The Danger of Transactional Faith: A Critique of ‘Walk This Way’

• Faith vs. Ability [00:00:07 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts human skill sets and leadership strategies with the necessity of faith, arguing that ability only brings incremental growth while faith enables kingdom expansion.
• Faith Capacity [00:00:31 ▶️ 📄]
  > The core theme for the year is increasing 'faith capacity' rather than just professional or leadership capacity, referencing the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11.
• Walking with God (Halak) [00:14:01 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor unpacks the Hebrew word 'halak' in the context of Enoch, defining it as walking with God through consistency rather than seeking overnight success or accolades.
• Prayer Discipline [00:15:06 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor emphasizes that prayer is a learned discipline requiring consistency (21 days of prayer) and cannot be learned solely from sermons.
• Consistency in Spiritual Walk [00:14:16 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts cultural celebration of 'overnight success' with the biblical necessity of consistency, linking it to the 21-day prayer habit to form spiritual disciplines.
• Definition of Faith (Pistis) [00:16:31 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor corrects the misconception of faith as a possessable object, explaining it as 'faith in' (pistis eis) a person, illustrated by trusting his wife Camden's character.
• Knowing God's Character [00:20:20 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that studying the 21 names of God reveals His character, which builds trust and expands faith capacity.
• Daily Discipline vs. Weekend Spirituality [00:21:10 ▶️ 📄]
  > Using the analogy of a 'weekend warrior' runner, the pastor argues that spiritual health is determined by daily habits ('what you do in between Sundays') rather than Sunday morning emotions.
• Growth as a Sign of Health [00:25:30 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the analogy of measuring a child's height to illustrate that spiritual growth is the visible sign of spiritual health, encouraging pre-decisions to maintain this trajectory.
• Spiritual Health and Growth [00:27:43 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that growth is a sign of health, not just a checklist item, emphasizing that spiritual well-being is measured by consistent momentum rather than sporadic achievements.
• Pre-decision and Discipline [00:28:12 ▶️ 📄]
  > He encourages the congregation to make 'pre-decisions' for their faith journey, preparing spiritually and practically in advance to avoid making excuses when difficulties arise.
• The Power of Consistency (The Odyssey Analogy) [00:29:20 ▶️ 📄]
  > Using the story of Odysseus, he illustrates that true greatness and legend status come from the long, ordinary 'walk home' after the battle, not just the initial victory.
• The Value of Every Step [00:33:37 ▶️ 📄]
  > He asserts that every single step—prayer, hard conversations, health choices—matters and contributes to the final breakthrough, rejecting the idea that only visible milestones count.
• Invitation to New Beginnings [00:35:34 ▶️ 📄]
  > He issues a call to action for the new year, inviting those who feel far from God to begin a new walk with Him, emphasizing that grace reaches everyone regardless of past failures.

• Sermon Illustration [00:10:41 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses a musical quiz to engage the congregation, asking them to identify artists of songs with 'Walk' in the title (e.g., Johnny Cash, Lou Reed, Dire Straits, The Bangles, Katrina and the Waves) to transition into his sermon title 'Walk This Way' and the biblical concept of Enoch walking with God.
• Sermon Illustration [00:08:55 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references the biblical figure Enoch, noting that while little is known about his leadership or miracles, Scripture uniquely describes him as one who 'walked with God,' using this as the primary illustration for consistent faith.
• Sermon Illustration [00:18:12 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about his wife, Camden, who texted him saying she was 'going wild' (an autocorrect error for 'going to Aldi'). He uses this to illustrate that true faith is trusting in a person's consistent character, knowing she would never actually go clubbing.
• Sermon Illustration [00:21:10 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor tells a story about his friend Wes, a 'weekend warrior' runner who only ran on Saturdays. Wes changed his habits to run 3-5 times a week and became the best runner in the group. The pastor then notes that Wes's 13-year-old son recently passed him in a race, illustrating that consistent daily effort ('what you do in between Sundays') separates maturity from immaturity.
• Sermon Illustration [00:25:51 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts a childhood memory of his mother measuring his height on a Burger Chef growth chart in the hallway. He humorously notes the chart was likely inaccurate ('disillusionment') but uses it to explain that measuring growth is a sign of health, applying this to spiritual development.
• Sermon Illustration [00:27:11 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about discovering a height chart in his home was shorter than it should have been, leading to a crisis of confidence about his actual height and his mother's encouragement, which serves as a metaphor for how we measure growth.
• Sermon Illustration [00:28:14 ▶️ 📄]
  > He uses the analogy of pre-deciding to wake up early for prayer by laying out clothes and coffee the night before, illustrating the need for spiritual preparation to avoid making excuses later.
• Sermon Illustration [00:29:20 ▶️ 📄]
  > He tells the story of Odysseus from Homer's Odyssey, contrasting the battle of the Iliad with the ten-year walk home in the Odyssey, arguing that Odysseus's true greatness and legend status came from his daily, ordinary perseverance through hardship rather than his initial victory.
