Life Community Church
Life Community Church
The Path to Flourishing | Dream Big | Week 2
Start with a better question than “What’s my plan?” Try this: “Is my relationship with Jesus flourishing?” Everything else—work, money, marriage, even vacations—looks different when your soul moves from dormant to blooming.
We explore a clear, four-step path rooted in Ephesians 1 and framed by the vivid image of Death Valley’s rare super bloom. First, know God intimately—beyond Sunday routines and head knowledge—to a heart-level relationship that reshapes your days. Second, find freedom by letting God clear the “eyes of your heart,” so past hurts stop coloring present choices; real healing grows in honest, prayerful community. Third, discover purpose as you see the hope you’re called to carry. Purpose stops being a job title and becomes the unique role you play in sharing the redeeming work of Jesus. Finally, make a difference by investing where God counts riches: people. Neighbors, coworkers, and family become the field where hope is planted and futures change.
Along the way we anchor in Psalm 92’s promise that those planted in God’s house flourish, and Psalm 16’s vision of a path that leads to fullness of joy. We talk practical habits that change your environment—consistent time in Scripture and prayer, joining a small group for accountability and healing, serving with your gifts, and taking courageous next steps that align with calling. We also unpack why church growth matters only as a byproduct of transformed lives: when people find freedom and purpose, rooms fill, and capacity must grow to serve more stories of renewal.
If you’re ready to trade striving for flourishing, this conversation offers a simple map: know God, find freedom, discover purpose, make a difference. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review telling us which step you’re taking next.
Hello, this is Jamie Bridges, and thank you so much for joining us for this week's podcast. All of our services are inspired and built straight from the Bible. Let's get into this week's message recorded at Life Community Church.
SPEAKER_01:God, we pray that you would just open up our hearts that we might receive what you have for us today. God, you call us your inheritance. And God, I ask that you would help us to understand that you just so desperately desire to have a conversation with us. If we would just set some things down for just 20 minutes to listen to what you have to say, open up our hearts and our minds. Sure Austin, we praying. Amen. Well, if you're anything like me, and I hope that you're not, but if you're anything like me, as you approach a new year, you start asking yourself a lot of new questions. A lot of new questions. Questions about what the next year is going to look like. Some of my favorite questions to answer right up front is what's vacation going to look like? That's one of the first things I start with is what's let's get the most important thing figured out on the calendar. What's the vacation going to look like, right? But then you start uh looking at things like what's my uh career changes gonna look like? What am I gonna achieve? What am I gonna move? What am I gonna go after? What am I gonna accomplish? What am I gonna do like on in my career, right? And then we start, what are we gonna do in the family? Like, what do I need to do with my marriage? What do I need to do with my my relationships, you know, all of the different relationships that I have, you know? And then you start thinking like, what do I, what do I need to change financially, right? What do I need to change financially? There's just multiple, multiple, multiple questions, right, that process that we process as we start a new year. Yet I think that maybe there's just one that's most important. One that literally can change or affect, not change, but affect all the answers to all the other questions that we have. And so this morning, I like for us to start off with that question. And that question is this Is my relationship with Jesus flourishing? Is my relationship with Jesus flourishing? Think about it. Process that is my relationship with Jesus flourishing? What if we could start 2026 with the answer to that question? How might it change the answer to all the other questions? How might it change how we vacation? How it might how might it change what happens at work? How might it change how it affects our finances, our relationships, our marriages? If we could figure out the answer to this question, is my relationship with Jesus flourishing? Psalms 92 13 reads this way, though reads this way. Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of God. Those who are planted, those those who are seeded, they're rooted, they're established in what in the house of the Lord will what they'll flourish, they'll they'll thrive, they'll succeed, they'll grow, they'll blossom. Listen, the environment that you are in determines the level at which you will flourish. We're gonna talk about this all morning long. The environment that you are in will determine the level at which you flourish. In America, there's a portion of our country that does not flourish. It's dead, it's dry, it's called Death Valley, and yes, it's in California. It's the hottest, driest place in America. No one lives there, no farms are there, no plants are there, no trees are there, no livestock's there, nothing is there because the environment is not conducive to what? Flourishing. In the winter of 2004, seven inches of rain fell in 24 hours. They have no explanation for it. Nothing happened immediately. But over time, spring of 2005, this is what it looked like. Over time, Death Valley changed as an environment, as the environment changed. As the environment changed at Death Valley, so did Death Valley. Death Valley wasn't dead. Death Valley was dormant. Listen, the potential for beauty was always there. It just needed the right environment. The potential for beauty was always there. It just needed the right environment. Below the ground were