Faith That Doesn't End With Me

We're gonna continue to sing, we're gonna declare these praises unto the Lord this morning. If it's all that we have, we lift up our hallelujah to you, King Jesus. Come on, we sing. I express all my gratitude. I could sing these songs as I often do. But every song must end, and you never do. Come on, church. So I throw up my hands and praise you again and again. Yeah. Because all that I have is a hallelujah, hallelujah. And I know it's not much, but I'm nothing else fit for a king. We declare. Except for a heart singing hallelujah, hallelujah. Come on. I've got one response. Yeah. I've got just one move. With my arms stretched wide. I will worship you. So I throw up my hands and praise you again and again. Because all that I have is a hallelujah, hallelujah. And I know it's not much, but I'm nothing else fit for a king. Except for a heart singing hallelujah, hallelujah. Come on, from the front to the back. We declare this morning. In the name of Jesus, we sing, come on. So come on, my son. Oh, don't you get shy on me. Lift up your song. Because you've got a lion inside of those lungs.

So get up and praise the Lord. Come on, church. Let it rise. So come on, my son. Oh, don't you get shy on me. Lift up your song. Because you've got a lion inside of those lungs. So get up and praise the Lord. Oh, so come on, my son. So come on, my son. Oh, don't you get shy on me. Lift up your song. Because you've got a lion inside of those lungs. So get up and praise the Lord. Hey. So I throw my hands. Come on. Praise you again and again. Tell them this morning. Because all that I have is a hallelujah. Hallelujah. And I know it's not much. But I'm nothing else fit for a king. Except, come on. Except for a heart singing hallelujah. We say hallelujah. So I throw my hands. And praise you again and again. Because all that I have is a hallelujah. It's all I have.

It's all I have. And I know it's not much. But I'm nothing else fit for a king. We say. Except for a heart singing hallelujah. Hallelujah, hallelujah, give Him some praise. Well, good morning, everybody. I hope you had a fantastic Christmas with your family, with your friends, and excited that you're here today to round out the year. 2025 is over. It's hard to believe, and yet we are believing great things for 2026. That's hard to say out loud, 2026. We begin the new year in the same way every single year at Cross Church. We do what we call 21 days of prayer. We're going to begin this on January 4th together, and we're going to give you some specific prayer points along the way. We're going to have 21 days of devotionals for you as well. And so if you've never been on the 21 days of prayer journey with us, or maybe you've kind of been on the fringes of that and never really bought all the way in, I want to encourage you to make the next week of your life almost as like a prep mode for 21 days of prayer as we talk about really 21 days to a spiritual awakening. That's what we're going to talk about for those four weeks of 21 days of prayer. So it's going to be a fantastic journey.

Hope you will make plans to be with us and kick off the new year in a great way. As for right now, we end the year ending the story of Abraham together. So I want you to grab your Bible. Turn to Genesis 24. We've been in a few weeks of a series on the life of Abraham and what a powerful passage it was last week that coincided with Christmas and the reason why Jesus came. And today, here's what we're going to talk about. We're going to talk about faith that doesn't stop with me. All right? Faith that doesn't stop with me. Right here from Genesis 24. I'm going to pray for us. Then our preachers are going to make their way to the stage and open up the word of God for you today. Lord Jesus, as we round out the life of Abraham, Lord, I pray that you would speak to us in a personal way today. As we round out the year, would you even right now begin to prepare our hearts for 21 days of prayer? It's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen. Amen, church. Welcome this morning. We're so glad that you are here. My name is Michael Lynn, and I serve as the student pastor here at our Pinnacle Hills Campus of Cross Church. My wife and I actually got here seven years ago this month, which is just pretty wild.

