pandemic, tumultuous elections, racial and social tensions…it’s been quite a ride. Now generally, January is a time of optimism—people are hopeful, believing the best about the future. But all of that craziness we’ve endured has led to an understandable unease about the upcoming year. You may be one of the millions who are wondering: “Will 2022 really be any different? How can I be confident about my future in the middle of so much uncertainty?” The good news? You don't have to limp into the new year with anxiety. God has given you permission—permission to hope, dream, and believe in the new year. No matter what comes…this year will be your year!

Remember being young and asking for permission to leave the classroom? And then hearing those magic words that granted your request? “Yes, you may.” How would things change in your life if you believed that Jesus has granted you permission to live life to the full? That in fact, Jesus has always led with Yes—not No? God is saying that it’s time to regain your confidence and dream again, because in Jesus, God’s promises are always “Yes and Amen!”

Man, it is so good to see everybody Happy New Year. It's funny saying that this is our first time meeting together in a while so late in the year. So it's weird to be wishing everyone a Happy New Year on, you know, January 9; how many people out there made resolutions this year? Shoot your hand up resolutions. Anybody online, I want to see your hands if you made a resolution. Okay? Now raise your hand if you've already broken it any, and nine days. And for some of us, that's a personal record making it nine days in and just now breaking it.

I'm going to be praying for you; you'll be praying for me. I made some resolutions this year and some different things that I know I need to do that I want to do. I've tried not to be as ambitious as last year; last year, I did this whole like seven areas of life thing and three goals for each room. So I had like 21 goals for the year. This year, I cut it down to seven. I'm like, that didn't go so well next year. So I'm going to be streamlined and focused in 2022. So I will. I'll be praying for you. If you have goals this year that, through the power of God working in you, you're able to hit them. Now some of us, because I'm noticing, I'm seeing as I looked around the room, there were not a lot of hands that shot up for people making resolutions this year. I think we've got a lot of hurt people from 2020 and 2021, people who thought those years were going to be there a year. And so now here we are in 2022. And you're like, I'm not saying anything like woo, woo, wait, well, I'm dipping my toes in the water of this year to see what comes my way. I'm not claiming or declaring anything yet, because I have no idea what this year will throw me, and get that I get if you are carrying a little bit of cynicism into this year with you. And I can't blame you. I know for me, I can't speak to your experience to my experience the last little bit of the year. It's been a whirlwind, our family. We've got quite a few people in our family who are immunocompromised. And so we all took at home COVID-19 test before we got together to make sure, and my wife's said that we were optimistic over Christmas break. So we couldn't go to our family Christmas thing on either side, which just stunk like right, not seeing everybody that that was a bummer. And we've had a lot of people who are close family, friends or friends of friends who have passed away at the end of this year, including one young man 37 years old, a father, big, big guy in the Manchester community passed away. That was a big hurt, man. It's just it. It hasn't been a great end to this last year. So if you are carrying cynicism into this year, I can't say that I blame you. I wouldn't know it's not warranted. But man, I would so strongly advise you, beg you, and I would plead with you today, leave cynicism, leave pessimism in the previous year. Please don't bring it any further with you. If you brought it up today, let January 9 be the last day you have that mindset going forward. Let's take cynicism. And let's table it believing that God has the best in mind for us in the days and the weeks and the months to come. Now, why? Why optimism? Why has optimism whenever all of those things that I just said are true and have happened? Maybe you've experienced that in your life. You've experienced the loss of a loved one. You've experienced changes at your job; you've experienced a financial downturn; you've experienced stress with your family. Why? Optimism. This is why we have optimism. This is why we have optimism. I want you to we're going to declare this together. So I want you to repeat after me. I don't walk into this year.

