Real Life | Part 7 | Dave Gruhn

Alright. Hey. Good morning.

Good morning here in live. If you don't

know, if you're visiting with us,

we call this venue live. We also have

a couple other campuses, a couple other venues

here on this campus that we're gonna welcome.

So if you're ready, let's say good morning

to Roane County, good morning to Bearden over

in Amped Blend on three. Ready? +1, 23.

Good morning. Good morning. Hey. Hey. Awesome. You

guys did that really great. Thank you for

that. Hey. I'm Dave. And,

something about me.

My wife and I, we get to do

something every fall,

because she's a teacher. We get to

I get to. That's a way to say

it. Have to get to.

01:10, 02:20. Whatever it takes. Right?

Sell sell tickets at the local high school

football game. And we in particular, we've been

doing this for years. I can't remember exactly

how long, but a friend of hers, they

sell the tickets,

three feet away. I take the ticket and

rip it in half and everybody's like, why

did I just went from there to there.

Why do you do that? I'm like, you

know, it's the school system, the model of

efficiency.

So we do things.

But in

we work the visitors gate in particular. I

love working the visitors gate. You get to

see all the the people that are coming

and, cheer on their other team and I

get to harass some of them. I've in

fact, I get to embarrass my wife frequently

by harassing the opposing team. And, it was

the last game of the year. This is

actually a true story. There was a woman.

She came and as she came through the

gate,

I took her ticket, ripped it, and I

have to turn back around and I give

her the other half. And she looks at

me and she says, which side is the

visitors?

I looked at her. I thought she was

messing with me.

Seriously?

I looked at the big ginormous

stands on the home side and I looked

at the smaller stands on the visitor side

and I said to her, you know, it's

those really ginormous stands over there. We wanted

to make sure the visitors had all the

seats they need.

And she looked at me and she was

like, that was a really dumb question. And

I said, yep. That was a dumb question.

You're right.

Because guess what folks? There are such things

as dumb questions.

Anybody who says there's no such thing as

a dumb question just said something really dumb.

The majority of the dumb question had somebody

say, I disagree with that. I'm gonna prove

you wrong right here.

The majority of dumb questions come when we're

not

paying attention.

All she had to do is open her

eyes. The story was right there in front

of her. Ginormous stance with the name of

the home team on them.

Visitor side right in front of your face.

Just pay attention.

Just pay attention. And when things don't make

sense when we're paying attention, then you can

ask questions.

Teachers will tell you all the time the

dumb question in their class is the one

I just answered.

The one that I just gave you the

answer to. The ones you're not paying attention

to. And what we're gonna see today is

is that Jesus

gets what seems to be a dumb question

from his

disciples,

but is it?

As we walk away this weekend, we're gonna

see that real life with Jesus requires humility,

builds resilient faith, and pursues

people. This is the real life that we're

called to. This series is called Real Life

Jesus, His Kingdom and You. And in this

series, it's about following Jesus in everyday life,

but following Jesus

in everyday life in his kingdom.

Living under the rule and reign of Jesus

in all the places where we live our

lives.

As we come to Matthew chapter 18, Jesus

Matthew 18 · chapter mention

is answering the question

that we may all end up asking. It's

very likely we we end up asking

Jesus, what's my place in all of this?

And all that's going on, what's my part

in your story? What's my part to play

within your story? And so we left off

with a pair of balls in chapter 13.

And we come here to chapter 18 and

through Live It Out each week. We're filling

in the gaps in between.

Death.

That he begins to talk about his journey

to Jerusalem.

And and it's where we see Peter make

a great confession.

Jesus says to him, who do you say

that I am? And he says, you're the

Messiah.

But then he gets rebuked as as he

rejects the idea that the promised savior of

Israel would have to go suffer and die.

Of Israel would have to go suffer and

die.

Jesus is then we see him transfigured on

a mountain and it's an amazing moment.

And then at the end of chapter 17,

Jesus performs a miracle specifically for Peter.

