Super Sunday 2026

It is super Sunday, Faith Church, how we doing this morning? Woo! Oh, it's gonna be a great Sunday, Pastor Jessica. Super, super excited. People are still making their way in. How many of y'all are excited to find out what happens later tonight? Yeah. Woo! Well, before that, how many are excited for church today? Let's go! That's right. Yes. That's right, it's gonna be good. That's right, that's right. Well, Pastor Joel, I figured you and I, we should start today with a little game. I think so, that's kind of the only appropriate way to kick this thing off. That's right. Yes. Let's go ahead and kick today off with a game of charades. That's right, that's right. So before service, Pastor Jessica and I picked our teams from out there, from you guys. Yes, we did. And let's bring them on up. Can we make some noise for the green team? Come on up, green team, come on up.

That's right, that's right. And on this side, you guys are gonna represent the blue team. So my blue team contestants, come on up. Come on up. Yeah, I love the energy. All right, so this half of the sanctuary, we are the green team. Let me hear you make some noise. All right, all right. Hold on, hold on, let me see if my blue team can make some noise. Blue team, make some noise. Woo! That's right, that's right. Hold on, hold on, hold on, because green team, we can't have that. Green team, let's make some noise. And how about we just make everyone make some noise? Faith Church, make some noise. Yes. Hey, Pastor Joel. That's right, that's right. Let's go ahead and explain to them how this game's gonna work real quick. Yeah, so let me explain to you how it's gonna work. We have charades. We have two teams. Each team's gonna be broken up into two pairs. So we'll have two pairs of guessers that will be grabbing a seat, and two pairs of charaders that they will be facing them.

We'll have a prompt pop up on the screen, and they will then have to charade what that is. They can't speak, they can't lip things, they can't point, they just have to act it out, and put on their best acting skills. Whichever team guesses that point first gets a point. We'll be going back and forth, back and forth, switching who's guessing and who's charading until we finish all the questions. The team with the most points wins our game this morning. All right, let's go ahead and let's get started here. Blue team, you guys ready to do this? Yeah? I think they're locked in. Pastor Joel. And I think green team's getting situated really quickly. All right, here we go. They're ready. All right, Faith Church, let's go ahead and see who's gonna win this year's Super Sunday game of charades. That's right, here we go. Let's throw that first prompt on the screen in. Three, two, one. First prompt, I was about to say it. Oh, that's a good one. Go, hike. Field goal. Keep it going, keep it going. Touchdown, we got it over here

with one point for the blue team. I like to see it. All right, it's still anybody's game, all right? Let's go ahead and switch the players. We're gonna go ahead and have those sitting down be the guessers and those guessing, or the charaders. All right, all right, here we go. We're situated. Let's go for round two in. Three, two, one. Field goal, field goal, field goal. I definitely heard it over here first, so we're gonna go to the green team. Green team. Come on, green team. I think I did hear field goal. They need it, they need the energy. Come on, come on, come on. Come on. That's what I'm talking about, there we go. Let's go ahead and switch again, and that means, Pastor Joelle, it is one to one. That's right, but we still got more questions, so the game is not over. Here we go, round three in. Three, two, one. Throwing? Throw and catch. Touchdown football. Quarterback.

Go long. Go long. You're close, you're close. Blue, green. Toss. Go far. Running, running, straight. I'm gonna give you guys all a hint. It's the actual play of what they're acting out. All right, time is up. Time is up. It's okay, no point for that one. Go ahead, in three, two, one. Yell out what it is. Three, two, one. It was a Hail Mary pass, that's right. We'll go ahead and keep you guys where you're at. It was a little tough. Here we go. Next prompt. Here we go. No, we'll stay, we won't switch, we won't switch. Here we go, next prompt in three, two, one. There it is. All right, here we go. Happy dance. Dance. Happy dance. Celebration dance. Wind dance.

So close. Winning dance. Winning. The happy dance. Winning dance. That's not exact, so we're looking for exact verbage. Celebration dance. Celebration. Winning. Celebratory. No talking. Celebration. Handsome. Win, celebration wins. Winning hooray. Win, celebration. Happy dance. Keep it going. Keep it going. I think they can get it. We'll give another 10 seconds. Victory dance. Victory dance. Yes! Oh my goodness. I am sweating. Did y'all feel the anxiety? It was victory dance. Let's go ahead and switch. I believe green team has two points. Blue team has one point. But I believe we're about to tie it right now. Go ahead and shake it off. Here we go. In 3, 2, 1. Touchdown. Pass. Interference. First down. Bad throw. Incomplete pass. My team might not be the most honest right now. Penalty? Flag. Yes! Penalty flag. They got it over here on the blue side. Good job. Good job. I saw what y'all were doing there. Alright. I think we're tied. I think we're tied and I think this is the last round.

What I'll let you guys do is just choose really quickly who wants to guess, who wants to act. If you want to switch up, it could be either way. You guys can switch. It could be one girl there, one guy here. Whatever you want. You're going to stay? Alright. We're good. We're locked in over here on blue team. Blue team, go ahead and make some noise. Alright, alright. Green team needs to make some noise, Pastor Joel. I mean, green team. Alright, alright. Here we go. 4 to determine the winner. To determine it. Here we go. 3, 2, 1. Alright, alright. Here we go. Tackle. Sack. Blitz. QB. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. QB sack. Quarterback sack. He said both. Okay. They said the full thing. That's why it was. Yeah. Good job, blue team. Pastor Joel, you were like, what is it? Let's give it up for the green team as well. Give it up for the blue team. Blue team, good job. You guys can make your way over there. We got some prizes for you right off the stage. Thank you so much for playing. Good job, green. Again, Faith Church. I would say green team, blue team, make some noise. But let's go ahead. Faith Church, make some noise. Yes. Hey, we're so happy you're here for Super Sunday. We got so much ahead and welcome to church. Hello and welcome to Super Sunday. I'm Edgar and I'm Jasmine. We are so excited for today. We have so much in store and we're glad you all get to be a part of it. Yes, Jasmine. The big service is just around the corner and our players have been training and working hard these last couple of weeks in preparation for today. Yes. In fact, I looked back through Pastor Johnny's last couple of sermons and I saw he set a new record of saying amen in a service. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. He said amen over three hundred and forty six times. Wow. That is an impressive amount of amens. I have to agree. I went down to the field recently and saw the ushers practicing their steps and their handing of the offering buckets. Did you know that an average usher will walk over ten thousand steps this morning alone? Incredible footwork there, sir. F.W.A. or the Faith Worship Arts team are seen backstage today practicing their vocal warm up. We have seen our worship leaders hit an incredible amount of high notes lately,