alone. We're going to say one more time. I don't walk into this year alone. That is the reason we have optimism. That's the reason we have hope. That's the reason we aren't just cockeyed optimists who have no actual tangible reason to hope that things are going to get better to hope that we have things to look forward to. No, we have someone who goes with us. We have someone who goes before us as we talked about in our last series of the year of promise and prophets we have a God who is with us, a God who is in us, a God who was for us, and a God who works through us and that God is with us in 2022 that God is with us this year. So that is why we can approach this year with optimism and with confidence. And that's going to be our word for the year. That's our overarching theme For all of 2022 confidence, confidence; we are going to be a church that approaches every opportunity this year with confidence that approaches every challenge this year with confidence that approaches every trial and tribulation that we go through with confidence because we know that we are not facing it alone. We know that as we step up to the plate, as we walk into this year, God goes before us, and God is with us in our verse for the year the verse that we're going to be focusing on is one that we actually hit on just a few weeks ago. I want to read it to you. This is from Second Corinthians chapter one verses 19 and 20. The apostle Paul writes, For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us by me and Silas and Timothy was not yes and no. But in him, it has always been Yes. For no matter how many promises God has made, they are yes, in Christ. And so through him the amen spoken by us to the glory of God, that is the root of our confidence that every single promise of God, every promise he has made in scripture to those who believe in Him to those who call on his name, every single one is yes, and amen. Every single one will come to fruition. And so that's why we can have confidence this year, regardless of the circumstances, regardless of what comes our way. Because the God of yes and amen is our God, and he goes before us. Heavenly Father, we are so thankful for that truth. We're thankful for your word that you are a God who goes before us God in these next moments; I pray that we would collectively, as a church, buy into the truth that you declare in your word, that you really are a God of yes and amen. That the promises that you made aren't for someone else, but they are for each individual person in this room. Therefore each individual person watches online. For everyone who calls on your name according to your will. Your promises are yes and amen. Help us to see that truth this morning, God. Amen. Amen. Why don't you turn to your neighbor and tell them? Yes, you may. Yes, you may. Yes, you may. Yes, you may put it online. Put it in the chat. Yes, you may. I like reminiscing about the golden age of elementary school. Those were some fantastic days to be alive, right? Everyone else. Love your elementary school days, just good memories. Has anyone gotten a chance to ever go back to your elementary school, like walk, walk the halls that once felt huge and long, and you're like, This is incredible? Then you walk back in like, wow, this is a lot smaller than I remembered. I remember the first time I went back to Chapel Hill Christian School. After being there, whenever I like actually attended the first time going back and just was shocked at how tiny everything was like going in the gym. In the gym. I felt huge in this gym where I, you know, my glory days of fourth, fifth, and sixth-grade basketball. And I saw the chin-up bar where we would do the American, the presidential fit physical fitness awards, right, trying to do that in the VESA reach. I saw all that in the gym. And I'm like, wow, this is a lot less cool than I remember it being. The funniest thing is that the bathroom, of course, it's just it's so tiny. All the urinals are like, down here. And you know, it's one of these situations. It's just. It's, it's so fun. It's great going back it seeing all these things reliving these memories. And I know that for you, and for me, no matter who you are, no matter where you went to school, you had this is shared memory. This is a collective memory of being at school and asking your teacher for something and saying to them, Can I use the restroom? Can I have a pencil? And whenever you'd ask that, what would your teacher say?

I don't know. Can you be absolutely right? I don't know. Can you use the restroom? Can you grab a pencil? Of course, you can. And you go ah, may I use the restroom? May I have a pencil? Right? It was so annoying at the time. I remember being so frustrated, like, you get what I'm saying? Do you understand what I'm saying? But what the teachers were trying to do, what they are trying to establish, is this idea that there is a difference between can and May. There's a difference, right? If I ask you can you play the piano? You're like, Well, I mean, yeah, like a little bit. I can kind of play a little bit here. And now I cannot play the piano; I have zero musical talent. Like I can't do anything. I can play the Halloween theme song on the piano, the Denon, and then and I can play that just because it's the repetition of the same I don't even know what keys I'm hitting. I just know it's this one, this one, and this one over and over and over again. So can you play the piano? That's a different question. Then may you play the piano, right? Because one is a Question of possibility, like, is it possible for you to do this? And one is a question of permission, right? And that's what the teachers were trying to drill into our heads, whatever we would say, Can I use the restroom? I don't know. Can you? Okay? May I use the restroom? There is a difference between possibility and permission. And I think about that, as we're looking at this series permission slips this idea of the possibility of is it possible for us to do this? Is it possible for me to do this or that? The difference between possibility and permission? And I think, have you ever felt that way in your life, specifically, in your walk with God, that there's this difference between possibility and permission, this difference between what we can do and what we may? Do? I know that I can do all things through Christ. I know that it's technically possible that I can overcome, and I can, I can, you know, beat that habit. And I can change my way of thinking, and I can do this. And I can do that. Yes, I can. It's possible. But may I, if I have actually been given permission to get over that? To leave that mindset behind? If I actually been given permission? Have I actually been forgiven? Can I actually get past that? Can I get past these things? I know I can. But may I? I would wager This is a tension that all Christians, throughout all times, have wrestled with, this dichotomy of what we see, we can do in scripture, what God promises that we will be able to do. And then we actually live that out feeling like we have permission and the ability to actually do these things. This is a tension that we constantly are wrestling with. Sure my kids can trust in Jesus. Sure, I believe it's possible that my kids can turn back to him. They've run away from the faith, and I believe that one day they can come back. But is that actually going to happen? God, are you signing off on that? Are you signing that permission slip? May that happen?