• Sermon Illustration [00:33:51 ▶️ 📄]
  > He lists mundane daily actions—having hard conversations with children, praying when it feels ineffective, walking on a treadmill, choosing almonds over candy—as examples of 'steps' that collectively lead to spiritual and physical breakthroughs.

• Pastoral Charge [00:03:27 ▶️ 📄]
  > Verbally declare a commitment to leave the past behind and seek more from God.
• Pastoral Charge [00:03:53 ▶️ 📄]
  > Prophesy over their year, affirming they will do more, believe more, and move forward in faith rather than staying stuck or lukewarm.
• Pastoral Charge [00:04:37 ▶️ 📄]
  > Lift voice and hands to celebrate and shout for God's name.
• Pastoral Charge [00:05:05 ▶️ 📄]
  > Physically high-five three neighbors and instruct them to 'elevate'.
• Pastoral Charge [00:06:44 ▶️ 📄]
  > Download the Multiply Family of Churches app and access the sermon booklet.
• Pastoral Charge [00:28:03 ▶️ 📄]
  > Commit to the 21 days of prayer by making pre-decisions and preparing practically the night before.
• Pastoral Charge [00:34:37 ▶️ 📄]
  > Stand up and publicly commit to being known by a consistent daily walk with God rather than spectacular moments.
• Pastoral Charge [00:35:03 ▶️ 📄]
  > Raise a hand as a sign of agreement to commit to consistent walking with God.
• Pastoral Charge [00:35:48 ▶️ 📄]
  > Begin a new relationship with Jesus by asking for forgiveness and committing to a new course of life.

[00:00:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
What if God isn't looking at your resume?
[00:00:07] What if God isn't impressed with your skill set?
[00:00:13] What if it's not about what you can do, but about what you can believe?
[00:00:20] Because God doesn't build things according to the level of our ability.
[00:00:26] He builds things according to the level of our faith.
[00:00:31] This year is about increasing our faith capacity.
[00:00:38] We've spent years sharpening our abilities, collecting knowledge, perfecting our leadership strategies.
[00:00:46] And that's good.
[00:00:48] That honors God.
[00:00:50] But it only brings incremental growth in the situation you're already in.
[00:00:56] If you want to step onto a whole new playing field, if you want to build what eye has not seen nor ear has heard, you've got to elevate.
[00:01:10] Because kingdom expansion operates in a different realm.
[00:01:15] Not in the realm of ability, but the realm of faith.
[00:01:21] Hebrews 11 says faith is the manifestation of things hoped for.
[00:01:26] Faith is the evidence of things not seen.
[00:01:30] There's a visible realm and an invisible realm, a seen world and an unseen world.
[00:01:38] In the unseen world, that's the higher reality.
[00:01:43] That's the realm where faith is the currency, where trust is the transaction, where heaven's resources move when earth believes.
[00:01:55] But here's the problem.
[00:01:57] Too many of us live stuck under the circumstances.
[00:02:02] Bound by the five senses, we end up living below, beneath, never elevating into the faith realm.
[00:02:11] Others do step into that realm, but stay there.
[00:02:15] Dreaming, hoping, envisioning, and never bringing heaven down to earth, never manifesting the unseen into the scene.
[00:02:26] But know that it's not about your seating capacity.
[00:02:30] It's not about your giving capacity.
[00:02:32] It's not about your leadership capacity.
[00:02:36] It's about your faith capacity.
[00:02:39] From Abel to Abraham, Moses to Rahab, David to Samuel, we walk through the Hall of Faith not just to read stories of history, but convinced that the chapters of faith are still being written by Heaven's pen, yearning for our lives to tell stories like
[00:03:00] There's this is the year we climb higher.
[00:03:04] This is the year we spiral upward.
[00:03:07] This is the year to elevate our thinking, elevate our words, elevate our faith.
[00:03:15] So lift your eyes, lift your heart, lift your faith.
[00:03:19] It's time.
[00:03:22] Elevate.
[00:03:27] Come on, Multiplier Church.
[00:03:30] Come on, Multiply Church.
[00:03:31] I wonder if there's anybody here that on the first Sunday of 2026 would say, God, I'm thankful for the past, but I'm not going to stay in the past.
[00:03:41] I'm not going to be stuck in the past.
[00:03:43] I'm not going to be satisfied with the past.
[00:03:46] God, I believe that you have more for me to do.
[00:03:49] God, I believe this is the year I'm going to climb higher.
[00:03:52] This is the year
[00:03:53] I'm gonna dream bigger this is the year I'm gonna elevate my thinking elevate my words elevate my faith go ahead and begin to prophesy over your year God we're gonna do more this year we're gonna believe for more this year God we are going after more of the Lord this year we are going
[00:04:14] To elevate, come on, is there anybody with faith in the house?
[00:04:18] Is there anybody that wants to grow?
[00:04:21] Is there anybody that is not satisfied?
[00:04:24] I'm not going to stay stuck.
[00:04:25] I'm not going to be lukewarm.
