Rooted, The Secret to a Fruitful Year I Pastor John Mark Hamilton

Have you ever felt like a crispy Christmas tree - once vibrant but now dry and disconnected from your source of life? Pastor John Mark shares how 2026 can be your most fruitful year by staying rooted in four key areas: God's Word for stability, God's people for strength, God's mission for fulfillment, and God's presence for joy. Drawing from Jeremiah 17, he illustrates how being planted by streams of living water - rather than isolated in a pot - allows us to flourish even in seasons of drought. 

📖 Key Scripture: Matthew 28:18-20
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Transcript

To be at church today. Come on. Can you give Jesus some praise? Come on, Alamance. Give God praise this morning.

Tell you what. The last Sunday of 2025. And you know, people say people don't know what day of the week it is, but obviously you guys do a Sunday. It's the lord's day. We're coming to worship him together.

Chapel hill. Can you do me a favor? Can you welcome Alamance? We're so grateful for you. Love you, Alamance campus.

Pastor Adam's out there today, man. So such a privilege to be one church, multiple locations, living the mission, living the vision of reaching people and building lives. And I just am so grateful to be part of what God is doing at our spiritual family. And I got a question. Do y' all want some good news this morning?

You want good news? How much y' all want good news, man? I tell you what. Let me give you some good news. Y' all went on a journey with us this year for Christmas.

We said, how about we don't just do one great weekend with Christmas candlelight services. Let's do at the movies to start the December month. Let's do family Christmas and Christmas candlelight services. And you guys invited friends and neighbors and coworkers, and we put out a mailer, all those things. But God is up to something and so grateful to all of y'.

All. But listen to this. In the month of December, the first three weeks, we had 110 people that filled out a connect card for the very first time. That's incredible. That's so good.

We're getting a partner with God and what he's doing. But this is the best. This is my favorite. 27 people gave their life to Jesus for the very first time. Now, come on.

Isn't that awesome? Let's give God. Come on. Let's praise the lord for that. So good, Alamance.

It's incredible. So such a privilege to be part of a church that's living the great commission and doing it together and getting the opportunity to make an impact for God's kingdom. And so, so excited about the new year and all that's happening. But we are in that weird phase of, like, between December 25th and January 1st, it's like, where am I? What day is it?

The rhythms are off, the routines are off. And a big question is, when do you take the Christmas decor down? You know, I mean, some people it's the day after. Some people it's a few hours after. You know, we're switching this thing over, Fred.

New year, New Start like in our house. You know, it varies, it varies. It's all over the place. But one thing about us is we're a real Christmas tree family. Like we got a real Christmas tree.

Which also means by December 28th, man, that thing is crispy. I mean, it's like if a good wind comes through, it's like the Charlie Brown tree and it's like all the, you know, the needles just kind of fall. Maybe you've got one of those crispy Christmas trees as well at your house. I know when I was in college, we had went home for the holidays and come back and so it was like in the new year, right? And I lived with three other guys with third floor apartment came in, this tree was crispy.

I mean, it was looking really, really rough. And let me tell you what that meant for us. We had a fire pit on our porch on the third floor of our apartment. And just the ideas started flowing, right? And so next thing you know, we take this Christmas tree out.

Six, seven foot tree, put it in. Not like a fire pit with stones. No, no, like one of those little metal circle fire pits. Stood it up and that thing, it went whoosh. I mean, up in flames like that.

So if you are looking for good ideas with that Christmas tree, it's a great fire starter. Want to get it out of your house quick though. But what's so funny about those Christmas trees and what I've come to learn is we lived in Boone for some time, so we love going to get a real Christmas tree. But the moment that you cut it down, it's been disconnected from its roots and no longer, yes, it's going to smell like the pine for a season, but it's going to begin to get crispy, it's going to begin to get dried out. It's going to begin to kind of lose some of its luster.

And I share that because what I've come to find in life is that the roots of your life determine the fruit in your life. And in between these couple days in the end of 2025 and looking into 2026, I usually do some self reflection and I'm thinking, man, how can I add value to our spiritual family? As I was praying for you guys and praying for what to share and God, what does it look like? And this is the idea of today, this is the big idea for you. If you don't take anything else away.