Can my marriage improve? Of course, it can. But will it? Has that been signed off on? Have has that been given permission to happen? My bad habits? Can they stop? Of course, but will my crippling thoughts of insecurity and insufficiency? Will Will those go away? Sure they can. But will they? Will it actually happen? It's the difference between possibility and permission. And what I want to let you know, today with scripture wants to let you know is that God is saying to all of those things. Yes, you may. This is not just a possibility; you have been given permission. You've been given power by the Holy Spirit of God to see these things come to fruition in your life. You see, God's will for your life isn't just possible. It's not just possible. It's not something that just can happen. Well, God's Will can happen in my life, I get that. No, God has given you permission to seize his will for your life, to actually implement it in your life, to play it out, to live it out. God's will for your life isn't just possible. You've been given permission to seize it. The Holy Spirit has empowered you to be transformed. He has given you the power to actually act in your life to see all of these changes that you know need to happen. Happen. You've been given permission. The slip has been signed. It's not just a possibility anymore. Yes, you may. That changes everything when we realize that God's will for our life isn't just a possibility. But we've actually been given permission to make it happen in our lives. It changes everything. As soon as you have permission to do something, it changes everything. Whenever we were on vacation this last year, we went to the Outer Banks every year. I know some people whose idea of a vacation is going someplace different all the time. Not me. I like going to the same place. I know like the back of my hand. It feels like a second home. I love that. So we go to the Outer Banks every year. And this year when we were down there. It's nearing the end of the vacation. We got like two days left. And everyone's still having fun but feeling very melancholy like you do the last couple days of vacation where it's like bittersweet fun. You're, oh, man; this has been great. And it ends in less than 48 hours. Right? Like, oh, I don't want to see it. And, and so we're daydreaming. Like we always do. We're laying out by the pool. And some of us swim around like, oh, wouldn't it be great to be able to come back down again this year? Oh, would that be awesome? That would be so cool. It would be great, man. We're just daydreaming. Like knowing now, it's sure it's possible. Can we come back down? Well, of course, we can. We could be down here year-round we can. Right? It's a possibility. So we're just daydreaming about it. And my mom overhears us talking. She says, hey, are you guys see Like we're Yeah, it'd be awesome, wouldn't it? Like if we come back down? Will she win, you think? Like, well, I don't know. I mean, I'm trying to the only time that we could really afford would be like the offseason like hurricane season when you could either have a beautiful day or like a Category Five can come slamming agile, right? Like, that's the only time we can afford. And so she said, Okay, well, you look it up. And if you find a house, it's really cheap. If you guys pay half, I'll pay the other half. And we'll go again, like, are you serious? Like you're, you've really just again; I'm serious. So guess what we did? Our butts got out of that pool and got on our phone, right? We're on rental websites like, Okay, what's the what's like, Is there just a tent for rent down here that we just propped up on the ocean, and just stay in that. And sure enough, we found a dirt-cheap house because it was late September, early October, right in the heart of hurricane season; we got to travel insurance, of course. But luckily, with no hurricane, we were able to go. We had an incredible another week down there. And it was for dirt cheap. And the whole reason that was able to happen. The whole reason for this change was that it moved from the realm of possibility into the realm of permission. This was something that we were like, well, of course, we can go down there. Of course, we can do this. It moved past that. And it became something Yeah, no. Yes, you may, like look into it, see if this is something we can actually do. And so we did it, we moved on it, we seized on that opportunity. And we were able to go back to the Outer Banks, again, because things weren't just possible. We had been given permission, and permission changed everything. And I want to let you know God has given you permission to ignore the lies of the enemy. The lies tell you