Alright. Hey. Good morning.
Good morning here in live. If you don't
know, if you're visiting with us,
we call this venue live. We also have
a couple other campuses, a couple other venues
here on this campus that we're gonna welcome.
So if you're ready, let's say good morning
to Roane County, good morning to Bearden over
in Amped Blend on three. Ready? +1, 23.
Good morning. Good morning. Hey. Hey. Awesome. You
guys did that really great. Thank you for
that. Hey. I'm Dave. And,
something about me.
My wife and I, we get to do
something every fall,
because she's a teacher. We get to
I get to. That's a way to say
it. Have to get to.
01:10, 02:20. Whatever it takes. Right?
Sell sell tickets at the local high school
football game. And we in particular, we've been
doing this for years. I can't remember exactly
how long, but a friend of hers, they
sell the tickets,
three feet away. I take the ticket and
rip it in half and everybody's like, why
did I just went from there to there.
Why do you do that? I'm like, you
know, it's the school system, the model of
efficiency.
So we do things.
But in
we work the visitors gate in particular. I
love working the visitors gate. You get to
see all the the people that are coming
and, cheer on their other team and I
get to harass some of them. I've in
fact, I get to embarrass my wife frequently
by harassing the opposing team. And, it was
the last game of the year. This is
actually a true story. There was a woman.
She came and as she came through the
gate,
I took her ticket, ripped it, and I
have to turn back around and I give
her the other half. And she looks at
me and she says, which side is the
visitors?
I looked at her. I thought she was
messing with me.
Seriously?
I looked at the big ginormous
stands on the home side and I looked
at the smaller stands on the visitor side
and I said to her, you know, it's
those really ginormous stands over there. We wanted
to make sure the visitors had all the
seats they need.
And she looked at me and she was
like, that was a really dumb question. And
I said, yep. That was a dumb question.
You're right.
Because guess what folks? There are such things
as dumb questions.
Anybody who says there's no such thing as
a dumb question just said something really dumb.
The majority of the dumb question had somebody
say, I disagree with that. I'm gonna prove
you wrong right here.
The majority of dumb questions come when we're
not
paying attention.
All she had to do is open her
eyes. The story was right there in front
of her. Ginormous stance with the name of
the home team on them.
Visitor side right in front of your face.
Just pay attention.
Just pay attention. And when things don't make
sense when we're paying attention, then you can
ask questions.
Teachers will tell you all the time the
dumb question in their class is the one
I just answered.
The one that I just gave you the
answer to. The ones you're not paying attention
to. And what we're gonna see today is
is that Jesus
gets what seems to be a dumb question
from his
disciples,
but is it?
As we walk away this weekend, we're gonna
see that real life with Jesus requires humility,
builds resilient faith, and pursues
people. This is the real life that we're
called to. This series is called Real Life
Jesus, His Kingdom and You. And in this
series, it's about following Jesus in everyday life,
but following Jesus
in everyday life in his kingdom.
Living under the rule and reign of Jesus
in all the places where we live our
lives.
As we come to Matthew chapter 18, Jesus
is answering the question
that we may all end up asking. It's
very likely we we end up asking
Jesus, what's my place in all of this?
And all that's going on, what's my part
in your story? What's my part to play
within your story? And so we left off
with a pair of balls in chapter 13.
And we come here to chapter 18 and
through Live It Out each week. We're filling
in the gaps in between.
Death.
That he begins to talk about his journey
to Jerusalem.
And and it's where we see Peter make
a great confession.
Jesus says to him, who do you say
that I am? And he says, you're the
Messiah.
But then he gets rebuked as as he
rejects the idea that the promised savior of
Israel would have to go suffer and die.
Of Israel would have to go suffer and
die.
Jesus is then we see him transfigured on
a mountain and it's an amazing moment.
And then at the end of chapter 17,
Jesus performs a miracle specifically for Peter.
