Leading from A Healthy Soul - June 29, 2025

Today's message, uh I've titled it Leading from a Healthy Soul.

Leading from a Healthy Soul.

And I want you to open your Bible to Mark chapter number two.

Mark chapter two, and I'm gonna give you three practices of a healthy soul, three things that you can do in order to keep health inside your heart and inside your home, inside your life.

Mark chapter two, and as you're as you're turning over there, I want to read 3 John to you.

And just in case you're used to only being in one place of the Bible, listen, uh we we're gonna go precept on precept, line upon line, but I'm not gonna fail into declaring unto you the whole counsel of God.

And I'm gonna tell you this as well.

I'm not gonna try to be another pastor, and I'm not gonna try to be another church.

Are you listening?

We we need to be who God's made us.

And uh God made Victory Baptist Church unique, and He made you unique.

Uh but I'll tell you what, we got the Bible to lead us.

And as long as we go through the book and we break the bread of life, then God can guide each of us.

Help our church, help other churches.

And so I'm gonna read uh 3 John to you, and then we're gonna uh read uh Mark chapter 2.

Mark 2 · chapter mention

In 3 John 1, it says this, the elder unto the well-beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth.

Listen to the heart of a spiritual leader here.

He says, Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.

You know, the heart of a spiritual leader is I want you to prosper.

I want you to have health.

And more important than your physical health, because these are sand castles, aren't they?

These bodies, these temporal tapestries, we do the best we can to take care of them, but they're like they're gonna fall apart one day.

And we're gonna put off this robe of flesh, and we're gonna put on a robe of righteousness, and we're gonna put off this mortality, and we're gonna put on immortality, we're gonna put off this corruption, and we're gonna put on incorruption one day, amen.

And how many are looking forward to that glorified body?

Yeah.

Well, until then, we're stewarding it, and one of the most important things that you can focus on is your soul health.

Now, your soul is the internal component of who you are.

It's how you think, it's how you feel, and it's it's it's it's how you move through life.

It's making decisions, it's telling the body what to do, and and the soul should be taking counsel, direction from the word of God.

Meaning, if the word of God is saying that I'm doing something wrong, I'm gonna fix my soul to be in alignment with the word of God.

And so we wanna we wanna have healthy souls, we want our children to have healthy souls, and that takes work, doesn't it?

It takes understanding how God does things.

And good understanding gives favor.

But the the way of transgressors is hard.

Listen, I think some of you, you're probably pushing it a little too hard, and some of you are probably not pushing it enough.

You say, how do you know who's who?

Listen, that's not my, it's for you and Jesus to work through.

The goal here is to have a healthy soul.

Now, look in your Bible at Mark chapter number two, and in verse 23 it says, And it came to pass that when he went through the cornfields on the Sabbath day, and his disciples began as they went to pluck the ears of corn.

Now they're not supposed to be working on the Sabbath day.

That's the rest day.

Did anybody try to practice a Sabbath rest this last week?

You try to block off a full day and just do nothing?

Raise your hand if that's you.

Was it hard?

It's a little hard, isn't it?

And uh and sometimes we can get real rigid and real hard and be like, no, it's only this, only today.

Don't look at me, don't talk to me.

And you can get a little too uh hard on that thing.

Uh well, it is a it's a principle in the Bible and it's uh in the in the commandments as well.

Well, they're they're trying to get some food on the Sabbath day.

And the scripture says in 24, verse 24, and the Pharisees said unto him, Now these are the religious people that are judging others, and they're keeping the rules and adding rules, and they're just hard people to be around.

And they said to him, Behold, why do they on the Sabbath day that which is not lawful?

And he said unto them, Well, since you're asking a question about the Bible, have you never read what David did when he had need and was hungered, he and they that were with him, and how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and did eat the show bread, which is not lawful to eat, but for the priests, and gave also to them that were with him?

It's like Jesus is saying, Hey, I see that you got the laws, but you're missing something.

You're not looking at the full counsel of Scripture.

And this is one of the problems if all you do is you look at one book at a time and you don't understand the full counsel of Scripture.

