Dream.
And that green portion, that ceiling, the electricity on the inside was provided by Limitless Church.
Not only that, we delivered a 52-foot supply trailer from Sacramento, California, all the way to Africa to Operation I Dream, full of clothes, tech things, supplies.
And we got an opportunity to give over 250 backpacks with school supplies. And you see the kids walking with the very backpacks that we gave them. And we praise God for that.
And so we put candy in each of the backpacks because they don't have candy in Indola.
And what they did was they opened all of the packs, they put it all together, and they're handing out different pieces of candy. And the kids were so excited just to receive one piece of a fruit snack.
Reminding me of this scripture in Matthew 25. The king will say to those, "Come who are blessed." He said, "I was hungry, you fed me. I was thirsty, you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, you invited me to your home. I was naked, you gave me clothing. I was sick, you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me."
Then the righteous one will reply, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality, or naked and give you clothing? When did we see you sick? When did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you in prison and visit you?"
And the king will say, "I tell you the truth. When you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers and my sisters, you were doing it to me."
Look at God.
And so I want to take a second to say thank you. I believe that out of all of the things that we celebrated, this is one of the most impactful things that we were able to accomplish last year.
We saw salvations, and there is nothing that tops salvations and baptisms. And we saw visitors, and we praise God for the visitors and the new families that were here and the people that walked through this door.
But most of all, I am excited because there are people on the other side of the world that are changing the way that they see Jesus, the way that they see faith, and the way that they see the church, all because of your willingness to be generous and your willingness to give.
I met with Pastor Sam last month, and he began to share with me pictures and videos of all of the things that was taking, going on. And I said, "How are things now?"
And he said, "It's doing okay, but there's still more work to do."
And he said, "I would love to have the opportunity, if you would, to invite you back this year. We want to say thank you to you and to your church for all that."
Thank you. Thank you for all that you have done.
We want to take an opportunity to show you the progress that, because of the giving of your church, that we're able to do, the feeding project, the solar panels, the water, and there's even a garden that we now have to create fruit and create sustainment for Operation I Dream.
He said, "But I would love it if you would consider coming this year so that we can show you what's happening and show you the needs that we have."
We would love. We have this opportunity. We have this opportunity to have our kids here, but after a certain grade, they drop off because there are no colleges here.
And so it is a longstanding goal of ours to be able to start building our trade school and eventually get the opportunity to build a college so that we can train these kids beyond a high school education so that they will be equipped to go out into the world and equipped to go out into their city and know that we are here.
What it means to be sustainable and to have a trade in something that they can live on.
And I said, "All right. Well, I said, I don't know how I'm going to get it done, but I'll get it done."
And so this year, I'm taking the opportunity to go back to Indola with the blessing of our church and go back and see what God is doing.
And so if you would like to sow into that, I would love to go there. And when they show me a project, I want to say on behalf of Limitless Church, I'm here to see what's happening, but I'm also here to put our money where our mouth is.
We believe in what's happening here, and we came expecting to sow because we know that God gives seed to the...
All right. And so in your giving, above your tithes and offering, there's a spot there for missions. So please, from today, it should be open. You have an opportunity to give to that.
And so I'm excited about the opportunity to continue being the hands and feet of Jesus in Indola, and so that they can have another opportunity to say, "Look at God."
Look at God.
All right. If you would, welcome Miss Becky up here with me.
Becky, I've secured the chair. Yes.
Yesterday, I wasn't sure if these chairs would make it, but Joel made a way out of no way, and we're here.
There we see. Sustainability. Won't He do it?
All right. So I wanted to invite Becky here. We are talking about looking at all the things that God has done, and one of the things that God has done is God brought Becky.
And, yeah, that's worth being excited about. So I'm grateful for it. Hallelujah.
Y'all don't want me up here singing a long time. You don't want that.
But I'm so grateful that you're here, and I know that you joined us last year, and I know that God did some amazing things just in that transition period.
So if you could talk to me for a little bit about what that season was. You're out of place. You're leaving. You come to a new place. You're not sure. You don't know what to expect. The whole thing going on there.
So tell me quickly. Talk to me about that. Tell me about that experience. Go for it.
Wow. Come on.
Right? Every. Wow. What? Give up. Say that again, because they missed that. Can you say "Wow"?
And that's Proverbs. No, no. That's where was that? Jeremiah 29, seven, seven. Yes, sir. Mark that Jeremiah 29, seven. Bookmark that. Come on, Jesus.
So when I tell people, because, you know, I say that y'all know this and say, "Hey, you're welcome to be, you know, thank you that you're here." But you were set up.
There it is. To our young adult ministry. Out to the women's ministry. That ministry. She's pretty cool.
Let me jump in, because one of my questions is, can you share a moment where you experience the presence of God?
