Its Our Turn! | Pastor Jeremy DeWeerdt

All right. Hello, City First. How's everybody doing today? Good. Doing good. I'm glad you're here. So excited. I want to welcome all of our locations. I want to welcome our Leadership College. I know we said hi to them already, but I want to say hi for all the locations. We love our Leadership College students. And before I jump into today's message, I have a little bit of an exciting announcement I want to make about something happening in two weeks here at City First at all our locations. And that is summer is a time when a lot of people go on vacation. And if you have kids, they're out of school, which means that your family routine is all out of whack, right? There's like no routine. And you may be attending this summer a little less frequently or maybe more online. But now that we are at the end of summer and we're kind of getting back into our normal rhythms and routines, it is a perfect time to get back into the healthy, important habit of showing up consistently to church. Can I get a big amen about that, right?

I mean, right? Coming back. So in two weeks, we have a Back to Church Sunday. And it's going to be a big event. We're going to have a special Sunday. I'm going to preach about the pursuit of happiness and meaning. And we are going to, on August 30, have a Back to Church bash. It's going to have family events and events for kids and your friends and photo ops and all the different things. So you want to put this on your calendar two weekends from now, August 30. And if you have a coworker or a family member or a friend who doesn't go to church, it would be the perfect Sunday to bring them to church. And so go get them. Get them here. And it's going to be a great Sunday. So that's two weeks from today, all right? Many years ago, I was in New York City filming a life group series for City First Church. And those of you that have been a part of the church for the last two decades, you know that from time to time, I'll go and film something for a life group series or a Sunday series in another location that's kind of thematic with whatever theme I'm talking about. And the theme of this series kind of lent itself to being the Big Apple. And one of the points I was talking about

gave me the idea of let's film in the middle of Times Square, which many people could say is kind of the epicenter of culture. So they miked me up with like a little lapel mic. And it was a battery pack, wireless kind of thing. And they got the cameras ready. And we took an Uber or taxi or whatever was down to Times Square. And the place was crazy. So if you've ever been there, I mean, there's like a lot of people, lots of cars, lots of lights, lots of billboards, noise, you name it. And right around 7 PM, we arrived and walked right into the middle of Times Square. And I started to talk about this. I was talking to the camera for this life group series. And I said, everything that surrounds me right now, all the billboards, all of the messaging, and everything else is what culture says will make you happy. Because here in Times Square, we have fashion. We have finance. We have technology, money, things. We have, in a sense, like show business. All of it is right there, none of which is necessarily bad. But none of those things will ultimately make you happy or give you fulfillment. So I'm preaching this to the camera, right? And people are walking by in cars and all this kind of stuff. And then I looked at the camera towards the end

of my message of that point. And I said, you know what? Let me talk to you about Jesus. And I gave this bold mini-sermon about the gospel and about how only Jesus can give you true fulfillment. Only Jesus can give you true joy. Only Jesus can give you internal peace. That only Jesus can. And I mean, I'm preaching it, right? And it is a moment. I'll tell you, I felt like it was an anointed moment. It was locked in. And as I was standing there on the media, and I'm across from this restaurant. I don't know if it's still there or not. But there's this restaurant to my left. And it was a restaurant called Bubba Gump's, all right? It's a seafood restaurant. And it was two stories. The biggest Bubba Gump's I've ever seen in my life. It was like two stories. And so I'm preaching. And as I'm talking to the camera out of my peripheral vision, I see this waiter come out of Bubba Gump's and in his uniform. And he starts walking towards me and walking towards me. He crosses the street. He comes over to the media. And I'm preaching. And then it kind of became awkward, as literally, you know when you're talking to somebody

and somebody's standing right here? And so I stopped. And I looked at him. And he goes, hey, are you some sort of pastor or something? And I go, yeah. And he goes, ah, I thought so. He goes, just so you know. Your wireless mic must be on the same frequency as the channel of our intercom system in the restaurant. And literally, you are out here preaching and it's being broadcast to our entire restaurant for like the last 10 minutes. And I looked over and there's like two stories of glass and there's all these tables right along the glass and all these people are looking at me and I kind of do this and they do this and some people are clapping and some people are not clapping, you know what I mean? And so inadvertently, for like 10 minutes, I am preaching the message of Jesus to the entire restaurant in the middle of Times Square. It's the craziest thing, literally. The gospel being boldly proclaimed at Bubba Gump's in the epicenter of culture. Epicenter of culture. Well, I'll tell you, throughout the centuries, the church of Jesus has always been at the center of culture. It's really true.