so they will have to make sure to stay healthy as they get ready for the big service later today. Jasmine, I should have practiced my vocal warm ups today before we went live. Red leather, yellow leather. Oh, Pastor John, watch out. Is that helping? And finally, we were able to catch up to our greeter team and saw their game plan on, well, greeting. Good morning. Nice to meet me. Hi. Welcome to service. Just this way, I'll show you to your seat. What was that? You want to sit in the front? I'm sure she'll get that figured out. Well, now we'll give it back to our on the field correspondent. Take it away. Come on, who's excited to be in church? I know I keep making you guys get excited. In fact, I actually want you to get excited for a certain group of individuals in the room today, which is our first time guests. Can you go ahead and give it up for our first time guests? Come on. And as we're giving it up, if it is your first time in the room, can you go ahead and just go ahead and put that hand up and wave at me nice and high? Because we got ushers. They're going to make their way towards you as they see those hands. And they're going to go ahead and just give you some info that we want you to have so you can get connected here at Faith Church. If you've yet to make a connection with one of our guest experience team members after service in our atrium, we have a guest hub that you can get connected, get all the information you need so that you're no longer a first-time guest, but by next week you have made Faith Church your home church because we're so excited that you are here with us today. I also wanna recognize another group in the room. Maybe you brought someone. Will you just wave at me really quick

if you brought a first-time guest or maybe a family member? Yes, man, thank you so much for bringing them. I believe, church, that this is just the beginning of us bringing people to church because if you come alone, I know that next week, God's gonna prompt you this week to bring someone with you, amen? Well, we wanna do something really quick for our first-time guests, so Pastor Joel, I'm gonna ask you to join me on stage. We want to go ahead and just recognize two individuals and give them, we got a little giveaway this morning. Let's go ahead and do this. I got two individuals I'm gonna go ahead with. Let's go ahead and see the first name here, Pastor Joel is? All right, that first name is Gabriel Henfield. Come on. Where are you at, Gabe? Gabriel, wave at us. Gabriel Henfield, we are glad you are here. Go ahead and wave at us. We have a gift card for you, sir. Where are you at, Gabriel? All the way over there. There we go. Come on, let's go, Gabe. I think he's wearing a Ravens jersey. Is that Ravens?

Yes, love it. All right, we got one more, one more, and Nico's gonna make their way to you. Our second first-time guest we'd love to recognize is. Make some noise for Carolyn Digby. Carolyn, where are you at? Carolyn Digby, let's go. You're back there as well. Hey, Nico, right there at the same risers at the top. That's the spot to sit at. That was, I love it. All right, well, first-time guests again, like we said, we're so happy you're here with us, and we hope that you make Faith Church your home church. There's one more thing I wanna do. If we have any middle schoolers in the room, we have a middle school service that meets every Sunday at 10 and 12 o'clock. So if you have a middle schooler, we have some of our middle school team back here on my right, your left. He's waving his hand. So send your middle schoolers that way. They'll take them over to Super Sunday with our middle school service over in our mainstream building. Once again, we're so happy you're here, and welcome to Super Sunday. And welcome back to the broadcast booth. We are absolutely thrilled to have you here today.

No matter where you're tuning in from, Faith Church is your home. If you didn't know, we have four locations across Orlando, Curry Ford, Michigan Street, Red Bug Lake, and Narcoossee Road. Our weekend services take place every Sunday across all four campuses. Join us at 8 a.m., 10 a.m., or 12 p.m. right here at the Curry Ford campus. Michigan Street, Red Bug Lake, and Narcoossee meet at 9 or 1115 a.m. We also have a midweek service that meets on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. at the Curry Ford, Michigan Street, or Red Bug Lake campuses. And hey, let's talk about the little ones. Faith Kids, our children's ministry, is designed to provide a safe, loving environment for your kids, nursery through fifth grade, to learn about Jesus and develop their faith. You can drop off your little ones before service and know they are in good hands. For middle school students, join Mainstream Middle on Sundays at 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. and Wednesdays at 7 p.m. High schoolers can attend Mainstream High every Wednesday night at 7 p.m. in our Mainstream Youth Auditorium. And for those in your 20s and 30s, you can join us at The Voice every Thursday night

at 7 p.m. in the Youth Auditorium. We are so glad you're here today. And we're praying that today is the day that you take the first step on your faith church journey. Let's go. Amen, let's go, man. This morning has been absolutely amazing, am I right? That's right, that's right. We're super, super excited to continue all the good things as we worship God in a time of giving. Yeah, we're super excited about giving around here. Wanna say, if you are a guest with us, we're so glad you're joining with us. This is something that we do every single week. What the Bible teaches about giving, which is God says to give the tithe, which is our first 10% of our income, of anything we receive, we give that to God, that belongs to Him. That's the first step of giving. And then the second step of giving, we're so excited about, it's the step of generosity, where we are able to partner with what God is doing across this world through kingdom builders. And what that is, is basically we give to multiple different organizations that do incredible things across this globe, and that we get to see God move, and we get to partner with that through kingdom builders. So that first step, again, is the tithe,