[00:04:28] I'm not going back.
[00:04:29] I'm not standing still.
[00:04:31] I'm not going to live in neutral.
[00:04:33] I am moving forward in faith.
[00:04:37] Bye.
[00:04:37] faith through faith because there's more to give there's more to do there's more to accomplish there's more that God has for me there's more that God has for my family come on church lift your voice lift your hands let's celebrate in the God that is calling us to elevate today come on shout for his name
[00:05:02] Amen.
[00:05:04] Amen.
[00:05:05] High five three people around you.
[00:05:07] Tell them to elevate.
[00:05:09] Elevate.
[00:05:11] Elevate.
[00:05:13] That's our word for the year.
[00:05:16] Here's what God told me to tell you in 2026.
[00:05:22] He told me to tell you that whatever you're thinking, it's too small.
[00:05:27] He told me to tell you that whatever you're dreaming, it's not big enough.
[00:05:32] I believe this, that God, last year, He wasn't stretching you to get you bent out of shape.
[00:05:42] He was stretching you to increase your capacity.
[00:05:47] What if everything that you've been walking through, every relationship that didn't go exactly your way, every person that didn't treat you the way that you thought you deserved to be treated, every financial
[00:06:00] Transaction that didn't end up exactly the way that you thought.
[00:06:04] Every ministry endeavor that didn't end in a miracle.
[00:06:07] What if every struggle, every trial was not to get you bent out of shape, but God was actually at work in the middle of those stretching you?
[00:06:18] Why?
[00:06:19] to increase your capacity to increase your capacity to believe for more this this year we're gonna go through the book of Hebrews Hebrews chapter 11 uh says this we said it in the video but but let me read it again by the way does everybody uh have their booklet every family have their booklet wave these at me and make sure that you've got them there's places in there for
[00:06:44] Sermon notes or if you're a digital person all of this booklet is on your app you can download the multiply family of churches app click your location as Concord and right there on the home screen is and and link to this booklet and so it's digital as well as physical and I'll be talking a little bit more about that but we're gonna walk through the book of Hebrews here's what's interesting to me that there's only one Hall of
[00:07:14] The Bible doesn't have a hall of fame in all of Scripture.
[00:07:17] And leadership is a great gift and it's a spiritual gift and it's from God and it's needed and necessary.
[00:07:24] But the Bible doesn't have a hall of fame for leaders.
[00:07:27] Preaching is a great gift.
[00:07:29] It's used by God throughout centuries to declare the Word of God and help people to step into the faith that God wants them to step into.
[00:07:37] But there's not a Hall of Fame for preachers.
[00:07:40] There's only one Hall of Fame in all of Scripture, and it's a Hall of Fame for people of faith.
[00:07:47] that's what Hebrews chapter 11 is it says now faith is the manifestation of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen for by it the ancients received their commendation by faith we understand that the universe was created by the Word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible 2nd Corinthians 5 7 says for we walk by faith and not by sight
[00:08:15] And so we're going to go through this hall of fame truly believing that the pages of Scripture are still being written, not in the sense that we're adding to the physical Bible.
[00:08:25] We know that that would be heresy, but God is still writing stories of faith, that this Hebrews 11 list is not an exhaustive list.
[00:08:34] I believe that there is an opportunity for people to still be on that list.
[00:08:40] What if we could be on that list?
[00:08:43] So we're gonna go back to Abel.
[00:08:45] I'm not, Abel in this list is the first one listed.
[00:08:48] We're not gonna skip over him.
[00:08:50] I'm gonna go back to him in a few weeks, but we're gonna begin with a guy named Enoch.
[00:08:55] Enoch, we don't know much about Enoch in the pages of Scripture.
[00:08:59] There's only a few verses.
[00:09:01] One is found in Hebrews chapter 11.
[00:09:04] The other account is found in Genesis chapter 5.
[00:09:07] Let's read both of these.
[00:09:09] Verse 5 in Hebrews chapter 11 says, By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death.
[00:09:18] And he was not found because God had taken him.
[00:09:21] Now before he was taken up, he was commended as having pleased God.
[00:09:26] And without faith it is impossible to please Him.
[00:09:31] For whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.
[00:09:39] Genesis chapter five, we get just a little bit more insight into Enoch.
[00:09:45] Beginning of verse 21, when Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah.
[00:09:50] Enoch walked
[00:09:53] with God.
[00:09:54] He walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years, and he had other sons and daughters.
[00:09:59] Thus all of the days of Enoch were 365 years.
[00:10:02] Enoch, it says again, Enoch walked with God.
[00:10:08] I love that description.
[00:10:10] We don't know a lot about Enoch's family.
[00:10:12] We don't know a lot about his leadership.
[00:10:14] We don't know about sermons that he preached.
[00:10:17] We don't know about miracles that he might have performed.
[00:10:20] We don't know about his journey.
[00:10:22] We don't know a lot of things about Enoch.
[00:10:24] But I think that one phrase in Scripture says so much that Enoch walked with God.
