Man, welcome this morning and, uh, you've made it 2025 and the very first Sunday you are in church. Let's celebrate that. Give it up for yourselves. You're here. Alright, now listen, you're gotta start the way you're gonna finish.

So 50 more, more 51 more Sundays. You're gonna be right here with us. And here's what we wanna do. 21 days of prayer. And so let's start out the very first time we come together, right after we worship, let's pray together.

Let's do it. Let's pray. God, I thank you, God, I thank you for this church, for this movement. I thank you for the chance to be together, all the different places we could be on a Sunday morning. God, I thank you that we are in these different rooms and we don't want to just gather together.

We want your spirit to be here with us. And so, God, as we just take a minute to reflect back and look back on 2024, God, I thank you for all the things that you did. I thank you for the stories of baptism. I thank you for the stories of life change. I thank you for the Wednesday nights, the homes that have been filled with families.

I thank you for the Sunday nights, the campuses that have been filled with students. God, I thank you for all the invitations that went out this year and for the new people that have walked onto our campuses and into our church. But God, as we look ahead, we pray for your favor. We pray for healings. We pray for miracles.

We pray for people who are far from Christ to come close to you. We pray that you would do a movement in our hearts and in our lives. And it would start today. It's in your name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Listen, I uh, I don't remember a ton from pre-marriage counseling. It's, it's been almost 20 years ago for me, but I was real excited. You know, I was ready to get married. And so you're a little distracted when you're sitting in, in pre-marriage counseling, but it's a, it's a good thing.

You need to do it. And, and I remember it. Remember one thing, okay? I remember one of the sessions that we kinda had together and we were in Tupelo, my wife's from Tupelo. We were sitting at Harrisburg Baptist Church and we were sitting with Brother David.

Now listen, brother David is an amazing man, but I'm just gonna tell you, I don't wanna be brother Craig. Okay? Can I just be Craig? No shame on the brothers out there, but it, it's okay. So Brother David said this, he said, I need you guys, right?

We're young, we're not married yet. Pre-marriage. I need you to remember these four words. These are gonna be four words that you're gonna need in your marriage. Not today's not on marriage, but this is for free.

Here's the four words I want you to remember. I need you to two. He said, I need you guys to get comfortable saying this to each other. I need you too. Now, many of you're gonna practice that this afternoon, you know, but I need you too.

Here's what I need you to do today. You ready? I need you to be brand new today. I need you, no matter if you grew up in church or you didn't grow up in church, if you were baptized this year, if you were baptized a long time ago, if you are far from God and you've just heard things about church and you've walked into the Jones County campus today, and this is your first time, I need you. All of you, everyone that's sitting here and listening to my voice, even if you're listening this week while you're running or working out and driving, I need you to be new again.

I don't need the culture of church that you grew up in to damage or to leave an impression on you as to what church is gonna be like today. I don't want last year to affect you when it comes to how you lean in this year. If we were brand new and all we had was this book, what would we do in 2025 as a church? 'Cause we're new again. I mean, just like our folks that just got baptized.

Such a cool picture. Some of you remember, if you're new, if this is your brand time, you, you, you're going, what did y'all just do to those, those students? Why did you dunk them under the water? Remember, you're new. Listen that this was them making a decision to follow Christ.

This is you. This is your very first time to come together. First time this year. And we're gonna look at a couple things in Scripture to begin to see. This is what we do.

If all we had was this book, what would we do in 2025? Here we go. We're gonna find out today. I want you to join me. We're gonna be in Acts two.

And this is the beginning of the church. Now, there's a couple things about the Book of Acts you need to know because it, it's, it's, it's kind of, people say it's the fifth Gospel because it comes right after Matthew, mark, Luke, and John and Luke. The same one that wrote the Gospel of Luke also wrote Acts. And it's about the beginning of the church. Now there's a couple of verses that I want you to see because, to kind of set it up, because Acts two is where we are.

