so 2020 four a little bit has changed In just the past 10 years alone. In fact there are some differences just from 10 years ago to now a new decade but think about this for just a moment. Okay, some of the differences here uh instagram launched in 2010, It was only 10 years old, twitter was not the angry rant machine that it is today. Now facebook was up and running But in 2010 had 500 million users. That sounds like a lot because it is Uh but in 2020 as of right now there's 2.3 billion users on Facebook right now. YouTube was only a few years old today. 300 hours of content are uploaded to YouTube every single minute. Think about that. What this means is that our culture is not short of information but what our culture is short and missing is meaning because everyone becomes an expert, everyone wants to be noticed, Anything can go viral at any moment at any time. And so it's not that we need more information. It's, it's that we need transformation The iPhone in 2010. Although it wasn't brand new, we were on generation four and the idea of a smartphone was still kind of nuanced at the time. Whereas now if you don't have a smartphone, you you seem almost ostracized or left out amazon was not the behemoth that it was or is today I think the craziest thing I've seen is that in my own life as I ordered something off of amazon at three o'clock in the afternoon and I got it that day, that's a little different than their culture was just a few years ago. Okay, but this is the world we live in Uber again, these ideas Uber really wasn't in existence yet. A lot of the major businesses, Netflix, Okay, blockbuster had an opportunity to buy Netflix for $50 million 2000 and they turned it down because they did not think netflix was going to be worth it. But then in 2010, Netflix introduced this new idea of streaming media And here we are 10 years later, blockbuster no longer exists and netflix is the behemoth worldwide as we know of it work no longer like you no longer go to work but work comes to you and it's tough because while we love access to everybody and all things, everybody in all things seems to have access to us now because of the devices and the emails and the media And so we battle this. And so it what's been interesting is that as the years have gone on 2020 verse 2010, it seems like our culture has actually gotten more divisive and it seems as though our culture has actually gotten more anxious and more worried because there's more things to worry about because we are bombarded every day by the tragedies in the world and the pressures to measure up in the image to live up to. And so now while we live in the most educated, most technologically advanced, the most really medically healthy of any period in all of world history were also the most medicated, anxious angry of any generation in history as well. It's an interesting thing is that the more access to information you have, it seems like the more angry or anxious you become because it's not that we're searching for more information. We are searching for transformation and we're searching for meaning. We've even have even gone from A. D. I. Y. Like do it yourself to A D. I. F. M. Please do it for me. Uh and you can see this because when you go into a grocery store right now, one of the first things you see are prepackaged meals. I mean to the point where we don't even have apples and we do, but then you right next to you have the packages of pre sliced apples. How convenient and awesome is that? But also how lazy are we that we were like, man, I want an apple but I don't want to take the 30 seconds to cut it. I'm gonna take that back. Right, this is the world we live in. We want everything curated for us, We want our media, we want close, we want everything we purchase online, we want immediate access, We want to individualize customized to fit our needs and then we come to faith and we want that as well. Right? So the world is completely different than it was 10 years ago? But thankfully, thankfully some things are the same. For example, here's the trophy case for michigan football. Okay, You can see this 10 years ago, the present day hasn't changed. Re praise God for some consistency. Amen. Mhm. For those that know me, I'm a big Ohio State fan and I'm still sad over the last saturday night, but it was a great game. But but at least I know that michigan fans are hurting worse than I am. So that's why I put that in there. So in all serious no seriousness though, we find ourselves in a community and and here's how I would describe our society. We we live in a society where people are smart, but they're stressed right? There are more educated people with graduate or collegiate graduate and postgraduate degrees than ever before in american history. But yeah, we're stressed out. We're in community. There are more suburbia in cultures than ever before and larger communities than ever before and online communities that now we have access to for people in the same interests as we have. So we're in community yet we feel alone. We're busy but get overwhelmed. Is it interesting that When technology came out, the fear was that people weren't sure what they were gonna do with all their free time now that technology had freed this up for them. But let me ask you, do you feel more or less busy than you did 10 years ago more because again, it's that access all the time, you're never fully on, but you're never fully off. And