Weighed: What will you do with what you've been given?

Kyle Lounsbury: Today I wanna share a message with us from the Book of Daniel.

All right?

So you can start turning your Bibles to the Book of Daniel.

We're gonna be in chapter five, and the title of today's lesson

is called "Weighed: What Will You Do With What You've Been Given?

In Daniel chapter five is where we're gonna pick up, and a little

context and background to Daniel for those who maybe need a refresher.

Uh, Daniel was taken into captivity in Babylon under the King Nebuchadnezzar.

Anybody ever hear of that name?

It's a funny name, right?

Nebuchadnezzar.

And he was tested many times in this Babylonian empire,

in this Babylonian culture.

He was tested, uh, in his convictions.

And one of the things I love about Daniel more than anything is he did not

allow the culture of Babylon to impact or influence or change his convictions.

Amen.

You know, we're gonna talk a little bit about that concept today, but

we, I believe we live in a modern Babylon in some way, shape, or form.

That there's a spiritual battle taking place, a spiritual war happening

here in America, here in this modern world that we're in, and we must

not compromise our convictions.

Amen.

But God showed Daniel favor, and he actually gave Daniel this ability

to be able to interpret dreams.

And so King Nebuchadnezzar on, on several accounts had Daniel interpret

dreams for him, and then other kings inter- he interpreted for them.

And today we're gonna pick up in Daniel chapter five where he comes

on the scene and interprets a dream, a dream for King Belshazzar.

Let's look at Daniel 5:1.

Daniel 5:1

It says, "King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his

nobles and drank wine with them.

While Bel- Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring

in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar, his father, had taken

from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and

his concubines might drink from them.

So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple

of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and

his concubines drank from them.

As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of

bronze, iron, wood and stone."

I'm gonna stop here for a moment.

So let's set the scene, let's set the stage.

King Belshazzar says, "I'm gonna throw a great banquet.

Over a thousand people are gonna come."

Take a moment and just look around this room for a minute.

This isn't even 1,000.

Hopefully one day we'll have 1,000 in here, but 1,000 people at this

great banquet, and he's saying, "I am the king of this empire.

We're gonna have a feast.

We're gonna drink wine.

We're gonna have a good time."

And what does he end up doing in the midst of that?

He says, "You know what?

When we took over Jerusalem, I remember these gold goblets

that were set aside for God.

Let's bring those in.

Let's drink wine from those.

Let's celebrate with those.

Let's, let's use those-"

And he takes sacred objects that were set apart for God,

and he uses them for himself.

He uses them for his own pleasure, his own joy.

And he not only uses it for himself and loses the self-control to leave them

sacred, I believe he's openly mocking God

It says in verse four, they drank the wine and they praised the

gods, the lowercase G gods of what?

Gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone

You know, when I read that, the first question that popped in my head

is, what gods do we praise today?

The first thing I…

Man, in my life, what gods am I praising today?

Right.

What are the gods that I allow to take my energy and my time and my

focus, and I pour into these things?

What are the idols that I am distracted with?

Maybe it's money for some of us.

Just this pursuit of I need to grow my finances.

I wanna make more money.

If I c- if I can just make enough, then I'll be secure.

Maybe for some of us, it's comfort.

Oh, man, comfort.

Look where we live.

We were at the marriage class last night, by the way, which was phenomenal.

Thank you, guys, for putting that on.

And we were talking with the Webbers, and we were, like, sharing how we were out

in the Midwest, and it was hot, humid, and then the next day it was raining,

and then the next day it was hailing, and then it was beautiful the next day.

It was like, man, it is uncomfortable in the Midwest

We live in beautiful weather, right?

We are comfortable here

And I think we allow that comfort to seep into our faith.

We allow that comfort to go, "Hey, I don't want following Jesus

to disrupt my life too much."

Maybe for some of us it's desires.

Just a desire for, for, I- your, you know, to, to pursue a certain identity

or, or desire to grow in your career.

