The Power to Change: Week 4

Good morning, Welcome to Church of the Crossing. My name is James,

and just give you a couple updates. Uh. Let's see, last week

of the Spanish ministry made a decision to go ahead and start meeting in the

gathering place. And that's months ahead of their official launch. Because for a

couple of weeks we had two whole roles filled up here in the front and

I loved it because they're all smiling at me and just going see, see,

see, And I wish you would do that. That would be so

much more encouraging while I preached. And but so they are now shifted into

the the gathering place. Last week, you know, just for a little

bit of worship, a little bit of the word. On last week they

have thirty seven of counting kids. Isn't that crazy? Amen? I think

that that ministry is gonna really explode and God is doing a great work there

all. So if you get a chance today, jump on the Facebook look

at Church of God Anderson. Their webs are their Facebook account. They wrote

an article about our church just this past Friday about all the work we're doing

in the community, So please check that out after I preach. But it's

a very encouraging work because a lot of you have been involved in these outreaches,

so very very encouraging things going around right now. We're seeing God to

work a lot of new people and just a lot of people are just being

so faithful. Well, today we're in our fourth week of our message series

of Power to Change, and let's just take some time to pray and ask

God to prepare our hearts. God, we just love you so much,

and we thank you for the opportunity to be in your house today to worship

you, to seek you, and so Lord, we just asked today's a

very challenging message, help us to step up and respond to it. In

Jesus name, we pray Amen. How many of you remember eighth grade?

Anyone still remember eighth grade? I loved eighth grade. That's when I met

my wife. I didn't know she was gonna be my wife, but that's

when g and I start going out. And in eighth grade, I was

on the track and field team. I was you could probably guess from looking

at me. I was more field than track. I was a shot put

discus guy and it was awesome. I got ribbons for throwing things. That's

pretty cool. And we went to our conference finals and it was at University

of Dayton. Our team, our middle school did absolutely horrible. I mean,

we stunk the place up. It was embarrassing actually, And so at

the end of the day, I was coming back from the track and field

side and I was walking towards the main stadium where they were doing the races

still, and my coach ros up to me says, Roberts, we got

an injured player. We need you. You're the only one. L Well,

he just said all this stuff to me real quick. And I'm a

team player, and he was like, hey, listen, Roberts, we

need you to run the last leg of the sixteen hundred relay. And so

I said, sure, Coach, what do I do? He says,

just grabbed the baton and run, so pretty simple. I didn't know it

was that simple. So I grabbed the baton and I ran. And have

you ever seen a video in slow motion? That's what I looked like compared

to the other runners. But I was running, you know, and I'm

going at it and I hit the last curb and I look up into the

stands where my whole team is and they're dying, laughing hysterically. And that's

when I realized that I was the pawn of a practical joke to no,

don't cry, it's okay. It was it was the nineties, like this

was okay back then, okay, and the whole team is dying laughing,

and it was a pawn, you know, just kind of lift the spirits

up after a bad day. I started dying laugh and I could hardly finish

the race, but I did. And also, you know that when I

got to the end of the line, all of my teams stood up and

was chanting my name. It was a cool moment. And nowadays the coach

would get sued, huh and fired. I'd have like one point three million

dollars for emotional distress. And but back then, I just got a cool

story. And it's actually one of my favorite memories of middle school. But

here's a thing, even though I lost that day last place, I love

to win. I'm a very competitive person. And I don't know about you,

but is anyone else in here do you love to win? Anyone else?

Rag your hand? Be honest, do you love to win? I

know it's not the spiritual thing. A lot of Christians are like, oh

no, no, no, you win, No, you win, No,

you win, like we get real spiritual whatever. And you know,

it's like not the Christian thing to want to come out first, But let

me tell you, it's just part of our nature. My best friend and

I from Wisconsin. He's a pastor. I'll be going up to his place

here in a few weeks to hunt the opening day of the Wisconsin deer season,

and he landed us this amazing, amazing spot. So the last week

we've gotten into three arguments, and the arguments are all about who gets to

shoot the first big buck that comes out. Now here's the thing. We're

both pastors, so we're not arguing, you know, who actually gets to

shoot it. We're arguing over no, no, no, you take the

shot. No no, no, no, no no, you take the

shot. And to be honest, we both want to do it. But

we both also even more than shooting that deer, we want to be more

humble than the other person. And so now we're in this huge humble competition

to see who can be more humble. And I want to win the humble

game, you know, because I want to be proud of myself and I

want to have bragging rights for being more humble than my friend. And so

we're in the middle of this humbling. But you guys get it all right,

there's just something. You know, we need a lot more counseling,

but you see, there's something built in us. We want to win.

