A Changed Life

Happy birthday, Destination Church. >> Happy birthday, Destination. >> Happy birthday, Destination Church. >> Happy birthday, Destination Church.

I cannot believe we are already a year old. You know, we started this church with one main purpose, and that's to help people find and follow Jesus in East Bethl and the surrounding areas. And it was the summer of 2025 where a small group of us would gather and think and dream and pray about what God might do here.

>> It was meeting all the new people and seeing the the launch team grow and not having an idea of how to plant a church. This was our first time experiencing this and what's involved and figuring out how all these loose pieces are going to come together. >> I found out this church was starting and I don't know something just said you need to do this. I didn't know a single person when I started when I joined up here and so it was just a leap of faith for me to see what was going to happen in the future. God honored that group of people as it grew in number and in dedication to seeing a weekly worship service.

And on September 28th, 2025, we did just that. >> We just like the community and the closeness and that we're not just a number. >> They welcome anybody in this church with open arms. Our neighbors Jeremy and Laura invited us to try out Destination and it was like, "Wow, this is our home. Every week we're opening up the Bible.

We're we're truly learning and it's so deep in our soul that we would talk about it the whole week and couldn't wait to come back again. >> Seeing all the new people and then seeing them return and then becoming not just a new person, but being a part of the church. >> We weren't just launching a weekly worship service though. We are launching a church, a place where new relationships were and still are being formed today.

And not only that, but we would invest into our local community from day one by partnering with the food shelf, the school, and other organizations to begin to look outward. And throughout the last year, we've seen God do incredible things in our kids' ministry as they find Jesus and learn how to be followers of Jesus. >> Everything that they learn and seeing them actually soak fed in in words and situations that they understand and then when we go home, how Lizzy can repeat everything that she's learned and see her putting that into real life practice is is pretty amazing to me.

They know their teachers and they look forward to seeing them and they get to build a relationship with them week to week and the kids too. >> Every day when you put her down to bed, she asks, "Is tomorrow church. Is tomorrow church.

" And to have your four-year-old ask you that every day is encouraging because now she's getting what she needs and what we want her to have and that's the love of Jesus and she's knowing about it and learning about it and she's excited because she can't wait to go to church. Like they always have questions when they come out of it. It's not just everything's answered in the the kids ministry, but it's always there's there's another level to it when they get out. Like she's always got a million questions about what she's learning and what's going on.

So >> a million. >> Our kids led us into the Christmas season by leading us in worship with their amazing voices and we got to experience our first ever destination church Christmas. And as we went into the new year, we wanted to focus on our core value growth. We wanted our church to grow not only on Sundays, but in the living room in relationships with one another and to grow deeper in their relationship with Christ.

And so we started growth groups, opening up our home to people, like I always feel like it has to be perfect. It has to be whatever. It's like as you're growing a community with people like it was really cool to just like genuinely do life like have a full sink full of dishes and just like like hey this is my space this is what you're walking into this week like please come join me in the messy cuz that's really what I wanted.

>> Growth group has really pushed you to become vulnerable to the people that are in the group not just on the surface level but digging deeper. I think accountability is really important and not being afraid of telling people what's going on in your life because it's amazing how many people go through the same things or similar things. >> Not only did we grow in the living room as a church, but we continued to grow on Sundays. We dove deeper into the word as we looked at the book of John and asked this big question, who is Jesus.

We asked some of the biggest questions about faith. And it was through this message series that 12 people decided to pro publicly proclaim their faith through baptism and an additional five over the summer. As soon as I went into the water and came out, I just felt reborn and I felt like I I left my old life behind me and I started a brand new one. >> Baptism isn't just something you check off your list. It's a public commitment.

, and I just realized I now now that I have this new faith and the excitement and kind of a new life in Christ, I wanted to make that public declaration of the inward change. From there, we celebrated our first ever destination church Easter. From that week on, we started to see new people and new faces and relationships continue to form and deepen with each other and with Christ.

And with each passing week, we saw new people calling Destination Church their home church. As April concluded, we moved into an amazing time of child dedication together. A time where we could surround parents and partner with them in their journey of parenting. I feel like coming to Destination, I've been able to grow and foster friendships and real relationships with real people.