seeds of potential. They just needed the right environment to grow. What would happen if you if you were in the right environment? How might you grow? Listen, the environment you are in will determine the level at which you will flourish. Psalm 16, 11 reads this way: You will show me, David says, you will show me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand is pleasures forevermore. Listen, life is a pathway, a progression, a set of steps that we take every single day. Your relationship with God is a journey, a journey of many steps. And the results of being on this path, this path, these steps that David is talking about is what? Fullness of joy. What if we could have a year of fullness of joy? Not just joy, but fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. What if we focused on being in the right environment? What is the path to flourishing in our relationship with God? What is the path to flourishing in our relationship with God? What are the steps that we should be taking in 2006 so that we can make sure that we're flourishing in our relationships with God? 730, do me a big favor because I know that you need something to kind of like shake you a little bit, look at your neighbor and say, show me the path. Oh, come on now, 7:30. I mean, I will keep you, I will keep you here till 9 o'clock. I know you come early because you're introverts. You want to sneak in here and sneak out of here? Right? I've got one over here. She's like, it's my favorite servant, but there's only like 115 of us. I love it. Right? Listen, in the form of a prayer, Paul shares this path of life with the Christians in Ephesus. In Ephesians 1 through 17 through 18, we're going to take a look at this pathway, these steps, so to speak. They're very clear in this passage of scripture. And if we would put ourselves in this environment in 2006, just four steps, I promise you. Things at home would be different. Things in your finances would be different. Things at work would be different. All the other answers to all your other questions would be answered in a way that would bring fullness of joy and pleasures forever. If we'd first in 2026 just focus on four steps on this path. So that first you may know him better. Verse 18, second, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, that you might know him better. Number two, that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened. In order, pause. There's two steps that we've got to take care of before we get to go to step three and step four. Step one, that we might know him better. Step two, that our the eyes of our heart might be enlightened. And then when we have these two steps and process on the path, there's we get to jump to two more. He says that in order that you what? Because know the hope to which he's called you. If you don't know him and if your heart's not been enlightened, you'll never know the hope to which he's called you. And if you don't know the hope to which he's called you, you're walking around this world today feeling very purposeful, purposeless, purposeless, purposeless. Hey, listen, Christians, we have purpose. And it's not just to get up and pay the bills. It's not just to get up and make people happy. And if you're living without purpose, right, you need to take care of step two. You need to take care of step two that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that then you will know the hope to which you were called, and then step four, and this is incredible. When we get to step four, it's just, it just comes out of us. It's just there. It literally affects everybody around us, right? It's the reason why we build more buildings. My prayer is that we'll never stop building. Pastor keeps on saying, This is gonna be our last building. I say, Pastor, not at all. Right? Because of what the Word of God says. Not because we want to build buildings. Nobody likes building buildings. I hate building buildings. That's why I'm a pastor. If I like building buildings, I'd have been an architect or a contractor. Right? I don't like it. It's not not a lot of fun. But we don't build buildings because we like buildings. We build buildings because the what happened because we're obedient and we obey the word of God. And I'll I'll explain to you, I'll show you. It's just a beautiful thing Paul shares with us. So the first step in this pathway is to know God. The second step in this pathway, oh, I didn't finish, sorry. Called you. The riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people. The riches of his glorious inheritance. What is his inheritance? What is his inheritance when you know God, when your eyes have been enlightened, and you are now walking to the hope of your calling, you will know your inheritance. And you know what his inheritance is? You his wealth that he passes on to the rest of the world is the fact that you know him, your eyes have been opened up to him, and that you know you are now walking to the hope of your calling. So the first step to this path is number one, know God. The second one is find freedom, the third one is discover purpose, and the fourth is to make a difference. What if in 2026 we put all other questions away and we focused just on answering, focused this on walking through the steps of answering just this one question? What could happen? Listen, the environment you are in determines the level at which you flourish. What's your environment? Why are you not flourishing? Maybe you're in the wrong environment. Let's take a look at these four steps in depth. The first one, if we are going to flourish in our relationship with God, the first step that we need to take is to know God. And to know God. The Greek word used here is uh genosi. There we go. Genosi. This word has uh, this word to the Ephesian believers would have been a shocking word. It would have been a word when Paul began to speak about and say this word, he they would have been like, whoa, what's going on? Because the Greek word means to know God in an intimate way, to know God in an