Catch a fish and in the the mouth

of that fish, you're gonna find a coin

and you're gonna take that coin and you're

gonna pay the temple tax for you and

for me, for both of us. And it

seems, at that point, that Peter is being

set apart that that he has something special,

and the disciples are confused. They're a little

bit disoriented

about Jesus's kingdom and so they ask this

question.

Yeah. And that

time, the disciples came to Jesus. Yeah.

It's the greatest in the

Whoever humbles himself, like this child, is the

greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives

one such child in my name receives me,

but whoever causes one of these little ones

who believe in me to sin, it would

be better for him to have a great

millstone fastened around his neck and to be

drowned in the depth of the sea.

Enter life crippled or lame than with two

hands or two feet to be thrown into

the eternal.

And if your eye causes you to send,

tear it out and throw it away.

To not despise one of these little ones.

For I tell

you that in heaven, their angels always see

the face of my father who is in

yeah, it's a 100 sheep, and one of

them has gone astray. Does he not leave

the 99 on the mountains and go in

search of the one to one to one

to one to one to one. It's truly,

I say to you, he rejoices over it

more than over the 99 that would never

win a story.

So it is not the will of my

father, who was in heaven, that one of

these little ones,

starting line. That's the that's the beginning. And

to reverse, we talk about this a bunch.

The idea of,

Biblical humility. The idea of Biblical humility is

right understanding

with what God says. It's understanding and agreeing

with what God says

about us, about the world, about what's right,

that we would submit our ideas and opinions

who forms those. That's the idea

of humility. And so, Jada, he doesn't start

answering their question directly. Instead, he calls a

child. Now, the type of child here, this

isn't like a teenager. This isn't a middle

schooler. It's not even really a grade schooler.

This is a toddler sized child.

And he he calls this child, and he

he puts them before them and says, this

is what greatness in my kingdom looks like.

Naivete. Right? Like, we won't be naive like

a child, that we would be that we

would be dependent

like a child.

He's saying become like a child in one

specific way, humility. You see, a child, they

they may want to do it their way.

Some of you are like, oh, you don't

know my child. Right? Like, my child was

not humble or dependent. They they were a

little rebel from the beginning. Out of the

gate, they were like, me, mine, I'll do

it my way. Okay? So so in this,

we're saying, generally speaking,

a child may want to do something,

but they don't yet have the ability. There's

a dependence that they have on their parents

eat, that they would have a place to

sleep, that they would have clothing to be

protected, that they would have their needs met.

It requires

that they would be dependent on a parent.

Our middle school pastor here at Harris Lane,

Josiah.

Josiah

was,

with his daughter, Eden. I think his wife

maybe had a meeting here.

He had his daughter, and so they did

what any good Christian family does. They went

and got Chick fil A because that's where

we eat. Don't you know? That's where we

eat all the time. We're Christians. We eat

at Chick fil A.

They got Chick fil A and, came back

and they were in the lobby here. And,

able to eat her dinner and,

she loves Chick fil A sauce.

Who doesn't love Chick fil A sauce? Right?

Like, this is amazing.

And, so she has the container but she

can't open it but she wants it open.

Takes it, and he opens it, and it

just made her food delicious. Everything is better,

which Chick fil A sauce.

It was a great picture of

a humble dependence. Man, I want this, but

I know I can't even open this by

myself yet. Would you? Would you open this?

For me

So Jesus is pointing to this type of

child and says, unless you turn and become

like children, you will never enter the kingdom

of heaven. But whoever humbles himself

like this child is the greatest in the

kingdom of heaven.

There's a turn of phrase there and it's

significant.

They just said, who's the greatest?

And he says, the one who enters the

kingdom.

Did you catch that?

Who's the greatest? In order to enter the

kingdom, you have to have humility. You have

to recognize your need. You have to recognize

your dependence. You have to be one who

says, God, I recognize that I could never

save myself and because of that recognition, I

will trade my life,

my old dead life. I will trade it

for new life in Christ.

We humble ourselves

in order that God would then rule and

reign over our lives.