If you really study the last 2,000 years, the church and the movement of Christianity has been a movement very front and center in our society. You can even go back to the very first church, okay, which would have been in Jerusalem. Acts chapter two, day of Pentecost, 20 believers, followers of Jesus, are praying. Holy Spirit falls and that day 3,000 people got saved and one day, in the city of Jerusalem, many of them were visiting in town for the festival and then they went back to their towns and their countries. In fact, even we think that in the book of Romans, when Paul wrote the book of Romans, he had never even visited Rome. We think that maybe the people that started the church in Rome were there on the day of Pentecost, got saved and went back to Rome and started a movement in Rome. Christianity began to grow. And out of Jerusalem, all of a sudden, Christianity began to expand. You look at Jerusalem in that day, we don't know the exact population, but somewhere it was between 60 and 100,000 people that lived in Jerusalem during this moment. And over the next 30 years, after the day of Pentecost, over the next 30 years, more and more people got saved in Jerusalem. In fact, we believe tens of thousands of people

in Jerusalem became a part of the church in a city of 60 to 100,000 people. I'm telling you that there was an influence on that city. And it went well beyond Jerusalem. You look for the next hundreds of years and it began to grow and spread all over Europe and into Northern Africa and you name it, Christianity began to grow. And pretty soon, Christianity and the church began to influence art and politics and business and science and entertainment. Like, do you know in America, when they used to build towns originally, the church was always in the center and the steeple was the highest point of any building in the city or in the little town. The church was in the center. The church has always been an influence. And now City First, today, my message to us here at City First Church is this, it's now our turn. It's our turn to be an influence in our culture at even a greater level than what we maybe already are. If you have your Bibles, turn them open to Joshua 1. And whether you have a physical Bible or a Bible that glows, go ahead and do that. Joshua 1, Old Testament. And as you're turning there, I'm gonna give you a little background of what's happening here.

It's kind of a famous story. But Israel has been wandering around in the desert and in the wilderness for 40 years, four decades. And they are now at this physical boundary that stands between them and the promised land. It's called the Jordan River. And the Jordan River is the only thing standing between them and the promised land. And Joshua is leading the Israelites at this point. His predecessor, Moses, has passed away. Joshua is now in charge. And this is what God says to Joshua in this moment as they're about ready to enter into the promised land. God says, so now arise, take this place. Go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land which I am giving to them, the Israelites. Every place. Turn to the person next to you and say every place. Every place upon which the sole of your nine and a half foot shoe. Every place upon which the sole of your foot shall tread. I have given to you, as I promised Moses, no man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not fail you or forsake you. This is a powerful promise. God is looking at Joshua and saying, you haven't even gotten into the promised land, but I'm gonna let you know you already own it.

I'm gonna let you know that you already have authority in it that wherever you put your foot, I've already given it to you. Now he is talking to people that have not had a home for generations. They've been literally nomadic for 40 years. They've been living in the wilderness in tents. They've left Egypt for 400 years. They didn't own anything, they were slaves. And now they're about ready to cross this river and get into the promised land. And God has said, hey, listen, it's already yours. But the land was inhabited with obstacles and enemies. But God gives Joshua this promise. Everywhere you put your foot, I've already given that land to you. You have authority there. Now I realize that this is a promise given to people many thousands of years ago. And I realize that there may be some people go, well, that was for them and not for us. And I'm gonna tell you that it may not be specifically like for us, but it comes from a God that shows his character, it shows how he moves. In other words, he envisions his people stepping into new territories and giving them the authority, the power, and the ability to stand in those new places. We serve a God who does that.

So therefore, some of you are going to school, some of you are going into a new job, some of you are going back to an old job. When you step into that place, in your neighborhood, wherever you are at, God says, I've already gone before you. And that place belongs to me, God says. And so when you're there, I've given you that place. So you know, you think about this. It's a pretty tall order to believe that after you've been nomadic for 40 years, like you've been camping for 40 years, right? And you're like, okay, I'm gonna cross this river, which by the way, that was a miracle in itself. I'm gonna cross this river, and then I already own the land, and then on top of that, God says this, yes, and the very first city, the very first place you're gonna conquer is a place called Jericho. Now, Jericho is located in this mountain pass that runs east to west in the Middle East, and it's at a very strategic point. Jericho is the lowest inhabited city in the world. It is also the oldest inhabited city in the world. So this is an established city already by the time the Israelites show up. It's called, nickname, the City of Palms. And the reason why is because there's fresh water there, and in the Middle East, that's a commodity. It's a very strategically located city.

