Real Life | Part 8 | Mark Hoffman

Well, good morning, Two Rivers.

Good morning. Oh, I love this time of

year. The leaves are turning. Let me be

one of the first to say happy Thanksgiving.

We're rolling into a holiday. It's a holiday

squeeze between two others, but this is a

significant holiday, and I just wanna say to

you, I'm incredibly thankful and grateful for every

one of you. I was reminded this week

from a a letter that Paul wrote to

the followers in Thessalonica, and he said this,

We ought always to give thanks to God

for you, brothers and sisters,

as is right because your faith is growing

abundantly, and the love of every one of

you for one another

is increasing.

Man, that's that's our heart. I am so

incredibly,

grateful to be a part of Tu Rivers

Church and the family that God's called together,

and grateful for every one of you, both

all all here in live. Give it up

for live.

I know we we mentioned other venues. They

applaud. We can applaud live down in Blend,

down in Amped,

all the way down in Roane County and

out in Bearden.

A one church operating and functioning together. What

a great opportunity it is for us to

be together this weekend.

And, I add my welcome to what you've

received.

And, let me just tell you, I'm not

a fix it kind of guy. I,

I have, a lot of insecurity around making

things better, fixing things, repairing things. And, a

couple years ago, I got a new truck,

and my brother called me and goes, what?

You need a new tires?

So you got a new truck. What?

And this past week, I've had a pair

of shoes I've loved for a while. They're

probably seven or eight years old, and,

they're they're starting to hurt because the soul's

given out in them. You know? And a

buddy of mine said, well, you should go

to a a cobbler. I'm like, they exist?

That's not just in Williamsburg or something like

what do you mean a cobbler? He goes,

there's people who actually restore shoes, and so

I found myself down in Bearden off of

Kingston Pike at a cobbler. There there's a

cobbler. Who knew? I thought cobbler was like,

you know, a dessert with maybe ice cream

or or whatever, but I'm standing there and

the guy said, man, I can give you

a new sole.

Some of you are going, finally,

our prayers have been answered. The brother's getting

a new soul.

Actually, I'm getting two.

And that's what that's what Jesus is getting

after this weekend,

about restoration, about going after those who are

broken, those who have have have lost their

way. Last week, we were in chapter 18

of Matthew, and we're still in chapter 18

of Matthew. So if you've got a a

bible or smartphone, you can turn there. Or

if you've got your handy dandy journal like

I have, you can turn to your journal

in Matthew chapter 18. And and last week,

Matthew 18 · chapter mention

what we unpacked is Jesus said, hey. It's

it's significant

as a shepherd that we would leave the

99 and go after the one. That That

we would go after the lost. We would

go after the one who's who strayed, who

has walked away. That's significant. And as we

look at real life with Jesus, his kingdom,

and you and I,

that's real life. It's it's going after the

one. It's going after the one who's who's

straight and has not has lost their way.

And this week, what he does is actually

gives us the practical application. This is what

it looks like. And the theme that emerges

throughout this text is this,

real life with Jesus calls us to the

hard work of active restoration in community.

Real Life with Jesus calls you and I

to the hard work of active restoration

in the life of the community.

Jesus continues on in in verse 15 of

chapter 18. He says, if your brother sins

against you, go and tell him his fault

between you and him alone.

And if he listens to you, you've gained

your brother.

But if he if he does not listen

to you, take one or two others along

with you, that every charge may be established

by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

If he refuses to listen to them, then

go ahead and tell it to the church.

And if he refuses

to listen even to the church, let him

be to you as a gentile or a

tax collector.

Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind

on earth shall be bound in heaven, and

whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed

in heaven. Again, I say to you, if

two of you agree on earth about anything

you ask, it'll be done for them by

my father in heaven. For where two or

three are gathered in my name, there I

am among them. Jesus gives some real practical

application, what it looks like to go after

the one who's been lost astray.

In verse 15 through 17, we see this,

pursuing people with love and humility

is the beginning of active restoration.

Pursuing people with love and humility is the

beginning of what it looks like for us

to be actively involved in the restoration of

someone else.

Going after the one who's strayed, who's lost

their way. Folks, that's what family does. If

someone in your family went lost, wouldn't you

go after that? When you go after them,

you you do everything. You'd call search parties

to go after them. That that's that's the

message here.

