Awaken | It Starts in Me | Jeremy DeWeerdt

All right, hello, City First, how's everybody doing today? So good to see you, happy New Year. I can't believe it's 2025, that's just kind of crazy. But anyway, this is a time of the year when a lot of us make what are called New Year's resolutions and these are times where we kind of decide that we wanna change our habits or patterns or lifestyles and that's a good thing, it really is. I read a survey last week though, that was taken in November, so just a couple of months ago and people were asked what New Year's resolutions they were gonna make in 2025 and they could choose more than one of the answers and here were their answers. 21% of them said they wanted to save more money, that's a good thing. 19% said they wanna eat more healthy, 17 said they wanna exercise some more, 15% said they wanted to lose some weight, 14% said they just need to spend more time with family and friends and significant others, 9% said they wanted to quit smoking and 9% also said they wanted to reduce spending but 43% made a resolution to not make a New Year's resolution. Which I thought was kind of funny. And here's the thing, I realize it because a lot of times we make New Year's resolutions and then we end up quitting

because we just kind of give up on it and why make another one if it's gonna just kind of end like the last year did? And so I always say, yeah, set your expectations really low and you'll hit the mark every time, right? There's actually even a day in America now, they've named it, a day when most people quit their New Year's resolution. It's actually called Quitter's Day. It's the second Friday of January. They've studied that the second Friday of January is kind of Quitter's Day and I thought, well, how awesome is our culture that we've actually named a day for quitting? But anyway, it is true that change is hard. Otherwise, if change was easy, everybody would just do it. That old saying that old habits die hard and New Year's resolutions many times are just kind of attempts to have behavior modification, right? You wanna change certain behaviors but here's the problem with that. The problem is, is when you try to just change behaviors without changing the root cause of the behavior, most of the time it doesn't work. It gives you a good couple weeks where maybe you change behavior but then you default to the root cause of what causes that behavior in the first place.

Well, here's what I believe in 2025. I believe that God wants to give you and me more than just superficial behavior modification. I believe that God wants to change us not by a resolution but by a revelation and a revolution, a revolution in our heart. In short, I believe God wants to bring revival. Now, when I say revival, I'm gonna explain that today what it means but I believe it's a personal thing that God's salvation and His Spirit's impartation does more than just change a few behaviors in our life but rather it gets on the inside and it gives us a new life. He gives us a new life and it's more than just exterior changes or behavior modification. I believe that God in short wants to bring revival to each and every one of us here at City First today whether we're watching at God Behind Bars or one of our locations or right here in good old Rockford, Illinois. I believe that God wants to do a fresh work and a move of His Spirit in our heart that's different than maybe in 2024 or 2023 or 2022. And I know this because God gives us ample opportunities to create new things in our lives or to have new starts. For example, God when He created the world, He created in such a way that we're spinning right now on this planet through space.

The sun comes up, the sun goes down, we call this a day. The moon orbits the earth every 27.3 days. I know you remember that from science class, right? The earth orbits the sun every year and God has designed, listen, He's designed in His creation new starts all the time, new beginnings. In fact, the Bible even says that every day His mercy is new for you and me. And you know what? Every month is a new chance at a new beginning. Every year we just celebrated New Year's. Every year is a new beginning. There's always a chance to start again. So I'm telling you today, City First, is your chance to start again. Heck, the Bears might even win today. You know what I'm saying? Probably not. God has built into his creation chances to start new. I love what it says in Isaiah chapter 43. God is speaking. He says, look at the new thing I am going to do. It is already happening, he said. So he's going to do a new thing in 2025 in your life. And by the way, it's already happening in the background. You just don't see it yet. I will make a road in the desert and rivers in the dry land. What he's saying there is he's going to bring life to dead things. He's going to revitalize. He's going to revive. I believe most people that are listening to me today, and most people in 2025, want to see God do an authentic work in their life. They don't just want, you know, just another rote and ritual to go through. They want a move of the Spirit of God in their life. I believe that with all my heart. Right? And here's the best news. The best news is that God wants to do a new thing in you more than you want him to do a new thing in you. He desires spiritual revival in our hearts more than we do. And over the course of this month, I had this idea months ago. I really felt like the Lord put upon my heart that January, the beginning of this year, that we were supposed to talk about being awakened or revival. I believe that this month we need to dedicate our focus to God's revival. And I'll define what that means. All right? But we're going to study various revivals that have taken place in recent history in the last 300 plus years. And we're going to talk about some of

