The Jesus Way: Everybody Gets To Play

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Amen.

Before you have a seat, if you could still squeeze in, there's plenty of folks who still need some seats.

And um and if your kids are comfortable and you're cool with it, if they want to come sit on the floor, they're cool.

We're cool with that too this morning.

It's good to have you all with us.

I'm Rick.

Uh I'm one of the pastors here at Grand Park Way.

And uh we welcome you as we head into the month of July.

We're heading into a new series called the Jesus Way.

That's why we're singing about Jesus this morning.

He's the reason that we gather.

Every time we come in this room, we don't come to check a box or get in an obligation.

We come to meet with Jesus.

And we believe that when we meet together with Jesus, Jesus meets us and he does work in us we could never do on our own.

So that's why we're here.

Um so let's begin to talk about what we think God wants to do in us this month of July.

And I want to start with a question.

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where the choices you're offered, you you're like, I don't like any of these.

Anyone feel that way kind of with this election season a little bit?

Yeah.

Um I was watching late night TV a couple last week, and um this they they said they they discovered that this is the first time in American history where both political parties had the exact same slogan for the election season.

This is what it is.

Look, it just is what it is.

Right?

Right?

And sometimes we can feel like that, can't we?

We're we're caught between these two choices.

We don't really like either of them, not just political, but in everyday life, right?

And we're like, I don't like any of these, but I guess I'll just pick the proverbial lesser of the two evils, right?

Whatever's gonna cause me the least trouble and most least ripples down the line, because that's just kind of how the world works.

You don't always get what you want.

But deep down inside we think, man, there's gotta be a better way than this.

And seriously, there has to be something better than this.

And that's honestly, friends, what we're going to discover as we spend this month together talking about Jesus and his ways.

Because we begin a journey into a better way today.

And it's called the Jesus Way.

See, oftentimes we think about Jesus in terms of what he did for us.

He died for us, and therefore we can be forgiven of our sin and reunited, reconciled to God, and we get to spend eternity with him when he returns.

And that's all true, and it's all incredibly awesome, but I would say if we stop there, we sell Jesus short.

See, Jesus didn't come just to make a way for us to spend eternity with God, and we just got to hang on until that happens.

Jesus came to show us a better way to live.

When the New Testament writers talk about Jesus, they use phrases like, He's the second Adam.

Remember the first Adam?

Adam and Eve in the garden, they kind of messed the whole thing up.

Well, Jesus comes and he's the second Adam and He finally gets it right.

And it also says Jesus is the perfect image of God.

If you remember in Genesis chapter 1, verse 26, when human beings are described, they're described as people made in the image of God.

Genesis 1:26

And if you've paid attention to yourself or looked at history, you realize we haven't really done that so well, have we?

We haven't reflected God to the world the way that God made us to do.

So Jesus comes along, and the writers of the scripture say, He's the perfect image of God.

Perfect.

All to say, when it comes to being a human being, Jesus nailed it.

He nailed it.

So what I want to suggest to us is that we spend some time looking at how Jesus lived, but not just how he lived.

Let's look at the words that Jesus gave us and use them as a springboard into the ways of Jesus.

The words of Jesus always should lead to the ways of Jesus.

If it's just the words, what happens is we get all puffed up and I mean, we some of us, let's be honest, we're Bible study addicts.

Right?

And I'm all for studying the Bible.

I've devoted my life to that.

But I think sometimes if we're not careful, studying the Bible keeps us from being the people of God.

Because our head's in the book and we don't let it be a springboard to go live the life.

So today we're gonna push toward the temptation through the temptation just to gather new information that kind of stimulates our senses and go, oh wow, I never knew that.

That's so cool.

And go from there to go, how does Jesus really want me to live differently?

And how is he going to work in me to see that that happens?

So the words of Jesus are gonna be a springboard for us into the ways of Jesus.

So we're gonna be in the Sermon on the Mount for five weeks.

We're not gonna get through the whole thing, there's just too much there.

Maybe next July we'll do the second half of the Sermon on the Mount.

But we're gonna start with a very familiar passage called the Beatitudes.

In Matthew chapter 5, verses 1 through 12.

Matthew 5:1–12

If you would turn there, I've invited my friend Pierce to come, and Pierce is gonna read for us.

Yeah.