And when we do that, we enter the

kingdom of God. And as we do, Jesus

says, you're now become the greatest. And so

which one is the greatest? We the greatest.

I don't know. I mean,

he's just said, if if you humble yourself,

you're all going to be the greatest.

It's not about that. There is about aspiring

to greatness

in the kingdom. And how do we do

that?

We allow Jesus to rule and reign our

hearts and minds.

That's

greatness.

So what does that look like for us?

It means that we don't have to build

our resume.

Even our spiritual resume, it's not about that.

It's not about building our reputation.

Allow Jesus to shape our character. He would

shape who we are.

It means that we would be okay with

being invisible to the people that we serve,

that we would lower ourselves and elevate others.

That means that there would be a marked

difference in how we lead in the workplace,

how we teach, how we as students, how

we learn, how do we interact with our

other students, and how do we interact with

our teachers. Students, if you're known in your

classroom

as being the loudest and the most disruptive,

turn.

That's not a badge of honor.

In our in our workplaces, if if you're

known for being a boss who's a tyrant,

turn.

That's not a badge of honor.

It's it's a life that says, woah. Our

life is to elevate others and we

we succeed

when we help others to be elevated. That's

the life. And as we enter into God's

kingdom, it takes those things that the world

says are most important and it flips them

upside down.

The world then is going to put pressure

on us. He's clear

that that it's not just you're gonna enter

the kingdom, and that if you if you

do,

temptation is gonna come.

And it's important to know that there's going

to be pressure.

And as a follower of Jesus, you can't

wait until the pressure comes

to start building your faith.

I hope you know that already.

When the pressure comes,

it's the time when we draw upon

the faith that's been built

when the pressure wasn't there.

That's how it works. The foundation we build

on matters. Jesus was really clear at the

end of the sermon on the mount that

the foundation that we build upon

matters, that we would build upon the truth

of who Jesus is and our job is

to build now before the pressure comes. But

many of us maybe you're like, I'm already

in the pressure cooker.

You can still build faith in the midst

of the pressure,

but it's not something we sit by and

just passively wait for. It requires great intentionality

that we would build our faith. Our part

is to build when the pressure is off.

And as followers of Jesus, we build faith

that stands

against the world's pressures.

Little

ones, he's no he takes a child and

then he talks about the humble ones.

He's no longer talking about that little child.

From there on, the little children that he's

talking about are those that are in the

kingdom. How do you enter the kingdom? You

you choose faith. You believe in Jesus. You

become a new creation. You become reborn. You

become a follower

of Christ.

And now when he's referring to these little

ones,

he's referring to his followers.

And he says that there's going to be

temptation. Verse seven, woe to the world

for temptations to sin. Woe to the world.

Now it's interesting here, next week we're gonna

talk about things within the church, but he

begins by talking about things outside of the

church.

He's talking about the world systems. He's talking

about the things that come, the temptations to

sin that are brought on by the world.

And one of the ways

that the world

tempts us to sin is to rebel against

Jesus

by bringing

opposition.

We know this. We I hope that we

know this. That if you follow Jesus, you'll

face opposition. And it's gonna come in two

forms.

The first one is the one that Jesus

is almost referring to specifically,

only it's kind of cloaked, and we're gonna

take a look at this.

The first one is persecution.

And and around the world to this day,

there's followers of Christ who are facing persecution.

You may be well aware of what's going

on right now in Africa, specifically in Nigeria,

but it's been going on. I mean, it's

been going on since the days of Christ.

There's been

persecution. There's been martyrs. People exchange their life

for the truth of the gospel.

There's never been a time where that's gone

away. There's people groups around the world. And

so you may be familiar, but if if

that's just coming to your awareness,

this isn't uncommon. In fact, there's a ministry

called the voice of the martyrs. And voice

of the martyrs in particular is really interesting.

I I went to their website this week.

I'm like, I wanna read about this ministry.

