The Pursuit Of Happiness | Pastor Jeremy DeWeerdt

Hello city first, all of our locations and welcome to Back to Church Sunday. You know what, the reason we are marking this weekend is Back to Church Sunday is 'cause usually during the summer schedules get a little crazy and especially if your kids are in sports or you take a vacation or whatever. And sometimes you can get out of the habit of going in person to church. So this is what we're saying at all our locations. If you have the ability to be in person, come back to church and let's make this into a holy habit that really does change our lives. And next week, like I talked about there on that video, we are starting a brand new series called Sacred Rhythms and it really will be very, very helpful for us to be able to launch into this next season with a strong face. So invite people, okay, invite people to that. Well, I'm so glad you're here today. A couple years ago, I wanna tell you a story, I was flying back from our amazing City First Church Cape Coral location down in Florida and I'd had a couple days of very productive meetings and I was at Fort Myers Airport getting on the plane and when I sat in my seat, I started to feel a little off and I don't know if you've ever gotten like sick on a plane or started to feel sick but it's a terrible feeling 'cause you're kind of stuck in this metal tube that's about ready to go 500 miles an hour

and you can't get out of it to go crawl into bed or something like that. Well, out of all the decades that I've flown, I've never, ever, ever been sick on a plane before and this day I was not gonna do it either. I mean, I started to feel a little wonky and as people are loading the plane, I just started to feel more off and started to feel worse and worse and I actually got to the place, I'd never done this. I got to the place, I'm like, I gotta get off this plane. Well, before it takes off, I gotta get off. So I reached down and grabbed my backpack. I mean, I had checked my bags, I had paid for my seat. I didn't care. I was like, I was starting to feel so sick. I'm like, I don't care, I just gotta get off this plane and so I get into the aisle and I start going towards the door and I hear the door shut. And at that point, I hear the voice coming over the speaker flight attendants arm doors and cross check and I was like, oh no, oh no, I'm trapped. So I went back to my seat and I prayed. I said, Jesus, if you have ever answered a prayer, please answer this one, I don't wanna be sick on this plane. And for the next three hours, I literally just stared at the back of the seat in front of me. I didn't blink, I didn't move, the lady with the cart came and was like, you want anything to drink or eat? And I'm like, no, I'm good, you know what I mean?

Like, I didn't even like look around and I was concentrating so hard. Don't throw on, don't throw up, don't throw up. Well, finally we landed at O'Hare. And if you've ever landed at O'Hare, it's kind of like you land in Michigan and you taxi to the gate. I mean, the taxi times are insane and so we landed on like, great, and they're taxing and taxing, taxing. Finally, we get to dock the plane and I get off. I'm like, thank you, Jesus. And I'm still feeling so sick. But unfortunately, where my car was was actually a few terminals away because of some other circumstances. And I'm like, I need to get to my car. And I thought, well, I'll take the little tram, the little train that runs around will get me there. The quickest. Well, I didn't think this through very well 'cause I got on this train that was just packed full of people, no joke. Like everybody is walled wall, they're hanging on to the little, you know, the little straps that enter in. And we start moving and it's like, cooking, cooking, cooking, cooking. And I'm like, oh, this is not good. And then it happened. First time in my life I've ever done this, I lost my cookies everywhere.

And it was like that train was like, if you flip the light switch and all the cockroaches ran to the corners, I mean, it was like, everybody is just like, oh, and like, people are grabbing their children, no joke. And everybody, it's already a packed train. And everybody's like squeezed to the walls. And I'm sitting there and there's all this space around me now and I lost my cookies. And everybody's looking at me like, oh no. And we get to the next terminal and whether or not it was their stop or not, everybody got off. No joke, the entire train emptied. And I am alone in the tram going to the next terminal where I was going to get off and it was the ride of shame. You know what I mean? I'm by myself. Good, good, good, good, like this. It was literally the most, Never happened and hasn't happened since, thank God. But literally it was the worst, most miserable travel day. And I was thinking about today's topic and I thought of that story because in life, you don't wanna travel through life and be miserable. We do the best we can to travel through life and not be miserable. We wanna be happy, we wanna be comfortable, we wanna feel good, right? Like in life, we're not going, oh, I've never met anybody. I wanna be miserable in my life.