Whatever desire you have, I think sometimes if we feel it deeply, it

must define what is true for us, and we allow that desire to be a god.

And lastly, I think a very relevant one, especially for the youth, is your image.

I think our image of, what do I look like?

How do I sound?

How do I talk?

What do I drive?

How big's my house?

You guys with me?

These are gods I think we c- can sometimes allow to have too much influence over

our lives, and we praise these gods.

Belshazzar's gods were gold and silver and iron, and I believe power and influence.

And ours maybe have different names.

Maybe we're not literally praising gold and silver, but our gods, I

believe they are the same in the sense that they offer similar promises.

The same promise that Belshazzar's g- gods offer, our gods offer as well.

I'll give you security.

I'll give you identity.

I'll give you pleasure.

I'll give you significance.

Yeah.

And we allow these small gods to take so much of our attention,

and we begin to fixate on them.

Yeah.

We worship them with our schedules, with our finances, emotional energy.

Whatever it is, we put way too much into these things, and we're

not focused and fixated on Jesus.

And these things, let's just be honest, they end up leaving us not

as fulfilled and actually exhausted.

When we pursue things that aren't fulfilling, we leave feeling exhausted.

You know, I wanna share, earlier this year, I'm a huge Rams fan, I

got to go to a game with my dad.

And, uh, we went to Sunday night football against the Tampa Bay

Buccaneers, and we destroyed 'em.

It was awesome.

Sorry if there's any Bucs fans.

Destroyed 'em.

Uh, I believe that was sort of the, the moment where people were like, "Okay,

Stafford's probably gonna win the MVP.

This is probably one of the teams to reckon with."

And you know what's funny about that night, uh, I didn't know when I bought

the tickets, but after I got the tickets, it was Aaron Donald bobblehead night.

And I love Aaron Donald.

He's one of the, if not the greatest, one of the greatest

defensive players of all time.

Uh, and he might be actually coming back, which is really exciting.

Uh, but he's retired now, and they had this honoring.

They were doing a bobblehead night, and the first 50,000,

uh, fans got a bobblehead.

And so I'm doing the numbers in my head like, "Okay, how

many seats are in that stadium?

Am I gonna get a bobblehead?

What time do I need to get there?

I wanna get that Aaron Donald bobblehead."

You guys with me?

Yeah.

And so I was with my dad and my mom and my cousin, and if you've ever

tried to get anywhere on time with a couple of women, it's not- Ooh.

It's not easy, okay?

Okay?

I'm just keeping it real.

Just keeping it real my mom was moving a little too slow for my liking i had

to get that bobblehead, all right?

And so we're, we're getting ready, and we go and we park, and my mom's like, just

does not care about the bobblehead, right?

She just could care less about an Aaron Donald bobblehead.

So she's just, "Wow, look at the stadium," and, "Wow, look at all the people."

I'm like, "Mom, you're moving too slow for me.

We gotta go.

I gotta get that bobblehead.

I want it.

You're gonna ruin the night."

Now, looking back, I must confess, I was not exactly, uh, displaying the fruits of

the spirit that we've been talking about.

And, and next week we're gonna talk about self-control, and that was

definitely a struggle in that moment.

But the good news is we got there in time, uh, and, uh, we got my bobblehead.

It was a picture like this.

Uh, he's saying, "Ring me."

This was in the Super Bowl a few years ago, and the bobblehead shows him … I

actually brought the bobblehead.

It's in the back.

So if you guys want me to go ra- run and grab it, I will.

Uh, I forgot it, though.

You want me to go get it?

Okay, I'll go get it real quick.

I'll go get it.

Here it is.

All right?

So, and it's got a little, a little goat here that says, "GOAT."

He's the GOAT.

And so I got my bobblehead.

I'm, I was so proud, I was so excited, so happy, and, uh, mission was accomplished.