[00:10:32] My title this morning came from a song title because song titles with the word walk in them are very popular.
[00:10:41] You can go back through years.
[00:10:43] I know that the only music that you listened to growing up was the Gaithers and Sandy Patty and Twyla Parris and Amy Grant before she went secular.
[00:10:54] and Carmen and I know that's, but just in case there's a few people that happened to when you were walking through the mall hear some other music playing, I'm gonna give you a little challenge, a little quiz this morning.
[00:11:10] I'm gonna give you the name of a song title and walk is in the title and you're gonna tell me the artist of the song and so the song I Walk the Line was sung by,
[00:11:22] A bunch of heathens out there.
[00:11:24] You need to get in 21 days of prayer.
[00:11:27] Listen to some more worship music this year.
[00:11:31] The song Walk on the Wild Side was sung by Lou Reed.
[00:11:36] Very good.
[00:11:36] You're already better than the 830 service.
[00:11:40] I'm gonna test you.
[00:11:42] Children of the 80s, wave at me.
[00:11:44] Don't let me down.
[00:11:46] Don't let me down.
[00:11:47] Walk of Life was sung by
[00:11:51] Dire Straits, I heard it.
[00:11:52] Thank you so much.
[00:11:54] I don't know who said it.
[00:11:56] God bless you.
[00:12:01] Latter 80s walk like an Egyptian was sung by.
[00:12:05] Bengals exactly walking on sunshine by.
[00:12:08] And the woman's name was
[00:12:15] Katrina and the waves exactly and but all of those I suppose those are fine but that is not my title this morning my title is based on the best collab of all time all time hands down my title is walk this way come on tell your neighbor walk this way
[00:12:38] Sing to your other neighbor, walk this way.
[00:12:41] I need you to elevate your octaves like Steven Tyler.
[00:12:45] Come on, I need the raspiness to come out.
[00:12:48] Walk this way.
[00:12:52] Walk, it's a simple term in the Bible.
[00:12:54] Again, we don't know a lot about Enoch, but we know that he walked with God.
[00:12:59] And I would submit to you that maybe that's one of the best descriptive lines you could ever say about anyone.
[00:13:05] Wouldn't you love for somebody to say that about you at the end of your life?
[00:13:10] Maybe not about your financial accomplishments or your job accomplishments or your whatever that you fill in the list of things that you want to accomplish in your life that may all be good things.
[00:13:21] but what if at the end of your life somebody looked and said that's a person that walked with God think about your heroes in the faith who taught you to pray who led you to Jesus who do you call when you're walking through a difficult time in your life who is that mother or father or spiritual mother or father in your life I bet that's a line that you would say about them that they walk
[00:13:49] With God.
[00:13:50] Maybe a lot of people don't know their name, but they walk with God.
[00:13:54] Maybe they don't have a lot of accolades or fame, but they walk with God.
[00:13:59] What does it mean to walk with God?
[00:14:01] One word, the Hebrew word is halak, but it's so deep, it's so rich, and I want to unpack that this morning.
[00:14:07] So what does it mean to be a person who walks with God?
[00:14:10] Number one, it means to walk with consistency.
[00:14:16] It's not a word we hear a lot in our culture.
[00:14:19] Our culture, our society, celebrates big.
[00:14:22] It celebrates splash.
[00:14:25] It celebrates what they would term as an overnight success.
[00:14:31] How many of you know there is no such thing as an overnight success?
[00:14:37] There is such a thing as overnight success.
[00:14:42] nights of prayer nights of work nights of struggle nights of toil come on how many of you know that it's not just an overnight success there's consistency it's the same way in our walk with god that's why these 21 days of prayer are so important we don't do this just because it's a fad thing that's going through the church world i re i believe this to my
[00:15:06] The core, that other than declaring Jesus Christ as the true Son of God, the one and the only way to heaven, the Savior of your life, besides declaring Jesus and preaching Jesus, the most important job I have is to teach you to pray.
[00:15:25] I really, if I can teach you to pray and I cannot teach you to pray on a Sunday morning.
[00:15:31] You can't learn to pray from a sermon.
[00:15:33] You have to learn to pray by praying.
[00:15:35] That's the only way.
[00:15:36] And so that's why we do these 21 days of prayer.
[00:15:39] Why 21 days?
[00:15:40] Because it takes 21 days to form a habit.
[00:15:43] You form your habits and then your habits form you.
[00:15:46] You form things in your life that bring a life of consistency.
[00:15:51] And so what does that have to do with building your faith?
[00:15:54] It has everything to do with building your faith.
[00:15:56] I love how God gave this to Pastor Gwen this year.
[00:15:59] She came to me about six months ago, about eight months ago.
[00:16:02] She said, I have an idea for doing 21 days of prayer.
[00:16:06] What if we walked through 21 of the names of God?
[00:16:10] I said, I love it.
[00:16:12] Here, let me explain.
[00:16:13] Let me break this down for you.
[00:16:15] And I believe that you're gonna understand faith
[00:16:20] in a new way that's gonna help your walk so much.