which is that first 10% of our income, and kingdom builders giving is anything above that, that's step two. If you have any questions about kingdom builders, we have these amazing magazines out in the lobby. You can grab it, it can answer all the questions you have, show you all the different organizations that we support, and man, God is doing some amazing things. So there's a few different ways you can give. They'll throw it on the screen. You can give digitally if that's easier, or we'll have some ushers passing a bucket by you. Are you ready to go to the Lord in prayer? Amen, let's do it. Bow your heads with me. Jesus, we thank you so much that you are a good God, and you have been good to us. And because of that, God. we we thankfully submit our lives to you including our finances god i pray that we would walk in obedience with the tithe i pray that we would be generous god when it comes to kingdom builders and that you would bless this offering and that it would go forward to build your kingdom lord we thank you it's in your name we pray amen and amen well god bless you as you give i do have a question because next sunday night our better marriage conference is going down it's going to be absolutely amazing all my married people wave at me say oh yeah all my engaged people wave at me say oh yeah all right some okay awesome awesome hey i do have a question if you're planning on attending the better marriage conference but you did not register yet can you just wave at me say yes we're gonna go we're planning on it but we just did not register yet go ahead and wave real big at me because i believe pastor jesse wants to bless this over there in the back i see you awesome okay so you guys are planning coming but you haven't registered yet fantastic can you wave at me one more time pastor jesse right over there pastor jesse himself

is personally going to bless you guys with the free better marriage conference next sunday night so excited to see you guys there let me tell everyone to register it's going to be an amazing amazing night and uh god is good all the time all the time y'all know it check out the screens the next video strong marriages aren't built by accident they're built when couples choose to slow down reconnect and reinvest in the relationship they require intentional effort and the support of our faith community along the way we've designed an evening just for that to encourage strengthen and renew your marriage as we grow together join us sunday february 15th at our curryford campus as we gather together for the better marriage conference whether you're married or engaged this evening was designed for you featuring a powerful word from guest speaker dan lian i believe that god wants to give each and every single one of your marriages more ask the question okay dan big chinese man who obviously does a lot of upper body work but not as much on his legs okay dan how do i actually take hold of this i believe the holy spirit told me to tell you there is more joy ahead for your marriage in the name of jesus he has got more in store for you doors open at 5 30 p.m with child care and dinner provided for kids 10 and under so take this simple intentional step towards a godly and better marriage faith church orlando it's awesome to see you in church today did anybody come ready to praise the lord with us god is good like he said all the time and all the time if you believe that won't you stand to your feet clap your hands along with us as we celebrate who he is what he does in our lives he gives us joy unspeakable and full of glory we believe that about him today this is the day you made so i rejoice and be glad rejoice and be glad in it this is where i believe that you are more than enough more than enough for me we say you are faithful to your promise you are strong where i am weak when i'm standing in your presence i have everything i need the joy of the lord the joy of the lord is my strength yes it is the joy of the lord the joy of the lord is my strength say oh my soul somebody clap for him so jesus come what may you are worthy you are worthy of all worthy of all my praise and you are faithful to your promise you are strong ♪ When I'm standing in your presence ♪ ♪ I have everything I need

♪ The joy ♪ Oh, the joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ Oh, the joy ♪ The joy of the Lord ♪ The joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ Oh, my soul ♪ Oh, my soul ♪ Oh, bless His name ♪ All that is in me say ♪ The joy of the Lord ♪ The joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪ Oh, your joy ♪ Strengthens us through every day ♪ Oh, oh, oh So this is our prayer, that His joy would do this. ♪ Let it rise up ♪ Like a river ♪ Overflowing ♪ Holy Spirit ♪ And let it pour out ♪ With no limits ♪ Overflowing ♪ Holy Spirit ♪ Let your joy rise ♪ Let it rise up ♪ Even through the hard times ♪ Like a river ♪ Overflowing ♪ In every household

♪ Holy Spirit ♪ Holy Spirit ♪ Let it pour out ♪ Let it pour out ♪ Oh, yes ♪ With no limits ♪ Overflowing ♪ Holy Spirit ♪ Holy Spirit ♪ Yeah, yeah ♪ Said the joy ♪ The joy of the Lord ♪ The joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ It's more than a feeling ♪ The joy of the Lord ♪ The joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ See, all my soul ♪ All my soul ♪ Bless his name ♪ All that is ♪ In his name ♪ All my soul ♪ All my soul ♪ Oh, bless his name ♪ All that is ♪ In his name ♪ All my soul ♪ All my soul ♪ I will bless his name ♪ All that is

♪ In his name ♪ The joy of the Lord ♪ The joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪ I needed something to carry me through ♪ And it was the joy of the Lord If you believe that today, can you give a mighty great shout of praise in the house right here? Thank you for your joy. It helps us through. And it's only because of who you are, Jesus. We love you. Thank you, Jesus. Come on, how many know and believe that the Lord is great and he is worthy of all our praise? Come on, he's worthy yesterday, today, and forever. I encourage you in this moment, would you lift up your worship to him? There is no one like our God. ♪ Oh, I am an instrument ♪ Of exaltation ♪ And I was born to lift your name above all names ♪ You hear the melody ♪ Of all creation ♪ But there's a song of praise that only I can bring ♪ And who else is worthy ♪ Who else is worthy We know the answer. ♪ There is no one, only you, Jesus

♪ Who else is worthy ♪ Who else is worthy There is no one. ♪ There is no one, only you, Jesus Let's sing about him today. ♪ You are the infinite ♪ God of the ages ♪ Yet you chose to make my heart your dwelling place ♪ You healed my brokenness ♪ Showed me your glory ♪ So I have songs of thanks not even this Can we lift it up together and sing? ♪ Who else is worthy ♪ Who else is worthy ♪ There is no one, only you, Jesus ♪ Who else is worthy ♪ Who else is worthy ♪ Who else is worthy ♪ Who else is worthy ♪ There is no one No, there's no one. There is no one, only in Jesus, who else is worthy, who else is worthy, we sing to Him, there is no one, only in Jesus, who else is worthy, come on pour out your praise, who else is worthy of it all There is no one, only in Jesus Jesus you are worthy and we thank you Lord, we thank you that we can call you this Jesus you are worthy and we thank you Lord, we thank you that we can call you this The righteous one who shed His blood, you prove to us the Father's love, Jesus Christ be lifted up Who else is worthy, who else is worthy of all the glory, there is no one, only in Jesus There is no one, only in Jesus You're the Lamb of God, anointed one, who was and is and is to come, seated on the throne above All creation cry out, to the righteous one who shed His blood, you prove to us the Father's love, Jesus Christ be lifted up

