A Year Marked By Relationships

So, but listen, I'm ready to preach God's word. Are you ready to receive it today? The year was 1991, and we were living, I was living in Grand Rapids at the time, and uh at my dad's church, and uh we had a family come in that uh were coming in to lead worship and be the music pastor and uh we we knew him for a while, he was a friend. Uh his wife grew up in our church and then moved away, and her job took her south, and so the the husband was from the Florida area, and so they came into Grand Rapids to lead our worship and praise team at uh the church, my dad's church in Grand Rapids, and it was we had so much fun, he's incredible. And then and then he got an offer to leave Michigan and go to Texas and be a worship pastor at a church down in the Dallas area, and it was a sad day for us to see him go, but that's it kind of happens in church life. Like people come and go, leave, they come and leave and take you know new opportunities, and so we were sad to leave him go, but we high-fived him and and and you know, life keeps going. We're just we're still here. So uh so he left to Dallas, and then it was in '93 that Urshana and I were married, and he came back to do the music at our wedding. And so he was there. And before he left, he he told us he was like, Hey, our pastor wonders if you want to be, if you'd be interested in being youth pastors. And we were like, uh, I'm just graduating. I have all these opportunities in front of me. And it seemed like none of those opportunities ever opened up, and still the opportunity come and be in ministry in Dallas did, and it was really because of that relationship. It was one person from Grand Rapids that connected us to a pastor in Dallas, and then we got to Dallas, and it's the year that I learned, and actually I was thinking about it. Any significant decision, any significant advance, anything that has been done in my life in a way of stepping up and out into something new always happened through a relationship. So why don't you just lean over to your neighbor and tell them, hey, this is the year of relationships. And to the one you've been ignoring all service, just tell them, you look mighty fine today. There we go. I don't know, maybe you've had seasons in your life where you felt disconnected. Maybe you felt like your prayers were flat and not reaching heaven. Maybe you felt like your relationships were maybe out of the line and just not, you know, setting up the way you thought they would be. Maybe you thought that your purpose was uh amiss and and not really congruent to what you thought would be happening in your life in the moment. And maybe that season has been recent, or maybe you're sitting in that season. But what I would declare to you today as we begin this new year is my declaration for you is that season is over. And that this year, 2026, is a year of divine relationships. That this is not just a catchy phrase, it's just not something we put on a social media post or a story as a way of saying, hey, look how great this year is gonna be. But it is literally us deciding and stepping into a space as a prophecy moment that this is a season of alignment. The Jewish calendar, I preached about this on Vision Sunday back in October. The Jewish calendar is a little in front of our natural calendar, but the year of the Jewish calendar is 5786. And the unique thing about the Jewish and Hebrew language is that numbers are actually have a letter assigned to them, and every letter has a word assigned to it. And so when we get to 5786, the number six has a letter attached to it, and that letter and that word picture is the word vav, V-A-V. And Vav is a connector. It's a nail, it's a hook, it's something that joins pieces together. For instance, in the tabernacle, it was the valve that would hold the curtains of the Holy of Holies and separate the tabernacle space from the general area to actually the Holy of Holies. It is a connector. And so this year, 5786, or for us 2026, is the year of connection. It is a year when heaven connects more closely with earth. A year when calling connects more closely with community, and where promises connect more closely with fulfillment. It is the year of divine connection, and whatever has been floating amiss is now going to be fastened and anointed. So as we lean in this year, there's little doubt that when we look back to 2025, that it was our best year ever. We saw it in growth personally, we saw it growth church-wise. I was telling Ethan yesterday as I've been working on reports for the new year, we grew over 52% last year in weekend attendance. We grew in provision, God provided in spectacular ways through your faithfulness and through your generosity. We grew in the amount of miracles that we witnessed in this house, in the testimonies that we've heard. We have grown in testimonies and declaring God's promises and fulfilling this purpose on earth. 