But one of the things that happens before we get to Acts two is what we call Pentecost. Now, Pentecost was just the coming of the Holy Spirit. It is when the church began to live out the Holy Spirit because Jesus had left. He'd been ascended. This happened about 50 days after he went to the cross.

And he goes to heaven. But he leaves us his Holy Spirit. And now Peter, in Acts one, in the beginning of Acts two, he's preaching to a room that looks a lot like your room in Stone County. It looks like a lot like this room at Lincoln Road. It looks like the hunt club.

He's just got a group of people that have gathered together and he begins to give this message. Now, here's some things that he says in his message that leads to the beginning of the church. Here's, here's one of the things he said. He says, and anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Now that's a great verse to hold onto this year as we're starting.

We're brand new in our faith. He says, one of the things you need to know, he says, if you just call on the name of the Lord, you can be saved. You means you. It means whoever. Here's another thing that he said.

He said in the same message to the very first church. He said, just repent and be baptized. Now this is so cool because you see this every Sunday. You're new and you're wondering what's going on in the water. Well, it's just a sign.

It's a marker in these people's lives and in your life that you've decided to repent, which just means to turn and begin to walk a different direction. Be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, forgiveness of your sins, and then you'll receive this gift of the Holy Spirit. Now we have that gift today, the very first church that we're learning from, and this church, venture church and whatever sea church you're in that's worshiping Jesus, we have this gift that we get to use day in, day out in 2025 called the Holy Spirit. Here's another thing he said in his little message, uh, those who accept his message while they were baptized, just like you saw today, just like 283 of you were this past year And about 3000 were added to that number that day. Now let's be real.

How long did that church, sir? 3000. They were there all day long. We thought we were doing something with 283 people being baptized. This first church, man, my man Chad, you better get ready.

You're gonna host a lot of people. They baptized 3000 that day. Don't let anybody ever give us a hard time. 'Cause we're baptizing too many people. We got a long ways to go.

This first church saw 3000. This is who we wanna be. We wanna be this movement. And you're new again. So what do you do now?

Alright, acts two, let's see what we do now, this is what the first church did. Acts two starting in verse 42. They, the very first church devoted, it's a pretty powerful word, I think that may be our family's word for 2025 to be devoted. They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe.

And many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. I wanna be a part of this church. All of the believers were together. They had everything in common. They were, they were selling their possessions in their goods and they gave to one another as they had need every day.

They continued to meet together in the temple courts, but then they also broke bread in their homes and they ate together. I love these two words right here with, with gl and sincere hearts. Such a cool picture of the church. They were glad they, it was a happy, I mean, come on. They had, they were sincere.

They were praising God and they were enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. Now, that's, that's no real surprise. I mean, if you can walk into a place where you're seeing miracles and they have these glad and sincere hearts and they're meeting each other's needs and they're in community, of course they were adding each to the number daily. Three things that we need to define us in this church because we're brand new.

You can take away all of the things that have happened in the past because we're gonna go back to this book and figure out what we need to do in 2025. Here's the very first thing. We need to be devoted to God's word. We need to be devoted. We need to be committed to, We need to be dedicated to being in God's word.

It's our anchor here. Here's this brand new group of people. Guys remember, it's 3000 of them. They've just been baptized and they come from all these different places. They'd come in for a big festival and then the Holy Spirit moved.

The only thing they had in common was this new decision to follow Christ. So they needed to speak a common language. What was it? It was the, it was the story of Jesus. That's what held them in common.

So that's me and you. We may be a different age, we may be a different generation. We may come from different backgrounds. We might have grown up in church. We might not have grown up in church.

But the thing we have in common, the thing we're both passionate about is the anchor, which is God's word now. Now you need a, a couple things to help you with that because I'm, I'm telling you, I'm, this is gonna connect with you because I, I get where you are. The first thing you need is a place. And I wanna show you my place. 'Cause here's, here's my place in the mornings.

This is, this is my place, uh, when I begin to get in God's word. Now I got a couple things going on. I'm really proud about this. I've become a coffee drinker and it just feels like the right thing to do. It's a 45-year-old and that's a pastor, right?