I'm never met anybody that said that to me. Everybody is saying, I wanna be happy, I wanna be content, I wanna enjoy it. I don't wanna travel through life and be miserable. So what happens is much of what we do in life is driven by the pursuit of a happy travel, of traveling happy of happiness. In other words, we try to be comfortable, we try to do the things that are gonna make us happy. And now, happy is defined differently for different people. Some people, happiness is more money. Some people, they think happiness will be a better job. Like if I could get out of this job and get a new job, some people think happiness will be a bigger house or a bigger apartment. Some people, like happy for them is retirement. In fact, I ran into a guy recently that was working at a place like, oh, how's your day going? He's like 34 days, so retirement, that's how it's going. And I'm like, he's counting down, like literally. Some people are like, I just get to retirement, I'll be happy. Or if I get success, I'll be happy. Or if I travel or have this relationship. Or if I get recognition, or if I have some security, then I will be happy. But the underneath so many of these decisions is this assumption, and the assumption is this. If I can get blank, you fill in the blank, if I could get blank, then I'll be happy.

It's how most people travel through life. If I can just get blank, then I'll be happy. But the problem is, is that many of us eventually get blank, whatever it is. And we think that it will make us happy, but happiness has moved to another place. Now we need this. Now we need that. Now we need to go and date that person. Or now we need to have this experience. Or whatever it is, it's like happiness is elusive. We keep on grabbing, and it's like grabbing mercury. And we cannot totally keep it in our hands. And then a lot of people think to themselves, if I just get better circumstances, I'll be happy. And there's some psychologists and individuals that have studied human happiness and well-being for decades. In fact, I looked at a study that was done in 2005, and another one that was done in 2021. And really this is what they say. Circumstances do matter, but they don't matter as much as we think. Like your circumstances influence your happiness, but they don't completely determine it. And when I read this study, I immediately thought to myself this, the Bible has been telling us this for hundreds of years. Paul even said this in the New Testament. He said in Philippians, chapter four, verse 11,

let me read it. I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. Let me read that again. I have learned, he learned it, he didn't feel it. He didn't say, I feel content, whatever the circumstance, no, no, no. He goes, I have learned, it means it's a choice. I've learned to be content whatever the circumstances. Paul is not saying that circumstances don't matter. They matter. But what he's saying is, is those circumstances cannot bring you happiness all the time. It's a choice. And here's the thing, what even makes it more impacting as Paul is writing what we now call the book of Philippians, it used to be a letter. When he was writing that, he was actually sitting in prison for his faith. He had been arrested and sitting in a dark and dank prison for his faith and he goes, I have learned to be content, no matter what the circumstances are. Paul is saying, I know what it means to have, you know, be a need, I know what it means to have plenty. In other words, in this verse he's going, I've had a lot and I've had a little and I've realized neither a lot or a little determined by happiness, I have learned to be content, good circumstances, bad circumstances, need plenty and abundance. And then he goes on to say this, I've learned the secret

of being content in any and every situation. I read that and I'll tell you what I honestly think. I have a long ways to go. 'Cause I still think my circumstances will bring me happiness from time to time. Paul's circumstances change a lot. If you studied him in the New Testament, his circumstances sometimes are good, sometimes are bad, but the source of his contentment never changed. Happiness built on circumstances requires circumstances to cooperate with you. And many times how many of us know life doesn't cooperate with us. Life throws his curve balls from time to time, right? I recently was at a leadership conference and I heard an author and a speaker by the name of Dr. Arthur Brooks. He is a social scientist. Spent years studying human happiness. He's also a CBS news contributor. He might recognize the name from that. He's also a person of strong faith. And one of the things that caught my attention is this, in his talk, he said this, there's a difference between happiness and meaning, happiness and meaning. And he describes the three components of happiness or what he calls macronutrients, all right? That sounds like scientists saying it, right?

He says the macronutrients of happiness are these things enjoyment, satisfaction, and meaning. And specifically he drilled down on meaning. And this is what he says in one of his books. He says meaning is the why of my life. Let me say that again. The why of your life. Not the what of your life. The why of my life. The reason I'm alive. And that for which I would give my life as well. This caught my attention. Dr. Brooks is not a theologian. He is a social scientist studying human flourishing. But his research only affirms what the word of God has been saying for a really long time. You cannot build a deeply happy life without knowing why you are living it. You cannot find happiness without the why. So many things, so many people are trying to find happiness in the what, but you gotta know the why. And I think we need to define what meaning is, right? 'Cause we're like, well, life is full of, it should be full of meaning. Well, what's meaning? Well, according to the Bible, I think I could define it this way, looking at the Bible, knowing that your life comes from God, belongs to God and has been given to you