intimate way, which would have probably completely been foreign to these listeners. This is not how they viewed God. God that was close to them, that wanted to have a relationship with him. He was far away. We did things for him, but he did not do things for us. The same Greek word is used to describe the relationship between a husband and a wife. It's not a sexual term, it's an intimate term. It describes the heart knowledge, not the head knowledge. The heart knowledge, not the head knowledge. I have a head knowledge of LeBron James. I have a heart knowledge of Shelly Williamson. Different. He wants us to have a heart knowledge of God, not a head knowledge of God. He doesn't want us to own a Bible. He wants us just to show up and pray at mealtime. He doesn't want just to be here on Sunday mornings. He wants us to do so much more in our relationships with him. He wants to have a personal relationship with him. It's more than just, it's more than just knowledge. It's more than just knowing its heart. It's knowing him in an intimate way. The first step that we have to consider as we answer this question, are we flourishing, is do we personally know him in an intimate way? Do we know him in an intimate way? God is not offering religion, he's offering relationships. Our relationship with God flourish when what? We know God. Do you know God? Do you know God? Or is God just a Sunday morning activity for you? And if he is, the first step that you need to take is say to him, Listen, I want to know you in a deeper way. I want to do some things outside of Sunday. I'm going to jump into a small group. I'm going to show up to healing night. I'm going to get involved with kids' ministry. Like I'm going to get a devotional and I'm going to start reading it. I'm going to open up to one of the gospels in the New Testament and learn all about Jesus, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and John, and I'm just going to read it. I'm going to know you in a new way. I no longer want to just show up and do the routine. I want to have a relationship with you. Our relationship with God flourishes when we first, when we first, when we first, when we first know God. If we're going to flourish in our relationship with God, the second step that we need to take is to find freedom. Find freedom. Our prayer, he says, this I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened. The eyes of your heart may be enlightened. Paul, catch a clue. I don't have any eyes on my heart. My eyes are on my head. What are we talking about? What are you saying to me? I've never seen eyes on anybody's heart. Paul wants us to understand that we are not all looking through these up here. We're actually looking through this right here. We are looking at life through the lens of everything that has happened to us, looking through the lens of your past pains, past hurts, past experiences, past relationships. It's why we use the word church hurt. Your life creates a filter through which you see it through. All of us are seeing the same thing yet seeing it differently based on what was happened to us up to this point. And oftentimes it dictates our life. Paul is saying that some of you have never dealt with these filters, and you need to be enlightened. You need your heart's eyes to be open so that you can what? Live in freedom. Live in freedom. The message version says it this way. I pray that your heart be focused and clear. I pray that your heart be focused and clear. Once our hearts are focused and clear, we can move on to the third step, but we'll never be able to enjoy the depth, right, of Christ and the third step if we don't live in freedom. What's binding you up? Here's a question for you, maybe to answer. What's the secret in your life that no one knows except for you? What's the secret in your life that no one knows except for you? Do you know, right? That the Bible tells us that we go to God for forgiveness, but we go to people for freedom, for healing. That we go to God for forgiveness, that we find forgiveness in God, but we find healing in actually the body of Christ. Meaning this, that maybe your next step of freedom is to join a small group and to get connected deeply with the body of Christ, right? So that you might find someone that you can trust and that you can open up. And so no longer is it a secret that you have, but it's a secret now that you're sharing with someone else. Listen, we find freedom when we gather in circles and we share the depths of what's going on. Why? Because now we have accountability. We have someone that speaks the word of God in truth to us, shares a godly truth that helps us to understand the lie that we're believing so that we no longer live right in bondage. Listen, step three and step four can't cannot be obtained unless we do step one and step two. Step one, no God, step two, right? Step two, find freedom. The message for our once our hearts are focused and clear, we can move on to step three. Before the third step, the next, that uh the text says this, this little phrase right here. We don't want to miss this. In order that you may, before we can move to step three, we have to complete step one and two. Why? It's hard to see who we are in Christ if we're still looking through the lens of our past. Listen, it's hard for us to see who we are in Christ if we're still looking through the lens of our past. You have to see with your heart's eye, not your head's eye. Move on to three. Step three. So our relationship with God flourishes one week. No God, when we find freedom, the third is this if we are going to flourish in our relationship with God, the third step that we need to take is discover purpose. Is to discover purpose. Verse 18, and we'll continue on. It says this, so that you may know the hope to which He has called you, so that you may know the hope to which He has called you. Have you ever met someone who knows the hope to which they were called in? Have you ever met someone? Think about that. Have you ever met someone that knows the hope to