Those two crowds drink coffee. I drink more creamer than coffee, but I drink coffee. Alright? Yeah, yeah. And, uh, here's a cheat.

I use a protein drink, so I feel really good about it. Okay? Alright. So I got my coffee. I I do it.

I like a little devotional. I read a devotional. It just, it just, it sometimes it helps me. And, and the one I just finished last year, this is a great one if you need one. I did the New Morning Mercies by Paul David Trip.

Okay? And I, I, I, you know, it's not a commercial for him, I'm just telling you that's what I used and I really enjoyed it. There's one for every day. And, and then I open up God's word and, and I used the Bible reading plan, the one that venture does. You can do what?

Any of 'em, you, you, you version apps got all these different Bible reading plans. There's something cool about the church. Remember this first church, they were devoted. The thing they had in common was God's word. So there is something powerful for us staying in God's word together.

So it, it kind of works like this. Like I, I call up my buddy Matt Thomas on the way to school, and I say, Hey, what are you reading? He's, I got the Bible reading plan going right now. It's just playing on my ride to school on 5 89. And now we have something in common because that same day Matt and I read the same Scripture and we ask each other what stood out to you.

We do this on Wednesday nights when we're in house church, and we, and we talk about, hey, what, what stood out? Because we're all reading the same thing. So I'm just inviting you. How cool would it be this Sunday next year? Because if you walk through this with us, you will have read Psalms, Proverbs, and the whole New Testament.

Wouldn't that be a cool testimony to say over 2025, I became a student of God's word. That these are the things that are in my place. And then I have a journal and, and in my journal it, every day it just looks like soap. You, you kind of heard that earlier. S is for Scripture of whatever I read that day.

Here's the verse that stood out to me. The O is the observation. Here's what was going on in that observation. The A is the application. And then on the P part, I just, I write out my prayer.

I write out my prayer for that day. It's really short. It's really simple. But I want you to have this because you need it. We need something to come back to.

We need something that we're doing together. It goes Monday through Friday, you get to rest on Saturday, and then we're here together on Sunday. But this word, God's word was their anchor. It was what gave them strength to persevere. It was the thing they had in common.

Listen to the way that the psalmist describes God's word, because I feel like there's a little bit of a divide here. This is the way, this is the way the psalmist talks about God's word. How sweeter your words to my taste sweeter than honey to my mouth? Do you see that passion for the word when they're talking about the word? It's not like, Hey look, there's this book up on the shelf.

It used to be my grandmother's. I think my grandfather left some notes in it. No, he says, he says it. It's, it's sweet. My, he says, your words a lamp to my feet and a light into my path.

Like today, like in 2025, when I'm trying to make decisions and I'm praying about things and I'm anxious about things, I go to God's word because it's a, it's a lamp and it's a light to my path. But here's the last one. I've hidden your word in my heart that I might not send against you. Like it's gotta be in there. And, and just, just coming in for a 28 minute message that's based off of God's word may not do it for you for the whole week.

I want you to be a self feeder. I want you to get in God's word. Now, I, I love this because for each one of these, there's only three. I asked our team, I sent out a little message to our team and I said, what's gonna be the biggest obstacle that people are gonna face? Because if I asked you, everybody in here would say, yeah, I'd love to get into God's word this year.

So I asked him, I said, what's gonna be the biggest obstacle? Look at this. Here's what the biggest obstacle is. Intimidation. I thought this was such a powerful quote.

This is what our staff person, this person's on staff, the obstacle for me in the past has been I'm intimidated. I, I was very intimidated by the Bible. Learning how to read the Bible has been life changing. I've become a student of God's word after I learn how to study and absorb it. What I'm telling you is you can do it, but you're gonna have to be intentional.

Jump on this Bible reading plan with us and begin to get in God's word. It's what the very first church did. Now, the second thing they did was they were devoted to prayer. Alright? Now, here's what I love about you.

We're we already have common ground there. You pray. I know you pray. If you've got a teenage driver like I do, you pray every time they get in the car. Come on.