I was in Target a few weeks ago,

and it's always interesting to eavesdrop on other

people's life in conversations, and

this mom was there with two kids, and

one had wandered away, and she laid into

her her son saying, hey, where's where's your

sister? You were supposed to watch her. Not

the best parenting moment, because she was losing

it. And and a minute or two later,

the little girl was found. But but what

I thought about that when I walked away

was, that's what Jesus is saying in this

text.

We're we're supposed to watch out for one

another. We're supposed to watch out for our

little brother or sister, or even sometimes our

older brother or sister. He's saying, and this

is what it looks like. And he gives

us

a a a a passageway, a a stages

actually, of what it looks like to go

after someone who's been,

walking away, who's going off the reservation.

And at the

the core of of all four of these

stages he lays out for us and overall

is the theme in the heart of, of

God himself that we'd be restored, that we

would restore other people to their relationship with

Jesus and to the family.

Restoration is at the heart of this. Jesus

says in verse 15,

If your brother sins against you, go and

tell him his fault between you and him

alone. And if he listens to you, you've

gained your brother. The NIV says you've won

him over.

If you go and deal with your brother

who sinned, then you've won him over.

And I love this. Go go first one

on one and have a conversation.

Don't

gather support and garner,

gossip around other people, and, hey. Did you

hear what she did or what he's up

to or whatever? And and and allow this

to be something bigger than it needs to

be in the community and and the places

where we like to talk about other people.

Don't don't do that. He says, go go

deal with them privately.

Before you talk to others, before you actually

get get a momentum

about agreement about what this person is doing,

go go and have a conversation.

Have it privately between you and them.

Because this is loving.

It's it's loving to go and and deal

with someone privately. It gives them the opportunity

to respond

if if what you're saying is accurate and

true. It gives them the opportunity to respond

without the embarrassment and humiliation. It's hard enough

to become confronted, and and yet if if

you gang up on a person, it feels

like it's almost impossible for the person to

respond.

And I was thinking about this this past

week, and isn't that what Jesus says in

my life and in your life? Doesn't he

go after us privately?

For a while, he goes after us privately.

Like, this past week, I I I'm confessing.

I have an attitude about somebody right now,

and I'm working through it.

And I thought I was working through it,

and I felt like Jesus came to me

privately and said, you're not doing a good

job with this. Is this really what where

you wanna be in this?

It wasn't like two or three people or

a whole bunch bunch of people ganged up

on me, but I feel like privately between

Jesus and I, he's right. I I felt

the sting of it, and I'm working at

it, but it it's allowing me to make

adjustments and turn

and be in right relationship with him and

with the person I'm having an attitude with.

That that's what he's getting after here. He

says, let let's do it private. Let's care

for the person.

That's what he does for us. Let's be

imitators of Jesus. Let let's let's pursue other

people and the brokenness that's apparent in someone's

life privately.

And you think, well, okay. That's great advice.

Good principles from the Bible. Jesus is telling

us how to actually restore relationships. And you

think, well,

if if the person responds, that's wonderful. If

not, I don't think the the passage here

says, well, you tried.

You did all you knew to do. You

you went after, and, hey, that's on them.

No. Jesus actually gives us a few more

stages and a few more

ways in which he calls us to step

in.

If they've not heard and turned away from

their sin, if they've not

listened to you or or heard your concern,

then he says, I want you to actually

now move to

a bigger part of the community. Move to

two or three other people who actually know

this person and love them also. Go go

and have a conversation

with other people with this person.

And what Jesus is pulling from is the

law. Back in Deuteronomy,

it says a single witness shall not suffice

against a person for any crime, for or

for any wrong in connection with any offense

that he's committed.

Only on the evidence of two witnesses or

of three witness witnesses shall a charge be

established. And Jesus is saying, no. I'm not

asking you to gang up on this person,

but but this is protection for the person

you're confronting. If this is that significant of

an issue, it's not just your soapbox. Two

or three others of you who actually agree

and know this person as well are stepping

into this relationship or stepping into the mess

of this relationship. Why? So so this person

could be brought back and restored into relationship

with Christ. He says, go and have a

conversation

with others.

Sit down with the person.

Having two or three, it actually is a

protector for them as well as for you.

And if the intervention provides the way of

return, then you've you've won your brother over.

You you've you've won them back, back to

relationship with Jesus and back to relationship in

the family.

