SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us on the CCW podcast.
SPEAKER_00: Make sure you connect with us on social media to stay up to date on ministries and events happening at CCW.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you're encouraged, inspired, and motivated by today's message.
SPEAKER_00: To find out how to connect with us, keep listening after the message ends.
SPEAKER_02: Welcome to our Vision Sunday service.
SPEAKER_02: And I want to thank you for being here.
SPEAKER_02: Take your Bibles and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
SPEAKER_02: As you're turning there, I have two quick commercials.
SPEAKER_02: One connect group season is upon us.
SPEAKER_02: We had a big break at the end of Thanksgiving till now, but January 18th, next Sunday, is the start of our Connect Groups.
SPEAKER_02: And so if you're not ever been a part of a group, I want to ask you to think and pray even during this service.
SPEAKER_02: And if you can, you can go on our app and you can see.
SPEAKER_02: I listed out the names, but it would take me a while.
SPEAKER_02: There are 11 different groups that you can sign up for Monday through, I think every day, but Saturday.
SPEAKER_02: And there are a couple of multiple times.
SPEAKER_02: But this is a major means of discipleship for the church at Chelsea Westover.
SPEAKER_02: So please, if you have not, and some folks you've been here for a while, this is a way to get deeper with others.
SPEAKER_02: It's a way to get to know people.
SPEAKER_02: We really want you to be involved in a connect group.
SPEAKER_02: So please check that out and sign up.
SPEAKER_02: And then one other kind of really, not kind of, an exciting thing has happened for the church.
SPEAKER_02: We nominated and we voted this past December to install the first ever set of deacons at the church at Chelsea Westover.
SPEAKER_02: So that's really exciting.
SPEAKER_02: And we are going to commission those deacons and our new councilmen on February the 1st.
SPEAKER_02: We're going to have lunch after church and doing that.
SPEAKER_02: But in the meantime, you may be getting calls and texts from your deacon.
SPEAKER_02: And I wanted to let you know that's legit.
SPEAKER_02: And they're calling to check on you.
SPEAKER_02: If you're like, I don't know who you are, okay.
SPEAKER_02: We got your name.
SPEAKER_02: We're going to follow up.
SPEAKER_02: We want to be a church that shepherds and cares for people.
SPEAKER_02: So I told them I would let you know that's coming.
SPEAKER_02: Now, 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
SPEAKER_02: In 1836 in San Antonio, Texas, a group of men were at a crumbling stone mission, and everything that surrounded them was bleak.
SPEAKER_02: The sound was bleak.
SPEAKER_02: There were thousands of enemy soldiers, and there was just a few hundred men, and they had found a place to hole up.
SPEAKER_02: And where they were at, there was not an escape route.
SPEAKER_02: But what they could hear was drums in the distance.
SPEAKER_02: And that sound was a sound of bleakness marching towards them.
SPEAKER_02: Colonel Travis took his sword and he swiped it across the ground and he said this men, if you're willing to fight, cross this line and stand with me.
SPEAKER_02: No backup, no escape route.
SPEAKER_02: And chiefly, all the men there walked across that line.
SPEAKER_02: In 2026, I am endeavoring to share with you a vision that God gave me in July as I prayed about our church in 2026.
SPEAKER_02: In July, God impressed in my heart these words hold the line.
SPEAKER_02: Hold the line because a decision to hold the line is more than just a moment or your moment.
SPEAKER_02: It's a decision that shapes the spiritual future of the family around you and shapes our community and our church.
SPEAKER_02: Hold the line.
SPEAKER_02: Would you pray with me?
SPEAKER_02: Father, we love you and we are thankful for the praise and worship we've had, for the service that we've already had.
SPEAKER_02: But God, we, Lord, ask that your Holy Spirit would just move fresh this morning, fall on us.
SPEAKER_02: Empty us of ourselves, God.
SPEAKER_02: We come in and there's already a list.
SPEAKER_02: There's things that are to come.
SPEAKER_02: God, I pray that you would just remove it and let us in this moment of time and space just be completely present for your word and its work.
SPEAKER_02: Empty us of self, fill us with you, and change our hearts, God.
SPEAKER_02: Change us, we ask in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: We found out the last few weeks and we intended going into the new year to give a picture of what this line was about.
SPEAKER_02: Hold the line two weeks ago, I preached a sermon on the plumb line.
SPEAKER_02: That was that was be obedience to this line, the word of God.
SPEAKER_02: And Pastor Dave shared last week about standing in obedience.
SPEAKER_02: And so holding that line is about being unmoved by the pressure and conveniences of culture.
SPEAKER_02: And I searched through scripture, and we're gonna be looking in Genesis through the life of Joseph for the next several weeks, but I thought about a theme passage, and I came to 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
SPEAKER_02: Herbert Fitzpatrick was an 80-year-old pastor who sat on my ordination council and he asked me a question, and I thought I had it right.
SPEAKER_02: He said, Tell us what is the greatest gospel passage in the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: I was like, oh young 23-year-old, 24-year-old pastor, I got it.