Pierce is gonna read for us the word of God.

You demand.

Now, when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down.

His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them.

He said, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Well done.

Thank you.

This is the word of God for us.

Thanks, buddy.

So, what we're going to talk about in terms of the way of Jesus is Jesus' way of radical hospitality.

That's what we're going to talk about today.

This reality that in the kingdom of God, everyone gets invited to play.

So just think about that.

Think about the times when you were a kid, perhaps, and it was time to play, whether it's at recess on the playground or some pickup game in the neighborhood or even in gym class.

And remember that dreaded moment where they had to pick teams.

Right?

Now, some of you are like, that was awesome.

I was always the best, and I got to pick teams, right?

But that's not true for most of us.

A lot of us are always going, oh, please don't, I don't want to be picked class.

I won't want to be picked last, right?

Or you hear about the cool kids having the party and you don't get the invite.

We still feel that as adults sometimes, don't we, right?

The cool kids are having the party and we didn't get the invite.

It's not a great feeling.

It's that sinking feeling of feeling like, man, I don't fit here.

They don't really want me.

And you're kind of stuck on the outside, looking in, going, ah.

But we're here to declare this morning that that's not Jesus' way.

See, in the kingdom, everyone gets invited to play on Jesus' team.

And this is what we're going to see here from the Beatitudes.

And let me show you how.

Right before Jesus says these words on this mountainside and talks, gives this list of things, which sometimes we think are a list of entrance requirements in the kingdom, that's not really what's going on.

He's actually kind of doing this show and tell thing of here's who can be on my team, here's who I want on my team.

And this is something that he demonstrates right before this in chapter 4.

So if you have your Bible, turn it up.

Matthew 18, verse 4.

Matthew 18:4

And this is where Jesus actually picks his team.

Chapter 4, verse 18.

As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew, and they were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.

Come, follow me, Jesus said, and I will make you fishers of men.

And at once they left their nets and followed him.

And going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John.

They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets.

Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

Now, again, Jesus is really clear about what his mission to the world is.

He knows that he is God made flesh, come to set the world right and show us this world, what it looks like to be fully human, and he's going to get a team together to help make that happen.

And you would think he'd be looking for the best of the best.

He'd be holding tryouts for the first ever dream team.

He'd be looking for people who know the Bible inside and out.

He'd be looking for the influencers and the power brokers and the guys who have some money, but that is not who he goes after, is it?

There's a common theme with each of these guys here in Matthew 4 and other places where Jesus calls disciples, because repeatedly we're told when Jesus says, Come follow me, the text says, they left everything.

They dropped their nets to follow Jesus.

Here's my question: why would anyone do that?

Why would they do that?

Why were these guys so willing and eager to drop everything right in the middle of the workday to follow Jesus?

Well, I think we need to dig into some of the background of the world in which Jesus was calling his disciples, and this will make a lot more sense for us today, okay?

Because a lot of times we kind of read things through the lenses of the world that we live in, but the world we live in was a lot different than ancient Israel 2,000 years ago.

So in ancient Israel, there were three levels of education, similar in age to ours, elementary, middle school, and high school, but the elementary age was called Bet Safer, or literally the house of the book.

So around age six, um little kids would go into the local synagogue with a local Torah teacher.

A Torah teacher was called the rabbi, and on the first day of school, um, each child would have a slate placed in front of them so they could begin to read and write, and what they would read and write, their text was the Torah, which was Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

And the rabbi on that first day of school would cover each child's slate with honey, and honey was like this incredible delicacy symbolizing God's favor and his luxury.

Alright?

So honey would be poured all over the slate, it would get all over these kids' hands, and their teacher would say, just lick that honey off your fingers.

It'd be like if your first day of school, your teacher's like, here's all the Skittles you want.

Alright?

So lick all this honey off of your fingers, and as they lick the honey, the rabbi would say, May you never forget that the words of God are like honey.

Taste and see that God is so good.

He is so good.

So as a young child, scripture would be linked in a very tactile sense with the most pleasurable, exotic, joyful thing a kid could imagine.

For you guys, you got ice cream and all that stuff didn't exist in honey, it was it.

So primed with this taste in their mouth of how good God's word is, these six-year-olds would then proceed over the next four or five years to memorize the entire Torah.

By the age of 10, they had the first five books of the Bible memorized, word for word.