In fact, it was at the corner of the Viamaris and the Kings Highways. There were two major thoroughfares, trade thoroughfares. Right at the crossroads is where Jericho was located. It was highly traveled, and Jericho was full of not only its residents, but there are a lot of people traveling there. There are a lot of people going there, selling things, you name it. It was like a mini modern New York City. It was the epicenter of trade, power, wealth, finance. It was the epicenter of culture for its day. It was the most fortified city in its day also. And the Israelites are about right across the Jordan River. They have no weapons. They've been camping in their Coleman tent, all right? They have nothing, and God says, you're gonna first take Jericho, the mini New York City of its day. Now let me stop a moment. This tells me a few things about our God. First of all, God wants his people at the epicenter of culture. He does not want us hiding somewhere in the fringe or building our own little communes or whatever else. He wants us in the middle of culture. We are not, as Christ followers, designed to hide. It says that the gates of hell will not prevail. A gate is a defensive posture. Hell is on the defense.

God is on the offense. Do you understand that? Like we're designed to live a life that glorifies God in all that we do. In fact, Jesus even said this himself. He said, you and I are like a light of the world, a city on top of a hilltop. It cannot be hidden. The Bible says we're the light of the world. The Bible also says. We're salt, I mean, this is something we're supposed to be, we're supposed to be sprinkled throughout culture, not somewhere marginalized in our weird little silo or something like that. No, no, no, God wants our light to shine. He wants his children to live in such a way that we show off what our God can do, that our lives were changed. I once was lost, but now I'm found. I once was addicted, but now I'm free. I once was prideful, but now I'm other-centered. You see, we are to show off what God can do. And when we isolate ourselves from culture, we actually prevent people from seeing the one and only God. We are to be in the world, but not of the world. In other words, we aren't to mimic the world and its value system. We're to have the value system of God, but we're supposed to be in the mix. So Joshua comes up to the city of Jericho

with all of the children of Israel, and he decides he's gonna send a couple of spies into the city to kind of scope out what's going on. So they go into the city and they run into this lady by the name of Rahab. Rahab is actually a prostitute. And immediately she recognizes them and identifies them as being part of the Israelite people that are outside of the walls of Jericho. And by the way, at this point, we don't really know how many children of Israel there were. Some theologians believe it could be as many as 2 million, at least hundreds of thousands. So there are hundreds of thousands of people outside the city, maybe even a couple of million Israelites. And so do you think the people inside of this walled city noticed? Yes. So Rahab is like, wait a minute, you're one of them. And she's a smart woman, because she's thinking there's only so many of us inside the city, and there's a lot of people outside the city, and they're about ready to attack, and maybe I wanna be on their side. So what she does is she basically hides these spies from the Jericho army, because someone had said, hey, I think there's some spies in here. And remember that Rahab is an inhabitant of Jericho,

who they are the enemies of God. They don't believe in God. They serve pagan gods, all right? And this is what is said. I think it's so interesting in Joshua chapter two. Before the spies went to sleep that night, Rahab went up on the roof to talk with them. Listen to what she says. I know the Lord has given you this land. She's like, hey, listen, I know this is already a done deal. Battle hasn't even happened. You guys are gonna win, all right? She told them, we are all afraid of you. Everyone in the land is living in terror, for we have heard how the Lord made a dry path for you through the Red Sea when you left Egypt 40 years prior. I put that in parentheses. 40 years prior, the Lord did a miracle with Moses. Remember, you've seen the movie, right? The rod goes up, the sea goes like this. 40 years later, the enemies of God are still talking about it. They're like, hmm, that was something, right? And so she goes on to say, no wonder our hearts have melted in fear. No one has the courage to fight after hearing such things. For the Lord your God is the supreme God of the heavens above and the earth below. She acknowledges, she's not even a believer.

