Three Choices That Will Change Your Life | Stay The Path | Jeremy DeWeerdt

Put your hands together for all of our dads in the house at all of our locations. We wanna honor them. Let me add to the chorus of people saying today that we love you and that you play such an important role, probably even more than you understand. And we just wanna say thank you for being a dad and we just honor you today and every day. And before I jump into my message, I wanna share something with you that's very exciting. A couple of weeks ago, we introduced this vision to help children who are living in extreme food insecurity in underdeveloped nations to be able to provide food in the name of Jesus. And we partnered with a sister organization called Convoy of Hope. And we called this effort One Day to Feed the World. And so what we did is we took up an offering, a special offering that would go towards providing meals that were nutrient-rich to children so that they could eat. And I'm excited to announce to you today that our One Day to Feed the World offering, you gave $194,165, which is amazing. That is great. And that equates to 970,825 meals, almost a million meals. Almost a million meals you gave. That is huge, that is huge. And I wanna thank everybody who participated

at all of our locations. I wanna point out something. Even our guys at God Behind Bars gave. Can you believe that? They gave, even from Hardy and Dixon. So I am so, so honored. Every single person that gave, I just wanna say thank you so much. There is no movement on the face of the earth that equals or even can hold a candle to the global church. I'm telling you, the global church is an amazing eternal movement. And when we are collectively focused on mission, God does incredible, incredible things. We give hope and we give the love of Jesus and the message of Jesus. So thank you again, City First, for being on mission. Let's give God one more round of applause for that. Can we do that? Yeah, I mean, that's awesome. All right, today we're finishing up a series where we are calling three choices that will change your life. If you've been here the last couple weeks, you know that Jen and I came up with this series. We sat down and after decades of ministry and decades of marriage, we thought what are some like big game-changing decisions that we made that if we'd go back, we'd make them all over again.

And not only are these game-changing decisions, but they become pillars of the life that God has built for us and even has built in this church. And so, you know, if you missed the last two weeks, please go back and see them. There's way more than three, but we can only fit three into this series. And so today I wanna talk about the life-changing decision of staying the path, staying the path. In other words, success is going the distance. It is staying the course. I one time heard it said that at the age of four, success is not peeing your pants, all right? At the age of 16, success is having a driver's license. In your 20s, success is having sex when married. At the age of 35, success is having money. At the age of 50, success is also having money. At the age of 60, success is having sex when married. At the age of 70, success is having a driver's license. And at the age of 80, success is not peeing your pants. So come on, let's go the distance. You know what I'm saying, right? Just go the distance. You can do it. Well, I'll tell you what, one of the attributes that Jen and I have realized has profoundly changed our journeys and our journey together and our career and our calling and our family is just this idea of staying the path.

In other words, don't give up. Don't tap out. Don't throw in the towel. This is gonna be such a Father's Day message, by the way. But I recently celebrated my 35th work anniversary here at City First. And so for 35 years, been employed, thank you. And I will tell you, I'm not an expert at a lot of things, but one thing that I think I can speak to is this idea of longevity. It's something that I, by God's grace, have lived. And by no means am I saying. that today success for you is staying at the same job for 35 years. That's not what I'm trying to communicate. What I'm trying to communicate is this, is I'm trying to say that you need to stick it out. You learn how to not quit. You learn how to not give up. You don't quit your marriage. You don't quit your calling. You don't quit your convictions. You don't quit your dreams. You don't quit the pursuit of the life that God has given you. And at the risk of sounding a little cliche and a little like a bumper sticker and maybe even a little bit old, just don't quit. Don't quit.

