Cornerstone Christian Center
Cornerstone Christian Center
Finishing Strong
What if your strongest moment isn’t at the start line, but at the finish? We open with a raw story from a 1994 missions trip to Nicaragua that spiraled into dengue fever and a surprising lesson about grit. From there, we zoom out to a bigger challenge: how do you push past the February fade and end the year with genuine momentum, not just good intentions?
We anchor the conversation in Hebrews 12 and get practical. First, lay aside weights—those non-sin hindrances like distraction, worry, and unhealthy patterns that bleed your focus. Second, throw off the sin that clings. Temptation is personal, and freedom starts by naming what traps you and stepping into the light with courage. Finally, run with endurance. Your race isn’t mine, and comparison steals joy. Expect blisters and setbacks. Endurance looks like getting up, bandaging what hurts, and moving again with your eyes fixed on Jesus.
We also celebrate what God is doing in our community: dozens of salvations and baptisms, hundreds of prayer requests lifted, a growing Spanish translation ministry that helps families worship in their heart language, and new life groups designed to keep you moving when your willpower runs thin. If you’ve felt the gap between a bold January and a quiet stall by spring, this conversation offers a path back—clear choices, decisive action, and the strength that comes from walking together.
Ready to finish stronger than you started? Listen now, join a life group, and prepare with us for a focused season of prayer and fasting. If this encouraged you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs a nudge, and leave a review so more people can find the show.
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So it was the summer of 1994, and I went on a missions trip to the country of Nicaragua. I was with about 40 other students from around the state of Arizona, different churches here that make up our organization. And we were headed to the capital city to do about 10 days of ministry there. And when we were there, part of the things that we would do is we would dress up like clowns and do kids' ministry on the streets. We would do things such as drama and give testimonies and just let people know about the love of Jesus. And then at night we would meet inside of a church and we would have a large gathering. We'd invite people from the neighborhood to come so that they could know more about the living God. Well, while we were there one day on a street inside the capital of Managua, there was an open body of stale water that had collected off to the side. And while we were doing our ministry, uh we noticed that there was dozens and dozens of mosquitoes just hovering over that stale body of water. And while we were doing our thing for about an hour, half of our team was eaten alive by these mosquitoes. And later that night we went back to the hotel and we had to call a doctor to come and see us, and we found out that we had dengue fever. I don't know if you have had dengue fever, if you know what it is, but you can get it in tropical climates. So people here in Phoenix are not really prone to getting it. But it is an extreme version of the flu. And so you will get all the symptoms of a flu. Um, your head will hurt really bad, you'll have really just aches all over. Your eyes hurt just to open them. And um, you can get an extreme version of dengue fever, which includes abdominable pain, and you just are constantly vomiting. Well, lucky for us, we had the extreme version, and so we were in our hotel room, just each one trying to share the toilet as we could or the trash can. We were sick. And when you go to other countries, you soon realize that the things that you would be using to make yourself feel better are not easily available in that country. And so here in America, to get electrolytes quickly back in the 90s, we would just drink a Gatorade and we would just down it as much as we can just to flush out our system. Well, in Nicaragua, it's imported in, it's not easy to find, but we found every bottle that existed in the Capitol. We purchased them, brought them to the hotel room. You we there's pictures I have of the Gatorade bottles that are lined up, the empty ones against the room of that we were staying in in the hotel. We were just trying to get better. And we got to the end of our trip. We'd already been staying in the room for several days now, about four days. And it was the last big night in the city, and we were gonna throw a big service, and people from all over were coming in to have a revival service. And I remember waking up that day saying, I am not going out like this. This is a horrible way to go out. So I'm gonna do whatever I can and muster up all the energy that is within me, and I'm gonna go to this service. And so I went sick. I think I was hudged over like this, because when your stomach hurts, it hurts. And I just remember going and sitting in that church service, and I was just praying and just believing that God was gonna move in that nation. And then the next morning I headed off to the airport with 40 other people. We got on the plane, and I just felt bad for anybody that was sitting next to a sick teenager. We had blankets over us, and the stewardess gave each of us a barf bag that they were letting us fill up on the flight home, and then we'd hand it off to them and they'd bring us another one. It was a rough, rough trip. But my question for you this morning is are you finishing stronger than you started? Are you finishing stronger than you started? I want to welcome you to Cornerstone. Maybe