Finding Your Spiritual Rhythm (Sermon Only)

0:00 hey guys thank you for tuning in today you know this message that you're about to hear I pray that it not only inspires you but encourages you to follow Jesus even more in fact there are probably people in your life who need to hear this timely word and chances are you're thinking about them right now so share this message with them and if you're watching on YouTube make sure to hit subscribe I also want to thank all those who support us we wouldn't have any Ministry outside these four walls if it weren't for our friends who come alongside us in prayer and support us financially there are thousands who are benefited by this ministry because of your giving and we thank you to continue or even start supporting our our mission to help others and their families follow

0:47 Jesus you can give by visiting cfmiami.org enjoy the sermon hey [Music] everybody I mean isn't it great to to start off the new year telling our soul get up and praise the Lord amen come on let's give him a shout of Praise hey well welcome everyone happy New Year it is great to be here worshiping together today welcome everyone out of our campuses my name is Omar and I have the honor and the privilege of serving as a lead Pastor here at Christ Fellowship uh thank you so much appreciate it guys and uh today we're going to be diving into God's word and we're really going to kind of start setting ourselves

1:32 up for this whole year so that we can grow spiritually and so I'm looking forward to sharing a word with you from God's word uh but before we do that I want to give you all an update on our Christmas offering you know as you recall our Christmas offering was called for our children and everything that we would be able to collect uh would go towards renovating our uh CF kids facilities locally and also in our Global campuses uh in addition we are looking to expand Christ Fellowship Academy uh into a middle school at the P midle Bay Campus in the future as well as create the infrastructure to start spreading Christ Fellowship emies throughout Miami dat County and uh if you recall also the goal that we were trying to achieve was four uh uh slight

2:21 $451,000 youall remember that yeah and so do you all want to know how much you all gave for our children you all want to know you all really want to know can we get a a little drum roll can we get a little quick dral yeah all right all right you guys ready listen God through you we were able to do over $511,000 yeah man praise God man praise the Lord and you know when I heard that number I'm like I first praised God because I'm like my goodness you are faithful God you always provide but I also thank the Lord for your faithfulness because listen so many of

3:07 you realize listen that what you have is not yours right we don't own anything ultimately everything we have we're just stewards of what God has given to us for a short period of time on this Earth and so many of you recognize that and you gave generously and listen you gave so that future Generations could worship God and for the next several decades our kids Ministries will be ready to receive thousands of children to hear about the Lord amen and so thank you thank you thank you for being so generous listen it is I am so proud to be part of a church family listen that puts the kingdom of God first in their life amen so thank you for your generosity well with all that being said let's dive into

3:54 God's word today if you have your Bibles go to Philippians chap 2: 12-13 uh we'll get back to the Old Testament through the book of Exodus next week which you'll hear about a little later but today I'll be teaching from Philippians chapter 2 verse 12 and 13 and wherever you find yourself you can follow along with me as I read all right listen to what God's word said says it says therefore my beloved those who are loved by God as you have always obeyed so now not only as in my presence but much more in my absence work out everyone say work out yeah everyone say work out yeah work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you

4:43 both to Will and to work for his good pleasure in other words God wants us as we mature in our faith to work out right to work out our Salvation or find our spiritual Rhythm this year right as we grow and mature in our walk with the Lord all right amen that is God's you can go and take a seat everybody all campuses and folks let me start off by sharing this with you you know last March for our anniversary Ashley and I decided to take a trip to Colorado and one of the things that I knew that I wanted to do while we were there was to snowboard I've snowboarded in the past I said you know what I want to give it

5:28 again a shot I want to snowboard once again and my wife even though she had never snowboarded before she said you know what I want to give it a shot and so uh in order to preserve a healthy marriage right we got her a snowboard instructor cuz you know me trying to teach her that was not going to be easy so anyway so so we I we got our our snowboard instructor and for the first and second day she got lessons and she began to learn the fundamental of snowboarding and in those two days her instructor was helping understand all the important all the fundamental things that she needed to know in order to be able to learn how to snowboard so then came the day for us to snowboard