If you're a deer hunter, you pray like I did on Tuesday. I was hunting, I was praying. God, send out a big buck. You pray, you go to a doctor's office, you get a diagnosis. You wait on that iris account.

You look at your bank account, you pray, you're married, you pray. But the idea, the thing that separates maybe the way we pray and the way this church prayed is it says, remember that word that we started with? I told you it may be my word for this year. They were devoted to prayer. See, that's different.

That's different than just a blessing. And a maybe before you go to bed so you can fall asleep. And I'm, I'm not making you feel guilty about your prayers. I'm just, I'm telling you that there, there may be a different way. Because this first church, they were devoted to it.

They were committed to it. Uh, there was more than something that they did casually. They did this regularly and consistently and persistently. Now, as soon as I said I was gonna preach on this Acts two passage. I love this.

And my, my man Kyle said, hold on before you get into Acts two, make sure you connect the dots to Acts one. And I thought, well, what do you mean? I'm, I'm talking about, here's the things I want to stand out this year. I want it to be, uh, you know, God's word and, and prayer. And then the last one's gonna be fellowship.

I'm, I'll tell you a little bit more about it in a minute. He said, but look, before Acts two, don't forget to show everybody what happened in Acts one. Now look at this verse in Acts one, and this will explain to you what happens in Acts two. Acts two was the revival. Acts two was the thing that you and I want.

Remember, 3000 people were saved. It was the longest day in church ever. But look what happened in Acts one. So before the revival happens, here's what happened. They all joined together constantly in prayer.

Now, here's a really humbling thing. Hold this screen for me, Stephen. Do you know how many people are on our prayer team? Listen, I can't, I I I need to know some of those numbers. For each campus, for Lincoln Road, we, we'll have between 1500, 1600 adults.

You know how many on my prayer team? I think I got eight. But do anybody wanna see revival next year? Yeah, of course we do. Well, we got, we gotta start praying.

I got one of my house churches that decided on the first day of the year, they'd come up here and just pray around our campus men. It's the foundation of our prayers that moves things. They prayed along with the women in Mary and the mother of Jesus and with all of his brothers in Acts one, before everything happened in Acts two, it was the foundation of their prayers. What's that gonna look like for us? What are we gonna pray about this year?

What are we gonna ask God to do? When you think about movement on Sunday nights and all of these students coming together, what if we had a team of people that said, I wanna just show up and pray. What about Sunday morning before these seats were filled at every campus, we had people coming through and just praying for a movement. I mean, we won Acts two, but we've gotta start with Acts one. And we gotta be committed to prayer.

You can do this. Listen, the early church, when they were fearful, they prayed. When they were confused, they prayed. When they were waiting, they prayed. When they were searching for answers, they prayed.

I started thinking about prayer in my life because I I, I'll be honest with you, this is an area I want to grow in. And I remember being convicted about this early on in, in our marriage. We lived in Clinton and, and there was a family in Clinton that we had watched their kids all growing up. Like we went to Mississippi State with their kids. Like I knew they had four kids, this family, but the parents lived in Clinton.

Now me and Katie lived in Clinton. We were newlyweds and we started thinking about this family. And there was things about this family that we loved. They, they were the copes was his name. It was Dr.

Cope. And, and I love what I saw from his grandkids and his kids. I love the way that as, as grandparents and his parents, the way they, they took care of their family. So I, I invited him to lunch, me and Katie. 'Cause we were brand new married, we just started having kids.

And we just wanted to know the secret. Like, I want a family that looks like yours one day. Dr. Cope, what did you do? That was the question I asked him.

I was brand new dad. He had four kids. He was a granddad. Give me the secret. Can I tell you the very first thing he said, you already know it.

He said, we prayed. And when he said it, I felt, I felt disappointed. 'Cause I wanted to have to go buy something. I wanted to have to go do something. But, but what he said was that no, no, no.