You're the Lamb of God, anointed one, who was and is and is to come, seated on the throne above You're holy, you're the righteous one who shed His blood, you prove to us the Father's love, Jesus Christ be lifted up Who else is worthy, who else is worthy, there is no one, only in Jesus Who else is worthy of your worship, who else is worthy of your praise There is no one, only in Jesus Only Jesus, come on, only Jesus is worthy Church, as you stand, as you stand in the presence of God in every location You know, there's no shortage of things that are vying for our affection and for our adoration and for our devotion And tonight, there will be millions of people gathered around a TV Showing that the athletic achievements of some people are worth their time and worth their cheering and worth their passion Here's the thing, there's no athlete in the world, currently today, that's ever been able to forgive me of my sins or to restore my relationship with God. Only Jesus can do that. Come on. That's why he's worthy above all else. That's why we give him praise. So come on, would you lift your hands one more time across every location? God, you are worthy. You are worthy. There is none like you. And God, we give you our praise. We give you our love. We give you our attention right now. Lord, we give you our adoration, our devotion. And we are here, God, ultimately to meet with you. So we bless you. We love you. In Jesus' name, one more time, come on, put your hands together for the only one,

the only one who's truly worthy. Amen. I know you believe that. Praise God, you can be seated. Oh man, glad you're here. Glad you're here at every location. Today is Super Sunday. And the reason why today is Super Sunday has less to do with the fact that there's a gang tonight. It has more to do with God is going to do something supernatural in your life today. That's why this is Super Sunday. And so we're so glad that you're here. If you are here for the first time, man, thank you for spending a Sunday with us. And hopefully this is the first of many Sundays you'll spend with us. And lean in to what God is saying. My name is Pastor Johnny. I'm the lead pastor of our church. And we have a church, one church with several locations. And so I usually welcome our locations. We got our Michigan Street campus joining this service. Our Red Bug Lake campus joining this service at this time. Our Narcoossee Road campus joining this service as well right now. And then today's service is also streamed at the correctional facility, Central Florida Reception Center.

And so we just celebrate what God's doing across all those locations, amen. And it is awesome that you are here. And I'm gonna read from Philippians chapter three in just a moment. I'm gonna share some truth from God's word. And God's word is the truth. It's not the truth for Christians. It's the truth because it is the truth for everybody. And so we're gonna look at what God has to say to his people here in Philippians chapter three. Before I read there though, the title of my message today is halftime adjustments. Halftime adjustments. There's a lot of talk of halftime. And halftime is always a time of adjustments. And it's a time to kind of reevaluate and figure out what's going on. And I don't know what tonight's halftime is gonna look like. I do know this though, at tonight's halftime, there will be a moment where there is a interview with one or both of the head coaches. Like you know, it always happens, they'll be on their way to the locker room or on the way from the locker room back to the field. And there'll be some reporter catching them and saying, hey, what do you think about the game so far? And they never really wanna be there. And all the coaches have different ways

of answering those questions and different styles of answering those questions. So we thought, what would it look like if instead of a coach, what if the pastor had a halftime interview that he had to deal with? And what if he answered in some of the different styles that coaches answer those questions? And so enjoy this, the coaches halftime interview, pastoral edition. Check this out. It's Faith Church Orlando. We are gonna be seekers. Somebody say amen. Amen. Hey, Pastor Johnny, Pastor Johnny. Hey, great first service. Real quick, you wanna give us a highlight of your first service? It's been a rough week. I got ready to pull my outfit out. Turns out I had a stain on it. Jamie decides to pick a fight with me. One of our dogs is sick. I get into the car this morning. My gas gauge is on empty. You think that's of natural cause? No, the enemy is at work. Got here a couple minutes late. We parked far away as staff,

but I gotta get up and still preach three services. I haven't had time to pray in probably three or four weeks. So the fact that it went as good as it did is probably a Red Sea miracle. What's your pep talk behind the scenes for the team, getting ready for this third service? Well, we gotta encounter Jesus, you know. Fill us in on what we can expect to see on the next coming months. Listen, we gotta encounter Jesus. The message really seemed like it landed. What are you taking away from that and what are you gonna change for the second service? We gotta help them encounter Jesus. Hey man, you killed the day. Best message I've ever heard. Thoughts? It's all about the team. There's no I in team. T-E-A-M, team. Teamwork makes the dream work. There's no me in team. Not forward. Teamwork makes the dream work. There's no me in team. Not forward anyway. Church is a team. It comes down to team. T-E-A-M.

Together, everyone aims at making it work. It's gonna come down to parking lot. It's gonna come down to usher. Graders, kids ministry, worship, police officers as the people are leaving the service. It's gonna come down to that altar time. It's all about the next man up. We had some cancellations on Planning Center, but it's about the next man up. Our policy is next man up. Somebody's not here, it's next man up. There's an empty seat or an empty row, it's next man up. Drummer drops a stick, it's next man up. Guitarist breaks a string, it's next man up. Or next string up. It's on our shirts, next man up. Jesus in the tomb, he became the next man up. All right, yeah, well, worship was powerful. Go ahead and tell us, what was your favorite song on the set? Worship is from the old English word worth and ship put together. King David, he danced before the Lord with all of his might. He said, I'll be even more undignified than this. Is music always involved in worship? I don't think so. And we use music as just a vessel. And so, what was the question again? Your favorite song of the set. Oh, well, now there's a difference between praise and worship.