Catch a fish and in the the mouth
of that fish, you're gonna find a coin
and you're gonna take that coin and you're
gonna pay the temple tax for you and
for me, for both of us. And it
seems, at that point, that Peter is being
set apart that that he has something special,
and the disciples are confused. They're a little
bit disoriented
about Jesus's kingdom and so they ask this
question.
Yeah. And that
time, the disciples came to Jesus. Yeah.
It's the greatest in the
Whoever humbles himself, like this child, is the
greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives
one such child in my name receives me,
but whoever causes one of these little ones
who believe in me to sin, it would
be better for him to have a great
millstone fastened around his neck and to be
drowned in the depth of the sea.
Enter life crippled or lame than with two
hands or two feet to be thrown into
the eternal.
And if your eye causes you to send,
tear it out and throw it away.
To not despise one of these little ones.
For I tell
you that in heaven, their angels always see
the face of my father who is in
yeah, it's a 100 sheep, and one of
them has gone astray. Does he not leave
the 99 on the mountains and go in
search of the one to one to one
to one to one to one. It's truly,
I say to you, he rejoices over it
more than over the 99 that would never
win a story.
So it is not the will of my
father, who was in heaven, that one of
these little ones,
starting line. That's the that's the beginning. And
to reverse, we talk about this a bunch.
The idea of,
Biblical humility. The idea of Biblical humility is
right understanding
with what God says. It's understanding and agreeing
with what God says
about us, about the world, about what's right,
that we would submit our ideas and opinions
who forms those. That's the idea
of humility. And so, Jada, he doesn't start
answering their question directly. Instead, he calls a
child. Now, the type of child here, this
isn't like a teenager. This isn't a middle
schooler. It's not even really a grade schooler.
This is a toddler sized child.
And he he calls this child, and he
he puts them before them and says, this
is what greatness in my kingdom looks like.
Naivete. Right? Like, we won't be naive like
a child, that we would be that we
would be dependent
like a child.
He's saying become like a child in one
specific way, humility. You see, a child, they
they may want to do it their way.
Some of you are like, oh, you don't
know my child. Right? Like, my child was
not humble or dependent. They they were a
little rebel from the beginning. Out of the
gate, they were like, me, mine, I'll do
it my way. Okay? So so in this,
we're saying, generally speaking,
a child may want to do something,
but they don't yet have the ability. There's
a dependence that they have on their parents
eat, that they would have a place to
sleep, that they would have clothing to be
protected, that they would have their needs met.
It requires
that they would be dependent on a parent.
Our middle school pastor here at Harris Lane,
Josiah.
Josiah
was,
with his daughter, Eden. I think his wife
maybe had a meeting here.
He had his daughter, and so they did
what any good Christian family does. They went
and got Chick fil A because that's where
we eat. Don't you know? That's where we
eat all the time. We're Christians. We eat
at Chick fil A.
They got Chick fil A and, came back
and they were in the lobby here. And,
able to eat her dinner and,
she loves Chick fil A sauce.
Who doesn't love Chick fil A sauce? Right?
Like, this is amazing.
And, so she has the container but she
can't open it but she wants it open.
Takes it, and he opens it, and it
just made her food delicious. Everything is better,
which Chick fil A sauce.
It was a great picture of
a humble dependence. Man, I want this, but
I know I can't even open this by
myself yet. Would you? Would you open this?
For me
So Jesus is pointing to this type of
child and says, unless you turn and become
like children, you will never enter the kingdom
of heaven. But whoever humbles himself
like this child is the greatest in the
kingdom of heaven.
There's a turn of phrase there and it's
significant.
They just said, who's the greatest?
And he says, the one who enters the
kingdom.
Did you catch that?
Who's the greatest? In order to enter the
kingdom, you have to have humility. You have
to recognize your need. You have to recognize
your dependence. You have to be one who
says, God, I recognize that I could never
save myself and because of that recognition, I
will trade my life,
my old dead life. I will trade it
for new life in Christ.
We humble ourselves
in order that God would then rule and
reign over our lives.