you're a guest today. Welcome. It's an honor to have you. Maybe you're watching online for the first time. We love that you are here. And um, here at the church, you'll see that we show a picture of the disciples walking with Jesus. This is our goal. Our goal is to be surrounded by people of like-minded faith that are going on the journey with us, and we are trying to stay at the pace that God is moving. And so when he's moving, we're moving and we're moving with him. And so we're grateful that you're here. Our motto here is to be more like Jesus. And if you have driven anywhere in the last seven days since we saw you last Sunday, it is hard to be more like Jesus. I went to work on Friday in downtown Glendale, and then I drove Glendale all the way down to come home. And man, it was chaos about 5:15 at Westgate. Chaos. And I just remember, I, you know what, I'm just gonna sing a worship song, and I'm just gonna have a good attitude, or else I will feel like the lady in the movie Fried Green Tomatoes, when she rams the car into a younger person and just said, you know what, I'm older and I have more insurance, so I don't really care right now. Do you know what I mean? Patience. And so you know that it is hard to be more like Jesus every day, but that's what we strive for. Um, next month we're gonna be launching a new set of life groups. I want to encourage you now, because by the time this message is over, I want you to settle it in your heart that you're gonna sign up for at least one life group. I would love personally, if you do two, three, four, five, six. I know that's not possible, but at least one, okay? Because we gotta be growing, we gotta be stretching, we gotta be moving. And we love God here, we make disciples, and we reach the world. So we're so grateful that you are here today. So we're gonna talk about finishing strong. And if you have your Bible, I want you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 12. If you have the Bible app on your phone, I'm gonna be reading out of the ESV version. Hebrews chapter 12, starting in verse 1. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which cling so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Amen. The starting point. So if you're gonna finish strong, there's gotta be a start. So we're gonna talk about the starting point. There's something about starting a new thing. There's something about it. There's something about fresh, new. Maybe it's your new thing, maybe it's somebody else's new thing, but there's this excitement that builds. If you live in Goodyear and you're off of Bullard and McDowell, you will see that they're building a lot of new things. One of the things they built that the city has been hoping for for a long time was a Trader Joe's. And I have to tell you, I love Trader Joe's, but I went nowhere near it on opening day because I dropped my kids off at school nearby, and as I passed by, the line an hour before it started was just unbelievable. There were people parking at the QT in open lots, walking over there. They were excited about the new thing. They just wanted to be a part. When you're at the starting point of something new, there's some emotions that stir up in you. You have a joy. You people just walking around like they're just excited. They're just excited. Something new is happening. There's this excitement, there's dreams. People begin to have a dream of what it's gonna look like, what it's gonna be. There's a vision. They begin to write it down. This is what I want to see happen, take place. They are ready for what may come. They know the statistics of how many businesses actually make it after two years. They don't care. They're like, we are starting a new thing. They don't even listen to the naysayers. Somebody comes up to them, like, um, I don't even think that's a practical new thing to be doing. They're like, you know what? You're not even my friend anymore. I'm gonna move over here. They're just so excited and they're laser focused on what they need to do. They're just focused, starting a new thing. Some of the examples are this maybe you're starting a new business. Takes a lot of work. You've got a game plan and you're focused, you're moving forward. Maybe you're taking on a new hobby. I don't know. Maybe you're gonna learn to fish. You're gonna need more than anything, you're gonna need some patience. I'm gonna tell you that. Or you're taking on something new. Maybe you're leading a new ministry, you're nervous, but you know you got this. Maybe you're trying to grow in your faith. There's this excitement about reading the word of God, opening it up, hearing from the Lord. And January, man, people are ready for something new. So next week, when I see you, you're gonna be like, New Year, new me, selfies. I'm gonna see it all over your social media. It's fresh, it's new, it's exciting. You have a clean slate, everything's off the table. We're starting new. We're gonna build something new. And then some of you even use this scripture. This is your scripture. You make it a magnet, you put it on your cell phone. This is what you use. You say, Isaiah 43, 19. Behold, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs forth. Do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. And you're like, Yes, this is my year, 2026. Here we come. We're still in 2025. I don't know if you know that. We got four more days, but you are pumped for the new thing. Then we go throughout the year, and February first hits, everything changes. Well, what happened to that new thing you were doing? I don't know. It's already changed. It's February. We get busy. What are you busy doing exactly? If