Is this for this to be your most fruitful year, it has to be your most rooted year for this to be the Most fruitful year of your life. If 2026 is gonna be the most fruitful year in your relationships and your business and whatever it is, it's gotta be your most rooted year in your life. And as we go into that new year, I know that some of you, when you do self reflection, there's places where you feel like, man, my soul is dried. You may not say you're a crispy Christmas tree, but maybe it feels that way a little bit. So I'm gonna ask you guys four questions as we start.

And a little bit of self reflection, a mental check of your year. And I want you to think honestly for a moment. Everyone in Alamus, I want you to really take a little bit of an inventory. Number one is this. This year, talking about 2025, I felt like my life has had purpose and direction.

I felt like there was clarity, there was direction. I had a purpose, I had meaning. Second question. I have seen progress in the areas that matter most to me. My spiritual life, my relationships, my work, personal growth.

I've seen progress. Number three. I've faced challenges, which we can all say we face challenges, but this is the key. And I handled them with strength. Or did they leave me feeling drained?

Last question number four. I experienced moments of true joy and satisfaction even when life was hard.

Based on the quietness of this room and I'm sure the room in Alamance, when we begin to self reflect and look at these, there's places that may feel a little dry or stuck or unsure at the end of the year. And I want you to know you're not alone. I've been in those places. I feel what you're feeling. As I look back over the year, I started to think of crevices and cracks and places that my heart, my soul had gotten dry or weary and how to handle that.

And today what I want to look at is four roots. If the roots determine the fruit in our life, four roots that will lead to a fruitful life. And this isn't going to be John Mark's ideas. It's going to come straight from scripture. And the same feeling you feel is exactly what the people of Israel felt.

And the prophet Jeremiah was writing to them because they've been doing things on their own accord, in their own strength in Jeremiah. Chapter 17 is we're going to start today Jeremiah 17, verse 5. And I want you to see what this starts with. And as we're closing out 2025, I'm going to start with this verse. It says, thus says the Lord in verse Five.

Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. I did start with the good news because I knew I was going to read a verse that said, cursed is the man. So I'm so sorry that we're starting to end in 2025 right there. But what it's saying here, the power of this verse is it says, cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength. I've been there.

Even in this past year, there's been areas, there's been places where John Mark tried to fix it, where John Mark is in his own strength, tried to make it right, where John Mark tried to trust in his ability, his wisdom, his willpower, his ability to make the ends meet. And I know as a husband, as a dad, there's been ways in which you do that. You trust in your own flesh and your own ability, and unintentionally, all good intentions to try to do that. But unintentionally, what that does is it makes your heart turn away from depending upon the Lord. And look at what it describes about that man in verse six.

It says, he is like a shrub in the desert and shall not see any good. Come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness in an uninhabited salt land. Y'. All.

I've said this. I felt. When I read that in my mind, I felt like I shriveled up a little bit. Uninhabited salt land is like, man, I need some water, and there is none. It's salty.

And it said, there's. You're like a shrub. One translation said, you're rootless and aimless. Man, I've been in that place. And even as I think back on this year, there's places where I realized, man, I have trusted in my own strength and it's led me to nothing.

I've been parched, I've been weary, I've been dry. And I think as we go into 2026, what is it that we need then? To not feel that, to not experience that, to not walk in that. In verse seven, it begins to answer that question, said, blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. It's the complete opposite of saying, I'm going to do it in my own strength to say, no, God, I'm trusting you.

Blessed is the man. Happy is he who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. And this is what that picture looks like. It says in verse eight, he is like a tree planted by water that sends out its roots by the stream and does not fear when the heat comes, for its leaves remain green and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit. If I was taking a poll and I was asking you, would you want to have a fruitful year?

Would you want to walk in God's blessings? Would you want to experience everything that God has you in this year? Most people would say, yes, I want that. Yes, I want to walk in that. Yes, I desire to feel that.

Yes, I desire to accomplish that. But what I found is if we want to walk in what God blesses, I know myself, I've not always chosen to walk in the pattern that God has laid out in his word that says, these are the principles that lead to that blessing. It doesn't mean it's not hard. It doesn't mean it can sometimes be. Not what I desire to do.