In the years that I've lived, I've just watched a lot of people quit. I have, and there's been times I have too. But I'm just saying like I've watched them, they just give up. They, listen, they'd rather jump at an opportunity than stick with their assignment. They rationalize that it's better to choose easy than to choose right. They chase what is sparkly rather than stick with what is significant. I've just seen it. And when life happens, there's been many times I've watched friends and acquaintances and people in the church and people in my life. Life happens and they just hoist the white flag and they give up. And today I want you to know that sometimes winning is just not quitting. Like if you haven't quit, you're winning. Like sometimes it's that simple. Sometimes winning is just staying. Sometimes winning is not necessarily overcoming the hardship you're facing, but not quitting before God speaks into that hardship. Like the mountain you're facing has been there for a long time and it hasn't moved. And I will tell you winning is that you haven't moved either,

that you keep facing it. And that you know what? Someday God will speak to that situation and intervene in a way that your prayers have focused. But until then you decide to outlive your opposition. There's been so many times in the last 30 years of being married, in the last 35 years of ministry that I've experienced that I've looked at my friends, I've looked at Jen, I've looked at people and I'm like, just outlive it. You'll outlive it. I don't even mean physically outlive it, although sometimes, right? But you know what I mean? It's like you just choose to not give up. You just outlive whatever the opposition is. The enemy gets really frustrated and quite honestly kind of panicky when you take the option of quitting off of your table. Most people quit because they don't see results. However, God calls us to be faithful before the fruit is visible. And I wanna talk about this because we live in a culture that chases after what I'm calling fast fruits, fast fruits. They want something real quick. They want the results, right? I did a little study this week on strawberries and apples and these fruits or whatever. And I think it's just kind of interesting.

There's a big difference between a strawberry plant and an apple tree. Obviously, physically it's different. It produces different fruit, but even in how it produces the fruit. Like for example, a strawberry plant can produce fruit within a matter of months, but an apple tree may take years before it produces fruit of significance. Most people want strawberry results. They wanna plant something. They wanna water it a little bit and boom, all of a sudden they have fruit. They want quick growth, quick success, quick influence, quick answers. But God's work many times in our life and through our life is a work that is slow. It is deep and it is lasting. In fact, slow growth in my estimation is good growth. Sometimes fast growth actually is not healthy. A strawberry plant can produce fruit for roughly about two to three years optimally. And many times that people that own strawberry farms, they'll actually plant new plants every about three to four years or so because it produces a lot of fruit real quick, but then it begins to go into decline. The plant actually goes into decline. An apple tree usually takes two to five years to bear fruit in a significant way.

But listen, it can reach full production around year eight to 10. And if you take care of the apple tree, it can remain productive for 30 to 50 years. So there's a difference between fast fruit and significant fruit. And today I wanna talk about significant fruit. Your life producing significance, not just fast. The challenge is that you gotta stay faithful when nothing seems to be happening. And there's a hidden story that is found in 1 Kings chapter 18, we're gonna focus on today. And this story, some of you have heard it, some of you haven't. It begins with a king who's an evil king by the name of Ahab. And he has a queen, a wife by the name of Jezebel. I'm sure you've heard of her before. Ahab is one of the most evil kings, according to the Bible, in the history of Israel. And Jezebel, she is a pagan idol worshiper. She worships this god called Baal, B-A-A-L. Baal, they believed, was a god of rain and storms and crops and fertility. And so the people of Israel, their leaders are corrupt and they know that they are supposed to be following Jehovah God, but their heart gets divided and they start following Baal because their leader is following Baal also. And so their hearts are divided.

And they wanted God when it was convenient and they wanted Baal when it was beneficial. And God confronts the nation through the prophet of Elijah. Elijah is the prophet and he stands up in front of the people and he's like, your hearts are divided, you're following God sometimes, you're following this pagan god sometimes, you need to reject the pagan god Baal and you need to follow God. And the people did not listen to Elijah. And so God said, I'm gonna bring judgment upon the country. And so Elijah appears before the people and he says this, there will be neither dew nor rain for the next few years except at my word. In other words, God had told Elijah, I'm shutting the faucet off. And Elijah told that to the people. And so all of a sudden, the rain stops. Not for months, not for weeks, for years, three and a half years, no rain, not one drop, not even dew in the morning. And so what happens? The ground dries up, the crops fail, the economy craters, people begin to become hungry and the nation is rocked because of its own idolatry. And after three and a half years, God begins to show mercy to his people. I think it's kind of interesting. If Baal was the God of rain, God said because the people are looking to Baal