It's not from a distance. You're like right there with them. >> It's one thing to be on stage and sing or lead worship and do these things.

And you can do that and not really be known. But as we have shared about our own lives and gotten to know others and and allowed other people to know us, I've personally felt so much love and welcome and acceptance and support. I adore everybody here.

I think everybody here has such a big heart and truly cares. >> Every time I don't go to church that day, I just feel like something's not there. I stand in awe of all that God has done, is doing, and has yet to do at Destination Church.

In just one year, we've given away 250 Bibles to adults and kids who now have the love and truth of Jesus right at their fingertips. We've watched as 17 people have come forward and publicly proclaimed their faith and love of Jesus through baptism. And we've watched 39 people find the life transformational power of Jesus.

All of these might just sound like numbers, but to us, they're more than numbers. They're a story of somebody's real life being met by a real God and experiencing real change. >> Destination Church has really become a family for me.

I I can't wait to come to church on Sundays. I can't wait to see all the new friends I made. The people that are here are so nice and so caring and this has definitely become like a like a home for me.

>> It's definitely gotten stronger my relationship with Jesus since coming to Destination and I know that there is a lot of growth to be had from where I am now. What's happening here is really special. We're saving souls here, bringing people to Jesus. And and there's people that I I know now, they're with him and that have gone here. And I know that this place played a a part in that, a pivotal part in that.

And that that is comforting to me. So, >> it has been an incredible first year here at Destination Church. Everybody who brings their time and talent and energy just so one more person can find and follow Jesus because that's what we're about here at Destination.

And I believe we're just getting started. All right, Destination Church, we are just getting started. We're just getting started with people finding and following Jesus.

39 is just a start. There's just a start of lives being transformed here. I'm going to be really excited. That video always gets me excited. The entire week I've just watched it probably two to three times a day if I'm being honest with you because I just I'm so thankful that brick by brick there's so many people who are who are building this church and people are experiencing real life change and we really believe that he who began a great work in us is going to see it through until completion.

, and a few weeks ago, , I was getting my my hair cut and, , my barber and I, we were friends and so, , we get into like really deep conversations. Find somebody that cuts your hair that you can get into deep conversations with. It's, it makes it so much better.

, and he asked me this question. , I'm going to read it for you. He asked me this question.

Do you ever just zoom out and look at all the things that Destination Church is now and think that it that was only a dream for you a few years ago. And I I you know my immediate answer was yes. I have thought of that.

But then I thought about the weight that that response gave back that the weight of the response yes because that one yes that I gave has changed the course of so many lives including my own right and isn't that how the response yes can go for each and every one of us right like let me just give you an example of how yes can change your life you ever hear this question in your life, will you marry me. Okay, you've either asked it or you've been on the receiving end of it, maybe. And the response, yes, did what. Changed your life, right.

Or how about this one. Maybe if somebody offered you a job, a career, and they said, would you like to accept this position, this job. To which your yes changed everything.

It changed your time, your financial schedule, the skills that you would learn, right. Maybe maybe the invite was, "Hey, would you come check out this church with me. " Maybe that's some of you today. And your response is yes. And maybe that is something that changed the course of your life.

Maybe the question was, "Do you want to have another donut. " And the response was yes. And it changed your life. Okay, I'm not limiting the questions here because every yes, good or bad, can change the course of your life. And life is going to change.

Okay, that's inevitable. It is going to change. We are all going to get older. I'm sorry for the bad news.

We are all going to get older. We are all going to grow in knowledge. For some of us, we're going to grow around the waist, okay. And all of us are going to be learning and growing and and doing new and different things.

We're going to all see changes in our world, right. In technology, in our culture around us. We're all going to experience change.

Life is going to change you, too. That part isn't optional. The question, though, is what it changes you into. Because there's a difference between a life that just changes and a changed life.

Let me explain what I mean. Because one of those two things just happens to you. It is just a part of life. But the other one happens when Jesus gets a hold of you. When Jesus gets a hold of you, that is a changed life.