And if not, he says, if he refuses

to listen to them, tell it to the

church. Matthew 18 verse 17.

Matthew 18:17

Still and remaining at its co at its

core, and the goal here is restoration.

Not tell it to the church. Hey, go

tell on them.

Like, it happens a lot of our families.

Hey. Look what they're doing.

Not not that. Go tell it to the

church, tell it to other people so that

there'd be accountability through relationship that wouldn't just

be one or two people pursuing them, but

now it's a greater sense of a family

issue and a reality. Let the community know

the issue.

And we think about church. We we wanna

put our understanding of church today, 2025,

on the scripture here. The the church really

wasn't fully established yet. Jesus is speaking about

the church, and what he's referring to is

the assembly.

Those those people that are walking closely together

in relationship,

seeking to follow Jesus and follow heart after

Jesus. They're meeting in synagogues and homes and

all over the place. He says, go and

tell it to this community, to this family,

so the family and their webs of influence

could also, alongside of you, step in and

have input and impact in this person's life

to call them back, to draw them home.

Let the community know the issue. And if

he refuses to listen to the family,

he says treat him as a tax collector

or a gentile. Treat him as someone who

who isn't living under and surrendered to the

the values of Christ,

the gospel itself.

Treat them as as one who who's outside

the faith.

Treat them as if they don't know Jesus

because that's what they're demonstrating. And it doesn't

say, hey. Treat them like they don't know

Jesus. It's us and them.

Because what's Jesus' thrust all throughout the the

scriptures of poke folks who don't know him?

It it's not, hey. Write them off.

I'm done with you. Excommunication.

No more to be said or done. But

treat them like a person who doesn't know

Christ.

How do we pursue people who don't know

Christ? They now become the mission field. Treat

treat them as someone who who strayed so

far. Now now you you you can't actually

share the intimate realities of family life with

them because they've stepped away and outside the

family. Treat them like someone you're pursuing,

That we'd be a people who would go

after them. And folks, this is this is

delicate,

difficult, and crazy difficult and hard, isn't it,

to actually pursue folks? I know I'm looking

around the room here, and I can't see

through the screen, but I imagine in the

other rooms, they're gathered here today, plus at

home. There are folks we're thinking about right

now going, yeah. I don't know what that's

supposed to look like right now.

And we'll get to that.

To step into the the mess of another

person's life,

man, this is wild.

It's a difficult place to be. To keep

them from tanking and destroying their world as

personal

and as invasive as this is,

folks, hear this. These are Jesus's words, not

Mark's. This is loving.

In fact, probably one of the most loving

things you could do for a person.

Says about God that

the father disciplines the one he loves.

Discipline isn't isn't, hey. You're wrong. You need

to be punished.

Discipline is, how how do I bring you

back to a place of alignment? How do

I how do I move you back? How

do I encourage you back to a place

where you're falling hard after Jesus?

And as we talked about last week, at

the core of this is humility.

There's there's got to be a place in

our life, my life, as we step into

someone else's world and exist in someone who's

who's straying, that that there's a reality that

that that

is that comes from our spirit, our our

our core as we pursue people.

Humility must be at the core of confrontation.

And I believe when we when we get

into these spaces, we've got a few choices.

And here's the here's the choices I see

us making all the time. Choice number one,

when you find out someone's someone's walked away

or straying or involved in some kind of

a pattern in their life that you know

is not moving them toward Christ, and you're

in a relationship with them, choice number one

is this,

shame.

Shame.

How dare you? How could you do this?

What were you thinking?

So we step in and we wanna bring

shame. We want the person to feel guilt

like, Hey, you're not following Jesus. Here's why.

Here's the reasons why I see you not

following Christ.

And some of us have been recipients of

that. Amen? Let's raise hands. Anybody treats you

that way? Oh, really? Four of us?

I know some of you have been around

church a little longer than that.

The reality is is we're we're uncomfortable with

other people's

infractions. We're uncomfortable with other people's

waywardness.

And rather than go after the heart of

the person, what oftentimes

erupts in us, erupts in me, is something

that makes me so uncomfortable makes me want

to point it out in you because I'm

uncomfortable.

Do you see the lack of humility in

that? It's not about the person who's straying,

it's about me because I'm uncomfortable.

So let let me actually speak guilt and

shame into your world and into your life.

And I know we've been recipients of it,

and maybe inadvertently,

cleverly,

we've actually been

the one who has actually laid it out

before other people.