so there's just this uneasiness and you feel overwhelmed all the time. There's also this idea of people are spiritual, but they're not religious. I've talked to people who are fearful of where our country is going spiritually speaking and and there's some validation there is that our country seems to be moving away from God, But my encouragement rests in the fact that God promised to build his church and that for 2000 years, the church has grown and existed in every culture in every country and in every generation across the world. And so while our country seems to be moving away from God, the reality is, is that we are on the edge of a revival and that when the world gets darker, the light of the Gospel sign is brighter. And so I believe 2020 could be a spiritual revival throughout our community in our country and it starts with us, we have a group of people who, it's not that they don't believe in God, it's just they've lost trust in the church. So they're spiritual, but they're not religious or there's people that think, man, I, I am successful outwardly, but I'm inwardly searching, especially in this area, North phoenix Scottsdale cave Creek area, it's the idea of keeping up an image or appearance and maybe you've gotten all the things, you've gotten the bells and the whistles and then you go home at night, but when you put your head down on your pillow, you're like, man, is that it? I thought it would give me more. And so here's where we find ourselves. And so over the course of this series called starting line, we're gonna, we're gonna talk about some principles and practices that you can implement into your life, about how you could possibly achieve those goals that you've been wanting to go after this year. But before we go into the house in the first message of a new decade, New Year, we want to set a healthy foundation about really, where do we need to start, if we're gonna launch into the new year, New decade, where where is it, where does it begin? And so I want to share with you a formula that comes straight out of scripture and I believe if you apply this formula to your life, you're going to be much better off going after those goals that you're searching for. And the formula is this, you're taking notes, I want you to write this down person plus purpose plus Power equals passion, person plus purpose plus Power equals passion. Here's where this plays itself out in scripture. If everybody was opened up to John chapter 20 or you can open an app on your smart device or if you do not own a bible, we'd love to gift gift you one. We have a nice, you know, leather imitation. It's actually really nice bible. Um at the guest services table E. S. V. The same version I preach out of. And if you do not own a bible, we'd love to give you one. Today is our gift on your way out the door. But if you have your bibles open up to the gospel of John chapter 20 and to set the stage, jesus has just risen again. He died on the cross three days go by, he is resurrected, he is alive. So ladies are the first to see him but his followers, the disciples have not seen jesus yet. I have not met jesus. And so they are huddled in a room. These are the guys that were the closest band of brothers to jesus and they were locked in a room for fear of their lives. This is not the powerful, the bold, the courageous disciples that we think of. When we read scripture, this is the terrified the, the cowardly Peter had denied Jesus three times, judas had betrayed, jesus thomas was about to doubt jesus and so they walked day in day out with jesus for over three years, but they just saw their leader killed. They thought, well it's over. If they killed him. If they killed God, how long is it for them to kill us. So let's just lock ourselves in a room and figure out what we're gonna do next and so here is the set and we find ourselves in John chapter 20 verse 19 on the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the jews. That does not sound like a motivated group, does it? But I love this setting, just stick with me here, jesus came and stood among them and said notice he came through a miracle, okay, the door was locked All of a sudden, boom, jesus is there, it's crazy, right? And jesus said to them, boom, okay, now that was what I would do, right, right, I'm just gonna be transparent, I may or may not have scared my Children a few times, it's a lot of fun when they walk in, they search for you and then you're like ah and they go and you're like okay, sorry, you're scared here, come here and then you can be the good parent and then comfort them even though you were the ones that cause the distress in the first place, but jesus thankfully is not like me and did not scare the disciples, he comes in and the first thing he says is peace be with you and when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side and then the disciples were glad that they saw the Lord, Jesus could say peace be with you because he himself was peace For reference, write this down Ephesians 2 14. Ephesians 2 14 because Paul writes that Jesus himself is our peace, understand this, that the disciples were not radically changed into bold, courageous world changers because they said, oh now I get the sermon on the mount, oh I get it, I get that parable now, okay, now let's go take this world. No, they locked themselves in the room until jesus, the resurrected savior enters it and says peace be with you