I Have Decided To Take My Faith Seriously | Pastor Adam Peterson

Before we jump into the message, as always, love to look into the camera. I know there's a lot of you that are joining us online today. Come on, we are so grateful that you are here with us. Lock in, God's got a word for your heart. And then come on, Rice Church, help me welcome our family, all the men and women in the correctional facilities. Come on, let's go. We love you guys. We're so, so grateful for you. This series, we're calling it, I Have Decided Great New Year Series. And it's really this principle that, man, in life, when it comes to being a follower of Jesus, which, by the way, can we just start here, first and foremost, to say this. If you're not a follower of Jesus, you have never given your life to Jesus Christ. We're so grateful that you're in our church today. We created our church, man, for people like you, people far from God, people searching, people looking for the answer. And we really do believe it is Jesus. And we believe the greatest decision that you could ever make, like if you wanna make some decisions today, the greatest decision you could ever make is to say yes to a real relationship with Jesus,

to call upon him to come into your life, to change everything. And that's really what baptisms is about in the coming weeks, and we're so excited for that. But this series, man, I have decided, like anything in life, you gotta make some decisions. Some of you decided the clothes that you're gonna wear today, you decided last night, you picked them out. Others of you just looked at what's not wrinkled today, and like, that's what I'm gonna go with. Some of you have already decided where you're gonna eat after church today. You're either gonna go out to eat, or maybe you had some leftovers that you made last night. Some of you have already decided, come on, somebody, you're taking a nap today. This is perfect nap weather. Hey, some of you, let me talk to the online family, you decided when you saw what the weather was like, you're like, we're gonna watch online today. And that's okay, you're here with us, we're so grateful. I have decided, and in our spiritual walk with God, you would say, I'm a follower of Jesus. Jesus has changed my life. There was a moment in my life where I called upon him to come into my life, and it wasn't just a one-time decision. I gave my life to Jesus at the age of 17, but I'm still deciding every single day

to follow after him with my life. Come on. If that's you in this place today, come on, let God continue to work in your heart, and let 2026 just be another year that you surrender your life to the things of God, and let him continue to work in you and through you. My sermon title for today, if you're taking notes, you can write this down, is simply this. I have decided to take my faith seriously, meaning I'm not just gonna coast through life, that if Jesus has changed everything in me, that if heaven and hell are real, and there is an eternal aspect that when we breathe our last breath on this earth, that we are gonna enter into an eternity, then this should be pretty serious. Doesn't mean that we take ourselves too serious. We're gonna laugh a lot today, so get ready for it. It doesn't mean that we walk into church with a frown on our face and go, this is serious. It just means that what we're doing matters, and means that there's a lost and dying world. Hear me very clearly. They don't know the hope that you have. I look inside my life, and because of Jesus, I've got hope, I've got peace, I've got joy. My life has purpose and meaning, okay? Doesn't mean I don't go through hard days. Man, I have a lot of hard days in life,

but I've got something that I wouldn't have apart from God, and when I think about a lost world, I think, how are they making it through life without the God that I know? And so, God, would you use me? Would you use us? Would you use our church to shine in us and through us to a dark, broken, hurting world, so that they might see there's a very real God that could change some things in their life? And so, we're deciding, and again, we're calling this series, I Have Decided, because nobody can make that decision for you. Your mom can't, your dad can't, your siblings can't, your friends can't. You have to decide. Is your faith real to you, and how serious do you wanna be about it? If you're with me, say yeah. Come on, we're gonna start in Ephesians chapter five this morning. It says, wake up. Now, on a morning like this, this is the perfect opportunity for you to just punch your neighbor in the shoulder and just say, wake up, especially if you got in a fight on the way to church. This is your opportunity. Free me, just give him right. Wake up, wake up, sleeper.

Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. If you've ever wondered, maybe you're new to our church, or maybe you've been coming for a while, if you've ever wondered, Rise Church, where did you get that name? Right here. My wife had a weird dream, she woke up, Ephesians five was on her heart, she read. Rise from the, and she goes, what do you think about Rise Church? I said, I love it, because I hated every other name that we had for our church at the time. I love it, Rise Church, what do we want? We want you to rise up, and we want Christ to shine on you. But first and foremost, what do we gotta do? We gotta wake up. Some of you need to wake up today because you're spiritually dead. You don't know Jesus yet. You need to wake up to your need for a Savior today. And I pray that in Jesus' name you would, that you would hear that there's a God who loves you, who cares about you, who wants a relationship with you. But then as followers of Jesus, come on, let's be real, and I've been there before. How many of you say,

there's a point in my walk with the Lord where I've kinda rocked back on my heels a little bit, kinda got a little lazy when it comes to the things of God, and it's not that I've lost the salvation that he gave me, it's just I've fallen asleep spiritually to what's going on around me. And I need to wake up again and remember what God has called me to. So then he goes on to say this, see then that you walk circumspectly, we're gonna come back to that one, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, why? Because the days are evil. Now typically when I preach, I'm preaching from the New International Version, the NIV, so many different translations. I like to, when I read the Bible, look at different translations and see, how does this one read? They're all saying the same thing, but I like to look at language. This is the New King James Version. And when I read this, I read, see then that you walk circumspectly. And if I'm gonna be real with you, I don't think I've ever used this word in my vocabulary. Matter of fact, I didn't know what this word meant. Raise your hand if you have no idea what circumspectly means.

Raise your hand if you think you know what it means. You don't know, you're lying. Listen. Circumspectly, it's a compound word. First part, circumference. All right, let's go back to seventh grade math. You ready? Seventh grade math. Circumference is what? It's what's going on. It's the, it's your 360, whew. You get old, you can't do that very often, man. All right, here we go. It's that 360 degrees of everything. Of everything around you, like a circle, the circumference of a circle. Okay, I ain't got time to break that down. And then spectly, speck, to see. Paul's saying, see then that you walk with an understanding, a sight of what's going on around you. Make sure you're aware of your surroundings, not just physically, spiritually. Why? Because the days are evil. Now, I don't wanna offend anybody, but let's have a little bit of fun, and you're in church, so you can be honest, and let's go, all right? How many of you have ever parked your car

at a grocery store, an amusement park, somewhere, you go into the store, you go into the park, you go in, you do your thing, you come out of the store, and then you ask this question. Where's my car? Raise your hand, ladies, raise your hand. No, I'm just teasing, I'm teasing, I'm teasing. No, I'm not, right? Come on, I'm just teasing, I'm teasing, I'm teasing. Okay, right? How many of you love watching people, I love watching people that have no clue where their car is, they just got the clicker in the air, they're just walking around. Praise the Lord for clickers, right, right, right, right? Okay, so I'm not trying to pat myself on the back or anything, I'm just, I'm always aware of where I parked my car, because I parked it. I know, I parked in Goofy 17, like, that's where it is, I parked on this row of the grocery store, like, I know where, but I did have a moment. My wife was out of town this week, so I was driving her car, don't usually drive her car. I've got a black SUV, she has a white SUV, okay? And so I was driving her car, I went to Winn-Dixie right here before work, this one right here on Normandy, and as I was leaving, my mind was preoccupied. I was thinking about a meeting that I was about to go into,

I was thinking about a couple other things, wasn't on my phone, just mind preoccupied, and I walk up to a, she has a white Pilot, and I walk up, and I go to open the door, and it didn't open, and she's got the whole clicker thing, where you put your finger on the door, and it unlocks, and everything, so I reach out again, and I pull it, it didn't open, I'm like, what's going on? And then I see this face look at me like this, and this lady goes, hello? And I go, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! And then she opened the door, to which, don't open the door, women, if a psycho guy that looks like me, is trying to break into your car, oh my gosh, she was like, can I help you? I was like, I'm so sorry, I thought this was my car, literally, I was two cars over, I was like, that's mine, same car, I'm not a creep, okay? To which she was like, now telling this story to all of her friends. This creep tried to break into my car, okay, okay. Why? I wasn't aware of my surroundings. Here's what Paul is saying. You gotta walk circumspectly. You gotta walk with a sight of your surroundings because if not, if you're not careful, listen to me, you're gonna walk into things