And when we do that, we enter the
kingdom of God. And as we do, Jesus
says, you're now become the greatest. And so
which one is the greatest? We the greatest.
I don't know. I mean,
he's just said, if if you humble yourself,
you're all going to be the greatest.
It's not about that. There is about aspiring
to greatness
in the kingdom. And how do we do
that?
We allow Jesus to rule and reign our
hearts and minds.
That's
greatness.
So what does that look like for us?
It means that we don't have to build
our resume.
Even our spiritual resume, it's not about that.
It's not about building our reputation.
Allow Jesus to shape our character. He would
shape who we are.
It means that we would be okay with
being invisible to the people that we serve,
that we would lower ourselves and elevate others.
That means that there would be a marked
difference in how we lead in the workplace,
how we teach, how we as students, how
we learn, how do we interact with our
other students, and how do we interact with
our teachers. Students, if you're known in your
classroom
as being the loudest and the most disruptive,
turn.
That's not a badge of honor.
In our in our workplaces, if if you're
known for being a boss who's a tyrant,
turn.
That's not a badge of honor.
It's it's a life that says, woah. Our
life is to elevate others and we
we succeed
when we help others to be elevated. That's
the life. And as we enter into God's
kingdom, it takes those things that the world
says are most important and it flips them
upside down.
The world then is going to put pressure
on us. He's clear
that that it's not just you're gonna enter
the kingdom, and that if you if you
do,
temptation is gonna come.
And it's important to know that there's going
to be pressure.
And as a follower of Jesus, you can't
wait until the pressure comes
to start building your faith.
I hope you know that already.
When the pressure comes,
it's the time when we draw upon
the faith that's been built
when the pressure wasn't there.
That's how it works. The foundation we build
on matters. Jesus was really clear at the
end of the sermon on the mount that
the foundation that we build upon
matters, that we would build upon the truth
of who Jesus is and our job is
to build now before the pressure comes. But
many of us maybe you're like, I'm already
in the pressure cooker.
You can still build faith in the midst
of the pressure,
but it's not something we sit by and
just passively wait for. It requires great intentionality
that we would build our faith. Our part
is to build when the pressure is off.
And as followers of Jesus, we build faith
that stands
against the world's pressures.
Little
ones, he's no he takes a child and
then he talks about the humble ones.
He's no longer talking about that little child.
From there on, the little children that he's
talking about are those that are in the
kingdom. How do you enter the kingdom? You
you choose faith. You believe in Jesus. You
become a new creation. You become reborn. You
become a follower
of Christ.
And now when he's referring to these little
ones,
he's referring to his followers.
And he says that there's going to be
temptation. Verse seven, woe to the world
for temptations to sin. Woe to the world.
Now it's interesting here, next week we're gonna
talk about things within the church, but he
begins by talking about things outside of the
church.
He's talking about the world systems. He's talking
about the things that come, the temptations to
sin that are brought on by the world.
And one of the ways
that the world
tempts us to sin is to rebel against
Jesus
by bringing
opposition.
We know this. We I hope that we
know this. That if you follow Jesus, you'll
face opposition. And it's gonna come in two
forms.
The first one is the one that Jesus
is almost referring to specifically,
only it's kind of cloaked, and we're gonna
take a look at this.
The first one is persecution.
And and around the world to this day,
there's followers of Christ who are facing persecution.
You may be well aware of what's going
on right now in Africa, specifically in Nigeria,
but it's been going on. I mean, it's
been going on since the days of Christ.
There's been
persecution. There's been martyrs. People exchange their life
for the truth of the gospel.
There's never been a time where that's gone
away. There's people groups around the world. And
so you may be familiar, but if if
that's just coming to your awareness,
this isn't uncommon. In fact, there's a ministry
called the voice of the martyrs. And voice
of the martyrs in particular is really interesting.
I I went to their website this week.
I'm like, I wanna read about this ministry.