It began in the sixties. A couple really

wanted to raise awareness about the oppression of

the church, the martyrdom that was going on

around the world. And it's interesting because that

in their statement on why they exist as

an organization,

it doesn't say, in order that we would

stop persecution of the church.

It says in order that we would raise

awareness and that faith would be built,

that the faith of the people around the

world would be raised,

that would be built up

because

that we would be made aware that there's

people who are trading their life for the

truth of the gospel.

And that

is encouraging.

And you're like, wow, how is that encouraging?

It's worth it. And Jesus says it.

So when Jesus talks about cutting off hands

and feet, his audience would have heard something

very different than what we hear. What we

hear is hyperbole.

I would have taught this. A year ago,

I would have said that's just hyperbole.

And then I read second Maccabees chapter seven.

Now, second Maccabees is a book that's from

the intertestable

period, that the time between,

when we would say the old testament ended

and then the new testament begins in the

days of Jesus.

And in that period, there's a rebellion that

went on called the Maccabean revolt. And in

that revolt,

the the Greeks at the time, they wanted

to bring down that revolt

And so there was a guy who there

was a king

and his name was Anticus

Epiphanes, a Greek king, one hundred and fifty

years before Jesus. He was trying to stamp

out the Jewish faith. And one of the

ways that he tried to stamp out the

Jewish faith was by defiling them

by what they ate.

And so you may be familiar that you

can't eat pork as a Jewish person. And

so he would he brought them and he

said, if you won't eat the pig, right,

if you're not gonna eat the swine, then

you will be put to death.

And in second me second second second second

second second second second second second second second

second second second second second second second second

second second second second second second second second

second second second second second second second second

second second second second second second second second

second second second second second

if they would not renounce

their faith,

if they wouldn't say that they would they

would reject

Yahweh, the God of the Old Testament. Right?

They would reject

God and that they would

go ahead and just concede.

So the first brother was executed

brutally.

His tongue was cut out, his scalp was

removed, his hands and his feet were severed,

all while his brothers and his mother watched,

and then he was thrown into the fire.

Did you hear that?

Jesus is using something that his audience was

well aware of that there was a persecution

that had happened in their history a They

exchanged

their

they exchanged their life for faith.

And he says it's better for that person

that they would recognize

the permanence of of life with me.

And so the brothers refused to break and

the story goes on, it goes through them

and when the third brother's turn came, he

voluntarily sticks out his tongue, extends his hand

and he says to them and he says

this, I got these from heaven and because

of his laws, I disdain them and from

him, I hope to get them back again.

Even the king, it says, was impressed by

his faith, he killed him anyway.

That's the context Jesus's listeners lived in. They

knew suffering was possible and they knew that

staying faithful

might cost them everything, including

their life.

And he says it's better.

It's better that that you would lose a

limb.

Losing a limb is temporary.

Being separated from Jesus is forever. It's better

that you would hold on, and so this

is extreme.

And for us, that's not our cultural reality.

Okay? Our cultural reality is different, but there's

a second way that the world does tempt

us. There is something called an allurement. It

it it numbs us. The the world in

North America numbs us into thinking there is

no threat.

So if persecution doesn't work, the world offers

attractive

alternatives.

The world offers you something else, comfort, status,

acceptance,

security.

If you'll just compromise,

if you'll just consume what everyone else consumes,

believe what everyone else believes,

value what everyone else values.

If you look at the things that are

most important in our lives

and there's there's no difference of what's most

important to us

than any other normal American, we may have

a problem.

I'm I'm gonna get up in my business

If I value the things most

that every other American

values

most,

it's an indication

of a problem in my heart.

We have to be really careful, this is

a real threat.

As we're looking there at the things that

seem so obvious, the subtle is coming from

the other direction.

And so I wanna start, I'm gonna tell

you moms and dads, this is gonna go

PG 13. I'm gonna give you an opportunity.

If you have a kid and you're like,

I don't really know that I wanna go

PG 13. Yeah. I'll give you a chance.

You can get up. You can leave right

now because we're gonna go PG 13. We

don't normally do that here, but we're gonna

go there because the world offers

alternatives, and the world's alternatives

have still never changed through all history.