SPEAKER_02: I said, John 3, obviously, there holds John 3, 16.
SPEAKER_02: And now this is opinion, but he said, that's a great one.
SPEAKER_02: But you cannot go without preaching 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
SPEAKER_02: He said before that group of men, I believe this is the greatest passage in all the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: And he said that within 1 Corinthians 15, verse 58, he said, In there is the great, therefore.
SPEAKER_02: Let's read 1 Corinthians 15, 58.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: So we have to understand point number one: the promise that motivates us is this great therefore.
SPEAKER_02: The promise that motivates us is 57 verses before verse 58.
SPEAKER_02: And it's riddled throughout these pages.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to look at a few.
SPEAKER_02: Go back to verse 45 through 47, and we're gonna see about this therefore.
SPEAKER_02: It says this, verse 45.
SPEAKER_02: And so it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living being.
SPEAKER_02: The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
SPEAKER_02: However, the spirit, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual.
SPEAKER_02: The first man was of earth, made of dust, the second man is the Lord from heaven.
SPEAKER_02: Now I want you to go to verse 50 and 53 through 53 for context.
SPEAKER_02: Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit corruption.
SPEAKER_02: Behold, I tell you a mystery, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.
SPEAKER_02: In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
SPEAKER_02: For this corruptible, me, you, must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
SPEAKER_02: This is the promise that motivates.
SPEAKER_02: The letter A is this it's a transformation that's coming.
SPEAKER_02: We, you and I, are firstborns, born of the first Adam.
SPEAKER_02: How many of you are actually firstborns?
SPEAKER_02: Raise your hand.
SPEAKER_02: Y'all are the people that straighten us up, right?
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: Dot the I's and cross the T's, we understand.
SPEAKER_02: But we are all, in a sense, firstborn of the firstborn, firstborn of a natural man.
SPEAKER_02: But of the natural man, what the scripture says, because of that lineage, you and I cannot inherit heaven.
SPEAKER_02: That is, the flesh cannot inherit the spiritual.
SPEAKER_02: And so corruption, sin, flesh cannot inherit perfection.
SPEAKER_02: But verse 45, it says this.
SPEAKER_02: It doesn't leave us there with no hope.
SPEAKER_02: It says that last Adam came and it was spiritual.
SPEAKER_02: Paul says that a day is coming.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to go back to verse 12.
SPEAKER_02: A little more context.
SPEAKER_02: Getting our scripture in.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 12.
SPEAKER_02: Now, if Christ is preached that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
SPEAKER_02: If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen.
SPEAKER_02: And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is empty.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ, whom he did not raise up.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, the dead do not rise.
SPEAKER_02: For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen.
SPEAKER_02: And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile, you are still in your sins.
SPEAKER_02: Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have peris.
SPEAKER_02: If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most pitiable.
SPEAKER_02: But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
SPEAKER_02: He says, if Christ is not risen, hear this, Jesus is not God.
SPEAKER_02: If Christ is not risen, the Trinity of Jesus Christ is a lie.
SPEAKER_02: If Christ is not risen, Jesus Christ is a liar.
SPEAKER_02: The church is a lie.
SPEAKER_02: If Christ is not risen, preaching is empty.
SPEAKER_02: If Christ is not risen, faith is empty, worship is empty.
SPEAKER_02: We are all empty, and there is no line to be held.
SPEAKER_02: If Christ is not risen, but because he lives.
SPEAKER_02: I want to share this truth because he lives.
SPEAKER_02: I want to hold a line because he lives.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know what 2025 fed you.
SPEAKER_02: For some here, you have hurt from 2025.
SPEAKER_02: For some people, you lost someone or something.
SPEAKER_02: You had a health scare in 2025.
SPEAKER_02: But I want to tell you, because he lives, you can get up in 26 and hold the line, knowing this, one day, this is what it's come back to, a change is going to be complete.
SPEAKER_02: A metamorphosis is going to be complete.
SPEAKER_02: It's going to be done.
SPEAKER_02: I wouldn't call myself gluttonous, but I do have problems.
SPEAKER_02: And they tell me that the first step is admitting.
SPEAKER_02: Wyatt last week said you want to work out a little bit after church.
SPEAKER_02: I said, Yeah, I want to work out.
SPEAKER_02: So we went in and we got after about an hour, hour and a half.
SPEAKER_02: I come home, and this is a sign of my age.
SPEAKER_02: I got all kinds of presents that are supposed to make me healthy.
SPEAKER_02: I got an infrared light, red light therapy little thing.
SPEAKER_02: So I got some red light.
SPEAKER_02: I got a sauna mat.
SPEAKER_02: I'm serious.
SPEAKER_02: They want me to be healthy.
SPEAKER_02: And so I got in my sauna mat and I sweated a little bit and uh I'm I'm feeling all those things.
SPEAKER_02: But there I was sitting, people were in other rooms, and I just said I have a problem.
SPEAKER_02: And a little birdie was chirping from across the house.
SPEAKER_02: It said, Richard, Richard, there's Bluebell, vanilla bead, ice cream in the freezer, and it's your favorite.