It began in the sixties. A couple really
wanted to raise awareness about the oppression of
the church, the martyrdom that was going on
around the world. And it's interesting because that
in their statement on why they exist as
an organization,
it doesn't say, in order that we would
stop persecution of the church.
It says in order that we would raise
awareness and that faith would be built,
that the faith of the people around the
world would be raised,
that would be built up
because
that we would be made aware that there's
people who are trading their life for the
truth of the gospel.
And that
is encouraging.
And you're like, wow, how is that encouraging?
It's worth it. And Jesus says it.
So when Jesus talks about cutting off hands
and feet, his audience would have heard something
very different than what we hear. What we
hear is hyperbole.
I would have taught this. A year ago,
I would have said that's just hyperbole.
And then I read second Maccabees chapter seven.
Now, second Maccabees is a book that's from
the intertestable
period, that the time between,
when we would say the old testament ended
and then the new testament begins in the
days of Jesus.
And in that period, there's a rebellion that
went on called the Maccabean revolt. And in
that revolt,
the the Greeks at the time, they wanted
to bring down that revolt
And so there was a guy who there
was a king
and his name was Anticus
Epiphanes, a Greek king, one hundred and fifty
years before Jesus. He was trying to stamp
out the Jewish faith. And one of the
ways that he tried to stamp out the
Jewish faith was by defiling them
by what they ate.
And so you may be familiar that you
can't eat pork as a Jewish person. And
so he would he brought them and he
said, if you won't eat the pig, right,
if you're not gonna eat the swine, then
you will be put to death.
And in second me second second second second
second second second second second second second second
second second second second second
if they would not renounce
their faith,
if they wouldn't say that they would they
would reject
Yahweh, the God of the Old Testament. Right?
They would reject
God and that they would
go ahead and just concede.
So the first brother was executed
brutally.
His tongue was cut out, his scalp was
removed, his hands and his feet were severed,
all while his brothers and his mother watched,
and then he was thrown into the fire.
Did you hear that?
Jesus is using something that his audience was
well aware of that there was a persecution
that had happened in their history a They
exchanged
their
they exchanged their life for faith.
And he says it's better for that person
that they would recognize
the permanence of of life with me.
And so the brothers refused to break and
the story goes on, it goes through them
and when the third brother's turn came, he
voluntarily sticks out his tongue, extends his hand
and he says to them and he says
this, I got these from heaven and because
of his laws, I disdain them and from
him, I hope to get them back again.
Even the king, it says, was impressed by
his faith, he killed him anyway.
That's the context Jesus's listeners lived in. They
knew suffering was possible and they knew that
staying faithful
might cost them everything, including
their life.
And he says it's better.
It's better that that you would lose a
limb.
Losing a limb is temporary.
Being separated from Jesus is forever. It's better
that you would hold on, and so this
is extreme.
And for us, that's not our cultural reality.
Okay? Our cultural reality is different, but there's
a second way that the world does tempt
us. There is something called an allurement. It
it it numbs us. The the world in
North America numbs us into thinking there is
no threat.
So if persecution doesn't work, the world offers
attractive
alternatives.
The world offers you something else, comfort, status,
acceptance,
security.
If you'll just compromise,
if you'll just consume what everyone else consumes,
believe what everyone else believes,
value what everyone else values.
If you look at the things that are
most important in our lives
and there's there's no difference of what's most
important to us
than any other normal American, we may have
a problem.
I'm I'm gonna get up in my business
If I value the things most
that every other American
values
most,
it's an indication
of a problem in my heart.
We have to be really careful, this is
a real threat.
As we're looking there at the things that
seem so obvious, the subtle is coming from
the other direction.
And so I wanna start, I'm gonna tell
you moms and dads, this is gonna go
PG 13. I'm gonna give you an opportunity.
If you have a kid and you're like,
I don't really know that I wanna go
PG 13. Yeah. I'll give you a chance.
You can get up. You can leave right
now because we're gonna go PG 13. We
don't normally do that here, but we're gonna
go there because the world offers
alternatives, and the world's alternatives
have still never changed through all history.