See, what makes you what make what helps you to go from a young baby Christian to a mature Christian is you understand and read context and the interpretation of all 66 books, and you understand that they all weave together as a wonderful tapestry that all points to Jesus Christ.

And you can you might major on one little area, but you might be missing a whole nother category and not know how it how it kind of uh how it flows into.

And so these Pharisees were right, you're supposed to keep the Sabbath.

But they didn't understand that there are some exceptions to rules.

And he brings up David.

Remember when David was fleeing from the narcissist Saul who was going cray cray because he didn't obey God?

See, Saul had hidden sin, he didn't obey God, and so he's projecting wrath on David, and David fled.

Saul was throwing javelins at him, and David's like, Man, I'm out of here.

I can't deal with this tyrannical leader.

And that's still a good thing.

Listen, if you've got a tyrant leader going crazy on you, one of the best things you could do is just let me just withdraw a little bit.

I don't want to get and throw this javelin back.

Well, David's over there and he's hungry and he doesn't know what to do, and he's at the house of God.

That's a good place to go when you're hungry, right?

Go to the house of God.

And uh and he's hungry, and and and he asked the he asked the the priest there, hey, you got any food, man?

And uh, and they're like, all I have is the showbread, and it's only for the priests.

And and David's like, well, give it to me, man, because I'm I'm hungry.

I gotta eat something.

And uh, and and the priest says, Well, as long as you and the guys kept yourself from women, then have at it.

Well, that that showbread was it was for God, and it was for the priest, if you would.

And and and yet the priest made the exception, and he gave it to David.

And Jesus is making a point here.

He's making a point, and his point is found in verse 27.

And he said unto them, the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.

Therefore, the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath.

Here's what he's saying.

I designed the Sabbath rest, the day of rest, as margin for you, as a time for replenishment.

I didn't make you just to rest.

I made rest to be a supplement and a help to replenish you and help your soul.

Don't get the order confused, because if you do, you you will live this rigid life and you won't understand that the whole reason for me to have a Sabbath rest is to have soul health and worship God and magnify Him.

And then you'll fail to realize that Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath.

Listen, God gets to call the shots on your margin day.

Now, how many of you guys you get a little cranked out when you set a certain financial number and you're trying to save your money and all of a sudden you're not hitting that money marker number?

And then you have to dip into it.

And an indicator that you're letting money be the Lord of your life is you, when you have a need, a legitimate need, to enjoy some of that margin that you saved, you've made money your God because you won't touch it at all.

And the same thing when it comes to a day of rest, here's what I'm saying to you Jesus is Lord, not money.

Jesus is Lord, not Sabbath.

One of the things we've got to realize is the letter of the law, it will kill you.

But the Spirit gives life.

And so you might know the Bible, but if you're not walking with the God of the Bible, you won't understand how his motives and his heart navigates through all these situations.

You might know a rule, but you understand the exceptions and all the ins and outs of it.

You say, Well, how do I learn that?

You read your Bible and pray every day and you follow God.

You let him be the Lord of your life.

And so Jesus is teaching these guys.

And you know what these guys are doing, these Pharisees?

They just got done being a little ticked off at the fact that they're like, right before this, they they went to Jesus, they're like, hey Jesus, how come your guys are not fasting?

And what they were doing is they were constantly critiquing.

Watch out for people who are always critiquing and critical and and and can never be satisfied with enjoying Jesus.

Watch out for people that go from church to church and message to message and play roast the preacher and roast the singing and roast all this, and they never get God.

Your job when you come to church is not to sit there and critique the preacher all day and critique the music, though there's a lot to critique there.

Your job is to hear the word of God and to obey it and to follow God and to seek his face and to apply the principles into your life.

Watch out for people that are always playing the comparison game.

Well, this person has that, and this church does this, and they do this.

Good for them.

That's not me.

I stand and fall to my own master.

See, if you're not wise to this, you will you'll fall into the competitive trap.

You'll fall into the comparison trap.

