Designed to Flourish!

Sermon Summary:

This powerful message invites us into a transformative journey of spiritual flourishing, beginning with God’s very first words to humanity: ‘Be fruitful and multiply.’ We’re reminded that flourishing isn’t about superficial prosperity or feeling good every day—it’s something far deeper, rooted in our relationship with God and our obedience to His will. The stunning imagery of Death Valley’s ‘super bloom’ serves as a beautiful metaphor for our spiritual lives: even when we find ourselves in the driest, most barren seasons, God can breathe life into us and cause unexpected growth. Drawing from Psalm 92, we discover that the righteous will flourish like palm trees and cedars of Lebanon—evergreen, enduring, and fruitful in every season of life, even in old age. This challenges our cultural assumptions about productivity and worth, reminding us that God has designed us to bear fruit throughout our entire lives. The message confronts us with a crucial choice: will we follow our own way or God’s way? Like driving the wrong direction on the freeway, we can be doing everything ‘right’ but still heading toward the wrong destination. The narrow path that Jesus speaks of isn’t restrictive—it’s the only road that leads to true life. As we engage with Scripture consistently, know God experientially, and serve Him faithfully, we position ourselves to flourish according to His divine design.

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Sermon Points:

• Happiness and Life Satisfaction
• Mental and Physical Health
• Meaning and Purpose
• Character and Virtue
• Close Social Relationships
• Material and Financial Stability

Key Takeaways:

• God’s original design from Genesis 1 is for human beings to be fruitful and flourish spiritually
• Flourishing is possible even in spiritually dry seasons, just as Death Valley can bloom after rain
• The Hebrew word “parakh” (flourish) is consistently connected to God initiating and sustaining life
• Not all paths lead to flourishing; only the narrow way of Jesus leads to life
• Believers are free moral agents who must choose between their own way and God’s way
• God has designed us to flourish in every season of life, including old age
• Three vital steps for flourishing: knowing God, experiencing God, and serving God
• Consistent engagement with Scripture is the primary catalyst for spiritual growth in Protestant Christians
• God provides the conditions for flourishing as the divine gardener working around us and within us through the Holy Spirit
• The church is launching intentional discipleship initiatives with daily Bible readings starting with the Beatitudes

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Scripture References:

• Psalm 92:12-15 (primary text)
• Genesis 1 (God’s command to be fruitful and multiply)
• Psalm 1 (planted like a tree beside streams of water)
• Psalm 16:11 (the path of life)
• Proverbs 14:12 (a way that appears right but leads to death)
• Matthew 7:13-14 (narrow gate and broad road)
• John 14:6 (Jesus as the way, truth, and life)
• John 15 (Jesus as the true vine, bearing fruit)

Stories:

• Death Valley transformation: The contrast between Death Valley’s typical barren landscape (2015) and the “super bloom” phenomenon (2016) when rare rainfall causes dormant seeds to burst into colorful life, illustrating how God can bring life to spiritually dry places
• Zinni Theodosius Bearden: Cindy’s blind, 105-year-old great-grandmother who prophetically told the pastor “God has his hand on you and he’s gonna use you in a special way,” demonstrating how God uses people in every season of life
• The grandmother prayer warrior: The pastor’s physically limited grandmother who couldn’t travel but faithfully prayed for him daily, showing the power of seasoned saints
• The wrong way on I-30: Personal story of accidentally driving east instead of west on Interstate 30 after visiting Buc-ee’s in Royce City, missing the turn despite his nephew’s warnings, illustrating how we can be doing everything “right” but still going the wrong direction if we’re not following God’s way
• Emmanuel’s taxi driver illustration: The pastor’s church planting partner in Sierra Leone uses a story about two taxi drivers—one who has heard of a destination and one for whom it’s his hometown—to explain why we should trust Jesus who came from heaven to show us the way to heaven

Sermon Transcript

And everyone said Amen right here. We’ll say a word of thanks to Michael and Aaron and our worship team for leading us through the advent season. Thank you all so much. A media team, just a great season of advent. And, and they showed back up, Michael, for the new year. Is that okay? Have some good thing.