these revivals and how they've changed the trajectory of people, of churches, of cities, some would even argue nations in the world. And so I've entitled the message series Awaken. And we're going to talk about the awakenings of God. In every single one of these awakenings that I'm going to talk about, every one of them, God was doing a distinct work in that awakening. It was very interesting. He moved in people's hearts, just like you and I. These were average Joes and Janes that he moved in their hearts, just like you and I, normal people going to work every day, having families, having friends, all those things. And God began to work. And over time, he built heaven's momentum in their generation. And he began to move in a significant way. So the three revivals we're going to focus on are these. First of all, it is the great awakening. This started in the 1730s. Then we're going to talk also about the second great awakening, really creative titling there, second great awakening. That happened in 1795. That continued until 1835. And then we're going to talk lastly about the Azusa street revival that happened in the early 1900s. So the first three weekends, we're going to focus on each of these. And then on the last weekend of the month, Charlotte Gamble will be here and she'll take us home as she kind of wraps up the revival series. And we're going to talk about God moving at city first and in our world. Now, this is not going to be a history class. I want to say that some of you that, you know, you're bored to death at history class in school or whatever. This is not going to be a history class, but I do want us to do this. I want us to look at these revivals and I want us to see what distinct move of God, what distinct theme each of them have, and maybe we can apply them to our life and say, God, what distinct theme do you have for us in 2025? How do you want to revive us in 2025? I think we got to start off by defining what is revival. You know, when Christians start talking about revival, they get excited and they should because a revival is a supernatural move of God. It's a work that creates lasting change. It changes people. It changes communities, like I said, but what exactly is revival? Let's define it according to what the word of God says in the old Testament and second Chronicles 714. It says, if my people who are called by my name will first humble themselves, and I highlighted these words on purpose because this is important. These are the elements of revival. First thing, they humble themselves and they pray and they seek my face, God says, and they turn from their wicked ways. God says at that point, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins. and restore their land.

Now, there are four elements here that we're gonna dive into just briefly. First of all, God says if my people will humble themselves. What does that mean? It means that I'm gonna stop trying to run my own life without God. All of us need to decide who God is in our life because God can be anything. God can be us. God could be material goods or money, or God could be really God. Does that make sense? We have to decide who we serve. And so God, the real God, is saying if his people will humble themselves, what that really means is that we say, God, I'm not God, and I'm not looking to other things as my source. You are God. You are in charge. I'm gonna humble myself and take second place. You are in first place. Then God says, and then they pray. Well, what does that mean? It means that we talk to God and we depend on him. If you think about it, some people are like, it's really sometimes hard to pray. Well, I think one of the reasons why it's hard to pray is because it doesn't feel like we have God answer us right away.

Like we pray something and we're waiting to hear, and maybe we don't hear him or whatever. Or secondly, just the very act of prayer means you're not in charge. You think about that? When I pray, I'm basically saying, hey, God, you are the higher power. You are the one in charge. You're my creator. You're my leader. And so I'm not those things. Does that make sense? I think sometimes that's why it's hard to pray because it's actually also an act of humility. Third thing, seek. This is important. It means that I'm going to put forth effort to build a relationship with God. Any relationship in your life, not just your heavenly relationship, but earthly relationships, every one of them requires intentionality and effort. Can I get a big amen on that, right? You don't have a great relationship with your spouse or your boyfriend or girlfriend or your best friend or your coworkers just by chance. It requires work. It requires seeking. It requires intentionality. Well, it's the same with your relationship with Jesus.