It's about

power,

It's about

money,

and it's about sex.

These are the three. This is the world's

allurement, and the world has faked us out.

And now I wanna start by being crystal

clear.

Avoidance of all things. What the goal is

is that we would be faithful to Christ.

And so it's really important that you would

get this. Faithfulness

is sustained

intimacy

with Jesus. That's the

goal. Sustained

intimacy

with Jesus,

following Jesus closely.

Following Jesus closely, this is the goal. Okay?

Intimacy with Jesus is the goal, Not sin

avoidance but intimacy

with Christ is the goal. The way that

we're going to avoid the temptations of the

world is by staying close to Christ. It

requires a spirit empowered response.

Are we clear?

Because if we try to do this on

our own, many of us have tried this

method. I'll speak from my own experience. I've

tried this method. It does not work. You

just hold on tighter. If I just white

knuckle this thing through, maybe I'll be able

to to overcome. Maybe that I'll be able

to succeed.

So don't think you can just white knuckle

your way through this. I also wanna say

that I'm gonna name some stuff and I

don't have time to unpack every single thing

and there's going to be some that are

gonna require that you reach out for help.

Here's the deal,

it's on you.

It's on you.

If you know that one of the issues

that I'm gonna talk about is an issue

in your life, it's on

you to reach out for help or you'll

just stay stuck in a cycle

destroying your life over and over and over

again. There's a personal responsibility.

Sometimes we don't really

I wanna drive that home.

You're responsible for you.

You're responsible for your spiritual life.

You're responsible to make sure that you're being

intentional

with the stuff that you're putting in to

your heart and mind.

K. Are we clear?

Moms and dads, you had your warning. Here

we go.

When it comes to the world's alternative,

some things are obviously out of bounds. Okay?

There's some things that are obviously out of

bounds. If the world says something is out

of bounds,

surely, we should look and go, wait a

minute. What does the Bible say about something

being out of bounds?

We should be able to like, it shouldn't

take the world to go, hey, there's there's

a billionaire caught in affair at a Coldplay

concert on the kiss cam, and now we're

like, oh, okay. I guess affairs are out

of bounds.

Affairs

are out of bounds.

And hopefully we all say, yes. And if

you're in one,

confess,

repent,

turn, it may cost me my marriage.

Yes.

But don't let it cost you your life.

Don't don't be foolish.

That's the obvious.

K? Now let's go to the subtle. All

the things. Guess what? An emotional affair is

an affair. If you're trying to fill intimacy

with someone of the opposite sex or or

somebody that you would say, hey, I need

to fill this void,

in my life that my spouse isn't filling.

If you're not allowing Christ to fill that

void,

then you need to repent. Some of us,

we we try that it's statistics would say

many that are trying to fill that void

with things like pornography

or with drugs

or with alcohol

that we're trying to fill and numb the

pain in some way shape or form for

what we're not and so we think that

it's okay.

Every day you come home from work, you

have a drink, I'm gonna suggest you,

maybe that's a problem.

Maybe that's a problem.

We're not anti alcohol,

but what we are is like, wait. What

what's the artificial? What's the thing? What's the

substitute? What am I putting in? What's the

thing that I'm substituting

for my intimacy

with Christ?

What's the thing that I'm putting in my

life that I'm hoping just to numb the

pain?

And so

these are all things that are poison.

If you're getting drunk or high to numb

the pain, if you're like, well, it's legal,

pot's legal, it's cool, right? No. Not cool.

You may have heard this before. It's a

gateway drug. It is what it is.

It just leads to destruction and so we

need to go, wait. These things are obviously

out of bounds. So hopefully hopefully,

if one of those things resonates in your

heart and mind, we wanna encourage you, get

help. These aren't things, if you've been trying

for years to overcome the thing, then guess

what? It's not gonna change

this week because now you're really resolved. It's

gonna change when you reach out for help.

When you say, I've tried to overcome this

on my own.