I had you write down what you were busy doing, can you even name it? I was busy. All of a sudden, things don't go as smoothly as we thought they would, so we just give up. Did you think everything is easy? You had some speed bumps along the way, and you're not into confrontation or anything, so you just leave it alone. You get to the speed bump and you turn around. Or maybe people gave you their opinion and it discouraged you. If you're in here right now, the only voice I would be listening to is that of God's. And I would leave all the other voices out. The new thing that we started has now been taken, the joy is over, and we've laid it to the side. So the moment that you do that, it means the only place you have left to go is back to do what you were doing already. And I have a feeling that you were frustrated in that place. That's why you wanted something new. And you're thinking, why did I come to church today? We head back into the old, the thing that we were frustrated in. We think there must be something wrong with me. I cannot finish what I started. I have all these great ideas, I have all this passion, and somewhere along the way I grow frustrated and weary, and I give up. Are you finishing stronger than you started? Studies show that only 8% of people actually follow through with their goals. 8%. That's not a New Year's resolution, that's a goal in their life. 8% follow through. It breaks my heart when I read that statistic, not just for my own life, which I know there's goals I have not achieved yet that I wanted to, but I grieve for the church. Because if the church only completes 8% of what they were trying to do in the community, trying to do in people's lives, that's sad. And we want to be on a path following after Jesus where we just keep striving with everything that we have. Why does the drive that we started with fade away? Why do we let things get in the way? And why am I not strong enough to see these things through to the end? I want to reread Hebrews 12, verses 1 and 2 to you. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. I'm going to give you three things today to finish strong in 2025. Number one, Scripture says we have to lay aside every weight. Do you know what a weight is when the Bible is referencing a weight? It refers to heavy things that are not necessarily sinful, but they're hindrances that keep us from going forward. That's what a weight is. Maybe here's some examples for you distractions, worries. You're worrying about things you shouldn't be worrying about. It just leads you down the wrong path. Maybe you have unhealthy habits. You see, we carry weight in our lives that do not need to be there. And if you've been coming to this church for all of 2025, you would have heard me speak a message at Mother's Day when I told you that oftentimes we are carrying things in a bag that is too big, things that shouldn't have even been there to begin with. And we need to free ourselves. And you're carrying these weights around that need to be released. Verse one tells us very clearly that you have to lay them aside. So if you're gonna do that, there's two things to make that happen. Number one is you have to make the choice, and your choice is not always between right and wrong. You see, the weight might not be a sinful thing, but it's just causing you to not get where you need to go. And so you have to make the choice to do the right thing. But it may sometimes be that that weight is just hindering us, whereas something else would not hinder us. It's a choice that you have to make, and the choice can only be made by you. I cannot make it for you, the church cannot make it for you. You have to make the choice to get the weight out of the way. The other thing you have to do is you have to take action. You have to actually take that weight in your life and move it out of the way. We live in such a weird society now where people are like, maybe if I think it, it'll just move. Okay, let me tell you, that ain't gonna happen. And then you're gonna be stuck there, miserable, and have no way around it when all you gotta do is just pick it up and chuck it. Okay? You have to take the action step. You have to do it to finish strong, all distractions and all unnecessary things need to go. Write it down, it needs to go. Needs to go. Are you finishing stronger than you started? Number two, you gotta get rid of sin that clings. Let me tell you something about sin. Each of us, you, I, we are subject to different temptations in life. Did you know that? We do not all have the same temptation that stands before us. There are some sins that we're more vulnerable to. Maybe a sin that we frequently commit. You have to get rid of them. I will tell you this from my side. I grew up in a home uh with a stepdad who was an alcoholic. I saw the ramifications of what alcohol did, and I wanted nothing to do with it. Nothing. I saw the abuse physically and um verbally. I saw things take place in my home that should never have taken place. But the alcohol got involved, and I told myself, from the day that it happened, I will never, ever become an alcoholic. I will never, ever be tempted by this. It will not sway me, it will not change me, it will not control me. So if you were to put me in a room with a refrigerator full of alcohol, I wouldn't even be tempted to touch it. But it doesn't mean that there's not other temptations that come my way. So you and I are different in the way that we are tempted. And what the scripture says is you have to get rid of those things that cling to you so closely, you have to let them go. Those sins that ensnare you or encircle you, they