Finding Freedom | Please Be Patient With Me | Pastor Kyle Rodgers

Come on, City First, put those hands together. It's a great day to be at God's house, at all of our locations. Janesville, Cape Coral, God behind bars. High-five the person next to you. Say, I'm glad to be sitting next to you today. Nope, wrong neighbor. Come on, high-five somebody else. Say, I'm glad to be sitting next to you. Absolutely. If we haven't met yet, my name is Kyle. And before we take our next step into our series today, what we just talked about with Convoy of Hope, it is one of the most efficient and effective ways that we can show up for people in need, whether that is an immediate need that needs to be met or something on the other side of a catastrophe or tragedy. And so I wanna encourage you, ask God this week, what's the role he wants you to be able to play in helping to move his kingdom forward? Amen? Amen. Hey, week two in our series, Finding Freedom, where we are looking at different aspects of our lives, where we are looking to explode into the next step of what God has for us. Today's topic we're looking at is overcoming our past. And if you were to give today's message a title, it's gonna be called, Please Be Patient With Me. All right, look at somebody next to you.

Come on, practice. Tell them, please be patient with me, please. Come on, turn around behind you. Tell them, please be patient with me. Please be patient with me. A key scripture for us to look at today is from Isaiah chapter 43. This is God speaking. How do you know this? Because he makes it very clear at the very beginning. Isaiah 43, verse 16. He says, this is what the Lord says through the voice of Isaiah. He who made a way through the sea, giving God's resume, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together. And they lay there never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick or a candle. This is what he says. Forget the former things. Do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing, says God. Now it springs up. Do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. I like it when God goes about making declarative statements. Because when God makes declarative statements, he's letting you know that this doesn't lean on you.

This leans on him. And when it comes to overcoming our past, something that I have learned, and I'm praying that it encourages you today as well, is that to move out of and through our past, it's going to require a decision on our part and a dependency on the strength and power of God. Can I get a good amen right there? One of the things I do know is that moving through our past, overcoming our past, not letting our past define us moving forward, there's a question that typically has to be asked. What do you do when the weight of what happened begins to compete with God's work in your life? Stay right there. What do you do when the weight of what happened begins to compete with God's work in your life? I believe no matter where you find yourself on your faith journey today, that there's at least one space in your life where the work that God wants to do is conflicting with the weight of what you have experienced and are trying to come out of. And Isaiah speaks what he hears God say, and God interjects himself into the reader's lives then and the reader's lives now, and makes a declarative statement, forget your past. It is now time to move into the next thing that I desire to do, and it's not dependent on you alone, it's dependent on me, says God.

It's in this now that you and I have an opportunity though. To decide whose hands our past is going to rest in. The decision here changes the course of how we move forward effectively. Because when your past sits in God's hands, he builds a platform to draw people to relationship with him. When your past sits in your hands, it causes destruction, chaos, confusion, and maximum levels of discouragement. In order for us to move our story forward and overcome our past. It's important, here we go, that we establish part of overcoming your past requires you to put a name on what happened. I don't know about you, but there are certain times in my life where things have happened and I've just wanted to move on from them because they were so traumatic or they were so painful. But the number one thing I've come to understand that in order for me to move forward, I've got to establish what already happened. If we were looking on Facebook, we see a little spot that says mutual friends. And I brought a few mutual friends with me on screen that maybe you've navigated through or are navigating through in overcoming your past. Maybe a mutual friend for you is grief. You know, the weight of what's gone and isn't coming back.

Maybe another mutual friend is failures you've experienced. You know, the evidence that at some point you weren't enough when it mattered. Maybe there's a sin struggle that you're navigating through and sin struggles, here we go, it doesn't make us bad, it makes us human. These sin struggles, here we go, they produce an exhaustion of being two people, the one you wanna be and the one who keeps showing up. Maybe another mutual friend for you is regret. Pastor Jen talked about this on Mother's Day for a bit. It's the grief of what never was or the years that were spent on the wrong thing, the wrong person, here we go, or nothing at all. Maybe this one fits for you today, church hurt. This one is popular in our culture. You know, that mutual friend of church hurt, you were wounded in a place that was supposed to bring healing. Maybe shame, that conviction that if anybody really knew who you were, they'd probably leave you immediately. Maybe it's betrayal. Maybe it's like one of my mutual friends that likes to pop up, it's the old you. You know, the self that you keep trying to outrun. I had a moment the other day where, I tell you, I'm from the south side of St. Petersburg in Florida.