Choice number one, I would I would argue

not humility.

Is there agreement?

Not humility. Choice number two, which I think

is a go to favorite of mine and

ours,

who am I to deal with anyone else's

sin?

Right?

I got stuff.

Anybody that gets close enough to me knows

I got stuff going on in my life.

I,

who am I?

Who who am I to actually go after

the, you know, the speck in your eye

when I'm walking around with a plank coming

out of my own eye? Like, who what

what what would give me the right to

speak and step into anyone else's life? And

and that sounds like humility at first blush.

Folks, it's not.

That's still all about me. Who am I?

You're asking a question about about you.

What what about the question like, who are

they?

Where are they? I I don't think that

we have to land at a place of

perfection to ever step into anyone else's life

because that would never happen.

That doesn't happen in any of our worlds

in our lives, but in relationship, who am

I to step into someone else's life? I'm

the one God's placed me in a relationship

with, and I'm aware of what's going on

in their life, maybe maybe in a way

no one else is even aware of. That's

who you are.

But but not to do that,

I don't think that's humility at all.

So if we're taking a multiple choice test,

choice one, not humility, choice two, not humility,

I believe Jesus is pointing us to choice

number three,

honestly and courageously stepping into the mess in

someone's life.

Honestly

and courageously

stepping in the mess of someone else's life,

all the while knowing I don't have my

act fully together either. And as I'm following

Jesus, as I'm a struggler, as I'm a

stumbler in this walk to follow Jesus,

it doesn't take me out of the equation

that there's something going on in your world,

in your life that's damaging you. And I

I see it imploding you, and it's not

gonna lead in a place that you want

it to be.

God's called us to step into each other's

lives. This is real humility. This is what

it means to live the real life with

Jesus, his kingdom in you. Not just all

about what we receive, but but how we

live and function as a community, as a

family. Jesus, over and over in Matthew, refers

to us as a family, how how we

take care of the family.

And just so we're clear,

I want to be really clear about this.

This is a great principle Jesus is calling

us to. He's not saying, Hey, this is

for you virtuous noble people, you super Christians

who wanna go the extra mile.

He's not saying that. What he's saying is

this is our responsibility and our obligation

to be in a family together. If my

brother was wayward, I would get on a

plane, fly to his town and go after

him. He's saying, you'd do that for a

blood relative?

Guess what? We're blood relatives. We're tied by

the blood of Jesus.

Go after. It's an obligation. It's a responsibility

we have.

And though that's true, and it is true,

it doesn't erase the reality that it requires

a total dependence upon the Holy Spirit to

do this work. A total dependence. Active restoration

is a supernatural work of the Spirit.

Active restoration, for us to engage and step

into that, is something way beyond what we

what we think or feel or imagine. There's

a supernatural reality that the spirit of God,

only the spirit of God can do in

and through us, and in the in and

through the life of the person that we're

pursuing.

I I don't discipline anyone. I don't restore

anyone,

but God calls us to be instruments and

tools in each other's lives that we would

be a part of the work that he's

up to in their life.

And this is where that veil that we

think exists between heaven and earth is just

completely erased. When Jesus died, the veil was

torn in two, and we refer to this

all the time around here.

Hey. Here's the gospel. The kingdom of heaven

is here.

There there's there's no distinction now

significantly between us being citizens of the kingdom

here and for eternity. The kingdom of God

is here. The veil has been ripped in

two. It connects heaven and earth. And Jesus

says, truly, I say to you, whatever you

bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,

and whatever you loose on earth shall be

loosed in heaven. And again I say to

you, if two of you agree on earth

about anything they ask, it will be done

for them by my father in heaven.

You see restoration is completely dependent upon the

spirit of God. It's only God who's gonna

move in the life of another person. It's

only God who's going to allow what you're

saying to them to ring true for them

in their mind and their heart and and

and them be able to turn and respond.

Inherent in here, though the word prayer never

emerges, it's clearly here in the text.

He says wherever two or three of you

agree on anything, not just you and I

agree that this person's out of line, that

you and I agree, that he agrees, that

we're praying, that we're, we're dependent upon the

Holy Spirit to know is this a, is

this a reality? Is this something going on?

Is this something you're calling us to step

into? And he says, wherever two or three

of you are gathered in my midst, where

whatever you ask in my name, I'm gonna

do for you.