6:16 together and folks I wish I could tell you it was an amazing day where all day we were going down the mountain and it was so much fun but folks not quite because by her own admission listen learning how to snowboard is hard and the poor thing listen as we got together we started going down the slope she took a couple of really hard Falls in fact right be behind those goggles there were tears of Pain by po by poor Ashley right and so she took a couple hard Falls and so as she was going through the slope now that I was kind of with her I was trying to culture on on how to snowb word on how on how I do it and I got to admit it was it was hard it

7:02 was hard for me to put into words how it was that I could snowboard so well until until it dawn on me it dawn on me that after getting all the fundamentals all right of snowboarding after understanding all the fundamentals of snowboarding the key to snowboarding is then finding your Rhythm you see once you have all that knowledge then you have to put that knowledge into practice and the more that you do it you'll start finding little by little right you start finding your rhythm in the way that you snowboard and folks here's what's interesting once you got the rhythm of snowboarding the moment you fall out of that rhythm is when you take another

7:48 hard hit and so what what I but here's the the Beautiful Thing Once you find your snowboard Rhythm and you and you you get the hang of it is a beautiful thing and you have so so much fun in fact just take a look at this [Music] [Applause] [Music] video yeah that was an actual video of me and

8:34 Ashley snowboarding at the end of that trip no I wish I wish maybe someday maybe someday yeah but folks let me just bring that over to our teaching for today because listen what an example of our spiritual life and by that I mean that just like after getting all the fundamentals of snowboarding in your mind there has to be a moment that you put that into practice practice until you find your Rhythm right just just just like that listen here's the main idea for today after understanding all the fundamentals of the Christian faith right the only way that you will mature the only way that you would grow in your walk with Christ if if is is if

9:19 you find a spiritual rhythm in your life and and unfortunately there's so many people that come to know Christ Christ as her Savior and they learned early on the fundamentals of the Christian faith right does the basic teachings of the Christian faith but they never really grow and mature in their walk with the Lord and and and and because they don't find they've never found their spiritual rhythm in fact maybe they've been Believers 10 years five years you know know maybe a year but what happens is because they never really find the Rhythm they never grow spiritually sure they they do spiritual things

10:06 sporadically oh they they come to church once every several weeks or every couple months oh they may attend just a random Bible study oh may they may just read God's word here and there but the reality is that there is no consistent rhythm in their life and because of it they are stagnant in their Christian walk in fact who knows maybe I'm today describing you maybe you came to know the Lord for a while back a year 5 years 10 years back and you've been coming to church with your family and you see everybody growing your children your spouse you see them growing but when you look at

10:51 your life you haven't matured you haven't grown the way that you should have been growing in the Lord there's some there's something in you perhaps now as to start this brand new says you know what I'm tired of being stagnant in my Christian walk I look back in my life and I really haven't grown I don't know more scripture than I did five years ago or a year ago or 6 months ago so Omar what what do I need to know so that this year as we start 2024 I can find my spiritual Rhythm and grow and mature in the lord well folks we're going to find out today from Philippians chapter 2 all right so if you have Bibles on our campuses go ahead and turn to Philippians chapter 2 and folks today I have two thoughts

11:37 for us about what we need to know go know to spiritually grow this year Christ Fellowship are you ready to dive into God's word this new year come on let me hear you yeah so write this down as Point number one at all campuses here we go the first thing we need to remember is that spiritual rhythms are essential to your spiritual growth and maturity now listen to what God's word says it says therefore my beloved I love when God's word says that right therefore those of you who are loved by God as you have always obeyed so now not only in my presence but much more in my absence what are the next two words come on work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in

12:25 you both to Will and to work for his good pleasure now folks stop right there for a moment and slip into the scene because the Apostle Paul here is writing to the church in Philippi which is located in modernday Greece uh and so this church was very dear to his heart because this church the people here not only only really loved the Lord they had a beautiful love for the Lord but they were the first church in the Mediterranean that partnered with Paul financially and they were the first church that gave so the gospel could spread through all of Europe and so the Church of Philippi was a beautiful wonderful church and so when Paul was there he began to taught them the essential fundamental truths of the