SPEAKER_02: And I looked left and I looked right and I knew nobody would see me.
SPEAKER_02: And I said, I can't do this, it's the new year.
SPEAKER_02: But then it said it again, Richard.
SPEAKER_02: And so I walked in there and I said, one scoop would be fine, two scoops would be fine, three scoops would be better.
SPEAKER_02: And then I just about got my spoon and I said, Ooh, peanut butter.
SPEAKER_02: And I warmed up some peanut butter, and I thought that'll just be fine.
SPEAKER_02: I said, Oh, there's some pecan.
SPEAKER_02: That made it healthy.
SPEAKER_02: And so I was willing to work two hours, two and a half hours on my health, but I didn't hold no line when that vanilla bean came calling.
SPEAKER_02: I'm so glad that God's work isn't finished at salvation.
SPEAKER_02: He is into change.
SPEAKER_02: Philippians 1 6 said this, being confident in this very thing, he who hath begun a good work in you will be faithful to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: There's a transformation date stamped.
SPEAKER_02: 2 Corinthians 5.17 said, if any man be in Christ, he will be a new creation.
SPEAKER_02: Old things are passed away.
SPEAKER_02: Behold, all things are become new.
SPEAKER_02: Ephesians 4.22 says, put off your former self, which is about your old man and your old lust.
SPEAKER_02: So if you're here today and you're recently a Christian, I've got good news for you.
SPEAKER_02: Change is needed.
SPEAKER_02: If you're here today and you're 25 years a Christian, I've got news for you.
SPEAKER_02: Change is needed.
SPEAKER_02: Please don't be settled in all your way.
SPEAKER_02: God bids us to transform.
SPEAKER_02: He says, be renewed in the spirit of your mind.
SPEAKER_02: Be transformed, because if you're not transformed, guess what you're going to be?
SPEAKER_02: You're going to be conformed.
SPEAKER_02: So transformed.
SPEAKER_02: Now, this I understand on Vision Sunday is a burdensome weight.
SPEAKER_02: This truth that we have not arrived.
SPEAKER_02: But it's important for the year to come that you envision this.
SPEAKER_02: That change is necessary.
SPEAKER_02: So I want you to stop, if you will, for a moment and prayerfully, this little next few things that I ask or say, I want you to prayerfully think over this.
SPEAKER_02: Ask God, what would you change in me, God, if I said yes?
SPEAKER_02: I want you to think on that.
SPEAKER_02: How should I change God if I were willing?
SPEAKER_02: If you follow and love Jesus Christ in the church, you should not look like people who don't.
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to say that again.
SPEAKER_02: If you follow and love Jesus Christ, you should not look like people who don't.
SPEAKER_02: So in 26, is there a TV show that you could cut?
SPEAKER_02: Is there an artist that shouldn't be in your ears?
SPEAKER_02: Is there a place that you should probably think on stopping and not going to?
SPEAKER_02: Is there words that shouldn't come out of your mouth?
SPEAKER_02: What habit, if you said yes, should you stop?
SPEAKER_02: We're coming upon 21 days of prayer and fasting today.
SPEAKER_02: And I want to just challenge you, dare you.
SPEAKER_02: Would you stop something and see in 21 days if it really is impacting your heart and life to miss it?
SPEAKER_02: If you don't change, church, Romans said you will be conformed, be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
SPEAKER_02: So there is a change that motivates us.
SPEAKER_02: We will one day, and I know it's a struggle, it's hard to be flesh.
SPEAKER_02: It's not easy, it's this tug of war.
SPEAKER_02: But we are motivated, 1 Corinthians 15.
SPEAKER_02: There is a final, a glorification.
SPEAKER_02: Letter B is that.
SPEAKER_02: A triumph is certain.
SPEAKER_02: It's said there in 1 Corinthians 15, incorruption triumphs over corruption one day.
SPEAKER_02: Glory triumphs over dishonor.
SPEAKER_02: This is what Spurgeon said about it.
SPEAKER_02: He said, The righteous are put into their graves, all weary and worn, but as such they will not rise.
SPEAKER_02: They go there with furrowed brow, the hollowed cheek, wrinkled skin.
SPEAKER_02: But one day they shall wake up in beauty and glory.
SPEAKER_02: One day it's going to be complete.
SPEAKER_02: Since November, I have had some form of what I'm going to call tennis elbow.
SPEAKER_02: I really don't know.
SPEAKER_02: Many of you have given me thoughts and ideas, and I have tried.
SPEAKER_02: Heather will tell you, I'm a home remedy.
SPEAKER_02: If I can make something fixed, I try.
SPEAKER_02: I've iced, I've heated, I've read light therapied, I've, you know, done things, and it's not, I'm not in pain right now, but it's just sort of annoying.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: I've put on my Epsom salts.
SPEAKER_02: I've done it.
SPEAKER_02: I've done things.
SPEAKER_02: Except for change my diet, but I've done things.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if that helps the elbow.
SPEAKER_02: But I went to see the doctor last week.
SPEAKER_02: And you know what the doctor said?