It's about
power,
It's about
money,
and it's about sex.
These are the three. This is the world's
allurement, and the world has faked us out.
And now I wanna start by being crystal
clear.
Avoidance of all things. What the goal is
is that we would be faithful to Christ.
And so it's really important that you would
get this. Faithfulness
is sustained
intimacy
with Jesus. That's the
goal. Sustained
intimacy
with Jesus,
following Jesus closely.
Following Jesus closely, this is the goal. Okay?
Intimacy with Jesus is the goal, Not sin
avoidance but intimacy
with Christ is the goal. The way that
we're going to avoid the temptations of the
world is by staying close to Christ. It
requires a spirit empowered response.
Are we clear?
Because if we try to do this on
our own, many of us have tried this
method. I'll speak from my own experience. I've
tried this method. It does not work. You
just hold on tighter. If I just white
knuckle this thing through, maybe I'll be able
to to overcome. Maybe that I'll be able
to succeed.
So don't think you can just white knuckle
your way through this. I also wanna say
that I'm gonna name some stuff and I
don't have time to unpack every single thing
and there's going to be some that are
gonna require that you reach out for help.
Here's the deal,
it's on you.
It's on you.
If you know that one of the issues
that I'm gonna talk about is an issue
in your life, it's on
you to reach out for help or you'll
just stay stuck in a cycle
destroying your life over and over and over
again. There's a personal responsibility.
Sometimes we don't really
I wanna drive that home.
You're responsible for you.
You're responsible for your spiritual life.
You're responsible to make sure that you're being
intentional
with the stuff that you're putting in to
your heart and mind.
K. Are we clear?
Moms and dads, you had your warning. Here
we go.
When it comes to the world's alternative,
some things are obviously out of bounds. Okay?
There's some things that are obviously out of
bounds. If the world says something is out
of bounds,
surely, we should look and go, wait a
minute. What does the Bible say about something
being out of bounds?
We should be able to like, it shouldn't
take the world to go, hey, there's there's
a billionaire caught in affair at a Coldplay
concert on the kiss cam, and now we're
like, oh, okay. I guess affairs are out
of bounds.
Affairs
are out of bounds.
And hopefully we all say, yes. And if
you're in one,
confess,
repent,
turn, it may cost me my marriage.
Yes.
But don't let it cost you your life.
Don't don't be foolish.
That's the obvious.
K? Now let's go to the subtle. All
the things. Guess what? An emotional affair is
an affair. If you're trying to fill intimacy
with someone of the opposite sex or or
somebody that you would say, hey, I need
to fill this void,
in my life that my spouse isn't filling.
If you're not allowing Christ to fill that
void,
then you need to repent. Some of us,
we we try that it's statistics would say
many that are trying to fill that void
with things like pornography
or with drugs
or with alcohol
that we're trying to fill and numb the
pain in some way shape or form for
what we're not and so we think that
it's okay.
Every day you come home from work, you
have a drink, I'm gonna suggest you,
maybe that's a problem.
Maybe that's a problem.
We're not anti alcohol,
but what we are is like, wait. What
what's the artificial? What's the thing? What's the
substitute? What am I putting in? What's the
thing that I'm substituting
for my intimacy
with Christ?
What's the thing that I'm putting in my
life that I'm hoping just to numb the
pain?
And so
these are all things that are poison.
If you're getting drunk or high to numb
the pain, if you're like, well, it's legal,
pot's legal, it's cool, right? No. Not cool.
You may have heard this before. It's a
gateway drug. It is what it is.
It just leads to destruction and so we
need to go, wait. These things are obviously
out of bounds. So hopefully hopefully,
if one of those things resonates in your
heart and mind, we wanna encourage you, get
help. These aren't things, if you've been trying
for years to overcome the thing, then guess
what? It's not gonna change
this week because now you're really resolved. It's
gonna change when you reach out for help.
When you say, I've tried to overcome this
on my own.
I need help. I need the power of
God himself. I need the word of God.