Now, when I felt I heard the Lord tell me to start Limitless and talking to my wife and I said, "Lord, what is the difference?" And He said, "The power is going to be there."
And I said, "Oh, I just can't tell people that the power is going to be there because that's weird."
And so what does that mean? And He broke it down. He said, "It's going to be you're going to have the practical understanding of the word. You're going to be a church that emphasizes outreach, going to be a church that learns that worship is a lifestyle, not a moment in a service, is going to be operating in excellence. And then there's going to be rest."
And so He said, "The power is going to be there."
And so I believe that the thing that keeps people here and keeps coming back is the presence of God. And it is apparent.
And it changes people's lives.
So talk to me about a moment where you encounter the presence of God here in this church, that whether it's solidified that decision, whether it solidified where you were or your relationship with God.
Can you talk to me about that moment and what it did?
Sounds like the young adult ministry is on fire. I really love it. I love this story.
Young, wow. Yesterday, I got a chance to talk to our visioneers and we talked about being in proximity.
And this is what it reminds me of. And we talked about how when you're in proximity to Jesus and you're in proximity to others, there's this opportunity for you to be lifted up and lift others up in those moments.
And the one thing I love about what you said is there was an opportunity in community for me to be vulnerable, to share what was going on with me, for them to share what was going on with them.
And then we pray because people don't like being vulnerable because we scare somebody going to know our business and we scare somebody is going to judge us for what's going on in our life or look down at us or look at us crazy.
But what you're saying or what I hear you saying is that you were able to in that moment, push those things aside. Be humble, be open, be transparent, share what was going on with you, them to share what was going on with them.
And you were in that moment able to lift one another up. And that happened as a result of you being in community.
That is what I felt like. And then not only that, but the presence of God met you there.
See, that is amazing. That is powerful. Because so many people, they're trying to do it on their own.
They want to come to church experience, walk out the door. I'll see you next week.
Until the moment when they come in one Sunday, bawling, crying because the enemy is attacking them.
And then they want to run to the altar, which is I'm not discrediting that at all.
But how much better is it is when the enemy starts? There's somebody you could pick up the phone and say, "Hey, I need you. I need you to pray for me. I need you to pray with me. I need you to love on me."
Right? That's what community is about.
And let me tell you something. We love Aunt Ruby here at Limitless.
Yeah, I set that up.
But everybody can't call Aunt Ruby. You can't. At some point, the phone going to go to voicemail. Aunt Ruby going to be like, "I got to call you back, baby."
No, don't. Why would you say that?
Community is the people that are closest to me. It's the people that I've developed a relationship with. Not just one person, but it's these people that I'm developing this life with that I can call and I can say, "Hey, such and such, I'm going through. Could you pray for me? Hey, such and such. I got this situation going on. Would you mind interceding for me? Would you mind interceding with me?"
And it's these moments that you get to experience that, but it only happens in community.
Before you go, I want to ask for the person that still may be feeling it out.
So I asked today, you know, Lana popped a balloon. Too hot, girl. You got to move away from it. You got to move away from them things.
But we asked today, was there anybody here who may be here for the first time?
And there may be people here on their first week, on their second week, on their third week. And they're still just trying to feel it out.
They're not sure of what to expect. You're coming to a new church. You're not sure what's going to happen. You're not sure what somebody's going to say. You're not really sure of what's going on. It's not clear.
You may be anxious about coming from a church. Maybe there's some church hurt that's involved. Maybe there's some experience that you had. You're not even sure about Jesus.
And you come into this building. Everybody's happy. They're touchy-feely. It's a whole bunch of going on. And you're not sure what's happening.
What would you say? Because you've walked through those moments and you've walked through that season.
What would you say to the person that's in that moment? To the you from December and January of last year. What would you say to them today?
Like, not only His presence. Wait, no, no, no. Don't move that. Don't move past that.
That's. I'm so lonely. I'm so lonely with people.
Keep going.
I don't got time. I got to get them out of here. Go ahead.
I'm going to put a pin in that for next week. Go ahead.
On, look at God. Look at God.
I know I said that was the last question, but I got one more. And I think this is important.
When I see you worship, and our leaders can attest to this, more so when you're not leading, but when you're just playing or maybe you're singing background, your worship, the way that you worship is significant.
Right? And I've always loved that about you, that even in the background, you're going in.
And it looks like that there's this moment between you and God that you're having on. And we just get to peer in and be a part of it.
And I think that is amazing.
How do we get there? Because a lot of times we come in with things and we're just sitting there and it's like we're watching a show.
And I don't think that's what God desires. I think God desires for all of us to be in that moment together.
But you're on stage. You had songs to practice. You had to rehearse those songs, learn the notes, changing keys at the last minutes, all of these things.
And you're in that moment and you're playing and it looks like you are there in heaven and you are just you and God and you're giving it your all.
For those of us that are out here, what caused you to be able to get there up here?