But when I step into his plan, what ends up happening is the fruitfulness of this type of life. As a man who roots are by the stream and he does not fear when heat comes, because let me tell you, 20, 26 is gonna have some heat. I don't know what the heat's gonna look like. It may be a business transaction that goes south. It may be a kid struggle that begins to happen in your family.

It may be a sickness that begins to happen, but there's gonna be some heat come. And what's gonna allow you to have a fruitful life in the midst of the heat is what you're rooted to. There's going to be moments when drought comes. And what's going to allow you to experience fruitfulness even in the midst of drought, even in the midst of lack, even in the midst of seeing something. And it says in this scripture, you wouldn't even be anxious about it, is it's about what you're rooted to.

He would go on in verse nine and say, the heart is deceitful above all things. Desperately sick. Who can understand it? I've fallen so much into this before of, hey, follow your heart. Go where your heart leads you.

Do this man. Your heart is deceitful above all things. What I've come as I learn more of this word, as I read more of the scripture, is not follow your heart. It's no, let the Lord change the desires of your heart so that it's in alignment with him. You don't follow what you feel.

You follow what God's shaping you into becoming. In Jeremiah 17:10, he wraps it up and says, I, the Lord, search the heart and Test the mind to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.

As I was preparing and praying, I just felt like the Lord's like, hey, I want our people to walk into a fruitful season in their lives. Fruitful in their relationships, fruitful in their families, fruitful in business, fruitful in all that they do. And it comes when you begin to walk in my ways. And so what I'm gonna share with you today is nothing that's new. If you've been in church for a while, sometimes it's just a new angle, a new perspective.

But I'm gonna talk about four roots that produce certain fruit in your life. Because the roots of your life dictate the fruit that's produced in your life. So the first root we're gonna look at is the root of God's Word. When you become rooted in God's Word, it's going to create the fruit and produce the fruit of stability in your life. If there's one gift I could give you, one gift that I've come to fall in love with, is this word, this living is.

Active is sharper than any two edged sword. It changes me every time that I read it. It sharpens me, it shapes me. And more than just having a cup of coffee and scrolling through a couple verses, if you allow this Word to begin to shape your desires and shape who you are, it leads to the path of life. It is a stream of living water that begins to nourish your soul.

The places where you feel cracked and dry and weary, there is refreshment in a dry and weary world. Because you're not going to get it out there, but I promise you, you'll begin to get it right here.

And there's actually a study that's come out, it's called the center for Bible Engagement. And they've talked about what it takes to begin to see noticeable change in your life. When you begin to engage in God's Word, when you begin to read it, when you begin to live from it, when you begin to apply it to your life, if you read it one day a week, that's solid. It's better than no days a week, 100%. But it doesn't actually create some change in your life.

Two days a week, maybe a little bit, three days, you'll begin to see some noticeable change. But it actually doesn't stay sustainable when you begin to read the Bible four or more times a week. They call it the power of four. Four or more times a week, there is noticeable and significant change in many areas of your life as we go into 2026. If I could tell you, man, you know what?

You're going to feel less isolated. Loneliness is going to drop. Depression can go down, fear will go down that you'll actually find more fulfillment and value. You'll share your faith more, you'll memorize more scripture that you'll actually see, that you'll walk with more peace. Studies have shown that when you read the Bible four or more times a week, that begins to happen in your life.

And I think it's because you tip the scales. A week is seven days. Once you hit four. Now you've got more of God's word in your life and and less of the world in your life. I want you to check this graphic out and see some of these stats of what it says.

I think it's so powerful to think that when you read God's Word, it makes your faith become proactive instead of reactive. Up to 416% increase in sharing your faith, discipling others, and memorizing scripture, man, There is a 60% reduction in feeling like one can't please God. Feeling spiritually stagnant, difficulty forgiving yourself for others, that begins to go down. Feeling the need to hide. There's reduced behaviors that are not great, like family neglect, lying, lashing out in anger.

You want to experience in this life. You want to have the fruit of walking in true peace and walking out, a life that matters. It's when you begin to root yourself in God's word, the way Isaiah would put it. He says, the grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever. See, there is something in this life that withstands the test of time and has stood outside of time.