You know, so we got it, we went up to our seats, and as you saw, uh,

in the photo there, if we go back there, you see we're, we're up pretty

high in those seats there, right?

We were, we were up in the 500 section.

But in SoFi Stadium, it's a good stadium.

Every seat, you can pretty much see, uh, the game and the big screen there.

So we were, we were fired up.

But later in the game, about maybe halfway through, my cousin remembered

that her mom's boss actually has a floor-level suite at SoFi Stadium.

And she was like, "Hey, I wonder if my mom could, like, text her boss

and maybe we could go check it out."

I was like, "Why didn't you think of this sooner?"

Again, self-control.

I was struggling.

Well, she makes the call.

The boss says, "Yeah, we got plenty of room.

Some of the, the, the employees didn't actually come tonight,

so we got plenty of seats.

Come on down, sit with us, enjoy the game."

So I'm like, wow, I get to go down to a floor-level suite.

So we end up going down, we walk in there, and, uh, and we end up seeing

the field and I'm like, wow, I was just, like, looking on top of the field.

Now I'm, like, looking at the field.

I'm like, this is amazing.

And we're there, we're sitting, and there's a big commotion

going on to the right of us in the suite right next door to us.

And we go to our seats and I sit down, I'm like, wow, I can't believe I'm here.

I'm looking at the game.

And then I look to my right.

I look to my right and I see a big commotion, and there's TV

cameras, there's tons of people.

There's these big guys that are my height but 200 pounds heavier than me and strong.

And I'm like, what is going on?

The commotion starts to clear a little bit.

And then I look, and sitting about five to six feet away from me is Aaron Donald.

He's sitting right there, five to six feet, and I happen to be

wearing my Aaron Donald jersey.

I look at him, I go, "Can you sign my jersey?"

Like, I mouthed it 'cause I didn't wanna talk, right?

I didn't wanna, like, startle him.

He goes, "Yeah, I will."

Wow.

And he ended up signing my jersey that night

It was awesome.

Great memory.

That's him right there after the game signing it.

You know, I spent the beginning of that night afraid I would miss a bobblehead

But by the end of the night, I met the man that the bobblehead represented.

I think sometimes in our faith, brothers and sisters, I

think we can do that with God.

We get so fixated on this.

If I just get a little more money, if I just get a little

more comfort, if I just…

I want the bobblehead, right?

And God's going, "Dude, I'm right here.

I'm ready to meet with you.

I wanna give you so much more."

You know, OC Church, I, I really want us to develop a conviction to go,

we're not gonna be fixated on this.

This is what the world's focused on.

But can we be focused on God himself?

We don't need to worship the gods of gold and silver and

bronze and things of this earth.

Let's fix our eyes on Jesus.

Amen?

Amen.

Let's not focus on the bobblehead when God wants to offer us so much more.

Let's continue on in our story here in Daniel.

Verse five, "Suddenly the fingers of a ha- human hand appeared and

wrote on the plaster of the wall."

Let me just stop for a second.

What?

So, okay, so great banquet.

They're hanging out, they're drinking wine, having food,

got the goblets, and then bam!

A hand is on the wall, writing on the wall.

Oh my goodness.

The king watched the hand as it wrote.

His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his legs became

weak and his knees were knocking.

The king summoned the enchanters, astrologers, and diviners.

Then he said to them, then he said to these wise men of Babylon, "Whoever

reads this writing and tells me what it means will be clothed in purple

and have a gold chain placed around his neck, and he will be made the

third highest ruler in the kingdom."

Then all the king's wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or

tell the king what it meant, so King Belshazzar became even more terrified,

and his face grew even more pale.

His nobles were baffled.

So this hand appears, and the king is probably scared out of his living mind.

He's probably going, "Oh my gosh.

I was so caught up in this moment, so caught up worshiping the, these foreign

gods, and then God himself appears."

One moment he's the most powerful man in the room, the next moment he's the

most terrified, and everything that he was trusting in became useless.