We've had three kids along the way, and it's been really cool to be here. So I want to welcome you in the room. I want to welcome, like Pastor Cody said, all of our kids and preteens. We're glad that you guys are with us for this special Sunday and a special shout-out to our online audience. We're glad that you guys are tuning in. We know that many of you are traveling for the holidays, and we're glad that you decided to check in with us this morning and hope that you're having a great, restful time. Like Pastor Nick said, we're going to be ending our series on the life of Abraham today. We're going to be in Genesis chapter 24, and the series is Building a Life of Faith. And it's been really cool, I think, the last couple weeks, to look at the life of Abraham, to be challenged in our faith in a lot of ways. And I'm excited to wrap this up with you today. This is the last service of 2025, which, again, is very, very wild. But we're glad that you guys are here to be a part of it. So if you want to grab your Bible, grab your sermon journals, we're going to go ahead and get started. But before we dive into the passage, I really want to recap the last couple weeks, because I think it matters as we go into the last story of Abraham today. What we see a couple weeks ago in Genesis chapter 12, when Abraham comes on the scene, and his name was Abram at the time, is that God entered a promise. We call that a covenant in the Old Testament. God entered into a covenant with Abraham, and he told him that he's going to bless him,

he's going to make him a blessing to others, and he's going to make Abraham and his lineage a great nation. And so that passage of Scripture in Genesis 12 is what we come to know as the Abrahamic covenant. Very, very important passage of Scripture. And then we see, as Abraham begins to follow after God, he veers off a couple times, tries to do some things his own way, and we see this in Genesis chapter 16, where Abraham took his wife's servant, Hagar, and had a child with her, instead of doing it God's way. But we see how God actually continues to redeem Abraham and use him in spite of some of his imperfections in his life. And then last week, we got to Genesis chapter 22, that famous chapter where Abraham is told to sacrifice Isaac. But yet, at the right time, after God tests Abraham, he intervenes, provides a ram in the bushes, in the thicket, for Abraham, because God is a provider, he always provides. And Pastor Nick reminded us last week that that points towards Jesus and the cross. And so lots of things going on in the life of Abraham, lots of things for us to learn from today. And before we get to the passage, like I said, our main idea is that faith doesn't stop with me. That's going to be there in your sermon journal. And as we talk through this today, I want to illustrate it in a... a certain way. I know that as you got here this morning and I got up on stage, the first thing that rang through your mind was, wow, like how many Division I college athletes

can we hire at Cross Church? Like I know Pastor Mark played Division I football and that's cool, whatever. And so I'm just gonna be honest with you today, this is gonna be a shock. I didn't play college sports. And this was apparent to me when I was in seventh grade in South Texas that I was never going to play college sports. And so when I was in South Texas at seventh grade, I loved basketball, wanted to play basketball, but our coach at the time had a rule. Said, hey, if you wanna play basketball, you've got to run cross country and do track. And I didn't know anything about those things except that there were a lot of running. So I said, cool, I'll do it. And our school is like a small private Christian school. There was 36 kids in our middle school. So the talent pool was pretty shallow. But when we got to practice, and practice is a generous term because we didn't really do a lot of practicing. Me and my friends did a lot of jogging around the neighborhood and talking and not at all practicing. And that became very evident when we got to our first and only track meet when I was in seventh grade. And so what we ran was the 800, which is a different sermon illustration in itself.

And the other thing me and my brother got to run when I was in seventh grade was the four by one relay or the 400 meter relay. Now, if you don't know what the 400 meter relay is, it is a race in which you have four runners. They each run 100 meters on the track in a big oval, and they have a baton. That's what this is today. I brought one for us. And somebody starts with a baton, they run and hand it off to the next person, hand off the next person and so on until they win. And the way that you win is to hold a baton and be the first one across the line. We didn't do much winning, that's just what I've heard. So as we do this race, we're running, I'm the third leg, and as we are running around the thing, and they hand it to me, and it's just so apparent how important it is to get the baton. And we didn't really practice this, and we fumbled the baton a lot, and it was a horrible thing. I'd love to stand here today and tell you it was a David and Goliath matchup, and in a lot of ways it was, except we were David and everybody else was Goliath, and we were not victorious. It was not good for us. Really learned a lot about confidence, and I realized I was not gonna be a Division I athlete.

But what I did realize, and what I think we'll realize today that we learn about the life of Abraham, is that we're actually all in a race. If you're a follower of Jesus, you have a calling on your life that we're gonna talk about in a minute, but we're all in a spiritual race, and we all have a baton of faith. And what we're gonna see in the story of Abraham, which is gonna be true for our lives, is that God has called us to run this race, and to run it well, and to pass on faith to the next generation, to pass on the gospel to the next generation. And we do that by focusing. And so I think this morning, it's important to think that if we have a bunch of racers in the Olympics, and we have high school and college athletes that spend hours and hours perfecting the handoff with a baton for a race, how much more important is it for us as followers of Jesus to pass on faith to the next generation in our own lives? And that's what we're gonna see in the life of Abraham this morning. That's where our main idea comes from in the text, that faith doesn't stop with me. Let's dive into Genesis 24, verse one. It'll be on the screens. It says this, now Abraham was old, well advanced in years, and the Lord had blessed him in all things.