for his purposes. That is meaning that your life is from God, your life belongs to God, and he's given you his purpose inside your life. In other words, your life fits into a bigger God story. Your life has direction and listen to me. Some you need to hear this. Your life matters. I talk to so many people and they're like, ah, I just feel depressed. I don't feel like my life has any meaning. I don't know if it matters, no, your life matters. Thousands of years before anyone was conducting happiness studies. The Bible was talking about this idea of contentment and happiness. And there's an entire book that's in the Old Testament written by a man that talks about the subject of happiness and contentment. And basically I'm gonna boil down what this book says, this is not a quote from the Bible. This is me, all right? But really, this is what this man is saying. This man is in this book saying I'm gonna try everything this world says will make a person happy and see if any of it actually satisfies me. He's like, I'm gonna try everything. And his name was Solomon. He was King David's son. The Bible says that he was the smartest,

wisest man to walk the face of the earth up until that point. And because he was the smartest, wisest man, he had a master fortune. In today's currency, he would be a billionaire. He was king and he wrote the book of Ecclesiastes. Now Ecclesiastes is a weird word, but that's the name of the book. And I would say this book, all the more proves, along with thousands of other things, but it proves that the Bible is legit and real. It's not made up. Because if you were faking the Bible, you would never put the book of Ecclesiastes in it. Because this book basically is Solomon's journal, and most of the time he's very depressed. And he discovered this truth. He discovered that you can have what you think makes you happy and still not be happy. You've got to listen to what Solomon has to say here in Ecclesiastes. He says, "I said to myself," he's talking to himself, "come now, I will test you, self, with pleasure to find out what is good." He's going to do a little experiment. He has all the money in the world. He has all the power in the world, and he is going to pursue pleasure and see if it really brings him the happiness that it promises. And so Solomon starts to do that. He starts spending money. He starts buying things. In fact, I'm in a paraphrase, Ecclesiastes chapter 2 verses 4 through 10. He took on great projects, it says, like he built cities, he built houses, he built vineyards,

he had the best wine, he made gardens, he accumulated all kinds of silver and gold. He surrounded himself with all kinds of pleasure and entertainment. He at one point had like hundreds of concubines, like he had all the sex that he wanted. In fact, he even goes on to say this, "I denied myself nothing my eyes desired. I refused my heart, no pleasure." In other words, he is saying, "Whatever I wanted, I got it. And whatever I wanted to experience, I did it." And he just bought it, experienced it, lived it. I mean, if he were alive today, he would have the biggest house. He would go to the best restaurants. He would take the best vacations. He would have the most beautiful wife. He had the best clothes, the best experiences, VIP, everything. He would have hundreds of millions of followers on social media. No waiting list, no reservation needed to get into a place. He had it all. And in Ecclesiastes 2.11 it says this, "Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless." He's like, "I did it all." He got everything you want. Do you understand that? He bought everything you want. He experienced everything you want. He did it. He goes, "It's all meaningless, a chasing after the wind." You ever tried to chase after wind? See that metaphor there that he's talking about again, he's a wise man. He's like, "It was like chasing after wind." He got everything he thought it would make him happy, and still those things, those experiences and those relationships could not answer the why of his life.

Why was he alive? There's a powerful Hebrew word we're going to look at here. Because the Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew, not in English. And the Hebrew word that's translated into our English word, meaningless, that Hebrew word is hevel, hevel, all right? Hevel means this, it's a word picture. It means vapor, breath, or a mist, meaningless. This is what he's trying to communicate. He's basically saying, "I went after things that only lasted for a moment. My happiness came and went like that." He said, "I tried to chase the wind," and it disappeared. Try to grab the mist. I tried to, in money, I tried in relationships, I tried in pleasures, gold, everything power. And it's like every time it was a vapor, this is Hevel right away, by the way, Hevel, this is it right here. And some of us, this is what we are pursuing in life, like literally we are putting all our energies, all our dreams into things that are like a mist. They come and they go, and you try to grab them, and guess what? You can't grasp them, and that's why you want more, more, more. Hevel, this is Hevel right here. And Solomon is saying this, he's like, "I discovered something. I tried to make temporary things carry the weight of ultimate meaning, pleasure, gone, possessions, gone, achievement, gone. Life gone, life itself like a mist." He goes, "I kept grabbing and coming up short." You see, the problem is none of those things I just mentioned are bad. Money is not bad. Money is amoral. It doesn't have a moral assignment. You know, different things like having a home