We, we were a student of prayer. We prayed for them. So Kay and I tried to do that together. But can I tell you the second thing? 'Cause the second thing was a lot of fun.

He said, we vacation together. Now we're doing a great job on that. But he said, every vacation we took, we memorize Scripture together. What a great idea. So he said, every trip we took, if we were going to the beach, then we read something about the oceans and God's creation.

If we're going to the mountains, we read something about him creating the mountains and they memorized it together as a family. Man, I wanna be better at that. I want you to join me in this and let us begin to pray. Now, let's be real honest with each other. I think we're living in what has to be one of the most hardest times to pray.

We're never bored. Every red light you do like I do, you pull out your phone. Every blank space, you just begin to surf. You begin to get, so we're gonna have to be intentional. We're gonna have to do some things different.

I love this analogy. John Mark Comer writes about this. He, he says, prayers like a portal. And I've used this before. You've seen it Where the doorway.

And he says, when you pray, because I want you to see this image because it's different. It's like you're walking into a different space. It's like, just like the athletes do. Hey, I'm kind of tired of things over here at Mississippi State, so I'm gonna get through the portal. Go over Zoom.

But we saw the whole Marshall team get into the portal, headed down to Hattiesburg this year. It's okay. They're changing the space. They're going to a new place. When you pray, it's like you're getting into the portal and you're getting into this portal and you're leaving the craziness and the hecticness, all the voices, all the to-do, you're leaving everything about the chaos of this world.

And you're stepping into a place that's full of rest and peace and comfort and grace and mercy. M remember the word that describes the Holy Spirit? He's, he's a great counselor and comforter. That's what I'm inviting you into. It's this invitation.

Look, look how Paul describes it. Remember Paul's in jail and he needs a little bit of peace in his life. This is what he says about prayer and the power of prayer. Watch this, it's coming. Philippians four, six.

It says, do not be anxious about anything. Now, this isn't getting on to you for being anxious. This is just presenting you a new way. Here's a new option. Uh, but in every situation by prayer and petition with Thanksgiving, present your request to God.

It's an invitation that you've gotten that I've got, I started doing that this year just honestly with our budget. Towards the end of the year, I started getting nervous and I'm, God laid this on my heart, said, Hey, listen, would you just present this to God? And, and listen, you guys gave, man, you did. You, you, you're so generous. But I was nervous.

I was anxious. I don't know what you're nervous and anxious about. I'm just inviting you in to take those requests to God. Here's the biggest obstacle. Remember, each one's got a biggest obstacle.

Here's the biggest obstacle you're gonna face in this. One biggest obstacle in becoming a person of prayer is feeling of guilt. You ever feel guilty for not praying enough? Yeah. You ever feel like you're not good enough?

Prayer? Don't pick me. I I don't pray. I don't get paid to pray. Don't pick me.

Here's a, here's a really good quote. This is, this is from one of our ladies on staff and I, and I love her. This is what she said. Overcoming had to overcome the mindset that was installed in me from a very young age. That being devoted to prayer and God's word looks like you have to get up early before everyone else in the house each day and sit in a quiet place to have a structured quiet time, which leads to a feeling of failure.

Her see, I, I want you, I want to help you move past that. If you look at 2024 and you go, Hey, I, I bombed this, I failed this. God doesn't wanna meet me. No. That's not the God that we serve.

That feeling of failure and shame may be the thing that's keeping you from getting into a relationship with him. Listen, the way I do this, I pray out all kind of different ways. I pray in the car, I pray, walk in my dog. I pray when I'm on runs because I'm, you know this, I'm a DD, I can't just sit there and pray. I go to sleep.

So I have to be structured and I have to be intentional. I have to write. But you can do it once you become a person of prayer. Now here's, here's the third thing. It's the last one.

You've done so good. This is who we're gonna be. These are the three things. That's a brand new church. This is who we're walking into.

We're not gonna do AANAs, we're not gonna do royal ambassadors. We're not gonna do GA's. We're gonna do exactly what we read right here. Those things aren't bad. Here's the third thing.