Praise is more when the people come together and they're declaring the goodness of God. Worship, however, is strictly focused where I am making a direct connection with God. Worship is an important part of what we're doing around here. All right, all right, yeah, amen. All right, so I got to say that was completely fictional. OK, I haven't gone three weeks without praying. I am prayed up, on fire, Holy Spirit filled, ready to bring the word. And yeah, it's going to be good today. And I'm going to read from Philippians chapter 3. And we're going to read verses 7 through 8, and then also 12 through 14. Philippians chapter 3. And I think Paul in this is having a bit of a reevaluation moment in his life. And maybe it's a little bit like a halftime moment. And if you think about halftime tonight, the halftime for the players versus the halftime for us. For us tonight, halftime is going to be about maybe running to the bathroom, maybe getting some more food. It's going to be about getting entertained. But for the players, halftime is going to be different. For the coaches, halftime is going to be different. It's going to be a moment of reevaluation. It's going to be a moment of adjustment. And I think Paul's kind of having one of those moments here in this passage.

And I'm praying that today you'll have an honest moment of reevaluation on your life. But let's go verse 7, Philippians 3. Paul says, whatever were gains for me, now I consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ. Paul's not talking, there's been a change in what I consider win and a loss here. Let's go down to verse 12 now. Same chapter, Philippians 3. He says, not that I have already obtained all this or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. And I think verse 13 kind of sums up the whole paragraph right there in and of itself. But he says, brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Let me pray one more time over this word. Father, thank you for your word. And I pray that your word would come to life inside of our hearts and inside of our minds. And I pray, God, you'd give us ears to hear.

Let this word, God, be exactly where we are and what we need to hear today. So God, I ask you and I thank you for speaking through me today. And we are here and we say yes to your word and we yield to the truth that was found in your word. In Jesus' name, amen, amen. And so I'm hoping that today you are willing to have a bit of a moment of a humble and honest look at your life. Like a bit of a halftime adjustment to go, is my life headed in the direction that it's supposed to be headed? I mean, a glance at the life scoreboard and say, hey, am I winning at this or am I losing at this? And we're gonna define what winning at life is and what losing at life is as well. And hopefully, like Paul, you can pursue some of the same things he's pursuing. You can pursue these same statements that. I'm gonna pull out of verse 13 and the first statement I would ask you to pursue and ask you, are you able to say this about yourself? But Paul, we're gonna say this. Are you able to pursue this thought of, I'm unfinished? Because I think that's one of the messages that Paul sends in verse 13 is this thought of, I am unfinished, I'm not there yet. Look how Paul says it in verse 13.

Brothers and sisters, he said, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. Paul had done a lot for the Lord at this point in his life. This is towards the end of his life, but he's saying, I'm still, I've yet to take hold of what really matters. The verse before that in verse 12, he says, I've not obtained all of this and I've not arrived at my goal. Now, this Greek term that gets translated for us, arrived at my goal in this translation. In the New King James Version, translate that same Greek word as Paul saying, I've not reached perfection, all right. First of all, has anybody already reached perfection? Wave at me if you've already reached perfection. Nobody, is anybody perfect here? Come on, Jamie's pointing at me right now. Honey, stop, all right. She does that all the time. She thinks I'm perfect and I can dream. I can pretend she was pointing at me, come on. So yeah, nobody's perfect. I saw this church bus going down the road the other day and it said, no perfect people allowed. And so, we're not arrived yet. And I think this is an important part of our journey, no matter where you are on your spiritual journey or if you've not begun a spiritual journey, a pursuit after a life surrendered to Christ.

For all of us, it's important that we understand, we've not arrived, okay. There is still growing to be done. There is still developing to be done. You are still becoming something. If you are still breathing, then you are still becoming. This is no time for you to settle in and decide, well, I am who I am and this is kind of what I'm locked into. No, there is more. And I think that probably everyone in this room, probably everyone who's hearing this message right now, probably everyone at every single location has probably had a moment at some point in your life, maybe multiple moments, maybe it was this week you thought of it. I'm sure all of us have had that moment of thinking, man, is there more than this? Life has to be more than just this. And I would say it's true. Life is more than just this. That's why you have to have these halftime moments, these adjustment moments where I go, wait, I'm not there yet. I've not arrived yet. There's still something else forming. And I saw this interview from I think 2005 where Tom Brady, who was then the quarterback of the New England Patriots, who is in the game today. He's not, of course, he's retired now.

But in this interview, I think he had won already maybe three or so Super Bowls. And in this interview, the interviewer is talking to him about now that he's achieved his goal, right? Like kind of like Paul talked about, now that he's arrived. Tom Brady starts to talk about how he feels there's something more. And I want you to watch this and listen closely to the words that he uses. Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there's something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, hey man, this is what it is. I reached my goal, my dream, my life is me, I thank God. It's gotta be more than this. I mean, this can't be what it's all cracked up to be. I mean, I've done it, I'm 27. Man, what else is there for me? What's the answer? I wish I knew, I wish I knew. He is so close, because even in the phrase, he says, God, I wish I knew what was more than this or something, and then the interviewer says, well, what is it? And he goes, I wish I knew. And I wanna just grab Tom Brady by the shoulders and be like, I know, like I know what's more. It's finding God's finished purpose for your life. That is what we're going towards,

and if you've not arrived there yet, then you've gotta have this attitude of, no, I'm unfinished. Can we pursue that statement that I'm unfinished? The second statement I would ask you to pursue today in this moment of a halftime adjustment, a halftime reevaluation on my life, and I'm not saying we're all at the halfway point of our life, we don't know how many days we have. We're not promised tomorrow, but let's have a bit of a halftime moment. The second statement would be this. Not only is I'm unfinished, but I'm focused. Can you say that about yourself? No, but I'm focused, and that's a tough thing to say in the culture that we live in. Look how, look how Paul says it to the Philippians. He says, but one thing I do. One thing I do. I love the focus that is in that statement. And for us as a culture, focus is something that we have long since forgotten how to do. There are so many distractions. There are so many things vying for our attention. We have four to five screens open at all time. Some of you got 20, 20 tabs open on your browser at all times. It's just a, it's just a microcosm of your life that just feels like you got 20 tabs open on your life all the time.