SPEAKER_02: He said, she said, How long has this been going on?
SPEAKER_02: I said, like since November, maybe a little early.
SPEAKER_02: She said, Oh, so it's a chronic condition.
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, well, we don't have to name call.
SPEAKER_02: Why does it gotta be chronic?
SPEAKER_02: Like, I'm chronically feeble?
SPEAKER_02: Is this what you're saying?
SPEAKER_02: This is like, this is just a condition?
SPEAKER_02: This is something I live with.
SPEAKER_02: I'm chronically ill.
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, Well, I didn't like that.
SPEAKER_02: And so, anyway, but I've been living with it.
SPEAKER_02: You all live with things.
SPEAKER_02: Most of you, if I had to talk to you outside, you have aches and you have some sort of pains.
SPEAKER_02: Most people go through that.
SPEAKER_02: If you're too young to have that, God bless you.
SPEAKER_02: Like, energy is wasted on the youth.
SPEAKER_02: I wish you could understand what you have.
SPEAKER_02: It's beautiful.
SPEAKER_02: But one day, church, we will understand through a new lens.
SPEAKER_02: It's gonna be a perfect lens.
SPEAKER_02: We will see in a complete way.
SPEAKER_02: We will feel outside of this bubble of infirmity.
SPEAKER_02: When you see it in scripture, a few times people see a glimpse of something like glory, and it changed them.
SPEAKER_02: The glory of God, this glorified condition that one day is this promise.
SPEAKER_02: And Moses' face when he saw the backside of God, it's an imagery of God passing his glory.
SPEAKER_02: His face shone at Christ's transfiguration on the mountain.
SPEAKER_02: These men met with the glory of God and it changed them.
SPEAKER_02: And they said, We just want to set up and pitch a tent and just stay right here.
SPEAKER_02: And then Stephen, as he was passing on as a martyr of the faith, it says something about his countenance.
SPEAKER_02: When humanity was faced with the semblance of God's glory, it gave this mysterious glow.
SPEAKER_02: Have you ever seen somebody who was walking without Christ, who came to know Christ?
SPEAKER_02: All of a sudden, you seen a smile that you'd never seen before.
SPEAKER_02: Their face seemed to change.
SPEAKER_02: I know when Heather was pregnant with the kids, people would say this my whole life.
SPEAKER_02: They have a glow.
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_02: And then I seen her and I knew what it meant.
SPEAKER_02: Something natural, something God-given has happened, and there was this glow.
SPEAKER_02: The kids today are saying this all the time.
SPEAKER_02: He got a glow up.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know what that means.
SPEAKER_02: I probably need one.
SPEAKER_02: He got a glow up, right?
SPEAKER_02: Heaven is the greatest story of a glow-up.
SPEAKER_02: God creating a perfect people who lost it all, and that God in turn gave everything in his Son Jesus Christ, who gave us the chance to one day regain all that was lost.
SPEAKER_02: We return to the glory when we're glorified by God's giving of grace.
SPEAKER_02: It's a beautiful picture.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to look in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 just for a moment.
SPEAKER_02: We'll look at verse 1 and then 6 through 8, talking about this certain triumph.
SPEAKER_02: It says, For we know, verse 1, that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, and then verse 6 through 8.
SPEAKER_02: So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: For we walk by faith, not by sight.
SPEAKER_02: We are confident, yes, well pleased, rather to be absent from the body and be present from the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: One day.
SPEAKER_02: This is the promise that motivates the great, therefore.
SPEAKER_02: He says, one day, all of this, this shell, this pain, this hurt, all of that is going to come to a completion state, and that's called glorification.
SPEAKER_02: That moves us to the second point.
SPEAKER_02: That was what motivates us too, is the power that moves in us.
SPEAKER_02: Look at First Corinthians 15, 54 through 56.
SPEAKER_02: So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory.
SPEAKER_02: O death, where is your sting?
SPEAKER_02: O Hades, where is your victory?
SPEAKER_02: The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
SPEAKER_02: But thanks be to God who gives us the victory.
SPEAKER_02: Letter A, is this the victory that's been declared?
SPEAKER_02: You see, if it all stopped with that therefore ending, as this is just the incorruption doesn't work, then we would be most miserable, pitiable, scripture says.
SPEAKER_02: But it goes on and it says the sting of death is sin.
SPEAKER_02: This sin that happened to Romans 3.23, 6.23 for the wages of sin, this sin that all men have within them, the language of sin pictures death as an insect with a poisonous sting.
SPEAKER_02: Death sting is our sin.
SPEAKER_02: And Romans 3.23 says, For all have that.
SPEAKER_02: Not anyone here doesn't have that.
SPEAKER_02: Stings.
SPEAKER_02: Little sins and big sins sting us.
SPEAKER_02: Sinful words and deeds sting us.
SPEAKER_02: Sinful attitudes and hard actions conduct sting in us.
SPEAKER_02: Public sins and private sins sting us.
SPEAKER_02: Sins of commission and sins of omission sting us.
SPEAKER_02: And they defeat us.