or having a relationship or any of these things, none of those things are bad. The problem is, is that when we ask temporary things to do an eternal job inside of our heart, that's where we fall short. Listen, there's nothing wrong with success. In fact, I really mean this. I want everybody at City First to be successful. I really mean that. There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with working hard and accomplishing something. There's nothing wrong with any of these things. But when we say, this is why my life matters, when we look to this for identity, this for value, when we start looking to these things and say, this is why my life matters, that's when we get in trouble. Solomon would also tell us this. He would say, happiness is not a destination. Happiness is not a destination. Here's the trap. If the primary goal of my life is I just wanna be happy, then we start evaluating everything in our life through one question. Does it make me happy? Does my marriage make me happy? Does my church make me happy? Does my job make me happy? Do my friends make me happy? Do the activities I do on weekends?

Do they make me happy? But Jesus, he never said, follow me and every moment will make you happy. That's not what he's, he didn't say that. He said, follow me, follow me. In fact, sometimes following Jesus will lead you directly into things that temporarily don't make you happy. Like Jesus, a quote from him and Matthew. This is Jesus talking. He said, for whoever wants to save their life will lose it. Well, that doesn't sound very happy, right? But whoever loses their life for me will find it. So in other words, it's an upside down kingdom. It's the exact opposite of what culture says. In other words, life isn't all about me. It's all about him. And when I say, you know what? I'm going to give my life away first to God and to others, then I find real life. It isn't about hoarding all these things that are Havel, temporary. See, the fullest life isn't found by pursuing what makes you happy, but by pursuing what God says makes your life matter. That's what makes you have contentment and happiness. It's really true. See, if I'm pursuing happiness, then I ask the question, what can life give me? What can life give me? I go into every relationship thinking,

what can you give me? I go into everything that I do as transactional. I do this, but I want this back. See, the pursuit of meaning though is different. In other words, what has my life been given for? It's a totally different question. Happiness is not a destination. Happiness is a byproduct of pursuing a relationship with God and His purpose, or in other words, meaning. We find happiness by pursuing God and His way of living. And Solomon discovered this and he even says this in his book, he says, basically meaning begins with the one who made you. In other words, meaning is not found in any of the things or any of the experiences. They can never inform your why. The only one that can inform your why is the one that created you. Where do I find meaning? See, our culture tells us, look inside yourself and decide what your life means. Good luck. Really, good luck. Because I look inside of myself and I'm confused. (laughs) Like, the more I think about what's going on in here, the more I'm like, oh, I don't know if I understand what's going on in there. Who can understand the heart, right? And yet, this is what scripture says in the book

of Genesis, the very first book of the Old Testament. So God created mankind in His own image. In other words, meaning doesn't begin with what you've accomplished. It begins with who created you. So many of us think that I have to accomplish something and I have to do certain things to have meaning in my life. Actually, you already have meaning. And here's the reason why. You have breath, you are created by a creator. Intelligent design. We don't believe that 10 billion years ago, you were pond scum. And all of a sudden, there was an electric spark. And now, years later, you are who you are. You can't, and quite not, you can't be an atheist and really believe in meaning. If you're intellectually honest, that is. So here's the thing, the feel is this. We believe that you were created by God. You have a purpose and you were created on purpose. Paul even takes it even further in Colossians. Yeah, you can give that a round of applause. Paul says this for in him. Everybody turn the person next to you and say in him, meaning in God, all things were created. Things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. All things have been created through him and for him. Your life came from God and your life is for God. Now I'm gonna say something that culture

does not agree with me on this, but I'm telling you, why am I ready to tell you, is flying right in the face of cultural worldview. And that is this, this life is not about you. And you're like, what? No, it's not about you. In fact, this life has been given to you and it is for God. It isn't about you, it's about him. The Bible says you were made for his pleasure. He wants relationship with you. He created you, he created you, not even for you. He created you for him. I know some of you are like going, really? Yes, and actually that's a good thing. Why? Because it means you don't have to invent the meaning of your life. All you gotta do is discover it. It's already in you. If it's all about you, then boy, you better come up with some good meaning then. And if it's all about you, then life is all on you. No, actually by knowing that we were created for him, it's actually freeing. I can breathe a sigh of relief. I can sit there and go, God, it isn't all on me. You created me. I have God given purpose inside of me. All I gotta do is discover it. It unearths itself as we walk with Jesus.