[00:16:26] So in the English language, we'll often say something like this.
[00:16:31] We'll ask a question, do you have faith?
[00:16:36] Okay, that's not actually a legitimate question, and here's why.
[00:16:42] While faith is a noun, it is not a noun in the sense that it is an entity that you can either possess or not possess in the sense of like a physical object.
[00:16:55] So I can ask you, do you have a car?
[00:16:58] and the answer to that would be yes or no I can ask you did you bring a physical Bible with you to church and the answer would be yes or no but if I say do you have faith well that's a tough question to answer right because what is faith and how do I know I got it and
[00:17:16] So the word faith in the Greek, in the New Testament, is the word pistis, P-I-S-T-I-S.
[00:17:23] But it is almost always found coupled with another word, E-I-S, pistis eis, and it means this, it's faith in.
[00:17:34] or Faith toward.
[00:17:36] So watch this.
[00:17:38] Faith is not an entity that you possess independent of something else.
[00:17:44] Else it's faith in something.
[00:17:46] So let me give you a couple of examples.
[00:17:48] Yesterday at 4.30, you had faith in the Panthers.
[00:17:58] There's still a chance.
[00:18:00] I'm just saying, there's still a chance.
[00:18:03] Let me give you a better example that will make you not mad at me on this first Sunday.
[00:18:12] God has a sense of humor and I'm just absolutely convinced that God has a sense of humor because I'm sitting there on my couch and I'm going over this and I'm literally rehearsing this illustration
[00:18:25] in real time and then and then this happens so i was thinking how faith is in an entity or in a person so for example and this is the example that i was walking through in my head i have faith in camden
[00:18:41] Why?
[00:18:41] Because we've been married for 22 years and I know her and I know her character.
[00:18:47] And so if you were to tell me something about Camden that was inconsistent with who I know her to be, I would immediately dismiss it because I would say, well, that's not Camden.
[00:18:57] I have faith in
[00:18:58] As I'm saying this I'm texting her because she had gone to the gym and then out running some errands and I said hey babe can you swing by the church and can you pick up one of the Elevate booklets because they just come from the printer and I wanted to have a copy of it for this morning and so she texted me back I should have screenshotted this but maybe I'll put it on my Instagram story later on today she texted me back she said yes she said I'm going wild and
[00:19:28] and and immediately like not for a moment did I say oh my goodness Camden's going clubbing in Charlotte like not like that didn't even Camden's never gone wild a day in her life what she meant to say what was auto-corrected what immediately came through on the second line of the text is I'm going to Aldi
[00:19:55] And I said, of course she is.
[00:19:59] Because going to Aldi is very much in line with her character and her actions.
[00:20:06] Or if she would say, I'm going to Target, absolutely.
[00:20:11] Why?
[00:20:11] Because I know Camden and I don't have faith in a
[00:20:15] I have faith in a person.
[00:20:18] This will encourage you.
[00:20:20] Why are we going through the 21 names of God?
[00:20:23] Because that's one of the ways that God reveals himself to you through scripture.
[00:20:27] He reveals his character through his names.
[00:20:31] I am Jehovah Jireh, your provider.
[00:20:33] I am Jehovah Nisi, your healer.
[00:20:35] I am Jehovah Sidcanu, your righteousness.
[00:20:38] Those are not just titles.
[00:20:40] That is who God is.
[00:20:42] And the more that you know who God is, the more you trust Him and the more you trust Him, the more your faith grows and the more your faith capacity expands, the more that He can do in and through you and use you in your life.
[00:20:56] Do you see how strategic this is?
[00:20:59] That's how you build faith is you get to know God and you get to know God by doing it with consistency.
[00:21:10] Many of you know we've got a workout tribe that meets almost every Saturday.
[00:21:15] Rain, sleet, snow, sunshine, heat, 7.30 on Saturday morning.
[00:21:21] And I was reminded of this yesterday.
[00:21:24] So we run a mile loop through the woods.
[00:21:29] And so it's a trail run.
[00:21:30] It's got some hills.
[00:21:31] And I was thinking back to, it was probably three or four years ago, and one of my friends, Wes, was running beside me because it was at the beginning of the run when we were running side by side.
[00:21:43] But Wes would, and he would tell you this, he was a weekend warrior.
[00:21:46] What's a weekend warrior?
[00:21:47] It means it's somebody that they play golf,
[00:21:50] And I'll never, I'll never forget this moment.
[00:22:12] We were running together and he said, you know, he said, it's what you do in between Saturdays that counts.
[00:22:22] And Wes didn't just say it.
[00:22:24] He started doing it three, four, five times a week up at 5.30 almost every day, working out, running.
[00:22:32] Now he's the best runner in our group, hands down.
[00:22:35] Can run laps around all of us.
[00:22:38] In fact, yesterday, I'm running up the hill and I'm running through the woods and there's somebody right on my heels.
[00:22:45] And it's Wes's middle school son, 13 years old.
[00:22:50] And I'm like, that's cute.