SPEAKER_02: And if we were left alone to that, we would feel defeated.
SPEAKER_02: In my illustrious sports career, in 19, I think 90 or 91, I started playing little league baseball.
SPEAKER_02: Never had any experience with it before that.
SPEAKER_02: Some of y'all, today you gotta start them at two and a half.
SPEAKER_02: Just put a bat in their hand.
SPEAKER_02: And uh I was nine, late start.
SPEAKER_02: But by 10, my team, we had an all-star team that was put together for the state, and we won the Delaware State Championship.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, we won.
SPEAKER_02: Y'all aren't that excited about this.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, we won.
SPEAKER_02: State.
SPEAKER_02: Brookside Bambino Baseball League, we won.
SPEAKER_02: Biggest trophy I got.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, and we went from that to regional play.
SPEAKER_02: And then by the time I was 12, the league, they would have like drafts.
SPEAKER_02: They were real serious.
SPEAKER_02: I got moved to another team, the Royals, our team came into first place, and uh it was awesome.
SPEAKER_02: So by the time I turned 14 and 15, it was just serious in my life.
SPEAKER_02: Well, we had gotten down 15-year-old year, it was PNC Bank.
SPEAKER_02: That's what it got.
SPEAKER_02: It got bad.
SPEAKER_02: We had to we had to wear our sponsors, and we were PNC Bank.
SPEAKER_02: Doesn't that strike fear in your heart?
SPEAKER_02: And we came out with dollar signs and checkbooks, I don't know.
SPEAKER_02: You want to open an account?
SPEAKER_02: Um and the other team was shown lumber, right?
SPEAKER_02: So the lumber yard.
SPEAKER_02: That sounds a little stronger, at least.
SPEAKER_02: Not some executives playing.
SPEAKER_02: Anyhow, we're in the championship game, last inning, and I'm pitching on the mound.
SPEAKER_02: Hear me, folks.
SPEAKER_02: Two outs.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm on the mound, and I strike out three.
SPEAKER_02: Hate this rule.
SPEAKER_02: Worst rule in baseball, but I still don't understand it.
SPEAKER_02: On a third strike, if the catcher drops the ball, the man can run to first.
SPEAKER_02: What does it have to do with anything?
SPEAKER_02: He is out.
SPEAKER_02: He struck out.
SPEAKER_02: He went running to first.
SPEAKER_02: My catcher, who I just struck out, this guy threw the ball in the right field.
SPEAKER_02: All amped up.
SPEAKER_02: The guy gets to second base.
SPEAKER_02: Next guy gets up.
SPEAKER_02: He hits a ball.
SPEAKER_02: Can of corn to center field is, he's just gonna catch it.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, the guy is clutch all year long.
SPEAKER_02: It hits Nick right in his face.
SPEAKER_02: Ball bounces, guy makes it to third, the other guy scored.
SPEAKER_02: Routine ground ball to third base.
SPEAKER_02: Guy throws it, bounces in the dirt, goes past the first baseman.
SPEAKER_02: They won the game.
SPEAKER_02: Struck out.
SPEAKER_02: The third out.
SPEAKER_02: We won the championship.
SPEAKER_02: But there's a ridiculous rule.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: That was defeat.
SPEAKER_02: And my counselor recently said, in a few years, if I keep drinking the herbal teas and take 45 big breaths a day, I might be able to shake the defeat.
SPEAKER_02: How can they look at themselves in the mirror knowing the man struck out?
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says, Oh death, where is your sting?
SPEAKER_02: Sin had all of its sting.
SPEAKER_02: Oh hell, where is your victory?
SPEAKER_02: Because death was swallowed up with death.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus Christ's death swallowed up death.
SPEAKER_02: A commentator said, This is the sharpest and shrillest note, the boldest and bravest challenge that ever man rang in the ears of death.
SPEAKER_02: Death is here, outbraved, called craven to his face and bidden to do his worth, and he was swallowed up.
SPEAKER_02: That's what Jesus Christ did for you and for me.
SPEAKER_02: And we have victory in Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Well, because of that, I wanted to show you.
SPEAKER_02: Many of you know this old hymn, Ian Bartlett.
SPEAKER_02: There's a video that we have, and I want to show you a little bit about him and why he wrote that.
SPEAKER_02: Victory in Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Well, I'ma ask y'all to stand, and I thought Miss Nivus could lead us in a little victory in Jesus if that's okay in the middle of a sermon.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Miss Niva.
SPEAKER_02: Some of y'all have had victory in Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Some of your faces showed it.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you.
SPEAKER_02: I'm hoping twenty twenty six is better.
SPEAKER_02: Victory in Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Man, I'm so thankful for the victory we have in Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: It takes us to letter B of Second Point.
SPEAKER_02: The verdict's been delivered.
SPEAKER_02: In verse 57, it says, But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: You see, church, this thing that motivates us.
SPEAKER_02: Death has been called to the stand and is found speechless.
SPEAKER_02: In Romans 8, it says this, who shall lay any charge to God's elect if it is God that justifies?
SPEAKER_02: Who is he that condemns?