you're not good enough, that you're insufficient, that you'll never measure up, that your brother or sister always have it more together than you do. You have been given permission to ignore those lies. You've been given permission. It's not just a possibility. Can I get over this? No, you are commanded to get over it. You're commanded to get past it. And God has given you power through the power of the Holy Spirit to do just that. God has given you the power to get beyond yourself and serve the people around you. It's not just something that man, one of these days, I would love. It'd be great if I could start serving and if I could get involved to be so great if I can. Yes, you may. That permission slip has been signed; you can start living outside of yourself, modeling the example of Jesus loving the people around you and serving them. Yes, you may. You've been given permission. You can trust God with your finances; you've been given permission, you can finally kick those Reliance's that you have on different substances, you can kick even those through the help and through the power of God, you can kick those things. God has given you permission. Yes, you may listen to what it says in John chapter 10, verses seven through 10. Therefore, Jesus said again, Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy, but I have come that they may have life and have it to the fool. Do you see what Jesus says there? Jesus doesn't just say I've come, that people have the possibility of life. I've come that people can have life. I've come to people, you know, who can live a different way. Jesus says, No, I've come that you may have life, that you have permission to have a new life, a new way of thinking, a new way of being a new way of doing right here. And right now. That is what Jesus offers life in life to the full Jesus has given us permission. One of the things I love that Jesus hits time and time again in his ministry as he preaches and as he goes around, letting people know that the kingdom of God is here that it has come is Jesus has commanded and given us permission to live life to the full right now, right now, not Sunday man we get things so screwed around whenever we think that Christianity is about getting to Heaven one day, Christianity is about bringing heaven to earth right here and right now living new right here and right now living life to the fool right here. And right now, that is what Jesus has given every single person who calls on his name permission to do live life to the full, not someday but here and now to actually see life to the full.

Now, as I've been studying this, and as I've been thinking about this, there's something I felt like I needed to hit. I had a different set of notes earlier in the week, and I kind of scrapped it because I felt like this was the point that I needed to hit on. I'm talking about how great the life that Jesus offers is, and you know, he's given you permission to live into this life. But it kind of hit me. Some people don't want to live that life. Like there are some people who you don't care that the permission slip has been signed. You don't want it. You don't want it, but the life that Jesus offers this life that he says that he offers that his life to the fool, you don't want that permission. You don't want deep end faith with Jesus because you've seen what that looks like. These you think and what you have seen from this life that Jesus offers his constant restriction, constant condemnation—constantly judged mentalism. And that's what you've seen. And that's what's been modeled for you. And maybe that's what's been preached to you that that's what the life that Jesus offers is. And you think, man, and I don't, I don't want that permission slip signed. I get it. I mean, the church, the church for years, has had very bad marketing. Can we just be honest? We have marketed ourselves so poorly, not at all in the way that the early church did, not the way that Jesus would want us to. Because it is what a lot of people see when they see us, they see restriction, they see condemnation, they see limitation, and people don't want the permission slip signed. I think about my sixth-grade trip, the last trip of the year field trip that we were going to do in the sixth grade at my elementary school; we're going to go to Cedar Point, Cedar Point, big, the big thing that Mr. Barrett, the sixth-grade teacher would do. And I love roller coasters. Like I love them all. I'll ride them all day. But I love them now. In sixth grade, I did not love rollercoasters. They freaked me out. Too tall, too fast. Too much, right? Like I just too much for me. And so can I tell you, I hit that permission slip.