Right. And, but we’re grateful for the folks that have led us in, in worship. Well, today we’re launching into a new year. And so I’m very excited about it and just want y’all to look at our theme for this coming year is still going to be Flourishing together, which it was last year. It will be next year.

We’re on this journey of flourishing, learning more about flourishing. This year, we’re going to focus on what it means to be transformed on the Jesus Way. And through each season of the year, we’ll focus on a different facet of transformation. And so for the winter, our theme is designed to flourish. And that is our point of conversation for these next few weeks.

In fact, it’s the title of the message today, and the text is found in Psalm 92. So if you want to look at this passage, if you have your copy of the Old Testament, it’s the last section of Psalm 92. I’d like to share that with us. And then we’re going to share in the Lord’s Supper. Psalm 92, verse 12 reads, the righteous will flourish like a palm tree.

They will grow like a cedar in Lebanon, of Lebanon. Planted in the house of the Lord. They will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age. They’ll stay fresh and green, proclaiming, the Lord is upright. He is my rock, and there is no wickedness in him designed to flourish. Well, I’d like for us to begin the New Year celebrating the Lord’s Supper together.

So when you came in a little different today, instead of the deacons passing the elements, you should have gotten them on your way in. If you didn’t get, the elements, would you just raise your hand? And our, deacons have some they will bring to you if you need some, looks just like this. Is this, disposable container.

We’ve got some down here, y’all, all the way down front. Andrew, if you can make it all the way down, you’ll notice the container that we’re using this year. We, I asked them, notice they’re all gluten free, and, they’ll actually fit in the pew rack in front of you. That was one of the complaints of the old one of these.

But, today we’re going to use these and, just keep your hand up so you can get one. And here’s what I want you to do. As we get ready for receiving the elements, I want you to take just a minute and reflect on 2025. And, what was the year like for you 2025? Let’s just take a minute and maybe come before the Lord and just reflect on 2025.

The challenges, the high points, the victories. Let’s just take a minute and reflect on this past year.

So now we have a whole new year ahead of us. And perhaps there are, maybe there just a couple of prayer requests you might have for the new Year. We’ll just bring them before the Lord, whatever it might be. As you think about, we have no idea what this year holds, but you’ve got some ideas of what you’d love to see happen.

Maybe. So why don’t you just offer those to the Lord for this next year?

The father you’ve heard the prayers of your people. As we think back on a year prior, our minds go to various places depending upon what the year has been like for us and, for some of our church members. I know it’s been a year of great challenge for some great transition, for some deep loss for others.

Lord, it’s been a victorious year, a very celebratory season. Just all different kinds of things come to mind.

And now, as we look forward to the year ahead of us, we know that, we trust your sovereignty. We have no idea what’s in front of us. We know we live in a very challenging time. Even as we gather here in this place where, mindful of what’s going on in our world, we pray for the folks in Venezuela and that uncertainty, not just there, but in so many other places in the world, the Ukraine and the Sudan and Syria and there just so many places in the world where people live lives, where so many forces are around them that shape their every day, that are so beyond their control.

And we just pray for peace in our world. We pray for leaders in our own nation and around the world, Lord, that, that they would be instruments of peace.

And, we also know, Lord, as we gather here, we have fellow church members who are facing really difficult days, and we just lift them all to you, Lord, those that are maybe facing challenges physically or emotionally or relationally, vocationally, we just ask you to be a God of provision, and we thank you that we can call upon you.

And as we look to this new year, Lord, we want it to be a year where we continue to be fruitful and and we grow in the ways you would have us to. I pray that for these people, I pray that for a church that would be mindful of what you have for us as a church, that we be obedient to respond to what you put in front of us.

And today, Lord, as we are about to receive these elements, we’re also reminded that your word tells us that every time we take the Lord’s Supper, we proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. So may that be true today. This bread for us symbolizes points to reminds us of the very body of Jesus body in which he lived the perfect life and showed us how to live, taught us how to live.

We thank you and this juice for us points to some a greater reality. It’s his blood shed on the cross for our sin so that our sins could be atoned for and we can be forgiven. And so we thank you today for this, this bread and this juice that draws us into a much larger story than our own.