It requires us to seek him. It requires energy. Fourth thing is this, turn. This is God's way of saying, hey, we say I'm not going to try to live the way I want to live, but rather I'm going to live the way that God wants me to live. Because all of us have desires to live our own way. We want to do whatever we want to do. But God says some of those things that we want to do are not beneficial. Some of them are just not even right. So instead of doing those things, I want you to turn from those ways and I want you to live the way that you, that God says I want you to live. An old-fashioned, but it's not old-fashioned to God, it's actually a Bible term, but a old-fashioned term for this is holiness, all right? And again, holiness is not antiquated. Holiness is for us today, that we don't live just any way we want, but instead we live a holy life, which in other words is living the way that God wants us to live. Now, notice something in that verse, revival starts with God's people. The verse started off and said, if my people who are called by my name,

in other words, these are God followers. He's not talking to people that are far from faith. He's saying, you want revival? It starts in us, it starts in the Christians. We think revival is something like, all those people out there, they need to go get saved, right? Well, no, no, no, revival starts in the church. Revival starts in the Christ follower. Revival starts in the hearts of those that are believers, not those that aren't believers. Now listen, people that are far from faith will get saved when a revival comes, but the revival has already started in the hearts of Christians. Does that make sense? Simply put, revival begins in me. Can we say that on the count of three together? Ready? Revival begins in me. I didn't count to three, did I? Ha ha. The great awakening, which is the first revival we wanna look at, started because a couple of pastors were used by God in a sovereign way. They're very normal guys, but they were just pastors that were preaching and God used them. One of them is Jonathan Edwards,

and the other one is George Whitefield. Jonathan Edwards was an American Puritan, so he was a part of the Puritans. He had a preaching style that was very intellectual and theological. In fact, in other words, he would kind. of preach like this. Obviously, we don't have audio recordings of him from the 1730s, but he would just get up there and historians would say, he would just be like, and God said. And it was very just monotone, very intellectual, very theological. George Whitefield, on the other hand, was not that way. He was British. Actually, he was born in the UK, and he would travel over from the UK to the colonies often, and he would preach and he was super charismatic and fiery. He would be the kind of like pastor that's up, you know, preaching and sweating and pounding the pulpit and stuff like that. And in fact, George Whitefield conducted seven preaching tours between the years of 1739 and 1770. And historians believe that he preached somewhere around 18,000 sermons. 18,000 sermons, my goodness, I don't know the guy even had a voice after that. But God began to use these two men and a move of God happened in the American colonies. And all of a sudden, churches were growing and pastors were preaching and churches were filling up and revival literally broke out in the American colonies. But before the revival broke out, the churches were pretty much what we would say were spiritually dead. They had drifted. In fact, in the 18th century, many churches in the colonies had become pretty stale and rigid, and people would just kind of show up. And many times they were half empty. People lacked zeal. In fact, they were religious, but they lacked passion and zeal. That was one of the things that the historian said. Also, in Europe, the Age of Enlightenment had started and it was sweeping Europe and it made its way over to the colonies. What's the Age of Enlightenment? It basically was the belief system that we don't really believe that there's a God, we believe in science and philosophy. So in the colonies, people began to trust in science and philosophy only, and rejected faith in God. Also on top of that, another problem is that colonial leaders were saying that now that the colonies had become established and people actually had homes and farms and they're making money and all that kind of stuff, pretty soon their hearts were drifting

