December 28/29 Weekend Message - Sunday 8:30AM

It's around this time about every year that I decide it's time to get in shape again. And so, every January, inevitably, I go to the gym and I try to put on the heaviest weights I can, and I push as hard as I can, and I I wanna get in shape really fast. And, inevitably,

I go home and I am unbelievably sore. So sore that I can't go back for the next week, and then I just decide, you know what? The year is blown. I I'm gonna skip this year, and I'll go back next January. And I remember a couple years ago, there was a guy,

as I was proceeding to just put up as much weight as possible, he stopped me and said, dude, what are you doing? He'd obviously been at the gym for a long time. He knew what he was talking about. He knew what he was doing. And he said, what are you trying to do? And I told him, listen, I'm trying to get in shape. It's the beginning of the year. I want I want to transform

myself. I want to look different. And he said, listen, if you want to transform the way you look, the key is consistency.

The first day you show up to the gym, you're not going to recognize anything different. The second day you show up, there's still nothing. The third day, nothing's going to appear different. But day 100, when you consistently show up, you're going to be unrecognizable.

If you keep showing up for a year, you won't even recognize yourself in the mirror. And I ended up kind of listening to him, but what he understood about transformation is what I want to share with you this morning and what we're going to see in God's word. It's this. It's life transformation requires consistent action.

Life transformation requires consistent action. Wherever you're at today, whether the holiday plans didn't really pan out, you realize this year wasn't your best. Whether it feels like you're alone,

or you're frustrated with what's going on, or job is is not really working for you, wherever you're at today, I want to tell you right now that this year, this upcoming year, 2025, God wants to radically transform your life. But what that's gonna take is consistent

action on our parts. Over and over in the Bible, we see words like immediately and instantaneously, and we want that for ourselves. We want Jesus to radically transform ourselves in a moment. But the truth is, when he talks about transformation in his word, he uses words like planted,

like grown, like nurtured, watered. And transformation is a slow process. But if this year you choose to lean in and do what God asks us to do, you will look at yourself at the end of 2025 and you will not recognize

who God has transformed you to be. So, we're gonna be in Matthew chapter 13 verses one through nine and eighteen through 23. Jesus is talking to these people all about what it means to have your life completely transformed

by the power of God. And he's using a story all about scattering seed. So, in chapter 13 verse one, he says, Later that same day, Jesus left the house and sat beside the lake. A large crowd soon gathered around him, so he got into a boat. Then he sat there and taught as the people stood on the shore.

He told many stories in the form of parables such as this one. Listen,

a farmer went out to plant some seeds. He scattered them across his field, some seeds fell on the footpath and the birds came up and ate them. Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock and the seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow but the plants soon wilted under the hot sun since they didn't have deep roots and they died.

Other seeds fell among the thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants. Still other seeds fell on fertile soil. And they produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, even a 100 times as much as been planted.

Anyone who has ears to hear should listen and understand. As we drop down to verse 18, Jesus begins explaining what He's talking about when He's talking about these seeds. Verse 18, it says, Now listen to the explanation of the parable of the farmer planting seeds.

He says, The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message, underline that word, hear the message about the Kingdom of God and don't understand it. Then, the evil one comes and snatches away the seed that was planted in their hearts. These first people, they hear all about Jesus,

but they don't understand what he's trying to say. If you want your life to be radically transformed by the power of God, we have to do this. We have to go from hearing to understanding. And the way to do that is to know Jesus personally. This year, maybe

you need to start showing up in a whole new way in your relationship with Jesus. Maybe you know a lot about Jesus. I used to serve in youth ministry, and I'll tell you right now, we have about 400 girls who know a lot about Taylor Swift, but the truth is, they don't know Taylor Swift personally.

Can you say that you have a personal relationship with Jesus? The way that we do that as believers, the way that we know Jesus personally is this, through our private practices and our public worship. Private practices looks like having a personal relationship.

It means that we are talking to God through our prayers, through our actions, and that we are receiving communication from Him mainly through reading His Word. Maybe this is the year that you need to get back on track with your private practices.

Maybe you need to start praying and talking to God about the things that you're struggling with, the things that that you can't handle on your own. Maybe you need to start learning more about who he is and his character and his word.

Or maybe we need to focus on our public worship. Public worship means showing up to church, to weekend service. Some of us, we've accepted Jesus, we've said yes to Jesus, but we haven't publicly professed that in front of the church through baptism. Maybe that's your next step. Maybe this is the year, 2025,

that you publicly profess your faith through baptism. Whatever it is, do you know Jesus personally? And if you haven't consistently been acting in such a way to develop that relationship, then that is the lid on your growth. This year, if we want to be people who understand

what God has for us, if we want our lives to be transformed, we must first know Jesus personally.

Jesus continues on explaining the parable in verse 20. He says, The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. These are the people, maybe you're one of those people at Christmas services, you said yes to Jesus, they raised their hand, they stood up, they said the prayer, but then,

since they don't have deep roots, circle those words, deep roots, they don't last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems and they're persecuted for believing God's words. Here's the truth about life. Trouble will come. The tires on your car will pop. Your marriage will have struggles. Financial hardships

will come. But, are you prepared? Are you someone that can say, I have my roots that grow down deep? So how do we become people who have grown our roots down and deep and we have that support? This is how. If we want our life to transform, we must consistently know Jesus personally and we must consistently grow in biblical

community. Do you have a group of people who don't just know about you, but they know you? Here's how we define biblical community here at Rock Point Church. It's four things. That you are known. We don't just know the surface level things, we know everything

about you. We don't just know the good things, but we know the bad things, and the hard things, and the frustrating things, and the things that you struggle with. Are you known where you're accepted? Where you're supported? But it doesn't stop there, where you're developed.