And we come with humility and gratitude. Continue to seek your grace as we serve you. May it be a time when we’re drawn together in unity as your people, in fellowship, and in communion with your son. As we receive these elements, pray your blessings on this bread and this juice and blessings on us as we receive it. So we ask it in Jesus name, Amen.

So if you’ll take this container on the small end, you’ll see where the bread is. Let’s peel that back and let’s take this bread out. The Bible tells us. And on the night that, that Jesus was betrayed, he took bread and he broke it. He gave thanks and he said, take, eat. This is my body.

If you turn it over and let’s peel back to reveal the juice. Jesus. And celebrating that supper, he said, this is the new covenant in my blood. Drinking.

And everybody said, Amen, Amen. And thank you, Jesus, for what you’ve done for us. Well, this morning, as we continue our conversation about flourishing as we walk into this new year, I want us to go all the way back to the very first page of the Bible, page one where God’s first words to human beings are recorded. You’ll remember God’s very first words to human beings be fruitful.

He created Adam and Eve. The Bible says in Genesis one, he blessed them. And then he said to them, be fruitful and multiply. God’s original design is for human beings to flourish, because I believe that admonition from from God to be fruitful and multiply even means more than just to have children. But it also was a calling from God for human beings to serve at his side in overseeing his creation.

So his desire for you is that you flourish. And by that I don’t mean some flippant name it, claim it kind of faith. That’s not what I’m talking about. This is something much deeper than that. This. This is leading into God’s presence and God’s provision for your life and accepting his will for your life. And you may say, well, you know, preacher, that sounds good, but you don’t know where I am right now, because where I am right now is in a very dry place.

And, you know, that happens to us sometimes spiritually. I don’t know if any of y’all ever been to Death Valley in California. Anybody? Let me show you this photo from Death Valley. This is from 2015, I believe it was. I can’t remember now. Does this not look like Death Valley kind of epitomizes what you think of when you think of Death Valley.

You know, the, the basin there in Death Valley, the bad water basin. What a great name for a basin. The Badwater Basin, it’s 282ft below sea level, is the lowest point on the North American continent, and it is typically the hottest place on Earth in the summer. Consequently, you can see nothing. Nothing seems to be able to live or thrive there.

The highest record we have of a temperature measured there happened in the early 20th century, 134 degrees, supposedly. In fact, there’s one record where for 164 consecutive days, the temperature was over 100 degrees. That sounds like the summer of 1980. In Texas, some of y’all may remember it. Needless to say, it’s a hard place. But you know, every once in a while something really strange happens in Death Valley.

You’ll get just a little bit of rain at the end of the summer, early fall that happened in 2015. Last, let me show you a photo of that same area in 2016. So out. Incredible. Turns out Death Valley might be more appropriately named Dormant Valley because there are all these seeds and, all kinds of wildlife that’s actually just beneath the surface, awaiting the right conditions, if you will, that kind of experience is called by media people the Super Bloom, and it transforms the Death Valley, the desert, into this array of colors.

And it is teeming with life. So I want you to think about that with me. You may find yourself in a dry place right now. And so when we’re talking about flourishing, you may look at me and say, you have no idea how deep the hole is for me. There is no way. And what I want to encourage you in this morning is if God can bring Death Valley back to life, he can breathe life into your life.

He can cause things to grow in your life that you could never imagine. You know why he’s God, that’s why. So let’s give him a chance. Give him an opportunity to show what he can actually do in your life, because it’s his desire in fact, it’s his design for you and me to flourish. Now, what does it mean to flourish?

Well, that word is used in our Old Testament. Let’s just let’s just do the Old Testament today, at least in terms of this particular word. We’ll talk about concepts in the New Testament. But the Hebrew word Perak is found 36 times in our Old Testament. Obviously, the Old Testament is written in Hebrew, translated into English. The word means to break forth as a bud, to, to bloom, to blossom, to break forth into life.

But here’s the theological ramifications of how that word is used in the Old Testament. It is consistently connected to this truth that God and God alone initiates and sustains life. That’s what this word really means. It is connected to the life that God provides for us in a relationship with him, where we are following his will and are being obedient to his commands and living our lives in his presence.