which they were called in? They walk with purpose. It's literally life-changing for you when you encounter this individual. The world attempts to convince us that hope is found in career, that hope is found in relationship, that hope is found in money, that hope is found in materialistic things and status quo. Yet all of us know that all of these things over time leave us what? Hopeless. Great things when used the right way. But at the end of the day, without Christ, hopeless. What my career needs, what my relationships need, what my money needs is to encounter someone who knows the hope to which he has called them. And oftentimes we think that when our problems go away, when I can just make enough money, when I can just like deal with this situation or that situation, or I can remove these issues in my life, then I'll have hope, then I'll have joy, then I'll have freedom. No, not at all. We have hope when we know we have something greater than our problems, and that something greater than our problems is Jesus Christ. I don't need someone to fix my problems. I need someone to give me something bigger than my problems. That's a good spot for an amen, 7 30. What if the hope, what is the hope to which he's called us to? Every single one of us in this room, this is for you. I wish I could have this conversation with you one on one, not one on 130. Because you need to understand that it's not for your neighbor. It is for your neighbor, but this is for you. This is something God's called every single one of us, you too personally. These four steps, every step, I dare you to give them a try in 2026. What is this hope? This hope is the redeeming work of Jesus Christ. This hope that we have is the redeeming work of Jesus Christ. And what is the call? It's the specific role you play in sharing that hope. It's the specific role that you play in sharing the hope. Every single one of you play a specific role. A specific role in sharing the hope, the redeeming work of Jesus Christ, right? He's given you hope. And when you see hope, right, it opens you up to your calling, what you've been called to do inside of that hope. Listen, a lot of us are walking around asking the question, why am I here? Why am I here? Why am I here? Why am I here? Why am I here? Why am I here? Why am I here? It's the number one question out of all questions: why do I exist? To know God, to find freedom, and to discover purpose. That's why you that's why you're here. To know God, to find freedom, and to discover purpose. Listen, people walk around, even Christians all of the time, walk around with no purpose, and it makes no sense. Because your purpose isn't, right? Just the talent God's given you. He's given you that talent that you might share, the uh move forward, tell other people about the hope of Jesus Christ. Could you imagine what it would be like to go to work every single day and love every day? Would that not be incredible? I'm not sure that's possible. Right? Yet maybe it is. If we focus on why we're called. And it's not to gain materialistic things or even to like be comfortable in our materialistic world. We are called specifically, every single one of us is called to be on Team Jesus, to share the hope of Jesus Christ. We are called by God to work from our place of hope. This changes everything. Our relationship with God flourishes when we know God finds freedom and discover purpose. For if we're going to flourish in our relationship with God, the fourth step is this. The fourth step is to make a difference. To make a difference. The riches, he says, Paul says, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, the riches of his glorious inheritance. What is the inheritance? What is the wealth that he's passed on? It's you. It's me. It's your family. It's your coworkers. It's your neighbors. It's your people. You know when you know the only time that you get the most excited about telling me something on Sunday morning? This is true about almost all of you. Almost every Sunday morning, you don't initially come up to Pastor Sean or Pastor Jamie or Pastor Jody or Pastor Casey and say, like, hey, it's so good to see you, which is good. Like that would be hard for all of us to do, and I appreciate that. But there's one Sunday, oftentimes, that you will make sure that you come find me when you bring your family. When you bring your kids that don't necessarily come all the time. When you bring a relative, right, that you've been wanting to come forever. Why is that? Because they're your wealth. You care about them more than you care about anything. And the same truth is true about Jesus Christ. He cares about you and those yet that don't know him. He, you and them, all of your neighbors, your family, your friends, they are his wealth. And he has literally spent everything to gain them. And he's asked us to join him in that work. Listen, he invites us to be a part of making a difference in the kingdom of God, an eternal difference in our families and our friends and our coworkers and our neighbors. We make a difference by helping those around us know that they are God's inheritance. When you know God, you find, when you know God, when you find freedom and discover purpose, you will make an eternal difference. And I promise you, when you're walking around every single day making an eternal difference, there's not a bad day. It's not. I don't care. I don't care if they're calling me, telling me the mortgage. I mean, I do care, right? And so, like if the bills, if the budget's tight. Man, I tell you something. It's not my joy. It's not my fullness of pleasure. What's my joy? What's my fullness of pleasure? It's making an eternal difference. How do I make an eternal difference? I know God. I find freedom. I discover purpose. And then I make an eternal difference. Right? You've been called to be on Team Jesus. Let's go. Let's go. Imagine with me if we focused on these four steps in 2026. If we focused on knowing God, finding freedom, discovering purpose, and making a difference.
unknown:Right?