I need help. I need the power of

God himself. I need the word of God.

I need the spirit of God, and I

need another follower of Christ

to come alongside.

Now I'm gonna put all of us into

it in the, what's maybe not obviously evil,

the subtle. It may be the social media

feed that keeps us wanting for more. It

keeps us longing for another person's life. It

keeps us thinking that I'm missing out. It's

comparison. I'm constantly comparison

my life to somebody else. Or maybe it's

it's binging TV shows in order just to

fill this idea. I mean, I come home

from work, I'm exhausted. I don't wanna interact

with my family. I'm just gonna binge a

show, check out and get up and grind

it out again tomorrow. After all, I do

live it out in the morning, so the

nights belong to me.

Maybe it's

a friend group.

You have the friend group and they're your

non Jesus friend group and you're so grateful.

Like I only have to put Jesus into

part of my life.

I have friends, I have coworkers

and and I you know, the thing is

I really and I'm gonna suggest you, if

you have friends and coworkers who don't know

Jesus, this is awesome. But here's where it

goes not awesome. You love the fact that

they don't know Jesus.

You love the fact that you get to

talk about Jesus on Sunday and Tuesday night

when you go to your group.

But the rest of the time, I'm cool

with it being me time. I'm cool hanging

out with the guys. I'm cool hanging out

with the gals.

I love that I don't have to have

Jesus in that part of my life.

Maybe it's the news cycle that keeps you

angry

because the news channel that you watch is

trying to make you angry.

Be wise.

Turn it off.

The sun's gonna come up tomorrow if Jesus

wants it to. Hallelujah and amen. Alright?

Turn it off if it's making you angry.

Okay? If it's making you angry, if you're

getting upset, if it's causing anxiety,

turn it off. I speak from experience.

And then later you can try and go

back and use it as a gauge

of a spiritual discipline.

In other words, am I able to watch

this and not become angry?

If I can, then I can watch it

again. If I can't, turn it back off.

There's more work, there's more layers.

And here's the goal, Okay? It's not just

that we would we would be people. It's

that we would have a strong faith because

we need a strong faith for the next

thing Jesus talks about. And it's that we

would be a people who pursue the one

who's missing. And he uses this parable talking

about a shepherd who goes after the lost

sheep.

And he says that my father doesn't desire

anyone to perish.

And so there's there's people that in our

life that were once following Christ, excuse me,

who no longer are.

Maybe they were part of Two Rivers Church,

but I wanna be clear, this isn't about

Two Rivers Church, this is about the kingdom

of God. And so there may be people,

they're still they're still following off

they're still following Jesus. They're just doing it

in another flock and that's cool. Okay? I'm

not talking about trying to talk people into

coming back to church at Two Rivers, but

I am talking about people who have wandered

away, people who have wandered off, the people

that you know in your life that have

wandered from the faith and that you would

pursue them.

I'm talking about the people who aren't here

yet.

Another group of people, they don't know Jesus

yet.

This is true. Statistics for years have said,

and and also our own,

waiting class bears out that the majority of

people end up at a church because somebody

invited them.

Some people, they end up here just because

they drove by and they saw the church

building, but many people, they end up there

because somebody invited them. And in my life,

for Kelly and I, there was a church

that we were part of and that church

was a hot mess, but

we ended up there and Jesus changed our

lives there

because a co worker said, hey, you should

come check it out. And we're like, okay,

we're looking for a church, we'll go check

it out. And and God used that, that

we do what we do today because of

what God did

in that

environment, okay? Not because of that church but

because of what Jesus did.

So it's important that we would be those

kinds of people.

And here's what ties this all together, the

kingdom of God inverts what

the world values

calling us to actively pursue people. We are

all the under shepherds of Jesus.

He's the shepherd,

he's the good shepherd, he's the one who

pursues and the way that he pursues people

is

us.

The way Jesus

pursues people is through you.

You're the one

who goes after

the one.

So the question is this,

are we actually living in Jesus' kingdom? I

think that's a question personally and it's a

question corporately.