So if you still have your Bibles open, let me just show you how that word can be. Use Psalm 92. If you look at verse seven, it uses. It’s interesting how it uses the word here. It says the wicked springing up like grass. The word spring up. The verb form is actually this same word. It is based upon the root rock.

Then the NIV says it like this all evildoers flourish. Now the word underneath flourish. There is a different word in Hebrew, but it means live or thrives. But I want you to notice it says this day, however, the wicked, the evil, will only flourish temporarily only for a season. But God’s judgment will fall and they will be destroyed.

But then notice how the word is used in the text. We just read. Skip down to verse 12, the righteous, those who are following the way of God, those who are living in a dynamic relationship with God, obedient to him, they will flourish. There’s that word. It says they’ll flourish. And then the writer uses two images that were just very familiar to them in the ancient world, a palm tree and the cedars of Lebanon.

Those are two trees that are just evergreens that symbolize life to the Jews and really the people of the ancient world. Those trees lived for a long time. We have evidence even today, cedars in Lebanon that are over a thousand years old. And so the imagery is going to flourish like these trees that we see flourishing no matter what.

Look at verse 13. These folks are planted. Now that word should be familiar to me and you. That’s a Psalm. One word where you are planted like a tree beside the streams of living water. You could translate it transplanted because it has a sense of intentionality to it, that God plants these people in just the right place as the deliberate act of God, so that the conditions will be right enough for them to flourish.

That’s what he says is possible for the righteous. If you will choose to be obedient and follow the ways of God. Now here’s another beautiful thing. He says this that God has designed us to flourish in every season of life. Look at verse 14, they will still bear fruit in old age. Come on, all your old people that are in here.

I had a bunch of them in the first service. They clapped at that right there. They will still bear fruit even in old age. Because here’s what happened. We first started this journey a year ago talking about flourishing. Some of my seasoned veterans came up to me and said, you obviously have no idea what it’s like to get old, because the way I feel every day is anything but flourishing.

To which I said, well, then you have a misunderstanding of the biblical teaching about flourishing. Flourishing is not just connected to how you feel every day. It’s a statement of reality. It’s connected to the work of God. And the imagery is that God has created everything. And if y’all remember the repetitive phrase in Genesis one, after God would do something, God was saying, behold, this is good, behold, this is good.

And then here he looked at the vast array of everything he created and said, behold, this is very good. In other words, it’s serving its purpose in its right way, in its right season. That’s good. And so flourishing may look one way. When you’re 25, it might look very different at 75, but you can still flourish regardless. Just like the Cedars of Lebanon, a thousand years old, are still bearing fruit, still producing seed.

As you age. God can use you in ways that he didn’t. He was not able to use you when you were younger. That’s just how it works. We have some seasoned veterans in this church who are wise, and they offer wisdom that some folks would not understand until they have to experience some of life. God uses us in every season, and that’s the promise of this text.

There’s a permanence to this, like Cedars of Lebanon. Don’t tell me that God can’t use you when you get old. You know, we have, I remember my little grandmother. She was not very well physically, couldn’t travel much. She was a prayer warrior, though. And there was a time in my life when there were others who were too busy to pray for me.

But I can promise you, my mama prayed for me every day. You think that didn’t matter to me? You know, when I first met Cindy, I didn’t know it very well. Only known it for a little bit. And she said to me one day she wanted me to meet her great grandmother, Zinni, Theodosius Beard and.

Our next child we’re going to name after her great grandmother, Zinni. Theodosius. She was blind. She lived with 105. She’s in a nursing home. And Cindy took me to see her. We go in the room and Cindy says, granny, how are you doing? Remember she’s blind. She thought it was Cindy’s mother. And she said, hi, Merle. How are you doing?

That’s in his mom. Cindy kind of winked at me to say she thinks I’m my mom. It’s okay. She’s 97 years old, blind. And Cindy said we’re do. I’m doing fine, granny. I brought somebody with me today. I want you to meet him. So she reached out her hand and went up in my hand. Her hand? She raised up in the bed blind, and she pointed me, and she said, God has his hand on you, and he’s going to use you in a special way.