How many of you think you could even graduate elementary school right now if that were the standard?

Right?

And then from there, it wasn't automatic.

If you did really well in Beth Saifer, you graduated to Bet Talmud.

And this is from ages 10 to 14, kind of like our middle school.

And again, the best of Beth Saifer would enter Beth Talmud, where they would proceed to begin to memorize the rest of the Hebrew scriptures, which was Joshua through the prophet Malachi, and they, in the process of learning this, would also learn the art of asking questions of questions and answers.

And this is a little different for us too, because in our education system, it's primarily oriented around the transmission of information.

So the teacher gives information, the students take it and try and understand it, and at the appropriate times, namely exams, tests, pop quizzes, they're to regurgitate that information.

And it's really kind of a rational, transactional sort of system.

So if in our school today we'd say, what's two plus two?

What would the answer be?

Four, right?

Well, in this ancient situation in Bet Talmud, if a student was asked what's two plus two, they might respond, well, what's 16 divided by four?

That's why when Jesus was asked a question, he often responded with a question.

See, children were taught not just to spit back information, but to process and to think and to be sharp on their feet.

And then how to give a response that not only demonstrated they understood the text, but also advanced the discussion, the conversation about what that text meant.

See, they wanted students to interact with the scriptures, not simply to be able to quote chapter and verse.

Now, if you made it through Bet Talmud, you'd be considered for Bet Midrash, which kind of sounds like something contagious you might not want, but it was what people really were hoping for, right?

Bet Midrash started around age 14, so it'll be equivalent to our high school.

And the best of the best of the best of Bet Midrash, so if you made it through Bet Midrash and were at the top of your class, then you could become a rabbi, which was ultimately the goal because the rabbi was the most respected, prestigious role in the community back then.

They were the spiritual leader, they're the ones who guided the whole community and the understanding and the kind of the application of scripture.

So if you were the best of the best of the best of Bet Midrash when you were done, you could go on, go to a rabbi, and then ask that rabbi, Rabbi, I want to be your disciple.

I want to follow you, I want to learn your yoke, which is your interpretation of how to live the scriptures, and I want to learn it so that I can go and teach it to other people.

And so the rabbi would begin asking you questions to see how well you actually knew the text.

So they might say, so in the book of Habakkuk, there are 17 references from the book of Deuteronomy.

I'd like for you to give them to me in reverse order.

Now remember, everyone has it memorized, so the rabbi would ask these very difficult questions to see how well you knew the Torah, and then here's the deal.

Each rabbi is looking for disciples who would be capable of not only repeating, but furthering his teaching.

And the rabbi's fundamental question was this can this student be like me?

Can the student be like me?

And if the rabbi decides, you know what, I think this kid can do it.

He can actually be like me, then the rabbi would say, Well, then come follow me.

And then these 14, 15, 16-year-old boys would leave their families.

They would leave everything to devote their lives to becoming exactly like their rabbi.

They wanted to do everything the exact way their rabbi did it.

They would pray like their rabbi, they would memorize scripture like their rabbi, study like him, walk like him, talk like him, eat with him.

They were even known to follow their rabbis into the bathroom because everything is everything.

They went wherever their rabbi went and did whatever their rabbi did.

There was an old saying, I don't know if it's true, but I like it, so I'll repeat it, that captured this season of preparation, which was this may you be covered in the dust of your rabbi.

Follow your rabbi so closely, be so devoted to him that you become a mini-version of him.

Now, there's always a chance that the rabbi would say, Well, you know the scriptures.

You have a heart for God, but I don't think you have what it takes.

I don't think you're the best of the best, so you're not going to become my disciple.

So what you need to do is go home, make babies, have your own family, and pray that they become rabbis.

And the rabbi might say, then, bless you, go home.

Apply your trade, which meant go home, apprentice under your father, and learn the family business.

Now, what does all of this have to do with the Jesus way?

Let's go back to Matthew chapter 4.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

Verse 18.

As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew, and they were casting a net into the lake, for they were what?

Fishermen.

Why are they fishermen?

They didn't make the cut.

They weren't good enough to be rabbis.

So they were in the family business.

Then notice the next verse.

Come follow me, Jesus said, and I will make you fishers of men.

And then verse 20 says, They left their nets what?