His wealth didn't matter.

His title of king couldn't help him.

His comfort, his, the people he ruled, his gods that he worshiped could not help him.

And the God, the one true God, interrupted him in that moment

and showed him who he was.

You know, brothers and sisters, God interrupts our illusion of control.

That's right.

He interrupts it.

There should be an S there.

Sorry for the typo.

God interrupts our illusion of control.

We think we're in control.

We think we've got it all together.

We think our life's good, and then God goes, "I'm gonna show you who I am.

I am actually in control."

Right.

"I am actually the one true God."

Yeah.

Your money can't save you.

Your image can't truly tell you who you are.

Your pleasure cannot give lasting meaning.

Every false god eventually fails.

And I just wanna give a charge this morning.

If you have not yet made the choice to make Jesus Lord of your life, if

you've not yet surrendered the gods of this wor- this world, and you've

not yet repented of your sin and been baptized, I wanna encourage you,

implore you, and beg you, surrender.

Surrender to Jesus before you're out of time, before the

writing on the wall appears.

Destroy the false gods in your life and give your heart to Jesus completely

I know many of you in here have done that.

I know many of you have made that choice.

Let's not lose sight of that.

Let's stay focused and let's finish the race.

Let's continue in verse 18.

We're gonna jump ahead here.

Daniel jumps on the scene.

Daniel then explains and interprets what this writing on the wall means.

Verse 18, "Your Majesty, the Most High God gave your father

Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty and greatness and glory and splendor.

Because of the high position he gave him, all the nations and peoples of

every language dreaded and feared him.

Those the king wanted to put to death, he put to death.

Those he wanted to spare, he spared.

Those he wanted to promote, he promoted.

And those he wanted to humble, he humbled.

But when his heart became arrogant and hardened with pride, he was

deposed from his royal throne and stripped of his glory.

He was driven away from people and given the mind of an animal.

He lived with the wild donkeys and ate grass like the ox.

And his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until he acknowledged

that the Most High God is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth, and

sets over them anyone he wishes."

So Daniel starts to explain this, this story.

He's telling King Belshazzar, who some historians, uh, you know, it says his son.

It's not necessarily his direct son.

It could be either a, a great distant grandfather or, in that

time, what, what father meant was he was the successor to the king.

And he knew exactly what Daniel was sharing.

All this story of King Nebuchadnezzar and the power he had and what was

going on and what was taking place, King Belshazzar already knew.

He knew very well and clear.

He was fully aware of what had happened previously

But pride consumed Belshazzar.

His pride, his arrogance, his ego consumed him.

And even though he knew all this, he still decided to throw

this banquet and defile God.

And in verse 22 it says, "But you, Belshazzar, his son, have not humbled

yourself, though you knew all this."

You know, when I was reading this, brothers and sisters, and as I was

studying this out, I got so emotional.

I started weeping as I read this because I truly felt like that phrase,

"Though you knew all this," was so sobering to me, so humbling to me.

And I wanna speak for a moment to the younger generation in here, and when

I mean younger, I don't just mean the campus or the teens, I mean my peers,

the young marrieds, the singles, those who have been a part of this church

but are not necessarily from years and years of being a faithful saint,

and I wanna speak to you this morning.

You see, Belshazzar did not lack information.

He knew what happened.

He knew the story.

He knew what God had done.

He inherited knowledge.

But he did not inherit conviction

That should sober us, and here's why.

It's possible for the next generation to know our history, to know what

happened, to know how we've got here without knowing our true God

See, we can know what happened back in the day.

We can know how our movement was started.

We can know how people became Christian.

We can know how much was sacrificed.

We can know how much was given to build this church, yet not believe it ourselves.

To not have that same conviction- Right … ourselves.

We must develop a conviction of our own, brothers and sisters.

Youth, young people, we need this to continue to build this church.

We cannot continue to just rest on the laurels of years before.

We have to step into a new era and go, "This is our church,

and we have the conviction.