I don't want my parents even like I don't want to; I didn't even want to have to deal with it. I hid the permission slip. I didn't want it signed. I didn't want to go on that trip. I didn't want to be a part of it. I know it sounded like other people were gonna have fun. But to me, there was no fun that was going to be involved. All I saw was fear when I looked at that permission slip. And a lot of us can I even say Christians in here because I'm not talking to atheists. I'm not talking to agnostics. I'm talking to Christians who see deep end faith with Jesus really going into the deep and really going all in. And that's what you see, you're like, I'll wait in the shallow end, like all, I'll come, but that's kind of it. And I won't super get involved because I know what Deep End faith looks like. And it looks like a restriction, and it looks like a limitation. It looks like condemnation. It looks like judgmentalism. And I want no part of that. Maybe you've thought; you know what if I started following Jesus? It means I got to be really weird. Like, I got to be. I've seen some of the people who volunteer; I got to start. We joke about this on staff all the time. If I follow Jesus, I gotta start using different language, like weird language. I can't just say; I'm going to go hang out with friends. Now I get back. No, my friends and I are going to fellowship. Tonight we're going to; we're in a fellowship together like it's right, we have this weird way of thinking that that's what it means to be a Christian is we have this different kind of Christianese language that we're only allowed to watch like a Christian made a movie from a Christian production company. If it's anything other than that, then no god is, is looking at you with a frown on his face, and he can't wait to smite you. And he's so mad at you. And in some of us, including Christians, think that's what it means to follow Jesus. That's what it means to have that permission slip signed in life into the life that he has given us. Let me tell you that is a distorted idea of God's will; can I say it's a perverted idea of God's will. It's the complete opposite of what God's will for our life is supposed to be. And I can't dive too much into this because I only got 15 minutes left. But what we in man, the American church, we've gotten so wrong for so long. And I used to be here too. We put activity before identity all the time. We are so focused on what we do as if that is the most important thing. Whenever I think about whenever we talk about God's will for our life. What do we jump to? Now I'm trying to figure out what God's will for my life is, what career I will have, who I will marry as we talked about all these what's like, what will I do? What will I become? What career will I go into? We talked about God's will in terms of what we do in God's will is not what we do. It's who we are. God's will is the same for every single person in this room. Whether you're nine or 90. God's will is the same for everybody watching online, no matter what country you're in. God's will is the same for every single person who has ever lived or breathed God's will is that we would become fully human in the sense that God created us to be that we would be fully formed people who are empowered by His Spirit, that as we live our lives out, the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, all of these things, that these were just ooze out of us, that they would be a little signpost in every single conversation we have every decision we make every action we take, that people would be able to look and see, well, I see that love was guiding that choice, I see that kindness was guiding that choice, I see that gentleness is just an underwriting function of who this person is. That's what God's will is for every single one of us. For every person in this room, no matter how old you are, no matter where you're at in life, his will for us is who we are before what we do, living out the fruit of the Spirit. That's why it's called the fruit of the Spirit, not the fruit of you. If it was the fruit of you, then yeah, it would absolutely be about what you do, but you're not the one doing it. It's the Spirit of God working through you. And that only happens when you realize who you are. Your identity in Christ that you are His child, we have got to get back to putting our identity in front of our activity, what we do so often as we buy into the lie of the enemy, it's the same lie that was told in the garden. It's this idea that what we do is what matters most, not who we are, that what we do is the most important thing about our life, not who we are and who's we are. And so when we buy into that, and we start buying into the watts of life as being the most important thing, Satan's already got us. If we buy into that, he's got us because then what he'll do is he'll shift the conversation go okay, so what you do is the most important thing about you and man, look at how you constantly fall short. Look at how you constantly fall short; why even bother? By the way? Have you ever noticed how limiting God's will is? Have you ever noticed how unfun it is to follow Jesus? Man, it's a burden. It's a burden. You don't need any part of that. When the actual truth of the situation whenever we get things right, when we put identity before activity, we realize no, the truth is God's will is a blessing of liberation. It's not a burden of limitation. God always wants to liberate us; he always wants to give us more freedom to live how we were actually designed and made and intended to live. That's the permission slip that you want. When you truly realize what God's will is, and how it would bless your life and how it would make you into the person that you were designed and created to be, then you're running to get that permission slip signs like I want to live this life, I want to walk into this life with confidence, knowing that I'm doing what I'm supposed to do that I'm living as I was intended to live. I have a little illustration I want to bring up this isn't just for me to have playtime up here on the stage. Sometimes, you know, the little visual aids help, and so I want to kind of illustrate something real quick. So when we're talking about God's will and trying to make sure that we follow it and follow God's will in our lives and wanting to follow God's will, not do it because, oh, it's an obligation. I guess I have to but realizing no, we, we want that permission slip side we want to live into God's will. It makes me think of that. So my son Griffin loves playing in sync at home. Our water bill is just ridiculous because he loves playing in the sink. He loves playing in the water. But Griffin gets things messed up. Sometimes he is too. So he doesn't really know what's best for him a lot. And so, when he goes to play with the sink, he has some odd choices that he'll play with. For example. He's tried like tossing this in the sink, a battery-operated toy. I've had to do rescue operations numerous times to no. Pull it out, buddy. This doesn't mix well. With your sink like a battery-operated to it, it just doesn't go well, and you won't be happy. So I have to pull it out and do a rescue operation. This is one he was using the other day. A hot dog, hot dog.