And then she laid back down.

How many times you think I’ve thought about that? You tell me. God can use you when you’re old. Come on. God can use us in every season of life to bring blessings in ways that nobody else can. And that’s exactly what this Texas we’re to flourish in every season of life. And you know why I believe it? Because God has more for you than you’ve already received from him.

Do you think you’ve already exhausted everything there is from God? Do you really think that? You think you’ve exhausted all there? Do you think you’ve gotten all there? You just say, oh man, I finally got it all. You have got to be kidding me. We’re talking about the God of the universe. He has so much more for you than you will ever receive.

And so this is something that’s there for you for the rest of your life, because that’s who God is. He has more for you. You have never exhausted all of God. I can promise you. And so flourishing is intended for all of us in all seasons of life. Are you all still with me? Okay, now let me just do a refresher course.

Really quickly. When we introduce the concept of flourishing last January, you’ll be reminded that we entered into a relationship with these researchers from Harvard and Baylor. Tyler Vander Will is the scholar at Harvard. Byron Johnson is a scholar at Baylor. And then we got introduced to Kate and Scott as well. But remember, here’s what’s being studied right now in the global flourishing study by these researchers at Harvard and Baylor, 220,000 people in 22 countries across the world.

They are studying these domains of human flourishing. We walked through five of them last year. Happiness in life satisfaction, mental and physical health, meaning and purpose, character and virtue. Close social relationships, material and financial stability. Tyler Vander Will has written this book called The Theology of Health, and he’s a Harvard researcher. He’s the genius behind the study, but he’s a very committed Catholic Christian and he’s added to that the spiritual dynamic.

And he has said spiritual health is a part of this and is connected to all of these domains. And that’s where you and I have intersected this study. We’re a part of the flourishing in the church study that Kate Long is leading, along with Scott here, and we’re learning about flourishing in the church spiritual life. As a matter of fact, next week, Kate Long is going to be meeting with our staff to walk us through the results of the survey that we all took back in the fall.

We’re so looking forward to that. Curt and Katie and I have met with her briefly, but she’s going to walk through this all with our whole staff. 1387 of y’all took this survey, and this is your self-assessment of your own spiritual condition, as well as the life of the church, and we’re looking forward to allowing her to unpack that for us.

So we’re getting ready to try to figure out how to respond to all that. But here’s what I’d like for us to do this morning as we get ready for 2026. I just want to point you to three realities about flourishing that are really going to guide us throughout this year. They’re just introductory realities as we think together about flourishing.

So here’s what I want you to do. Think with me about this. God created you in his image. Now, that means a lot of things theologically. But one of the things that does mean is that he has created you to be a free moral agent. That means you have the opportunity and the privilege to choose how to live your life, every single one of you.

Now, you may not have control over some things that happened to you, true. But you do have the opportunity to respond to whatever happens to you and you are in control of that. And so you and I all are responsible and privileged moral agents. We make choices and we have the opportunity to do that. It’s a privilege and it’s a responsibility.

So you are going to decide how you’re going to live your life. You are making that decision. So let’s think about that. Let me give you these three realities that will help us better understand flourishing. First one, there’s a path to flourishing. We cannot choose any path and expect to flourish the way God’s designed us to flourish. Now that is just a fact.

That is a biblical truth. Life is filled with a lot of choices, and you’re going to get to make so many of them. One of those choices is the path that you will choose to follow. The. I’ll remember on the night we had the Christmas program with our worship ministry, and Ryan Chandler preached that night, remember, Ryan said he talked about all these different kind of kings, and he said, America’s favorite king.

Burger King why? What’s the mantra? Burger King, have it your way. That’s the American way. Have it your way. I think, Michael, I think it was Frank Sinatra who sang that song. I did it my way. If there is ever been an American statement, that would be it. I did it my way. Here’s what I’m going to tell you biblically.

If you choose to live your life your way, there’s going to be disastrous results, but you have the freedom to do it. You do. You can choose your own way and follow your own way. You can do it. But in due time, you’ll see the results of choosing your way rather than God’s way. Because your way sometimes looks attractive on the front end.