because peace is not the absence of conflict, but the presence of jesus. And so our prayers for 2020 should not be lord. Please just make us safe, help us stay in our gated communities and nothing go wrong. And at the end of it we made it like I understand that we pray for safety. That's practical. I'm not saying don't pray for that, but what I am saying is that Jesus did not die to make us safe. He died and rose again to make us dangerous. And that if jesus conquered death and he enters into your life then there is nothing that is impossible with God that you can do all things through him who strengthens you that it was the very person of jesus, his presence that radically transformed the disciples let's continue reading verse 21 Jesus said to them peace be with you as the father has sent me. Even I am sending you. So notice there's the person of jesus and then he gives them purpose. He says, I am sending you out. I am giving you a mission and the gospel of Matthew, he goes on to give them what's called the great commission to go and make disciples of the entire world And his encouragement is that for I will be with you to the end of the age Now I've shared this with some of you and it's one of my favorite student ministry stories and so I'll share it again is that we were doing a kids camp on a student mission trip and the kids who were supposed and the students um, I won't name the high school student who is now not a high school student. Um, but they were supposed to memorize verses and he was stressed out about memorizing a verse and so he decided to write it on his hand. And so he stood up to to recite Matthew 28 and he said behold I am with you to the end of the day and no joke. A little first grader leaned over to me because I was in the back of the room goes, if he can't memorize it, how can I memorize it. And so we had some laughs but the truth is is that that verse says for I am with you always to the end of the age. The amount of time that God is with you does not have an expiration date, it's not like a gallon of milk in the fridge that God is with you. But once that date passes, oh you missed your chance. It's the fact that God is with you, the person of jesus that changes everything and then he gives you a purpose, He takes what you do and he changes the context of the reason you do it First, Corinthians 1031, whether you eat or drink or whatsoever, you do do it all to the glory of God. In the case of many of the disciples, they were fishermen, jesus told them, he says, I will make you fishers of men that that was a contextualized phrase. If they had a different profession, he would change that analogy because he's saying you're no longer just doing X. You are doing this to bring the Kingdom of Heaven down, you're not living culture up, you're living Kingdom of Heaven down. You are bringing a slice of heaven into your relationships into your workplace and now everything that you do has purpose because you are doing it for the glory of God. He says, as the father has sent me, I am sending you Well, you have the person and you have the purpose but again, these were uneducated disciples who were fearful, who locked themselves in a room hiding how is this group? How has this group going to change the world, let's continue reading verse 22 and when he said this, he breathed on them and said to them Now, just pause for a second, it seems weird. Right? I am as the father sent me, I am sending you whoa, jesus, three days in a grave, my friend, you need a breath mint or something. I don't know. It seems odd, right? It does seem odd until you understand that the picture of the Holy Spirit, the word for Holy Spirit is the same word Numa where we get the word wind and so the idea of breathing life into you is found all throughout the old testament and then is found in the gospels to represent the Holy Spirit. And then later actually in the letters paul writes to timothy, he says all scripture is God breathed who, because he breathes life into you. And so what he's saying here, he says that he breathes life into them and says receive the Holy Spirit that is a command. And he says, if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. And if you withhold forgiveness of any, it is withheld what he's saying is not that the power is within the disciples, but that his power is going to be inside of them. And so that when they speak the word of God to people, the Holy Spirit will move and that you don't have to change the world because the Holy Spirit through you will change the world. And so he gives you the very power to do the things that he's called you to do. God would not order something off the menu if he did not have the ability to pay for it when the bill came. Does that make sense? God has called us to something greater? And so he gives us the person himself, then he gives us a purpose saying now go out and change the world and then it gives us the power to go and do that, tim Keller puts it this way that as a new creation, your identity is not achieved, it is received, jesus did not say go out and earn the Holy Spirit. He says receive the Holy Spirit and just that switch that change that your identity is not achieved. It is received Could radically change your year of 2020 because you are no longer living for your identity. You're now living from your identity. And it's not that I have to memorize everything in this book. It's that when you get to know