13:12 Christian faith but then when he had to travel into other churches his main concern as he left them was that they would continue to mature and grow in their walk with the Lord and so he tells them in the verse that we read to work out your salvation now what does it mean to work out because it kind of almost sounds like we are working for our salvation but folks we know that's not the case because one of the key doctrinal truths of the Christian faith is that we are not saved by our works by what we do in fact in in Ephesians

13:58 chapter 2 two it says for by Grace you have been saved through what through faith and this is not of your own doing it is the gift of God not a result of what works right so that no one may boast in the presence of God which therefore it means that it doesn't matter how many times you come to church it does not matter how much many good things you do in your life it does not matter how much you give it does not matter what infant uh ritual your parents had you through or some uh adolescent tradition listen you can do all those things the rest of your life

14:45 and never be saved because the only way to be right with God the only way to obtain forgiveness of sin the only way to have a relationship with God Is by faith and by faith and alone and the church says what what amen so now that we understand that what does that mean that we are to work out our Salvation well what Paul's referring to is that now that you're saved by faith and you are saved now you need to start working out this new life in Christ now one side of that coin of what that means to work out is simply obedience in resisting things that do not honor God right so you know there's things in God's word that God tells us

15:31 this does not honor me resist and flee those things right so there's that aspect of working out our Salvation the other side of it is when we do things when we strive to grow and to mature in our walk with the Lord and so and what I'm going to call those things that we do today is what we call many people call them spiritual disciplines but today I'm going to call them spiritual rhythms all right right and here's what a spiritual rhythm is write this down as letter a spiritual rhythms are consistent actions that enable you to mature in your faith so just a refresher for those of us maybe who are brand new so we understand what this

16:17 means uh there's two I I've categorized into two sections one of them is personal spiritual rhythms I want to give you a a quick list of what I mean by that so for example the first one could be go reading God's word these are things that you do personally consistency and let me tell you something Reading God's word is the most important thing that you can do in your Christian Life let me make that very clear reading God's word on your own is the most important thing you could ever do in your Christian walk the second thing is meditating on God's word moments when you stop and you reflect on certain theological truths another one could be also uh praying for example that's when we just talk to our Heavenly Father uh not to a

17:02 pastor not to a priest list we talk to our heavenly father because of what Christ has done for us another spiritual habit is confessing sin you know there's moments that in your life when you know you've Sinn before God you confess those things to God in your own life and there's moments that you may have to confess those sins to other people as well but confessing sin is a key component of our spiritual life and then last personally for is is fasting and fasting is just a moment in your life a season in your life where you abstain from food or something else in order to pursue the Lord in a very special way and so those are personal right things on your own that you that actions that you do right in order to mature now there's corporate spiritual rhythms when

17:49 I say corporate not like a corporation you know but as a body of Christ that corporate Body of Christ these are some of the things that we do together for example Le We Gather for Sunday worship right what we're doing right now the people of God are coming today to not only sing songs of worship but to receive God's word together amen second for example is gathering for small group Bible study it's when you meet together midweek uh to not only study God's word but Fellowship have a great time with other believers in a smaller context and that's also critical of your walk with the Lord the third could be also serving in a Ministry team we see from God's word that God has given all of us a talent or ability in order to serve one

18:36 another and build up the church that is the purpose of the giftings that God has given to you uh other ones could be sharing the gospel right we talk about having gospel conversations with people in your life whether it's an old friend of yours a family member that person at public that cashier give him a little invite card whatever that case may be it's having those gospel conversations with the people in your life and the last but not least which could be personal and corporate is giving generously right part of our walk with the Lord is that out of everything that God gives to us right we then respond and give back to him and he gives back to us and it's just part of our relationship and our walk with the Lord now folks the reason that I stress the word rhythm is because a spiritual