Now I wanna stop there. Just don't want us to skip over the importance of verse one. Abraham was old, well advanced in years is a nice way for saying old. And what we see in Genesis chapter 24 is that Abraham is at the end of his life. We see the great things that God has done through him in Genesis chapter 12, all the way to Genesis chapter 24. But as we get here, we see Abraham is old, he's advanced in years. And what's really important for you to understand is the Bible says that the Lord blessed Abraham in all things. The reason that that is important is because if you go all the way back to Genesis 12, and that Abrahamic covenant that we talked about, that God did with Abraham, you'll see that God says to Abraham, I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, and you shall be a blessing. So what we see in the first verse of Genesis 24 already is that God is holding up his end of the promise. God is holding up his end of the covenant by blessing Abraham. God is saying, I've done what I said I will do in your life. And that leads us to verse two. It says, Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he had, put your hand under my thigh, that I may make you swear by the Lord,

the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell, but you will go back to my country and to my kindred and take a wife for my son, Isaac. Now, as we read that, if you're anything like me, and you're not a big physical touch person at all, really, that can seem a little bit odd. What you have to understand is the context in which this story is happening. And you have to understand what Abraham is doing with the servant here. First of all, he gets his most trusted servant, the oldest servant who's been with him the longest, who has the most responsibility, who has proven that he can handle responsibility. Abraham chooses him and gives him the most important task. And the task is that he's to go find a wife for Abraham's son, Isaac. Now, the thing with the hand on the thigh is, we don't do this a lot in 2025, but what Abraham is doing is he's making an oath with his servant. And back in that time, they believed that the thigh was the strongest muscle of the body. And so if somebody was to put a hand on the thigh of the person they're making an oath with, that they're making an agreement with, it was symbolic that this is the strongest bond, the strongest commitment we could make to each other.

And what's important to know about oaths in the Old Testament at the time of Abraham, is that the only way to be free from an oath, a commitment with somebody, is to either complete it or to die. And so it is a very serious thing that Abraham is doing with his servant. And the reason I say all of that is because the reason that this is so important is because this oath reveals two important things about Abraham's heart that we're gonna talk about today, if you're taking notes. Here's the first thing that this oath reveals about Abraham's heart, that Abraham had confidence in the covenant. Abraham had confidence in the covenant. Now when I say covenant, what I'm talking about is all the way back in Genesis 12, when God made a promise, God made a covenant with Abraham that he is going to bless him and make him into a great nation. That's the covenant that we're talking about. And so Abraham remembers that covenant that God made with him. He believes that he has confidence in it so much so, that he sends his most trusted servant to go find a wife for his son, Isaac. And we see that he trusts God and he is acting in faith. We see God also talked to Abraham

back in Genesis chapter 15. In verse five, it says this, that he, God, brought Abraham outside and said, look towards the heaven and number the stars if you're even able to number them. And then he said to him, so shall your offspring be. And Abraham believed the Lord and he counted it to him as righteousness. What we see in those verses is that God promised to bless Abraham. And Pastor Nick actually reminded us of this a couple of weeks ago, that blessing was to make Abraham a great nation. And the only way to become a great nation is you gotta start somewhere with kids. And that's why Isaac needed the wife. And so when God blessed Abraham by giving him Isaac, by giving him an heir that Isaac was gonna receive everything from Abraham when Abraham died, it was so important because it shows that Abraham is walking in the covenant, he's walking in obedience to what God has called and commanded him to do. And that's why Abraham has confidence in the covenant. You see, it's one thing to know what to do, it's a whole nother thing to actually do it. I have a son who's six years old. He knows what to do when I tell him to do something, but him actually going and doing it