away from dependency on God and they were putting their dependency on material goods and money, especially as their economy grew. In other words, people were putting their trust in material wealth rather than God. Now hold on a second here. Churches were many times empty and kind of dry and stale. People were trusting science and philosophy only and rejecting that there's a faith in God, and people were full of materialism, putting their faith in money. Does this sound familiar to anybody? I'm just curious. Hold on. History really does repeat itself. And so God began to move because the people of the American colonies were beginning to drift away from God and churches were dead. And all of a sudden he began to move through these two men and pretty soon it caught on and there were more people in churches and pastors and parishioners and everybody's coming. And here were the results of the first great awakening. First of all, there was great unity. Secondly, they write that there was a hunger for God. Thirdly, that there was repentance that people said, forgive me, God, because I haven't been living right. And it produced forth a holiness. But here's the signature. This was, if you'd study the great awakening, here's the main thing I want to focus on today. And that is that people for the first time in their lives during the great awakening, they understood that, wait a minute, everyone has sinned, that we need forgiveness and grace from a loving God. And here to think a relationship with God is personal. It wasn't just, I go to church, but rather a relationship with God is personal and that God generously gives us a new life in Christ. And this is going to be our focus today. That the relationship that God wants with you in 2025 is not a religious experience. It's not just, I go to church. It's not just that I do a few good random acts of kindness to people, but rather instead, there's a living God that created you that knows you that wants to have a personal relationship with you. Does that make sense? It's personal. It's alive. It's real. It's not distant. It's not just a Sunday thing, but rather that God wants every single moment of your day. He's already with you, but he wants you with him. And he wants there to be a growing relationship in 2025. I actually think that's most of our prayers. I think if I were to like sit down and coffee with each of you, you'd probably say, yeah, I want God, I want him to be more real

and I probably need to do some better. And I think in short, you want a deeper, you want a more authentic and alive relationship with the one that created you. I grew up in church. That doesn't mean that I had a relationship with God though. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than going to McDonald's makes you a Big Mac. All right, do you understand that? So here's the thing, you can get fed at church, kind of like McDonald's, that's a terrible analogy. Anyway, you can get fed at church, but that doesn't mean that you just have a relationship with God. A relationship with God is something you choose. It's personal. And I grew up in church and you know what? There came a time in my life where just going to church was not enough. Like I wanted a move of God in my life. I heard other people talk about it. I heard the pastor talk about it. I needed forgiveness. I didn't feel good enough to just keep on trying to prop my life up with good works. I was failing, I wasn't perfect. I needed grace and I needed God to speak to me through his word and through his Holy Spirit. I, in essence, wanted a change and I needed a personal relationship with Jesus.

And on July 13th of 1990, I invited Jesus to become the leader and the forgiver of my life. And from that point on, everything changed. And an awakening started inside of me that it became personal. I wasn't just going to church because I went to church, but rather instead, it was alive, it was quickened, it was real. And some of us, I believe, want that in 2025. Some of us need that in 2025. Some of us that have been around church forever, we need that reduced. We need some shot of adrenaline. We need spiritually for that to fire up again, you know? The Bible says this, the Bible talks about the fact that because of Jesus dying on a cross, we can have personal forgiveness, not just he forgave the world, okay? No, he forgives you, all right? Does that make sense? Romans chapter three, verse 23 and 24 says this, since we've compiled this long and sorry record as sinners, all of us have done this, and prove that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity, he put us in right standing with himself, a pure gift. He got us out of the mess we're in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be.

And how did he do it? He did it by means of Jesus Christ. In other words, Jesus came for you. Jesus came for me, because we needed forgiveness. Not only collectively we needed forgiveness, I needed forgiveness, you needed forgiveness. I know it seems super elementary, but sometimes we need to be reminded of this. And then we gotta realize that God forgives us no matter what we've done or we haven't done. You're like, some of you, I've had people walk into church and they're like going, I don't know, I don't belong here. You don't know what I've done. I'm like, well, I don't know what you've done. I don't know if I wanna know what you've done, but I will tell you this, God knows and he wants to forgive you, no matter what. Romans chapter 10, verses nine and 10 says this. If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord, Lord means that he's ruler over all. You make him ruler over all, leader and the forgiver of your life, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved, not might be saved, you will be saved for it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved. And then we can have a relationship with God.