19:24 discipline could almost seem like a one-time thing but a spiritual ual rhythm is when is a pattern in your life that you're doing the same things over and over consistently in your life and folks it is right and this is why I think the Apostle Paul used the word work out because the word work out in the original Greek has the emphasis of a habitual pattern in your life right you know no one goes to the gym literally lifts up one weight one time and said I am working now no one does that right there's repetition and you go back and you do it right it's it's it carries that notion of consistent action and so listen if you want to grow in this year

20:10 in your walk with the Lord these spiritual rhythms must be present in your life and family here is what I want to what you need to know and remember when you think of these different actions write this down as letter B spiritual rhythms place you in environments keyword environments where God transforms you now folks listen carefully to what that verse says it says work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is who you could do better than that what is it yeah for it is not you but God who

20:55 works in you both to Will and to work work for his good pleasure and so folks do not miss this because every single time that you engage in the spiritual rhythms in your life what you are essentially doing don't misses is that you are positioning yourself in an environment for God to transform you and folks the reason that I stress those words so much is because somewhere along the way we can view the you know we can view these actions as a way that we ourselves are forcing us to grow on their own power you know and what happens is often times people at times

21:42 when they have that mentality they get turned off of the things of God so for example you know now as we start this brand new year we know how it works right the gyms are packed everyone wants to go to the gym I got to lose my weight I got to look better right everyone starts going to the gym and what happens everyone's super excited at the beginning and they're working out in whichever way but there's a mentality is like I got to go to the gym and once you go to the gym that got to start doing all these crazy things and these push-ups and all these different things and running and doing all these different things and you think the more I push myself the more I put my own power the more that I'm going to transform my body but guess what people approach you with a negative mindset and that's why a few weeks later I don't want to I don't want to go to that gym anymore and and and do some

22:29 crazy things I feel like I'm wasting my time and sometimes I think we carry that same mentality to the things of God we start thinking oh I got to force myself to go to church in the morning oh I got to read God's word oh I got to do this guess what you're creating a a type of mentality that is inaccurate because now you're thinking my own power I got to force myself I got I got to do this to grow myself when in reality it's not you doing anything ultimately it is God the one that through his spirit is maturing you amen you see when you place yourself in the right environments God has a way through his Spirit to begin to mature you so for example let me just give you some quick

23:16 examples you know when when you wake up in the morning for example and you go to wherever it is that you read God's word and you sit down right and you open up God's word word you are in a sense positioning yourself in a place where God can transform you I mean just opening God's word and you'll see that the moment you start opening God's word and just simply reading God begins to do a work in your life if this Bible is closed and you never read it you can sit anywhere in your house and God's not going to transform you but the moment you pick up even if it for 15 minutes a day whatever you are able to do that day and you open up God's word and you just start simply reading you place yourself in a

24:02 environment where God begins to mature you and to grow you when you start praying right what's what's happening in a sense even as you pray that you're maturing why because as you pray for God's will to be done in your life and you pray and talking to your heavenly father he begins to mold your heart M into the image of his son if you talk to your coworker to your friend early morning God's not transforming you there but when you talk to God you place yourself in a position in an environment for God to transform you so for example when you come and you start and you go to small group right and you sit down in your Bible study midweek what happens the moment you sit down and you have other believers around you something happens that as you start reading God's word and talking and

24:48 laughing God in the midst of that environment is maturing you and it's grow is growing you so for example when you serve here Church you know yeah you may be you know maybe hand agreeing someone or you might be in kids ministry or whatever the case may be and you're doing little things here and there but what's happening is is that you're putting yourself in an environment where you are serving other people just like your lord served you and it's and even when you give listen every time that you give listen we see in scripture how God is a generous God right for he who was rich became poor so that we who were poor may become rich in him amen for God so loved the world that he gave not charged you

25:35 he gave his only son for you and so what we see is that the heart of God he is a generous God so when we follow and we receive and we give right guess what as you give you are molding your heart more and more to the heart of God Amen and so spiritual rhythms are simply a moment a place where you are simply positioning yourself for God to work in your life but folks here's what's important to remember if you want to start spiritual rhythms so it's important to remember here it is write this down as big number two the spiritual rhythms start with the fear of God now you may be thinking oh what do