And we're gonna lead it forward."

We're gonna have the conviction that Jesus is Lord of my life.

That's right.

Not just when I feel close to God, not just when obedience is convenient, not

just when I agree with him, but Jesus is Lord when I feel like it and when I don't.

Right.

A conviction that goes, "I'm gonna seek first the kingdom.

I'm gonna build it.

I'm gonna serve it.

I'm gonna give my best to God's kingdom."

Amen.

Not whatever's leftover from my time or energy or finances.

My schedule, it belongs to God.

Right.

My gifts, they belong to God.

My energy, it belongs to him.

Right.

My life is available to him

I will give sacrificially.

We've talked about this a lot.

There's studies going around that says, and not just in our church,

people who are 40, 35 to 40 years old and younger do not have the same

conviction to give sacrificially.

It is just proven in the data, it's proven in the facts, and

we have lost that conviction.

Not just whatever happens to be left over in my pocket when the basket

comes through, but a conviction to go, "God's given me everything.

I wanna do whatever I can to give back to Him."

That's right.

And lastly, a conviction that goes, I was bought at a price.

I've been c- I've been called to be an ambassador for Jesus.

I'm gonna seek and save the lost.

I'm gonna study the Bible with people.

I'm gonna share the good news of how Jesus saved me, and I'm gonna

go into my communities and say, "How can I show you the love of Jesus-

Amen … and make disciples, and help people fall in love with Jesus again?"

Yeah.

We must develop a conviction of our own.

Amen?

And I wanna give a challenge this, this, for this week to the younger generation.

You guys ready?

Here's the challenge.

Reach out this week to one older disciple in this congregation and ask them about

a deep conviction they've developed.

What's a deep conviction you've developed that I need to work on in my life?

What's something I can imitate from your faith?

Can we do that?

Yeah.

Amen, brother.

Okay Now older disciples, can I share something to you?

Amen.

We need a few things from you.

We really do.

We need you to understand the world that this generation's living in.

We need you to understand the Babylon that's taking place.

Every generation has its Babylon.

When you were coming up, your Babylon may have looked different

than what this Babylon looks like.

You guys with me?

Yeah.

This generation's being formed by messages like this: consumerism

tells you life's about you.

They're, they're living in, in a social media age where it says life

is about your image, how you look.

And so they develop people-pleasing in their character n- naturally.

And lastly, I think something that maybe we haven't talked about quite,

um, enough, and I think we will more, is this idea of post-modernism.

Have you guys ever heard of that?

What post-modern- modernism is, is a way of thinking that is skeptical of universal

truth and questions whether anyone can understand reality completely objectively.

I believe it's an attack on truth.

Truth is personal.

What matters is what is true for me.

It emphasizes that our understanding of truth is often shaped by

culture, language, personal experience, and power structures.

So does scripture get to challenge my convictions, or do my feelings get to

challenge the validity of the scripture?

That's what we're living in now.

That's the culture these young people are dealing with.

Our culture, it's become suspicious of anyone claiming

to possess a universal truth.

Christianity agrees that human beings are limited and biased, right?

We don't know everything.

But it argues that truth ultimately comes from God

Rather than being constructed by us.

Right.

Truth is not constructed by us.

That's right.

We must hold to the truth that God is just.

Yeah.

God is righteous.

God is holy

But I believe, I believe beneath all this, be- beneath the consumerism,

the image, this new way of thinking, is one simple thing.

It's who gets to be God.

That's all it is.

Who gets to be God?

Is it our feelings, our desires, our politics, our traditions?

See, the culture says express yourself, but what does God say?

He says, "Deny yourself."

Yeah.

Culture says, "Follow your heart, your desires, your

wants," but what does Jesus say?

"Follow me."

Right.

Culture says to protect whatever is comfortable to you, and if anything

interferes with that, reject it.

But what does Jesus say?

"Take up your cross daily."