that God never intended you to walk into. You're gonna walk into some circumstances, some situations, some places that are not God's best for you. And so he goes on to say this, and don't be foolish. You can actually walk with wisdom. The wisdom of God that's gonna say, no, no, no, no, don't go there. The wisdom of God that will say, don't hang around that group of people. They are not God's best for you. They're not gonna push you to Jesus Christ. You know when you get around them, they're just gonna pull you right back into that old way of living that you lived in, whether you're a teenager or a grown adult. Redeeming the time. What does that mean? It means we're taking back the time that we've wasted. Anybody wanna admit that you've wasted some time in your life? Yeah. Why? Why is he telling us this? He said, the days are evil. Meaning we gotta wake up. We gotta take our faith more serious so that we can live the life that God has called us to live, not just for ourselves, but to be able to make an impact

on other people around us. We're not just here as a church just because it's cool to gather. We want to say, God, do something in us, and then we're going out into our community for you to use us to impact the world. So how are we gonna redeem the time? I'm so glad you asked. Our church is in a season of, come on, somebody, 21 days. Prayer and fasting, okay? And if you're not clapping, that just means you didn't jump in yet, all right? Or you're brand new, so let me get you caught up. If you're brand new to our church, welcome. For the next 21 days, you can't eat, and you can't do anything fun. I'm just teasing, I'm teasing. Here's what we did. We started on Monday, this past Monday, and we said, for the next 21 days, we're gonna seek God, and one of the ways that we're gonna seek him is through prayer, and prayer is simply this, you completely relying on God. Whenever you're praying about something, when you're praying, just rely and go, God, I can't do this without you. That's prayer. It's inviting God into every area of your life, and then fasting is this denying of the things

that you want so that you can say yes to God. Specifically, the Bible tells us that when it comes to fasting, it's the spiritual discipline where we push back the plate of food. It just got personal in here. You're telling me I can't eat? No, I'm not telling you. God is. Where we say no to some meals, we say no to some sweet treats that we like to eat from time to time. We say no to some fast food. We say no to some, we let some physical hunger stir in us so that the spiritual hunger then goes, but what I really need is you, God. You know you can go an entire day without eating. Well, is it gonna be fun? No, eating is fun. So to go an entire day without eating is not gonna be fun, but you can do it. What you can't do is go an entire day without God in your life, and I don't know why. Let's be real. Why would we wanna go throughout our day without God in our life? And so fasting is just this simple thing of just going, I'm not gonna eat breakfast, and I'm not gonna eat lunch, and God, instead of that, I'm gonna pursue you,

and as that hunger grows in my belly, may the hunger grow in my heart for more of you. And then we took it a step further and said, and some of us need to fast from some entertainment in our lives. We need to put the phone down. We need to get off the scrolling, put the remote control down, turn the news off. I've talked to so many of you that are like, I've deleted apps. Let's go. Got social media off my phone. Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, like all, and you're like, I've got all the time in the world now, and instead of doing that, I'm seeking after God. That's fasting, and if you're like, that's weird, it is, but it isn't, because we're just deciding, God, you're the most important thing in my life. I do not need that, and most of you are old enough to remember the days you didn't have it to begin with. You don't need it. You've been through most of your life without it. You don't need it today. Luke says it like this as Jesus is talking. He says, whoever wants to be my disciple, oh, which, by the way, if you didn't start fasting with us on Monday, you can start today.

You don't even have to go 21 days. You go 14 days. Come on, let's go, but join in. Hey, if you started fasting on Monday and you got done on Thursday and you're like, I can't do this anymore, get back in, okay? Press through, but you have to decide. You gotta decide, man, is it worth it, and let me tell you something right now. It's worth it, I promise you. Jesus said this, whoever wants to be my disciple, they must deny themselves. What does that mean? It means you give up your desires for his plans, for his purposes. Take up their cross. daily and follow me. What does it mean to take up your cross? It means to die. It means you hold a funeral for your plans, your purposes, your desires, and you go, God, your way is better. So I'm gonna say no to this so that I can say yes to more of you, okay? Because, because I just wanna take my faith serious. I want it to become more serious, and I want God to work in me in a greater way this year than he did last year. I wrote this thought down about fasting. Fasting isn't about getting God's attention.