They were committed to you ready fellowship. It's right there. They were committed to God's word. They were committed to prayer and they were committed to fellowship. Now that's real different than just showing up once a month and not, and I'm not picking on you if you're here for the first time, this kind of a rough one, on the very first Sunday of the year, I don't listen.

I'm not against the come and see. We want you to come and see. But if we go back to what they did, then that church looked a little bit different than the church in the west today. They were devoted to one another. They were like a team.

This is so cool. These 3000 had just made this decision. And so now they're having to walk into this whole new way of life where they're facing persecution, where they're stepping out of the way of the old and they've begun to do this new thing. And so now the people that they have to meet those needs, is it their family of origin? It's the new 3000.

So they start looking around in this group of 3000 and they start going, well, some, who's gonna be good at this? Who's a good teacher? Who's gonna meet this needs? Who's a good investor? Who's a good coach?

Who's the one that's a servant who's just gonna meet these needs to be quiet? This 3000 was their new team to do life with together. It's us. That's our church. We're the team that we have in this movement in this day.

This is where God has you and we need you. Let me encourage you, lemme give you an example. I want you to see this. This is, this is my buddy Chad and, uh, Chad's at the Lincoln Road Campus and, and he's here today in this hour. And many of you know, Chad, if you were baptized here, you probably met Chad.

But Chad's a great example of someone who's just using his gifts to bless our team. Everybody that's baptized at Lincoln Road, they start out and, and they meet a guest services team member and they meet Chad and Chad's really gifted at remembering names. And so he takes this moment where you're pretty anxious because you're about to make this huge decision. And, and he just walks with you through that morning. And then he remembers your name and he sees you and he calls you by name.

And he helps your family get comfortable in that environment. He's found a role, he's found a way to serve his church. There's so many examples of that at every campus. Man. People that week after week serve our kids and, and hold our kids and pray over our kids.

Oh, come on man. Our adults that come back on Sunday nights for movement. Man, many of you listen, many of you, for the first time this year, you gave, you gave financially towards this. I, I don't know what your role is, but what I'm challenging you is this church was devoted to each other. And if you're a part of this team and you're just kind of coming in and coming out, we're missing your gift.

Like we're incomplete. You, you know when you're sitting there with your baseball team and you're like, Hey, just wait, hold on. Hey, hey, he's coming. He's gonna be on the mound this week. Hey, he's gonna be on the mound.

He's gonna pitch. And he is so good. And then you get to game day and he just doesn't show up and the team's going. And I don't know what happened to him sometimes that's how that, sometimes that's how we feel. And so I'm challenging you on this first Sunday of the year to say, would you be devoted, devoted to this family?

I, here's another reason why you need to be devoted. You need people to save you from. You see, it's not just about serving and doing all these other things. Sometimes you need people that will step in and say, Hey, that's not a good idea. You need people that are willing to call you out and to challenge you.

You need people that are willing to encourage you. You need people that will stand with you. Married couples. You need to be around other couples that are beyond you in different stages of life that will speak into you. Parents.

You need to be around other parents that will give you hope. I saw a little family that probably right over here. Typically, they had their baby in their arms today. And I was able to tell 'em that all weekend was just Katie and I and it crushed them 'cause they were with a crying baby all weekend. But I told them, it's gonna be okay.

13 years from now, you remember my two are 13 and 16. But you need that perspective where someone can say, Hey, it's, it's gonna be okay. Listen, I'm asking you to be in friendship, to ask people how they're doing. Lemme give you a great question. You wanna, you wanna grow in fellowship this year?

Here's, here's a question for you. It's real simple. It's back to my real simple little phrases. Tell me more. What if we became the church that was known for getting to know each other and asking those simple little questions like, Hey, tell me more.

Tell me more about your story here. Here's what would be true of us. And this was true of the early church. Look at this. Wouldn't this be great if this was us by this?

Everyone, everyone in Stone County, everyone on the coast, everyone in Jones County will know that you are my disciples, by the way that you love one another. That's what the first church was devoted to. It's not rocket science. That's who they were. I want you to get to the end of this year.