Do you have a group of people that are willing to challenge you? To push you to look more like Jesus? To call you out when you're not living up to what God has asked you to do.

The best way to get plugged into biblical community, if that's your next step this year, we have an event called Find Your Circle, where you can meet people and choose your very own small group. But we encourage you, if you want to get plugged into biblical community, if you want your roots to grow down deep, if you want to make sure that your faith is solid even in the hard times, even in the frustrating times, even when

it gets really difficult. We have to grow in biblical community.

And Jesus continues to talk about the last set of people. He says, The seed that fell among the thorns represent those who hear God's word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of life and the lure of wealth, so no fruit is produced. Maybe that's you. Maybe this past year,

you've had priorities that haven't been set straight. Maybe you've been focusing so much on your job, so much on your kids, so much on their sports, so much on developing whatever it is that you're working on in life, that you have made Jesus the last priority. You've possibly

given Jesus the leftovers. If we want to be people who are radically transformed, we have to do this. We have to get our priorities in order, and the best way to do that is we have to go live intentionally. By intentionally, I mean we put God first in the things that we do, not last.

We go live intentionally with our time. That means we show up to church, but we also we're dedicated to serve. God gave us our gifts, God gave us our abilities, and it wasn't just to bless our life, it's to bless the life of those around us. Are you being living intentionally with your time, with your talent?

God calls us to live intentionally with our treasure, with our money. You see, we haven't earned a dollar without the blessing, the gifting, the ability to make money because God gave it to us. Some of us this year, we need to rewrite our budgets. And the first thing we need to put is giving to God first.

Because he's given it all to us. Are you living intentionally with your treasure? And are you living intentionally with your testimony? Are we living as people? We truly believe we are light in the darkness.

That we've been sent into this world to point people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus. That's what it means to live intentionally. We've got to get rid of all the extra stuff. It's not bad stuff, but it's stuff that's taking our focus. It's taking the very core of who we are away from what we are called

and purposed to do.

This year, maybe you need to set your priorities straight and start investing in God's economy rather than the temporary one. And, if we do this, in verse 23, Jesus tells us exactly what will happen

consistent, if we keep knowing Jesus personally, if we continue to grow in biblical community, if we continue to go live intentionally, this is what he says, The seed that fell on good soil represents those who truly hear and understand God's word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty,

even a 100 times much that has been planted. What if at the end of 2025, you were a 100 times closer to Jesus than you are right now? What if at the end of 2025, you had a 100 times better people around you that love you and care about you than you do right now? What if at the end of 2025, your purpose

was a 100 times stronger because you've invested all of your time and your talent and your treasure and your testimony into the right place? You see, God wants to radically transform your life, but it takes us showing up consistently to allow that transformation to happen.

At Rock Point, for the past twenty three years, we have seen God move in unbelievable

ways. We're not just saying this, we've been a part of it. Each and every one of us at Rock Point, we've had our lives radically transformed because continued to live consistently and watch Him transform our life. Just this past year, in 2024, we saw almost 900 people publicly proclaim their faith and be baptized.

Nearly 5,000 people say yes to Jesus for the very first time. And we've continued to plant churches and partner with new ones to multiply the influence that God has given us in Arizona, The UK, and Zambia. Transform your life.

He's done it with us, and He's continuing to do it in us. And He wants to transform your life and use your life to transform the lives of those around you. But the question is, are you going to live consistently?

What do you need to do when this video ends and it's up to you? Maybe you need to sign up for the next baptism weekend to publicly proclaim your faith. Maybe you need to start a new Bible plan.

Maybe you need to sign up for the next We Are Rock Point. Maybe you need to sign up for the next Find Your Circle. Whatever it is, don't walk out of this room, don't end this video without knowing exactly what you need to do to receive the life transformation that God has for you.

Because at the end of this year, we could look at what God has done, and we might just not recognize ourselves in the mirror. We are praying for that. We are hoping for that. We want God to continue to transform the lives of every single person who walks through the doors at Rock Point Church.

But the question is, are you going to know Jesus personally, consistently? Are you going to consistently grow in biblical community? And are you going to consistently go live intentionally? God, I wanna pray for each and every person at home listening to this message.

We pray that 2025 would be the year that lives are radically transformed, that the influence you've given us is multiplied by hundreds. God, I pray that you touch the life of each and every person this morning, that we would choose to live consistently and see you transform us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Thanks for joining us this weekend for our online service. As Jonesy mentioned in his message, we have seen so much life change over the past year. We can't wait to see you back in person January fourth and fifth as we start our new sermon series that walks through the book of Ephesians.

Also, we have so many ways that you can get connected here at Rock Point. Whether it's joining a life group, getting baptized, volunteering, or getting your family involved in our next gen ministries, we have something for everyone. Visit rockpointchurch.com

to learn more about what we have for you and your family, and we hope you have an amazing New Year.