And you'll fall into this trap where the love of money and the love of more and the love of all this other stuff usurps and takes Jesus' throne off the off of your heart.

And before you know it, you're running around.

I gotta work on this day, and I gotta take these hours, and I gotta do this, and I gotta look this way, and I gotta do this.

You're running yourself ragged.

And then when you have a legitimate need, whether it's to take a rest day or how about this, it's to work and eat on a rest day.

You need to give yourself permission to follow the Holy Spirit and stop with all the man-made rules and all the cultural stuff that's trying to destroy your health.

Amen.

I'm trying to help you here now.

I'm trying to help you.

Leading from a healthy soul, I mean sometimes you've got to do things out of necessity.

You need it.

David needed that food.

He had to eat something.

And he was good, there's gonna be some people that weren't happy with him.

Listen, there's gonna be situations in your life that you need to do it for you.

And maybe the pastor, maybe mom and dad, maybe sister and brother, maybe the coworker, maybe they're not gonna like it.

And maybe even they have a Bible verse to back up their position.

But you have to understand the letter of the law kills, but the Spirit gives life.

And your Lord is Jesus, and He's guiding you forward, and He wants to help you.

And I got to thinking about that passage we brought up last week again in 1 Timothy chapter 6, verses 6 through 10.

1 Timothy 6:6–10

It says, Godliness with contentment is great gain.

Hey, can't we just be grateful and thankful that we're in church today?

Can't we be thankful we got Bibles and we got some great music going on, and we got the word of God, and we have some preaching.

Like, can't we be content with such things we have?

We're super blessed.

And it goes on to say this.

Now check this out.

For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.

You guys know you're a pilgrim on this land.

You're not taking your house with you, you're not taking your bank account with you, you're not taking your 401k and your businesses with you, none of that stuff.

Last night checked, Jesus didn't even have a physical house.

He said, Foxes have holes and birds of the airs have nests, but where the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head.

And many times we forget that we are pilgrims and strangers in this land.

And then what happens is we leave the city of destruction on the way to the celestial city on the king's highway, and we're journeying along, and all of a sudden, obstinate and pliable come along, and they mess with us, trying to sabotage us and hijack us.

And before you know it, we get into the enchanted forest area, and we're tempted to sit back and do nothing, and and God, through hope and power, brings us through.

And before you know it, we're over here in this other city called Vanity Fair, and we're thinking, hmm, it's pretty nice here.

I think I'll get a house and a car and just stay here.

Let me tell you something.

You're not called to stay, you're told you're called to go.

We're pilgrims.

We're passing through this wearisome land.

And here's what I'm saying to you don't sit there and pierce yourself through with many sorrows by going after the love of money and the love of more at the expense of your soul health.

See, he says in 1 Timothy chapter 6, he says, having food and raiment in verse 8, let us therewith be content.

1 Timothy 6 · chapter mention

How many of y'all got some food?

Man, I'm thankful.

I got food.

I'm thankful we're all wearing clothes today.

Praise God for that.

Amen.

It says, but they that will be rich fall into the temptation and snare, and in many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.

You know, the desire for riches, the desire for more.

What does it profit if you gain the whole world and lose your own soul?

What does it profit if you took your bank account from this number to this number, but then you lost your marriage, or you lost your health, or you don't read your Bible, or you don't even know how to have a simple conversation anymore.

You're so messed up in your head.

Come on.

And now you're trying to keep it all together.

But yet, because you're you're you've got the bag of burdens and you got the bag of stuff, and that you don't have the stuff, the stuff has you now, and now you're trying to.

I can't breathe because I got all this stuff on top of me.

I'm trying to make everybody else happy and keep it all together.

Let me just encourage you.

Why don't you just drop it?

Why don't you just drop the act, drop the image, drop all the perfection, drop all of it, and stop trying to the with with getting more and more and more and just go after Jesus and let him help you.

The scripture goes on to say this it says, for the love of money is the root of all evil.

And and that love is avarice in the Greek.

It's it's it's want.

It means this.

You don't have enough.

It's never, never, never enough.

You guys know that song?