And that's God's Word, because let me tell you, there's a wave coming, there's a heat coming. There's something that's going to happen in 2026, this unexpected and not planned for and not prepared for. And if you want stability in your life, you got to root it in God's Word. The way Jesus would say it in the Sermon on the Mount is he who hears these words of mine and does them is like the man who built his house on the rock. And when the waves come and the storms come, they will not be destroyed.

Why we need to be rooted in God's Word is because we'll begin to understand what it looks like to stand on the foundation of who God is and what he has for you. Psalms one would say Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight. Oh, what would it be like if you delighted in the law of the Lord? Day and night you meditated on it. And look at this.

It says, he's like a tree planted by streams of water, and it yields fruit in season. And his leaf does not wither in all that he does. He prospers. You want to prosper. You want stability.

You want strength. You want the things that only come from the Lord and internal reality. It comes from getting in. God's word is where you become known about your value and your worth, is where you find your purpose. God's Word unveils all that.

And I'm telling you, if you could make one, not a New Year's resolution, not even a new habit, but a rhythm of connecting and experiencing God each and every day, it will shape you completely differently. Into the new year. There'll be a stability that will stand the test of time. So we'll be rooted in God's word. The second root, if we want a fruitful life, is being rooted in God's people.

And that fruit that's produced is strength. If you want to experience strength in the new year, you got to get rooted in God's people. This year, there's been some highs for me. There's been some lows for me. There's been a little bit of all over the place.

But one of the things that I intentionally had to focus in on is there was a pastor visiting here, and he was speaking to our team a little bit. And one of the things that he said was just. It impacted me deeply. He said, man, it. Every one of you needs to have a circle, a band of brothers or a circle of sisters.

You need to have somebody you can be vulnerable with and transparent with and do life with and open up with. And I left that day. I'd written that in my journal. I was like, I gotta have a band of brothers. I had been going through some different things, and so I called up some near, some far, and I was like, hey.

I was like, I gotta be honest with you. I gotta open up, I gotta share. I gotta do this. And I had to have some people that created strength around me and encouraged me and sharpened me and. And push me forward and continue to allow me to grow and to flourish into who God had called me to be.

See, what Scripture talks about is there's a difference between being rooted and being Planted and simply being potted. I don't know if y' all have ever seen you go to Lowe's or Home Depot or one of those places, they got the potted plants or the potted trees and they've got a pot right now, look, I'm telling you, my grandma, she's got a green thumb and she could bring my crispy Christmas tree back to life. I promise you she could. She's just like that. But still, she would tell you there's a limit to how much growth a potted plant can experience.

See, because a potted plant or a potted tree, they're in a pot, their roots are actually all enclosed and they can't spread and they can't grow and they can't. And they're isolated. It's one tree all by itself. Yet when you get a plant or a tree that is planted into the ground now, that growth is not limited and its root system begins to grow deep and begins to grow wide and can become interconnected. And that's called being planted.

There's a difference between being potted with God's people and coming and going and being planted with God's people. And what the promise of scripture says in Psalms 92:12, it says, the righteous flourish like the palm tree and, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord. And what occurs when you get planted in the house of the Lord is they flourish in the courts of our God, they'll bear fruit in old age, and they are full of SAP, and they are always green. I'm telling you, if you could walk in life and have a planted life, you're going to experience something new in 2026.

And I'm telling you at Grace Church, what we call, what the way that we've designed for you to get planted in God's house, we call it the growth track is step one, step two, and step three. It's not just a name of a, of a system. It's literally how we believe you get planted into the ecosystem of Grace Church is how your roots come out of the pot. And you, you go from being self isolated in your one pot. Because let me tell you, when you're in a pot and the winds come at Home Depot, those things blow over because it has no stability, there's no width to it, there's no strength to it.

But when you get planted into God's house, this is what John Mark did when I got planted in step three, and we started a fantasy football group that's When I said I had friends at Grace Church, I'm serious. But those same friends are who showed up when we had our second child. Those same friends when we went to launch a campus are who showed up and rallied behind us. And it's the same thing for you because the wind of life is gonna come, the waves of life are gonna come. And if you've yet to get out of your own ecosystem and plant into the ecosystem of spiritual, spiritual family, you'll.