At once.

Why do they follow Jesus immediately?

Because a rabbi, a very powerful rabbi, thinks they can be like him.

This rabbi is like, no, I think you got what it takes.

You can become like me.

You would drop what you were doing too, wouldn't you?

Rabbi Jesus thinks I can be like him.

Then picking up the text going on from there, he saw two brothers, James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John.

They were in a boat.

Who were they in the boat with?

Their father, right?

Again, all sorts of lights should be going off on your dashboard right now.

They're with their father Zebedee, preparing the nets, Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

Now, I always had the sense that Matthew failed to record the next verse, which was Zebedee going, Where are you guys running off to?

I cannot do this by myself.

Get back here, right?

But given what I just explained to you about the culture in which everyone grew up in, maybe Zebedee came home that night and said, Honey, the boys aren't with me.

I can see that.

No, you don't understand.

The boys aren't with me.

I know, Zebedee, I can see that.

And they're not going to be with me.

What do you mean?

This rabbi named Jesus came along, and he thinks our boys have what it takes.

And then I can imagine the next morning, Zebedee got up a little early.

He got the Starbucks ahead of everybody else.

And he says to his buddies as they walk in, hey, you notice my James and John, they're not with me today.

Yeah, why is that?

Well, my boys are gonna be studying with a very powerful rabbi.

You have got to be kidding me.

Oh yeah.

Proud Papa moment.

See, of all the times in history, of all the cultures, of all the ways of living, of all the educational systems, God chooses the first century world of rabbis and disciples.

I mean, he could have shown up at any time, right?

Yet he chooses this ancient Hebrew culture to enter as a Jewish rabbi who calls 12 disciples.

And just note, he calls them.

They don't go asking him, he calls them.

See, my rabbi goes out and looks for the broken.

My rabbi looks for the abused and the hurting and those who've been rejected by the elite or the religious establishment, those who've been in more broken relationships than they can count, those who struggle with this abuse or that addiction.

The rabbi I know goes out to find people who have no money, who don't know how their job's gonna work out.

He finds the people who've been teased by their classmates, he finds people who have failed, and he says, you know what?

You come follow me.

Because you can be like me.

With my help, you can be like me.

You can get this whole human being thing right.

Look again at the Beatitudes.

See, this is who Jesus is saying can be on his team.

This is who he invites to to do life with him.

And truth be told, the word blessed could be translated lucky.

It's a fair translation.

We don't like that word luck in Christian circles, so we don't tend to use it.

But Jesus is mainly saying, these guys are gonna be so lucky.

They are gonna so dig the life that's available to them in my kingdom.

This is the these are those people.

He says, Blessed are the poor in spirit.

A way to translate that quite simply might be blessed are those, lucky are those who are just not good at being spiritual.

Have you ever known someone, been someone, ever thought to yourself, man, I'm just not really good at this whole Christian thing.

I mean, I hope nobody else asks me to pray.

I hope they don't ask me to tell me where something is in the Bible.

I really don't know, and I feel like I I mess up more of the times than I'm not, and my whole life is kind of two steps forward, three steps back.

I'm a mess.

I'm just not good at this.

Well, Jesus says, Well, you're invited on my team.

I want you on my team because I can work with that.

I can work with that.

See, we want to be a church.

Or those who are really poor at being spiritual, they're just they're at home here.

They're safe here.

We're all moving in the same direction, we're all at different places, but it's okay.

We can walk with each other, and God does this incredible thing of making us a family, and we can figure it out with God's help by his spirit in our midst.

That's how Jesus is.

How about those who mourn?

Are we a safe place for people to be sad and to lament and to mourn?

I mean, I've been around church circles before where we can't handle people being sad.

It makes us nervous, so we're always immediately trying to cheer them up and see the bright side and give them all kinds of advice.

And they just need us to sit in the mess with them for a while.

That's what Jesus does.

That's the Jesus way.

That's who he wants on his team.

The people who are sad and are mourning, that's okay.

You don't have to be happy all the time.

Because Jesus, He can meet you there and He can do an incredible work in you.

He can infuse you with joy that transcends your circumstances.

And Jesus knows that.

That's why he wants those folks on his team.

Or the meek.

Those who, unlike me, aren't looking for the spotlight or looking for a microphone or someone to notice them, right?

