Hey everybody.

So glad you're here this weekend.

You may take a seat.

I'm so excited today to be kicking off a brand new teaching series for the next four weeks.

We're going to talk about a very important subject, the subject of courage.

And I must admit, over the last three months, as I knew that this day was coming, I spent a

lot of time thinking about and maybe overthinking what this first series would be all about.

And I had a moment in July where I had three different message series already written

for this time right now.

And I sent a text to a friend

and I said, hey, pray for me. I need some prayer to really know what it is that God wants this

first series to be about. And the thing that happened for me was I was taken back on my journey

over the last six months from the time I preached here in March as a guest speaker

to now what was the character trait that I needed more than any other character trait.

It was the character trait of courage.

So this series is really an opening of my journal to you because there have been so many

moments over these last six months where I'm sitting

down with our friends who started the church that we pastored for 14 years and they're the

couple that we invited to start the church with us in 2008 to look them in the eyes and say we're leaving

figured out and to have conversations with staff members and to sit down with our kids in a living room and tell them that we're leaving their friends and the schools that they love and so many moments where this great sense of I need courage for this track and I know today for you that there is a place in your life where you need courage.

And courage is that substance in your life. Whenever there's change, courage is necessary.

Let me say it again. Whenever there is change in your life, courage is necessary because all growth

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