Never enough, it's never gonna be enough.

And here's what happens: we get this destination, itis, we get this arrival mentality where it's like, well, once my bank account gets here, and once these people are happy with me, and once this happens, you're buying the lie.

You're buying the lie.

Always wanting more, never having enough.

I need more knowledge, I need more money.

The love of money is the root of all evil.

Why?

Insecurity, never enough.

Last I checked, Jesus said, I give you life and I give it to you more abundantly.

Isn't that what he said?

With Christ is completion, with Christ is comfort, with Christ, we have everything we need.

Amen.

You are not missing anything when you have Jesus Christ.

The Lord is our shepherd, we shall not want.

He promised He would never leave us, He would never forsake us.

God's got you.

Hey, turn to your neighbor and say, God's got you.

So don't destroy your health and your family trying to keep up with everybody else.

Listen, break the mold of comparison.

Yeah, you're gonna take some heat from it.

What are you doing taking off on this?

You think Chick-fil-A takes any heat for taking off on Sunday?

Yeah.

Who do you think you are?

Well, we're Chick-fil-A, and we've we're gonna do it the way we want to do it.

You don't need to make everybody happy with you.

You need to follow Jesus.

You need to make some choices that say, you know what?

Uh I need a rest day.

I'm overdoing it.

Or you know what?

I need to dip into my margin right now because there's a bill that's due, and I know I have a savings plan, but this is a necessity right now.

And I think there's probably some of you out there, listen, you're stressed out.

How many of y'all are stressed out?

Raise your hand if you're a little stressed out over things.

That's just human, that's just humans on earth, right?

It's part of living.

And here's what I'm trying to help you with.

There's never gonna be a time when everything in your life is just all perfect.

That's called heaven.

So if you're thinking, well, I'm gonna move to this state, or I'm gonna get rid of this spouse.

I just thought I'd throw it out there.

You know what?

People think different things.

Not me, sweetheart, wherever you're at, you know.

But that's that's just like the devil.

Well, I can't afford this, isn't going good.

There must be somewhere easier.

Listen, the fool looks to the end of the earth for solutions.

But the wise man understands that Jesus is the solution.

Jesus fills my heart, Jesus gives me understanding.

I will abide with Jesus.

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.

It's all Jesus, guys.

It is.

It really is.

He is.

And so a healthy soul leads, listen to this, from overflow, not burnout.

So if that means you need to take less appointments, or how about this?

More appointments.

See how I did that?

It's both ways.

That means, okay, I need a timeout, or no, no, I actually got to go to work today.

Then you need to let the Holy Spirit guide you.

So here's three practices.

Three practices of a healthy soul.

Number one.

Number one, live in grace.

Live in grace.

God's grace is unearned kindness.

Living in grace means receiving it and extending it.

You know, one of my one of my favorite verses when I see people mistreating themselves, they're walking around and they're beating them, I gotta go do all this stuff, and there's no joy on them anymore.

They're not appropriating grace in their life.

You know, the Proverbs says this in Proverbs 11 17 the merciful man doeth good to his own soul.

Listen, you gotta do good to you.

Will you take care of you for me?

I'll take care of me for you.

Because I can't give you what I don't have.

Which means I've got to abide with Jesus and get a healthy soul in order for me to give that health to you.

And on the flip side, you've got to do the same thing.

You've got to make sure you're making those adjustments and giving yourself grace.

Grace is the goodness of God working inside of you.

We export what we import.

And so if you're finding not a lot of grace and sweetness and mercy on the inside, meaning you're being too hard on yourself.

Maybe you look in the mirror or you look at your bank account or you look at what's going on, you're just, it's never enough, and you're always upset.

You're not living in gospel Christianity.

You're living living in under the tyrannical leadership of your own lordship.

And you need to dethrone your own self off that throne and say, okay, Jesus, your grace is sufficient.

Please work inside of me.

Let me be merciful unto myself the way you're merciful.

You give me rest days, you give me work days.

Lord, help me.

Help me.

Give me some grace on the inside of me.

And as you do that, here's what will happen.