Matter of fact, the Bible even addresses this and acknowledges this, and first

Corinthians nine twenty four is says, this is Paul talking. He says,

don't you realize that in a race, everyone runs, but only one person

gets the prize. So run to win. So Paul saying it, all

right, listen, the rest of the world competes, they go for it,

they want to win, they want to excel. And so if the

rest of the world is doing this for things that are temporary, how much

more should those of us who are following Christ when it comes to our spiritual

race, take it so serious that we should do every single thing we can

to excel so that we run like we want to win the spiritual race.

He said, Hey, if the world cares about it, how much more

should we care about our spiritual race? And so our first feeling today is

simply this, we are to run the spiritual race to win. Paul didn't

say run the finish. He didn't say run for fun. He didn't say,

you know, run just to get a participation trophy. He says,

run to win the spiritual race. And to quote the famous theologian Ricky Bobby,

he says, if you ain't first, you are last. It's in

the Bible run the win. And so if the scripture tells us that we're

to run to win, I wonder why so many of us feel like we're

not winning the spiritual race. We feel like we're felling a lot when it

comes to the spiritual race. We try to get closer to God, we

take two steps four than three steps back. We try to win over our

addictions, but then they just come back around and then we feel like we're

losing Relationally. Yeah, we want intimate, wonderful, close relationships, but

they just keep exploding. We want a great marriage, but it just keeps

getting dull. We want a great relationship with our children, but it keeps

exploding up in our face. Why is it that we are not overcoming the

stuff in our minds? Like we want to have spiritual victory over anxiety,

over worry, over all these things, Yet we don't feel like we're winning

these battles. So if we're supposed to win the spiritual race, why aren't

we winning? And the answer we're going to look at today is very simple.

Okay, the answer for us why are we're not winning is so many

of us have been trying too long. We've been trying too long. My

small group we meet on Monday nights. I chuckled Monday Night because as we

were going along talking about our spiritual goal for this series, everybody kept saying,

I'm trying, I'm trying, I'm trying. I'm like, oh,

you don't know what's gonna happen Sunday because I'm not, you know. And

so the problem is, in reality, we actually have a theology of trying,

and it hurts us. We have a theology of trying, and you

know, I'm trying to get close to God. I'm trying to be consistent

when pray, and I'm trying to be patient with my kids. I'm trying

to stop procascinating. I'm trying not to make excuses. I'm trying to go

to bed at a decent time so I can wake up in the morning and

it's been time God. Anybody want to say, hey man, Yeah,

I know, you know, I'm trying to limit my time on social media.

I'm trying to quit watching porn. I'm trying to be a better steward

with my money. And the problem for so many of us, and we've

been trying so long that we've become okay with triumph. And so I want

to do today is I want to bring a very very powerful change in perspective

straight from God's word. If you want to know more about this subject,

dive deeper into the book The Are to Change by Craig Roschell. But I

want to help you change how you think about change. And so what we're

gonna do is we're gonna look at it perspective that we see over and over

again in God's Word. So here's a question right now, how should we

think about the power of God to change our lives? How do we need

to think about the power of God to change our lives? And first of

all, we're gonna need to change our mindset again, what if so many

people struggle. I want to change, But next year I'm the same,

and then the next year I'm the same, and the next year I'm the

same. And that leads us to our big idea. Today, by the

power of God's word, we will stop trying and we're gonna start training.