She acknowledges your God is the real God. All the gods that we worship, not real. Your God is the real God. The reputation of God had gone before his people and the enemy was scared. Couple of thoughts about this. First, at work or at school or wherever you're at, you wear the name of Jesus, wear the name of Christ wherever you go. So therefore, in your work ethic, in your lifestyle, in your finances, your facial expressions, your voice tones, what you say, what you don't say, what you joke about, what you don't joke about, your performance, your love, your compassion, it all is a reflection of the God you serve. We are creating an image of our God through our life. Do you hear what I say? The people that we work with or go to school with, they don't know our God, they only know you. So, brings me to my second point. Secondly, our lives should accurately reflect the God we serve. Our lives should reflect accurately who he is. And I would say this, that our lives. Our lives should be even full of blessing because we serve a God of blessing. Our lives should be full of conviction because we serve a God who's holy. Our lives should be full of success to a certain degree because God has got a blessing in success.

Our lives should be full of life and joy because we serve the God of life and joy. Joy, honestly spoken, the most successful business people in the city should be Christians. The most compassionate people in the neighborhood should be Christians. The most talented artists in the area should be Christians because God's the God of creativity. We should have the most solid, not perfect, solid families, even if our family is blown up, we should have some sort of a solid family. We're growing, we're doing our best to serve God. Why? Because God is the center of our families. People should notice. Why? Because our lives are a reflection of the one and only true God. It does not mean that you're gonna be perfect, that you won't make mistakes. It does not mean that you won't have problems. It doesn't even mean that sometimes you regress a little bit before you go forward, okay? This is not about perfection. My point is this, is that we should be people that reflect a God who truly is working in our lives. Our coworkers, our friends, our family should look at us and see that there is a benefit to serving Jesus. Like, hopefully, if somebody were to take my life and then someone who's far from faith

and put them together and compare them, hopefully that there would be some benefit, that they would see the benefits of following Jesus in my life. Because if there's no difference, then I question whether our faith even is real. Like, is it all fake? Is it all just fairy tale? Shouldn't our lives look a little different because of a God who's in it? Does that make sense? And if we really believe that God has got a blessing, then shouldn't our lives have a little bit of blessing and a little bit of favor? And shouldn't we be also dispensing blessing and giving love, the kind of love that God has given to us? See, in Genesis chapter 12, verse two, God is speaking to Abraham. At this point, his name's Abram. And he says this, I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous. Most of us want to put a period there, awesome. But then he goes on to say, and you will be a blessing to others. You're always blessed to bless. You're always given a resource so that a part of that resource can go to somebody else and help them. God helps you up so that you can help other people up. Does that make sense?

It's so important to understand that. Deuteronomy 28, if you fully obey the Lord, God says to his people, your God, and carefully keep all his commandments that I am giving you today. The Lord, your God, will set you high above all the nations of the world. You will experience all these blessings if you obey the Lord, your God. Your towns and your fields will be blessed. Your children and your crops will be blessed. Now remember, he's talking to an agrarian society here. The offspring of your herds and flocks will be blessed. Your fruit baskets and breadboards will be blessed. Wherever you go and whatever you do, you will be blessed. So the key is this, you may not be a farmer and those things may not apply to you. But my point is, is that there's a God that says, if you obey me, there will be a blessing on your life. And then even in the psalmist writes it this way. The psalmist says, bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Simply put, there should be a noticeable benefit to you serving God. Doesn't mean you're perfect. Doesn't mean that you're, you know, Billy Graham. Doesn't mean that everything is, you know, you're the Pope or whatever. It doesn't mean that you're the, my point is, there should be a blessing on your life

because of the benefit of God in your life. Your life should look different. You know, Jericho is not a big city at this time, according to our standards. But during that day, it was a huge city. It was a huge city, had two huge walls around it. In fact, they used to race chariots on top of the walls and is very fortified. And you probably heard the story. God had the children of Israel march around Jericho, around the walls, six days, once a day. And then on the seventh day, they marched around seven times and on the seventh time, they blew a trumpet. And by the way, it was not a war trumpet. It was a worship trumpet. These were like worship instruments that they blew. began to shout. Think about this. You're in the city, and let's just pretend there's maybe a million people, OK? Let's just be conservative, that a million people are around the city all shouting and blowing trumpets. I mean, think about what that would have felt like. As they shouted, the Bible says the walls fell straight down. They fell down, and Israel rushed in. Now, here's some powerful observations from this. I believe the power to impact culture begins with a life of worship. It does not begin with a debate. It does not begin with an argument.