2025 was our best year yet, but I'm gonna let you know something. That success without connection leads to collapse. That if we just have a success and celebrate it, it's gonna be the end of the moment. But it's meant to be carried on. See, you can have momentum around you and still feel lonely. You can have blessing and still be broken. You can be healed but not be whole. And you can be growing and still be missing out on the more important things. But this year I want to let you know, church, that God is not just expanding our capacity, but he's strengthening our connections. God never fulfills his promises and his purposes in isolation. It's always through a person. Just like my opening story, it was a person that connected me from Grand Rapids to Dallas. When I moved from Dallas to Houston, our family moved there. It was a person, it was a connection. When we spent time in Houston, the relationships we fostered there were incredible, like family. We're still very connected. But I will tell you this: it was a relationship that moved us from Houston to Chicago. Because God never does anything in fulfilling a promise or a purpose in isolation. It's always connected. That's why when the enemy, he knows he cannot cancel your calling, but he will try to confuse your connections. Get you listening to the wrong voice, get you listening to the wrong thing, get you looking at the wrong places. He wants to confuse that. So we go to God's word and we say, God, where is the connection? Where is the moment? And look at God's word, Ecclesiastes 4, verses 9 through 12, it says this. Two, everybody say two. Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. If either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up. Furthermore, if two lie down together, they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone? And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. And then look at this: a cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart. It is this divine connection that Solomon talks about that is actually not just two, but becomes three. It is you, the other person, and the Holy Spirit. God at the center of every divine connection. And all throughout Scripture, I can show you examples of these divine connections. You could take Moses and Aaron. You see, Moses had a calling, but he was afraid and he doubted his voice. Aaron had a voice, but did not have a calling. But God didn't replace Moses with Aaron, he connected them together. See, this is what you need to know. What if the prayer you've been praying isn't answered in a miracle, but it's answered through a messenger? Because God doesn't remove our weaknesses, he connects us to a strength. I could talk about Jonathan and David. David was anointed, but not appointed. And Jonathan had position, but he would never be promoted. But through their divine connection, Jonathan protected David from Saul. He provided David with intel and timing and access. And then he preserved David's future through their relationship. Because look at this: God doesn't send people to complete your calling. That's his job. He sends people to cover your calling. You need people in your life that can be a cover to the calling he has on your life. I could talk about Elijah and Elisha. You see, Elisha didn't ask for success. He asked for a double anointing, a double portion. And what we know is this that he had to stay close to Elijah in order to receive that double anointing. It was about proximity. It was about intimacy. It was about closeness. It was about connection. Because look at this. What you stay connected to determines what you'll step into. Oh, I could talk about Esther and Mordecai. Esther had a platform, but Mordecai had discernment. And what you need to understand is that sometimes and often what God will do is He'll pair an opportunity with wise counsel. So don't ignore the voice that God attaches to the vision. See, in every single divine relationship, there is a promise that is attached to a person. There is a calling that's attached to a connection. And there is this opportunity that God is placing in front of us that always comes with an association to what He's about to do in our life. So as I roll through and I and I lean into you and into this thought today, as we share some ideas for the year, I want to share three divine relationships that we're going to be building this year. And it's more of a way of just declaring over this house our intent and our desire for what God wants to do. So the first one is your divine relationship with God. Your divine relationship with God. You see, before God can fix the horizontal relationships in your life, he has to fix the vertical. The Bible says this, we're to love the Lord God with our whole heart, our mind, our soul, and our strength. We love God. That is the first and the most important commandment. And the second is equally important that we love our neighbors as ourselves. But we cannot love horizontally until we learn the vertical. The vertical is so important. Because what we need to understand is this year our prayers need to be more personal or they need to be more relational rather than transactional. How many knows? A lot of times we pray prayers for the transaction of it. God, heal my body. God, make this light stay green so I can get through it. God, let there be a front parking spot to that donut shop. Transactional prayers. But what God wants us to spend time in prayer with is in relational prayers. Alright? So we have to we have to have moved from a transactional prayer to a relational prayer. In our worship, the way God fixes the vertical aspect of our relationship is worship is that it becomes personal and not performance. That something is sacrificed every time we offer worship. And we don't just worship through song. Our life is our worship. Our thoughts are worship. Doing laundry is worship. Shoveling the snow is worship. Clearing off the car is worship. Paul says, offer your