That just means that you had to develop a thick skin and a lot of comebacks at lunch tables across your educational experience. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Okay, cool, five people, that's enough to keep preaching. Sometimes the old me likes to show up. So I was competing the other day and on the team I was competing with, I forgot that I was 41 years old and somebody else was less than half my age. And I don't know about you, but when I compete, sometimes the pastor part of me gets left in the parking lot. Don't judge me, you got your own hangup, come on. So I brought a little too much South St. Pete with me and I realized it later and I had to go back and apologize. Why, because it's just sometimes where the mutual friend shows up. Maybe another mutual friend for you is unhealthy cycles. Maybe these were cycles that were handed down to you in your family of origin or the community that you came from and you swore off that you'd never repeat the things that happened to you, but yet you find yourself right in the middle of them. I don't know the spaces for you where your past likes to show up, but I just know this, my favorite phrase navigating through my past is, I'm sorry, please be patient with me. Back home we'd say it like this, God ain't done with me yet, I'm in process. And part of that process, here we go,

requires active steps that we take to trade who we used to be for who God has created and called us to be. Paul makes a statement in 2 Corinthians chapter 10, 2 Corinthians is the second letter to a church in the city called Corinth. Corinth is a port city that had all different diverse ethnicities that would come in and out of it. Historians tell us that if you wanted to try to equate Corinth to a city you'd recognize, you might as well just call Corinth Vegas. And we knows what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, unless it shows up on Snapchat. So what happens in Corinth stays in Corinth unless it shows up in the New Testament. And Paul makes this statement, 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse number five, he says this to the believers, we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God. And we take every thought, what? Captive to obey Christ. What Paul references here is that part of moving out of your past, while people are being patient with you, while God's being patient with you, while you're learning to be patient with yourself, it requires a very active and intentional next step of capturing every thought that pops up in our minds. Because one of the greatest hindrances to us moving forward in our lives

is that we have thoughts that constantly badger our. your thought process and try to get us entangled with who we used to be or how we used to act. Okay, I'm in the right spot. Come on, Cape Coral and Janesville, here we go. But Paul says, God is not just going to automatically deliver you out of everything. There's an active participation that he's called the believer and follower to do, and it requires you to take every thought, what? Captive, this is war language here, this is aggressive. This reminds me, I grew up in the 90s when you could still whoop kids in public. And my five foot five mother, she's the queen of the castle and she got three boys and she knew how to do something, I don't know if y'all say it up here, but I'm gonna say it like I say it back home. She knew how to do this thing called snatching you up. You know, we'd be in the middle of the grocery store and trying to get to the wrong aisle, and when she's not in and she just laid that claw, I meant that hand on us, and she'd snatch us up. Or maybe right in the middle of prayer at church, me and my brothers, you know, we were the kind you see on Instagram where you just can't hang around that one person because they're gonna make you laugh at the wrong time. Okay, y'all quiet, I'm gonna go talk to them over here. And so I'd be one of those ones, my brothers, we'd be goofing off, and then before you know it,

the hand of God, I meant the hand of mom, would just rest upon, and what, snatch us up. Come on, anybody know what I'm talking about? You got one of those mommas that'll snatch you up, uh-huh. Yep, I'm a grown man, I still got flashbacks of getting snatched up. Here we go. I'm concerned, though, that in the culture and the day and time in which we live in as believers and followers of Jesus, that there's not enough snatching up of thoughts that is taking place, that we are allowing weird and random thoughts to stay too long. Let me just stop right here for a moment and establish that you are not responsible for the thoughts that show up to your mind, but you are responsible for what you do with those thoughts when they show up. And I just came to encourage someone in this room, watching live, watching later, one of our locations, maybe the thing that's going to help you to take one more step away from your past and towards the purpose that God has for your life is that you start snatching up those random thoughts when addiction starts knocking on your door. You start snatching up those random thoughts when conflict wants to stay in your marriage longer than it needs to, that you start snatching up those random thoughts that show up, that tell you that you are not good enough. You are the apple of God's eye, the apex of his joy,