26:22 you mean by the fear of God what do you mean by that well folks listen carefully to what the what God's word says it says work out do your spiritual Rhythm pursue the Lord grow work out your own salvation with what are the next two words fear and what fear and trembling now some may try to explain oh it doesn't mean fear it doesn't mean fear like like fear you think no no it just means a healthy respect for god listen careful when you go to God's word that's not what it means the word fear in the original text is the Greek word Phobos which comes from the English word phobia and and tremble it comes from the

27:08 Greek word trombos which means to tremble and so it means exactly what it sounds like fear and trembling and you here's what you need to understand the fear of God in your life it's an important part in your walk with the Lord so let me let me help you how that works so for example uh many of you here are in Christ right you're you have a relationship with Christ you're abiding with Christ you know you are in the Lord right you you're saved but guess what that what led you to Christ initially was the fear of God you see the fear of God leads us to Christ why when you recognize what how good and holy and righteous God truly is and you

27:54 start recognizing my god I've sinned before God and I I I've I've rebelled of against God I've rejected God I've those things that do not honor God and when you realize that what you and I deserve for our sin is eternal death separated from God why we are sinful man and he is holy God when we truly understand what we deserve for our sin right and that God through Christ and his sacrifice on the cross offers us forgiveness of sin the fear of God wanting forgiveness wanting God wanting to be reconciled with God leads us to Christ we give our faith we put our trust and faith to Christ we surrender Our Lives to Christ why and we start a personal relationship with God so if you're here and you're

28:40 brand new and you're wondering how can I start a relationship with God so simple come to him in faith put your faith and trust on what Christ did for you at the cross amen but listen once you are here's the thing once you are in Christ and you are in a relationship with the Lord at that juncture the fear of God still has a play in your life it's a little different but it's still important see if the fear of God led us to Christ the fear of God now Keeps Us close to Christ you see there should be fear in a child of God's heart not that we fear our heavenly father but that we fear ever strain away from our heavenly father you know my when my children

29:26 there's been a few moments where I've seen them in the store that where they kind of lose sight of me and you can start seeing the Panic the fear you seen it maybe your old children right when they kind of realize they're lost why they start fearing CU they don't want to be away from their father with or from their mother same thing with us there should be a fear in our lives that we should ever stray away from the God who saved us amen and here's the thing some of us have lost that fear of God and stray because sowhere along the line you think you are stronger than you really are the truth of the matter is that we know that the moment that we see Christ

30:14 face to face and when we when this life ends and we see him in the future we're going to get these glorified bodies we're going to we're no longer to have a sinful nature right and so that's the old has passed and the new has come and we're it's going to be a whole different life for us but what you need to understand is that even though you were saved and nothing could ever change that until that point we still have a sinful nature right we still have our sinful flesh and that sinful flesh even though it can never lose its salvation it could stray a little far away from God right and so what's happened for so many of us perhaps is that we've lost the fear of God the fear of ever wandering away from God you've become lazy in your walk with the Lord and now guess what you reap what you

31:00 sow no wonder your family is in that state no wonder relationships in your life are crumbling no wonder that you've lost the joy your salvation no wonder you're always discouraged no wonder all these things are happening in your life why cuz some were along the line you thought you were strong enough you don't really need Christ and so you kind of just started neglecting the things of God and now you've wandered away from the things of God and some of us here's the thing some of us came to know Christ a year five 10 10 years ago you came to know Christ you gave your life to the Lord but you've never matured in any way in any way shape or form you don't know more scripture than

31:45 you did a couple years ago you don't serve more than you did before you don't do any there's no real change in your life and the reason for that is because you never found a spiritual Rhythm to start growing in your walk with the Lord and folks imagine if you were to see a 10-year-old child still wearing diapers it's an odd thought right a 10-year-old wearing diapers it's sad to say there's many in the church that have been 10 years in Christ and still wearing spiritual diapers in fact that's why God's word as some of us for though by this time you ought to be