Over the years

over the years, by virtue of the role

that I've played in the church for a

long time,

I've had opportunity not just in church life,

but in my family life and my friendships

to actually

step into someone's world and

and be the person says, is is this

what how you want to live? Is this

really what God's called you to?

And that's a scary place to be.

I've lost sleep.

I've chewed the inside of my mouth to

bit

in the anxiety

of what it looks like to step into

someone's life and to have not only the

audacity,

but the calling

to step into the world that that someone's

in and the chaos that they're in to

point it out. And that's a delicate and

scary

and sacred place to be.

And I've often wondered, how do I know?

How do you know that that this is

what God's called you to do?

I don't think God's called us to be,

the kind of believers, legalistic

believers that walk around pointing out everybody's sin.

But the people that we do life together,

the people that we're in relationship, the people

that we'd say are family or connected to

us, or walking and following Jesus together, these

are the people we've made a commitment to.

How do I know I'm supposed to step

in? How do I know I'm supposed to

be the one? And I've created a litmus

test. I can't give you chapter and verse

for it. Probably could argue it's biblical.

But I know this. As I've prayed

multiple times, god,

is this right? Is this what you want

me to do? I know this.

I know that if I don't do it,

I'm being disobedient

is how I know I'm supposed to do

it.

It it feels like a holy entrapment because

it's not something I wanna do, and yet

I know if I don't do this, I'd

be being disobedient to what I know God's

called me to do.

And prayer dependency

is the undercurrent here. There's a dependency upon

the spirit of God. He says where two

or three of you agree on anything, that

we would be, people who are are asking

God for the direction. And I've heard this

text quoted probably a thousand times, but never

in the context that's implied here. I'm not

saying those other other spaces aren't valid, but

when he says where two or three of

you agree on anything, he's not saying, hey,

two or three of you can agree that

you want something to happen. You can gang

up on Jesus, rub the lamp, and Aladdin

provides.

I I don't think that's what he's saying

here. He said, where two or three of

you agree that this is in accordance with

my will and what I want. And specifically,

what he's talking about here is is discipline,

stepping into someone's life, stepping into the the

heart and and chaos of a person's life,

the mess of a person's life and saying,

God wants more for you than this. God

wants better for you than this.

And it's delicate.

It's difficult,

and it's painful.

There was a guy at my church years

ago, not this church, another church in another

state. And, his kids were in my youth

group, two boys were in my youth group.

And I I hate this story because it's

too familiar. It's familiar

as as recently as the last few weeks

of somebody that I know.

He he stepped out on his wife, had

an affair, decided that she was all that

he was looking for, and divorced his wife,

in essence, divorced his family,

moved to a a different state, created a

whole new life for this woman,

who this guy, I thought, was a solid

believer. Now it's okay all of a sudden

to live with a woman he's not married

to and

all that goes with that and the confusion

of all that.

Stage one, stage two, stage three, stage four,

all the people that are involved, the church,

personal friends, one on one, two or three

on one, I mean, the whole deal. And

he he lived in the reality of the

consequences

of his decisions.

And

he was separated from the body of Christ.

He he separated himself from the body of

Christ, and he was living in the distance

that that's created between people who once did

life with him and were family. He no

longer had that family relationship because something had

changed. Something had broken,

Not only with the people that were close

to him, but with the church.

And what I love about this story, unlike

so many of the stories that you and

I know, and some of you are dealing

with some of these realities in your own

world and life right now, Jeff returned home.

It's a great

end of a story. Jeff returned home. Jeff

found forgiveness

in the turmoil of his life.

And the same forgiveness he found between he

and Jesus, it took him years

to step back into that space with his

wife, with his now grown children, with their

children, with with people in his world and

life. He he he he got to experience

and is experiencing what it looks like to

come home, to be restored. And and if

you believe that that's anything less than hard

work, it it it makes a beautiful story.

You know, we watch a lot of Hallmark

stuff this time of year. I don't, but

some of y'all do. It always ends happy.

There's a happy ending to this.

There is a happy ending, but the happy

ending that this guy's living is day to

day trust issues, day to day the tension

and and the turmoil that happens

in restoring relationships all throughout the church. And

we'll talk a little bit more about what

forgiveness looks like next weekend.