SPEAKER_01:We focused on not having religion, but having a relationship. If we focused on joining a life group or starting a life group, right? James 5, 16, throw it up there before me real quick. I was talking about this earlier. Is it up there, Andrew? Maybe, maybe it's not. There it is, right? Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray to each other so that you may be what? Healed. Therefore, confess your sins to each other so that and pray for each other so that you may be healed. If you're not having freedom and you're not in a small group, join a small group. And this is not, I promise you, it's not a push for small groups. It's not, but this is why I love them. Because I walk I love watching people walk in freedom. It's not another Bible study you need, even though it's good to learn more about the Bible. You don't need another, read another book, even though it's great. What you need, right, is to get around other body people in Christ that can help you understand the lies of your life, which causing you to be in bondage. That can walk with you, can keep you accountable. Listen, don't you get this right? You know you know when you've sinned against God. And what do you do immediately? You go to God and you ask Him for forgiveness. But why is it that you continue to deal with the torture of that sin? Because you've not gone to the an individual and the body of Christ and asked them to pray with you. Therefore, you don't have healing. Your healing is literally, can I say this, one click away. Joining a life group, getting in a circle. And you might be like, you know what? I've never even led a life group before, Pastor Sean. But I know what freedom feels like. So I'm gonna open up my house and we're just gonna start sharing secrets and applying the Word of God to them. Right? Because that's what it's about. We want everyone to find freedom. There's so much more that I would like to share with you specifically in regards to discovering the lot the path of life. And I'm gonna put a little plug in for uh uh a program that we have here at Life Community Church called Discover Life that my wife and I teach uh throughout the year. It's three weeks. It starts this Wednesday night, and we go in much more detail, right, on these four steps how to know God, find freedom, discover life, and make a difference. Specifically for you. When you leave in four weeks, you're gonna have a good idea of where God wants you and how you can start being in that environment, in a flourishing environment. We don't want to just say things on Sunday mornings and then you leave and you don't know what to do with them. If you're serious about answering the question, am I flourishing with Jesus? I dare you. That's an honest dare to sign up for Discover Life. Listen, our first step, our most important step as we start 2026. Our first steps, our most important steps, listen to me, as we dream big. As our our first steps, our most important steps, as we dream big. Let me tell you a secret. I kind of gave it away up front. People don't want to build buildings. People don't want to build by 57 acres. People don't want to spend millions of dollars. People don't want to hear how much are you gonna give to this project? As much as as much excitement is there, there'll be just as much complaining. Right? People don't want to build buildings. This is what they want to do. This is what they want to do, I'll tell you. They wanna know God, they wanna find freedom, they wanna discover purpose, they wanna make a difference. This is why we run out of room, though. Do you understand what I'm saying? This is why we run out of room. It's the results of people answering the question Am I flourishing with God? How do I flourish with God? When people walk into these doors and they begin to understand how they can flourish with God, right? We run out of room. Knowing God, finding freedom, discovering purpose, making a difference. This is why we build buildings. This is why we'll continue to build buildings. I'll build as many buildings as we have to build. Why? Because you are his inheritance. And he's built the most amazing building for you, and someday he's gonna return and he's gonna take you to that building. And until he does, we'll continue to build and build and build and build and build and build and build. And we'll continue to ask and ask and ask and ask and ask. And we'll continue to consider, we'll continue to ask you to consider. Do you know God? Have you found freedom? Do you have you discovered purpose? Are you making a difference? Why? Because you are his inheritance. You are his inheritance. Listen. Will you trust God with the next step? Will you trust God? I wish I could look at every single one of your faces and say that to you. Will you trust God? Stop paying attention to where you're not flourishing. Stop paying attention to the money. Stop paying attention to why this isn't working and why isn't this working? Stop working so hard. Stop it. And start knowing God. Start finding freedom. Start discovering purpose. And I promise you, you will make a difference that'll radically change your life.