FA Admin: Welcome to the Faith Alive Sermon Podcast. This is a replay of a past sermon from Faith Alive Church. Whether you missed it, want to hear it again, or share it with someone you know, we're glad you're here. This sermon is by Jordan D. Waggy, lead pastor at Faith Alive Church. Let's jump right into it. Six months ago, seven months ago, I believe it was, we launched one word, one theme over this church. You can see that I am wearing our our Faith Alive Church themed shirt for twenty twenty six. And we launched it with one word and that was what? Elevate. elevate to go higher to reach further and to do what God has called us to do. And I want you to notice and I want you to know that this wasn't just a word. This wasn't simply a catchy phrase or catchy word. It was a call from God for this church. Somebody say amen. See it was a call to elevate our faith. It was a call to elevate our worship. It was a call to elevate our generosity Our discipleship, our leadership, our impact. Because if this church is not making an impact in the world, what are we doing? God has called us to go further, to go to the next level, to elevate. And over the past seven months, I've been c become even more convinced that God is calling Faith Alive Church to a place that we've never seen it before. And I am so excited about that. Now, when we hear this word, when we Talk about elevation and going to the next level. Why do we want to do that? And I want to answer that question very specifically today. And that's because there are people that still need Jesus. There are people that still need Jesus. There are families that still need hope. There are students that. That are still searching for purpose. That's why I see that video, and I am encouraged and inspired about our young middle schoolers and high schoolers that are crying out and abiding in the Lord and the call that God has given them. We need to be that church that supports the next generation. Amen. Praise God. There are still students that are going into full-time ministry, which makes my heart happy. We need pastors, we need servants, we need discipleship in our churches, and we know that that's important. Why? It's because we all still need community. We need people to come together and we come together for one single purpose, and that is to love Jesus with all of our hearts, amen. The mission is never finished. The mission is never finished, amen. We need to go further, we need to go higher. We never need to be complacent in what we've seen or what we've done. And before we jump into kind of the meat of this message, I think it's important for us to reestablish that theme for twenty twenty six. We talked about it seven months ago when God has done some amazing things in twenty twenty six, and we are halfway through, but would you agree with me that the greatest days of twenty twenty six are still ahead? The greatest days of twenty twenty six are still ahead, but before before we celebrate what God is doing and what he's going to do, I think we need to go back and look at twenty twenty five once more. Go back on twenty twenty five and look at what God had done, and that is that we invested over two hundred and eight thousand dollars into kingdom builders. Two hundred and eight thousand dollars into our missions initiative, you know. We are here today celebrating our kingdom builders. And because of your generosity and your prayer, we are seeing God do amazing things not just in the nation but abroad. And we are so thankful that we are supporting so many missionaries that have the funds to minister the gospel effectively because of Faith Alive Church. Isn't that awesome? Isn't that awesome? In 2025, we saw on Easter weekend 1,261 people attend our church. That's an amazing thing. And let me let me just say this we're we're through Easter now in 2026. but I want to celebrate, and we're gonna celebrate this again in 2027. But we saw on Easter weekend in 2026 over 1,600 people come through our doors. So God is moving. God is moving. We served four hundred and sixty-nine students and families through our back to school outreach that is just a couple of weeks away. If you are not plugged in, if you are not ready to serve, I want to encourage you to do so because God's gonna do some awesome things. We saw 253 people faithfully serve on our dream team. Let me tell you this right now. That is our volunteer team here at this church. Can I tell you that we would not be able to do what we do at this church if it wasn't for our dream team? Can we show some love? Show him some love. Check this out. We saw seventy one people in twenty twenty five publicly declare that their faith through water baptism. Seventy one people got water baptized, and most importantly, check this out. Three hundred and fifty six people gave their lives to Jesus. come on, we can do better than that. Come on. Isn't that exciting that people are finding Christ through Faith Alive Church? God is using us as a vessel for his amazing glory and his amazing salvation. I don't know about you, but that gets me giddy. That makes me excited. That's so awesome. Church, I want you to know that these are more than numbers, they are eternal stories. Yes? Eternal stories. They are testimonies. They are. Stories of broken people becoming whole, becoming new once more. These are prayers that have been answered. These are prodigal children coming back to Jesus. Those are names, these are names written in the Lamb's Book of Life because we have been faithful to what God has called us to do. So before we go any further, can we just celebrate Jesus? Come on, can we celebrate Jesus? You heard me mention it just a little bit ago, but gratitude should never become complacency. We should never be okay with where we've been. No, we always need to go higher. We always need to go further. We always need to reach more. We all need to elevate. We celebrate yesterday's victories, yes. But we believe for God's tomorrow miracles, amen. And as we continue to elevate, we're preparing for a season of intentional growth, which has been seen through so many different