Wouldn't this be powerful? What if you got to the end of 2025 and you were able to look back and say, this was a year that I grew in prayer. This was a year that I read the New Testament together with my church family. This was the year that I was devoted to fellowship. Got somebody on my prayer team and, and this has been a radical year for her.

She's single and she's gotten to be a part of a ministry. She's been in a, in a house church on Wednesday night over at the Bailey's in Lake Serene, she's gotten on our prayer team every Sunday morning she used to walk in on Sunday morning, so anxious. She would just find a little corner and she would just isolate herself. She now sings on the worship team. She's now in house church.

She's now connected to a ministry team. So I want that story for you, okay? Now, lemme tell you exactly where we're gonna go over the next couple weeks because this is gonna allow you just to trust us to come back. Okay? Next week's real simple.

We're gonna talk about what it looks like to grow in faith. Okay? Something you and I want the Bible's full of stories to people that live by faith. The next week we're gonna talk about growing in grace. Something that I wanna be able to do.

Listen, sometimes I just feel separated from God because of sin in my life. And it's haunting, it's shameful, and I wanna grow in grace. That's not the picture of God's grace. It's radical. The third week we're gonna talk about praying first, growing in prayer.

That's what you can expect from us. Here's what I'm asking of you. I want you to do what the very first church did. I want you to be devoted to God's word. I want you to be devoted to prayer.

I want you to be devoted to fellowship. Now, this is really gonna freak you out because this is very few churches do this. We're gonna practice what we just preached. All right? You can do it.

So for the next minute, we're gonna pray. Band's gonna be playing behind us. That's gonna help. And, and maybe it's gonna feel like an awkward first date where you just don't know what to say. Well, it's okay.

It's, it's, it's that way at every campus and even the person down your rose feeling the same thing. But I want to give you just one minute. I'm gonna have the verse that we talked about, that we taught from today from Paul and Philippians. It's gonna be up on the screen. And this is just your chance to pray right where you are.

It's not gonna last any longer than a minute, but it's just communication with God. That's all prayer is. Remember the portal. I want you to walk into this place and reframe it for you. This is a place of peace and a place of grace and a place of rest.

He's not angry at you. I love the quote that I showed you. Intimidation and fear. That's not it. If this is your first time to pray, if all of 2024, you drop the ball on prayer, God's not angry at you.

He is just waiting on you. I love the picture of the prodigal son, man. God is waiting. He's running towards you. So for one minute to start us off for 24 days or 21 days, I'm gonna be quiet and I'm gonna give you a chance to pray.

Chance for you to lift up the guide. Anything that you're anxious about, remember, it's the invitation to Philippians and you pray. You ready? Here we go. I'm gonna give you a chance to pray.

I'll close us out in one minute. Just one minute. You pray. Now, I Thank you so much that this would be a year that we know what we can expect. That God, you are running towards us.

You cannot wait to embrace us. God, you see us as a brand new creation. And this could be the year that you get to empower us. That God, we get to feel the presence and the gift of your Holy Spirit. That we would go back to the book and we would do exactly what they did.

God help us be people that begin to discover a passion and God, I wanna be able to say that of of me, that when I see your book, your word, it's like honey, it's like a lamp. It's like a light. It's something that's hidden deep inside of me. God, give me a passion. Give us a passion for your word.

God, may this be a year that instead of spending endless moments scrolling, instead of being distracted, instead of being fearful and instead of worrying, God, may I cast all of those anxieties on you because you care for me. God, help me go to you first. Help me pray. First this year, God, I pray that this would be a year we'd be committed to each other. That this church would be described by the way that we love one another, that we would use our gifts to be a part of this team, and that you would blow the roof off of this place with worship.

That this would be a year defined by not 300 baptisms, but 3000 because people couldn't get away. People kept coming because we cared for each other, because we loved each other, because we took time to invest in and to see the one God do more than we could ask or imagine. And it's in your name we pray. Amen.