But but but that's that's the place God's

called us to. Jesus wraps up this discourse

with one of his favorite reminders to his

people. And I love this. It's it's what

Christmas is all about. It's what's in this

text. It's what you'll see at the end

of Matthew 28 when he's leaving, and he

says, hey. Hey. It's better that I go.

I'm going to send the Holy Spirit to

be with you. But but trust me,

I'll be with you always, even to the

end of the age.

He says in verse 20, For where two

or three are gathered in my name, there

I am among him. There I am among

them. I'm with you.

God promises to be with us in this.

Jesus is with us in the pursuit no

matter the outcome.

Hear that. Jesus is with you,

with us in this pursuit

to see to see the wayward come home

no matter what the outcome, whether they do

or they don't. And I think oftentimes we

look at passages of scripture, and we want

this to be like, if I do this,

this, this, you gave me four stages. If

I follow these four stages, it's gonna happen.

Maybe, hopefully,

Jesus will never force a person in a

heart to return.

That's that's a violation of relationship. He wants

a person to turn and to change.

And I walk through these

stages and chapters with people, and what breaks

my heart oftentimes is we've gone at step

one. Hey. Go one on one. Go privately.

Go go a few on one. And what

happens oftentimes in church life is that you

get offended and you just walk out and

go to another church. You take all the

stuff you never dealt with here, onto your

next church, because somebody has come here leaving

somewhere else, and we've done all the reality

of what you've taken from your last church

and brought it here.

I mean, in a in a sweet and

kind way, this family's messed up.

Yeah.

And then and then the messed up, God's

calling us to a a place of walking

with him and walking together with him. And

rather this than this being a formula for

how to get it right and how to

fix it, I think you'd be walking away

from the text disappointed and mad because that's

not what Jesus is getting at.

Rather than a formula, Jesus gives us a

pattern that demonstrates

our dependency and obedience to him.

I'm dependent on him. I I can't make

anyone come home.

You can't make anyone come home

as much as I know you want to.

I know we're praying. I'm praying for people

in my life. You're praying for people in

your life, and

and, boy, sometimes you wish you could. You

wish god would just do it.

He'll he'll chase him down, and he'll use

you to do that, but he's not gonna

force a heart to turn. That that's up

to the person responding to him.

And so it's the call in my life,

the call in your life that we'd be

men and women who are obedient,

obedient to follow in what he's called us

to do.

This is divine guidance,

and and there's a lot of encouragement here

for us who are called to actually step

into the life of someone else. And and

I know we've spent our whole time talking

about one side of the coin. I want

to end closing, talk about the other side

of the coin. There's great principles here for

us as we're called to actually step into

the mess in someone's life. Great principles. He

even gives us, hey, stage one, stage two,

stage three, stage four. But but but to

think it's all about what we're supposed to

do in confronting would miss some of what

I think is here in the text.

He's calling us to step into people's lives

with love and humility and utter dependency upon

the spirit. And that being true, let's not

miss

how a person who receives this ought to

receive this.

Because a lot of us in this room,

all of us in some way, shape, or

form are people who probably need to receive

this.

When when he speaks about, hey, he leaves

the 99 to go after the one, I

think if we're not careful, here's what we

think about that.

Well, it must be one of those things

that doesn't happen very often. You know, the

flock's out there, there's 99, every once in

a while someone goes astray.

And so he leaves the 99 and, you

know, he'll go after the one.

I don't think that's the text. I think

the text is the one matters so much

to him that he'll go after the one.

He'll go after the one.

This isn't something that's that's random and doesn't

happen often. This is the stuff that that

that happens

often in our life, my life, your life.

He's given us some instruction on what it

means to be a recipient of someone who's

coming after you and saying, Hey, I want

to sit down and have a conversation with

you about your life. I don't know your

story, but I know mine. I've walked with

Jesus fifty five years, maybe even a year

more than that.

And I've never left my faith. I've never

left the church, but I'd be a liar

if I didn't tell you I left the

reservation.

I've left it.

Sometimes will willfully and knowingly, and other times,

it it took a brother or sister to

sit me down and go, you left the

reservation.

What's going on?

Couple weeks ago, I forgot which pastor it

was, Tim, Dave, Dave, one of them. They

said, hey, we should we should try to

live lives that aren't easily offended.

Well, that's great for them.

I'm easily offended.

I'm I'm even more easily offended when you

come after me and point something out in

my life that ain't right.