[00:22:51] That's cute, the little 13-year-old.
[00:22:53] He's on my heels.
[00:22:55] And so we run the first hill, and we run the second hill, and the third hill.
[00:22:59] And I literally thought this as I'm running up the third hill, because he's still on my heels.
[00:23:05] I thought to myself, this is what separates the men from the boys.
[00:23:14] And it did.
[00:23:17] When he passed me.
[00:23:24] Why do I tell you that?
[00:23:26] I tell you that because, can I preach this?
[00:23:29] It's what you do in between Sundays that counts.
[00:23:33] And I'm so thankful that you are here this morning.
[00:23:37] Good job.
[00:23:37] Tell your neighbor, good job.
[00:23:39] You could have been a lot of places.
[00:23:41] You could have been on the golf course.
[00:23:42] You could have been at brunch.
[00:23:44] You could have been in the bed.
[00:23:45] But you woke up and said, God, I'm going to make you first in my life, my family.
[00:23:50] We are going to get to church.
[00:23:52] 2026 is going to be a year where I'm going to develop consistency in my life.
[00:23:57] And so great job.
[00:23:59] But it's also what you do in between Sundays that counts.
[00:24:03] It's getting in the Word on a daily basis and maybe we have too many weekend warrior Christians who are trying to live their faith based on the emotion of the third worship song instead of the daily walk.
[00:24:19] But that's not going to be who you are this year.
[00:24:22] You are going to walk with faith.
[00:24:24] You are going to walk with consistency.
[00:24:26] You are going to walk with determination.
[00:24:28] You are going to have a daily walk.
[00:24:32] with Jesus.
[00:24:34] It's consistent, consistent.
[00:24:37] The second thing about this Hebrew word, halak, to walk, it means to be conversant.
[00:24:45] It means to be conversed and it means that we walk and we talk.
[00:24:50] That Jesus, when I'm walking with you, prayer is not just something I do in the morning.
[00:24:55] Prayer is not just something I do during 21 days, but prayer is a lifestyle.
[00:25:00] Prayer is an ongoing conversation with the Holy Spirit where we are talking to Him and we are listening to Him and we're listening to the nudges of the Holy Spirit.
[00:25:11] We're walking and talking.
[00:25:12] Number three, it means to move forward.
[00:25:15] Walking by its very definition means forward progress.
[00:25:19] It's not standing still.
[00:25:20] It's not staying in neutral.
[00:25:21] There's no such thing as a lukewarm Christian.
[00:25:25] It means to move forward.
[00:25:27] Number four, it means to grow.
[00:25:30] It means to grow.
[00:25:31] We know this just by looking at humanity, by looking at children, by looking at babies, right?
[00:25:37] They go through this progression of sitting up, of crawling, of standing up and walking.
[00:25:43] And then we will measure their growth.
[00:25:45] When they're babies, we'll take them to a doctor, not when they're sick, but we go for a wellness check.
[00:25:51] And what was the first thing that the nurse does is she weighs that baby.
[00:25:54] Is the baby gaining weight?
[00:25:57] Why?
[00:25:57] Because it is a sign.
[00:25:59] Growth is a sign of health.
[00:26:00] How many of you grew up with your mom or somebody marking your height on the door?
[00:26:07] Or you had one of those charts of somebody.
[00:26:09] I snapped a picture.
[00:26:11] This is how Polly withered up.
[00:26:12] This is how my mom measured our height.
[00:26:15] It's still in my dad's closet up there.
[00:26:19] See, that's how you know that I have faith.
[00:26:20] I'm still a Pirates fan.
[00:26:22] I'm still, after all,
[00:26:24] of these years and so you've got the pirates hat but you've got the growth chart that is you say what kind of growth chart is that that is a burger chef growth chart say burger king nah we didn't have that it was burger chef y'all have burger chef did anybody go to a burger chef i think it was a midwestern northern thing that got bought out by hardy's i think that's all all i remember
[00:26:50] But mom would measure our growth and then I went through, I looked at that and I snapped a picture of it and then I got a little bit disillusioned because I said to my brother, I said, Steve, did you notice that this chart is a half foot shorter than what it should have been?
[00:27:11] In other words, like, I'm like, and then I was getting all kinds of disillusionment going through.
[00:27:17] I'm like, was I really as tall as my mom said I was?
[00:27:21] Or was that just, no, no, honey, you're big.
[00:27:24] Look at how big you are.
[00:27:26] Like, was that just a mom thing?
[00:27:28] I'm hoping what happened is when we put the hat rack up,
[00:27:31] The chart got moved.
[00:27:32] That's what I'm hoping happened.
[00:27:34] But why do moms, why do parents, why do we measure growth?
[00:27:40] It's not necessarily about the growth.
[00:27:43] It's that growth is a sign of health.
[00:27:46] When you're dealing with spiritual intangibles in your life, sometimes it's not about the checklist, right?
[00:27:55] It's not about, am I going to make all 21 days of prayer?
[00:27:59] By the way, you're going to make all 21 days because I believe in you.