And that's what I want to talk about today is how to have a changed life. And what we're going to do is we're going to open up for the first time to the book of Philippians. It's on page 1,11. By the way, as you saw in that video, we've given away 250 of these Bibles.

So, if you need a Bible, I want you to take this one home with you. It is our gift to you. The only thing I ask is that you open it.

You open it and let the word of God just transform your life. We go through the Bible verse by verse in in different books and we are entering into a brand new book today in Philippians for a series that we're calling this is the life. So, if this is your first time here at Destination, you picked a very good Sunday because you get to maybe come back and hang out all fall with us as we dive deeper into the book of Philippians. , now before we get started, I'm going to I'm going to unpack a lot of the context of this book next week, but I want to give you just a minute or two of kind of what we're diving into.

So, the book of Philippians was written to the church in Philippi by the Apostle Paul. Now, Paul's got this crazy background. He used to be known as Saul. And Saul was a he was a bad dude, okay.

He was a murderer of Christians and he did a lot of really bad stuff. And then God blinded Paul and then healed him and revealed himself to him and gave him his sight back. And so he kind of has this radical story and half of your Bible in the New Testament is written by Paul and it's letters that he's writed written to these churches that he's planted.

Now what you need to know about Paul is because he was an ex-murderer and he also has been in and out of prison. Okay, he's a tough guy. Okay, he's usually pretty blunt with his words in his delivery.

But in the very first chapter of Philippians, , something happens with Paul's language that is a little bit different than some of the other letters because Paul kind of becomes a little bit of a softy. He kind of gets a little sentimental because the the the church in Philippi is one that he planted. And so it becomes kind of like this pastoral love letter to his church. Do you see what I did here.

You see the You see the correlation here this morning. So, what I want you to do is I want you to keep your Bibles open. We're going to break this down verse by verse.

And I want to show you how just in these 11 verses, Paul kind of paints a picture for us to show us how to have this real changed life in Christ. It starts out in verse one by saying this. Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to God's holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons.

Grace and peace to you from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So Paul always starts out by identifying himself and who he is addressing. Then he kicks off the letter by saying this. I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

Being confident in this that he who began a good work in you will carry it to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Okay, so I want to just pause there and we're going to go back to verse 3 through 5, but I want to just zoom in on six. Look at verse six.

Verse six is this amazing verse that I want you to remember for today. Paul says, "Being confident in this, that he who began a good work in you will see it through to completion. " And this shows us the first way to have a changed life is by having faith in Jesus.

If you want any kind of change in and through your life, you need Jesus. Welcome to church. This is like day one stuff is our hope and prayer for you is that you would find Jesus and put your faith in Jesus and see that Jesus has started a good work in you.

Destination, do you believe that Jesus has started a good work in you. >> Okay, >> just seeing if we're awake this morning. Okay, let me give you a little bit of my faith here this morning.

I believe that Jesus has started a good work in you. Do you want to know how I know that. It's because you're here. It's because you're here. And I don't mean here present in the church.

I mean that you're here. That you have breath in your lungs. Because you have breath in your lungs. Because you're not dead. God is not done with you yet.

God is not done with your story and writing your story. And he who began that good work wants to see it through to completion. But for some of us that takes faith. But the odds of you being here are not an accident.

Listen to this. There is about an estimated 1 in400 trillion odds that you are here right now. When you take into consideration DNA, all of the generations that came before you that had to meet, grow, fall in love, all of the things, right. All of the scientific advancements and all of the the hospital, even your birth story is a sheer miracle of God's goodness. Listen to me.

You were created on purpose for a purpose. And your purpose is to glorify the one that sent you, the creator of the world, Jesus. And the truth is that some of us in the church and outside of the church think that we've found Jesus, but it may not be the real Jesus that we've found because we have maybe found a Jesus that has been maybe misrepresented by our family or maybe the church that we grew up in.