as the source, I'm gonna turn off the faucet of heaven and we'll see what Baal can do. And the people fast realized Baal can't do jack squat. And so God begins to have mercy after three and a half years and he tells Elijah, I'm gonna send rain. And Elijah tells the people, there is a sound of the rush of rain that is coming. And Elijah knows that the blessing of God is coming and this is where we pick up in chapter 18, verse 42. Says, Elijah climbed to the top of Mount Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees. Go and look towards the sea, he told his servant. And he went up and looked, there is nothing there, his servant said. So you gotta picture this. God spoke to Elijah and said, I'm gonna send rain. So Elijah is there on the edge of the Mediterranean Sea and they're up on a hillside and he tells his servant, go look for rain, go look for the cloud. And the servant went out, looked out, nothing. Came back to Elijah and said, there's nothing there. And Elijah said, well, go back again, go check it. And so he goes back again, nothing. Goes back and tells Elijah, there's no cloud, no rain. Go again, nothing. Go again, nothing. Six times, nothing. Now I want you to picture for a moment here, being the servant, you are kind of following this man of God who's supposed to hear from God

and the man says, it's gonna start raining, you're gonna see clouds. And every time as a servant, you go out and look and there's nothing. Every trip feels identical, every report is the same. No clouds, no clouds, still no clouds. And yet again, no clouds. Seems futile, but here's the thing Elijah keeps praying and looking This is a huge key for those you that have been trying To believe for a promise of God you've been trying to see some Movement in your life some success you've been trying to achieve the dream that God put in your heart You've been standing in the promise of the Word of God, and you're not seeing anything Elijah kept praying and Looking praying and Looking this is so important because that's what you do in the waiting season you pray and you look You pray and you seek you pray and you look and so here's where many of us are right now We're in this season of waiting. We're not seeing anything God promised a blessing and promised a breakthrough He promised reconciliation or restoration or growth or whatever it is and yet No rain No rain I want to tell you city first if you're in that season and all of us will be at some point in our life Don't confuse Nothing yet with nothing's happening This is very important Just because you don't see anything yet doesn't mean something's not happening in the background Six trips to the sea and there's no cloud There's nothing and yet Elijah never changed his Expectation he kept praying and looking praying and looking and many of us. That's where at you've been praying You've been praying you have been searching you have been serving you've been giving you've been give you've been showing up You've been making the right choices, and it feels like nothing is

Changing just because you don't see the fruit doesn't mean God's not working on the root It's it's growing. You just can't see it. The dream is growing. The promise is growing. It is coming You just don't see it yet Roots grow before fruit appears, right? faith Does not live by what it sees Faith lives by what God says Faith doesn't live by what it sees Faith lives by what God says. So here's my question back to you regarding whatever Situation you have whatever drought is in your life. Whatever promise you need fulfilled Whatever answered prayer you need answered whatever it is. My question back to you is what did God say? What did he say in his word? Regarding your circumstance what promise is there for your situation? What did he say then you stand on that you stand on that and you keep standing even when you do not see? any results there have been seasons of my life our Our life together our family The calling of leading this church, there's been seasons where it feels like every day We do the right thing and there's still no results Sometimes it has been years before we saw the right results and And and years of obedience years of prayer Faithfulness comes before fruitfulness All right, it really does back to our story verse 44 Says seven times Elijah said go back how many times? seven times the seventh time the servant reported There's a cloud as small as a man's hand. It's rising from the sea

The seventh time does he see a big cumulus cloud? Does he see this huge? Thunderstorm does he see this huge front moving in? No, he sees a cloud the size of a man's hand kind of underwhelming right but after that The Bible says that that cloud began to grow and grow and grow and the skies Opened up and rain began to pour onto a parched land. You see one of our greatest Misconceptions that we have is we think this culture thinks small effort big results But usually God's pattern is different. At least this is what Jen and I have learned God's pattern is different big faithfulness equals small things or small signs at first then equaling significant harvests later So you put in big faithfulness big effort? Consistency See, sticking it out, not quitting, and what do you see? A small thing, the size of a man's hand. Kind of underwhelming. You've sown a lot of effort, and when it comes to fruition, it doesn't look that big, but here's the thing, it begins to grow. And over time, it begins to grow into something that has large impact. And it has a large influence on whatever the circumstances that you are praying for. I'm gonna say something that's gonna, in a sense, rub every type A leader, high achiever, and catalytic leader that's listening, gonna rub you a little wrong, because it rubs me wrong, and I'm a type A leader, all right? Life is more about faithfulness than fruitfulness. Now, I didn't get a big amen on that,