Here's how you can tell if you're living in grace.

You won't be so mean to yourself and you won't be so critical and condemning of others.

Because you know Jesus, He didn't give you what you deserve, He gave you His love and His kindness because of who He is.

And then you're gonna look at others and others and say, instead of getting mad at them and angry at them, you're gonna be like, I'm just gonna give you some grace.

Because grace is flowing in the economy of your own heart.

So make sure that you're living in that grace.

The second point I want to give to you, if you're gonna live with a healthy soul, leading a healthy soul, number one is live in grace every day.

Just letting God fill you up and working through you.

Number two, leave some margin.

Leave some margin.

Now I I understand that especially living in San Diego and with high taxes and high gases, high gas prices, and all this other stuff, it can be challenging, right?

It can be challenging to leave some margin.

Some of you guys are working two, three jobs, some of you never get to see your spouse, you don't get to see your kids.

I understand that it can be very hard to leave some margin.

But I want to encourage you right now, like let Jesus, let Jesus guide you through the difficult times.

When it feels like you're struggling, like how many of you struggling to even the first is coming up, and you're like, I don't know how I'm gonna pay the rent.

Anyone out there like that?

Raise them up.

Raise them up.

Okay?

Yeah.

Now, here's the thing.

In America, we think, oh, this person's a shame, so we don't want to openly admit.

But what if Jesus leads you into emptiness in order for him to become your fulfillment?

It's not a shame for you to follow Jesus and to trust him in those moments.

That's how he divinely leads some.

And if you're in a time where you've got an abundance, great.

Look over at John chapter 6.

John 6 · chapter mention

John chapter 6, you're listening well.

John 6 · chapter mention

My heart is to help your soul today so you can make some good choices and you're not like freaking yourself out all the time.

John chapter 6, look what it says in verse 1.

John 6 · chapter mention

After these things, Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberius, and a great multitude followed him because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased.

And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples.

Notice how he's taking time.

Sitting with them, enjoying, separating out.

And the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh.

And when Jesus lifted up his eyes and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat?

Where are we going to get the food?

Where, how, all of it, right?

And this he said, notice, to prove him, for he himself knew what he would do.

Hey, maybe you're in a situation now where it's like Jesus, like, hey, how are we going to pay the bills?

How are you going to take care of the family?

How are you going to do this with business?

And the demand on the outside is greater than the supply on the inside.

At least the perceived supply on the inside.

And Jesus is just proving him, for he knows what he's going to do.

And Philip says, Well, 200 pennyworth of bread is not sufficient to feed them.

And every one of them may take a little.

And one of his disciples, Andrew and Simon Peter's brother, saith unto him, There is a lad here which hath five barley loaves and two small fishes, but what are they among so many?

How many of you guys ever look at your bank account, or you look at your friends, or you look at situations at work, you look at ministry, you're like, what is this little bit among so many?

And can it be somewhat daunting and overwhelming?

And many times you could feel like, man, I feel like I'm gonna drown.

I feel like I don't even know how I'm gonna make it.

And here's the challenge when you're in that situation.

You're tempted to go solve the problem on your own.

And you won't always solve the problem the way Jesus wants to solve the problem.

And so that's when you see people like they just go and they they get out of the will of God in order to fix a problem that was designed in the will of God.

And I want to remind you, God guides where God provides.

Now he's not gonna do it when you want him to do it, and he's not gonna do how you want to do it, but he will do it.

And so here we see they're like, Well, what are they among so many?

There's so many people to feed.

And Jesus says, All right.

Um, verse 10, make the men sit down.

They got five loaves, two fishes.

The Bible says this.

Now there was much grass in the place, so that the men sat down in number about five thousand.

And Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed the disciples, the disciples to them that were set down, and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.

As much as they would.

See, God took them through an empty dry spot in order to show his power.

Hey, are you willing to let God take you in your commitment and in your trust into an empty dry spot with Jesus in order for him to grow your faith?

Because that's what's happening here.

And the Bible goes on to say in verse 12, and when they were filled, he said unto his disciples, gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.