Think about how freeing that is. You don't have to accomplish something to be something. Think about that. You don't have to be famous enough. You don't have to have enough money. You don't have to impress enough people. You don't have to do any of that because your value is already set and dialed in at creation. God created you with a high value. You cannot add to it or subtract from it. My life already matters because it belongs to God. Your life already matters because it belongs to God. And if you wanna know the purpose of something or the meaning of something, don't ask another created thing. Ask the creator that designed it in the first place, right? (congregation applauding) That's why we cannot find our meaning from other people. We can't find our meaning from things. We can't find our meaning from experiences. We can only find our meaning from the one that created us because we were in his mind's eye when he created each and everyone of things. Like, you know what? When I made Jeremy Deward, he has meaning and I have a divine assignment and purpose on his life. And it's the same with you. It's not just me. Some people think it's just because I'm a pastor that I get. No, no, no.

This is everybody. If you have breath, you have purpose. Some of you don't even know. You might be retired right now or maybe you're young and you're like going, I don't have a career anymore or I don't have a career yet or whatever else. No, no, no. You have purpose. If you have breath, you have an assignment. You hear that? Because at any point God can promote us to heaven. At any point he could take us home. And yet he keeps us here. Why? Because we have purpose. We will never fully understand the meaning of life apart from the God who gave us this life. So we have to say, you know what? God, what's my purpose? And he'll unveil it over time. God doesn't tell us to chase happiness. He tells us to be rightly planted. And what I mean by that is this comes out of a verse, a passage in Psalm, Psalm chapter one. It says this, happy, turn the other person and say happy. Happy is the man who does not walk in the way sinful men tell him to or stand in the path of sinners or sit with those who laugh at the truth.

what's the law of the Lord, the word of God, and thinks about his word or his law day and night. This man is like a tree, what's the word? Planted by rivers of water, which gives its fruit, so the tree gives its fruit at the right time and its leaf never dries up. Whatever he does will work out well for him. See, the tree is planted next to living water, fresh water, this is a metaphor, our life needs to be planted and got another term or way, a metaphor of talking about Jesus as he is the living water, he has living water, he says. So if our life is planted in Jesus, it produces fruit. What is the fruit it produces? We're all kind of fruit, but I'll tell you just for today's topic, here's one of the things that it produces, the fruit of happiness, the fruit of contaminant. No, the tree isn't chasing the fruit, the tree is just planted. And because it's planted, the fruit grows. See, maybe happiness isn't something you chase, maybe happiness is something that grows when your life is rooted in God. See, happiness is a byproduct, right? (congregation applauding) So instead of chasing fruit, maybe what we gotta do is pay attention to where our roots are at. See, if your life is rooted in money, what happens when the money disappears?

And one thing I've learned in decades of life is money comes and money goes. It comes and goes, all right? So if my life is rooted in money, what happens when it leaves? Does that mean my meaning leaves? How about if it's rooted in success? Well, what happens when you fail and there will be times that you do fail? If it's rooted in people's approval, well, then you're constantly gonna be people pleasing. If your life is rooted in youngness, I have bad news, the wrinkles are coming. You can't stay young your whole life. You get older, it just happens. If your life, I know this is touching, if your life is rooted in your children, what happens when they leave the home? Because that's the goal, right? Like we raise up kids so they leave. Amen? (audience laughs) But I want my baby to be living at home at 35. No, you don't, you don't want your baby to be a loser. Okay, so here's the thing. I'm telling you. Okay. If your life is totally revolving and rooted in your children, what happens when someday they go to college or they go off into the trades or they get married? Do you lose your meaning?

See where I'm at with all this? If your life is rooted in your career, what happens when you retire? Like do you lose all your purpose? No, our roots need to be planted next to living water in Jesus. And guess what? Then the fruit of our life, there's all kinds of fruit, the fruit of the spirit, but there's all kinds of fruit. But one of the things is you're gonna find a contentment and a happiness that circumstances do not give you. Your circumstances will change without destroying your meaning. That's what Paul is saying here. He's like, I've had plenty, I've had little. I've been content in every situation. Why? Because his roots are in Christ, not in his circumstances. He's not out trying to grab onto the mist. He isn't doing that. Instead, he's saying, you know what? My roots are in Jesus. You're never gonna have enough money to be happy. You're never gonna have the right position to be sustainably happy. Even if you're married and you find that spouse. Guess what? That spouse, yes, will bring you joy, but they can't be the source of your happiness.

