Transcription
[music] [music] [music] [music] Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Hey, Beltway Park. Welcome to our New Year service. I am so excited that you are here. I'm excited for what God's going to do over the next few minutes together. So, I hope you've got your coffee. I hope you're ready because we're we're going to do church. This isn't just a a time for us to sit and take a Sunday off. We're still doing church as a family together. And we're going to worship because our God is worthy. As we wrap up the end of this year, our God is so worthy of all of our worship. Everything that we have even today. So, as we wrap up this year, we're going to worship. It's going to be awesome.
I did want to tell you a couple of things really quick. We still are services are back next week and I know Thursday is the first. We will have service next Thursday at our north campus and then regular services on Sunday and then we've got a brand new series we're kicking off here in a couple of weeks. It's going to be awesome. God's got great things in store. If you want to if you want to give tithes and offerings, you can still do that online. There's lots of ways you can do that. Thank you for the ways that you're faithful. I'm going to talk here in just a little while just about some of the cool things that God did through your faithfulness. It's awesome what he's doing. It's it's incredible. It's humbling. It's exciting for how the kingdom is advancing. We we often talk around here about how God gave Pastor David a vision of if you'll just be faithful, then I'll take this no-name church in the middle of three cow pastors and I'll move the world for eternity. And we get to see that. It's it's awesome and it's incredible. It's because of how faithful you are. So, I'm excited. I'm excited about our time together this morning. I'm excited that we get to worship because because that's what we came to do. That's who we are as a people is we are going to worship the God who's worthy of everything that we are. Let's worship together.
[music] Great and amazing are all of your ways. Nations will [music] bow at your name. Worthy of all adoration [music] and thanks. Jesus, the name above all. [music] The joy you provide [singing] is the strength that I hold through all of the doubt and the love [music] is the guide [singing] that is leading me home. >> [music] >> Jesus the name. Oh Jesus the name [music and singing] above all. You are the mighty lion [music] of Judah, the worthy [singing] lamb of God. You are the righteous, [music] Lord of the ages, the holy [singing] king of kings. You are [music] the holy king of kings. Oh, [singing] [music] you heal every wound and you bend every heart. Salvation [music] is found in your scars. You conquered sin and defeated [music] the grave. Oh Jesus the name above. [singing] [music] Oh Jesus the name above. You are the mighty lion [music] of Judah. The worthy lamb of God. [music] You are the righteous, Lord of the [music] ages, the holy king of kings. [music] You are the holy king of kings. Hey, [music] who you are. Who you are Jesus. [music] Sing together all the angels [singing] and all the angels. [music] All the elders sing forever [music] to the [singing] lamb. And all the saints, all the creatures sing [music] forever to our God. And all [music] the angels, [singing] all the elders sing forever to the lamb. >> [music and singing] >> All the saints and all the creatures sing [singing] forever [music] to our God and all the blessing, [music] all the honor [singing] be forever [music] to the lamb and all the glory, [music] all the power [singing] be forever to our [music and singing] You [music and singing] are God. You are the mighty [music] lion [singing] of Judah, the worthy lamb of God. >> [singing] >> You are the righteous, [music] Lord of the ages, [singing] the holy king [music] of kings. You are the mighty, lion of Judah, [music] the worthy lamb of God. [singing] You are the righteous, Lord of the ages, [music] the holy king of kings. [music] You are the [singing] holy king of kings. You [music] are the holy king of kings. [music] >> [music] >> I think you everything [music] changed. It's getting harder to recognize the person I [music and singing] was before I encountered Christ. I [singing] don't walk like I [music] used to. I don't talk like I used to. I've been washed [music] from the inside. I've been washed from the inside. Hallelu. [singing] Hallelujah. [music] I know [singing] it was the blood. Could have only been the blood. Hallelu. [music] Hallelu. [singing] I know it was the blood. Could have only [music and singing] been the blood. Thank you. Thank [music] you, Jesus. Cannot [music and singing] explain nothing's more real than this in the [music] presence [singing] of God. Oh my heart experience when my shame at the wayside and [music] my sin [singing] of the most high. I'm washed from the inside. I've been washed [music] from the inside [singing] out. Hallelu. [music] Hallelu. I know [music] it was the blood. Could