because we want the fruitfulness, all right? But here, here's the thing, God is actually, you gotta get this in your head and in your spirit. Even you type A leaders, God is actually more concerned about your faithfulness than your fruitfulness, because faithfulness often then produces fruitfulness. You don't have fruitfulness without first faithfulness. You keep showing up at your business. You keep showing up in your marriage. You keep showing up in your parenting. You keep showing up at church every single week, even when the pastor puts you to sleep, all right? You keep showing up in prayer. You keep showing up in your calling. And then the fruit comes. Faithfulness is your responsibility. Fruitfulness is God's responsibility. Do you hear that? The fruit will come when you are faithful. Please, please, please do not think that small means insignificant. We are in a day and age where everything has to be big. Everything has to be huge. You know, we look at what other people are experiencing. We look at what they're experiencing, either personally we see it or on social media. We talk to that neighbor about their career or whatever. You compare your life to other people, and you always feel less than, and they feel bigger than. In fact, I love what Craig Groeschel says.

He says, comparison will either produce insecurity or it will produce pride. Like, it's really true. When you compare, you either feel insecure, you feel less than, or you feel haughty, both of which are not glorifying to your God. So don't compare. In fact, I say this all the time to especially the young adults that are in our church. When I get a chance to speak to Leadership College or whatever else, I say this all the time. Don't compare your beginning to my middle. Don't compare the beginning of your career to where I'm at in probably the last third of my career. Do not compare it, and this is hard, because many times, people grow up and they get in a place where they're, they're like, you know, living in a home like in their early teens or mid-teen years, and by this point, parents have started to make a little bit more money, and then when the kids go off on their own, they expect to live at the same level as the family they just left, and that is unrealistic. You know what you get to do when you leave home? Start at the beginning, like we did, all right? That's where you start. You're like, well, yeah, but my parents bought me that $1,200 iPhone 17 or whatever it is now.

Well, now you're gonna have some janky pay-by-the-hour thing, all right? So that's what's gonna happen, because you can't afford it, just like we couldn't afford it back then when we were your age. Don't compare where you're at with where other people are, especially those that are years ahead of you, because people see the blessing, but they don't see the decades of sacrifice. People see the platform, but they don't see the preparation. People see the fruit, but they don't understand that the roots were growing a long time before the fruits came. You see, even I say this to people, there are passers that will come from out of town to meet with me sometimes, and we sit and chat about life and everything, and I'll be like, don't look at this building. This is not how it started. It started on a storefront downtown. Rockford, decades upon decades ago, well before me, it started in a little box room. See, they see the building, but they don't see the years of prayer and sacrifice and perseverance and stewardship. You see, many people think they just put in a little bit of effort, and it's all of a sudden, like, you water it with magic water,

and boom, it becomes big, and that's not how life works. Current culture often wants the blessing without the burden. They want the platform without the process. They want the harvest without the sowing and the watering and the weeding. Listen, if you don't embrace the process of growth, you won't sustain the promise someday. Right now, you are in preparation for what God is gonna give you. If you don't learn in the process, you'll never be able to handle the promise. So, what looks like to you is just a small cloud the size of a man's hand. Feels kind of discouraging, but God often begins with small. Small acts of obedience that he notices in your life. Small prayers that get answered. Small steps of faith. I still remember back in the early 1990s, I began a program that we now call here the City First Leadership College. Back then, it was called the Rockford Master's Commission. It's a post-high school discipleship and life training program and ministry training program, and I began that in 1993, and when we began, we had literally nothing. In fact, many of you have heard this, but I had, for the first few years, I had to actually raise my own salary and things like that. And as a part of this leadership college, we had a vision.