They're not the life of the party.

They're not the type A kind of achiever, get her done, give me, get, and I'm gonna say charge.

They're the people like I'd rather kind of be in the background and not have everyone notice me.

The extreme introverts among us.

That's what Jesus wants on his team.

The people who are not first in line.

Or blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Now, righteousness is often translated justice, and and we get this confused sometimes because justice in the Bible is not like the Avengers.

It's not, they had it coming.

It's not retribution.

In the Bible, when God talks about justice, he's talking about setting things right.

Setting things right.

God's justice is restorative.

Which means for us as his people, are we the sort of people who lock arms with those who have a passion for setting things right in our world, fixing what's broken, bringing beauty out of ashes, order out of chaos.

That's the kingdom being set down right among us.

And are those who are victims of the injustice in our world, are they welcomed here or they find themselves on the margins here just like everywhere else?

Jesus wants those who long for justice, hunger and thirst for it.

That's who he wants on his team.

And then, not coincidentally, he says, Blessed are the merciful.

Now, a simple definition of mercy is quite simple is simply not getting what I deserve.

Mercy is not getting what I deserve.

And theologically speaking, I know we live in a country where you work hard and we earn it and e a fucking and all that.

But according to scripture, you and I actually deserve nothing but bad.

Because we're the ones that walked away from God.

We're the ones that broke covenant with God and went our own way and tried to do life without Him, which is sin.

Yet God came to us to make it possible to be with Him again.

He initiated it, He put on flesh.

And so are we willing, like Jesus, to not give people what they deserve.

Which are some people it's really easy for me to do that to.

There's others like, oh.

But instead, am I willing like Jesus to offer grace?

Which grace, another simple definition, is outside assistance to do what I could not do by myself.

Grace to help them out of the ditch that they put themselves in.

Paul tells us in Romans 12 when we live in view of God's mercy, we can't help but worship him.

And as we worship him, we reflect him more accurately, which means we become more like Jesus.

We begin to live the Jesus way.

Jesus is all about mercy.

And he wants us to be conduits of his mercy and his grace as his people.

Then blessed are the pure in heart.

Dallas Willard describes those, this, as those who pride ourselves on being right, on getting it right.

This probably applies to more people in the room than not.

Because our identity is wrapped up in our own goodness, because deep down we have the sense that our goodness is ultimately what gets us in good with God.

God's gotta like me because I read the Bible and I pray every day, and I go to church and I listen to this podcast and go to this Bible study, and I give money, and I'm not trying to minimize any of that stuff, but that's not how you get in good with God.

Yet we're never satisfied when that's kind of our script, because um we're we can never be good enough.

And we're always looking for approval from God and for making sure people notice how good we are.

And Jesus says, even those of us who are known for being quote unquote good, he wants us on their team, his team too.

Because what we're looking for, we can't find until we're with Jesus.

Because on Jesus' team, we'll finally find a goodness and purity that comes from God that then is imparted to us, that makes us his sons and his daughters, sons and daughters of God.

And in admitting we can't be good enough, and then receiving God's love and acceptance, what happens is we actually see God.

And then peacemakers are welcome too.

Blessed are the peacemakers.

I think it's interesting given our world today and kind of the hyper kind of climate we can tend to live in of culture wars and such, it says, blessed are the peacemakers, not be suspicious of the peacemakers.

Which might factor into why the next group who's blessed are the persecuted.

Can I simply suggest that instead of us being either intentionally or unintentionally ratchet up culture war rhetoric that seems to, we seem more polarized than ever before, that we would ask the Spirit of God to help us to be a people that echo the first words of the risen Jesus, which were peace to you, be peace unto you.

Peace to you.

Peace be with you.

Peace, peace.

Shalom.

So as I wrap up, I want to talk specifically to two different kinds of people, and I think it covers just about all of us.

You're probably in one of these two boats today.

First, to those of us who are already seriously following Jesus.

The question I think we need to ask ourselves is how am I reflecting Jesus' radical hospitality to my world?

To those on the margins, to the not good enough, to those who maybe are too good, to the broken, the hurting, and the failures.

How am I someone that is making sure they don't get what they deserve?

How am I inviting people who feel they don't belong to Jesus onto his team?

Again, instead of feeling this culture war, we need to reflect the radical hospitality of Jesus.