It became more like a system and a checklist of things that we had to do in order to to be a a good Christian. Or maybe it was from the culture around us that's given us this image of who we think Jesus is that because of how people are treated or how this one Christian behaved, then we can paint a picture for what we think Jesus is like, right. Or maybe for some of us it's by life experiences. We go through these hard troubling times and we think, "Man, how could a loving God put me through and and put me in some of the situations that I've been in. " And you see, all of us start to define Jesus based off of those things.

But let me ask you this. Do you like when people define you on the basis of just not actually getting to know you. Like you might say, "Oh yeah, I don't care.

People can judge me all they want. But deep down you're thinking, "I would love for a chance to get to talk to somebody, to get to know somebody before they make their judgment about me. So here's my invitation for you. Get to know Jesus. Because if you're here, I we as Destination Church want you to find and put your faith in the resurrected King Jesus of the Bible.

That is our prayer for you first and foremost above all else. That is why we planted this church. That is why we open this word every week. That is why we do things like growth groups and trying to love and improve all of us of where we're at.

Is because we want you to experience the resurrected Jesus. And so Paul is confident of this. He's confident that he who began a good work in you will see it through to completion.

Now, why he's confident in this is because he knows deeply his church in Philippi. He knows a lot about all of these churches that he's planted because he's spent time. He's not like a church planter like me.

He plants and then stays there for the whole year. He he takes some time and then leaves to plant the next church. Now, in this particular sense, we don't have time to do it today, but if we went back to Acts chapter 16, we would see a picture of Paul painting this or starting this church. And what you would see is that Paul finds a wealthy business woman who's in the fashion industry. Her name is Lydia.

And then he finds an enslaved girl who is who he frees from her bondage. And then he finds a Roman jailer who is just seconds away from taking his own life. And he he watches as all three of those people are transformed by a life with encounter encountering Jesus.

And so he knows these people. He knows their stories. He knows their testimonies like some of those from that video that we just watched. And what he is now reflecting on is the partnership, the fellowship that he has with others, which is the second way that we have a changed life is by fellowship with others. I want you to go back in your Bibles to verse three.

Follow the numbers to verse three. And I just want to read this this first part of the verse here for you again. I thank my God every time I remember you in all of my prayers for all of you.

I always pray with joy because of what. Your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. Okay, skip forward to verse 7.

And then he goes on to say this. It is right for me to feel this way about you since I have had you in my heart. And whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me, God can testify how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. Okay, before we get too deep into this passage here, I just want to point out this is like a guy's guy.

Okay, remember when I talked about Paul. Okay, he's becoming a little softy here. Okay, he's getting really like sentimental about the church that he's planted and he's using all of these terms that you wouldn't always see Paul use throughout the letter, maybe at the beginning or end, but he says because of your partnership and it is right for me to feel this way about you.

I have you in my heart and how I long for you all. Okay, it's how wives wish their husbands would always talk to them. Okay, that's what's that's what's happening here.

And why Paul is talking in this way is because he has a deep sense of connection of fellowship with these people. Now when we talk about the word fellowship, it can kind of sound like a churchy word. Like as a non-Christian kid growing up, I had no idea what fellowship meant. And a lot of us think fellowship means going into a a big room with tables and coffee and stale donuts and talking about Vikings and the weather, right. But fellowship is actually so much deeper than that because fellowship is your real connection and real partnership with other Christians, okay.

With other people that are on the same journey as you. And I would say that in our time and in our age in 2026, there are a lot of things that are destroying this fellowship for you. Some of them are like the small talk kind of things, but some of them are even in our relationship with social media and things like AI.

Can I just read this for a second. According to a 2026 survey, therapy and companionship is now the number one use of AI. And there are nearly one in five young people that use AI now as chatbots for mental health issues.

Now, on the flip side of that, Harvard has been doing studies on community for decades. And Harvard this Harvard study has found that close relationships okay not money not fame not achievement are all the close relationships is the biggest indicator for a long and healthy life okay so what we see is a society that yeah AI is great it does great things social media is great it does great things but what we're seeing is this decrease in real authentic community. And so here's my question for you. Who is there for you. And are they helping you move forward in your relationship with Christ.