jesus, he changes everything. And when you know jesus, he gives you a purpose. And when you have that purpose and then you live in the power of the spirit man, there is nothing that you can't conquer. In 2020 person plus purpose plus power equals passion. And that is the energy that you take into everyday life. Now this applies on all fronts. This applies in your faith. So have you come to church because I think, okay, this is the this is the check I need to do, okay, I needed I needed to come to church. Okay, I'm just here to tell you that hearing a story is not going to change your life, listening to a message is not gonna change your life, it's understanding and knowing jesus as your Lord and savior, that will change your life and he will change your life and when you do that now, everything that you do now is with purpose, because you're doing that as a child of God And now you're entering 2020, not on your own strength, but through the power of jesus and the power of the holy spirit that you have received, not that you have achieved or earned. So that impacts your faith. This formula also impacts your relationships. So, for me, for example, for for marriage, are we thinking about the person that I'm married to? Okay, that's that's my best friend, Married for 13 years, I love that. Andrew and Morgan were engaged on December 23, that was the exact day, December 23 that my wife and I got engaged and if you're lucky enough to marry your best friend, marriage is not some checkbox mayor Jeff got it. No marriage is a relationship, it's about the person, it's about knowing someone and them knowing you and that our purpose is to go through this adventure called life together and and to bring the best out of each other. One of the things that clicked for me when I knew I wanted to marry her was that she made me want to be better. Like I wanted to be better for her. I didn't mean I didn't mess up or make a lot of sarcastic jokes that got me into trouble. But the truth is is that at the end of the day, okay, it's about the person, it's not about the marriage, it's about the person, right? And our purpose is to grow closer to God and then closer to each other And two known to be fully known. And then the power behind that is love. And when you understand that that filters your conversations that filters how you make decisions, that filters the relationship so you're gonna go through ups and downs and if marriage becomes a checklist, then there's gonna come times where it seems dry or it seems there, but if you want the passion in your life, you understand that it's the person, it's the purpose and then it's the power behind that same thing for me with kids, you know, understanding the uniqueness of each of my Children, understanding that it's not about getting them to behave, it's about getting them to become who God has called them to be. And that simple shift of behavior to becoming radically changes how you parent because being in the young kids phase, like understand half of your time you're saying no and the other half of your time you feel like you're a crazy person, right? But again, the purpose is that you are raising to help kids become who God has called them to be. No, I fall short in many areas, but one thing I want to always encourage and instill in our kids is who God has called them to be and not just tell them what's wrong, but reinforce what's right, So every day when we drop off at school, always tell our kids to do two things to say, okay, hey guys, what are you supposed to do? And every day I have them say that okay, be awesome, be kind are we gonna get every assignment? No, are we gonna mess up? Yes, Has dad may or may not have forgotten to pick them up? And I got called by the office maybe hypothetically speaking, if you judge me then no, that's not happened, okay, but every day I want them to know, be awesome, be kind because about becoming not behaving now, those are my relationships, you can apply the same thing in your relationship, What has God called you to be, who has called you to be this idea of the person plus purpose plus power equals passion and if you're lacking passion and you're lacking energy in your relationships examined, Which one of those three are you missing? Are you not being fueled by the holy spirit not being fueled and motivated by love? Or do you not have purpose inside? Because you're not just trying to survive the day, you're trying to actually raise up the next generation, right? And then are you talking about expectations? Or is it starting with the person of who they are? And then lastly, this formerly impacts your personal life? Carrie knew half puts it this way. He says, you should work twice as hard on your character as your competency, whatever skill set you have whatever skill set that's put you into business competency might have got you there, but it's character that will keep you there. It's character that develops your reputation, it's character that creates a legacy. It's character that lives long past the time you're employed at a particular place. And so when you think of yourself, I don't necessarily think, what do you, what do you need to do? But start with? Okay, who do I want to be? And if you're like, okay, john this is a little religious for me. That's a little spiritual. Okay, put it this way. If you want to live a healthy lifestyle, ask yourself the question, okay, what would a healthy person