But I’m just telling you, if you do that without God’s direction and God’s wisdom and God’s guidance, if you just choose to use your own ability, your own reasoning, your own rationale, rationalizing, and you decide, I’m going to do it this way, I don’t anybody tell me how to live my life. You live your life, I’ll in mine.

Don’t you tell me how to live my life. Good. Well, here’s what I tell you. Live your life your way and you’ll see in due time. Fact what the Bible says. Proverbs 1412. There’s a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death. You see God at work. Are y’all. Y’all are still with me, right?

You see, God has a plan. He’s at work in this world, and that means he has a will for each one of us to participate in what he’s doing. But you don’t have to. You can live your own life and do it your way. You can, you know, New Year’s Eve, this past New Year’s Eve, my brother Emerson and Mary, his wife, were in town for a few days, and Emerson and his son, Auburn.

Some of y’all remember Auburn used to be in our church. Auburn analyst live in Royce City. So Cindy and I rented a house over there in that part of the metroplex and hung out with Emerson and Mary and Auburn in their kids. And all of our kids and grandkids had a great time. It’s all over. On New Year’s Eve, Cindy and I are meeting Jeff and Karen to go to the Cotton Bowl. Okay, so we’re looking at the clock. We need to leave by a certain time. Well, my grandkids want to go to Bucky’s.

In Royce City. Now, y’all know what Bucky’s is. It’s where they go get a whole bunch of junk they don’t need. Put it on the counter, and I pay for it. That’s what Bucky’s is. If I’ve never been there, that’s what if I’m there, just put all the stuff on the counter. I’m used to it if I’ll do it, whatever.

So I’m a little bit, you know, and I know we got to get back in time to meet Jeff and Karen and my nephew Auburn told me to knuckle down. Is now when you go, but don’t count. Don’t go the way you came in to my house. Because there’s construction. You can’t get on the freeway there. It’s a mess.

Don’t go this way. Turn this. Turn right instead of left, and then you go to Bucky’s. Okay, I get to Bucky’s. Well, I’m a little bit, Bucky fired, so I’m going to get back on the freeway. There’s a lot of traffic. There’s a lot of construction. Cindy wants to take a nap. Adaeh it in the back seat.

About to take a nap, I guess. And so I just get on a frontage road, and I’m looking at the clock, and we got to be back in time to start driving. So, about 20 minutes later we’re in Greenville.

And I’m thinking, did I go the wrong way on I-30? And Cindy wakes up and we realize I’m driving the wrong way on I-30. I’m going east. And so we because I didn’t turn my GPS on. You think I don’t know how to get home from Royce City? How long have I been living in the metroplex and Cindy wakes up and she’s like, oh my gosh, we’re going to be late with Jeff and Karen.

I said, I know that, so I didn’t quite say it that way to her. It was so. It was actually a little harsher than that. So and trying to get off the freeway. Come on Texas, you can’t get off and get back. You know, you had to get off and wind your way or is it was ridiculous. Anyway, we get back on and now, man, we’re looking at the clock.

Here’s the thing though. Had I kept driving. We went to go in the Cotton Bowl. You know what I had to do? Turn around. Here’s what I’m going to tell you. If you’re on your way right now, here’s my advice to you. Stop and turn around and find your way on Jesus way. That’s what you need to do.

Because if you stay on your way, you ain’t going to the Cotton Bowl. I’m just going to tell you that right now, you’re going to end up somewhere that you never intended to go. Even though I was obeying all the laws, mostly I was doing everything I supposed to do. I was just driving like I’m supposed to be driving, and I was going the wrong way, and I had to have sense enough to turn around and guess what I had to do?

God didn’t just take us magically and put us back in Roy City. Wouldn’t that have been awesome? I had to find my way out of the hole I had dug. Sometimes that’s what you got to do. Don’t let it discourage you. At least you’re going the right direction now. So somehow or another, you and I have got to make the decision.

We’re going to go the right way rather than our way. Now, here’s the good news. God will show it to you. Psalm 16, verse 11 I’m preaching on this text next Sunday. You make known to me the path of life. Rock him in Hebrew, the path of life. You will fill me with joy in your presence and eternal pleasures at your right hand.