We wanted to not just train up young adults here in Rockford, but we wanted to have teams travel and go do youth camps and church services and school assemblies. That was a thing we had a vision for to go in, and I know we couldn't preach Jesus in the public schools, but we could talk about hope and we could talk about value, and we could talk about, back then, a big thing was anti-gang and anti-drug, and that was a message that needed to be heard in our public schools, and so we wanted to do that, but we literally had nothing. We had nothing. One day, the finance director of this church, he called me and he goes, hey, I was driving, and there's this 15-passenger van at this mom-and-pop car dealership over on North Second, and I think the church has enough money to buy this van. This thing was ugly, all right? It was a brown Dodge 15-passenger van. It worked, it drove well, and it was safe-ish, all right? So, I think it was $8,000. Literally, I think it was 8,000 bucks, and we ended up getting this van, and we were so excited. Like, as the Leadership College team, we thought someone had gave us a Lamborghini. No joke, we were so excited about it, and in short, after a while, we began to travel and go do youth camps and youth services and church services, and we started a whole,

like, school assembly, like, ministry called RYI, and over the years, more churches, more schools, they'd book us, and it grew and grew and grew, and finally, that van went to heaven, all right? But before it went to heaven, tens of thousands of miles were put on that van as we were traveling all around the nation, doing all these different services and assemblies. Pretty soon, we started to get a little bit of, like, resource, we were able to buy better vans, we ended up buying a fleet of vans, we even had, like, you know, sound systems and, like, a box truck, a 20-foot box truck that would travel all around, and what was interesting is that we would keep tabs, and over that decade, once you tallied up all of the church services and all the youth services and the youth camps and the conventions and all the school assemblies, thousands of them we did, over that decade, we were able to minister to over one million people. One million people, one million, right here at this church. This was right here at this church, all right? But it all started with a janky, ugly brown van. Seriously, it started with this van that if you looked at it, you're like, it's kind of scary. It's like the Chris Farley van down by the river, I mean, like, literally. It was not a, in fact, I've thought to myself many times, churches and schools see us pull up in that van and they're like, oh, no, you know?

Don't call it insignificant if God calls it a beginning. Listen. What you're seeing right now is not impressive. It's not cool. It's not dramatic. It's not Instagram or TikTok worthy, all right? It's a small cloud, the size of a man's hand. But Elijah recognized that cloud as evidence that God was beginning to fulfill the promise. And I will tell you, your cloud in your life, whatever it is you're praying for, the answer you're praying for, the dream you have in your heart, what God has put there, it may seem small, but it's a beginning. It may be an encouraging conversation. It might be a step of obedience in the right direction. It might be a simple answered prayer that God gives you. And it's not the entirety of what you are believing for, but it's a portion of it. Don't despise the days of small beginnings. The cloud was small, but the rain that was coming was not small. It was gonna be, it was gonna saturate the land. Seven trips, seven trips, months of opposition, years of drought. And the sky begins to darken, and Elijah looks up and the wind begins to blow, and the rain begins to fall, and the promise had come.

Breakthrough often comes after a season when quitting seems most reasonable. If you're like right now, you're like, it just makes sense for me to quit. That's when breakthrough comes. Let me just give you three plus decades of life experience. My learned experience is that when it makes most sense to quit, don't, because usually breakthrough is just around the corner. I wonder how many people quit on the sixth trip to the sea. And if they go one more time, they'd see a cloud. I wonder how many people walk away from the dream right before it's going to break forth. How many people can't endure one more season of nurturing the apple tree before it produces the significant fruit? So the message today is super simple, and it's a dad talk moment, all right? Keep praying, keep serving, keep showing up, keep sowing, keep believing, and believe that God is gonna give you the breakthrough because He will. If He said it, He will do it. His timing is always perfect. It's not what we want, but it's always perfect. Hebrews 10, 36, I end with this. The Bible says you need to persevere. Let's all say that word, persevere. That's not a fun word.