It does not begin by telling somebody they're wrong. It begins with you and I living a life of worship. And people notice there's something different about you. Because by the way, we all worship. An atheist worships. An atheist worships self and science. A person that is narcissistic worships their self. I mean, somebody who is in a materialism worships material things. We all worship something. And our worship should be different, because we worship the almighty God. And people at work and school, they should notice that our life of worship makes us different. We should stick out a little bit like a sore thumb. In fact, there's this old saying that you preach always and seldom use words. In other words, our lifestyle, our actions, our motives, our kindness, our compassion, the way we treat others, our voice tone, our work ethic, all of that preaches way louder than our words ever do. God wants his people living boldly at the epicenter of culture. And this world will see Jesus's church and see that we are the evidence of a living God. Do you hear that? So once Israel conquered Jericho, the walls fell. They invaded. Joshua then prays, and he gives the city back to God. He says, you know what?

No one is going to build this city in their own image. It's God's. And everything was God's. Now, you got to remember this. Israel didn't own anything. They didn't even have a country at this point. They didn't have homes. They had tents. If you conquered Jericho, which was the most prosperous, beautiful city of its day, that would be a great place to settle down and take roots. Like, if you're a real estate agent in here, location, location, location. Jericho, OK? And yet, Joshua said, no, we're not going to do this. We're going to continue to go into the promised land, and we're going to give this place to God. Meaning this, our victories, we give them back to God, because He's the one who made them possible in the first place. Do you think the Israelites made those walls fall? No. God did. So any accomplishment, any blessing, I'm talking about blessing today and how benefits and all that. Any benefits or blessing that are on your life, they're not yours. They're God's. God gave them to you, and they're His. Someday you're not going to be able to take

these blessings and benefits with you. The only blessing and benefit that you can take with you is a forgiven life, and you get to go to heaven. That's it. So therefore, any blessings we have, we don't walk around with our shoulders back and be like, look at me, look at how blessed I am. No, no, no, no, no. We say, God, it's yours. Thank you. Thank you. This event took place 3,400 years ago, approximately. And you might be asking, OK, how does this apply to us here in 2026? We're not going to march around cities, blow horns, and walls are going to fall. What do we do with this? I think these are the truisms that we can pull from this story. And we can apply it tomorrow at work, tomorrow at school, today in our neighborhood. First, God wants His people to be at the epicenter of culture. In other words, He doesn't want you hiding. He wants you in the middle. The first century church advanced even into hostile territory. People that persecuted them, they boldly went forward proclaiming the love of Jesus and the message of Jesus to people.

So listen, God wants us in the middle of the mess. He wants us in the middle of culture. He doesn't want us just hiding in our churches. He wants us to be in the middle of our places of employment, our places of education, the places we live. Secondly, our lives should show others that there is a benefit to knowing Jesus. In other words, that when people look at you, they're like, You know what? There's something different about them. There's something that's attractional. There's a spirituality that's attractional. That they want to know a little bit more. Why don't you do certain things? And why do you do other things? And you're always so kind to me. And yeah, you shoot straight with me, but you make me better. And you always do it in such a gracious way. And it seems like you prioritize certain things. And they're curious about it, right? We use talents, resources, and gifts, by the way, that are on loan from God. On loan, they're not ours. And we use those things to bless others. Jen and I make it a priority that any blessing that we've been given, we really do want it to bless other people. We want it to help other people, you know? And it's just something, because we realize that, first of all, we haven't earned any of this, really. I mean, at the end of the day, yes, I've worked hard. Jen's worked hard. But really, at the end of the day, it's God's blessing. And I don't deserve it. And so you know what? I want to be able to share it. And we need to see that, whether it be our material goods, whether it be finances, whether it be time, or abilities, or energy, or whatever. We should share a portion of it with people around us. And lastly, we give our victories, any blessings, any accomplishments, we give them back to God with worship and gratitude. We don't hold onto them and hoard them. We don't store up treasure on earth, but we store up treasure in heaven. And what that means is that we do our best to be able to share with others so that people can meet Jesus, and they can be there someday. We need more people of faith at the epicenters of our culture. We need the best teachers in our school systems should be people of faith. The best athletes on the sports field should be people of faith. The best movie makers should be people of faith. The best restaurants should be owned by people of faith.