ministries that we launched in twenty twenty six, one of them becoming the what's next, our what's next pathway. And that is helping every believer take and go from salvation experience through disciple of Jesus Christ. How important is it that we walk alongside those people that have an encounter with God? So we love our what's next process. We love our what's next pathway. We also saw digital ministries launch under the leadership of Johnny Clare, who led us in praise and worship here this morning. Man, can we give it up for him just real quick? Come on. Johnny, we're so thankful for you, man. I mean, the online experience, and I know our online audience is thanking Johnny. Right now, they're probably still clapping, because it has really grown. It has elevated in a new way. And so we're very thankful for that. We also saw our Access Leadership Pipeline finally launched, and we have graduates of our Access Leadership Pipeline, which we are so excited to launch them into ministry. We also had our FA men and our FA women elevate and do more. We're bringing in new speakers and seeing God really move in those groups. We saw next generation rebrands from Crossfire to Faith Alive Youth and from Embers to Faith Alive Young Adults. And so thankful for that. And then we saw that our internship, and you guys haven't seen this just yet. But our internship launch is coming up just around the corner, and we are very excited about that. Very excited about that. We are equipping future pastors, missionaries, worship leaders and ministry leaders through Faith Alive Church. Isn't that so exciting? Man, I am pumped up for that. And I want you guys to know that these aren't just ministries that we established in twenty twenty six, they're opportunities to help people see Jesus in a greater way. To see Jesus in a greater way become fully devoted followers of Christ. So can I ask you this morning, how do we accomplish this? You say, Pastor, you know, we've heard you talk about all the cool things that we're doing, but how does a church elevate? How does a church go further? And I want you to write this down. The church goes forward, and the very foundation of elevation is watch this word, humility. I want to share with you that the best way up, the best way forward is to go all the way down. Is to get low, is to be on your knees, is to cry out unto the Lord. In order to go all the way up, we must go all the way down. Humility is what inspires change. Humility is what inspires movement. Humility is what inspires growth. Would you agree with me? See if us as a collected body of believers have a Humble stance, knowing that it's not us that makes the ministries happen. It's not us that sees souls saved, but it is Christ Jesus through us and the Holy Spirit through us that we see lives transformed and changed eternally. When we catch and grab a hold of that, whoo! Watch out, world. Watch out, world. If you want to turn with me today. To first Peter chapter five and verse six. First Peter chapter 5 and verse 6, before we jump into this portion of Scripture, I want to pray. Father, thank you so much for today. Thank you for this wonderful and awesome congregation that you have called to go higher. Lord God, I pray that you would inspire us today, that you would embolden us today to speak the good news of Jesus Christ. Lord God, that we would walk out of here changed and different. Lord God, you are worthy of our praise today. And if you believe it, faith alive, church, shout with me. Amen. Amen. Peter writes these words to believers who are suffering in First Peter chapter 5 and verse 6. It says, Humble yourself, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Now let's put some context around this portion of scripture. Peter is writing to those believers that are being persecuted by the Roman Empire. They are being persecuted by the Roman oppression. They are being persecuted. They are being spat at. They are being mocked. They are being ridiculed. They are being abused. So Peter calls out to them, writes to them, and shares with them something unexpected. He says, Before God lifts you up, What does he say? Humble yourself. Now I put myself in this time, and if I receive this letter as a persecuted believer of Christ Jesus, you better believe that I'd be a little upset about what Peter said. Because he's not writing to say, God will encourage you, God will give you freedom. God will give you encouragement. No, what does he say? He says, Humble yourself. Now, if I read that, I'd be like, well, Peter, you humble yourself. You go humble yourself, right? I don't want to hear that in that time. I want to hear that God is going to wipe the Roman Empire off of the map. I don't want to deal with this persecution. I don't want to be spat at. I don't want to be abused anymore. I want God to be recognized and Peter is saying, Yeah, you want that, I want that, but in order to get that, you must humble yourself. It's an interesting thought. See, the kingdom of God works differently than the kingdoms of this world. Yes? The world says, promote yourself, build your platform, make yourself known, make a name for yourself, leave a legacy. But Jesus says it the other way around. He says, humble yourself, make yourself low, trust me, and I'll do the heavy lifting for. You see, true elevation never begins with the climbing, it begins with the kneeling. It begins with the kneeling. Peter says, humble yourself. We'll break down this portion of scripture. He says, humble yourself. Humility isn't thinking that you are less than. Humbleness and humility is not self-deprecation. It's not calling yourself a loser. It's not. Saying that I am worth nothing, I am worthless. I'm that's not what humility is. Humility is realizing and recognizing who God is in your life, and He is the one that gets the glory, thinking of God in a greater way. See, humility says, God, this church belongs to you. This isn't my church, this isn't your church, this isn't Pastor Jim's church. This is not our church, this is God's church, and we are God's children. And so what God wants, He will get. See, the