entangle you in a web. It's like a web, and there's a spider just waiting there, and you're just hooked up to the web. You can't even get out or break free. You're just held there. You have to let it go. That sin controls us and it stops us from finishing strong. Be free. Be free. You are a child of God. It says in Romans 8 38, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. First John 4 4 says this, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. And today you can walk in freedom. You can walk in freedom. You just let it go. I'm somebody who loves to throw trash away. There's like something so satisfying about getting junk out. I love to vacuum the same way because I love the suction of the dirt. I know it's funny, but that is me. So if you're in my house and the plate of food has been sitting there for too long, I'll throw it out. And Jay will come back and be like, where's my food? Oh, it's gone. It's gone. Because I just get rid of it. Don't hold on to things you do not need to be holding on to, let them go. Because today you can walk in freedom. Finishing strong means you have to give up things that get in the way. You have to let the sin go. Are you finishing stronger than you started? And number three, you gotta run with endurance. Did you know that each of us are running a race? Each of us are. It says in scripture that there is a race that has been set before you. And God has laid out a particular course for you that looks different than mine. None of us are running the same course, we're all different. Maybe your course takes you through the mountains, and mine will take me through a dry desert. But we are each running our own course, and we have to run it with endurance. Endurance is to keep going no matter what opposition may come your way. You keep going. It is a determination, an unhurrying and yet undelaying, which goes steadily on and refuses to be deflected. That's endurance. You see, people who are actively enduring things will come up with struggles. So maybe you're a runner, maybe you love to run, God bless you. It's amazing. Maybe you wake up in the morning and you're just like, I'm gonna run three miles before I get started in the day. Absolutely amazing. But you when you endure that every single day, it comes with struggles. Maybe you wake up with a Charlie horse one day. Maybe you fall while you're running and you get all banged up. Maybe you're exhausted, maybe you have blisters all over your feet, but you keep going. And as believers, we are on a course headed to where the Lord is leading us. And yeah, there's gonna be some struggles along the way, but you gotta get up and keep moving. You got to keep going. You have to finish the work that He has begun in your life. It says in um 2 Timothy 4 4, Paul says this I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. May that be our testimony when we meet Jesus face to face. May we say, Lord, I have run the race, I have fought the fight, and I have finished strong all the way to the end. You must run. You see, races are not won by being passive. I'm not gonna get into a race and then sit on the sideline and take an hour break and look at my phone. That's not how you run the race. The race is run by you just keep going, keep moving. This is why we tell you to be part of a life group, because there are days you don't want to run anymore. But when you're part of a life group and there's a group of people surrounded, surrounding you, and they're like, You can do it. Come on, keep going. And then you get up and you put the band-aid on the blister, or you wipe off the dust and you keep going. Get in a life group. I'm gonna get a shirt. It says get in a life group. Races are not one by being passive, they're one by pressing onward. Philippians 3, 13 and 14 says this, brothers, I do not consider that I have made it on my own. But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. You gotta move stuff out of the way. Because if you begin to give up and you begin to let everything else stand in the way as you're on course with Jesus, you're gonna turn and you're gonna go back to the old habits, the old ways. Scripture is very clear. It says sin is fun for a season, and then the season is over, and then you got to pay the consequences for what you did. So stay the course. Keep on track. Are you finishing stronger than you started? I want to share a couple things about this church, Cornerstone Christian Center. Our goal is to be a lighthouse in the West Valley. We want to be shining bright everywhere we go. We want people to be like, man, everybody I meet from that church is really friendly and really amazing, and they're always inviting me to things. I never get that from anybody. We want you to love people. People are all made in the image of God. We want you to love them. And so a few things about this church. We set goals every year. Our leadership says, Man, I want to see growth in this area. I want to see people moving in this direction. I want to see them pursuing God with everything that they have. And in 2025, I started thinking about some of the things that have taken place in this church since January 1st, and I want to celebrate them. First thing is this. Did you know we have had 153 people that we know of have given their heart to Jesus since January 1. I can say, and I'm sure my husband is in the same boat, that we have sat in churches before where nobody has been saved in an entire year. It is a gift, it is a miracle, and God is moving. And so we want to continue to see people come to know Jesus. Amen. We've seen 45 people get baptized in water over there since January 1. I just rejoice when