ordinary, every single day lives as worship, which is your reasonable sacrifice to the Lord. See, worship has to be very personal. It cannot just be performance-driven. And then you have the idea of your prayer life becoming relational, your worship life becoming personal, and then your faith becoming active and daily working. Paul said, work hard to show. Work hard to show your devotion and connection to God. And so we work hard, not to prove anything to anybody else, but because that's what is worthy of our the sacrifice we're giving. And when we work hard, we get fruit. And so I think this year the idea is not just to say that we have faith, but for the fruit to show our faith. That it actually shows in our life the faith we're expressing. And what I would say to you as we lean into these 21 days of prayer and fasting, that's exactly why we start the year, first Sunday, with 21 days of prayer and fasting, because we have to position ourselves to where God wants us. We don't pray and fast so God moves into our space. We pray and fast so we can get rid of the world of our life and move into God's space. We position ourselves for what God wants to do. We're not trying to move God over to what we want. And so, in order to do that, we fast and we pray. And I would say this in fasting, uh, many of you are maybe gonna fast social media, which is great. Maybe you're gonna fast TV or fast even if you listen to the radio. I don't know, do people listen to the radio? You're gonna fast Spotify. I don't know what, but the real call is to fast at the table. And to put away things at the table that have become comforts to us. Not for the sake that the eating at the table is wrong, but what it does is it allows our spirit to have control over our flesh. So what I would say to you in terms of 21 days of prayer and fasting is I I would definitely, I I told our team today at Rally, I've today yesterday I cleared off my phone from all of my social media accounts. And all day long I kept opening my phone, going, Where, where is that account? Where what am I gonna do? I don't have Instagram, I don't have what a what am I gonna do? I can't see anything that's happening. I can't see what everybody's doing. It's what a and all day long I kept opening my phone, looking. Well, that proves I need this fast. Because it's just a reflect, it's just a reactionary habit in my life, and that's what needs to be moved away because it doesn't, the first habit shouldn't be my phone in my social media. My first habit should be prayer. My first habit should be worship. My first habit should be quiet time with God. And when it's not, I need to move that stuff out of my life so the actual most important things can be a part of my life. And so I'm not saying I don't have those things. I I don't read the Bible and pray every single day. I do. I start my day with that, but it's often I have to correct myself to not open the app first, but to go to the Bible app first. So that that that is one part. If you're fasting social media, well done. But listen, if you're fasting food or anything at the table, whether it's coffee or sodas, desserts, maybe you're gonna fast meats and sweets. Some of you are probably gonna fast veggies, vegetables, like you know, I don't know if that's your best option, but this this is what I would say. That that when you would be normally occupying your time with whatever you're pushing away from, instead of just filling it with something else, mundane TV, internet news, whatever, open up God's word. Read God's word, read, read a read God's word. Follow along in a one-year plan. Spend time in God's Word. And actually have your plan that you're gonna follow, and then in all the other moments where you would be preparing food or eating at dinner and even with your family, just open up God's word and read together and substitute where you would be at the table with time around God's word. Now that's just a pastor telling you, because here's what I think is a lot of us, we go into a 21-day fast and we think, man, it's gonna be so healthy for me. I'm not gonna have any desserts, I'll have no sweets, I'm not gonna have caffeine, I'm not gonna be drinking sodas. I mean, man, it is, I'm gonna be the healthiest version of me for 21 days. The goal of fasting is not to be healthy. Although, if you fast after the Daniel fast, remember Daniel in the children of Israel, that he, after 21 days of fasting, this Daniel fast, he looked better than everybody else around him. He looked more healthy, more alive, more vibrant. He was wiser. And it was a set-apart moment. But that's not the goal of fasting. The goal of fasting is I draw closer to God. That I break down the flesh in my life and get closer to God. Now that's just the pastor and me telling you that. But you have to be the one that decides you're gonna do something. And whatever you decide to push away, don't just push it away and occupy your life with other things. Push it away and occupy your life with God's word, meditation on God's word, reading a Christian author, reading something that will help you move closer to God and align yourself with His plan for your life. All right, you can put your feet back down on the floor. I'm done. See, here's what you need to know. You don't just drift and get closer to God. You have to choose to get closer to God. When Arshan and I are driving down the road and I'm driving, I don't know, I I like I like driving, but I also