It's not you going, God, look at me. I didn't eat breakfast today. God, look at me. I didn't scroll on Facebook, or I didn't, I got rid of, like, God's, like, not impressed by that. It's not like, God, look at me. I came to church in the rain, okay? God's not, God's not like, God doesn't love you more because you came to church in the rain today. I love you more. I'm so glad you're here. I love you more than the online people, okay? I'm just teasing. I love you online. God, God, God's not like, God, you know, you already have God's attention. You understand that, right? Like, he loves you. He sent Jesus to die for you, all right? So fasting isn't about getting God's attention. Fasting is giving more of our attention to God. So the whole idea, the principle is, when I don't scroll on social media, I can open up God's word. When I turn off Sports Talk Radio or anything else, that podcast, that audio book in my car, I can turn on worship music and spend time in the presence of God. It's this exchange. When I don't eat, I can say, God, I wanna feed off of you.

I want you to fill me. It's a beautiful thing. And that's what God is inviting us. This isn't my idea. I didn't come up, I would never have come up with something like this because I don't like it always. But God says it's a spiritual discipline that's actually good for you. You ever been to a restaurant, whether it's fast food, sit-down restaurant or whatever, and you go in and you see like a family of four or five, whatever, how many of them? And they're all sitting at the same table, but they're all on their phones. Nobody's talking to each other. And you look at them and I don't know if you're anything like me, you start judging them in your heart. You're like, why'd y'all all come out here if you're not even gonna talk to each other? What are y'all doing in here? Y'all been like that before? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Think about it like this. You sit down at a table and God's like, hey, can I sit with you? And you're like, yeah, God, of course. And then you just sit on your phone.

And God is saying, I want your attention, but you can't give it to me because you're so preoccupied with something else. Fasting is, well, then I'll put it down so that I can give more of my attention to you. Can I get a better amen in here? Come on. That's what we're talking about here. Okay, so I heard a pastor say it like this. Focusing on what matters means you have to decide what doesn't matter. So actions speak louder than words, right? I can say, oh, I love you, babe. I love you, I love you, I love you, love you, love you, love you. But if I'm not living it out with my actions, it doesn't matter what my words say. When it comes to our relationship with God, we can say, God, you're first, you're the best, you're the most important thing in my life. But if we're not careful, we'll just gravitate to all the things that our flesh nature loves and enjoys. And God is inviting us, lay it down, deny yourself, and you come and you follow me. But you gotta decide what matters, what doesn't matter. And God's a God of order. I don't know if you know that or not. How many of you know that life is actually good when you have things in order, all right?

How many of you, come on, show of hands, how many of you shower first and then get dressed? Order's important, right? How many of you put on your underwear, then your pants? Order's important, right? Okay, all right, this one's gonna be a little controversial. How many of you pour the cereal in the bowl and then the milk, okay? How many of you psychos pour the milk first? Yeah, weirdos, all right? Order's important. Order is extremely important with God. Think about salvation. Think about your relationship with God. And again, if you don't have a relationship with God, please hear this very clearly, 1 John 1, 9. It says, if we confess our sins, that's the order, that's where it starts, he is faithful. Here's the order that follows. He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins. and purify us from all unrighteousness. So here's the order that I wrote down. First, you need to acknowledge that you're a sinner. You need to see that you have sin in your life, and then you need to go here. You need to believe that Jesus died for sinners like you. See, it's one thing to believe that you're a sinner. It's a whole nother thing to believe that Jesus died for you. See, you might sit here today and go,

I know I'm a sinner, but I don't think he died for me because my sin's too bad. Maybe he loves everybody else, but he doesn't love me. No, no, no, the grace is good for all people. See, you might be a sinner, but Jesus is a better savior than you are a sinner. You might have a lot of sin, but his grace is greater than your sin, but you gotta believe that. And then, this is a very important step of the order, you have to repent of your sin and ask Jesus to forgive you. And repentance is going, I don't wanna live this way anymore. I wanna follow you. So I'm gonna turn from this way of living, which is selfish, to surrender to your call on my life. And then you gotta receive his forgiveness and follow him. See, it's one thing to know he's willing to forgive you. It's another thing that you gotta receive it. You gotta go, okay, God, I'm gonna choose to believe that I am truly forgiven. Some of you might even be in here today and you go, I know he loves me, but I don't know if he fully forgives me. Oh, yes, he does. But you gotta receive that gift that he's given you. And then, here's the last step of the order. Then just follow him. Every day. Every day, decide, I'm gonna follow you today.