his greatest and best creation. Somebody just say, I've got to snatch those thoughts and bring them captives. Woo. It's here now that I'll still step back and say, you still got to be patient with me though, because learning how to snatch those thoughts up, it is a process. And how many know when you've been used to losing, winning feels weird. When you've been used to being the victim, victory feels impossible. So in this process, now, Kyle, where do I direct myself or better said, where do I direct my thoughts? Well, I'm not going to give you my opinion. I'm going to point to what the word says. Paul again, speaking in Philippians chapter four and verse number eight, this is what he'd say. I'd say you'll do your best by filling your minds and meditating on what? Things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious, the best, not the worst, the beautiful, not the ugly, things to praise, not things to curse. What Paul does for us here is he gives us a list of ways where we can redirect our thoughts and our minds to a life giving space. One that aligns with God's word and God's truth. Now let's be abundantly clear in this room, all of our locations, watching live or watching later,

this doesn't mean we put our heads in the sand and act like wild stuff isn't happening all around us. But just because wild stuff is happening around us doesn't mean wild stuff has to be happening inside of us. Paul writes this from less than likely circumstances, written from a prison cell. And although he's locked up in body, he is not locked up in soul or locked up in mind. He doesn't suffer by paralysis, by analysis, where he's overanalyzing his circumstances. No, he has decided to put his mind in a place where God is instead of remaining where God is not. Ooh, can I say it like this? I can. what happened or I can learn who I'm becoming through it. I'm gonna say that again for the people in the back. I can rehearse what happened or I can learn who I'm becoming through it. Simple litmus test, you can drop two people into the same situation and they'll have two different perspectives. I'm concerned that too often, the problem is not what's happening, the problem is the perspective about what happened. Talk to us, David. Same giant shows up to an entire nation for 40 days and 40 nights hurling the same insults. Everyone who's been to war before is cowering in their tents, but then a shepherd boy who's only killed a lion and a bear

and simply brought out breakfast sandwiches to his brothers shows up and hears an uncircumcised Philistine named Goliath hollering at God's people. And while Goliath has badgered everybody else, the problem was perspective. Everybody saw nine foot six and David said, I've slayed a lion, I've slayed a bear, and in the same way, God will cause you to fall today. How many know you can rehearse what happened or you can rehearse who you're becoming through the process? This is just one example and I'm thankful for the Bible that gives us a myriad of different pictures of what we can become when we lean into who God says we are instead of staying what our past says we should become. This next part here, I came to talk to some people. You are breaking through generational cycles in your family. You are breaking through generational cycles in your community. You are shattering ceilings that have been put over you, whether it's financially, spiritually, relationally, maritally. I came to talk to you right here. Then I didn't come to bring my own words. I came to bring what Paul says again in second Corinthians chapter five and 17. And it reads like this. Therefore, if anyone is, someone say it with your chest. If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come.

The old is gone. The new is here. Come on, somebody give God five seconds of a praise for the truth of his word. I need to go through some pieces of this. So hang out on my block with me just for a moment. Come on, pull your seat up to the cookout. Let's talk just for a second. Paul here makes a statement. He says, if anyone is in Christ, you are a new creation. You have a new identity. But here we go. Just because you have a new identity doesn't mean you know how to operate in that new identity. Why? Because for many of us, we grew up with an identity that we had adopted and adapted to over time. When you hear this portion of scripture, historians, commentators, theologians have helped us to see that what Paul is referencing here is similar to the process that a child goes through when they are born. They are born a whole person, but it takes the rest of their lives to learn how to be the whole person they were born to become. Lean in, lean in, lean in. 10 years ago, my wife and I became parents and the first night that our firstborn came home was one of the worst nights of parenting

in the history of fatherhood for me. Like I'm one of those dads that I do a lot better now that the kids are getting older. Come on, y'all not judging me. Okay, all right, all right, uh-uh, uh-uh. I've been to too much therapy. I don't feel it, okay? Uh-uh. I didn't do well with 2.30 in the morning and crying. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. I'm gonna say it out loud so you don't have to. But the first night our firstborn was home, it took me four and a half hours to figure out why they were crying. I thought they were hungry, so I gave them a bottle. That ain't it. I thought they were cold, so I had more clothes on. That ain't it. I thought they got hot, so I took the extra onesie off. That ain't it. Four hours into the journey, I realized the reason why they were screaming like they were was because they were afraid of their hands. For 30 years, I've gotten used to these two puppies right here. They hadn't been around long enough. They were a whole person, but still learning how to grow into the whole person they were becoming. Are you with me? You gotta not only ask people.