is a very different story, right? When we see the life of Abraham, we see faith in action because Abraham didn't just believe in God in his mind, but he acted in faith with his life. It's a lot like the passing of the baton. It's one thing to know you've seen people in the Olympics do it, it's one thing to know how to do it, it's a whole nother thing completely to actually do it yourself and practice and get it right. And so what we see in these first few verses of Genesis 24 is Abraham's radical commitment to the covenant that God had made with him. And so it's very, very important. And you might ask yourself, why does it matter that Abraham shouldn't get a wife from the land of Canaan? Because where Canaan is is where Abraham is currently residing, where God has called him to, but there's a bunch of other countries, a bunch of other nations that are there, and they're doing a lot of like pagan worship, idol worship, they're not following after God. If you look up some of the things that these people would do, I don't even feel comfortable saying some of them in the service with the young ears that are here. That's how wicked a lot of the people were in Canaan. And so Abraham, in his wisdom, knows that if he gets a wife for his son

in the land of Canaan, his son is gonna be led astray from what God is calling him to do. And so Abraham understands the value of a good wife and a good spouse for his son. This is also, we just might as well say it while we're talking about it, why marriage is so important. This is the reason why if any of you are single in the room and you hope to be married one day, this is so, it is so important who you marry. And I know that your parents might say that just because maybe you had a boyfriend or girlfriend they didn't like, but like, it is really important who you marry. Abraham understands that, because the goal is if you're a follower of Jesus, then you need to marry someone who is a follower of Jesus. Paul talks about this in the New Testament as having someone who is equally yoked. Because if you're equally yoked, you're gonna be moving together towards the same mission, towards the same values, towards the same beliefs, and you'll honor God in what you do. But if you are marrying someone who's not a believer, who's not on the same page and doesn't share the same values it might be fine now at the surface level, but as you get into marriage, you're gonna quickly understand it's gonna create problems. And so I just wanna warn and caution anybody

who you're looking to get married someday, maybe even if you're in high school or college or young adult, like you gotta understand who you marry is incredibly important. Abraham knew that and that's why he sent his servant out to find a wife for Isaac. Abraham had confidence in the covenant. That's the first thing we see. The second thing we see in Abraham's life is that Abraham didn't compromise on the covenant. Abraham didn't compromise on the covenant. Let's look at verse five. The servant said to him, perhaps the woman may not be willing to follow me to this land. Must I then take your son back to the land from which you came? Abraham said to him, see to it that you do not take my son back there. The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father's house and from the land of my kindred and who spoke to me and swore to me, to your offspring, I will give this land. He will send an angel before you and you shall take a wife for my son from there. I mean, this is really important in the life of Abraham. This is really important because we see that Abraham doesn't compromise on the covenant. It's a pretty reasonable question

that the servant is asking, right? So he's asking, hey man, if I go all the way back to where your homeland was, which is like Mesopotamia, if I go all the way back there on this journey, it's gonna take a lot of time to get there. I can't just hop in the car and drive down. Like, it's gonna take a while. I get there and I talk to different ladies and they're not interested. Like, what do you want me to do? You want me to get Isaac and bring him over here? And that's a fair question, but Abraham is so strong in his conviction, he's so uncompromising in his faith in God and what God has called him to, he's saying, no, no, we can't take my son back there because here's the reality. If you go through that entire journey and Isaac were to go back and he maybe falls in love, the temptation is gonna be that he would just stay there and start a life there. But you gotta know the covenant back in Genesis 12. That's not what God called him to. What God called him to was to go to the land that God had chosen. And so when Abraham says, don't go to, don't find one of the Canaanites and don't take my son back to the other place,

he's saying, I am confident in what God has called me to do. I'm not gonna compromise on what God has called me to do. God has called me to be here. We are gonna be here. God is calling me to move forward. We are gonna move forward. And so Abraham has a deep-seated belief in God that he is gonna do what he says he is gonna do when Abraham knows that if I send my son back, it could jack up God's plan and we are walking forward in what God has called us to do. How many of you in the room this morning might need to be reminded that God has called you to something special? God has a calling on you. If you are a follower of Jesus, God has a calling on your life. And so you might have spent 2025 looking back and looking at your old life, but God in 2026 is calling you forward to a new life. God is calling you forward to blessing and God is calling you forward to a covenant relationship with Jesus Christ, but you can't be compromising in your faith. And so we see the example of Abraham. He says, I'm not compromising. God has called me here. I'm staying here. Isaac's staying here. We're getting ready to move forward