mission belongs to God. The glory belongs to God. We need to check ourselves in the Big C church here today. See, we see multiple times that these churches get to a certain level of megachurch status. And they think that they've gotten there all by themselves. But that is a detriment to the kingdom of God. God wants to elevate us when we are humbly submitted and on our knees unto the Lord. So can you hear me in this place? If we as a collected body of believers submit ourselves unto the power of the Holy Spirit, and we recognize that the Power only comes from him, that we will see growth, we will see elevation, we will see this community and this state and this nation and this world come to know Jesus in a greater way. So can we agree together? Can we agree together to be that body of believers? I don't want to be like those other churches. I want to be humbly submitted unto Christ Jesus because he gets the glory. See, if it's built upon what we build, it will fumble, it will fail. But if it is built on the rock of Jesus Christ, it cannot fail. And it will always grow and it will always go forward. And that's where we see elevation. Give God some praise in the house. Every blessing that we've ever experienced, every favor that we've ever experienced has come from God's hand. Yes? Every soul that we've seen saved through Faith Alive Church is not anything that you've done. News flash for some of us. But it's the Holy Spirit of God working through you as an instrument of his glory. Every baptism. That we've celebrated is those from the hand of God. Every family that has been restored is because God's worked through one of you to say what you need to say that He wants you to say. Every dollar given, every spirit of generosity comes from the Spirit of God. Every ministry that we've launched is not just to say that we've launched one, it's because we launch it to reach and to be more effective. For reaching the world, for Jesus Christ. There's intention behind what we do here at this church. And there needs to be intention behind what we do as individual believers because it's all because of Him. It's all because of Him. When we stay humble, check this out we stay usable. some of you didn't catch that. When we stay humble, we stay usable. Does anybody want to be used by the Lord Almighty? I want to be used by the Lord Almighty to see this world, this broken place, this dark nation come to know Jesus in the same way that I do. See, as individuals and as a church, we never want success to replace surrender. We never want success to replace surrender. Woe to any of those leaders that feel that way when you get to a certain point and you say, I've made it. That's when you start to fumble, that's when you start to fail, that's when you start to s fall out of alignment with God. See, our greatest testimony will never be how much we've accomplished, how many ministries that we've launched, how many people we've had walk through this door. No, our greatest testimony will always be how dependent we've remained on God. Peter continues, humble yourself, he says, under God's mighty hand. See, Peter doesn't just simply say God's hand, he says God's mighty hand, that's a recognition of who God is and how much power and authority that he really holds. See, what he's doing there, that's the same hand recognizing the same hand that delivered Israel. It's the same hand that fed Elijah, it's the same hand that calmed the storm in Matthew chapter eight. It's the same hand that raised Jesus from the dead. See, what we need to realize is that the same mighty Hand is on this church. See, the Bible says that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. It's the same God. It's the same God. Somebody say, same God. Say it again. Same God. It's the same God. It's the same hand that's on this church. It's the same hand that's saying, Go. I want you to do more. I want you to go higher. I want you to reach further. It's not our plans or our personalities, it's not our programs, but the mighty hand of God. The mighty hand of God that and that's why we're investing in discipleship. That's why that's exactly why we have the what's next pathway. It's we want to come alongside and steward the relationship of somebody that said yes to Jesus. We want to walk alongside them. That's why we're launching new ministries. Again, it's in with intention. See, our confidence has never been in what we can build. Our confidence is in what God builds through his surrendered people. So I want to be a surrendered person. I want to be a surrendered person unto the Lord. Peter concludes with this he says, humble yourself under God's mighty hand that he may what? Lift you up in due time. Listen, I don't care how strong you think you are. I don't care how mighty you think you are, God can do it better. Some of us need to hear that again. God can do it better. He does the heavy lifting, and it's in his name that we do it. That's hard for us. It's hard for us to work things in God's timing. Yes, it says to lift you up in due time. That's so hard for us as Americans, isn't it? We have this certain sense of immediacy. We want everything to happen now. It's it's not enough for Amazon to come three days from now. We want it today. You guys have heard me share this story before, but when we were downstate, living downstate, overnight, sometime same day, up here. I even questioned the Lord. I said, Lord, why'd you bring me here? No. practices, patience, right? But God's time is always better than our time. It's always greater than our time. It's hard for us to understand that. We want immediate results, but I want you to catch this. God develops faithful people before he expands their influence. Let me say that again. God develops faithful people before he expands their influence. Why? Because character must always be able to carry the call. Let me say that one more time. I know that some of you got it, some of you didn't. See, God develops faithful people through his timing, right? It's not always our timing. We want things immediately, but sometimes he gives us trials. Sometimes he