And this is the point I wanna make out of all these verses, all right? This last verse in Isaiah 43, I love this. It is a personal relationship. You need personal forgiveness, but then it's a personal relationship. It says in Isaiah 43, don't be afraid. I've redeemed you, God said. I've called your name. God knows you. You understand that? God knows you. You're mine. When you're in over your head, I'll be there with you. When you're in rough waters, you will not go down. When you're between a rock and a hard place, it won't be a dead end because I am God, your personal God, the holy of Israel, your savior. You can give that a round of applause, right? Your personal God. Many of us need to understand this in 2025. Many of us need to be reminded of this in 2025. God loves you, he's for you, he forgives you, and he wants to be in charge of your life. not because he is some megalomaniac God who's a control freak. It is because when God is in charge, that's the best life that you can have. He wants your relationship with him to grow this year. But it's gonna require some things,

just remember, it's gonna require humility. I'm not gonna keep on trying to run my life. It's gonna require prayer. I'm gonna talk to God and depend on Him. It's gonna require seeking. In other words, you gotta put effort into it. And also, it's gonna require turning away from some toxic habits, some toxic choices, some choices that are not beneficial or not godly, and to turn, and again, God will help you do that. He's not gonna expect you to do it on your own. He'll help you do it. And as we close, here are some ways that I believe that we can see revival in our, what does that mean? To revive, to renew, to create new inside of us in 2025. Here's some things, and these are like, really bullet point things, but I'm telling you, they are life-changing, powerful things. And I'm gonna say them real quickly, and this is why you need the City First app, because they're already in there, okay? So if you're frantically writing, you can go back to these later in the app, all right? But number one, we have to say, I will take responsibility for my own spiritual hunger. In other words, I'm gonna be a self-stirrer. Kindly said, I love y'all, I really do. I love this church, I love the people that come to this church, I love the people who don't come to this church,

but I love you, but I'm not responsible for your spiritual health. You are responsible for your spiritual health. You're like, well, what am I doing here today? Well, you're being empowered to have spiritual health, but at the end of the day, you have to feed yourself spiritually. I will help you, and every time you come back, you're growing and you're getting more information, but at the end of the day, from Monday to Saturday, you have to apply what is being talked about. In other words, you say, I'm not gonna delegate the management of my soul to someone else, I take responsibility. This is why 21 days of prayer and fasting are so important. Jen talked about it a little bit earlier in the service, but we do this twice a year, and it's because this is our time to say, I wanna grow spiritually, I'm going to take responsibility for my own spiritual growth, I'm gonna seek God. And so on the way out the door today, make sure you pick up one of these hard copy ones, or if you're an electronic person, go to the QR code, and you can download an electronic version of this. And every day for 21 days, there's a little devotional. Now, I'm telling you, I don't know if you can see this or not, but that's one of them right there. It's super simple.

You're not reading War and Peace, okay, that book. This is not like a textbook either, but rather we've created devotionals that are super easy. It'll take you 10 to 15 minutes. Every day, read the devotional, and even at the end, we have a prayer. We even write out a prayer for you. Now, you can personalize it, you can pray whatever you want, but if you say, I don't even know how to pray or what to pray, there's a prayer right there for you. Every day for 21 days, let's see what God does. If we are to say, God, I'm going to take responsibility for my own spiritual hunger. I'm going to do that. And the whole fasting thing, I know freaks people out a little bit. Fasting is basically this. It's saying no to something your flesh wants. So for some of you, that may be a certain type of food. For some of you, you might say, you know, for 21 days, I had somebody come and tell me this earlier. They're like, for 21 days, I'm not going to drink any alcohol, no wine. I'm like, great, you know? Some people are like, for 21 days, I'm not going to do social media. Because even like Veronica's testimony, you know, the mindless this, right? Or whatever it is, you pray and ask God, what is it for 21 days that you're going to say no to?