have [singing] only been the blood. Hallelu. [singing] Hallelu. [music] I know [singing] it was the blood. Could have only been the blood. Hallelu. Hallelu. [singing] I know it was [music] the blood. [singing] The blood. Hallelu. Hallelu. [music] Was the blood could have only been my blood. >> [music] [singing] >> It's never been about performance, perfection, striving for [music and singing] acceptance. Let me tell you, and only by the blood, it's never [music] been about deserving [singing] or earning. It's a gift that's really [music] gi. Let me tell you, it's only by the blood. Does anybody [music] want to be holy, righteous, purified as spous? Let [music] me tell [singing] you, it's only by the blood. Does anybody want to be worthy [music] forgi? Justify [singing] it. I can tell you it's only by the blood. It's never been [music] about performance, [singing] perfection, or striving for acceptance. Let me tell you, it's only by the blood. It's never been about deserving or earning. It's a [music] gift that's really gi. [music] Does anybody want to be holy, righteous, purify this? [singing] Let me tell you, it's only by the blood. Does anybody want to be holy, forgive, [music] justify? Let me tell you, it's only by [music] Hallelu. [music] Hallelu. [singing] No, it was the blood. [music] Could have only been the blood. Hallelujah. [music] Hallelujah. [singing] I [music] know it was the blood. Could have only been the blood. [singing] Could have only >> [music] >> Come on. Thank you. [music] Hallelujah. Hallelu. You know it was the [music and singing] blood. Could have only been the blood. Hallelu. [singing] Hallelu. [music and singing] I know it was the blood. Could have only been the blood. Could have only [music] been the blood. Jesus, that's who you are. [music] I'm calling on the God Jacob, [music] whose love [singing] endures through generations. [music] I know that you [singing] will keep covering. I'm calling [music] on the God of Moses, [music] the one who opened up the ocean. [music] I need you now to do the same thing for me. >> [music] >> We need you, Jesus. Oh [music and singing] God, my God, I need you. Oh God, my God, I need [music] you now. How I need you now. [music] Oh [singing] rock, oh rock of ages. I'm standing on [music] your faithfulness. On your faithfulness. [music] I'm calling [music and singing] on the God of Mary [music] whose favor [singing] rest upon the lonely. Yes, it does. I know with [music] you all things are possible. I'm calling [music] on the God of David who [music] made a shepherd [singing] more courageous. I may not face Goliath, but I've got my own giants. [music] Oh God, my God, I need you. Oh [singing] God, my God, I need you now. [music] How I need you now. [singing and music] Oh rock or rock of ages. I'm standing on your faithfulness. [singing and music] On your faithfulness. [music] You're [music] faithful. [singing] You're faithful. You heard your children. Then you hear your children now. You are the same God. You are the same God. You answered prayers [music] back then and you will answer [singing] now. You are the same God. You are the same God. You [music and singing] were providing then you are providing. Now you are the same. You are the same. [music] You moved in power. Then God move in power. Now you are the same. You are the same God. You were a healer [music and singing] then. You are a healer. Now you are the [music] same God. You are the same [singing] God. You [music] are a savior then. You are the same now. You are the same [music] God. You [singing] are the same God. Oh God, my God, [music] I need you. Oh God, my God, I need you now. How I need you [music] now. Oh rock or rock of ages. [music and singing] I'm standing on your faithfulness. [music] On your [singing] faithfulness. Oh God, [music] my God, I need you. Oh God, my God, I need you now. How I need you now. Oh go of ages. I'm standing [music] on your faithfulness. On your faithfulness. You've always [music] been so faithful. You freed the [music] captives. Then you're freeing hearts right now. You are the same God. You are the same God. You touch [music] the lepers that I feel your touch right now. You are the same God. You are the same God. [music] It's who you are. The same [music] I'm calling [music and singing] on the Holy Spirit. Almighty river, come and fill me again. Come and fill me again. That's our prayer today. Come and [music] fill me again. Come and [music] fill me [singing] again. Come and [music] fill me again. [music] >> [music] >> Hey, Bellway Park. Happy New Year. My name is Jeffrey. I am the lead pastor here and I am excited that we get to spend our time together today. I know this is different than how we normally do it. Uh it is a great Sunday for our serve team. We get to give everybody the Sunday off to be with their families and then we get to worship in a different way, but we're still going to worship together. And I wanted to tell you this, we are we have normal weekend services next week. Everything is back to