Try tossing a hot dog in there, and I'm like, dude, hot dog water. Please just know, just Griffin. No, this is not fun, and that will not lead to fun. And he gets mad. He gets frustrated. Whenever you take it away, he slumps his shoulders and hits the ground. He just puts his face in the ground like Griffin. I'm trying, man I'm trying to help you. And then this one he tries tossing this in there which don't judge me you're I know you're like why is he Why is his two year old even playing with a lighter? Don't judge me. I've got three kids you'll let them play with pretty much whatever as long as it keeps him occupied. He tries tossing this bad boy in there, and unlike Griffin, like these, these are just no like these don't work for your enjoyment to actually play with the sink that way it is made to play. And what I worry about is not just that atheists or agnostics think about Christianity and God's Will but that Christians believe this about God's will, that these are actually really fun things. And these are the things that will bring so much enjoyment. And man, if I could just do this. And if I could just do that. And if I could just hang out with these people or do these kinds of things, then it would bring me so much fulfillment and joy, but man, the life that God offers, that's just so limiting. And so restricting, why would I want permission to live into that life when the fact of the matter is when you put all these things in the sink? Doesn't work. It just doesn't work, right? Because that's not how it was intended to work. The manufacturer did not say to throw battery-operated toys in there. He did not say, make sure you use a ballpark Frank to play with the scene; he did not say you want to use a lighter to play it the same; what they say his uses clean water but clean water into the sink. Once you got your battery, batteries in the thing, turn it on, and then boom, then it works. And every single time, it is cool, right? Every single time that we correct Griffin, he has this little meltdown, and he's on the ground, and he's got this little head in the ground. All he has to hear is

it instantly the little head comes up, and he comes running over it has a blast. We've gone through like ten packs of batteries since Christmas because he's obsessed with this thing. He loves it. But he needs to be reminded about how it's actually supposed to work. And when he follows the instructions on how it's actually supposed to work. He has a blast; he plays with this thing until the batteries die. He loves it. And that's the same with God's will in our lives; you may think that you have an idea of what's going to be fun; you may think that you have an idea of what's actually liberating and a blast and a way to live life and God saying, man, you're missing it you want the permission slip. You want to live out the life that I have given you. You want to follow my will for your life because it will do things for you. It will create in you who you are supposed to be. Man, so many of us we've just believed we've been told we've been shown the wrong things about God's will. You want the permission slip. When God says that you have permission to live the life that Jesus intended for you, you want to run, get that thing signed you, you have no idea what you're missing, if you don't, we want to live out God's will in our life. That's how 2022 and every year to come will be the best year. It'll be the best year if you follow God's will for your life. I have noticed I'm a journaler. I like recording different thoughts and different things that have happened over the years. It's cool because I built up quite a few years of records now. And as I look back on it, I realize there's something that coincides with every time every year that I have a good year. All of the best years of my life are precisely the exact years that I believe are the best about God's will. Every single year. Every year that's the best year of my life is also the year that I believe the best about God and believe the best about his will for my life whenever I realize you know what? activity before identity I'm so focused on what I do this year instead of who I become, and I need to get re-centered on that. Who am I becoming this year? Am I becoming more kind? Am I becoming more selfless? Am I? Am I giving other people? Am I focused on them and sacrificially loving the people around me, and every time I do that when I believe the best about God's will for my life. I had the best year of my life. And you can too. You absolutely can, to God's will, offers the life that you need. Do not kick the can down the road another year. Don't do it. Don't do it. I've been there. I've been there in so many ways. I just I've realized this year more than any other year that I'm not going to like I'm just not as young as I used to be like, there's that moment when you start to realize, like all the pro athletes that I watch I'm like older than them. And that that was a weird transition where I'm like, I'm older than like all of these guys. This is weird. You know, whenever I'm playing with the kids, and I start to get up, and I hear like my knee click like, I'm quoting the what is that's new. That's a new noise. I realize all these things. I'm like, Man, all of these different things that I've been like Well, one of these days I'll get to it. I'm; still, I'm so young. I'm looking at how I'm like, man; I'm white, I'm young. But I'm not young. Like I, you know, I've got three kids, I'm 34, like, tight time marches on. And I want to be living in God's will for my life now, like; I don't have as much time as I thought I just told you to the onset of this sermon, a 37-year-old guy in the Manchester community, an amazing man, died suddenly of a stroke. Like, we have no idea when the year is the last year; we just have no idea. Do not kick the can down the road anymore of living God's will for your life; make it the best year of your life. And you can do that by following God's Will by becoming more like Jesus intended for us to be and what's incredible, what's amazing, is that you've been given permission to do just that. This is not something that you're going, oh, man, I know that I need to do that. But can I actually do it? Yeah, you can. And yes, you may, you have been given permission, you have been empowered to live that out, you can be more patient, and you may be more patient, right, you can be more kind, and you may be more kind. These aren't just things that are possible. They are things that God has given us permission, and He has commanded us to do to be different people. This last verse I wanted to read today. This is from First John chapter five, starting in verse 13. It says I write these things to you who believe in the name of the son of gods, that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God, that if we ask anything, according to His will, He hears us.