You will not experience the benefits of the strength that is the spiritual family. Putting a connect card in and checking sign me up for step one for some people is a massive step. But let me tell you, the seed of that potential is a ecosystem of support and growth that will nourish you and allow you to flourish in this season of life. And I've heard it, I know it, I've been it. I'm only gonna be here two years.

Why would I get planted, man, I'm only gonna. Man, I gotta get this degree first. I don't have time for it or man, we've got this thing with the kids and we've got. If you don't prioritize the relationships of today and get planted when the storms of tomorrow come, they're not gonna be there. If I can encourage you in anything going into 2026, get rooted in God's word, but get rooted in God's people.

I need God's people. I have a group of guys that they sharpen me, they encourage me, they get around me. And this year in Hebrews it says this Hebrews 10:24. Let us not consider how to stir up one another for love and good works. Not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as the day comes near.

Man, I started this small group and every person in the group is all older than me. We've joked now that they're called the wise guys. They're former CEOs, they're retired, they're empty nesters, they're all this. But they have so encouraged me. They've built faith into my heart, into my life.

And I came in like, man, I gotta share something, I got to give. And we've created this environment that has allowed strength to happen and growth to happen. Because we say here at Grace Church, we're better and stronger together. And if I could engage you in any way, if you've never done the growth track, if you've never gotten planted, I want you to flourish so bad. Everyone at Alamance I want you to grow and flourish and be fruitful.

And it happens when you get planted in the courts of God, in this house and in this place. So you're gonna get rooted in God's word. It creates stability rooted in God's people. It creates a strength. When you get rooted in God's mission, man.

Fulfillment is the fruit that's produced. There's a fulfillment that comes when you root in God's mission. I know for me, the past couple days it's just been so cool to be with family and close to those that you love. I'm sure many of you have been doing that and spending some quality time with those. And I had the opportunity to spend some time with my grandmother.

She's 91 years old. She's my last grandparent that's still alive. And she lives around the home that I grew up in. And so I was there. And she doesn't drive anymore, but she lives by herself.

And my dad had brought her over for Christmas Day. And so that night me and my dad drove her back home to her house and I was sitting in the backseat and I was blown away by my 91 year old grandmother. I mean, she is so fulfilled right now. And so living on God's mission. I was like, let's go.

I mean, I almost choked up in the back because she starts sharing this story about over the last month or so, maybe a little bit longer, but she's met a single mom who lives in her neighborhood and she started to text her every single day with a Bible version and encouragement and discipling this. I think she's about my age, in her 30s and got two kids and all this, but I love this. She was like, yeah. When I first met her, we were sitting down and I said, hey, do you know Jesus? And she's like, oh, I know who Jesus.

She goes, no, no, no, because before I meet Jesus, I'm going to make sure you know Jesus. And I'm like, my 91 year old grandmama is on mission. She's fulfilled. She's not waiting to go home. Yeah, she would love to go see the Lord 100% and all that.

But no, no, no, she, she's like, if I'm still breathing, I'm still on mission. Then I find out in this car ride she's selling quilts on Facebook, Marketplace. I'm like, what? Meeting people? I said, she doesn't have a Facebook.

She's found somebody that has a Facebook who's putting it on Marketplace for her. I was like, this is Incredible. And this quilt that she had knitted, she's taken what she made from it to send over. She said, I can't go overseas, but I can support that over there. And making an impact for Christ.

You talk about being fulfilled, that's crazy. And that's what God has called each and every one of us to do. If you want to be fulfilled in 2026, I want you to know something. You've been shoulder tapped by God to co labor with Him. He has given us the Great Commission.

It's the Great Commandment, but it's the Great Commission. He says, hey, this is the mission. This is the focus. It's where we get our vision here at Grace Church. Matthew 28, 18:20 says, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.

Go therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. Let me tell you something. If you're a mom, you're not simply changing diapers. You're making disciples in your home as a business owner.

You're not simply running a company. God has given you influence to infiltrate that company with godly values and godly principles and open hearts with your generosity and your kindness. College student, you're not just walking around on the quad. You've been placed as an ambassador by God and you've been placed in that room and placed in that classroom and placed in that dorm to live on mission for Jesus. If you want to find fulfillment in 2026, it comes in not by doing things in your own strength and in your own might and in your own flesh, but trusting in the Lord and walking in what he's put in front of you because he's given you good works to walk in even before you woke up this morning, place people in front of you.