normal. And then in two weeks, we kick off a new series that I'm really excited about it called God is. It's going to be awesome. Make sure you're here. U but I was just thinking I was spending time this week just reflecting and thinking on this last year. And it's been an incredible year. It's been a wild year. Uh you know, from the transition and the announcement of the transition in last November to the announcement about me stepping into my role in January to then doing it in May. It's just been an it's been a wild ride that we've been on and I was reflecting just about what God has done and he's done some incredible things. I asked our uh garage the the man who leads our garage, his name is Will. I asked him this week just how how many cars have you and the garage been able to give away this year? You, not Will. You Beltway Park. And we've given away 15 cars to people who need it, including one to a family that lost both of their cars in a tragic fire at their house and it burned their house and their cars. and we got to give them a car because you gave a car. God's done incredible things in our student ministry this year. It's doubled in a year. We we have doubled the amount of students in our student ministry. And if you ever go upstairs on a Wednesday night, first of all, get background checked. You can't go up there without that. But second, it is packed full of teenagers hungry, chasing after Jesus. Maybe you didn't know this, but in November, the government shutdown happened and we had everything that went on with SNAP benefits and you, Beltway Park, got to step in and we almost doubled the amount of amount of groceries that we gave away in the month of November compared to a normal month. And we were able to serve 324 families and give away $39,000 worth of groceries in just just a month. We've increased our ministry partners all over the world, including the big country in the United States, but all over the world. We have 111 ministry partners right now. You have 111 ministry partners right now, including one in Miami, uh, our church plant in Miami that we got to partner with, History Makers, and they are on year five and they are running over a,000 people. They're running over,00 people every single week in Miami, which is a very unchurched place. And you get to be a part of that testimony. It's just incredible what God has done and I'm I'm honored to get to serve the kingdom alongside you and I I love what God is doing and I believe as we get ready for 2026 and we end 2025 uh together today I I believe that God has tremendous things in store for you, in store for me, in store for our families, and in store for our church. I believe we are going to continue to see the gospel advance in the big country and and God to just do unbelievable things.
But let's be honest, as as excited as I am about all of that and as excited as I am about where we're going as a church, uh if if we don't figure out how to navigate our time and if we don't figure out how to navigate our time well, we don't figure out how to stop wasting so much time, we're never going to get to be a part of all that God's doing. One of the reasons that that we've seen God do the things that he has is because we've navigated our time well. But but that's getting harder and harder. At least it is for me. I mean, this day and age, it is it is pretty easy to waste time. I don't I don't know if you know this, but um Netflix has a lot of shows on it. Like a a lot of shows. And uh and then then they have more shows on top of that. And and then they they also have movies. I mean, there there is a lot of time to waste on Netflix. There's a there's a game called Block Blast that all the kids are into. And uh and and what happens is you play a round of Block Blast and you're like, you know what, I'll just play one more. And instead you you play 46 more. Uh work is pushing us a lot. I mean, even even what we get to do in vocational ministry, there's always something else to do. And so, it's easy to to kind of waste time by staying, you know, I'll just stay another 15 minutes and then 15 minutes turns into an hour. We waste time playing fantasy football. At least I do. I played fant fantasy football this year and I came in dead last in our league um because I'm not good at it. We waste time watching the Cowboys. And here's the weird thing, like none of those things are inherently bad. I mean, watching the Cowboys is inherently bad for my mental health, but like it's not inherently a bad thing, but the problem is is we just don't have enough time to waste. Every single day we have 1440 minutes, which sounds like a lot of minutes. When you think about 1440 minutes, that feels like feels like a lot. Then you start to do the math and you begin to figure out how fast 1440 minutes goes. If you work uh you work eight hours a day, that is 480 minutes. And then if you sleep eight hours a day, which you should sleep eight hours a day, that is the healthy that's the healthy amount of sleep that everyone needs. That's