Think about that. If we ask anything of God, according to His will, He hears us. And He hears us. And he says yes and amen. The word amen literally means so be it, or let it be. So when we say that God is the God of yes and amen, we're not saying God is the God of Yes. And the official closing to a prayer. No, he's the God of Yes. And so be it. Of Yes, I affirm this, and I'm going to help it come to fruition; I'm going to actually actualize this in your life. So what that means is that if God says yes and amen, it's not a matter of if it's a matter of when. And that rhymed. Right. And it rhymed. And it's true. Suppose God says yes and amen. It's not a matter of if Well, I don't know, will I be able to overcome this? Will I be able to change my thought? Yeah, yeah. If you are submitting to God and submitting to his will and putting yourself under His mighty hand? Absolutely. Yes, you can. And yes, you may. It's not a matter of if it's a matter of when Amazon shopping over the holiday season was pretty nuts. Right? They still had everything, like everything was still available on their site. But the shipping dates were a little wonky, right? You look at one thing, and it would be December 20. and says, Hey, if you buy it now, you'll get it by December 22. Cool, awesome. Other things? December 20. It says buy it now receive it on January 23. What's today's date? Like a whole month off? It was so just so crazy because of, you know, the shipping upheaval, and everything's backed up, and it's just crazy. The world is crazy right now. But the only thing that was different was the timing.

Amazon still had everything, like they have groceries, they have books, they have medical supplies, they I mean, they have everything, everything you need pretty much is on Amazon. And so you were still gonna get it, it was still available. It wasn't a matter of if you could buy it off Amazon, just a matter of when it would get to you. And how much greater is our God than Amazon? I mean, come on, like, how much greater is God than Amazon? So you know that every promise he has made? is yes and amen. Yes. And so be it. So it's not a matter of if God has it in stock. Does God have to overcome anxiety? And stake? Oh, let's see, oh, no, I don't know. It's crazy times right now. No, it will happen. It will happen. If you continue to submit to him, continue to live out His will for your life, it will happen. It will happen. You can overcome it through the power that Jesus gives you. It's not a matter of if but a matter of when. It's not a matter of if it's just a matter of when so that means we can leave our cynicism in 2021. We can hope, and we can dream again, not just that good days are possible. Not just that it's possible for us to overcome loss and overcome grief and overcome pain but knowing that it will happen, it will happen. It's not a matter of if it's just a matter of when we can seize 2022 with confidence and Cornerstone. That's what we plan on doing, not just individually but collectively, as a church. We are stepping into this new year with complete and utter confidence, complete and utter confidence in a God who says that it's not just possible for us to achieve things, but we've actually been given permission to do these things with a God who constantly is giving us liberty and constantly giving us the freedom to act. That's the confidence that we have as we go into this new year, knowing that as we follow His will, it's not a matter of if things are going to happen. It's just a matter of when and we believe that because our God is a God of Yes, and amen. So it's vision weekend, and we're looking at 2022. And I'm going to wrap this up real quick. What what are we hoping to seize this year? What are some things that we're hoping to see happen? Well, first off, one of the things that we believe with confidence is that we believe God has called us to do our hearing now campaign, we are believing, and we are trusting that we're going to see phase one, which is a renovation of this entire building, as well as the smaller addition not the big gym on the side, but the smaller addition connected to our kid's wing, we believe that we're gonna see that come to fruition this year that we're gonna get started on that on actual construction and renovation this year. That's what we believe. That's what we see. And we need it. Tours you know, that we need it, we need the space. I was just laughing with people last night or a Saturday service saying like, we kept running into each other, me and Anne Marie Brett's, and we kept like the kind of running into each other like, man, we just keep running into each other all night. And then we kind of laugh like, well, of course, we do. Like you're either in the auditorium, or you're in the kid's room. Of course, you keep running into people in this building. We need the space, and we believe that we're going to see phase one happen this year. Another thing that I'm believing and trusting this year, I think we're going to add 100 new MPs. And that's either brand new people to Cornerstone, or it's people who have been here but have never actually become a ministry partner at Cornerstone that means investing in the kingdom of God here at Cornerstone through your time, your talent, your treasure, or all three or two of those just investing here at Cornerstone and letting us know of your investment. I believe that we are going to see that happen. I believe that we'll finally hit we've had a goal for a long time of hitting $12,000 a week, in average giving, we've come really close, where we currently average around 10,500 10,700. And man, that extra about $1,500 would enable us to do so many things for ministry here at Cornerstone, and I believe this is the year that we finally hit that that at some point this year, we start to see that number ticking up to around 12,000 a week I believe that will happen I had a blast this last year at our given serve day did anyone else participate in here online, put your hand up if you participated, it was an incredible day about 75 people from Cornerstone Church went into the communities around us to love on our communities to show them the love of Jesus in a tangible, actionable way. And I believe we're going to double that this year that we had 75 Last year, we're gonna have 150 people participating all across our communities, loving on them doing service projects, in the name of Jesus, I believe that our cornerstone kids, our C groups, our cornerstone youth, all of this different life kind of avenues that we have here at church, I believe we're going to see massive growth in all of these areas. 10% 20% 25% growth in all these areas. As more people come and become a part of what God is doing here at Cornerstone Church, I believe we will see these things happen. And the reason these are our goals. The reason these are things that we believe, and we're seeing happening is that these will allow us and enable us to fulfill our mission statement of helping people find the father, a family, and a fulfilling future because that's what it's all about. That's what it's all about. That's what everything is geared towards here at Cornerstone. I'm gonna ask the worship team if they would come back up. And as they do, I want to just tell you something real, real quick in closing vision weekend; Pastor Brenda can tell you this vision weekend is a lot of pressure for a pastor. You've got to get up here; you got to have numbers and goals. It's almost like a presentation with a laser pointer. And as you can see, we're projecting this growth. But this time, you feel like you have to come up with all these numbers and all these different things and all this stuff that we're going to hit specific dates and gold and measures, which are good; those are all good things. Everything I just said, phase one of here and now adding NPS growth in all of our kid's areas in our adult C groups. These are good things. We want those things to happen. But as I was thinking about these and as I was writing them out, I was kind of reminded once again; you know what, those are all good things. Those are all great things, and we definitely want to hit those. But man, that's not really The main goal,

if 2022 happens, and those things all happen, that's great. But the main goal, once again, is not what we do. But who we are. What are we becoming as a church? Who are we becoming? I want Cornerstone Church by the end of this year, more than all of those other things. What I want us to be known is known as a church that embodies Jesus. That's our goal for 2022 and 2023. And 20, we can just cancel all the vision Sundays to come because it's the same every single year that we would be a church that when people come here, they can't even really tangibly put it into words, but they just know they experienced Jesus here. And that's what we want. We want to make people happy. For all the right reasons. We want to give people hope for all the right reasons. We want to push people towards life change for all the right reasons. Guy said we want to meet make people angry, for all the right reasons. We want to make people uncomfortable for all the right reasons. We want to make people have to question Whoo; really, I don't know how I feel about that. For all the right reasons. That's, that's what I want us to find has happened by the end of 2022. And what I believe is that we will see those things happen. Because our God is a God of Yes, and Amen. All of those what's I don't know if those will happen. This is a terrible vision Sunday sermon, isn't it? This is what we're gonna do. But I don't know if it'll happen. I don't know. But that's the thing. I can't guarantee that those Watts will happen that phase one and 100 MPs and 1200 a week; I can't guarantee that you can't either. No one in this room can. The only thing we know, the only thing that we know for sure that will never fail, that just literally cannot fail, is God's will. And God's will is not what we do, but who we are. And so what we can control is who we are and who we will be by the end of this year. So that's what we're going to focus on. And if these other things happen, glory to God because it's because of him that they happen. But we are going to focus on becoming people who embody the fruit of the Spirit in such a real way that when people come here, and I love it when I hear people say this whenever like, I don't know what it is about Cornerstone. There's just it like Yeah, and it's not. It's not like us; it's the Spirit, the Holy Spirit. That's what you're feeling here. That's that if you can't really put it into words, and that's what I want us to have and just an overflowing measure. That is the Holy Spirit of God so alive at work in our church that people just can't help but come here because they want to be around it. They want to be around, and we can know that will happen. We can trust that that will happen. It's not a matter of if it's a matter of when, because our God is a God of Yes.