And I'm telling you, if you want to experience fulfillment, begin to step into. What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus? What does it mean to follow him and walk with him? And in the new year, that's why we're doing a whole series called Disciple. Because when we chose to follow Jesus, if you know him as your Lord and know him as your Savior, what you said is, I'm a disciple.

So we're gonna take eight weeks and we're gonna talk about what does it look like vertically to be a disciple. And then in our small groups, we're gonna talk about what does it look like to have relationships as a disciple? How do I make disciples? How do I invest spiritually into my family? How do I invest spiritually into those around me?

How do I live this great commission? If that's the aim, if that's the finish line, if that's what I've been shoulder tapped into, how do I begin to do that? Maybe your step today is to say, you know what, I want to lead one of those disciple groups. I've got time before my business opens. I'm going to, I'm going to host it at my business or I'm going to host it at the Alamance Ministry Hub, or I'm going to open my home or go to a coffee shop or I'm going to do something on campus where I have influence.

And we're gonna gather and we're gonna sit and we're gonna do life together. We're gonna find and build some strength and we're gonna grow healthy by learning what it looks like to follow Jesus and make other disciples. I'm telling you, it's some of the greatest fulfillment you'll ever find. More than any sale you ever make, more than anything else you'll ever do. That's where fulfillment comes.

I had the privilege of talking to somebody recently, just after Christmas, a young dad. And he was sharing how deeply impactful it was that over this past year, two of their kids had given their hearts to Jesus. So they gifted their two kids Bibles for Christmas. And to see their kids opening the Bible, reading from God's Word. And let me tell you, you want to talk about fulfillment, there's nothing better than knowing that you've made disciples in your own home.

Such a powerful and practical thing. So we want to root in God's word. It creates stability, root with God's people. It creates strength rooted in God's mission's fulfillment. This last root transparently is what allows all the other ones to produce real fruit.

All these other routes done without this one can feel very much like self striving and self effort. And I've done that before. And what's so powerful about fruit? If you've ever been by an apple tree or a banana tree or an orange tree, like down in Florida, and you see those oranges, the fruit that's produced is never actually for the tree. The fruit that's produced is always for other people.

And I've never actually walked by a tree and heard it going, producing a banana today. But how many times do we do that with our walk With Jesus, I'm going to grit my teeth, I'm going to read God's word. He's going to make me more patient. The fruitfulness of your life is produced simply by walking in the lavish grace and goodness that God's given you. So the last root is being rooted in God's presence, rooted in God's presence, and it produces the fruit of joy.

So that you're not doing this out of striving or out of effort, but you're doing it from a secure place with the Lord. You're doing it from a place where you know that God has already gone before you and there's an internal joy that cannot be robbed from you. It's not an external thing that dictates the level of joy you have. It's an internal reality of knowing who God's called and created you to be. David would write In Psalms chapter 16, verse 11, he says, you make known to me the path of life.

That's what getting in God's word is about, is saying, God, I'm opening this word because I need your presence every day to begin to reveal to me the path of life. God, I need wisdom from you today as I head into this meeting, God, I don't know how to parent an 8 year old and a 6 year old and a 22 month old. I need your wisdom, God, how do I raise them in the things of the Lord? Hey God, I need the wisdom on how to continue to date my wife as we grow old together. Hey God, I've never lost someone in my family like this.

How do I. He wants to give you the wisdom you need in the path of your life. And then it says in your presence is the fullness of joy. That as you begin to get into the presence of God, there's the fullness of joy. And at your right hand are pleasures forever more.

When you begin to walk in God's presence, the fruit that comes from your life is a natural byproduct of simply being with God. It's not in doing more, it's in enjoying his presence more. As a church, we begin to start our year off with what we call Prepare. Prepare is 21 days of prayer and fasting. This year is called prepare 26.

Because as we go into 2026, more than great to do lists, more than great goals, more than great ambitions, the number one thing we need the most of is God's presence. And this Thursday night we are kicking that off in the Chapel Hill Campus Worship Center Alamance. We're all coming Together, one church in two locations. But that night is one church in one location. We're getting everybody under one roof because we're going to seek God together.