I want you to sit with that question because here's the truth. I have sat with a lot of people that are looking at the end of their life and I promise you that they did not share things that they've shared on social media or conversations they've had with AI but they remember a lot of the relationships that they have a lot of relationships that they've built and they have a lot of questions about faith and the way that I ask this question. I want you to pay attention to this. I say, "Who is there for you.

" And then I add, "And are they helping you move forward with your relationship with Christ. " You see, because the truth is a lot of us have general friends, right. We have our fishing buddies, golf buddies, you know, ranting buddies, the ones that we call up just to, you know, rant and and complain to. But if I asked you, is there somebody that truly has your best interest in growing in your faith.

Do you have those people around you. And so I want you to know, and I hope you saw in that video, that there are people here that want fellowship with you. And if it's not here, then find somewhere where you can get connected with other people that bring you deeper in your relationship with Christ because you need that.

So, in order to live a changed life, we need faith in Jesus, fellowship with others, and lastly, Paul goes into this section about following Jesus. Okay, I want you to look at verse nine. This is what Paul says, and this is my prayer. So now he's shifting from affection to praying over these people.

He's saying, "And this is my prayer that your love may abound more and more in the knowledge and depth and insight so that you will be able to discern what is best and pure and blameless for the day of Christ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. So what Paul is saying is his pastoral heart is a lot of the same for mine for you. He wants you he wants us I want you to grow in your depth and insight of Jesus.

If you're here I want you to know how deeply loved and known that you are by Jesus. I want you to grow in your discernment. That means when somebody presents you with a false sense of who Jesus is, you can say, "No, I have discernment to know what is right and what is wrong and I can stand against some of the culture around me that presents to me a false Jesus. " That you have that discernment. I want you to have lives that are so on fire for Jesus that everybody who encounters you cannot help but see it.

That is my pastoral prayer for you. And so I hope I hope for you that you see a life of following Jesus looks like this. It looks like diving forward into your relationship with God in a way where you are growing because that shows so much of your love and affection for Jesus is when you are growing in who Jesus has created you to be. Okay, let me say it like this.

I'm dreaming of a church where we are not just fans of Jesus, but we are followers of Jesus. There is a lot of people that can say that they are a fan of Jesus. They can wear the color purple and, you know, cheer just like we would for the Vikings.

They can do all of the things to be a fan of Jesus, but a follower looks a lot different. Let me explain to you what I mean. Can I get nerdy for a second. Is that okay.

, let's take a movie like I don't know. Let's say Star Wars. , and let's say I am a really big fan of Star Wars. Let's just pretend I am. , and this none of this is true, but let let me just like this next part.

None of it is true. But let me just imagine with me for a second. Imagine with me that at home I have an entire room that is dedicated to Star Wars. I have memorabilia. I have Lego things that I've put together.

I have action figures that I've collected. I have posters. I can tell you everything about the plot and the look of the movies.

Let's pretend that for a second. And now let's pretend that instead of just having that, I have a relationship with the creator and writer, George Lucas. Okay, let's pretend for a second that I got to be in the room during the creation of this movie.

Let's pretend for a second that somebody handed me the script about all of the things that go along with Star Wars. All of the thinking behind it, all of the feeling behind it. Let's pretend that I got to know all of the characters and the actors over periods of time. You see, my relationship would change, right. One I would just be a fan of which I believe that there is a place to be a fan of Jesus right but to be a follower of Jesus dives into the depth of actually knowing our creator of actually having this relationship with a creator because fans can tell you about Jesus but followers can tell you what Jesus has done in and through their life.

They can tell you how their lives have changed. So, let me just tell you what Jesus has done through me. Can I tell you. And I I've got this crazy story, okay.

It's not a a typical pastor's story. If you don't know my story at all, I just kind of want to give a brief overview. I have been a hospital security guard, kind of like a Paul Bart kind of guy, right.

I've been a vocalist in a metal band. I've been a youth pastor. I've worked at a ton of different churches in different positions, right. And growing up, I did not know Jesus at all.

I could not tell you the difference between the Old Testament, the New Testament, and here I am like teaching you about Jesus and the Old Testament and New Testament like every week, right. But it goes even deeper than that because in my teens and through my mid20s, I was clinically diagnosed with ADHD, dyslexia, depression, and anxiety. Okay, you got more faith coming up in your pastor on how the how put together I am.