There's always something to chase. I was reading one study about people that, that grab their phone and pick it up and it's called just checking, just in case, just checking and people do the just checking with their phone. Some of you do it, it's like muscle memory. You're not even, it's not even your brain. Your hand just reaches in there and pulls it out and they said the average American does that, that just checking my phone between 180 and 200 times a day. Why? Because we're just distracted. We're just so used to being distracted and so used to not being focused on any one thing. We give apps power over our life to send us push notifications so that we'll check it even more. And the one area I'm not against push notifications is on the church app, okay? Go on the church app, allow push notifications because we're only sending you good stuff, amen. But we're given all of these apps and these social media apps power over our life and it's just constantly causing this idea that we can't ever focus on anything and yet to be able, and I'm praying that today would be one of those rare moments for you where you focus on, yeah, but what's the one thing?

What's the one thing I should be focused on? One thing in Scripture is a powerful phrase all throughout Scripture. Jesus is talking to a rich young ruler and Jesus says to him, one thing you still lack. He's talking to Martha as she's complaining about her sister and he looks to Martha and he says, yeah, but only one thing is truly needful. There's a blind man who gets healed by Jesus in John chapter nine and everybody's trying to figure out what happened and if it's real or not and they're quizzing this blind man about who Jesus is and I love that this blind man says, well, there's one thing I know. I love Jesus gets focused. He said, there's one thing I know. I used to be blind and now I can see. Y'all can figure the rest out, okay? You can figure out who he is. There's one thing I know. And then Psalms 27, the psalmist says, one thing have I desired of the Lord that I will seek after. Have you had that moment where you go, there's one thing that I seek after. There's one thing that's more important than anything else. See, too many of us are chasing after too many things. What I'm praying that today that we could all do is have a moment of focus and go, what's the one thing I need to focus my life on?

And I believe that if you'll ask God for help in that, God will show it. God will make it clear. God, I believe, is making it clear even right now. Can you say I'm focused? With Paul, can you say I'm forgetting? That would be the next one I would bring out, I'm forgetting. Verse 13, Paul says, forgetting what is mine. Can you say that you are a forgetful person? And some of you are like, okay, finally, I have landed a part of the message that I'm there. I can forget some stuff, pastor. Like, I don't remember anything. Well, that's not exactly what I'm talking about. Jamie and I, Friday night, we ran somewhere, and then as we were running to where we were going, she said, hey, don't forget, on the way home, we gotta get milk. And so usually when she says, hey, remind me, I usually say, okay, well, when we're on our way home, remind me to remind you, okay? And if you remind me to remind you, we'll do it. If you don't, there's a good chance we won't do it. And she said, no, I need you to remember. And I was like, okay. So we are leaving the place now on the way home, and I think at that point we said, oh yeah, we gotta get milk. And then we drove a little bit,

and then we even stopped at a convenience store, and we got some other things at the convenience store. And it wasn't until we got home and Jamie saw our refrigerator, and she goes, ah, you forgot the milk. I said, you forgot the milk. I didn't forget nothing. We're good at forgetting the things that we should remember. The problem is we're not good at forgetting the things that we should forget. And so Paul says, no, I'm forgetting what is behind. Paul refuses to focus his life and his energy on his past, and he had a past, let me assure you. I wanna show this picture. It's actually the Australian. military coat of arms, and so if you look there, you see that it's got two animals on it. It's got a kangaroo on it, and it's got an emu on it, and they put those two animals on their military coat of arms not because those two animals are vicious fighters and beasts and just will tear any other animal apart. That's not why they put them there. Let me tell you why they put them there. It's because both of those animals cannot go backwards. The kangaroo, because of its long tail, literally can't walk backwards, and the emu, because of the shape of its feet, it cannot walk backwards, and so the spiritual application is probably clear for us that too many of us

spend our life in the rearview mirror. Too many of us let what's gone on in our past completely dictate what's going into our future. What does Paul say? Paul says, no, I'm forgetting what is behind. Some of you are still living under the worst mistake of your life. Just when I said that phrase, the worst mistake of your life, some of you just thought of something. Can I tell you that you are worth more to God than your worst mistake? You're thinking about the worst failure of your life. Oh, man, I failed so big in this area. What would Paul say to you? He'd say, no, it's time to forget what is behind. Forget the past wrongs done by you, or how about this one, because some of us are still bound by the past wrongs done to us. What if I were to tell you, you don't have to live under the past wrongs done to you. No, Paul says, I'm forgetting what is behind. I don't know what you need to forget today. Man, we all have a past. We've all, Romans chapter three says, we've all sinned. We've all fallen short, so we all have a past, and so I don't know what it is for you. Maybe there was an unfaithfulness in your marriage, and you're still living under that cloud of guilt and shame.

Maybe you fell into addiction, and that past addiction is still dictating the very direction of your life. Maybe it's sexual appetites that are out of control in your life. Maybe it's deception, and you've just become a person that just walks in half-truths and lies, and you lie when you don't even need to lie. Maybe your past outbursts of anger and rage are just, man, you're just like, well, this is who I am. It's who I've always been. Can I tell you, you don't have to be who you've always been. Maybe it's abuse in the rage that you're abusive to other people, or maybe there's just this chronic selfishness and pride that has marked your life. No, Paul says, it's time we forget about who we used to be. I'm forgetting the past. Can you be forgetful? And maybe the last statement that I would ask us to pursue is this. I'm forgetting, even though I know forgetting is difficult. I know some of us go, Pastor, I wish it was that easy. I wish we could take the men in black little baton and move it over my head, and I could just have it all wiped away. That's not even what Paul's saying when he says forget. You know what he's saying? He's saying, I know you can't automatically forget it, but you can live in such a way that it no longer controls you. That's what he's saying when he says I forget.