We just finished up

something we call Quiet Waters. It's an opportunity

for us to spend twenty three hours actively

seeking Jesus together. Okay? That's the ultra simplified

version

and and during that time, we had this

imagery

that that we believe that God was calling

us to to not be people who have

one foot in the kingdom of the world

and one foot in the kingdom of God.

What's it look like for us to be

people who step both feet into the kingdom

of God, allowing him to rule and reign

over every area of our life? And that's

the invitation.

That's the invitation Jesus has for us.

Real life with Jesus requires humility,

and it builds resilient faith, and it pursues

people.

That's the life.

So real life with Jesus in his kingdom

requires that we would actively respond,

that we would be a people who

intentionally

seek what we're putting in, that we're people

who intentionally

seek what he's saying to

us. And so I wanna encourage you

that when we ask these questions in a

moment here that you wouldn't think this is

just cursory. This is the beginning. This is

the beginning two questions to begin a conversation

with Jesus to carry on throughout your week.

And so these are the two questions that

we're gonna sit on and and I'm gonna

suggest in the time that you have, you're

gonna have to focus in on one or

the other. You don't have time and I'm

gonna trust that the Holy Spirit will bring

to mind in your heart and mind the

one that he's asking you to focus in

on. And the first question is, what foundation

am I building?

The second question is, who is Jesus

asking me to pursue?

Now I want to encourage you that the

one of the things that would be

really encouraging is a sense of expect expectancy

right now, that you would break out your

phone, you would have a pen, whatever it

is that you would say, I really anticipate

Jesus will bring to mind something that I'm

building on or a person that he's calling

me to pursue and and then I would

write it down and I would take it

captive. And you're gonna have about thirty seconds

because this isn't to solve the question,

it's to begin a conversation.

And so if you have somebody's face

come to mind, if you have a name

that crosses your mind, if you have something

in your world

that crosses your mind, hey, you're really building

life on your four zero one ks. You're

really building your life on the the reputation

that you have at work. You're really building

your your your life upon

people thinking

that you're a really great person. Whatever that

is, allow Jesus to bring it to mind

and when he does, take it captive and

then I'm gonna tell you what we're gonna

do with it. Jesus, would you show

us in a very personal kind of way,

through the power of your spirit,

what is that you have for us?

Now I'm gonna ask you to take that,

hold it captive.

You wrote it down. And now you're gonna

have a conversation about that thing with Jesus

throughout the week. And I wanna encourage you

that that if you've never used our tool

called Live It Out, if you're visiting with

us and visiting one of our our our

campuses or our venues, in the middle of

your bulletin is something called Live It Out.

The better way is to to take your

phone, go online, go to 2rc.tv/liveitout.

It's it's meant to be used on your

mobile phone. It's a perfect layout on your

mobile phone.

And that you would take these questions into

your week with Jesus, that you would begin

to sort it out with him.

You would begin to work your way through

it. What's that look for me to stop

wishing that I could follow Jesus in my

everyday life and to start following Jesus

in your everyday life.

Living with both feet

in his kingdom.

That's the invitation

that we would walk with Jesus this week.

And the only way we can do this

is by this consistent diet of putting his

word in.

Consistent diet of res

like, resolve

that we would be intentional in seeking him.

Trusting the Holy Spirit's power.

Accepted.

It's not how we earn the Father's love,

it's because we're loved and because we're loved,

we put

spiritual practices

into place

in order that we would build faith so

we can follow Jesus

closely.

That's the life.

And what we're gonna do in now is

we're gonna remind ourselves

of the love that God has for us.

He is for us. He is not against

us. And he's called us to life because

the father doesn't want one to perish. That's

a reason for us to worship in all

of our venues. I'm gonna invite you to

stand. God, we're so grateful

that your love is far beyond anything that

we could ask or imagine,

that you love us more than we could

possibly ever even love ourselves, that that you

are for us and Jesus is proof of

that. And so we celebrate your love for

us now, in Jesus name.

Amen.