[00:28:02] In fact, go ahead and decide.
[00:28:03] Decide now.
[00:28:05] Decide now.
[00:28:05] Don't decide on day 14 if you're going to do day 14 because the bed is going to feel really good on day 14.
[00:28:11] Decide now.
[00:28:12] Predecide.
[00:28:14] Put your clothes out the night before.
[00:28:16] Get your coffee ready the night before.
[00:28:19] Get everything ready the night before and so you're ready
[00:28:22] You make the best decisions you'll ever make in your life are not spur-of-the-moment decisions.
[00:28:28] They're pre-decisions.
[00:28:29] So go ahead and decide.
[00:28:30] Say, I'm gonna grow my faith.
[00:28:32] I'm gonna elevate my faith this year.
[00:28:34] But the reason we do 21 days, one of the reasons we do 21 days is not so you can complete the checklist and feel really good about yourself because you've checked all the boxes.
[00:28:45] It's a sign of health.
[00:28:47] That's what God is after.
[00:28:50] He wants you to be healthy spiritually.
[00:28:52] He wants you to be healthy in mind, in body, in soul, in spirit.
[00:28:57] And your spiritual health is not based on moments, it's based on momentum.
[00:29:03] And momentum is based on a consistent walk of daily communion, of daily
[00:29:10] Reading of daily prayer of daily obedience with Jesus.
[00:29:16] There's a movie that's coming out this summer called The Odyssey.
[00:29:20] I think they've already like released the trailer and you read that in ninth grade right?
[00:29:26] Are you gonna have to write a note to your ninth grade English teacher and say I'm so sorry I didn't I'm going to see the movie and I should have read the book and I didn't read the book but
[00:29:35] If you remember, the Odyssey is actually the second in the series.
[00:29:38] You remember the first book was the Iliad, and then there was the Odyssey.
[00:29:43] And it's a continuation of the same story.
[00:29:45] It's about the hero, Odysseus.
[00:29:47] And in the Iliad, so the Iliad is about the battle.
[00:29:50] It's about the battle of Troy and the great victory that they won.
[00:29:54] But the Odyssey, here's what's unique about the Odyssey, is only about 4% of the book is a battle.
[00:30:02] It's really not a book about any kind of a battle.
[00:30:05] So the Odyssey is about a 10 year after the battle, after the glory, after the victory, it's about Odysseus' 10 year walk home.
[00:30:17] It's just, it's about a walk.
[00:30:19] It's about a walk.
[00:30:20] It's about a daily walk.
[00:30:22] And so, his greatness, we learn this about Odysseus, that his true greatness comes after the war, on the long walk home.
[00:30:31] After the battles are over, after the victories are finished, after the applause fades, Odysseus begins a journey that takes ten years.
[00:30:39] Not of fighting, but of walking.
[00:30:41] He walks through foreign lands.
[00:30:43] He walks across unknown shores.
[00:30:45] He walks through storms, through shipwrecks, through temptations, through disappointments, through loss.
[00:30:51] He walks disguised as a beggar, unseen, uncelebrated.
[00:30:54] He walks step by step, sometimes limping, sometimes crawling toward a promise that at times he can barely see anymore.
[00:31:04] In the end, Odysseus' greatness isn't in the war that he fought but in the journey that he finished.
[00:31:12] It's not in the sword that he carried but in the walk that shaped him.
[00:31:19] It wasn't one moment of heroicism.
[00:31:22] It was thousands of ordinary steps taken in faith toward home.
[00:31:27] And that's the picture of every person that we're going to read through Hebrews chapter 11 over these next week.
[00:31:34] The men and women of Hebrews chapter 11, the men and women who made it to the Hall of Faith, they were not
[00:31:41] They were not sprinters.
[00:31:42] They were not superstars.
[00:31:44] They were ordinary men and women just like you who had a daily walk with God.
[00:31:53] Odysseus didn't become a legend because of his strength.
[00:31:56] He became a legend because he kept walking.
[00:32:00] So hear this today that your greatness is not in your resume.
[00:32:04] It's not in your gifting.
[00:32:05] It's not in your ability.
[00:32:07] Your greatness is in your daily walk.
[00:32:11] Long obedience in the same direction.
[00:32:14] A faith step today and another one tomorrow.
[00:32:18] The walk that shapes you into the person that God already sees.
[00:32:22] The walk that brings you home.
[00:32:24] Walk this way.
[00:32:25] Walk with God and your walk will become your legacy.
[00:32:29] And so I started thinking about Odysseus and I was trying to juxtapose in my mind the
[00:32:35] Greatness of the breakthrough moment and when he stepped across the threshold of his home for the first time in 10 years and felt the embrace of his wife and was able to hug his children and he had that miracle moment and and then I started thinking about so here is this incredible moment you would think that that's the moment that gets the movie made out of but it wasn't it was about the walk the ordinary
[00:33:06] daily when nobody knew when nobody was celebrating when nobody was checking to see if he got up that morning when he set his alarm clock when he was having time just all of these things that were the daily walk and then i started thinking this and i started asking myself this question which step got him home
[00:33:32] Which step got Odysseus the miracle?