In fact, when I'm offended, I get defensive,

and that's how it rolls.

I was in,

I was in seminary

years ago,

and

I'd I'd met a guy and we were

meeting, for bible study on Wednesday nights and

months and months ago into this. And he

said to me

one week, he said, man, I'd love to

get dinner with you next week. And so

at the time, my dinner of choice was

a Big Mac and a chocolate shake because

that's a good that's a good meal. So

I remember meeting with him at McDonald's, and

he said,

but it's really good to be together with

you. I said, well, thank you. It's good

to be together with you. And he said,

I I I have an observation about your

your life, if if you don't mind. And

I said, sure.

And he said, You've done a really good

job of integrating Jesus into your life.

And I felt pretty swelled up. Like, Well,

thank you. I'm glad you noticed that. I've

worked really hard at that. And he said,

No, I think that's your sin.

What? I

What? I didn't see that coming, put my

shake down. What do you mean that's my

sin? He goes, yeah, you've done a really

good job of integrating Jesus into your life,

but but nothing's really changed. I've known you

for a while. Your your language is still

the same. I hear your heart and your

motives that comes out every time you have

a conversation.

I know that you know that I know

that there's behavior and activities that are going

on in your life have nothing to do

with following Jesus.

Is that how you wanna live?

Yeah. Thank you for the corridor. That was

helpful.

I felt it.

I felt it in my gut and in

my spirit. I I

I felt the hair on the back of

my neck go up. I I was as

offended and defensive as I've ever been. And

so rather than going, man, thanks for sharing

that with me,

I said, well, how so?

And I know he didn't do this,

but he opened up a piece of paper

in my mind, and it rolled across the

whole floor of the restaurant.

And he started going through a list of

stuff. It didn't happen that way. But in

my mind, that's exactly what took place. He

goes, man, I would love to to meet

with you every week before bible before bible

study. And you and I study the scriptures

together. You and I pray together. Let let's

let's walk. Let's talk about these things. Let's

walk through these things.

Pardon me if I get emotional.

I know where I'd be today had Doug

not stepped into my life.

He changed the trajectory

of my life.

I know. This isn't hyperbole. I know where

I would be today, and it wouldn't be

here.

That's real life with Jesus, the kingdom in

you.

That's the family we belong to. That's what

God's called us to. You have the opportunity

to step into someone's world and someone's life

maybe no one else would ever do and

change the trajectory of someone's walk with Jesus.

This week as we move into

a new week, moving toward a holiday,

you'll move out of here. There's lots of

things going on this weekend. But before you

do, let let can I just ask you

to bow your heads for twenty seconds?

And let's ask Jesus this question.

God, who are you calling me to pursue?

Even as I've heard your word today, there's

people that come to mind.

Do I have the relationship?

Is it me that you want to use

to step in? And I know my life's

not perfect, but, man, I see them tanking.

And to sit back and watch doesn't seem

right. I don't know what to do. Show

me what that's supposed to look like.

God, would you right now bring if this

is you speaking, would you bring

someone to mind

in each of our lives?

You can

raise your head

and open your eyes this week.

I don't know if you've ever done this

before.

We encourage you every week. You you know

next steps. Here we go. Live it out.

Yeah. Live it out.

How are you gonna know what's going on

in someone's life? How are you gonna know

what's right between,

you and God, and you and the other

person, if you're not in the word, if

you're not praying? So would you live it

out with us this week? We're gonna ask

these same questions as we step into that.

That God would use us in a profound

way,

to be the hands and feet of Jesus,

to be the family he's called us to

be. I'm gonna end where I started.

Paul says, we ought always to give thanks

to God for you, brothers and sisters, as

it is right, because your faith is growing

abundantly.

And the love of every one of you

for one another is increasing.

God, I thank you for Tuiverse Church.

I thank you for the men and women

in this venue and across all of our

campuses today who who love you.

And and I thank you for the reality

that that our faith is growing

day by day.

God, thank you for doing that. That's the

work of your spirit within us. With grateful

hearts, we say thank you. And thank you

that our love for one another is growing

in abundance.

God, would you move our our love for

one another beyond

ethereal feelings

to practical application as we seek to live

this life together? It's in the powerful name

of Jesus we pray.

Amen.

Isn't it great to be in the church?

Isn't it great to be in the family?

Isn't it great to be in worship today?

I heard you. Let's stand and worship Jesus

together.