Therefore they gathered them together and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten.

See how in the first story we brought up and talked about David, they didn't have anything.

There was no margin.

There was nothing.

And David went to the house of God, and even though it wasn't lawful on the Sabbath, if you would, or it wasn't lawful for him to take that, the priest gave it to him.

Because that human need was greater than the religious uh uh law that was there.

And then we saw how the disciples on the Sabbath day were feeding themselves by taking the ears of corn.

And they're breaking a rule in order to minister to a human need, working compassion and kindness inside of them.

Well, in this situation, God took them through, and by the time they were done, they had extra margin.

Let me say this to you.

Your life is gonna go from restriction to abundance.

And it's gonna go up and it's gonna go down.

And you cannot allow your Christianity to be determined by the ebbs and flows and the cycles of limitations and abundance.

Listen, God is still God, whether you have abundance in your bank account or you have limitation in your bank account.

He's still good, he's still kind, he's still wonderful, and the grace that you that you that you have in your life is what you need to be able to be sustained through all those those cycles.

We're talking about how to get a healthy soul.

How many of you guys you struggle with anxiety?

You struggle with, man, I don't know if I'm having enough.

And then you're tempted to self-sabotage.

Or how about this?

Some of you, because you haven't reached your certain number or things haven't worked out in your mind, you won't even follow Jesus in an area he wants you to follow him because you have to have it all worked out in your head first.

That's not the faith life, that's the sight life.

See, you want Jesus to bless your plan and your sight and how you want it.

He doesn't work that way.

We've got to be willing to say, you know what, Jesus, whatever you want.

You want to empty the bank account, you want to fill the bank account.

You want to empty the church, you want to fill the church.

Whatever you want, God, you're good all the time.

And I'm not gonna get mad, I'm not gonna get upset, I'm gonna be with you, and I'm gonna trust you, and God, you give and God you take away.

Blessed be your name.

What that's gonna do, let me tell you what that's gonna do for your soul.

You're gonna have grace in your soul, and you're gonna trust him.

The last thing you want to do is when you start getting stressed out and freaked out, and you start putting that stress on your children, your family, because you're having a faith crisis, and I know we all do this, okay, guys?

I'm not saying I've mastered this, I haven't.

Okay, tomorrow come the first, I'm gonna be begging the Lord again.

Where is the rat money?

You know, so don't think I've mastered this, okay?

But I am saying when you're in the middle of a crisis, but you're right with Christ, you need to trust him to bring the comfort and the provision in his timing.

And your family, your friends, they need to see you operating with the spirit when things out there don't look the way they think it should look.

Are you all following me?

All I'm trying to do is I'm trying to help your soul now.

And I want to remind you of this.

God, sometimes in order to help your soul, he will restrict a blessing.

Sometimes, remember with uh uh, was it Abraham?

Or no, yeah, it was uh uh Jacob to Israel, is that what it was?

Or Abraham to Israel?

Who's the guy's his name was changed?

Jacob to Israel, right?

And he had the limp.

God had to limit him.

He had to limit him.

Let me tell you this.

Sometimes God's gonna limit you.

Just to get you to walk a little different, even though you're physically not doing good, but guess what?

How your spirit's doing now?

Much better.

See, your spirit would have never got to that place.

You wouldn't have had soul health if God didn't limit you in a certain area.

Can you see it?

So instead of fighting against the limitations, say, okay, God, you're into this for sanctifying me.

I'm gonna trust you through it all.

You want to make it challenging, I'm gonna stay with you.

Now check this out at the end of this story where he feeds the 5,000.

Did they have more?

They certainly did.

Jesus left a little margin there to say, hey, I hooked you up with over and above.

We, you didn't have anything before we started this thing.

You were with me on the mountain, we were praying.

We even got the five loaves and two fishes from somebody else.

And check it out, we have all these baskets full now.

That's the power of walking with God.

This is why you don't walk by sight.