All right, church, You know how I've been talking to you about We're

gonna be a church a grit. We're gonna be people who aren't just you

know, lollygagging around trying to be casual Christians. No, we're gonna be

people a grit. We're not just gonna say we're trying to grow. We

are going to make a decision to train to crow. And you know how

we're talking about how you know, our goal here is not just to be

a bigger church. Our goal is to be a better church. We want

to become better disciples. And just so you know, we don't become better

disciples by accident. We don't trip over a Bible and all of a sudden

we're like, oh my gosh, Matthew four four says it. No,

no, no, we gotta train. So I'm talking about the type of

people we want to be here. I'm not looking to spend my life leading

a congregation of casual Christians. Are a lot of people who just want to

try or just you know, they just check off church. I'm looking to

lead an army of people who want to make a difference in this community,

want to make a difference in our family. So here's how we're gonna do

it. We're gonna stop trying and we're gonna start training. All right,

Now, by time we get to the scripture, you need to understand something

that the Corinthians would have loved the competitive metaphors in the scripture. Why because

Corinth was in Greece. What happens in Greece every four years back in the

day the Olympics. All right, so it was a big deal. Okay,

they love competition. But in Corinth every couple of years they had their

own games, called the Isthmian Games. They weren't as big as the Olympics,

but they were still a pretty big deal. It's very fascinating. You

can look this up online. But they had interesting sports. They had chariot

racing, they had boxing, they had wrestling, they had an early version

of mixed martial arts. And they had poetry contest. No kidding, I

don't boxing. I get chariot races, I don't. How do you have

a poetry contest? I could just imagine they all gathered in this ancient coffee

house and they were just dissing each other's moms, you know, like roses

are red, violets are blue, Your mama's ugly, and so are you,

and everybody's like, oh, I don't know how it happened, but

they had poetry contests. Very cool, That's what I've been doing. So

the Corinthians would have been leaning in whenever Paul asked the question, don't you

realize then in a race, everyone runs, but only one person gets a

prize, so run to win. Everyone who competes in the Games goes into

strict training. Now what does he not say here? He doesn't say everyone

who could piece is discipline and they're trying. No, he says, everyone

who competes in the Games goes into strict training. So Paul would tell us

today, hey, let's sen up, Christians, stop trying and start training

the same way athletes do. They do it to win a prize, but

they do it to win a prize that would fade away. They did it

to win a wreath, and after a while this wreath would win there and

fall apart. But Paul says, we have a different aim. What does

he say here? Everyone who could piece in the Games goes into strict training.

Why they do it to get a crown that will last, excuse me,

that will not last. But we do it to get a crown that's

gonna last forever. In other words, we do it for an eternal prize.

We do it to bring glory to God. We do it for something

that's gonna last for eternity. And because there's eternal ramifications, and all that

we do is followers of Christ. It reflects Our Lord. That's why we

run this race. That's why we're not just trying to run the race,

but we're training to win. First. Corinthians says this. Paul says,

I run with purpose in every step. I'm not just shadow boxing here he

is. He's tipping his hat to the Ispian Games. He says, I

discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what I should.

So Paul would say, stop trying to start training. And here's what you

gotta understand about the ancient Games. Back then, they would train ten months

before the games, and so the runners they would train every single day,

but they would run a big group, so they would actually run into nude

because every single day it had nothing to do with anything sexual but what they

would do is they would strip off their clothes so that nothing hindered them.

Every single day, they're trying to get a little faster, a little faster,

a little faster, no hindrances, whatever it took to get better.

The wrestlers man, they would actually wait till the heat of the middle of

the day until it's like one hundred degrees out and then they would wrestle outside

so they would be able to train in this adversity. And then in the

winter when it got all this snow out there, they would go out there

and train in the snow so that their body would face this adversity. And

some of them would even fight lions, and they were to wrestle with bears.

I mean, these guys were serious about it, and you know they

did anything they could to train themselves to win. I would definitely go for

poetry. You know, got your clothes on reading poetry. I can do

that now. So we look at scripture and you want to be more godly.

But here's what I want to help you understand. Did you know what

the Bible says that you're never to try to be more godly? The Bible

never tells you to try to honor God. The Bible never tells you to

try to be disciplined. Instead, here's what scripture says. First Timothy four

seven, train yourself to be godly, don't try train it verse eight.

For physical training is of some value, but Godliness has value for all things,

holding promise for both the present life and a life to come. All

right, So let's ask a question, James, what's the difference between trying

and training. Let me give you a simple definition. Trying is an attempt

to change with minimal commitment. It's an attempt to change with minimal commitment.