in what God has called us to do. And then I love what we see in the next few verses. In verse eight, Abraham says to his servant, he says, but if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be free from this oath of mine. Only you must not take my son back there. So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham, his master, and swore to him concerning this matter. It's really important to understand that those verses communicate a complete trust in God. Abraham, you can imagine the things that he's seen, even the interaction with him and Isaac in Genesis 22 and how God provided. He understands God is a provider. God is working. God is moving. He's seen that in his life, so he has confidence now to continue to honor God and follow after the covenant that God made with him. And I love what it says in the previous section. This is where we see God's sovereignty played out in the Old Testament. We see, it says, he will send an angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there. So we see God's sovereignty, that God is directing, God is leading, and Abraham has complete trust. He's like, hey, servant, don't worry. There's gonna be an angel, Lord,

who's gonna guide you exactly where to go. And if you read the rest of Genesis 24, it's actually a very long chapter, but if you read it, you'll see that God's hand is sovereignly involved in all of it. God is actively involved in Abraham's story. God is actively involved in your story. And so as we look at the example of Abraham, what we see is that he understands faith doesn't stop with him. And because he was so bold in his faith and he was so committed to the Lord, we see verses like Romans 4, even in the New Testament, that point back all the way to talk about Abraham. And here's what Romans 4, 20 and 21 says. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. I hope in my life, as I get older and I live, I hope that that would be said of me, that I was fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. Abraham understood that faith doesn't stop with him. He's got a baton of faith to pass to the next generation. He's confident in the covenant that God made with him. He's not compromising the covenant that God made with him. And he's believing in that. I'd illustrate it this way. You know, there's these batons that you have to.

pass on in these races, but did you know that these batons, they're all supposed to be the same when they're used in a race. So they can't be altered, you can't add weight, you can't take away weight, you can't change it. Well, church, I would say the same thing is true of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the new covenant. Jesus is unchanging. The message of the gospel is unchanging. John 14, six says that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through him. That is unchanging news about the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so just like this baton, the gospel of Jesus is unchanging. So we can't manipulate it, we can't say there's other ways to heaven, no, no. Our only responsibility as followers of Jesus is to pass the baton of faith into the next generation, to make sure that the handoff is secure because God's not calling us to a convenient baton, he's calling us to a faithful handoff. And for those of you in the room who may have been Christians for a really long time, man, what a great reminder for us to wake up in our faith, to be reminded that you have decisions every single day that matter to the next generation. And so as we look at the life of Abraham, as we look at this main idea that faith doesn't stop with me,

I believe that there's two ways we can apply this to respond in our life this morning if you're taking notes. And I'll put it in the form of two questions that you can reflect on this morning. The first one is this, is that God is a call on your life. God is a call on your life. If you're a Christian in the room this morning, I believe there's kind of two callings on our life. I believe there's a general calling for all of us, that we see that in Matthew 28, it's called the Great Commission, where Jesus is about to ascend into heaven and he is talking to his disciples after he's resurrected from the grave. And he says, go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them all that I have commanded you. There's a calling that applies not just when Jesus was there, but applies to us as Christians in 2025. We have a mission. That's why the mission statement of Cross Church is to reach Northwest Arkansas, America, and the world for Jesus Christ because of Matthew 28. And we see an example of that lived out in the life of Abraham all the way in Genesis 24. And so I ask you this question this morning for you to think about, not to shame, not to make you feel bad,

just to evaluate where you're at with the Lord. Are you walking in the calling that God has on your life? Are you walking in the calling that God has on your life? There's a general calling for all Christians to make disciples, to share the gospel. And I do believe we all have specific callings on your life. I believe the calling that God has on my life is to be in ministry and try to disciple and raise up the next generation. For your calling, God might call you to be in the business world at Walmart, at Tyson, at J.B. Hunt, wherever it is, where he has you to use you to reach those around you. Because here's the reality for your life today. If we could just be honest, the highest calling in your life is not that you would be really successful in the eyes of the world. It's not that you would have a lot of money or a boat or that you would be a VP or that you'd have the right title. The highest calling on your life is that you would make disciples. And so if the highest calling on your life is that you would make disciples, that absolutely changes your day-to-day life. If the highest calling on your life is to make disciples and make an impact for the kingdom of God, well, it means that you gotta start making your calendar reflect your calling.