This is not rocket science, but this is the attack that's

being placed on our youth.

And what we need from you is we need the, the faithful saints in this

congregation to go, "We're gonna stand in the gap, and we are going

to raise up the next generation.

We're gonna teach them these convictions.

We're gonna help them who, who need the help that is in, in desperate need."

We're gonna go, "How can I step in there and show them what's true?"

Yeah.

And show them, "Hey, I've seen trends come and go.

I've seen culture shift and change.

I've been through battles.

I've been through tough things, but Jesus is still Lord."

Right.

Jesus is still Lord, and He will never change.

Amen?

And also, one other thing, older generation, we need a little tough love.

So we're gonna give you the pass, okay, Rusty?

We need a little tough love.

Don't water down the convictions that are biblical.

Right.

Let's not water things down.

Don't water the convictions that have been instilled in you that are good

and righteous, and I know maybe they were abused in the past, and maybe they

were not used in, in, in the right way.

But if they're Bible, do not change them.

Right.

If they are from God, let's hold to them and let's pass that on.

Amen?

Amen.

So my challenge to you guys, begin to connect just with one younger disciple.

Set up a coffee with them, go on a prayer walk with them, and just listen to them.

"Hey, what are you going through?

What are the things you're learning?

What are the things that are challenging for your faith, and

how can I be a resource for you?"

Amen?

Amen.

Amen.

Let's get back to the story here.

Verse 23.

It says, "But you did not honor the God who holds in His hand

your life and all your ways."

Wow, we don't want that to be said of us, right?

The deeper problem, we want God's blessings without God's lordship,

and we've talked about that.

But verse 24 is where this all, I believe, culminates.

He says, "Therefore he sent the hand that wrote the inscription."

This is the inscription that was written: "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin."

Here is what these words mean.

Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.

Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.

Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.

Daniel finally interprets the dream.

He tells him what it means, and this is a tough truth, I'm sure,

for King Belshazzar to hear.

And he says something there, "You have been weighed on the scales

and have been found wanting."

God says, "I have weighed your life.

I've weighed what you did with what I gave you, and you came up short."

Brilliant tactics overcame the Babylonian Empire.

It was Persia.

Yet it still, I believe, fell from within.

The armies of the Medes and the Persians could only conqu- conquer Belshazzar

and his kingdom use from within.

And so as we think about this concept, you've been weighed

on the scales and found wanting

I think it leads to a question for us this morning

What if God weighed you?

What if God weighed the OC Church on this scale?

How would we be found?

Good worship are, are

The, the speakers and…

No, no, no.

What did you do with what God gave you?

What did you do?

How did you steward the, the blessings he

come up short on the scale.

Now ultimately, I wanna be clear

Bought with the blood of Christ.

But that's not what I'm talking about

Have you been a good steward of what God's blessed you with?

Faithful with much.

Right.

He says, "I gave you the gospel.

I gave you a community.

I gave you a church building.

I gave you homes in a beautiful area.

What did you do with them?"

If you were weighed on the scales, OC Church, would you be found wanting?

I don't think any of us wanna be found wanting, right?

Or would you be found content?

Content with Christ, content in your walk with Him, content with what

He's blessed you with, content even in the midst of the tough challenges

You know, this is the land of consumerism, which we've talked about.

And I w- it's, it's all about I want more, I need more, I need to get more.

But are we gonna be different from the place we live in?

Than Orange County?

Yeah.

Are we gonna be a light to Orange County?

Can we be a light?

Can we be different?

Yeah.

Our lives content with Christ.

Yes.

You know, as we close out, I want us to consider

If God is enough for you.

And I believe the scripture that really ties this together in

the New Testament that really is awesome is in 2 Corinthians 12:9.

2 Corinthians 12:9

It says, "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you.

It's enough.

For my power is made perfect in weakness.'

Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so

that Christ's power may rest on me."

God is enough.

His grace is sufficient, amen?

Let's trust and rest in God's grace.