And by the way, trying, and especially if you're in a church,

you've been in a church for years, and you tried this, you tried

that, you tried this. Trying eventually leads to spiritual complacency. In spiritual

complacency, by the way, that's the enemy of this whole series. Let's

just get real for a moment. Some of you who have been in a

church for seasons, maybe you've been in this church or other churches, but

you've grown up in church, or you've just been hanging out in church for

a long time, okay, and you've you've experienced series like this, the

Power to Change that come along and you sit in a room with a small

group, and since everyone's making commitments or striving to grow, you're like,

well, you know, once, since everybody's doing it, I'm just gonna

go along with it and I'll try to make a change. But the reality

is, your heart's not in it. There's a lot of you who have

been here every week for this Power to Change series, but your heart's not

into it. You're no longer passionate about growing and see, so so what

do we do. We make a commitment because we're around a lot of other

people, but it's very surface level and from the very beginning we're okay if

we don't actually make a spiritual change. And I was thinking about this week,

why why is it that us who've been following Christ for so long?

Why do we do this? And I wanted to be real honest about it,

and so I ask these questions, like why do we become so complacent?

And I had a few years theres it came to me in one loss

of hope. I think some of you have tried and tried and tried to

change, but you just decided that that you know, you don't really believe

that God has the power to change you anymore. You have given up.

You no longer believe that God wants to radically change your life. Number Two,

you've felled in the past, You've tried to change. You don't like

being defeated, so you're not trying to change anymore. And some of you

are just hired a trying. This isn't your first rodeo, this isn't your

first sermon series. You've been in a church for thirty or forty years,

and you're like, come on, man, this church is always trying to

get us to grow or change. Can't we just have a sermon series called

y'all we're all right? Can't we just have a sermon series called chill you

know where I go around go you. You're all good, You're good,

you're good, you're good. We're all good. And then we all clap

and praise the Lord, and then we leave, like, man, that

was the best service I've ever been a part of. Oh my gosh,

I feel good. This church is always trying to make us change, and

some of you, all, you're just tired of that. Some of you

don't feel appreciated. You've made changes, but no one else noticed, and

so you feel like no one cares. Some of you forgotten your calling.

It's been a long time since Christ saved you, and you forgot a long

time ago what the Holy Spirit was calling you to become, and so you've

moved on into a complacent life. Lastly, and I think this is the

biggest one, some of you forgot your name. You forgot your name.

You forgot that you are called sons and daughters of the King of Kings,

of the Lord of Lords, of the Alpha and the Omega, the Savior,

the Christ, the Redeemer, the Holy One. You forgot that you

are sons and daughters. You forgot that all that He has belongs to you.

You forgot that he has decided to empower Why is he decide to empower

you, because first of all, he redeemed you, he changed you,

he saved you, and now he wants to continue to make you into his

image. But some of us have forgot our name. We forgot that we

are the children of God. We are the sons of God and the daughters

of God. And back into culture, were forgot that back in the day,

if you were a son or a daughter, that meant that you were

the image of your parents, and some of you forgot that you have been

called to become the image of your father, and so therefore we've given up,

we forgot our names. You are a son, you are a daughter

of Christ, and he's called you to live up to that name. One

of my favorite Greek folklore stories comes from Alexander the Great. When Alexander the

Great was around thirty three, he conquered most of the known world, and

he was with some of his leaders and he's walking through an encampment one night

and he sees a soldier who is supposed to be on guard, but the

soldier is sleeping, so Alexander the Great walks over to him and he says

to the young man, what's going on. He says, Oh, I'm

really sorry, I fell asleep. And then Alexander says it him, what's

your name? And the young man says, my name is Alexander. This

just absolutely infuriates Alexander the Great and he looks at the young boy and he

replies, either change your name or live up to your name. Today,

I think some of you need to remember that you were a son and you

were a daughter of God. And you need to make a decision today to

live up to that name. See, when you're trying, you're just bringing

a half hearted attempt. You already got an excuse clause I'm trying to pray.