Your kids cannot be the source of your happiness. All of these things are not bad. Okay, listen, they're not bad. They're not necessarily wrong, but none of them inform your identity. They were meant to be enjoyed, but not define your life. I enjoy my kids. I enjoy my marriage. I enjoy the career I have. I enjoy the things that God has blessed me with, but none of them define me. And none of them define you either. Solomon tried it, and he had a lot more resource than you have. And he tried a lot more than you could. And he basically said he tried everything under the sun, and this was his conclusion. He said, "I did it all. "Now all has been heard." In other words, I did it all. Here's the conclusion of the matter. Fear God, keep his commandments. So he basically goes, "I tried it all. "I tried sex. "I tried, you know, pleasures. "I tried money. "I tried building. "I tried being a king. "I tried heaven power. "I tried reputation. "I tried it all.

"And here's what I found actually brings me happiness "and contentment and ultimate meaning fear God. "And live his way, obey his commandments." Jesus said it this way. John 10, 10, I've come that they, meaning us, may have life and have it to the full. You want a full life, a content life, you don't wanna travel through life miserable, then your roots have to be in Jesus. Jesus is not against happiness. He just knows where you're actually gonna find it. And it ain't gonna be in this. Instead, it's gonna be rooted in him, my identity in Jesus, Christ and Christ alone. And the fruit of my life is happiness. (congregation applauding) My time's gone, let's pray. All right, Heavenly Father, I just pray. So today are chasing the mist. And we keep on grabbing it and it slips out from our fingertips. And we are frustrated because we just can't find this elusive happiness. Lord, today I pray that you would help us to chase meaning and meaning that is only found in you. All the other things in our life are awesome. The relationship, the career, the material goods, the reputation, the success, whatever it is. Lord, those are good and they come from you.

But none of them inform us who we are and none of us, none of those things give us happiness. So God, I just ask that you would help us to remember that. Help us to pursue you and to unveil and discover the purpose you've dialed in to each and every one of our lives. Lord, we thank you, God. With every head bowed, never I close, real quickly. If you say, you know what, I wanna give my life to Jesus. I've never done this. I've been, maybe you've been chasing things. Maybe you haven't been, man, that boat's gonna make me happy. That, you know, promotion's gonna make me happy or that pleasure or whatever it is. And you're just like, I need God. I wanna be rooted in God. I wanna have a relationship with Him, make Him the leader and the forgive of my life. If that's you, just go ahead and raise your hand real quickly. I wanna pray for you. Yeah, hands are up everywhere. Let's just all pray this prayer real quickly, but it's an important prayer and it's a life-changing prayer. If you raise your hand, just realize that God is listening to you and your voice, He created you, He loves you. So let's all repeat this prayer after me. Jesus, I come to you today and I need you. Forgive me of all my wrongdoing. I repent of all my sin. I believe you died on a cross to pay the penalty

for my wrong. Come into my heart. I wanna live for you. Thank you for loving me with an unconditional love. And thank you for giving me purpose. In Jesus' name, everybody said, amen, amen. All right, love you guys. Thank you so much for being here. - What an amazing time together family. And if you just prayed that prayer to make Jesus the leader, the forgive of your life, we're celebrating with you. This is the best decision you will ever make. And we would love to come alongside of you in your journey of faith. So we have a few next steps just for you. - First, tell somebody about the decision you made. We are not meant to walk alone. Second, we have a free resource for you called New Beginning. It's a simple 14-day devotional. As you start growing in your relationship with Jesus, this devotional will help you take those next steps along the way. - And when you sign up for this resource, well, you'll also receive a link to a few videos from our pastors. These videos will guide you through how to pray, how to engage with scripture, how to build a Christ-centered friendship. And as you start this journey, please let us know.

If you have any questions, you can drop a line in our chat or DMS on social media. - Then after you walk through that new beginning resource, a great next step is growth track. I love growth track. It starts on the first Sunday of the month. It's a great way to discover your God-given purpose and design. - Come on. - You can hit an in-person or online. - Hey. - If you have any information or you want to sign up, you can visit the app or scan the QR code. - And finally, if you need prayer for anything, visit the app and you can enter a prayer request. We have people praying over them, is come back to church. - Yep. - When we gather together, we grow exponentially more. - That's right, we love you guys. We're praying for you this week and we will catch you next Sunday at church. - I see you there.