And as we turn our heart and our, and our, and our minds right now to the

cross, and as we get prepared to take communion, I've asked one of our campus

sisters, Mia Milliken, to share a little bit of what the cross has meant for her.

So let's give a round of applause for Mia as she comes up to share

Speaker 3: Hi, guys.

Um, as he said, my name's Mia, and I'm a part of the campus ministry.

Um, and I have the amazing opportunity to share for communion today.

Um, so I wanted to start off with a little question for you guys to ponder on while

I'm sharing, and that question is what voice is louder than the voice of Jesus,

and what voice is louder than the cross?

So for me, um, the voices of insecurity, fear, anxiety are

oftentimes more tempting to believe in rather than the truth of Jesus,

rather than, um, the way of the cross.

So in those moments, those feelings, they feel so real.

Um, and so they're tempting to believe in rather than the

actual truth that Jesus tells me.

Um, this is a challenge that I face throughout my day-to-day life.

Minor inconveniences, comments, and even the smallest of concerns are

gateways for the enemy to work, and I'm sure many of us can relate to this.

So this actually showed up in my life pretty recently.

Um, and as many of you guys know, I did-- I-- 'cause I keep talking about it.

Um, I went to Greece, a little vacation, um, with my family, and

genuinely one of the best trips I've ever been on in my life.

Um, so pretty, so beautiful.

Um, and yet while I was in one of the most desirable vacation spots, um, it

was-- there were moments where my mind was distracted and not focused on what was

right in front of me, um, and the beauty that was placed right in front of my eyes.

And this-- throughout this trip, I was being consumed by insecurities

and to be a bit vulnerable too.

Physical insecurities is something that I've always struggled with, and

on this trip, all of these lies and all of these negative thoughts were really

consuming my mind and taking over.

And it's just funny how we can have something so perfect, so

amazing right in front of our eyes.

Mm.

But if our mind is so consumed on the wrong thing, we can completely miss it

and miss what is right in front of us.

And I really do think that our relationship with Jesus can be like this.

Um, we have something so perfect and so amazing, which is Jesus, which is

the sacrifice that He made on that cross, um, in dying that brutal death.

But we can be so consumed by the world, by our own thoughts, by everything

going on around us, that we miss that perfect gift, which is Jesus.

And I think we can, we can just really lose sight, um, by what people think,

by, for me, these insecurities, um, being consumed by whether it's your

job or whatever, you fill in the blank.

But But Romans 6, 6 through 7 says, "For we know that our old self was crucified

with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should

no longer be slaves to sin because anyone who has died has been set free from sin."

So we are no- So the switch that I had to make, especially during my

vacation, um, was truly understanding the gift that Jesus gave us and

truly understanding the cross and the sacrifice that he made for us.

And so I just want to ask you guys, what area of your life are you giving

more power and authority than the power and authority found in Jesus

Christ and what he did on the cross?

We are free in Christ because of his sacrifice, so I encourage you to

reflect and see the areas of your life that are louder than Christ's love

and bring them up against the freedom, strength, and power found in the cross.

So let's not fall into consumerism

Fully content with the cross

Of what Jesus did, and I pray that we can all be fully rooted in that

truth- Mm-hmm … that when any of these thoughts or any of these lies

from the enemy come up, that we can combat that and they fully ricochet off

Um, so thank you

Kyle Lounsbury: And amen.

Good job.

All right, let's say a prayer for communion.

Father, thank you so much for this morning, this time, as we reflect

on the cross and reflect on the sacrifice of Jesus, that we would

humble ourselves before that reality.

Lord, I pray that no matter where we're at, wherever, uh, however we came in

this morning, that we would just put everything at the foot of the cross, that

we would be men and women that live for your glory, not for the, the false gods

of this world, and that we can be men and women that when we're weighed on the

scales, we will not be found wanting, that we will be found content with you.

We love you.

We thank you.

In Jesus' name.