I’m just going to tell y’all I want to be on that path, the path of life, don’t you? I don’t want to be on the path of least to death. I want to be on the path of life. However, not every path leads to life, y’all. It just doesn’t. All path don’t lead to life. You know, every year when we go to Rome, we usually find our way to the Roman Forum.

When the Roman Forum, there’s the malaria room, which is what Caesar Augustus puts a medallion, a marker, if you will. We don’t know for sure where it was, but you know what Caesar Augustus said? Every road in Rome starts right here and emerges from here and goes through out the empire. And then every road in the Roman Empire leads to Rome.

Every road does not lead to life. Only the road that God marks out for you in me leads to life. The path of life. That’s the one I want to be on. I don’t want to be on my own path. But it’s hard to find our way. As a matter of fact, not everybody finds it. Why am I not surprised?

I mean, what Jesus said. Why does the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it. But small is the gate, and narrow is the road that leads to life. And only if you find it. Jesus said, the narrow way is the only way, at least in life. The narrow way is cut right in the heart of the Broadway, and we’re walking in the opposite direction of the people who are on the Broadway.

The narrow way is the Jesus way. We’re all about the Jesus way at this church. We should be. You know why? Here’s what Jesus said I am the way and the truth and the life. And no one comes to the father except through me. John 14. See, Jesus knows the way he is the way. Years ago, I was talking to, Pastor Emanuel.

He’s our church planting partner in Sierra Leone. And I was asking him, how do you share the gospel in this multicultural place where you live? The multi religious setting that you’re in with, the, animism and Islam and so many different forces. He said, well, I usually tell stories to connect people to the gospel. And I said, well, tell me one of the stories he said, he said, I tell the story sometimes.

He said, when I’m talking to a muslim in particular, I will say something like this. We come up to a taxi stand, me and you, and we want to go to a certain place and there are two taxi drivers there and we say, hey guys, we’re wanting to go to whatever the town is. And one of the taxi drivers said, yeah, I’ve heard of that place.

I think I could get you there. And the other taxi driver says, that’s my hometown, so I grew up. I can take you there easily. He says, which one are we going to hire? Well, the guy that’s his hometown, Jesus, came from heaven to show us how to get to heaven. Why don’t we trust him? You think he didn’t know the way to heaven?

He’s the only one that knows the way. And so that’s why you and I follow the Jesus way. He’s worthy of us following him. And so y’all, we’ve got to be on that path. So right now, you know, here’s the thing. Even as a Christian, you can lose your way on the Jesus way. You can. It’s not about whether or not you’re going to heaven or not.

It’s about how much heaven you’re going to bring to earth. And if you’re following your own way, then it’s hard for God to use you in the way that he wants to. And that’s a part of flourishing. And so if you need to stop right now and get off in that exit at Greenville, I can show you how to do it.

It’s hard to get back on, but you can do it and then you can find your way on the Jesus way. That’s what we need to do. So if you need to make that decision, start off 2026 by getting on the right way. Second, there’s also a process for flourishing, not just a path God revealed a process that leads us to a life that flourishes.

And the journey towards flourishing includes what I would call these significant, vital steps. They’re interrelated. They’re dynamic. Knowing God, experiencing God, and serving God. Those are three vital steps for you and me. It starts with knowing God. That’s fundamental because unless you are introduced to him, there’s no way you’re going to experience him or serve him. You have to know him first.

So that starts, of course, and that means when you and I embraced Jesus as our Savior, we realize that we need to be forgiven and we need to be in a relationship with the God who designed us. We receive Jesus. That’s why you start to know God. But then as you live your life with him, these all just work together.

It’s a lifetime journey of experiencing God, and the more you experience and the more you know him and the more you feel called to serve him and he sends you to be used by him in various places of ministry and responsibility. And that’s when you start to experience true flourishing, because you’re used to being used by God with what God has given you, because God has not blessed you and me.

For us just to enjoy the blessings. He’s called us to bless others and in so doing we are also blessed. But we have to know him, experience him, and serve him well. So I would just tell y’all this next season at First Baptist, and that’s what it’s going to be about. We’re calling it intentional discipleship. And here’s the thing.