I see an entire family get baptized in water because I'm like, their trajectory in life has changed. Everything is different for that family as they walk out their journey with Jesus. I don't know if you're aware, but we have an online prayer connection point online through the website and through the app. You can go on there and put a prayer request in. And it takes a lot for somebody to ask for prayer. Some of us are a little bit stubborn. We don't want to tell anybody what we're going through, but we have had 272 people turn in a prayer request on that app, knowing somebody on the other side is praying for me and standing with me and believing with me, and I'm not alone. That is not counting the people that go to the back during service for prayer. It's not counting the ones that are turned in by card. It's not counting the text messages that our team gets every day. Can you pray for me? I'm struggling, I'm having a hard time. But we've seen God begin to move and people believe that prayer does work. Amen. We have begun recently a Spanish translation ministry. And I am just like excited about this ministry, I have to tell you. Growing up in a Hispanic family, well, my dad's Hispanic. Spanish was the first language. He learned English later. I grew up in a Spanish church on Sunday nights for many years. I don't speak Spanish, so don't come and try to test me. I don't. And I would sit in a Spanish church and I would just listen for a name from the Bible, like Noah or Jeremiah, and then I'd be like, oh, I think I know what they're talking about. I had no clue, no clue what was going on. And my dad would lean over sometimes and just kind of give me a little overview, like, oh, da da da. And I'd be like, okay, so I wasn't so lost. But when you can come into church and you can grab a headset and you can put it on and be in the presence of the Lord for worship and everything, and then the word of God is presented, and we have team members who are up in a booth and they are speaking in Spanish right now, and people are listening to it in their mother tongue. God is moving. He is moving. It means that they don't have to stay in their house, but they can actually come and be here. So I want to throw something out at you. If you're a Spanish speaker, I wish I was, I'm not. If you are a Spanish speaker, I need you. We need you. We need you to use the tools and the gifts that God has given you. You don't even have to be up here on the stage, hallelujah. You just get to be in a booth with the headset on, and you just get to speak to somebody who is listening to a presentation from the Word of God. If you're interested in that, come and find me. Come find Jay, one of our team members, or find Angie Ortiz, who had such a burden to see this take place. And we want to see this ministry expand. And we want to see, I mean, I'd love for a full-blown Spanish church to take place soon in this building. Amen. We've also started a new podcast. It's not the Sunday morning sermon, it's a podcast. So we have a team of people with rotating guests. They are called Cornerstone Collective. They are filming even today after service. And you can go on any of the platforms that have podcasts and you can listen to that. It is funny. You'll get to hear some really cool things going on, and um you can share it with your friends. It's just a really fun podcast. I want to encourage you to be part of that, but it's to get us out into the community, to let people become more familiar with us and to come into the church at some point because they feel like they know us. Um, we've also started new life groups that have never been offered before this year, and we have new life group leaders that have raised up and become a leader of a life group in 2025, and we are completely grateful for that. Um yeah, we've seen people get healed this year, and I love when God physically touches somebody's body. I love it. I'm one of those people who want to shout it from the rooftop. I love to hear when God is doing something and healing and restoring, He has restored marriages. There are still marriages that we are praying for, but He is moving and He is breathing life back in to what seemed like was the end. It is just being brought back to life in the name of Jesus. And we're praying. Um, we have seen some amazing acts of obedience this year where people have just, as Pastor Rich was sharing during tithing, people have just felt led that they're supposed to give to something and they do it with an open hand and no expectation of a return. But when you walk with kingdom principles, the best investment you can ever make is in the kingdom of God. Because he is the God that will never let you down. And when people take that step and that act of faith and they give beyond anything, they just give, they see God bring back into their life amazing, amazing things. And so we just want to say continue to walk in faith and not by sight. Amen. We are here to run with endurance the race that has been set before us. I'm gonna invite the worship team to come up and I want to ask you this question again. Are you finishing stronger than you started? Therefore, since we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin which cling so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. We want to see you finish strong in 2025. There are some things that I was hoping to have accomplished this year that I didn't. I'm sure there are things that you were hoping to have done and you didn't. One of mine was to read um more books, not necessarily the Bible, but more books to be more of a reader. And I didn't get that done, and so I guess for the