[00:33:37] Which step got him the breakthrough?
[00:33:41] And the answer is simply this, isn't all of them.
[00:33:45] Every, every step.
[00:33:46] You need to know that today.
[00:33:48] That every step you take matters.
[00:33:51] Parent every hard conversation that you have with your children when you think that they're not listening.
[00:33:58] Every conversation matters.
[00:34:00] Every time that you pray and it doesn't feel like your prayers are making a difference, every prayer matters.
[00:34:06] Every step on, which step on the treadmill is gonna lower your blood pressure?
[00:34:11] All of them.
[00:34:13] Which time that you reach for the almonds instead of the Twix bar?
[00:34:17] Which of those decisions is going to break the curse of diabetes in your life?
[00:34:22] All of them.
[00:34:23] It's your daily walk.
[00:34:25] So keep walking when it's not celebrated.
[00:34:29] Keep walking when others aren't cheering you on.
[00:34:32] Keep walking when it doesn't feel good.
[00:34:34] Keep walking!
[00:34:36] Keep walking!
[00:34:37] Would you stand all across this auditorium?
[00:34:40] Can we just go ahead and on the first Sunday of 2026 make the decision, I'm gonna walk this way, I'm gonna be a man or woman of God that's not just known by great moments in my life, but I wanna be a man or woman of God that is known by my walk
[00:34:58] I want to walk with God.
[00:35:00] I want to talk with God.
[00:35:01] I want to daily commune with God.
[00:35:03] Would you just maybe slip up a hand right where you're at and say, God, that's me.
[00:35:08] I want to be a man of God like Enoch.
[00:35:10] I want to be a woman of God.
[00:35:12] I want to be someone who walks with consistency and while the world celebrates the flashes, when the world celebrates the spectacles, I want to be somebody that's celebrated by consistency.
[00:35:29] The heads still bowed and eyes still closed.
[00:35:34] There are people in this room and you would be honest, you would say something like this, Pastor, I'm not walking with Jesus.
[00:35:44] Maybe you did at one point in your life or maybe you never have.
[00:35:48] But what a better Sunday than the first Sunday of a new year to begin a new life by beginning a new walk, by beginning a new relationship, by asking Jesus to come into your life, to come into your heart, to forgive you of all of your sins, to wipe your past clean, and to set you on a brand new course.
[00:36:08] You say, Pastor, I'm too far gone.
[00:36:10] You don't know the things that I've done.
[00:36:12] You don't know the things that I've said, the people that I've betrayed, the people that I've abandoned, the people that I've hurt, the lies that I've...
[00:36:18] God said, you don't know how I've tried to do this before.
[00:36:21] It doesn't matter.
[00:36:22] That's what grace is.
[00:36:23] Grace reaches all.
[00:36:25] No matter how far away you've run from God, God's grace reaches to you and He can turn you around today and start you on your walk.
[00:36:36] with Him.
[00:36:37] Heads are bowed, eyes are closed.
[00:36:38] You're here this morning.
[00:36:39] If that's you, if you want to be included in this prayer this morning, I just want to count to three as a point of reference.
[00:36:45] If that's you, I want you to raise your hand.
[00:36:47] Don't hesitate.
[00:36:48] When I get to three, one, Pastor, today,
[00:36:51] I'm not walking with Jesus right now to pastor today I want to begin my daily walk three if that's you would you just lift your hand all across this auditorium in faith by faith I received Jesus in my heart today you can put your hand down church family let's all pray this prayer out loud and join our faith with those who are going from death to life let's pray out loud say dear Jesus
[00:37:17] I come to the cross and I ask you Jesus to forgive me of all of my sins and I ask you Jesus to come into my heart come into my life and help me to live wide awake
[00:37:36] to the love of God and fully alive to my purpose it's in Jesus name now I bless you to walk I bless your faith to grow I bless you to dream bigger I bless you to climb higher I bless you to elevate I speak over you that 2026 is a year that you will elevate that God is increasing your faith capacity that you're not going to dream a small dream that you're not going to have small
[00:38:05] plans that God is increasing your faith by the power of Jesus Christ we pray and all of God's people said amen come on church can we celebrate Jesus in this house this morning amen

[00:38:22] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
Well, I hope today's service made a real difference in your life.
[00:38:25] Hi, I'm Noemi, the new online ministry director here at Multiple Concord, and I just want to thank you for joining us today.
[00:38:32] It truly means so much that you chose to worship with us online.
[00:38:36] If you made a decision to follow Jesus, we are celebrating with you.
[00:38:40] It's the greatest decision you could ever make, and we would love to walk alongside you as you take your next steps.
[00:38:45] Simply download the Multiply Concord app and tap next steps.
[00:38:49] There you'll find resources, encouragement, and a team ready to support you as you begin this journey with Him.
[00:38:56] Thanks again for being part of today's service.
[00:38:58] We can't wait to connect with you soon.