Today is a special day at Living Faith for a few different reasons. The first is that we get to take a moment to reflect on the last year and celebrate all that God has done in 2024. After that, we will take a few moments to look at where God is leading us in 2025 as a part of the Living Faith family but also zoom into what God is speaking to us specifically as the Eastside location. 

Next week we will be starting a new sermon series called “Equally Complicated,” talking about how we as men and women follow Jesus in different ways and how we can learn from each other.  Today, we want to take a look back at Living Faith in the last year and look forward to what he is leading us into.

Over this last year at Living Faith, we’ve seen God do some incredible things, and have seen Him move in and through our church in unprecedented ways. 

This last year:

• We have had 12 men in our Pastoral Equipping Group learning how to pastor people.
• Kaleb took over as the Near West Location pastor, and Greg stepped up to be the Location Coordinator.
• We have more people prepared to preach than we’ve ever had.
• We have more people prepared to lead worship than we’ve ever had.

• Family 412 has been meeting weekly and has been serving teens and kids on the Eastside.
• The free health clinic on the Westside has served over 700 patients this year.
• In June, during our Crossover outreach, we shared the Gospel with over a thousand people through 14 outreach events in the space of 1 week.  We had around 20 people give their lives to Jesus that week alone.
• We’ve done several different outreaches in schools, apartment complexes, marathons, fields, front yards, community events, and living rooms all over the city. Which means that people all over Indianapolis have heard the Gospel. 
• Last week we gave away 800 Christmas presents in Riverside, and connected with over 150 families in a place we haven’t even planted yet!

• We sent mission teams to New York, Mexico, and Peru

• Our College ministry has not only grown numerically but also deeper in their relationship with Jesus. 
• Our Youth Ministry is gaining momentum through intentional outreaches and strategic partnerships with other churches. 
• Almost every ministry at Living Faith is more equipped than it’s ever been, with leaders who love Jesus, ministry teams that love Jesus, and a vision to see big things happen.

All of that is worth celebrating because it is only possible with Jesus. But to be completely transparent, it has not been without hardship. 

• We’ve also seen people decide that they would rather have sin in their life instead of Jesus. 
• We have seen depression and burnout hit hard in the lives of multiple people.
• We’re seeing extended families of our families falling apart.
• There have been multiple people with health issues this past year.
• We’ve seen drug addiction and crime run rampant in our neighborhoods.
• People are hurting.
• People are broken.
• The enemy has been hard at work this year, at the same time that God has been taking ground.

That’s not something to be afraid of or run away from, but it’s something we need to take to God.

What Do We Do as Living Faith?

What we need to do as a church, is PRESS INTO JESUS.  To fight for our relationships with Him before literally anything else.

It’s kind of like the oxygen masks on an airplane. Whenever they do the safety briefing before you take off, they always tell you to put your mask on first before helping any kids with their masks. The reason for that is not because the airline doesn’t care about your kids, it’s because they know that if you lose your oxygen, you’ll pass and both you AND the kids won’t get the oxygen you need. 

Your relationship with Jesus is that oxygen. 

Church, if we MISS Jesus in the middle of doing incredible things FOR Jesus, we might put an oxygen mask on one or two people, but we won’t be able to sustain it for very long, and we WILL pass out.  We’ll quit this race before it even begins, and we won’t see any lasting fruit from it.

So, what do we mean metaphorically by “putting on your oxygen mask?”

It’s not mental health.

It’s not physical health.

It’s not prioritizing things in your life.

It’s not having a great work ethic.

It’s not even being disciplined in the things you do daily to follow Jesus.

… all of those things are great, but they’re not enough to keep you ALIVE.

IT’S FALLING MORE IN LOVE WITH JESUS HIMSELF. 

In marriage, it’s easy to live with your spouse in the same house, doing life simultaneously, serving your kids together, and having everything in common but still miss each other’s hearts. You can do that for weeks and weeks and, out of the blue, realize that you’re just really great roommates and aren’t really acting like you are married.  Something has to be done to recapture the love that brought you together in the first place. 

I think many of us are at that place with Jesus. We need to recapture the love that we have with Him, and when we do everything else falls into place.

This is our prayer for the church in 2025:

Ephesians 3:14-19

14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

What does this mean for us on the Eastside?

Intimacy over Immitation

As we look to take the Gospel to every single corner of homes, neighborhoods, and Indianapolis, we need to make sure that we don’t forget why we are doing it. The Gospel, simply put, just reveals God’s master plan to save humanity from a life marred by sin and brokenness. Ultimately, it brings us back into our Father’s home for all of eternity. But if there is one danger to the Gospel as far as mankind is concerned, it is that we are in danger of forgetting that it is for ALL PEOPLE and it is to be championed publicly by us who have already received it. I think the one of the greatest hurdles that we, as Christ-followers face today, is not the radical opposition to the Gospel that most of us fear, but a deep and passionate relationship with God. 

I think so many of us have known Jesus as Savior, but we don’t get much past that point. I think most of us in this room would admit, in one way or another, we aren’t great at acknowledging Jesus as King, and submitting our lives completely to Him. Now, I can give credit where it is due, I don’t think that this is a non-compliance issue, but rather a lack of understanding and mentorship. We have been told for far too long that our relationship with Jesus should consist of showing up and He will do the rest. And while that is true in some cases, I want to challenge you with the truth that our faith is not a 50/50 one. Instead, it is 100/100. Jesus gave all of His life for you, and He expects the same thing in return. That is why in 2025, we are going to push past the walls that apathy and complacency has built in our lives, brick by brick.

We are going to push past the shallow ideology that tells us that we should Sunday service, Life Group, and Discipleship is where you get Jesus. Instead, we are going to show you how to grow into a redhot and passionate walk with Jesus every single day of your life. We are going to push past this idea that we are just meant to put on this face of Christianity and fake it until we make it. 

John 15:4-6 

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

“Along the way, I’ve found that God has been more interested in reaching all of my heart than in me reaching all of the world. I have found that when He has someone whose heart is completely His, then He has someone that He can use to reach all the world through. I’ve found that, even though His sheep hear His voice and follow Him, He doesn’t just want to lead us with His voice…He wants us to draw us so near to His heart that He can lead us with His heart. I’ve also found that Jesus has many servants, but very few friends. And though we would point out that He no longer calls us servants but friends, I have found that it is one thing to be CALLED a friend; it is another to BE His friend.” - Keith Wheeler