So can you say I'm forgetting, and then the last one is this, can you say I'm forward? Because in verse 13, he says, I'm straining. He gives the picture of a runner that's leaning. I'm straining towards what is ahead. The very next verse, verse 14, he says, I'm pressing on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. He's speaking of an ending, a finish line. He's speaking of a win. Tonight, after the game, there'll be a presentation table, and one team will have won that game, and the representatives from that team will come, and they'll receive a trophy. They'll receive the Lombardi trophy for winning the Super Bowl, ultimately achieving their biggest goal, and with life, let me tell you this, it is a win or loss endeavor. It is. Jamie and I were at lunch yesterday, and we had our dogs, and we were sitting outside, and there was these two or three young men. They were probably like eight or nine years old. They had soccer jerseys on, because they had come from a soccer game, and they were there with their family, eating lunch. Their family was inside the restaurant, and the boys were outside, kind of running around, playing. They saw our dogs, so they wanted to come and pet our dogs, and so they were petting the dogs, and so we struck up

a conversation with these young men. They were just really, really fine young men, and we're just talking to them, and I said to them as they were. We were talking about the dogs and their dogs and their dogs' names and all this stuff, and I said, did you win the game? And they said, well, it was a tie. And I tried to hide my disappointment in the fact that there was a tie, because I'm like, what are you talking about, tie? Like, do something. Like, somebody needs a win or lose. Like, yeah, I'm just that way a little bit. Like, you know, I was the parent in the T-ball games when everybody would be like, we don't keep score. I'd be like, I'm keeping score. I'm watching. And at the end of the game, I'd be like, well, they're not keeping score, but our team crossed home more often than their team crossed home. That's all I'm saying. Like, I'm just a little bit that way. Like, it is about kind of wins or losses. And in life, guess what? It's wins or losses. Tonight, it's going to be win or loss, and there's not going to be any participation trophies. And so when it comes to the end of our life, you will have either won or you will have lost.

What is winning? You'll either win heaven and win eternity with God, or you will lose out on eternity with God. There is no participation trophy. The New Living Translation puts it this way in verse 14, that Paul says, I'm receiving the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. Receiving the heavenly prize. Think about what you maybe are tempted to pursue in life, what you're tempted to try to take hold of. Some of you have been trying to take hold of success and trying to take hold of significance and trying to take hold of some pleasure or some sensation, trying to, maybe you're trying to take hold of fun. I'm just having a fun life, or maybe it's more noble and you're trying to take hold of fulfillment or prosperity or maybe even trying to take hold of purpose. Can I tell you that you will find none of those things, truly, until you take hold of Jesus Christ, until you take hold of the thing for which Jesus took hold of you. You are going to be in the afterlife so much longer than you are going to be in this life. You might live to be 100, you might live to be 120. And even if you live to be 120, it's still just a drop in the bucket for eternity. This life is just the window of opportunity to set me up to win or to lose out on my reconciliation with God.

Some of you have believed some different things spiritually, different times in your life, but yet right now as I say that, there is something real that's resonating in you. It's God who's kind of revealing himself to you that you need to think about what it looks like to actually win. And maybe what somebody's thinking is, Pastor, you're trying to get me to choose Jesus, to do God a favor and say, admit that, okay, I guess the Bible's true and this God and Jesus thing's real, and so I'll throw God a favor and I'll say yes to Jesus and I'll choose him. And I would say it's a little bit less that you are choosing Jesus, and it's more of a belief and an acknowledgement that God has already chosen you. Romans chapter five says, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. I'm not asking you just to choose, we're just gonna believe the fact, acknowledge the fact, live in the fact that God has already chosen you even when you didn't deserve it. That's why we're forward. That's why we're thinking about eternity even while we live on this earth. I'll end with this, but the year was 1993 and it was the NCAA Division II

track and field championships. And it was the cross country race that was being run. It's a 6.2 mile race. There were 128 runners in the race. And about towards the end of the race, there was one runner that was in the middle of the pack and he was from Western State College in Colorado. His name is Mike Delcavo. And Mike Delcavo noticed as he's towards the middle of the pack in this race that all of the runners were actually running and they were missing the turn that was marked out in the race. And those runners were running and it actually made the race shorter, but he sees that no, the race is actually marked to go this way. And so in an interview afterwards, he starts to tell what he did. He said, I started to say, hey, no, this is the way. They're going the wrong way. This is the right way to go on this race. This is what's marked out. And so only about four other runners decided to run the race as it was actually marked out. And the race gets done and it gets brought to the race organizers. In a controversial decision, they make the decision to honor the race that most of the runners ran. They said, no, since most of them did that,

we're gonna honor that as the course of the race. And so it made Mike DelCabo come in 123rd place, even though he ran the right race. Because sometimes, I guess, in life, the right path is not necessarily celebrated. Sometimes in life, the wrong path is celebrated. But let me tell you this, when you stand before God, there will be no shortcuts honored. God cares about the path you're on. God cares about the fact, are you running the race that he has marked out for you? That's what matters. It matters that I'm gonna hit the finish line the way God has designed my life, to hit the finish line. If you're here today, and you have yet to get on his path, how did Jesus talk about these paths? Matthew chapter seven, Jesus said, oh, there's a wide path, wide path, and many find it, and it leads to destruction. But he said, there's a small gate and a narrow road that leads to life, and only few find it. God cares about the path that you're on. So do I. I've been praying for you. I've been praying that today, as you get ready to make this decision, that there would be just an openness and a clarity. I've been praying that whatever strongholds of the past have been keeping you in that same rut, I've been praying that those would just be broken off