32:32 teachers you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the Oracles of God you need milk not solid food for everyone who lives on milk it's unskilled in the word of righteousness since he is a child you see if you have there if there's no noticeable difference in your your life you haven't really grown in your walk with the Lord and your knowledge of God's word perhaps it's because you never found spiritual rhythms in your life and you have developed consistent actions where you have studying God's word serving the lord being active in the things of God you've never developed a rhythm so therefore you still by now you

33:18 should be leading a small group according to God's word and some of us are not even in a small group well think about that God's word says by now you should be teaching God's word but some of us are not even in a small group so folks the reality is that if you never find a spiritual rhythm in your life if you don't become active in the things of God you'll never really mature and grow and experience ultimately the life that God wants for you amen and so listen there has to be a moment maybe it's for you right now he says you know what man you're right Omar man I'm tired tired of just being stagnant in my walk with Christ I know there's so much more but I just need to get in into it I I need to really place

34:06 myself myself in those places where God could begin to grow mature me I want to do that so listen so if that's you this year two quick thoughts for you all right the first thing is the spiritual rhythms require priority priority listen the things of God and pursuing the things of god require priority you know if you look at the gospels our Lord it says that Jesus would wake up in the morning and go spend time with the father as he was accustomed to if God if the Son of God prioritize his time with the father then shouldn't we follow the example as

34:52 well and so if you want to be transformed by God you have to PRI prioritize in your life the things of God in other words it cannot be something that is just down the list but it always make must the things of God must be a priority in your life so for example you know on Sunday morning when you wake up as a family however your family looks like when you wake up if you decide to come to church if there's nothing I guess there's nothing going on you know I guess the weather's good there's not sprinkling outside if you know there's nothing going on then I guess we'll go to church listen that type of mentality is is why you are stagnant right

35:40 now because coming to worship the God who saved you should be a priority in your life right you know everything else anything comes up on a Sunday morning the weekend everything is subservient to where you fit it but you need to go and worship God Amen when small group comes listen it's not in the middle of the week like oh well you know you know if if I got nothing else to do if I'm not a little too tired you know everything's perfect if the it can if that type of mentality keeps you stagnant in your walk with God everything all schedules will always hey if your small group is a Tuesday night like mine is listen then anything any schedule any meetings give it should be

36:26 fit so in order for you to be able to spend time with your brothers and sisters in Christ and so so here's what happens in your life there has to be a moment that in your calendar which everyone has a calendar whether you right one or not you all have a you got to prioritize the things of God in your life amen uh and also not only should be a priority but also write this down letter B spiritual rhythms require sacrifice in your life which means that there are some some things that you may have to give up in order to pursue the things of God so for example you may have to give up a couple more minutes of your sleep to wake up a little earlier so that you can sit down

37:13 and read God's word and hear from God from that day let me tell you something I would rather wake up 15 20 30 minutes earlier and start of the day reading God's word than get those 30 minutes of sleep extra but the whole day you're frustrated cuz you haven't spent time with God right you know listen you in order to serve the Lord and use the giftings that God has given to you you may have to miss for example on Sunday morning a few minutes of the dolphin game which at the end of the day they always break your heart right and so here's what happen some of us some of us I'm ready for a heartbreak today again but you know it is what it is but here's what here's the thing some

38:00 of us are prioritizing for example a a a a dumb game to not serve God to not do the things of God it could be anything really if you think about it listen in order to be to be right with God in terms of of honoring him with your with your giving listen you might have to give up a few things in your life why in order to be able to honor God the way that you're supposed to with your with what he's given to you with your money but here's what I want to remind you whatever it is your time your effort whatever it is that you do you have to sacrifice a little bit listen God always promises that what you are going to get in return from pursuing the things of God

38:47 from being right with God from knowing god is much greater than whatever little sacrifice you gave amen amen and so listen because spiritual rhythms in our life and and listen I'm preaching to myself because I'm a man just like you are I got to remember the spiritual rhythms are important in my life as well because the spiritual rhythm is so important to the Christian life I want to introduce something to our church today and it's a brand new curriculum that we're going to introduce today called rooted and rooted is a curriculum that uh used by many churches Across the Nation that not only covers the fundamental truth of the Christian faith but it also enables us to really get