And why do you do that? Because you're telling your desire that your will power is more powerful than the feelings you have in life. You're leading your life rather than having your feelings dictate your life. Does that make sense? That's what fasting really is. And take that time and say, you know what, God, I'm going to put this on hold for now, or maybe it's even indefinite, but I'm going to put it on hold for now. And during these 21 days, I'm going to pray and I'm going to seek you. Second thing is this, is you say, I will show up to every church service with a posture of excitement, passion, and leaning in. Because we determine the level of faith that we walk into services with. Now, you might've had really a bad ride to church today. You might've gotten in an argument. You might've, you know, the kids were driving you crazy. I don't know why, you know? Maybe you had a bad week or whatever. But all of us have the ability to say, God, I today, I'm gonna choose to set my faith levels high. I'm gonna have expectation. I believe you're gonna talk to me today. And I can tell, I'm gonna be honest with you here. I speak a lot from this stage.

I can tell the weeks where collectively the congregation comes in tired. I can tell. They're like this, they're like. And I can tell there isn't a lot of expectation. But then I also can tell the weeks when the congregation comes in collectively ready. Like they're leaning in. They're like, today, God's gonna speak to me. Today, I'm gonna worship. Today, I'm gonna believe. I'm expecting a miracle. I'm expecting God's voice to speak. I'm expecting to leave here changed. I could tell, like I could feel it. And I tell young preachers all the time, I'm like, you are preaching to a collective spirit in every room. And I don't mean that in a hokey way. What I mean is, is this, is collectively we walk in the room tired or collectively we walk in the room expecting. And whatever you as a pastor are doing, you're preaching to that. And you're trying to make people raise their faith level. So today, you know what I'm doing? I'm trying to say, hey guys, you actually came in here pretty hungry. So thank you, all right? You're expecting, like you're like with me.

I could feel it. But I'm saying this, I'm saying this month and for 2025, can we collectively make our faith levels grow? Because here's the thing, God will move to the level of our faith. If our faith is real low, he doesn't have a lot of room to move. If our faith is real high, he has a lot of room to move, all right? And so even this week with Revival Nights, this is something we've never done before. We're taking a little bit of a risk on it because we've never done it, but I'm a risk taker and I love doing this kind of stuff. We're doing this thing on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of this week at every location at 6.30. We're having a revival service. I'm having my friends, Jimmy Rollins, Chris D'Urso come in. There's gonna be some other speakers too. And basically what we're gonna do is we are gonna seek God for three nights in a row. Now I know some of you are like going, dude, I'm busy. How about if I had a deal with you? If you showed up for every night that you showed up, I'd give you $10,000 each. How many of you would say, I can make it happen, right? So don't tell me you can't change the schedule. You can do it, okay? I'm not gonna give you $10,000, but we'll give you an opportunity to have revival, all right?

So here's the thing, change your schedule, carve out some time. If you can come, please do. We will stream it. If for some reason you physically cannot be here, we will stream them, but there's something about being in the room, guys. There's something about being in the room and let's believe God is gonna move this week. Number three, say, I'm gonna continually pray and believe for greater things in 2025. That's one way to also spark revival is you say, God, I'm believing for more. I'm believing for more. I don't want 2024 blessing, I want 2025 blessing. I don't want 2024 revelation, I want 2025 revelation. I want God a new thing. So you pray to that end. Number four, this is a biggie. You say, I will attend church often. Now it sounds simple, but for those of you that are making some resolution physically, like you wanna become physically healthy and maybe you joined a gym, this is the thing. If you go to the gym once a month, you ain't physically gonna change that much because you're not going often enough. But in church, the more you go, the more you grow.