do? What would a wise person do and act in that way? So you start with who you want to be and who you are and then you act and it gives you a filter for decision making and when you understand who you are, that gives purpose to everything that you do and then you're empowered by the Holy Spirit and you understand that jesus changes everything. Person plus purpose plus power equals passion and I don't know about you, but in an age where we are bombarded by everything, I think we could all use a little bit more energy and passion going to this New year. And so I want to close with this kind of an odd question, but I want you to write this down. Are you a carrot, an egg or coffee bean? Are you a carrot and egg or coffee beans? Here's what I mean by that. I want you to picture life as a boiling pot of hot water. Everything that you're going to go through in this next year. That is difficult. That is challenging. That adds heat or pressure into your life. Now, if you stick a carrot into a pot of boiling hot water, what happens? It gets soft and it's weakened. I hope that none of you and this year described that way because when tough times come, it's easy to be weakened, right? But no one aspires to be that, okay, so you don't want to be the carrot. But what happens when you put an egg in boiling water, it gets hard sometimes that describes people, doesn't it? They go through a difficult circumstance or situation and they get hardened, they make it through, they survive, but they don't trust they're not open, they're closed off to the world, Right, well that doesn't sound good. I don't think anyone wants to get to the end of the year and says, man, my my heart's really been hardened. Hey, we don't want that. What happens when you put a coffee bean in hot water? It transforms the water into coffee, The carrot is weakened by environment, the egg is hardened by the environment, but the coffee bean transforms its environment. And when you have your identity in christ, you're going into the new year like a coffee bean, there are going to be some hard times that come. But when those times come, are you going to be weakened? Are you going to be hardened? Are you going to transform it? The reason I love this story and it's actually based out of a book called the coffee bean, If you you're interested by Jon Gordon and Damon West, But the reason this story is interesting is because the guy who shared it, her name was Damon West, learned this lesson when he was in prison, he entered prison and for he got put in prison, you're supposed to receive a life sentence because he was stealing stuff to try to buy drugs, to buy specifically meth And so he was given 65 years, pretty much a life sentence And when he went into the prison, this guy Damon West and one of the first few days met an older older gentleman, he called Mr Jackson and mr Jackson shared this analogy with him and going into the most difficult situation in his life, supposedly locked up for all of his life, he decided not to be weakened, he decided not to be hardened. He decided to transform the environment that he's in. It was in prison that he reconnected with his faith that he had from a childhood, he reconnected with God with the person of jesus. He had a new purpose in life and then he lived by the power of the spirit and that he actually found spiritual freedom in physical captivity and he took that mindset of being a coffee bean as silly as that is and radically changed his perspective and started impacting people in the prisons to the point where he lived such an exemplary life within such extreme conditions that when the parole board came, he was released And now wrote two bestselling books, travels the country and shares this message of the coffee bean, and he actually shares us all across the country that changed his life and now it's changing others because you do not have to be weakened by your circumstances, you do not have to be hardened by your environment, but you can transform it with the right attitude. That starts with a personal relationship with jesus as the band comes up on stage, I'd love for you to close your eyes and bow your heads and I want you to just think for a moment, what is your biggest challenge you have going into this year? Whatever, what is the biggest challenge that you have or the biggest question mark or the biggest doubt that you have, I want to pray for you and that challenge or that doubt that you have. Let's pray dear heavenly father, it's my prayer that as we go into this new year, it starts by having a personal relationship with you that is not about hearing a message, but it's about connecting with you, our Lord and Savior and God. When we do that, you give us a purpose to go and make disciples to, to love you and to love others and God, we can do that because of the power of the holy spirit, it's not something we achieved but that we've received a new God. I pray for everyone in this room that whatever challenge they're facing going into 2020, I pray that they will not be like the carrot and weakened by their circumstances. God I pray, they will not be like the egg that's hardened by what's happened to them, but God may well be like the coffee bean and whatever pressures and situations we face may we transform our environment because we have been given new life in you, we love you God and we give this year and these challenges to you, it's in your son's name. We pray amen