people to be patient with you, lean in. You got to be patient with yourself. Kyle, what do you mean? There's a reason you keep cussing folks out. You just ain't been around long enough and read enough of the word to where his words replace your words. Talk to me. Let me talk to somebody. You've been a believer and follower. I was praying for you this week. You've been a believer and follower for less than three years. And sometimes the focus becomes, Kyle, I got all these things to stop, but I believe God wants you to know today, no, you just got a few things to start. Start what? Start rehearsing who he calls you. Start rehearsing what he says about you and the people you're connected to. And start rehearsing how much you love him, because I guarantee you this, the deeper you fall in love with Jesus, the more that you will be adverse to doing anything that affects the relationship, not because you're focused on what needs to be stopped, but because you are focused on who you are becoming, made in his image, formed in his likeness, forgiven at every turn, seen, heard, known,

and a new creation with an identity that says you are a child of God. Yeah. Students, this will change who you date, because you'll stop settling for whoever tells you you're handsome or whoever tells you you're cute. Did I come to the right place today? Yeah. Here we go. This will change what you repeat in your life groups over and over again. Don't look at anybody, stay locked in right here. But you ever been in a life group meeting before and the same person shows up six straight weeks with the same story? One person, that's enough to keep preaching. Don't look at nobody, stay locked in. Here we go. How do I unwind from this? You make the choice that that's what happened, but that's not what's happening. And move your story forward. Why? Because as a child of God, you're already in the family. But now you learn how to grow up here. My dad used to say it like this. My house, my rules. For years, I heard that as a threat. Until I remembered what he was doing was he would,

here we go, lean in, he was establishing order. He was reminding me that there is plenty that happens outside of this address. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. The Lord. As we move forward, we know people are gonna have their opinions about who we are and what we used to be and they've got those hangups. But I just encourage you, instead of arguing with people, I'd made a decision a long time ago. I do not have personal responsibility for changing your opinion about who I'm becoming. You know what I do have personal responsibility for? Being consistent to let Christ-like characteristics produce fruit through my life so that you don't have a problem with me, you just got to look at the fruit that's coming out of my life. You want people's opinion about you to change? You might have to give them some time, but the fruit doesn't lie. Don't hand me an apple and tell me it's an orange. The fruit don't lie. You want people to be impacted differently through your life? Let the characteristics of Christ, patience, forgiveness, love, joy. I feel it right here, so I'm gonna stay right here just for a second. You know what'll change environments that you're in?

When you walk in with joy that's unspeakable. When you walk in with joy that can't be explained. Can I just encourage somebody as a believer and follower of Jesus, when you walk in with joy, and I'm not talking about no, hello, I'm blessed to the Lord and highly favored. No, and doggone well, you about ready to scream it. Everybody on your row, uh-huh. Be on the Zoom call talking about let's take it offline for real. No, no, no, no, no, no. Bring joy in with you. How do you bring joy in with you to make sure that you are anchored to the never-ending joy that is Jesus? What is the difference between joy and happiness, Kyle? Joy is something that can't be taken away while happiness is something that's temporary. This is why people go to a bottle or they go to a drug or they don't go to a club They're trying to find joy, but they're losing it in temporary happiness but when the old goes and the new shows up Christ like Characteristics are given way to because you've chosen to lean in to who God says that you are Can I stop right here and say who God says you are is the number one thing that matters the most and notice that God's I Feel the Spirit of God pushing me now the who God says that you are Is in spite of all the dysfunction that exists in your life currently If you notice God doesn't change his opinion about you just because of one misstep Shortcoming or weakness who you are is who you are in God's eyes And he only speaks to you based upon who he is helping you to become And it's not just you this This is something that's been going on all throughout scripture because when you read the Bible and how many know if you read the Bible