Does that make sense? So therefore, come to church often. You're like, oh, sometimes I'm so tired. Yes, come to church and be filled up, all right? Because what we do on weekends is that we seek God and it gives you the ability to get through the next week until we come to that next service. So another thing is this, number five, I will seek personal altar moments. Now, what does that mean? Come to the altar. That idea of I'm gonna respond. After every church service, after every life group, say, God, how am I to respond? Give yourself a personal altar moment. Say, God, I choose to respond in this way. Even as you read the Bible or these devotionals, say, God, how does this apply to me? Realize that God is always speaking. Number six, I will worship regardless. Regardless of what's going on, this is not easy to do because sometimes life sucks, all right? But when we come in. Want you to know God deserves our worship because he's God regardless of what's going on in our life and so choose to worship this year number seven I will be a bringer and a champion of bring culture. In other words, I will bring people with me So even maybe you invited people to Christmas like the services call them up and say hey come to church with me in January Bring people with you Invite people and see what God does and lastly say I will encourage myself to keep going regardless of what I

feel We will not give in to spiritual quitters day. Does that make sense? But rather instead we say regardless of what I feel I'm not gonna live by my feelings I'm going to encourage myself to keep going in 2025 and see what God does Let's go ahead and bow our heads and let me pray for you. All right Before I pray with every head bowed and every eye closed real quickly, I'd be remiss I've talked about a personal relationship with God and there might be people in the house or in our Locations that maybe don't have a personal relationship with God and you want one Today's not about joining a church It's instead saying God I want to make you the leader and the forgiver Lord and Savior of my life if that's you and you say that's That's me. I want a personal relationship with God or I want to rededicate my life in 2025 just raise your hand and put it up and put it right back down Yeah, hands up everywhere put it right up right back down. Can we all say this prayer together? Dear Jesus Today I come to you and I want a personal relationship Come into my heart Forgive me of my sin. I Believe that you died for me. I Want to live for you? Thank you for loving me with an unconditional love in Jesus name Heavenly Father. I also pray for all of us. I pray that God that 2025 will be marked by revival personal revival in our lives Lord I pray that we would humble ourselves that we would pray that we would seek you and that we would turn from the things that you do not want us to do and Turn towards you God. I pray that this would be more than just a series I pray that it would be a Revelation and a revolution inside of our hearts. We love you in Jesus name and everybody said amen

Come on, let's give God a huge round of applause Wow, what an incredible incredible message such a challenge for the start of 2025 encouraging challenging talking about relationship and so hopefully you were able to lean into that and get something from that if you made the decision to make Jesus the leader in the Forgiving your life and you prayed that prayer asking him to be the leader in the forgiving your life. First of all, congratulations That's the best decision that you'll ever make it will change your life forever And so we want to say congratulations to you, but you may be going I have a couple of questions Like what what do I do now? I prayed this prayer. What's next? Well, we have a resource that we'd love to give to you It's a there's a QR code on your screen right now in front of you And it's just as simply just a resource is gonna help you guide and we'll answer a few questions about what's next Where do I start reading the Bible? How do I pray? How do I do that? Second thing is this let somebody know tell somebody if you have a friend if you have a family member something that you can let You know the decision you made drop it in the chat. Let our team know We'd love to come alongside you and help you begin to navigate that journey and then Candice has something else for you as well That's right. After you've gone through that new beginnings booklet. We invite you to jump into grow track grow track happens in person and online It's a great way to discover your divine design and your gifts It's an incredible way to start off your relationship with Jesus or maybe you've had one for a while It's a great way to just discover those gifts that are inside of you and you can hop on the app You can hop on online and hit growth track and find out more information about that Yeah, absolutely. And then we talked about launching a 2025. I mean we are not skipping a beat. We're jumping right into this thing Yep, and so we have a couple things coming up Just remember Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday of this week revival nights at all of our physical locations You can watch online as well want to make sure that you're part of that So adjust the schedule change the schedule whatever you do to make sure that you're there for as many nights as possible We'd love to see you and they're starting at 6 30 p.m Here make sure you double check times everywhere to make sure that you're on the right schedule That's right. And one last thing here as pastor Jeremy talked about today kicks off 21 days of prayer and fasting It's not too late to jump in. We just started today you can hop on the app tons of resources on there or

online to figure out and to find out more and to kind of be able to choose your fast and figure out what to Do with that so guys we're praying for you. It's gonna be an amazing week and we'll catch you guys at revival nights