It means you gotta use your time, your resources to invest into the kingdom of God. It means, and I tell our students this a lot because when they go to their schools, I can't go into their school, I can't go into their lunchroom, but they can. I can't go to your office, I can't go to your work site or wherever you are, but you can. Our mission statement for student ministry is that we're students reaching students. God has called us as followers of Jesus to reach people, to make disciples and to send them out. So I'd ask you, how are you doing with that? Are you making an impact where you are? Because God has called you to reach your coworkers. God has called you to reach, for many of you, your family. God has called you to reach those around you every single day to make an impact for the kingdom of God. That is the highest calling for Christians in our life. As I was preparing for this message, I became very convicted because I think about Abraham and he's got his son Isaac and he's trying to be a father who's leaving a legacy of faith. And so I wanna talk to the dads for a second. I've got three kids, a six-year-old, a three-year-old and a six-month-old. And I'm burdened now more than ever for the next generation because those are my kids. And so dads, you have the greatest opportunity

to be able to reach your family, to be able to model for your family what it looks like to walk in a godly calling, what it looks like to be obedient to the Lord in just the way that you live your life daily. And that leads us to the second question I wanna ask you. How are you stewarding your family spiritually? How are you stewarding your family spiritually? If you're a dad in the room, again, I'm not. I'm not shaming anybody. I'm just from dad to dad this morning. Maybe you should look back at 2025. You think, man, there were some opportunities that I missed with my kids. But 2026 is just around the corner. What an opportunity to step into a new season. Maybe God's calling you into a new spiritual arena in 2026, an opportunity to rise up spiritually, to set the tone for your family, to make an example in simple ways, to steward your family towards the things of God because you understand that faith doesn't stop with you. I was reminded of this quote. I don't know who said it. But it says, what kids see in moderation, they will do in excess. Right, what kids see in moderation, they will do in excess. So what do your kids see from your life? Moms, dads, for some of you, grandparents, guardians of certain kids.

You find yourself in a situation you weren't planning to be in, but now you have these people that you're called to steward. What do they see in your life? Are they seeing that mom and dad only like to come to church once every few months just to check the box? Is the attitude in the morning like, oh, I guess we gotta go to church today. The weather's fine outside. Or do they see someone who's hungry to come to church to grow to be under the authority of God's word? Do they see mom and dad who are eager for their sons and daughters to be raised in the church under the authority of God's word so that they can go out and make a difference? Do they see a mom and dad who go to work to reach the lost who desperately need Jesus? Or do they just see a mom and dad who are comfortable with just sitting in the stands playing it safe? We don't need any more Christians playing it safe. What we need are men and women of God who are gonna go out and say, you know what? God has changed my life. He has saved me from my sin. I'm not who I used to be. I am moving forward because God has called me forward and I'm gonna make an impact where I am. Imagine how different Northwest Arkansas

would be if just the people in this room took seriously the calling to make disciples and to reach those around them. And they took serious the calling to raise up their children. And I wanna get practical for a second. I'm a really simple person. So here's what it could look like, mom and dad, for you to go into 2026 leading and leaving a legacy of faith, passing on a baton of faith to your kids. It doesn't mean you have to just go do a two hour devotion every single night. But what are simple ways that you can put into your calendar, into your life to make a significant difference? It could be something as simple as this morning grabbing your kids and coming to pray at the altar for them. Pray over them. And as they go into a new semester of school that God would use them, keep them safe, watch over them and use them for the kingdom of God. For others of you, it could be as simple as starting to memorize some scripture that you could share with your kids. It could be the changing of the attitude of coming to church and making church a priority for your family. For those of you watching online at home,