like to see where I'm driving. I like to look around. And I like to, I might see a uh a sign or a business or sometimes a building that catches my eye or a vehicle that's going the other direction, or we pass a car pulling a boat or something. But many times while we're driving, my focus. Is not on driving where I'm supposed to be going. It's on all the things around me. And what I what what Arshana will tell you is because of this, we have this occasion to drift out of the lane that we're supposed to be occupying. And we drift out of the lane, and Usana will have to say, hey, hey, hey, hey, there's a red light coming, or hey, that car's stopping in front of us. And it's not that I don't actually see it, but it's not really my primary focus because I'm looking away, and whenever you look away, you start to drift. You have to choose to get closer to God. It has to be a choice. And so I would say this let this be the year that you choose a more close and intimate relationship with God through that divine connection. Not yet. That slide's too early. Number two, let's go. Number two is this we're going to focus on divine relationships at home this year. And what I would declare over you in this idea for this year is that we are working this year very intently to build strong marriages and strong families and to make this your best year ever in relationships within your home. Because how many know that that's a 365 day a year project? You can't say it too loud next to your wife. You gotta like lean in. Everybody look, amen. I should have set you up for that. But I'm gonna tell you, it is a 365-day-a-year project to get the relationships in your home right. And it will be the hardest test of your year. And if you have children, what I've been what I know about children, we have four boys and we have a beautiful daughter. And I will tell you this, it's I will say this. Our life, as great as our kids are doing, when one of them struggles, it doesn't matter how the rest of them are doing, in the ones that's struggling, that's kind of where our life goes to, to get through the struggle. And it's difficult when others are celebrating the success of the over here and one struggling, that we feel compelled to be with that one struggling. So I know it's hard. So we're gonna invest in this life because we're not just trying to raise godly children, we're gonna raise in this house godly parents. Because what I'll tell you this is healed parents raise whole children. And whole children will change the world. And then last, we are gonna be focusing on divine relationships in the community. This community, our local community, the world around us. And this is this is a year, church, that we cannot just grow inward. We can't grow and grow inward. We can't grow and be like, man, it's so great inside these four walls. It's wonderful. It is wonderful. But we're not growing in order to be the best inside. We're growing to be the best outside. We must have an outward look in our life. Our church must be outward focused. That's why we're investing in young life. That's why we're investing through Convoy of Hope. That's why we're investing in our local community. That's why our serve team, our team through the small group of the collective hearted servants, that they are out serving in our community. Why? Because we we have to make a difference in our community with all the things God's done for us. And what I would tell you is this is that discipleship and evangelism, they are not events, they are relationships. God's called you to be a friend, He's called you to make friends, and He's called you to bring those friends to Jesus. And there's nothing I want to celebrate more at the end of this year than entire neighborhoods experience the goodness of God and home after home after home on your street of people who come to church and proclaim Jesus as Lord and Savior. Can you imagine what would happen in our community if we all reached one family in our neighborhood? Check one, two. What if, what if we all reached one family in our neighborhood? What could happen in this community as we start reaching the people around us? You see, this year is not just a year of doing more or accomplishing more. It is a year of connecting more. I bet, I would bet this in these next 21 days that there'll be some struggle inside of our homes we've not witnessed before. Because the enemy knows he can't touch our calling, but he confuses our connections. And so we need to lean in, be ready, but be prayerful. I'm praying for divine connections in your home, and I'm praying for divine connections in your community. And I want us to make this declaration. Next week, I'm beginning an all-new series. How about, remember, we started this past year with I Declare? Powerful series, life-changing series, really, for many of us. Next week, I'm beginning a new series called I Declare the Relationship Edition. And we're going to lean in and make some declarations over our relationships. So it's going to be a powerful, but I want to close with this declaration. I would like us all to declare this together. Now we can put that last slide up. Are you ready? Say this with me. I declare this year will be my most connected year. Connected to God, connected at home, connected to divine relationships. And then this last line right here and what God connects in this season will produce fruit for generations. Can you receive that word today? All right.