SPEAKER_02: It is Christ that died, rather, is risen and makes intercession for us.
SPEAKER_02: Death has no appeal.
SPEAKER_02: The Romans that would understand that verse would understand the appeal system.
SPEAKER_02: There's no appeal from death.
SPEAKER_02: The verdict's been delivered.
SPEAKER_02: The verdict reverses the sentence of the curse that happened in Genesis chapter 3.
SPEAKER_02: What sin did.
SPEAKER_02: Now notice we did not conquer, but God gives.
SPEAKER_02: And he gave through a person a relationship.
SPEAKER_02: So, church, this is the power that moves in us.
SPEAKER_02: Peter said, Beloved, do not be surprised when the fiery trial has come upon you as though it were some strange thing.
SPEAKER_02: So in 2026, when hell and death and defeat and discouragement and trial and a remembrance of such things from before try to come knocking, the verdict is delivered.
SPEAKER_02: I'm a child of a king, and not just any king, but a king that is a king of kings, and a lord that is lord of lords, and an alpha and omega.
SPEAKER_02: He is the king.
SPEAKER_02: Victory is in Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Look at how that verse breaks down.
SPEAKER_02: It says, but there's a conjunction, thanks be to God through Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is the picture of somebody that took on humanity for us.
SPEAKER_02: And then it says, Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Given his name, Christ is the authority to propitiate our Lord, the deity of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: But the key to this little passage here, seemingly the smallest little insignificant word, it's not the verb, it's a pronoun.
SPEAKER_02: Our verdict is based.
SPEAKER_02: Not based on if you knew about Jesus or if you knew somebody who knew Jesus or people that know about Jesus, but you knowing Jesus Christ as your Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Our Lord.
SPEAKER_02: If you know Him as your Lord, your verdict is delivered.
SPEAKER_02: That's victory in Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: So what's some practical things we can do about that in the year to come for us?
SPEAKER_02: Because sometimes we don't live from that place.
SPEAKER_02: We live like we are in defeat.
SPEAKER_02: We're scrambling for answers, we're struggling.
SPEAKER_02: Number one, just a couple of practical things I thought through.
SPEAKER_02: Number one, refuse to relitigate what God has forgiven.
SPEAKER_02: In 2026, if God has forgiven you, and he said, far as east is from the west, if you've come to him, if you've gone to others, refuse to relitigate what God has forgiven.
SPEAKER_02: Number two, replace accusation and assumptions with scriptures.
SPEAKER_02: Replace accusation.
SPEAKER_02: Whatever people are saying or you think they're saying, or what people might think you think.
SPEAKER_02: Replace it with scriptures.
SPEAKER_02: Number three, you are held, not hanging on.
SPEAKER_02: If you're saying I'm hanging on by a thread, you're held on by that thread.
SPEAKER_02: You're held by the one who holds the earth and sun perfectly in place.
SPEAKER_02: So that number four can be true for you.
SPEAKER_02: You don't fight for victory, you fight from it.
SPEAKER_02: The verdict's been delivered.
SPEAKER_02: You don't fight for it, you fight from it.
SPEAKER_02: Child of God, your strength is not in more willpower, but in getting in touch with his power.
SPEAKER_02: The verdict's been delivered, and then it comes to that verse.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, let's get to that, therefore.
SPEAKER_02: The third point, the persistence that marks us.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, letter A is honoring the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Let me read the verse.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast.
SPEAKER_02: Because everything we just talked about, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: So as we honor the Lord and look to, again, we got to go back to the scripture.
SPEAKER_02: Let's break down the word.
SPEAKER_02: It says, therefore.
SPEAKER_02: Anytime you see that in scripture, you got to ask that question, what is it therefore?
SPEAKER_02: And it gave us 57 verses of answer.
SPEAKER_02: In light of the promise of transformation and triumph with the death of death and victory in Jesus, he says, in light of those things, that's therefore, be ye.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna look at those first two words, some of the last words, and then we'll get to the B point.
SPEAKER_02: Be ye.
SPEAKER_02: This is the imperative mood.
SPEAKER_02: He says, be ye.
SPEAKER_02: Look around.
SPEAKER_02: That is your ye.
SPEAKER_02: Be ye.
SPEAKER_02: God commands that we together, brethren, be ye.
SPEAKER_02: It's a command of unity.
SPEAKER_02: It's a command of togetherness.
SPEAKER_02: And the next point I want to tell you the how, but he says there has to be a unity of God's people.
SPEAKER_02: There needs to be a togetherness.
SPEAKER_02: There needs to be a ye.
SPEAKER_02: It's imperative.
SPEAKER_02: It's not a question.
SPEAKER_02: Think about.
SPEAKER_02: I challenged our serve team in the circle this morning.
SPEAKER_02: There needs to be somebody that you make a friend that's different for the unity of the church.
SPEAKER_02: Deepen the friendship that you have, but be ye.
SPEAKER_02: This is the who and the why.
SPEAKER_02: But it goes to the end of the verse and it says, and I'll get back to the middle, knowing that the labor that you have is not in vain.