So that while we are, when we're down here, we can get there. What was it?
Yeah. Yeah. Come on.
Oh, look at God. Look at God.
Um, we appreciate you. We thank God for bringing you here with us to us. The gift that He is giving you to lead in worship and the lifestyle of worship that you encompass.
And we're appreciative of that. And I cannot thank you enough for choosing Limitless as your home.
And I'm excited to see all that God has done and is going to continue to do in your life.
Can we make some noise for Miss Becky?
It is amazing. All the things that God is doing in the lives of His people.
And all that He's done in this church.
I have a quick video. It's just a minute, 30 seconds. Just a recap of some of the things that we experienced last year. Let's show that.
You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying?
And see what God has done, the amazing things He's done for His people.
There's something amazing that happens here every single week in this church.
And I think that when we take the time to honor God, to hear His word, to obey Him, when we desire His presence, when we desire to hear from Him, we encounter the presence of the Lord.
And He delights. And He shows up in ways that we could never imagine.
People come in and they wonder why. Why is everybody excited? Why is everybody happy? Why are people trying to touch me? And why they keep saying hello?
Somebody said hello once. Why is everybody saying hello to me?
But it's because we have experienced enough "look at God" moments for ourselves.
We've experienced enough "look at God" moments that have happened in the lives of others that we know that whatever you walked in here with, you don't have to leave here with it.
And whatever is happening, we know a God that can handle whatever it is that you're dealing with.
That's why we happy.
That's why we happy.
Why? Because we know you got set up and we know what God is about to do in your life.
You came through the door. It's over for you. It's over.
He's about to wreck your life like never before if you let Him.
Isaiah 43 says, "Listen carefully. I am about to do a new thing. Now it will spring forth. Will you not be aware of it? I will even put a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert."
When I look at that scripture, oftentimes we look and we want to see the things like, "What is God going to do? Oh, I want to see, is it going to be revival? Is it going to be this? Is it going to be that?"
What I've come to realize is the new thing that He does in most of us is in our heart.
It's not outward things that He does. It's the things He's doing on the inside of us.
He's creating new hearts. He's creating new minds. He's creating new desires.
He's creating people that love Him, that love His word, that love His people.
He's creating in us new things.
Ezekiel 36 says, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh."
We have these moments to say, "Look at God."
Lamentations 3 says, "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness."
Look at God.
Well, I'm excited. I'm excited because even though we celebrated all the things that God did last year, today, we get to celebrate something He's doing in the lives of people today as we celebrate baptism.
Can we make some noise?
And so if you are getting baptized today, would you go ahead and make your way to my left along that side wall?
I'm going to ask the worship team to come up right now, and they're going to lead us in worship.
A public declaration for Jesus. They're having this moment to say, "You know what? I am going public in my faith. I've made a decision to love God. I've made a decision to walk with Him, and now I'm making a decision to know Him for who He is. And I'm going to go down old, but when I come up, I come up brand, brand new."
So can we celebrate? Can we celebrate those people? Come on.
And so as they're preparing, our worship team is going to lead us in worship right now.
And do me a favor. As you see people going in, as you see people coming up, can we celebrate them? Can we make some noise and rejoice with them for all that God is doing?
Come on, Becky, let's do it.
Can we make some noise for those that got baptized today?
This is the beginning of a new journey for them.
And it's an opportunity not just for us to witness, but to encourage them, to walk with them.
When we see them, when we think of them, to pray for them. Just a quick, "Hey, I'm praying for you. Hey, hey, I love that you're here. I love that you're walking with God. I'm praying for you. I'm thinking about you."
It can go such a long way. You have no idea the stories and the testimonies of these people that went from death to life today.
So we have a responsibility as a family to hold them up.
We have a responsibility to be in proximity to them.
So as they're walking through life, whether they're on the peaks or they're in the valleys, we can remind them, "Hey, you made a public declaration to follow Jesus. And we're here to support you."
We're not saying that it will be easy, but we're saying you don't have to do it alone.
And we're here for you. And we're here with you.
And I think that's something worth celebrating. Can we make some noise again for? Hallelujah.
I'm going to have our ushers come forward at this time.
And I, again, an opportunity to show our gratitude.
This idea that we say, "God, not only are we observing all that you did last year, but also all you're doing this year. And out of a heart of gratitude, we're choosing to give our tithes. We're choosing to give our offering. We're choosing to be generous. We're choosing to give towards missions, whatever it is, God, I am giving seed to the sower. And I'm planting this seed in good ground."
God, thank you.
I'm just taking this opportunity to show my gratitude because you've been so good.
I'm not just talking about it. God, I want to do something about it. You've blessed me. You've blessed my family. You've blessed me with resource. You blessed me with the job. You blessed me with the ability to go to work and continue to go to work.
God. So I just want to say thank you.