Correctly, you'll find your dysfunctional self in the functional Bible at some point You'll get that on the way home There are characters in scripture that God makes sure that we know what their struggles and their past were So that you know that there's nothing that can separate you from who he's creating you to be I brought a list with me just in case you weren't sure Adam disobeyed Noah got drunk Jonah ran away Moses murdered a man Abraham was old Rahab was a prostitute Lazarus was dead Peter had a temper David had an affair Miriam gossiped Jacob was deceptive Gideon was insecure Sarah was impatient Elijah was depressed Samson was arrogant and Thomas was a doubter. But guess what God still used them I Feel it here and if God used them You ought to point to your neighbor and tell him God will use you too. Nope. That's the wrong neighbor Come on, talk to somebody else say God will use you too. God will use you through your bad attitude God will use you through your dysfunction God will use you through your family arguments got to use you through your addiction from the past That's now been changed in the present. God will use you as well. Here we go. Lean in. I'm almost done it depends on Whose hands you put your past in? Because you remember all them mutual friends we talked about earlier all of them have a healthy cousin That when you put Your past in God's hands He has a way of turning things around for your good We just got to get it out of your grip And to your God When grief gets put in God's hands it produces a level of understanding that God is the great comforter who brings here we go his

presence and When he brings his presence to you you then are able to bring his presence to others Come on somebody when you bring your failures into the hands of God God brings about a credibility because how many know you live life long enough. You don't trust folks who ain't been through nothing Y'all quiet. I'm gonna stay over here. He's safe no, you trust folks that they've got a story of what God brought them out of and what God is taking them to and that Failure brings about a credibility when it's in the hands of God your sin struggle when you put it in God's hands It produces a consistency of character. Here we go not by willpower, but by the Spirit of God's power moving in you and Through you come on, let's keep going here. Let's keep going when when you bring your regret into the hands of God He has a way of bringing restoration to the years and the months and the hours that were wasted previously It looks like it got lost, but it's still in his hands when you bring your church hurt to God God has a way of bringing belonging to you as you lean in with him. Here we go Separating his name from those who misused it and he'll sit with you in the process while you rebuild trust He'll give you he'll take away your shame and he'll give you dignity Here we go, because he knew who you were first, but he still stayed anyways When you give him your betrayal, he'll replace it with his faithfulness When you give him the patterns and the cycles The old you he'll replace it with transformation and When you give him the unhealthy cycles, he'll produce a godly legacy Some of you in this room watching live or watching later You need to know that the faster you get it out of your hands and put it into his, the quicker you'll begin taking next steps in the direction of the future that God has for you. Talk to us, Jeremiah. God says, I know the plans I have concerning you.

They're plans for good and not for evil. They're plans to give you a future and an expected end with hope attached to it. Whew. I don't do drugs, but I do scripture. And when you get a firm grip, according to Hebrews 2, on the word you've heard, you won't be drawn away. Admittedly, there's something coming for you this week that's going to try to draw you back into who you used to be. It is at least one person you work with right now. Their face and name just popped up. Mm-hmm. And if they say one more thing the wrong way, I'm from the hip hop generation, they gonna make you lose your mind. Up in here. Yeah, up in here. Yeah. I got a playlist on my phone that when I'm in moments where my mind is playing tricks on me, and my emotions are all over the place, I got this playlist on my phone. It only takes about three songs for me to hand over to God the stuff that I don't need and to receive from him the stuff that I do need. Because I believe that worship is a weapon. And that worship, it's not just the singing of a song. Usually that's the entry level expression for us.

It's the expression that we have through a song or a declaration. But worship being a weapon, it's simply this. It's handing to God the stuff that doesn't belong to you anymore. To receive the stuff from him that he knows you need, not just for this moment, but for moments moving forward. And when you activate worship as a weapon, here we go. It drowns out the past and amplifies the voice of the father in the day and time in which we're living. And I'm concerned that there are too many voices that we have on the wrong volume. But worship has a way of just lowering the volume of the voices that we don't need to hear while raising the volume of the voice of our father in a way that drowns out all unnecessary voices at the same time. This is not just a simple post. This isn't something you just get from somebody's Instagram story or a group text. This is the unfiltered word of God that when repeated and declared consistently, it produces life-giving language for you today and life-giving results for you tomorrow. There's one passage of scripture I like to go back to, and I'll warn you, I'm about to read 13 verses of scripture. And the reason why is because I believe that there is power in just declaring the word of God. Like, lean in with me for a moment. I gotta get out of your way,

but there's something great about hearing a sermon, but can I just encourage you, even the best of sermons, you're still hearing someone else's perspective. But when you read the word of God and declare it out loud, you get God's perspective for you in that moment as he desires to communicate to you. Psalm 103 shows us how to use worship as a weapon. Here we go. And command our souls, our mind, our emotions, our will, our thoughts, feelings, and decisions, how to command it to line up with the word of God. And it says this. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity and heals all your diseases, who redeems you, redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses and his acts to the people of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins,

nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love towards those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions and sins from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion. Compassion to those who fear him. Is this a passage of scripture that your soul resounds with today? If it is, would you take 15 seconds right here in his presence and just give God praise, command your soul, I will bless the Lord at all times. And your praise will always be in my mouth with hands lifted, with hearts open. Let's declare this unto our God, come on. ♪ Come on my soul and don't you get shy on me ♪ ♪ Lift up your song, cause you've got a lion ♪ ♪ Inside of those lungs, get up and praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Oh come on my soul, come on my soul ♪ ♪ And don't you get shy on me, lift up your song ♪ ♪ Cause you've got a lion inside of those lungs ♪ ♪ Get up and praise the Lord ♪ ♪ So I throw up my hands and I praise you again and again ♪ ♪ Cause more than I have is a hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ And I know it's not much, I'm nothing else but for a king ♪ ♪ Except for a heart singing hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Oh hallelujah, come on my soul, come on my soul ♪ ♪ And don't you get shy on me, lift up your song ♪ ♪ And don't you get shy on me, lift up your song ♪

♪ Cause you've got a lion inside of those lungs ♪ ♪ Get up and praise the Lord ♪ Oh one more time, declare it today. ♪ Come on my soul, and don't you get shy on me ♪ ♪ Lift up your song, cause you've got a lion inside of those lungs ♪ ♪ Get up and praise the Lord, we'll praise you forever Lord ♪ ♪ So I throw up my hands and praise you again and again ♪ ♪ Cause all that I have is a hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ And I know it's not much, I'm nothing else before a king ♪ ♪ Except for a heart singing hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ Hallelujah! With heads bowed, with eyes closed, just for a moment, I don't want to leave a powerful moment like this without giving someone a chance to be able to say, I want to start a relationship with this God today. Hundreds of us at every one of our locations have already made this decision, and we know this is the greatest decision you could ever make in time and space. And all it requires is that with the words of your mouth, you believe in your heart, everything you're saying in scripture says you'll be saved and start a relationship with this God today and forevermore. City first, I'm going to ask you to pray this prayer out loud so no one feels left out. Just say, Jesus, I need you. I've tried on my own and I've failed, but today I hand you my sin.

I receive your forgiveness. I hand you my life and my past. I receive your leadership. Be the Lord of my life and the King of my heart today and every day to come. In Jesus name, amen. Come on, give him one big praise for those who made that decision. What an incredible message today. You know, if you prayed that prayer to make Jesus the leader and the forgiver of your life, we want to let you know that we are so proud of you and we're celebrating with you today. In the Bible, it says that all of heaven is rejoicing and we believe that this is just the beginning of an amazing journey with Jesus that you are going to go on. One of the first things you can do is tell someone about the decision that you made today. They would love to celebrate with you. And also we'd love to give you a free resource. It's called New Beginnings and it's a simple 14 day devotional designed to help you take your first steps in your relationship with Jesus. It's full of helpful information, how to pray, how to read the Bible, and it's going to help you grow. That's right. And when you sign up for New Beginnings, receive a few short videos from our pastor that will help you learn practical ways and things that are gonna help you grow your faith,

like praying, how to read the Bible, and how to build strong Christ-centered relationships. And also remember that if you ever have questions, if you need encouragement, or you just wanna connect with someone, you can always reach out to us, call our office, send us a DM, and we would love to take a moment to chat with you. Yes, we would. And another great next step is growth track, which happens on the first Sunday of every month. And growth track is designed to help you discover your purpose, learn more about City First Church, and find out how God has uniquely created you to make a difference. There's no one on this earth like you. You can join us online or in person for growth track, and you can find out more information on the City First app or by scanning the QR code right here. That's right, and if there's anything that is going on in your life that you would like prayer for, it would be our honor to pray with you. All you gotta do is just jump on the app or the City First website, submit a prayer request, and our team takes a moment every week to pray over every single request that comes in. But most importantly, what you gotta keep doing is keep showing up, keep coming to church,

keep leaning into community, and keep growing in your faith because God has so much more for you ahead. That's right. Well, we love you, City First Church fam. Thank you for spending part of your day with us. We can't wait to see you again next week. God bless you. Have an amazing day.