I need the spirit of God, and I
need another follower of Christ
to come alongside.
Now I'm gonna put all of us into
it in the, what's maybe not obviously evil,
the subtle. It may be the social media
feed that keeps us wanting for more. It
keeps us longing for another person's life. It
keeps us thinking that I'm missing out. It's
comparison. I'm constantly comparison
my life to somebody else. Or maybe it's
it's binging TV shows in order just to
fill this idea. I mean, I come home
from work, I'm exhausted. I don't wanna interact
with my family. I'm just gonna binge a
show, check out and get up and grind
it out again tomorrow. After all, I do
live it out in the morning, so the
nights belong to me.
Maybe it's
a friend group.
You have the friend group and they're your
non Jesus friend group and you're so grateful.
Like I only have to put Jesus into
part of my life.
I have friends, I have coworkers
and and I you know, the thing is
I really and I'm gonna suggest you, if
you have friends and coworkers who don't know
Jesus, this is awesome. But here's where it
goes not awesome. You love the fact that
they don't know Jesus.
You love the fact that you get to
talk about Jesus on Sunday and Tuesday night
when you go to your group.
But the rest of the time, I'm cool
with it being me time. I'm cool hanging
out with the guys. I'm cool hanging out
with the gals.
I love that I don't have to have
Jesus in that part of my life.
Maybe it's the news cycle that keeps you
angry
because the news channel that you watch is
trying to make you angry.
Be wise.
Turn it off.
The sun's gonna come up tomorrow if Jesus
wants it to. Hallelujah and amen. Alright?
Turn it off if it's making you angry.
Okay? If it's making you angry, if you're
getting upset, if it's causing anxiety,
turn it off. I speak from experience.
And then later you can try and go
back and use it as a gauge
of a spiritual discipline.
In other words, am I able to watch
this and not become angry?
If I can, then I can watch it
again. If I can't, turn it back off.
There's more work, there's more layers.
And here's the goal, Okay? It's not just
that we would we would be people. It's
that we would have a strong faith because
we need a strong faith for the next
thing Jesus talks about. And it's that we
would be a people who pursue the one
who's missing. And he uses this parable talking
about a shepherd who goes after the lost
sheep.
And he says that my father doesn't desire
anyone to perish.
And so there's there's people that in our
life that were once following Christ, excuse me,
who no longer are.
Maybe they were part of Two Rivers Church,
but I wanna be clear, this isn't about
Two Rivers Church, this is about the kingdom
of God. And so there may be people,
they're still they're still following off
they're still following Jesus. They're just doing it
in another flock and that's cool. Okay? I'm
not talking about trying to talk people into
coming back to church at Two Rivers, but
I am talking about people who have wandered
away, people who have wandered off, the people
that you know in your life that have
wandered from the faith and that you would
pursue them.
I'm talking about the people who aren't here
yet.
Another group of people, they don't know Jesus
yet.
This is true. Statistics for years have said,
and and also our own,
waiting class bears out that the majority of
people end up at a church because somebody
invited them.
Some people, they end up here just because
they drove by and they saw the church
building, but many people, they end up there
because somebody invited them. And in my life,
for Kelly and I, there was a church
that we were part of and that church
was a hot mess, but
we ended up there and Jesus changed our
lives there
because a co worker said, hey, you should
come check it out. And we're like, okay,
we're looking for a church, we'll go check
it out. And and God used that, that
we do what we do today because of
what God did
in that
environment, okay? Not because of that church but
because of what Jesus did.
So it's important that we would be those
kinds of people.
And here's what ties this all together, the
kingdom of God inverts what
the world values
calling us to actively pursue people. We are
all the under shepherds of Jesus.
He's the shepherd,
he's the good shepherd, he's the one who
pursues and the way that he pursues people
is
us.
The way Jesus
pursues people is through you.
You're the one
who goes after
the one.
So the question is this,
are we actually living in Jesus' kingdom? I
think that's a question personally and it's a
question corporately.