The best financial advisors should be people of faith. The best businesses should be run by people of faith. Musicians, the best ones, should be people of faith. The best writers, and coaches, and builders, and scientists, and researchers, and mechanics, and politicians, and law enforcement officers, and first responders. The best farmers and producers, the best community volunteers, the best philanthropists, the best creative minds should be people of faith. Why? Because the God that created all of the abilities to do those things is the God that lives inside of us. So therefore, we should be excellent at what we do. We should work hard at what we work hard at. We should be light and salt. People should notice not just our character, but also notice what we create. They should see that Christians do it different, and there should be a curiosity about it. In other words, whatever your profession is, wherever your influence is, use your life and your work to make Jesus known. And for that, we can give a huge round of applause. Come on, right? Do you agree? So City First, this story took place thousands of years ago, but now it's our turn. 2026, when you go to work tomorrow, when you go to school, be a witness. May your life preach. Live a life of worship. Show the benefits that God has given to you in the sense of how has he benefited you. You know, you might even have walked in messed up, broken. Well, I want to tell you, I want to tell you, keep coming around here. Allow God to be the center of your life. And over time, that brokenness will all of a sudden change, and you will use it to be able to share with other people the benefit of who Jesus has been in your life. See, you were once lost, and now you're found. You see, the benefits, the benefits of serving God, may your spheres of influence see that. We preach always in solemn news words. Let's go ahead and pray. Heavenly Father, I pray that, God, you would help us to live brightly. Lord, doesn't matter if we're beginning our career, if we're already retired, wherever we go, I pray that, God, that they would see the light of Jesus inside of our lives. They don't see us.

They see you. And even in our imperfection, and when we make mistakes, when we ask for forgiveness and we try to do better, may they even see that, that they see that we're people that are continuously growing. We haven't arrived. I'm preaching this message, and I am far from arriving at this. In fact, all of us in here, we have a long way to go. But, God, we want to be an accurate message and a reflection of Jesus wherever we live. We love you. We love you. With every head bowed and every eye closed, real quickly, if you say, you mentioned this relationship with Jesus. I've never had it, or maybe I did at one point. And you know what, I walked away from God, and today I want to rededicate my life. If you say, I want to make Jesus the leader and the forgiver of your life, you want to say, I know that I've blown it. I've sinned. The Bible talks about the fact that Jesus was sinless. He came. He's the Son of God. He walked to a cross willingly. He died to pay the penalty for my sin and your sin. And you say, you know what, I need forgiveness, and I really want a new life. And I want to live, Jeremy, what you were talking about today, a life full of purpose and influence

in all the right ways. And you say, I just need Jesus to be the leader and the forgiver of my life, Lord and Savior. If that's you, just go ahead and raise your hand and put it right back down. Is there anybody? Yeah, there's hands up everywhere, actually. Hands are up. With every head bowed and every eye closed, let's all pray this prayer in closing together. Whether you raised your hand or whether you didn't, let's go ahead and pray it, and God is listening to your voice. You ready? Dear Jesus, I come to you today, and I invite you into my heart. Forgive me of my sin. I believe that you died for me. Thank you for loving me with an unconditional love. I want a new life with you at the center, and you as my leader. Thank you for loving me. In Jesus' name. Everybody said amen. Can we give everybody who prayed that prayer a huge round of applause? Yeah. What an amazing time together, City First family. And if you just prayed that prayer to make Jesus the leader and forgiver of your life, we are celebrating with you. That is the best decision that you will ever make,

and we would love to come alongside you in this journey of faith. So we have a few next steps for you. That's right. First, we want to encourage you to tell somebody about the decision that you made. We are not meant to walk this life alone. And secondly, we have a free resource for you. It's called the New Beginnings Resource. It's a simple but powerful 14-day devotional as you start growing in your relationship with Jesus. Yes, and when you sign up for this resource, you're also going to receive a link to a few videos from our senior pastors, Jeremy and Jen. And these videos are going to help guide you through how to pray, how to read the Bible, and how to build Christ-centered friendships in your life. And as you start this journey, please let us know if you have any questions at all. You can drop a line in the chat or DM us on social media. We would love to connect with you. Yes, and then after you kind of go through that New Beginnings Resource, a great next step for you is Growth Track. It starts the first Sunday of every single month, and it's a great way for you to discover your God-given purpose and design. You can also attend in person if you're close to a location or online. So if you'd like more information

or you want to sign up, visit the app or scan the QR code. Yes, and finally, if you need prayer for anything at all, make sure to visit the City First app, and you can enter your prayer requests there. We have people praying over them all the time consistently. And the best thing you can do, City First Church family, is to come back to church. When we gather together, we grow exponentially more in our faith. That's right. We love you guys. We're praying for your church, and we will see you back here next week.