We'd rather be like money or joy. Breakthrough, persevere. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised. Perseverance brings the promise. Perseverance reveals the promise. So today, I don't know who this is for. All different ages in the room, whether you're 18 or 88, stay the path, stay the path. Why? Because the rain's coming, it's coming. Oh, I know you don't see the cloud yet. I know this is your fifth time to look at the sea, and you'll go again and look, and you won't see a cloud, and you'll go again, and you'll look, and you won't see a cloud. And then all of a sudden, one day, you're gonna look, and you're gonna see a small cloud, the size of a man's hand. It's gonna seem insignificant. It's gonna seem like it wasn't really an answer to prayer. You might not even begin to notice it right away. And then all of a sudden, that small cloud will begin to grow and turn into a cumulus cloud. And all of a sudden, it's gonna become a storm front. And all of a sudden, the rain will come. Stay the path, city first. The rain is coming. It's coming. It's coming.

Let me pray with you. Heavenly Father, I pray you'd help us to stay the path. God, so many times, we wanna hoist the white flag. We wanna give up. We wanna chase something that's sparkly. We wanna chase an opportunity. rather than stick with the assignment, want to give up on whatever it is that we at one time dreamed about. We want to bail on what we one time committed to. Lord, life happens, and it's discouraging to go out day after day and look at the sea and not see a cloud. But I pray today, encourage us, embolden us. God, I pray we'd walk out of here with shoulders back spiritually, knowing that the promise is coming, the rain is coming, but we just need to be faithful. And faithfulness will produce fruitfulness. Thank you, Jesus, that you're the one that brings the fruit. We love you. With every head bowed and every eye closed real quickly before we dismiss, if you say, I've never given my life to Jesus, and today I want to make him the leader and the forgiver of my life. I want to ask for forgiveness of my sin. You're not joining the church today, but you say, like maybe even that video you saw earlier, you're like, that's me. I need to make that decision. If that's you and you want to make a decision to make Jesus the leader and the savior of your life,

will you go ahead and just raise your hand and put it right back down? Is that cool? Yep, there's hands everywhere. I guarantee you, everywhere, even God behind bars, all of our locations, even living rooms right now. With everybody's head bowed, and if you raised your hand, I want you to know God is listening to the prayer that we're about ready to all pray together. He's listening to your voice. Today is a significant day, because today is the day that God becomes the leader of your life. Jesus is your savior. Let's go ahead and let's pray this prayer, all of us, after me. Ready? Here we go. Dear Jesus, I need you. Thank you for dying for me. I repent of all my sin. Come into my heart and lead my life. Thank you for loving me with an unconditional love. I want to live for you. In Jesus' name, everybody said amen. Amen. Come on, put your hands together on that one. What an incredible message today. You know, if you prayed that prayer to make Jesus the leader and the forgiver of your life, we want to let you know that we are so proud of you,

and we're celebrating with you today. In the Bible, it says that all of heaven is rejoicing. And we believe that this is just the beginning of an amazing journey with Jesus that you are going to go on. One of the first things you can do is tell someone about the decision that you made today. They would love to celebrate with you. And also, we'd love to give you a free resource. It's called New Beginnings. And it's a simple 14-day devotional designed to help you take your first steps in your relationship with Jesus. It's full of helpful information, how to pray, how to read the Bible. And it's going to help you grow. That's right. And when you sign up for New Beginnings, you'll also receive a few short videos from our pastor that will help you learn practical ways and things that are going to help you grow your faith, like praying, how to read the Bible, and how to build strong Christ-centered relationships. And also remember that if you ever have questions, if you need encouragement, or you just want to connect with someone, you can always reach out to us, call our office, send us a DM. And we would love to take a moment to chat with you. Yes, we would. And another great next step is GrowthTrack, which happens on the first Sunday of every month.

And GrowthTrack is designed to help you discover your purpose, learn more about City First Church, and find out how God has uniquely created you to make a difference. There's no one on this earth like you. You can join us online or in person for GrowthTrack. And you can find out more information on the City First app or by scanning the QR code right here. That's right. And if there's anything that is going on in your life that you would like prayer for, it would be our honor to pray with you. All you got to do is just jump on the app or the City First website, submit a prayer request. And our team takes a moment every week to pray over every single request that comes in. But most importantly, what you got to keep doing is keep showing up, keep coming to church, keep leaning into community, and keep growing in your faith. Because God has so much more for you ahead. That's right. Well, we love you, City First Church fam. Thank you for spending part of your day with us. We can't wait to see you again next week. God bless you. Have an amazing day.