I'm gonna follow you tomorrow. I'm gonna follow you the next day. Why? Because he's worth it. He's a God of order. These are the steps. In Matthew chapter six, the disciples come along and they say, man, teach us to pray like you pray. And he goes, okay, when you pray, pray like this. And he says what's called now the Lord's Prayer. Not to just be recited and repeated, it's an order of how you can pray when you pray. If you've been around Rice Church, you've heard me preach this many times, it's worth repeating. Here's a great way to start. Order, you ready? Acknowledge that God's your father. Isn't that a beautiful way to start prayer? Oh, God, you're my father in heaven. Here's what that means. It means you're good. It means you're for me. It means you're with me. It means you're close. You ever stepped into prayer before and you're like, God, do you hear me? Testing, is this thing on? But to acknowledge that he's father, now I know he's here.

And then he says, here's the order I want you to follow. Holy is your name. Let God know how wonderful he is. Does God forgot how wonderful he is? No, no, no, he just wants you to enter in with him on that. So before you ask God for anything, tell him how amazing he is. The Bible says, enter in to God's presence. Come on, with some thanksgiving in your heart, with some praise on your mouth. Come on, God, you're wonderful. You're holy, you're amazing. And then he says, hey, order, order, order, your kingdom come. So again, before you start asking God for anything, say, God, this isn't about what I want. I want what you want today. Let your kingdom, because your kingdom is better than my kingdom. So would your kingdom come in this place? And then here's the order, you ready? The fourth one on the list. Now you can start asking God for what you need. But catch this, give us what we need today. Translation in the Bible would say, give us today our daily bread, meaning I'm not gonna worry about tomorrow, I'm gonna focus on today. What is the strength I need today? What is the peace I need today?

What is the hope I need today? And then when tomorrow comes, guess what? Now you enter into that. Give us today what we need. And then here it is, forgive us as we forgive others. And you're like, I don't like that part of the order. I like how God forgives me, but I don't wanna forgive others. Guess what? People don't deserve your forgiveness. But you don't deserve God's forgiveness. He gives it to you freely. So that same forgiveness that you've received, God asks you to give to others. Is this important? Yes, that's why he put it in the order. That's why he said, hey, when you're gonna pray, make sure you include forgiveness in your prayers to make sure your heart isn't growing bitter towards others, because that's not God's best for you. And then lastly, give us strength to fight temptation. Meaning, God, make me aware of the spiritual battle. Let me walk circumspectly, because there's a real enemy that's trying to take me out, and he's gonna bring temptation in my way. And I'm not stronger than the devil, but you're stronger than the devil, and you live in me. So I need to tap into the greater strength that's in me to fight against. Woo!

Amen? He's a God of order. This is just one way you can pray. That's Matthew 6, check it out. And then, come on, Exodus 20. You shall have no other gods than me. This. Verse would also read, you shall have no other gods before me. And you look like a smart crowd. You know where this one's found? You ready, come on? This is one of the big 10, the 10 commandments. This is one of them. You know what order this one is? Numero uno. What is God implying right here? You wanna be my people? You wanna be my people? Then I am going to set you apart. I am going to mark you as my people. And one of the things that's gonna differentiate you from everybody else is that you're only gonna worship one God. Every other people group in those days, they would worship every God because they weren't sure which one was real. So they were like, we don't know who is real. So we're just gonna include them all. And God goes, that's not how it works.