39:33 into those key rhythms in our Christian walk so that we can grow matur and be rooted in Christ and so I'm going to challenge today all of our small groups at all our campuses to do this rooted curriculum because not only is it a best time to do this curriculum with your small group why we all need to start off the your right getting in the right rhythms being reminded of all the key things of the Christian faith right but also what I love about this curriculum rooted is that it has a way of helping you really share your story share your life and be honest about really what's happening in our lives listen I've been in small groups for many many years and let me tell you it's so easy for people

40:19 to be in a small group for years and never really know what's happening in someone else's life like really know what's happening in someone else's life and so what I love about this rooted curriculum is that not only does it help you share your full story man here's how I came to know Christ here's my story here's my the trajectory of my life and you learn a lot about people when they start their full story but at the same time it helps you to set up in moments in the study to really share what's happening in your life what are some things that man are really concerning you really burdening you things that you go to small group thinking about but you never really talk about right so it's it's really awesome there's a bunch of there's a prayer moment there's an Outreach moment there's a lot of really cool things but even for existing small groups it really helps you grow closer together and so the idea is that as we

41:04 go move forward the rooted will be a curriculum that whenever someone comes to know Christ at our church for the you know or they gave their life to Christ or they come from another church before they get into regular biblical community in a small group that they would go through the rooted curriculum so that they can understand the key things of the Christian faith get into rhythms and really start implementing and growing in their walk with the Lord and so before we introduce us to our church our staff said you know what our leadership te did it and we loved it then we said hey staff why don't you go ahead our entire staff and why don't you all do rooted together so we can you know hear from you what you think of this new

41:50 curriculum and folks here is what they thought take a look [Music] hi my name is John Moore Rina forart Ethan Manuel Frank David G and I serve as the communications and marketing director broadcast production director for the paletto Bay Campus C of kids director for our Coral Gables in downtown campus creative director here at Christ Fellowship I think there's this thing that we do in our Christian walk that we think you know God is working all of my things for my good all of my the things that are happening in my life so rooted does it comes along and it says oh it's much bigger than you the Christian Life was

42:36 meant to be an adventure that we go on together and rooted specifically I think creates a really unique and special atmosphere where people are committed to the same thing it covers everything from the creation to I mean your salvation reaches kind of every level went back to the beginning of my faith and reminded me of a lot of things that I probably forgot about and then as you work through the 10 we study you're you're convicted and you're like oh wait a minute this is I'm pretty far from this and it made me be very vulnerable with people that I thought I knew really well how can you do life with someone even though you don't really know them they became like like a group of like a group

43:23 of friends um when my kid had to go to the hospital for a few days because of a complication with the virus I was able to just grab my phone reach out to them text them and within minutes they were praying for my kid they were there for me that safe space for you to have in your rooted group allows you guys to all come together and and come to that realization that it's not just your things that God is working out it's all things that he's working out God is going to do amazing things through rooted in your life in your heart in your faith if you want to go somewhere fast you go alone but if you want to go far you go with the team amen pretty awesome right so we're we're really excited about this uh curriculum rooted for small groups and I

44:09 want to encourage you there's a couple things that I want us to know about this specific study uh that's kind of unique to it but I just wanted you to know uh first of all uh the the curriculum rooted is really a 10we commitment uh you know sometimes for those of us in small group we are used to like oh if I go once every month or every I'm good no if we're going to do rooted part of the commitment in fact you sound like a little commitment for in there hey I'm going to be there for 10 weeks now if one day you're really sick or maybe you're traveling it's fine you can miss one or two but it's really not the key the way to do rooted is to be together as you go through the whole curriculum because you're hearing everyone's stories and you're growing your walk with the Lord that's the second thing that I also want to

44:55 challenge all of us include especially our existing small groups is that there you there needs to be a commitment to uh really honesty and transparency you know what makes this curriculums really really beautiful is that we get to share our real stories of our life we get to share the things in are going on in our life so it's not just to be go to a small group and just you know put a wall and no one can know it no it's about really talk about what's happened in your life and your story so there has to be a commitment to transparency and then last but not least there's a small Financial commitment it's it's 15 for this book uh the book is actually uh it cost a little more than that we as a church kind of already subsidized that but we wanted to put it in a you know in a an around number for you all so uh it's $15 for the book um and but it's a hard book it's a it's it's it's a really nice book it's um I