and you would just have to take your life for a moment so that we can make a decision of what's most important, have a moment of focus, moment of forward thinking, moment of forgetting. Let's do that together. I'm gonna pray for you. Father, I thank you for your word, and I pray right now, God, that your word would be more than enough. I pray for those that are not in right standing with their creator. Oh, God, we're not finished yet. And I pray for a honest, humble moment of reevaluation. I pray for an honest, humble moment of adjustment in our life. So speak to us right now, God. Give us the courage. Give us the courage to choose the right path. Path, in Jesus' name, in Jesus' name. Nobody looking around. Nobody moving, because this is, man, this is such an important moment. But there are some here today, and you just know this, you have felt it, probably from before I started talking to you, you have felt that there's this disconnection between you and God. You have felt, you've seen through the word of God that you are not maybe on God's path, that you've maybe considered where you're headed

and you've looked at the scoreboard of life, you know, man, I've been living for the wrong things and chasing after the wrong things. Maybe some of you knew what it was like to live for God, but you have ran away from him and you're running the wrong direction. Maybe some of you have never tried to surrender your life to Jesus. And I'm telling you, man, today is your day. This is why you're here. There's no accidents. There's nobody here by mistake. God knows exactly what he's doing. So whether you come to church all the time or you never have been in church before, this is still the same for all of us. Do you need to get right with God today? Do you need to surrender your life to Christ today? Do you need to find forgiveness? Do you need to, maybe not just make an adjustment. Maybe that word is too light, halftime adjustment. Maybe you need to make a halftime turnaround. You need to repent. You need to have a 180 today. And if that's you, nobody's looking at you. Here's what I'm asking you to do. In just a moment, I'm gonna ask you to lift up your hand. I'm just gonna count to three and just kind of ready, set, go. When I say three, if you need to get right with God today,

I want you to shoot your hand up in the air high so I can see it, so I can include you in our closing prayer. Are you ready? I'm gonna count right now. One, it's the best decision you'll ever make. One, two, three. If that's you, you need Christ today. Come on, hold up your hand high. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Come on, hold it up high, I'll see it. I see hands in every single section of the room. Anybody else? Come on, don't miss this moment. You're not alone today. Anybody else? Hold up your hand. I need Christ today. Awesome, awesome, awesome. You can put your hands down. I see so many, I sense such sincerity in the room today. I want us to do something else in this sacred atmosphere of the presence of God. I'm gonna ask everybody to quietly, reverently stand to their feet, and if you would, just stand right there where you are. And I wanna ask. Those of you who lifted your hand, everybody look at me. Those of you who lifted your hand, signifying I need to get right with God,

I'm asking you to take another step, not because there's any embarrassment in any of this. That's not what this is about. This is about taking a step, sometimes a physical step can go a long ways in the spiritual depth of the decision that I'm making. And if you're in a aisle somewhere and you go, I can't come to the front, because there's people, the people around you will let you out. But I'm gonna ask all of you who lifted your hand a moment ago saying, I need to get right with God, I'm gonna ask you to do something, okay? As we get ready to sing the song we sang a moment ago, I'm gonna ask you to step out from where you are and come meet me at this front and give me the honor of praying with you up here at this front. And so if you lifted your hand or maybe you didn't raise your hand, some are already beginning to come, but come on, you raised your hand, you didn't raise your hand, come on. As we sing, why don't you step out, meet me at this front. Come on, step out from where you are, the people in your row will let you out, come on. This is too important for you to take this lightly, come on, you need God today, you need forgiveness today, you need a new focus on your life, come on, if that's you. Maybe you didn't raise your hand, but God is speaking to you. Church, let's sing this as so many are making a decision.

And guys, we're gonna stay in this moment, so come on, if you've not come yet and you need to be up here, come on. Come on, we're gonna sing it again, because I know God is still stirring hearts, God is still, I'm just asking you, will you yield? Will you yield to the yearning and the calling of the Lord on your life? Come on, will you take hold of that for which Christ Jesus is taking hold of you, come on. Come on, come on young man, come on mom, come on dad. Thank you, Lord, thank you, God. Thank you, God, thank you, God. I'm proud, come on, I'm proud of every single person that's coming, you can still be making your way to this front, we're gonna pray and I want us to do something, I want us to pray across the whole room. I wanna lead y'all in a prayer and I'm so grateful that you're here, I'm so grateful for this journey that you're starting, we're gonna talk a little bit about that after we pray, but I don't have a magic phrase that gets you access to heaven, I'm just gonna help communicate the belief in our heart that we understand how God chose us and we're choosing him because of that. And so I want everybody in this room, would you pray with me, you at this front, pray this with me and our staff and our prayer team is gonna come behind you and pray with us as well.

But I want everybody in this room, pray this with me, say Jesus, I give you my life. And Jesus, I ask you to forgive me. I ask you to cleanse me. I ask you to wash me. I believe on you to be my savior. Today I declare you to be my Lord. Your will be done in my life, in Jesus' name, Jesus' name, amen, amen, amen. Let's give God praise for this. And guys, I want you to know, we got some people here that have a little bit of information for you to fill out and a way to kind of start this journey. We have a class around here that kind of is the first step to do, it's called Starting Point, it's real easy to remember. So maybe you could jump into one of those, but we're so glad you're here. Church, we're so glad all of you're here. Be back next week, we have our guest speaker for our marriage conference next week, it's gonna be awesome. Pastor Jess is gonna come and bring some conclusion to the service, God bless you, we love you guys. Amen, amen. Hey, if you're up here at the altars, you just accepted Jesus or maybe you rededicated your life, I'm gonna ask you to scan this QR code right here on the screen.

What that's gonna allow us to do is to get some information from you so that we can follow up with you about your next step in your faith journey. So we're so grateful you are here with us today. Again, just scan that QR code so we can gain that information and maybe it's your first time in the room, we do have that guest welcome reception out in the atrium, we'd love to get connected with you and get you more info. Faith Church, we're so happy you're here today at Super Sunday and have a blessed week.