That's the Jesus way.

Radical hospitality.

So that's a challenge.

If you've been walking this road for a while and you've gotten really comfortable in the seat you're in and it's crowded this morning, you walked in, you're like, wait a second, somebody sitting in my seat.

That's not how this works.

How can we reflect the radical hospitality of Jesus?

And then you might be in another boat this morning.

And that boat, I think a way to describe that is that's the boat for the folks who feel like they're just not good enough.

I mean, you really don't have your act together.

And you kind of live out of this, why would God want me?

kind of storyline.

Hear this.

Jesus says to you, and again, this applies to a lot of people who grew up in church because the way this works is this is how I messed up and I knew better, so why would God want me?

I know better and I still did it.

Why would God want me?

Jesus says to you, I still believe you can be like me.

You can be like me.

So come follow me, be on my team, and I will help you get your act together.

You can't get your act together anyway.

The cool thing, Jesus is talking to fishermen here.

He never says, you know what?

Clean those fish before you catch them.

It's not how it works, is it?

Fish are not cleaned before they're caught.

Which means it's not on you to get yourself cleaned up.

It's on you to say yes to Jesus.

And then he can do the cleaning up the way he wants to do the cleaning up.

See, the only entrance requirement to the Jesus way is saying yes to Jesus.

Jesus, I want you to be my rabbi.

I want you to be my leader.

I want you to be my Lord.

I want you to lead me.

I will follow you wherever you go, whatever that means.

And I know that probably means some changes along the way, but I'm open to that.

I want that.

So are you willing to follow Jesus like that?

To be covered in his dust.

I'm going to invite Brett and Emily to come on back.

And I want us to begin to think about this.

Which boat are you in this morning?

The what how is God nudging me, calling me to reflect his radical hospitality?

Or maybe you're in the why would God want me boat?

And maybe you're realizing, maybe for the very first time, that this whole kind of movie you've been playing in your head where this I've screwed up so much God couldn't possibly want me, or you don't know what I've done or what I've I've said, or that that's irrelevant to Jesus in the sense that that's not a deal breaker.

It's not a deal breaker.

He still wants you on his team.

As a matter of fact, you're the kind of people he can work with that he wants to work with.

The beaten up, the bruised, the second best, the has-bins, the ones that aren't good enough seem to be the kind of people that Jesus chose to change the world.

And maybe Andrew and Peter and James and John and Levi and the rest had such a passion for being Jesus' disciples because they had been rejected.

And when they were accepted, it meant so much more to them.

See, Jesus believes as you and I follow Him, we can actually be like Him.

We can live His ways.

And so He sang to all of us this morning: follow me.

Make that your priority.

Follow me.

Seek first the kingdom of God.

Learn from me how to live the Jesus way.

Because I want you on my team.

So I invite you just to close your eyes and just think about that.

Which boat are you in?

What's Jesus saying to you right now?

And what would it look like for you to actually believe that, to live like that's true?

Jesus, we trust you.

Jesus, we want to be like you.

Jesus, we hear your call to follow you.

And we're willing to lay aside our own agenda and cooperate with you in that pursuit right now.

Thank you for finding us, for coming to us.

And now we say, we're yours.

Cover us in your dust.

Make us like you.

Fill us with your spirit.

Do your work in us for your glory.

We pray in your matchless name, Jesus.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, as we leave this morning, if you would like for someone to pray with you, Neil mentioned it at the beginning.

Pastors, elders, small group leaders are here to pray with you.

Maybe it's something that was stirred in you as I was talking.

Maybe there's something going on in your life, physically, financially, job stuff, it's just wigging you out.

Or you just don't know what to do.

God's not going, man, I'm not, I don't know what to do either.

God wants to be meet you right in that.

So we're here to pray with you.

Um, again, if you're with us for the first time, thanks so much for coming and hanging out with us and worshiping Jesus together.

We'd love to hear from you on those connection cards that you can take to the offering boxes where you can also worship and giving as you as we do each week around here.

All right?

Let me speak a blessing over you and then you can go.

May the Lord bless you and keep you.

May He make His face to shine upon you.

And may you experience the joy and the peace that comes from following Jesus so closely that He transforms you and makes you into the man or woman God had in mind when He made you in the first place.

Live out of that reality now.

I pray in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.