“I’m new here”

“But I was like, well, I'm just Methodist. that's how I grew up. We don't do that. And then I had this thought, like, if I go to the front of the church, then they're going to think I'm a new believer, and I don't want them to think I'm a new believer, so, like, I'm not going to do that. And, like, what's with going down front in the church anyways? Like, that's so awkward to be in front of everybody. Like, that's like, I'm not doing that. I sit on the second or the last row. Like, I'm not going down to the front. But can I just tell you something? Not because anybody manipulated me to, not because I had to check a box to join a church”

“and the last thing is we have our meet and eat uh what I'm sorry oh new here meet me I'm sorry it's called new here meet neat and so if you're new here and we've been we've done sign ups for this so if you've signed up that's after this service over here in the West Wing we're going to feed you and it's for our new folks that want to get to know us as a staff we want to meet you interact with you and if you're new here for the first time today uh and you haven't got an opportunity to sign up please come we just want to feed you we want to love on you we want to interact with you so come a church that is all thank you for bearing with me later guys”

“history of Israel later and and says, here's what we've done. Here's how we have defiled you, Lord. Here's how we have sinned against you and we repent. I repent. That's the heart that Daniel has here is I'm gonna be faithful to my God and I'm not going to partake of anything in this new land. I'm not going to become a part of this new pagan land even though I'm going to be a captive here perhaps for my whole life. I don't know 70 years, whatever that would be. That's what it's about. So, do you see”

“I'm going to go on vacation. I'm going to chillax and I'm going to spend out my days calm, cool, and collected." But that is not what Moses did. You see, at the end of Moses's day, God still had a very important mission for his life. And that was the mission of pouring into and raising up the next generation. Moses spends the rest of his life fighting for”

“who have supported and encouraged and sacrificially given and and volunteered and uh and have done that all along the way from Simmons Hall to launching a brand new campus and and even into the business meetings today where I'm launching new initiatives and I'm just grateful for your friendship grateful to be amongst friends and family today as we get to gather around our word a special welcome to those who are in the”

“And I just say, I'm on the ride of my life. And the Lord is just doing his thing. And it's just a joy to do it together. So do any of you have New Year's resolutions? A few of those? Some of you? Okay. How many of you have already broken a New Year's resolution? Okay. A few confessions. Okay, good. Awesome. I'm a big New Year's resolution guy. I'm a goal-oriented person by nature. And so I love making goals and that sort of thing. And so most goals and most New Year's resolutions are kind of fixed around better practices.”

“everyone here, that Jesus has done a work in my heart. That through faith in him, I'm a new person. I'm not my old self. I am my I am I've been born again in Jesus. And so when Jesus says baptizing them in the name of the father, son, and holy spirit, he is speaking to the reality that people are hearing the gospel, the good news of Jesus, and they are responding through faith. And so if we are to make disciples in the places that God has”

“stone. They were not moldable. They didn't listen to God. And and so he says, "You need a new heart." And as much as they needed forgiveness, God knew that they would continue to go on to sin. So he says, "Something radical has to change in your life." And he says, "So I'm going to give you a new heart. And I'm going to give the spirit, capital S spirit. I'm going to put my spirit in you." Which is this promise we read in verse 26. I will give you a new heart. a new spirit I will put within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of”

“But I'm just saying it and saying it and saying it because just maybe if I say it enough, they'll actually believe it and they'll step into all that God has for them because they believe that they can change the world as they connect their hearts and their lives to a mighty God. In the same way, I think this is why God the Father, when Jesus is baptized and the heavens open, do you remember what he said? What does he say? Say it loud. What does he say? This is my What does he say? In whom I'm well”

“Amen. Yeah. I'm reminded um it's just crazy to me like the God of the universe who owns everything. He's in control of everything. What he's interested in is the surrender personally of our hearts. That's a beautiful thing. And so, um if”

“start looking and I'm like, "Man, is that hair growing between my eyebrows and a double chin and good night, where did these little things here come from?" And like, is that a gray right there? A gray in my beard, too? Holy cow. I got to stop looking at this mirror. But that's what a mirror does, right? It leads us to a place of vulnerability, of self-consciousness, and unfortunately that's what's shaping most of our identities and our hearts. Drew Hill in his book alongside spent a lot of time with youth in ministry, and he said this. We get the chance, you and I get”

“Central Park. We live to the right of that. That's the Upper East Side. For those of you above the age of 40, the Upper East Side is where the Jeffersons wanted to move on up to. For those of you under the age of 40, shout out to my friends over here, it's Gossip Girl XOXO. You know what I'm saying? And so that's where we live. That's our neighborhood. I'm a native New Yorker. I was born in the Bronx. I'm a Yankee fan. And I didn't realize until I lived in the South for a period of years that you can also be called a Yankee even if you don't play for the”

“Jenna can't do this but I have to go back who is Christ okay he is all sufficient he's all supreme okay if he's all sufficient and all supreme he gets to declare who I am the creator gets to do define the creation So I go back to that new identity and then I'm ready to look as to how I'm supposed to walk and how I'm supposed to operate in relationship to other others. This new identity has practical”

“time it kind of grows cold and I got to pick up and kind of find a new thing that then becomes a craze that I'm going to a new place well I say all that to say that in our spiritual lives is very much can be the very same thing that we can have a passion for God we can have a craving for God's power in his spirit in our hearts and in our lives but if we are not careful as Believers we will get to to a place man isn't that so weird”

“5 12 5 5 12. all right I'm gonna give you a new set here comes a new set of numbers four one twenty one one four one twenty one one keep going you're doing wonderful all right now we're gonna do them together five twelve five five twelve four one twenty one one”

“God has for them. And so I'm I'm speaking. Yeah, you can clap your hands for them. So I've been speaking to everybody else, but let me just speak to you next generation for just a moment. Don't waste your season of mentorship and waiting. Let me tell you some of the lessons that I learned in my season of waiting because I was called to ministry and to preach. And I really thought to preach on Sunday mornings in 2009. And it wasn't until 2022 that I actually stepped into a full lead pastor role”

“move to a new city. That happens and she doesn't know how to handle her emotions. She crashes out um with her parents and then she ultimately is like, I'm going to leave and I'm just going to get on a bus and I'm going to I'm going to move to a new city and everything is going to be better. And she did all this because she didn't know how to handle her emotions. And I bring this story up to say because she is 11 years old and she didn't know how to handle emotions. And”

“I'm about three months into this journey now and and probably like a lot of us that maybe made the the New Year's resolutions of I'm gonna eat better I'm gonna exercise I'm gonna walk I'm gonna whatever um there's probably a lot of us who have fallen off the wagon already you know because it's like it's a great idea like it's a great idea to begin to move to begin to get healthy but then just simply life happens”

“Well, good morning, church family. It's a joy to be in worship with you today. If you're a guest with us, my name is Stephen. I'm one of the pastors here on staff at Warren Belvedere. Happy New Year. I'm gonna see if you're gonna say that back. And happy birthday. This is Tuesday will actually be our second year. I guess it's more of a adoption gotcha day than it is a birthday because it was the two churches becoming one church two years ago on January 9th. Warren Baptist Church adopted First Baptist Church of Belvedere”