We're going to worship God together. Pastor Kendrick's got a great message of encouragement as we kick the year off. And we're gonna start the year by saying, God, we will desire more of your presence. We desire more of your spirit. We desire more of you.

And we're gonna ask for that. We're gonna worship and pray, and then the fasting is gonna start on the second because we're gonna have food trucks and free Chick Fil a for kids at 5:30. And so come ready to engage with God's people and then ready to seek God together. And I want to encourage you. One of the greatest ways to draw near to God, one of the most practical, real ways to do it is by fasting.

If you've never fasted before, I want to share with you four different types of fast. But fasting is a mark of a disciple. In the same Sermon on the Mount, it talks about it two times. And Jesus said this. He says, when you fast, you'll do it this way.

When you fast, put oil in your head so people don't know all these things. And what I want you to catch there is he says, when you fast, not if you fast. So as a follower of Jesus in our relationship and our rhythm with who God is, fasting is a biblical practice. It was not invented just to lose weight. It's invented to deny the desires of your flesh so that you can experience more of the presence of God.

Biblical fasting is the denial of food so that we can hear more clearly from the presence and the voice of God. And so instead of eating breakfast, I'm gonna open God's word and spend time with him. Instead of preparing a meal at lunchtime, I'm gonna take a break. I don't just work more. I spend more time with God.

At night, instead of just sitting around the table, I'm gonna sit around the table and focus on God's presence and pray and invite him in. And so there's different fasts that are seen throughout the Bible and modeled throughout the Bible. The first type would be called a normal fast, which is water only. That means all you do for 21 days was you would just drink water. And we see this model by Jesus and Elijah, and that's like.

It's wild. So if you've never done that fast before, I would seek some wisdom and some advice about that because there is a little bit of preparation for your body just to be prepared to do that. And coming off the fast. And so what you're saying is, hey, I don't, I'm not gonna eat, I'm just gonna drink water only. And so we wanna do things to check with healthcare or whatnot.

And then the second fast is called a partial fast. And this is where you limit certain foods or meals. Maybe you do sun up to sundown, maybe there's three days in the 21 days where you only do water, maybe you limit sugar, maybe you take out sodas, maybe, but you're going to remove certain foods so that you can focus on the presence and the, and the purpose and who God is in your life. And then the Daniel fast is the fast that Daniel did when he was in captivity. And him and his, his men, they did this for, for a certain period of time to prove that God was faithful.

And in the Daniel fast, they eat fruits and veggies and water only. And so there's all the info online about that. But that is a great fast to do. Me and my wife have done that one before. Grains and certain things that you can eat.

And it's not so much staying religiously on exactly what it is. It's about saying, God, what am I going to give up to make room for you? So if you've never fasted, I want to invite you. I really want to just challenge you, to come into that journey with you. And it's great to do it with God's people.

Because the days that you wake up and you're like, man, I didn't have my coffee and I gave up coffee and I'm getting heated, you got some people that encourage you along the journey. The last type of fast is called an idle fast. And this is simply one that anything that's taken first place in your heart or taken away from your attention from God, maybe it's social media, maybe it's something that you've. Maybe you just feel like you've been working too much. Maybe it's media in general and movies and et cetera, and you're gonna pull back from that.

You're gonna take a reprieve for 21 days and focus on the presence of God. What I found when we do this is every time God's presence replaces it with a fullness and a joy that none of the pleasures of this world would ever do. And God speaks clearly and you can seek him in a real way. So we've got all the info out in the lobby as well. But grab one of these devotionals.

We're gonna read through the Book of John together. It's gonna be powerful in the morning. So January 2nd all the way to 21, 7am to 7:45am we'll be at the ministry hub in Alamance. In this worship center here in Chapel Hill. Two songs of worship, a devotional thought, and then time to read John the chapter we have that day.

And then we're gonna have a prayer thought there at the end. But it's gonna be an encouraging time together to really grow. I'm telling you, I really believe this year can be your most fruitful year if it's your most rooted year. As we root in God's word, as we root in God's people, as we root in God's mission, and really as we root in God's presence, I really believe God's going to do some powerful things.

I don't know if your soul feels like a crispy Christmas tree, but when I was reading Jeremiah 17, this is the picture that I saw. This is a picture of Death Valley in California in 2004. Maybe your soul feels this way even today, cracked dry. Maybe there's some dead things in your life, like that carcass is there at the front. Maybe this past year you felt pretty beat up.