This is why, if you're thinking, well, am I gonna do this business or this ministry or this marriage or this kid, if you're sitting there and you're trying to calculate out everything, it's all gonna be perfect before you commit to Jesus, you're gonna miss it.

And how about this?

You're gonna, you're gonna lose a lot of time that you could have been enjoying Jesus in his richest blessings if you would have just yielded to him.

But I love this how Jesus leaves some margin.

Let me say this to you.

With with the over and above, you don't always need to, and I'm just preaching to myself here, you don't always need to red line it.

You don't always need to go as hard as you can all the time.

Amen.

There are times you could just, we're gonna go a little slower, we're gonna lead on gently, and how about this?

We're gonna enjoy the journey.

Amen.

Hey, how many of you guys made this mistake?

How many of you made this mistake?

When you were young, 18, 19, 20, or all the way up to 30 or however it was, you got married and you were rushing for success.

And then you had kids and you couldn't wait to rush those kids to grow up to the next level.

And you're always rushing to the next thing.

And you're never able to say, you know what, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna enjoy this right now.

Like enjoy them, babies.

Enjoy the house, enjoy the church.

Right now, with our church, 15 years old, we're gonna enjoy this time in our church.

Amen.

We're really gonna enjoy it.

Whether we have a lot or a little, we're gonna enjoy Jesus.

Last point, and I'm gonna be finished.

I hope you're getting a little help today.

Last point is this lead with love.

Lead with love.

So we're gonna live in grace.

We're gonna leave some margin, a little extra time on the clock so that we can enjoy some time together.

A little extra, if you would, some finances so we can enjoy some stuff together.

But we're gonna lead with love.

You know, Jesus said this in John 13.

He said, By this shall all men know that you're my disciples.

That you have a ton of money in your bank account?

That everybody sings your praises all the time and loves you?

No.

That you love one another.

More important than having everything all cookie cutter and your image looking so good in your life and pretending like everything's perfect is for you to have love in your heart.

For you to look after your son or your daughter or your spouse or whoever it is, your pastor, the deacons, people in the church, and say, you know, if I'm gonna be known for anything, I want it to be, I'm gonna be known for being a loving person.

Amen.

And I get all of us have screwed that up many times.

We mess it up because we're flesh, right?

But your past doesn't have to define you right now, and it doesn't have to determine your future.

You can make the decision today to say, you know what, Jesus?

I want to, I wanna lead with love.

I'm gonna show my kids, my family, my church that I I love them and want to serve them unconditionally, and I want to guide them.

And listen to this, this is the kicker.

I want to do it from a healthy heart.

I want to do it from a healthy soul.

I don't want to do it from a place of burnout.

What good is it if you get to that place out there, but then your family hates your guts?

Okay, you got to Disneyland, but you yelled at the kids 50,000 times and now they're so upset and it's a problem.

Or you got to church, yeah, you got to church, good job, but guess what?

You were in the flesh on the whole ride here, and then you expect us to play this game that put the spiritual face on and just act like we're spiritual.

Am I talking to anybody?

All I'm saying, I'm not trying to throw rocks or judge you at all, but I here's what I'm saying.

I'm saying, better for you to leave a little margin, get some grace in your life, and say, you know what, let's let's have, let's, let's be loving to each other.

Let's be sweet to each other.

Let's let's enjoy the drive, let's enjoy the food together, let's enjoy the preaching time.

Let's not always be rushing all over the place.

And and and I'll close with this.

If that means I need to work a little bit more, then I'll do it.

If that means I need to take a little bit more of a break, I'm gonna do it.

Whatever love says, and by the way, who is love?

Love has a name, and his name is Jesus.

And so my prayer for you is I want you to prosper.

I want your soul to prosper, I want you to be in health.

But you absolutely need to follow Jesus and get some grace and get that love in your life.

When your soul is healthy, you don't lead from pressure, you lead from presence.

Grace frees you to be real.

So instead of trying to act like I'm this or that, no, I'm just gonna be who I am.

Our church is who we are.

I'm thankful for God's grace.

Margin gives you space to be present all the way here.

And here's what love does love empowers you to be generous with what God's given to you.