Okay, let me give you more. Okay, in my early 20s, I had a wife who cheated on me, left me, and suddenly I was a single father. Okay, in all those trials that I've had, and I could keep going in all of those trials and things that I've been through, I have had doubts.

I have had questions. I have been angry. I've had so much fear and different things built up inside of me. And if you were to tell that kid in his 20s or tell that single father, hey, someday you're going to be sitting on stage in a church that you planted helping people find freedom, I would have not believed you for a second.

But Jesus, >> that's what changes. But Jesus changes. He changes the people, the situation around you. And so he took every diagnosis, every heartbreak, every doubt, every shortcoming that I had, and as I put my faith in Jesus, as I surrounded myself in fellowship with others, and as I am still a work in progress in learning what it means to truly follow him with every single step, he is going to see in completion what he began in me.

He's going to see in this church that he who began a good work in me and in this church is going to see it to completion. And it is the same for you that he began a good work in you and that he is going to see it through until completion. Do you believe that. So, I want to give you a moment to respond to this.

I'm going to invite the worship team up and I'm just going to invite you into this time of reflection. Maybe for you, you want to just bow your head and and kind of close your eyes and just really make this a time to really connect with God because I know for me and my story and even for some of our stories, it it's easier said than done, right. It almost feels like there is a gap, a kind of like a chasm that is in between us and Jesus. Maybe for you that gap is a doubt that you still have a doubt about who Jesus is and if he loves you.

Maybe it's anger. Maybe you're really angry about something that's happened in your past. Maybe it's a fear. Maybe it's something that you're really just scared of going forward.

Maybe you don't feel good enough or worthy enough or like you've been forgiven enough, right. And there's some kind of gap. There's some kind of chasm in between you and Jesus. And I want you to see and I want you to picture this that Jesus is not only on the other side of this chasm, but he is the bridge across it to the other side. He is the way and the truth and the life.

And that doesn't mean that the journey across the bridge across your life is going to be simple. It just means that it makes sense. That it has a direction. It has a destination.

That you're moving towards someone and something that is truly going to change your life and change your eternity. And you're going to be able to to live in such a way where people can see Jesus in and through you and working through your life. And they're going to be able to see the ways that Jesus has changed your life.

And it all starts with giving God your yes. I started this sermon by saying that that one yes that I gave to planting this church changed a lot of lives. But the biggest yes that I've ever given in my life is a yes to Jesus. And that is the biggest yes that you can give. And so if you are here today and you feel like, man, I I I see that gap.

There is a gap between me and this Jesus that you're talking about. If that's you today, I just want to ask you to do something very bold. I want to ask you to raise your hand and just say, "Jesus, I need you.

" Okay, not you don't need to say it out loud. Just to raise your hand as a symbol to say, "Jesus, I want you in my life. I need you in my life. I want to put my trust and my faith in you. Jesus, I need you to be that bridge.

I need you to be on the other side, Jesus. " If that's you, would you just in a moment of boldness, please raise your hand just so I can pray over you. I'm going to pray for you, but before I do, I just want to tell you that this is a first step.

This is a first step into just coming into the lordship of Jesus. That means that Jesus is above all in your life. That you believe in him as Lord and Savior, that you confess in your heart that he is the risen Jesus and the King over all of your life.

That takes a lot of work. That takes the faith. That takes the fellowship. That takes following Jesus.

So, let me just pray for you. God, I thank you for the people that are here today that are putting their faith in you. God, I pray that this would not just be a moment, but that this would be the starting line. That they would live in such a way that when their time has come on earth, when that completion day has come, that nobody has a doubt in their mind of where they are because they have been with you, Jesus. And so, God, I pray that we would be believers and followers of your word.

We confess that you are Lord and we believe in you as savior in Jesus name. >> Hey, can we celebrate that we are now over 40 people. We've got several people who have just given their life to Jesus.

That is what we are about here at Destination. So, if you would just stand and close with us in a time of worship together.