I come first. First, and you're not putting anything above me. Can I get a better amen? Pastor Jonathan, come on up here on the stage. So what is God inviting us into today? To make the decision to take our faith serious. To get some order right in our lives. Why? I wrote this thought down because God doesn't wanna be a part of your life. He wants to be first in your life. Can I have an honest moment where I just share a little bit with you? You're probably not gonna be able to relate to this. So if this doesn't relate to you, just check out. I've had too many days in my life where I wake up and the first thing I do is go to ESPN and check the scores of football games, baseball games, basketball games. I love sports, so I'm gonna read them all. Even teams that aren't mine. I've had too many mornings where I wake up and the first thing I do is I start scrolling and reading about what's going on in the lives of other people. People I'm not even really friends with. And then, because I'm a Christian, I'm a pastor, I'm a pastor. I'm a Christian, I'm a pastor. All right, God, I'll fit you in right here.

I know, you can't relate to that. I understand, you're like, I don't get that, pastor. I just love Jesus and all I do is read about him. And too many days where the first thing I do in the morning is seek everything else. And then I'll work God in. It's out of order. And if this is convicting your heart right now, praise God, it should. Because God convicts me all the time. And the word for some of you today is simply this. Wake up. No, no, no, no, not spiritually, physically. Wake up in the morning and seek God. And I know what you're thinking right now. Some of you, half the crowd's like, but I'm not a morning person. I get it. And if that's the excuse you wanna give to God who created you, who breathed life into you, who sent his son Jesus to die for you, that's up to you. That is completely up to you. That's between you and the Lord. God, you understand I'm not a morning person. I don't know, I don't know, that's up to you. I'm not a morning person. That's up to you, okay? I'm not trying to make you feel any certain way. I'm just, a little bit. Here we go.

For me, I am not at my best when I wake up in the morning, because I'm not a morning person. But I'm forcing myself. I've been doing this for years, where I get up and I've had to find a new routine because I would read the Bible on my phone, but then that phone was so tempting just to jump right onto something else. So my new routine that's working, okay, and I'm just sharing this with you just to help you in any way, it's working though. I get up in the morning and I'm half asleep, guys. My coffee's already made. I don't have to make it, it's already made. I made it the night before. I decided that coffee's gonna be ready for me. I pour that first cup of coffee. And the first thing I do is I put a worship song on my phone. And then I set my phone out of my reach to where I can't touch it. And I sit half asleep. I'm the only one up in my house because I love Jesus more than anybody else in my house. Okay? It's true. And I just let the coffee do its thing. And I let the worship music do its thing. And as the coffee starts to help me wake up, the worship music.

Starting to get into my spirit. I'm not singing the words. Don't get me like don't be like I can't believe he's worship No, I just listen But it doesn't take long and when the caffeine kicks in that the Spirit of God has already started stirring Now I'm able to join in on that song Then I'm going physical Bible Because I don't trust myself on my phone I'm gonna check my email my check my bank account. I'm gonna check my notifications I'm going physical Bible and I'm going Every word I'm about to read from this book is good It's the promises is the truth of God's Word And I'm not trying to read so much that I forget everything. I read just a little bit Give yourself a minute. I read a chapter sometimes less right now. It's less actually I Just sit and I think about I've got a devotional another book that I'm reading that's just Walking me through just this fast right now That's it. Don't overcomplicate it We're just putting things back in order My simple prayer this morning was this God you're my Father in heaven who loves me You're always good and you're always faithful Jesus you're my Savior that died for me. Thank you for loving me in spite of all of my sin You're also my Lord who deserves my life So I live surrendered today And then I said in Holy Spirit you are with me right here. I can't see you I don't feel you but I know you are the presence of God that is with me Amen done, and then I started praying for you started praying for some other friends of ours and churches and And then my kids were awake and it's time to go and I got to get to church Just order and then bring God into other parts of your day. He deserves your first And I promise you you start prioritizing some things in your life You're not fitting God in you're putting him at the highest priority that he belongs

Watch the Lord move in you Watch your day get better. Watch your perspective change. Watch your heart be more prepared for everything you're stepping into Watch the Lord start speaking to you in a greater way. Anybody want to hear from God more? Anybody want to grow? Come on, that's where we start First and foremost, let's pray together. Thank you God that you're a God of order that you invite us in may we Look at our lives and go where things are out of order. God, will we reprioritize you first and foremost? And would you work in us in a greater way That we would experience you That we would be changed Pray this in Jesus name Amen, amen