Maybe a relationship died, maybe a business died. Maybe. I don't know what may have died.

When I read Jeremiah 17, it just. It painted a picture in my mind so clearly that our souls can be in a dry and dreary land where it feels like there is no water and there's no rest and there's nothing that can nourish our soul. I'm not sure where you're at today in Alamance or where you're at in this room, but you may be feeling and sensing a weariness, a heaviness, a dryness, and that at any moment your life might be like that tree. It might go up in smoke.

I'm not trying to give any shoulds and alts. I'm literally praying. And what I've been seeing the Lord do is say, you know what? There is a refreshing rain I want to send on my people. At the start of the year, there's a refreshing rain that I want to get into the nooks and the crannies and the cracks.

And as they get planted into my house, as they get planted with my people, as they open up this word, I'm going to refresh their soul in a real way. You may be saying, john, Mark, there's open. God's word. Like, I don't even know where to start. Like.

Like stepping into a group or doing this, this growth track. Like what? Like, I don't even know what that looks like. I'm telling you. The seeds of strength and the seeds of fruitfulness and the seeds of belief and the seeds of fulfillment that are already in your heart and go.

God's just looking for a place to water it. This picture of Death Valley is from 2004, and it's the hottest place in North America in the summer. Supposedly upwards of 134 degrees. I'm like, that's hot. That's real hot.

In the winter of that year, they experienced something very crazy. They got seven inches of rainfall. And it was always known that nothing could survive in Death Valley, that nothing could make it. Much like Jeremiah 17, it was an unparched. I mean, an uninhabited salt land, maybe like you feel today.

But that winter, they got seven inches of rain. Seven inches of rain. Let me tell you, God wants to rain on your heart today.

In that spring of 2005, they had what was called a super bloom. You'll see this picture behind me. But it began to see all these colors and radiant things because, see the seeds, it's not that they weren't there. They were just simply dormant. The conditions just weren't right.

My heart for you today, what I have been so passionate about today is if you could get the conditions, conditions of your roots right as you go into 2026, you're going to experience the most fruitful year of your life. And I'm not sure what next step you need, but I want to see all the colors begin to come out in your life. All the places of your. Of your journey, of your spiritual life, of your relationships. And in your business.

God wants it to flourish. And what happens is you just got to get the conditions right. You got to say, not no, God, I'm to going to delight in your word. I'm going to open it up. I am going to plant with your people.

Even if I'm here for a limited time, I'm going to trust you, God. I'm not going to do it in my own strength. So I'm not sure where you're at today, but I'm going to pray a blessing over all of us. And then what I'm going to do is take a moment and if you've never received Jesus, I want to invite you to join me in praying that prayer. Maybe you've been sitting here and thinking, man, I am dry and weary and you wish you had a 91 year old grandmama to text you, she would tell you this.

I want to make sure you know Jesus before I meet him. And that's what I want to do today. If you don't know Jesus, I want to make sure you don't leave this room without knowing him. Would y' all bow with me? God, thank you so much for the opportunity to share your word.

And God, I thank you that you want us to flourish and to grow and to be fruitful. And God, we are just truly trusting you. And God, I'm trusting you that every person under the sound of my voice, even right now, God, that you're just sending a refreshing ring rain every crevice, every crack, every place they're weary and dry. God, you just fill them right now. Just let them receive just a fresh breath as they go into 2026.

God, let them experience your presence in a real way. God, we're praying that we'd have strength in our relationships. God, we're praying stability from your word. God, we're praying that we'd find fulfillment from joining you in the mission of reaching people and building lives. God, we just thank you so much that you give us unspeakable joy in your presence.

And God, right now, any person that doesn't know you, I'm just going to invite you to pray this prayer with me. And there's no magic in the prayer. It's a confession of your faith saying, God, I trust you and not my own strength. You can pray with me now. Say, dear Jesus, my soul is dry and weary.

I need you. I've done this in my own strength. I choose to trust you today.

Thank you for dying on the cross for my sin.

Thank you for becoming the king of my life. Thank you for letting me walk in your purpose and plan. In Jesus name, amen.