SPEAKER_02: In vain.
SPEAKER_02: Useless.
SPEAKER_02: If you do this, it will not be useless.
SPEAKER_02: People are busy and people are producing and people are grinding, and those same people are living empty.
SPEAKER_02: How can you spend 22 hours of the day pushing and grinding and nothing?
SPEAKER_02: Filling up accounts and nothing, doing lots of things, accomplishing this and stepping and stepping and going.
SPEAKER_02: And yet I'm wondering.
SPEAKER_02: I know people in their 50s and 60s say, I'm just still kind of looking for my place.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Know this, that if you will labor in the Lord, that your work will not be in vain.
SPEAKER_02: Psalms 127, 1 says, Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: What is vanity?
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says, idols forsake these vain idols.
SPEAKER_02: That's anything we place before God as a God.
SPEAKER_02: If you look at your schedule, your calendar, your checkbook, you can find an idea of what looks like God in people's life.
SPEAKER_02: Proverbs 31:30 says, Beauty is vain.
SPEAKER_02: Ecclesiastes, I mean the whole book covers vanity.
SPEAKER_02: And Solomon gained everything that the world had to gain.
SPEAKER_02: He had all of this wisdom, he had all of this stuff.
SPEAKER_02: And he said, Vanity of vanities, all is vanity and vexation of my spirit.
SPEAKER_02: So what do we do?
SPEAKER_02: Well, Paul said, Set your affections on things that are above.
SPEAKER_02: Matthew 6, 33 says, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: So a couple of practical things with that.
SPEAKER_02: How to labor in the Lord and what do we need to do?
SPEAKER_02: One, dethrone idols before they demand sacrifice of you.
SPEAKER_02: Number one, dethrone idols, the things that are God that are not God in your life.
SPEAKER_02: Number two, know this if the Lord is in it, it's never wasted.
SPEAKER_02: And number three, eternal focus gives earthly labor meaning.
SPEAKER_02: What is the big goal with your big goals?
SPEAKER_02: Eternal focus gives earthly work, earthly families, earthly communities, value and meaning.
SPEAKER_02: It's never in vain.
SPEAKER_02: So honor the Lord, letter be is hold that line.
SPEAKER_02: How do we hold that line?
SPEAKER_02: I'll come back to the verse, but I want to read this.
SPEAKER_02: Hebrews 10, 23 through 25.
SPEAKER_02: As a compliment to this text, it says, Let us, us, be ye us.
SPEAKER_02: Hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering.
SPEAKER_02: Sounds a whole lot like steadfast and unmovable.
SPEAKER_02: Hold fast without wavering.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 24 said, Let us consider one another and how to provoke one another to stir up good works in one another.
SPEAKER_02: And then it says, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting each other until the day comes.
SPEAKER_02: Talking about the day of the Lord, talking about the whole thing that motivate us, the glorification that one day.
SPEAKER_02: So he said, brethren, this corporate command, hold fast without wavering.
SPEAKER_02: Brethren, a line is held together by togetherness.
SPEAKER_02: Picture a shield.
SPEAKER_02: In 2026, how will you hold the line based on who you're holding it with?
SPEAKER_02: Is iron sharpening iron?
SPEAKER_02: Now, this may be Unfair opinion to some.
SPEAKER_02: I don't think you have to like the person next to you to do your job, but I sure think it helps.
SPEAKER_02: So maybe liking people around you would help you better hold the line.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not sure you can do it with heart and passion if you don't try.
SPEAKER_02: Because he says, brethren.
SPEAKER_02: Then he says, let us consider one another.
SPEAKER_02: So he says, steadfast, unmovable always abound.
SPEAKER_02: Let's look at those words in the scripture.
SPEAKER_02: This is the how.
SPEAKER_02: So how do we hold this line?
SPEAKER_02: Steadfast.
SPEAKER_02: The word is hadreos, and it means settled and established.
SPEAKER_02: Steadfast.
SPEAKER_02: I'm here.
SPEAKER_02: I'm in this place.
SPEAKER_02: And then he says, unmovable, and that is amatecinatos, and it means incapable of being relocated.
SPEAKER_02: It means holding firm.
SPEAKER_02: Steadfast.
SPEAKER_02: I'm here and I'm holding firm.
SPEAKER_02: I'm firmly persistent.
SPEAKER_02: There are many instances in life where I would say stubbornness is not appropriate.
SPEAKER_02: Here, for all of us, is an appropriate sense of stubbornness.
SPEAKER_02: If you're going to be bullheaded, be bullheaded about holding this line.
SPEAKER_02: That immovable is like one who is melded to the line.
SPEAKER_02: And then it says thirdly, always abounding.
SPEAKER_02: That word is parasonatos, and it means to overflow, to exceed.
SPEAKER_02: That is progress.
SPEAKER_02: I'm holding the line, the line of the word of God.
SPEAKER_02: Progress without compromise.
SPEAKER_02: Not hear me, frantic activity, not frantic busyness without a target, but faithful overflow.
SPEAKER_02: He says, always abounding.