We just finished up
something we call Quiet Waters. It's an opportunity
for us to spend twenty three hours actively
seeking Jesus together. Okay? That's the ultra simplified
version
and and during that time, we had this
imagery
that that we believe that God was calling
us to to not be people who have
one foot in the kingdom of the world
and one foot in the kingdom of God.
What's it look like for us to be
people who step both feet into the kingdom
of God, allowing him to rule and reign
over every area of our life? And that's
the invitation.
That's the invitation Jesus has for us.
Real life with Jesus requires humility,
and it builds resilient faith, and it pursues
people.
That's the life.
So real life with Jesus in his kingdom
requires that we would actively respond,
that we would be a people who
intentionally
seek what we're putting in, that we're people
who intentionally
seek what he's saying to
us. And so I wanna encourage you
that when we ask these questions in a
moment here that you wouldn't think this is
just cursory. This is the beginning. This is
the beginning two questions to begin a conversation
with Jesus to carry on throughout your week.
And so these are the two questions that
we're gonna sit on and and I'm gonna
suggest in the time that you have, you're
gonna have to focus in on one or
the other. You don't have time and I'm
gonna trust that the Holy Spirit will bring
to mind in your heart and mind the
one that he's asking you to focus in
on. And the first question is, what foundation
am I building?
The second question is, who is Jesus
asking me to pursue?
Now I want to encourage you that the
one of the things that would be
really encouraging is a sense of expect expectancy
right now, that you would break out your
phone, you would have a pen, whatever it
is that you would say, I really anticipate
Jesus will bring to mind something that I'm
building on or a person that he's calling
me to pursue and and then I would
write it down and I would take it
captive. And you're gonna have about thirty seconds
because this isn't to solve the question,
it's to begin a conversation.
And so if you have somebody's face
come to mind, if you have a name
that crosses your mind, if you have something
in your world
that crosses your mind, hey, you're really building
life on your four zero one ks. You're
really building your life on the the reputation
that you have at work. You're really building
your your your life upon
people thinking
that you're a really great person. Whatever that
is, allow Jesus to bring it to mind
and when he does, take it captive and
then I'm gonna tell you what we're gonna
do with it. Jesus, would you show
us in a very personal kind of way,
through the power of your spirit,
what is that you have for us?
Now I'm gonna ask you to take that,
hold it captive.
You wrote it down. And now you're gonna
have a conversation about that thing with Jesus
throughout the week. And I wanna encourage you
that that if you've never used our tool
called Live It Out, if you're visiting with
us and visiting one of our our our
campuses or our venues, in the middle of
your bulletin is something called Live It Out.
The better way is to to take your
phone, go online, go to 2rc.tv/liveitout.
It's it's meant to be used on your
mobile phone. It's a perfect layout on your
mobile phone.
And that you would take these questions into
your week with Jesus, that you would begin
to sort it out with him.
You would begin to work your way through
it. What's that look for me to stop
wishing that I could follow Jesus in my
everyday life and to start following Jesus
in your everyday life.
Living with both feet
in his kingdom.
That's the invitation
that we would walk with Jesus this week.
And the only way we can do this
is by this consistent diet of putting his
word in.
Consistent diet of res
like, resolve
that we would be intentional in seeking him.
Trusting the Holy Spirit's power.
Accepted.
It's not how we earn the Father's love,
it's because we're loved and because we're loved,
we put
spiritual practices
into place
in order that we would build faith so
we can follow Jesus
closely.
That's the life.
And what we're gonna do in now is
we're gonna remind ourselves
of the love that God has for us.
He is for us. He is not against
us. And he's called us to life because
the father doesn't want one to perish. That's
a reason for us to worship in all
of our venues. I'm gonna invite you to
stand. God, we're so grateful
that your love is far beyond anything that
we could ask or imagine,
that you love us more than we could
possibly ever even love ourselves, that that you
are for us and Jesus is proof of
that. And so we celebrate your love for
us now, in Jesus name.
Amen.