another 480 minutes. If you eat two meals a day and it takes you roughly two hours, that's 120 minutes. You drive even in Abene, you drive in your car for an hour, that's that's, you know, 60 minutes. you uh you sit here and you start to count these up and that's before you start to to play on your phone and most estimates will say like between three and five hours of our day is spent on our phones. So, even if you take that down and you're really good on your phone and you only do you only do two hours a day, that's another 120 minutes. And you look up and what we thought was 1440 minutes, which sounds like so many minutes. After you do all that math and you take all those minutes away that that we're already committed to, before we do other fun things and hobbies and kids sports and go to church and get involved in life, before you do any of that, you look up and that 1440 minutes is less than 200 minutes that we have left. And we went from 1440 and in a second we got down all the way to just just under 200. And if if God's going to continue to do incredible things in our church and in you and in me, it's going to be it's going to be come like the reason that's going to happen is because we recognize the value of time. Time is God's gift to you and I. And purposefully using our minutes, purposely, intentionally using our minutes has eternal impact. We see that in the book of Ephesians chapter 5. It says this, "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil." Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And we're going to break down that text just as as it goes along. Paul begins to his letter to the church in Ephesus by saying, "Look carefully then how you walk." If you go back to the original language, what he's saying is, "Pay attention. Think about the ways that you're walking. Pay look at how you're spending your time. Don't live life, he's saying, don't live life on autopilot. And maybe you've never done this, but I have done the times where I set the cruise and I'm listening to an audio book and and you drive and you look up and like 30 minutes have gone past and you have no idea how you've gotten at the last 30 minutes down the road. You don't remember signs you saw. You don't remember anything at all. What Paul is saying is uh do the opposite of that. Look carefully then how you walk and then he goes not as unwise but as wise and the difference in often in walking in wisdom or not walking in wisdom is not actually what we know. We can think wisdom is knowledge. Wisdom is not knowledge. Wisdom is what we do with the knowledge that we have. When he says look carefully how you walk not as unwise but as wise what he's telling us is know to do the right thing but then choose to do the right thing. Wisdom is about our actions and how we do the things that we know are right and best for us. I can know it is right and best for me to eat healthy, but unless I do it, I'm not being wise. See the difference? Look carefully then how you walk not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity. in the Greek when you go back to it and you read what Paul was trying to communicate when he said that in that way the image he was giving is redeeming time buying time back the time that we have we we all have 1440 minutes we know we all have 1440 minutes every single day it is across all of human history we have 1440 minutes redeem the time make the best use of the time because time is God's gift and purposefully using our time has eternal impact. Look carefully then how you walk not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every every opportunity because the days are evil because the enemy wants nothing more than than to get us to waste our time. See often the enemy doesn't need to get us to not uh the enemy doesn't need us to get us to sin. The enemy doesn't need to tempt us if he can just distract us. If we can just spend, you know, another few minutes scrolling through Tik Tok, just one more episode, just another hour at work. If he can get us to use our time in the ways that aren't the wise ways, but are the unwise ways. He doesn't even have to get us to sin. He just has to get us to be distracted and live lives distracted. Look carefully then, how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil. And then he ends that by saying, "Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." Our understanding of what the will of the Lord is is Paul saying, "Hey, submit it to him. Take our will, give it to him, sit underneath his will, and when we use our minutes aligning ourselves with God's will, then we are walking out the reality that time is God's gift. And purposefully using our time has eternal impact because our time is spiritual. Paul says over in the book of Romans, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. He says, "Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, laying ourselves on the altar, giving all of us to him." The image he's giving is all of us is his anyway. So Jesus followers, if you're a Jesus