And I get to worship you in the area of my giving.
And I want to say thank you.
This is why the scripture says He loves a cheerful giver.
Why? Because a cheerful giver recognizes that he has something to be glad about.
Why am I giving? I'm just glad at what God has done. I'm glad for what He continues to do. I'm glad that He continues to bless me and give me the breath of life.
I'm glad He continues to cover me.
And out of that gratitude, I give. It is a response of my gratitude.
Not because it's giving time. Not because I came to church, not because I've been in church all my life and this is what you're supposed to do.
No, no, no, no. That's habit. That's just because.
No, I'm doing this because He's been good to me.
He's been good to me.
And I recognize that in the big ways or the little ways.
That's why I make a decision to give.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you for the opportunity to sow. Thank you for the opportunity to worship you in the area of our giving.
God, thank you for those that made a decision to go public through baptism today.
Thank you for all the testimonies that we heard of the things that happened last year.
Thank you for this, the Becky's in our congregation that you have moved dynamically in their life in a major way.
And it is because of that we give today. So that more people can be reached so that we can continue to be the hands and feet of Jesus.
We honor you. We thank you. In Jesus' name.
The three ways to give here at Limitless. If you're watching online, you can go to limitlesswoodland.com or text the word "Give" to 833-879-0161.
If you're here with us, the buckets will come. Go pass. There's an envelope there. And there's also a QR code on the seat pocket in front of you. You can feel free to use that.
They're going to lead us in worship one more time. As that bucket goes by, would you stand for me? And let's worship together one last time.
Hallelujah.
Very quickly, before we dismiss, I don't want to assume that everybody is good. But I want to make sure that we have an opportunity to present Jesus.
And so if you've never made Jesus the Lord of your life, no walking, no moving at this time, if you've never made Jesus the Lord of your life, then we want to offer you the opportunity to do that today.
The reason that we're so excited, the reason that we're in awe of all that God has done is because He's at home in our hearts.
God loved you so much that He sent His Son to die for you.
That He looked through the corridors of time, He saw you on your worst day and said, "Yes, I'm dying for you."
And He saw you in the muck, He saw you in the mud, He saw you in whatever you were in and said, "I love you. And I'm sending my Son to die because I want to be in relationship with you."
So if you've never made Jesus Christ the Lord of your life, if you never confessed Him as Lord and Savior, then we would love nothing more than to pray with you through that today.
This is why we exist, to bring people to the knowledge of the goodness and the grace of God. That is the gospel.
So if you've never done that, we would love to pray with you.
Secondly, if you're here today and you just say, "Hey, I just need somebody to stand in agreement with me. I'm believing God for something and I just need somebody to pray with me," we would love to pray with you.
Lastly, if you're here and maybe you say, "Hey, at one point in time, I did make Jesus Lord of my life. But some things happened and I'm far away from Him now."
You want to recommit your life to Jesus.
Then we would love nothing more than the opportunity to pray with you as well.
The great thing about God is it doesn't matter how far we go, He's never moved.
The idea of "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Some of us don't understand that never means never.
He says, "I haven't gone anywhere. I'm right here waiting for you."
And I imagine it like the prodigal son when the son comes home, he's at the door, waiting for his son, looking and he sees him afar off and he runs to him.
He didn't ask him what he did. He didn't ask him where he came from and all the things that he did. He wrapped his arms around him and loved him.
And he says, "Welcome home. Glad that my son was once dead, but he is now alive."
So if you would like to recommit your life to Jesus today, we would love nothing more than to pray with you and walk with you through that as well.
And Mike said, "Hey, you know, if there's people and he is on him. He said, if there's people who maybe still feel like they want to get baptized, the water's hot."
He said, "He's willing to do some baptisms."
So I said, "Hey, if somebody want to get baptized, I'm down for spontaneous baptisms."
So we offer you those things. But most importantly, we want you to know that we love you. We thank you for being here.
Limitless at Limitless, your home and your family.
And I'm excited about all that God is going to do in this year, in your life, in your homes, in your families, in your marriages, in your finances.
I'm excited that you will have moments to say, "Look at God. Look at what the Lord has done."
Heavenly Father, thank you for these people here and those that are watching online.
I thank you for all that you are doing in the lives of your people.
Thank you that we have moments. We have moments to just acknowledge you for who you are and how good you've been in our lives.
You are faithful and just, even when we are not.
And as we leave this place today, God, would you just be with us? Would you keep us? Would you hold us until we meet again next week?
In Jesus' name, amen.
We got communities going on during the week. If you're not a part of one, sign up to be a part of one.
If you're new here, I would love to meet you at the connection table.
Next week, we're starting a new sermon series called "Better." We're talking about better relationships, better families, better marriages, and a better life in Jesus.
God bless you. And don't forget, live what? God bless. God bless.
on Jan 26, 2025