You have to be careful with intentional discipleship because you can’t force it. You can’t rush it. So how it works. It’s a lifetime journey, and yet it’s the right journey. Jesus didn’t say in the Great Commission, go and get church attenders.

Did he? He said, go and make disciples. Becoming a disciple is a serious thing. You see, my world is already full of immature Christians. We don’t need one more. We don’t. We don’t need one more person who’s following their own way right now. Even though I have been redeemed by Jesus, we have plenty of those. They’re a dime a dozen winning, mature disciples, people who take all this seriously and embrace it intentionally so that God can use you and multiply his kingdom through you.

That’s really what it means to flourish. Now here’s the good news, y’all, and I’m done. There’s not just a path to flourishing and a process. God makes provision for us. Praise his name, y’all. God’s not left us alone to find our way. He’s the divine gardener who provides for us in every season of life. You see, if you’re going to grow and flourish, conditions have to be right.

It’s just like a gardener, gardener pays attention, to the growth, needs of whatever it is they’re trying to grow. Well, it just requires attention. And God knows that he’s a part of your flourishing journey. He’s the source of flourishing underneath everything in your life as a believer. Here’s what Jesus said John 15 I am the true vine and my father is the gardener.

We sang about it already this morning. What does that tell me? That tells me God’s at work all around me. He’s at work all around you right now. He will prepare the environment for you to flourish. He will if you allow him to. He will if you’ll cooperate with him. He will. But not just that. Jesus said this, but when he, the spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you in all truth.

He’s not just at work around you, he’s at work within you. I love that he’s giving you his spirit to guide you into the truth that will shape your life, so that all of this will make sense. In fact, it’s a journey that we’re all on and it’s a lifetime journey. Here’s what Jesus said in John 15 if you’ll remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.

This is to my father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. You show yourself to be discipled by bearing fruit. You see, fruit is beneficial to others. Fruit is something people can see and experience and it’s a blessing to them. Well, let me close with this. You know what the primary catalyst for spiritual growth is for Protestant Christians in Western Christianity.

All the research seems to point to this. The primary catalyst for spiritual growth in the individual lives of Protestant Christians is engagement with the Scripture. Consistently. I want you to think about that. Engaging the Scripture consistently. That’s the primary catalyst that challenges people to put this into action. It informs us so that we can be transformed experientially. It’s not just ingesting material and information.

I’m talking about engaging with the Scripture consistently. That is the primary catalyst. As best we can tell, to produce spiritual growth in the lives of Protestant Christians in this era. So reading, reflecting, applying, living. So here’s what we want to provide for you this coming year is going to take us a while to get all this together. So be patient with us.

But it starts tomorrow. If you go to fca.org/bible readings we start tomorrow. Our first reading tomorrow Matthew five one through 11, the Beatitudes. That’s where we started last year. We’re going to go through all the six domains and our daily Bible readings this week. When you go to that on Monday, you’ll find a reading. You’ll find a brief devotional reflection guiding you.

And here’s our hope as a as a as leaders at our church, as a staff, we want to help. You know, God is experienced God and serve God because we know that will contribute to your flourishing as a follower of Jesus. And it is God’s desire, God’s design rather, for you to flourish. It’s our desire for you to flourish.

So let’s give 2026 to the Lord and let’s find our way on this path. And let’s allow this process to actually be a part of our everyday experience, because that’s where God works in your life, is in the every day. And let’s trust his provision to be the one who causes us to flourish. May it be so. Let’s pray together.

Well, father, we love you and we thank you.

We thank you for a new year in front of us. Obviously a year behind us, but we’re grateful for the one that lies ahead. We pray, Lord, that we’ll give this year to you. It may be a year of intentionality, but we commit ourselves to be disciples and to make disciples. And we ask you to guide the leaders of our church, our staff, as we try to give direction and oversight to that endeavor.

We pray, Lord, that our hearts will be open, that you’ll find our souls to be ready for harvest. And Lord, as we do that, may we see the increase that comes from that, so that you’ll receive the glory that we prove ourselves to be your disciples in 2026. We pray that in Jesus name, Amen.