maybe it's just getting off the couch right there, getting on your knees and committing to God that 2026 is our year to follow after the Lord like ways we've never done before. We have the 21 days of prayer coming up on January 4th. For many of you in the room, maybe this is a time to get serious about living and leaving a life and legacy of faith for your family. In 21 days of prayer, you're gonna commit to pray for your family every single day. Imagine what God would do with that. As we, as I talked about this passage and was just kind of preparing, I thought of my dad. You know, my dad's not perfect by any means, but I do believe he was a good dad. He did a lot of things right. And I was reminded that when I was going to basketball practice in high school, I would have to wake up kind of early to get there. My school was far away and I would have these moments where I'd wake up at like five or 5.30 and go out and I would see my dad with his coffee, sitting in his chair, reading his Bible and praying. It was very evident to me what he was doing. I remember moments where we would be driving in the car and my dad was really big on memorizing scripture because he wanted to keep his mind sharp spiritually and have the word of God ready and at hand. And he would write Bible verses on note cards and keep them in his car and take them with him.

And so we would be driving somewhere random and he would hand me a note card and he would just say, hey, I'm practicing memorizing this verse. Can I share it with you? And you just tell me if I'm getting it right or wrong. I remember my dad always pushing us that we are going to be at church and we're gonna have a great experience at church. My dad just did these simple things over and over and over again. And what he did through that was set a legacy of faith. It doesn't have to be crazy, it doesn't have to be hard, but what are simple ways in your life that you can pass along a faith to the next generation? Because faith doesn't stop with you. For others of you in the room, you might be here this morning and find yourself and you can't pass on a legacy of faith because you don't have faith. I just wanna tell you the good news about Jesus Christ. Like I said, in John 14, six, the Bible says that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through him. And what was true thousands of years ago is still true today. The grave is still empty. Jesus still rose. And the Bible says that if you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, if you turn away,

the Bible calls it repentance. If you repent and turn away from a life of sin and brokenness, and turn and put your faith and trust completely in Jesus Christ, your whole life can be saved. And what's cool is that when God changes you, he's not just changing you, he's changing the generations that will come from you, because you know that faith doesn't stop with you. And so this morning, maybe you find yourself in this room at the last service at Cross Church of 2025, and God is calling you to salvation this morning. And I'm gonna lead you into an opportunity to do that, even right now. I'm gonna ask everybody to bow their head and close their eyes. This is a very special moment. So if nobody's looking around, I wanna ask you, is that you this morning? Are you here? Maybe you just came for the holidays with a family member. Maybe you just wandered in here because you felt like you should be here. What if God this morning is calling you to salvation? What if God wants to change everything in your life? And so if that's you and you're in this room, we're gonna have some of our pastors and staff that are gonna be standing at the bottom of these stairs that would love to have a conversation with you

about giving your life to Jesus. They're gonna make their way there even right now. And as we sing this song in just a minute, they would love nothing more than for you to come down and they would love to lead you in a prayer to give your life to Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter what kind of baggage you have, it doesn't matter what kind of past you have, what matters is the God of the Bible's a God of redemption. He can redeem anything in your life. So this morning, would you come and would you give your life to Jesus? For others of you in the room this morning, we're gonna stand and sing in just a moment, but man, I wonder how many parents need to bring their kids down to the altar and pray over them. I get it, it might be a little bit uncomfortable. There's a lot of people looking, but I know this. Just by the act of you coming to pray with your family could encourage another dad in the room, another mom in the room. And that might be all they need to start living and leaving a legacy of faith. So however God is calling you to respond, don't leave here today without responding to him and believing that 2026 can be a year of spiritual growth in your life. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this moment. God, we thank you for this day. We thank you for your word.

God, that you are sovereignly actively involved in our stories, in our lives. God, I pray that we would be a church that is confident in the word of God, that is confident in the covenant that you made with Jesus Christ, that any who turn away from a life of sin and put their faith and trust in you can be saved. God, I thank you that the word of God still speaks and is still active today. And God, I just pray in the name of Jesus, would you do a great work in the lives of these families. I pray that Northwest Arkansas is different in 2026 because these parents, these grandparents, these young people decided that faith isn't gonna stop with them, that they're gonna be all in the following after Jesus in a great and powerful way this year, that they may not get it right all the time, but what they are gonna get right is that they're gonna follow after you this year. God, I pray for any simple changes that need to be made in lives, that they would realize it this morning and that they would do it this year. And God, in everything we pray, would you receive all the glory. We love you, we need you. We pray this in your son, Jesus' name, amen. Would you stand as we worship in response this morning.