SPEAKER_02: That doesn't mean not doing anything.
SPEAKER_02: Always abounding.
SPEAKER_02: That is faithful overflow.
SPEAKER_02: He says, always, not occasionally in 2026, not seasonally in 2026.
SPEAKER_02: Not circumstance-based, but steadfast, unmovable, and always abounding.
SPEAKER_02: Colonel Travis drew that line in the sand with his sword.
SPEAKER_02: He drew that line with his sword.
SPEAKER_02: And all almost all of the men accepted the challenge, the task that day to hold the line.
SPEAKER_02: But I need you to know that in that acceptance, there wasn't a man left standing that survived the attack.
SPEAKER_02: But their hold in that place shook a nation, shook an army of soldiers.
SPEAKER_02: Weeks later, soldiers emboldened by a pursuit to follow after what the men who died lived for shouted this remember the Alamo.
SPEAKER_02: And when those men stepped across that line, because they held the line, something larger than their moment, something larger than that happenstance, something larger was secured.
SPEAKER_02: Their hold delayed the enemy and awakened a spirit inside their people.
SPEAKER_02: And ultimately, Texas secured its independence.
SPEAKER_02: Let Alamo today point you to something greater.
SPEAKER_02: Those men held a line.
SPEAKER_02: And it was good that they held.
SPEAKER_02: When it was hard, they held.
SPEAKER_02: One thing was sure, they held.
SPEAKER_02: Let it point you today to something.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus Christ held a line, church, that we couldn't.
SPEAKER_02: He didn't have to.
SPEAKER_02: But at the cross, Jesus put our cross line on his back.
SPEAKER_02: And when the knee nails pierced through his hands and his feet, he held.
SPEAKER_02: And when they spat on him, he held.
SPEAKER_02: And when they put a crown of thorns on his head, he held.
SPEAKER_02: And when a thorn went through his brow, he still held.
SPEAKER_02: And when he was suffocating on the cross, he held.
SPEAKER_02: Not because he was forced, he held himself there because he loved you.
SPEAKER_02: And three days later, guess what?
SPEAKER_02: He could not be held.
SPEAKER_02: And he rose up from the grave.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, therefore, therefore, you and I be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, because we know it is not in vain.
SPEAKER_02: So can we hold the line?
SPEAKER_02: Church.
SPEAKER_02: Would you stand to your feet?
SPEAKER_02: In 2026, I want to ask this church body to take on this theme.
SPEAKER_02: Some people have words for their year.
SPEAKER_02: My word is three words.
SPEAKER_02: Hold the line.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm going to ask you to do something during this time of invitation.
SPEAKER_02: We're going to play a little song.
SPEAKER_02: And I know that some of you, you've been looking up here like, are we about to have some dinner?
SPEAKER_02: I've got sort of a picture, a banner.
SPEAKER_02: And I want to invite you during this song of invitation to come.
SPEAKER_02: There's some markers here.
SPEAKER_02: And I want you all through this, you can't see it from where you are.
SPEAKER_02: It says, hold the line.
SPEAKER_02: Hold the line.
SPEAKER_02: It says 1 Corinthians 15, uh 58.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, so that you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: And I want to invite you to come.
SPEAKER_02: If you got a word for the year, I want you to come write your word for the year.
SPEAKER_02: If you got a verse for the year, I want you to come write your verse for the year.
SPEAKER_02: I would love for you to come and write declaring your family name during this time of prayer over this banner.
SPEAKER_02: And I want you to hear my why.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not just putting something out here for no reason.
SPEAKER_02: I want to challenge us to hold the line.
SPEAKER_02: In Exodus chapter 17, the Israelites fought against the Amalekites while Moses stood on top of a hill, while the staff was in his hands.
SPEAKER_02: And while Moses' hands were lifted, the Israelites were winning.
SPEAKER_02: When his hands were lowered, the Amalekites were winning.
SPEAKER_02: Moses got tired, so God called Aaron and Her to come lift his hands.
SPEAKER_02: And the Israelites won that battle.
SPEAKER_02: God instructed Moses with something important afterward.
SPEAKER_02: He said, I want you to write all of the words of what just happened on a scroll so that it would be remembered.
SPEAKER_02: Moses built an altar there that name.
SPEAKER_02: And the name of that altar was Penyul.
SPEAKER_02: Penul means this: God is my banner.
SPEAKER_02: And so I want to declare in 2026 that as a church we will hold the line.
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to pray and I'm going to invite you to come.
SPEAKER_02: And if you would write, if you would come on that line, Pastor Alliance, seek to hold the line for God in this year.
SPEAKER_02: Come write it, come pray over it.
SPEAKER_02: Church family, if you would join, there's markers up here, and I want to invite you to do that and stay as long as you want in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: We're excited you joined us for today's message.
SPEAKER_00: Our heart is to connect with others in our community, to grow with one another, and build a bigger kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: If you accepted Jesus today, we want to hear about it.
SPEAKER_00: Take a moment and text CCW Connect to 94,000.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you again for joining us on the CCW podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you'll make plans to join us in person on Sundays.