next four days I'll be reading. But there was just some things on my list that um I'm just like everybody else. I would say the phrases, I'm busy. Busy doing what? What exactly am I busy doing? Things got in the way. I I made excuses. And scripture says you gotta lay all of that aside and you gotta focus and endure. You gotta run with endurance. Ecclesiastes 7 8 says, Better is the end of a thing than its beginning. I want you to finish strong in 2025. I'm gonna ask you to stand with me right now and maybe you're here in the room and you were invited by a friend. Maybe you just found our church, you were looking for something and you came in. I'm glad that you're here today. If you're here and you've never made that decision to even follow after the Lord, this is your moment. You have a God who's created you in his image, he loves you, he's amazing. It's hard to put into the English vocabulary how good God is. And he has a plan for your life. He did not create you just to leave you and abandon you here, but he has a plan and he wants you to walk with him. And scripture says in Romans verses 10, verses 9 and 10, it says, Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. And maybe you're here today and you've you might have heard of God at some point, but you've never had an actual relationship with the living God. Out of respect for everyone around you, I'm just gonna ask you to close your eyes for a moment. And I want you just to search your heart. And if this is a moment when God, you just feel like a little tug in your heart, God is speaking to you. And he has great plans for you. And today could be a day where everything changes and you begin a journey with him that will change your life. You'll be set on purpose and for purpose. And if you're here today and you want to make that decision to follow after the Lord, I'm just gonna ask you to slip your hand up. I'm the only one looking around. I just want to pray with you collectively, with everybody here. Just slip your hand up and I'll acknowledge you. Amen. God is good. God is good. I'm gonna ask everybody just to repeat this prayer after me. God, thank you for loving me. Thank you for sending Jesus. I believe Jesus died on the cross for my sins. I believe he rose again. Forgive me of my sins. I surrender my life to you. In Christ's name. Amen. Amen. We celebrate if you made that decision. You'll see a QR code on both sides of me. If you just take a picture of that QR code, it's gonna take you to a place where we can get you some uh resources, and we want you to find a Bible-believing church. So if you live in the area, you are always welcome here. We meet on Sundays at 9 and 11. We would love to have you be a part of Cornerstone. Now, this is for all of you believers. 2025, I don't know what kind of year it was for you. Could have been a crappy one, I don't know. Could have been one where you're just like you're ready to be done with it. Oh, we got four days left. And God wants you to finish stronger than you started. When we invite people to the altar, I often joke about this that I love being in the front. I love it because when God moves, he's gonna get everybody in the front first, and then the back gets the leftovers. That is not how it works, but in my mind, I'm convinced I'm gonna go close. And so I love to be in the front. I just love to be wherever God is. And in 2025, if you look through your life and think, hmm, what have I grown in? What's changed in me? If it's not good, you got four days left. If it's good, keep keep going, keep going, get better, get better. And so today I wanted to end this service by inviting you to this altar because I just want you to be strengthened in your walk with the Lord. I don't want you to leave and just like, uh, church was whatever. But I want you to meet with the living God, the living God. He is alive, he is moving, he is speaking, he has something for you, but you have to take an action step. So that means all the weights gotta get out of the way. All the sin that you're tempted with, you gotta remove it, and then you got to run with endurance. Even when you get the Charlie horse, even when you fall, get up, dust it off, move, move. I don't know how else to say it to you. You gotta move. And I want you to get all of God that you can get. So, Lord, we open up this altar right now, and I just pray that the presence of the Holy Spirit would fill this place. There are people that are walking around that feel like they have holes and things are just leaking out, and they just want to be filled up again. I pray for those that are finishing strong, Lord, there's still more that you want to do. So help us to get everything out of the way and to run this race, this course that you've set before us with endurance, keeping our eyes focused on you every step of the way. In the name of Jesus. So next week it is the first Sunday of January, and we are gonna start prayer and fasting. So it's gonna be amazing. We're gonna begin strong, but that means you gotta eat all your sweets this week before we hit Sunday. And um, just come, be ready, it's gonna be good.
Jason Brown:Amen. Before we go, we're gonna pray blessing over us. The Lord bless you and keep you. Lord, make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. Lord, lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Lord, I pray a blessing upon your church, your people. Lord, you'd empower us by your spirit to live your love unto those around us. We pray all this in the powerful name that is Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Know this. We love you very much, our cornerstone. God bless you, and happy new year.