follower, then our time is all his no matter what. It's his gift to us, but it is still his in the end because we are living our life as a living sacrifice. Our time is supposed to be spiritual because our time is so short. In the book of Psalms verse and uh chapter 39:5 it says, "Behold, you've made my days a few hand breaths and my lifetime has nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath." We saw that as we did the math of the 1440 minutes. We lose it so fast. Anyone that's had little kids and watched them begin to grow up, one day they're like this cute little baby sucking on a pacifier and then all of a sudden they're a teenagers and they're a teenager and you look up and you go, "How how did we go this fast?" Like I I can't be that old. They can't be that old. And it's us living out the reality that the book of Psalms says that our our time is but a hand breath. It is just a few hand breaths. Things go so fast. Our time is spiritual and then our time is short. Those 1400 minutes are going to go fast. And we don't know how many of them we're given. We know how many we're given today. But we don't know what tomorrow looks like. We don't know what next week looks like. We don't fully know what 2026 looks like looks like. So make the best use of the time because our time is spiritual, but our time is short and our time is sacred. Still in the book of Psalms uh chapter 24:1 it says, "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein." Everything about this world is still his. In the end, it's his. Our time doesn't belong to us. It belongs to him. Therefore, use our time strategically. And how we spend our time shows what's going on in our hearts. how I choose to spend today and tomorrow and the next day and 2026. It reveals the nature of what is going on in me. In the book of Matthew, it says Jesus says, "For where your treasure is there, your heart will be also our minutes, those 1440, and how we spend them." They reveal, they show what is going on in me. So, as you begin to think and process and and dream about 2026, and I hope you do. I'll tell you one of the things my family does every year is we sit down and we talk like, "God, what do you have for us in the next year?" And sometimes he gives us these big dreams that he's got for the next year. And sometimes he's got the hey, you're going to be faithful in the small things. We're going to walk out the small things as a family. Then we're going to see what the big things come how the big things come about in our life. So, I hope you're dreaming about 2026 and what God's going to do in you and through you and in your family and through your family and in our church and through our church. But as you think about you, you think about what God has for you this next year, ask yourself the question, how are the minutes of my life revealing the nature of my heart? How are the the hours that I spend showing what I treasure? Like I've been doing that over the last few weeks and I can tell you there there are some areas that I'm really proud of. There are things that I I spend my 1440 minutes on that I'm like, you know what, that's awesome. And then there are things that aren't. And there are ways that I I'm not making the best use of the time. I'm not being wise with those 1440, but instead being unwise. And if our time is God's gift to us and purposefully using our time in those minutes has eternal impact, then we've got to go and do what Paul says. Look carefully then how you walk not as unwise but as wise. Making the best use of our time, the best use of every 60 seconds, every hour, every 24 hours, every day, every week, every month. Time is God's gift to you and it's God's gift to me. But we still have a responsibility to steward it well. So as we get ready for 2026 and all that God has, let's look carefully how we walk and let's make the best use of every opportunity because like we started this with, God's got big things in store. And we live in this season and the tension of being really grateful for what God did in the garage, in Beltway garage, and in the food pantry, but then expectant for more. Thankful for what he did in our church, but expectant for more. Grateful for what he did in you and in your families but expectant for more. Let me pray for us and then we're going to jump into a new year. God, we thank you for what you're doing. God, we thank you for who you are. We thank you for the privilege and honor of getting to do life together and serve the kingdom together. And God, as we wrap up 2025 as a church and even as individuals and look forward to 2026, we know that we don't control everything that happens in in our world. We don't control everything that happens in our kids' schools. We don't control everything that happens around us. But you give us the calling and the responsibility to look carefully how we walk. Would we as a church make the best use of our time because it's your gift to us. God, we thank you for that gift. Would we steward it well? It's in your name we pray. Amen.