45:41 mean it's hardbound it's you know you go uh the idea behind the the rooted book is that every single day five times a week you you there's a a few pages you read one or two pages you answer some questions you know some dra some thoughts uh thoughts down and then when you get to your rooted group on that following week then you spend time discussing what you learn how God worked in your heart that week when you learn from from from from the study um and so uh you know so it's it's it's a really nice book that you can keep and you can always go back and resource it now if for whatever reason you cannot afford the book uh because of situation going on right don't worry about it you reach out to us you sign up and we will make a we will make sure that you get this book in your hands right so we never want to let it be that a the financial struggle is a barrier

46:28 for you to be able to do the rooted curriculum and so here's what I would encourage you if you are already in a small group okay uh you don't need to sign up up for today you already in a small group uh and if your group is going to do it uh your small group leader should have texted you already or if not they can do it they already got it today uh a link to be able to purchase the book and you can just follow that and then you can get it uh but if you are not in a small group and you feel like you know what I need to start the year right man I need to get into the gospel Community I need to grow then listen today is the perfect time uh man you can get into what you go go through this rooted curriculum it's going to be a really a a great story for you and uh and listen you can join a men's group women's group couples's groups General adults group you can do

47:15 whatever group fits you best in your stage of life but if there's something in you says you know what man I I'm listening today man I I feel like I really need to start growing my way with God then I want to encourage you get into go community and start do the rooted curriculum it's going to be a blessing to your life all right and so here's what I'm going to do before I want to have a time of prayer and then we're going to worship then we will go but if you don't mind go ahead and pull out all of us at all campus go ahead and pull out your phones if you don't mind go and pull out your phones for just a moment and some people are going to sign up right now so here's what I'm going to do I'm going to ask all of us even if you're part of a small group right just go ahead and take out your phone I can see you at all campuses come on I see you come on take out your phone I know you've been wa you know looking at Instagram while I teaching I see some of you out there I see you you don't think I can see out there and I have cameras

48:00 in the in the campuses but anyway so just take out and scan that code right behind me you'll see a little uh yellow link you go fill that out and they'll take you to a main web page with more information which by the way if you are already in a small group you don't need to fill out this form I just did it so that some people don't feel by themselves but if you're not in a small group fill out this form and someone in our team is going to follow up with you now all right I'm going to give few a few moments for those of us who want to sign up for right now and then I'm going to lead us in prayer and then we'll worship and go all right so take a few moments if you feel like prompted fill the form out in that link and then someone will follow up with you all right I'm going to give you some a few minutes

48:54 now if you are a small group leader this is a great time to send that link that you received this morning with the link to buy the book to your small group leader to your small group members as well right which by the way in that link you can also find the the link to buy the book if you're interested and so as you guys are finished filling it out on your way out if you want more information about rooted on the way out there is uh a connect to God today's our

49:41 weekend to connect to others weekend our small group weekend there's uh small group teams there can answer questions before you sign up you can stop by there and you can sign up and you can ask more questions all right well here I'm going to do I'm going to ask at all campus goad and stand up with me right now and um I want to pray for us that this year would be a year that really that all of us individually and collectively will mature in a walk with Christ amen and so listen if you actually with if you're with your spouse if you're with your spouse go ahead and grab their hand right now let's pray for a commitment for this year for God to work in a beautiful way let me pray for us and then we'll worship father Lord we um are so grateful Lord that you've given us all the tools in order to mature in your walk and our walk with you so father as we start this year father we are

50:28 committing ourselves right now for this year to be the year that we would grow closer in our walk with you Lord and father my prayer is for all of us individually and collectively as a church that by the end of 2024 that we would be even a church that reflects your son more and more so father bless us and lead us as we go we love you lord it's in Jesus name I pray amen [Music]

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