♪ May I never boast in anything ♪ ♪ Except the cross of Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ May I not forget the blood he shed ♪ ♪ It is by his death I am alive ♪ Come on, we sing. ♪ May I never boast in anything ♪ ♪ Except the cross of Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ May I not forget the blood he shed ♪ ♪ It is by his death I am alive ♪ Because. ♪ Because of Christ I am alive ♪ We'll sing this together. ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ Hallelujah, praise the one who set me free. Death has lost its grip on me. Come on church. Hallelujah, hallelujah, Jesus rose in victory. He's alive, alive in me. We rejoice. Hallelujah, hallelujah, praise the one who set me free. Death has lost its grip on me. Hallelujah, hallelujah, Jesus rose in victory. He's alive, alive in me. We sing. Hallelujah, hallelujah, praise the one who set me free. Death has lost its grip on me. Hallelujah, hallelujah, Jesus rose in victory. He's alive, alive in me. He's alive, alive in me. Oh, hey.

Come on we sing, hallelujah. Hallelujah, hallelujah, Jesus rose in victory. He's alive, alive in me. May I, may I never boast in anything except the cross. Come on, tell Him this morning. May I not forget the bloody shed in His body instead. I am alive. Sing because. Because of Christ, I am alive. Because. Because of Christ, I am alive. Come on, last time we sing. Because of Christ, I am alive. That's right church, we're so thankful because surely the Lord is in this place this morning. What an incredible time just hearing from God's word of worshiping together as a church family and seeing lives changed. So thank you for Pastor Micah and the word God brought him today and his faithfulness to preach it. We're so glad you were here. We truly pray that you guys have a great new year. We'd love for you to come back next week. Now let's start off the new year strong, ready for what God's gonna do. So we'd love for you to join us here in person next week and you guys have a great week. Go be blessed and go be a blessing to other people. You're dismissed at this time.

I thank you so much for being here. I wanna thank you today for joining us online. Listen, if you need anything at all, maybe you felt compelled to give your life to Christ today. Maybe you have questions about spiritual things. We would love to have you just text this number on the screen, 479-343-8777. If you'll just text us your name and then text us what your question is or what you'd like more information on, we would love to get in touch with you and help. I wanna encourage you to check out crosschurch.com for more information on our church. We'd love to have you sometime in person here in Northwest Arkansas. We look forward to seeing you next Sunday. ♪ It lies ♪ ♪ And you come to be home to this world ♪ ♪ For your honor and name ♪ ♪ And you come to take sin, to bear shame ♪ ♪ And to conquer the grave, oh Emmanuel, oh Emmanuel ♪ ♪ Oh God with us, sing deliverer ♪ ♪ Our deliverer, you are savior ♪ ♪ In your presence we find our strength ♪ ♪ Over everything, our redemption, God with us ♪ ♪ God with us, you are God with us ♪ ♪ You are here, you are holy ♪ ♪ We are standing in your glory ♪ ♪ You are here, Jesus, you are holy ♪ ♪ We are standing in your glory ♪

♪ You are here, you are holy ♪ ♪ We are standing in your glory ♪ ♪ You are here, you are holy ♪ ♪ We are standing in your glory, Lord ♪ ♪ Jesus, our deliverer, you are saved, Lord ♪ ♪ I searched the world, but it couldn't be found ♪ ♪ You filled me, man's empty praise ♪ ♪ Treasures of faith are never enough ♪ ♪ You came along and put me back together ♪ ♪ And every desire is now satisfied ♪ ♪ Hear me, Lord, oh, let's sing it out, there's nothing ♪ ♪ Oh, there's nothing better than you, oh, there's nothing ♪ ♪ Better than you, oh, there's nothing ♪ ♪ Nothing is better than you, oh, sing, I'm not afraid ♪ ♪ I'm not afraid to show you my weakness, my failures and flaws ♪ ♪ Lord, you've seen them all and you still call me friend, oh ♪ ♪ Cause the God of the mountain is the God of the valley ♪ ♪ There's not a place your mercy and grace won't find me again ♪ ♪ Oh, there's nothing better than you, oh, there's nothing ♪ ♪ Better than you, oh, there's nothing ♪