makes us wait. Sometimes he helped makes us practice patience in that time. So he helps develop faithful people before he expands their influence. In other words, you cannot go further, you cannot elevate unless the character that you have is able to hold the call that God has given you. That's good. That's good. We have to remember that that God might not be giving you. What you think you need, or what you think you want, because your character hasn't developed to the place that he wants it to be. He wants to give you this calling, but where is your character at? Church, I believe that God is lifting faith alive church. Not so this church becomes famous or or or some mega church or anything like that. No, it's because I think he's raising this church up to go further. To reach more people for Jesus Christ in every ministry, in every leader, in every family, in every campus opportunity, every new salvation, it's all about one thing, and his name is Jesus. It's all about Jesus. Can we agree to elevate? Can we agree to go further? Faith Alive, we've celebrated where we've been. We've talked a little bit about where we're going. Now the question becomes this how will we respond? How are we going to respond? Will we humble ourselves? Will we trust in his mighty hand? Will we wait on his timing? Let me say it again, humble yourself. Therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. If you want to go all the way up, the first step is down. The first step is down. The church that kneels before God is the church God entrusts with greater influence. So can we agree in this place to elevate in our prayer life? Can we agree to elevate in our worship? Can we agree to elevate in our generosity? Can we agree to elevate in our discipleship, in our leadership, and most importantly in our witness? There are so many people that need Jesus. Can we agree to seize opportunities to see those that are hurting and broken and go after them? Cause listen to this when Christ is exalted, his church is elevated. When Christ is exalted, his church is elevated, and I do believe that the greatest days of Faith Alive Church are still to come. The greatest days are still to come. Would you stand with me here today? And would you pray with me, Father, thank you for entrusting us. With this church. For God, each and every person that is watching online, each and every person that is here in person plays a part in seeing Faith Alive Church go further for the kingdom of God. So today we cry out to you when we thank you for what you're doing here. Lord God, give us a spirit of humility. Can we remember to humble ourselves so that we can see you magnified, you glorified, the holy God in heaven? Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Keep your heads bowed, your eyes closed. I want to. Just extend an opportunity here for those that might not know Jesus. Maybe you knew him at one point. Maybe you've fallen away. Maybe you need to get right with him again. And maybe you're in this place and you've never had a relationship. I want to make sure that we provide an opportunity for you to establish that relationship with Jesus Christ. So if you are in this place and you want to know him as your personal Lord and Savior, can I tell you? That it's the greatest decision that you will ever make in your life. The greatest decision without hesitation, the greatest decision that you will ever make. This gives you hope. This gives you a future. This gives you a home in heaven. So without further ado, every head bowed, every eye closed, if you want a relationship with Jesus Christ, maybe for the first time or again, just lift your hand in this house. Just lift your hand. Yes. Yes, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. If you're online, you lift your hand, right in your living room, God sees you. God sees you. Praise God. Praise God. Just another moment. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. I want everybody in this place to pray this prayer after me and mean this from the very deepest parts of your soul, the deepest parts of your heart. Say, Dear Jesus, I love you. I ask that you would be the Lord of my life from today until the end of my days. I believe that you came to this earth and you died for me. I believe. That three days later you rose again, and you are with me today. I ask that you would forgive me of my sin, make me new, make me whole, and it's in your precious name, Jesus that Amen. Come on, let's celebrate those that said yes to Jesus, both online and in person. Yeah. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. You know, I mentioned it just a little bit ago, but our what's next process. If you gave your life to Jesus here today, make sure that you get with one of our pastors. They want to walk you through what what's next really looks like. I know it could be daunting. You know, you've established this relationship with Jesus and you're like, now where do I go? That's why we created the pathway. So make sure that you see that there's a big board out in the in the lobby that you can see that you can scan QR codes, it'll take you to where you need to go. I want to encourage you to elevate because we as a body of believers, if it happens here individually, This church, I'm telling you, will go higher, will go further, not for recognition, but for the recognition of God. Amen. Amen. Let me pray a blessing over you today. Thank you for being here. Father, thank you again. Bless them as they leave this place. Keep them safe. They are in your mighty hand. And we thank you, mighty God, for speaking to us today. Thank you for the calling to go higher. To go further to reach the unreached. Lord, you are worthy to be praised. And if you believe that Faith Alive Church, shout with me. Amen. Amen. Have an amazing Sunday. We love you. Thanks for listening to the Faith Alive Sermon Podcast. We hope this message encouraged you. If it did, be sure to subscribe or share it with someone else who may need it. If you want to get connected or reach out to one of our pastors, go to our website at faithalive.church. We'll see you next time.