Well, really, you know it gives us permission to fail. I'm

trying to read my Bible. I'm trying to be nice, I'm trying not

to gossip. Trying is an attempt to change of minimal commitment. Training,

though, that's a whole different thing. What's training. Training is a whole

hearted commitment to achieve a specific result. It's a whole hearted commitment to achieve

a specific come on. And so when you train here, it's an all

in commitment. And there's a difference because you know, you show up,

you hope you get a play. Let me tell you some things that happen

whenever you're actually committed to some We know this. When you are actually committed

to some, a couple of things happen. One you go get the gear,

you go get the gear. Okay, So, for instance, say

you want to be a professional pickaball player, and I'll buy the way if

you look out in front of our close to our street, where you just

are in the middle of putting in some pickaball courts. So if that's your

thing, here you go. But anyways, so you want to be a

professional pickaball player, what do you do? You jump all in. You

got your tank top, you got your Nike shorts, you got your new

new Balance shoes with some short socks that way, you don't get their runners

tand you get an Apple watch so you can keep your heart rate and your

steps. You buy those aerodynamic sunglasses. You get a new tennis hat,

You got a new paddle. You find one to three friends who used to

be athletes but are not as good as you now, and then it's all

night, donkey kong. See, if you're training, you get the gear,

say say you want you're organized person. You know what you do?

You get the gear. You get God's favorite planner, God's favorite markers,

God's favorite pens, God's favorite stickers, binders, little inserts. Some of

you get washy tape. Who in here knows what washy tape is? I

have no idea what washy tape is, but they told me that organized people

would know what washy tape is. By the way, don't come up and

tell me. I don't care, but I'm glad you though what Washy tape

is. Okay. So if you want to be come organized person, you

get the gear. That's what happens when you're committed to something, you invest

in it. Number two, you get a game plan. You get a

game plan. You know, guys, come on, When Rocky was fighting

Apollo, what do he do? He put I have the tiger on.

He started jogging through the streets, got a bunch of little kids falling him.

He went up the steps, he did a dance. He came down,

He found some snow. He trained, He found a dark basement.

He trained. He found some little chickens. He chased them around. Why

because he was in training. He took it serious. Whatever you're gonna do,

you're gonna have a plane. You're gonna get serious about it. So

you're gonna get a book about it. You're gonna download some apps, you're

gonna get some YouTube videos. You're gonna get a membership, you're gonna get

a mentor. You're gonna devote your time. One of the big things you're

gonna do is you're gonna set aside time for your commitment. You're gonna make

it a priority. See, you have time for it because you make it

a priority to do it. Why because I'm not trying, I'm training.

Let me give you an example here. People have no idea how much training

goes into being a semi professional deer hunter like me. You have no idea.

I've watched at the minimum, two hundred YouTube videos on hunting. Those

videos are pretty much twenty five minutes of somebody in a tree whispering and then

maybe five minutes of action. So here's what it looks like. Most of

the time. I think we see a dough that looks like a dough.

No, it's a raccoon. Never mind. So you see here, they

should be coming right through here. Oh never mind, he came from here.

Well that's all we got for this week. You know, you just

watched like two hundred of those videos, and I love them. I love

them. I've learned how to read maps, I got hunting mentors. I've

learned how to all about scent and when. I've learned about temperature, moon

settings. I've learned about food locations, stream locations, funnels a hunt.

I've hung deer stands clear land. I've taken hundreds of shots with my rifle

and my crossbow, and I got the gear two baby. I got guts

for short range guns for long range, I got crossbows. I got cold

weather clothes, kind of cold weather clothes, really cold weather clothes. I

got the clothes that if it's cold in the morning, but it's gonna be

warm in the afternoon. I got them all. And I got range finders,

binoculars, sin control targets, tree stands, tents, and I even

bought a manual on how to make excuses for coming home empty handed, because

that's just as important, just as important you name it. I got it

why because I care about it. You know, I make time for it.

I save up on my vacation all year so I can go do it.

See, I'm not maybe gonna hunt this year. I'm gonna hunt.

Why Because it's important to me. And also it's the time that for me.

It's one of the best things for the church as well, because that's

when God speaks to me. For the most part, I get out there,

and I'm out there for a couple hundred hours, me God and my

gun, and we talk and don't laugh at it. Look at David.

David wrote all those songs out there watching no sheep. He got down his

theology while he was out there killing a tiger or a lion and a bear,

just spending that time alone of God. But I make it a priority.

So whatever you're gonna do, whatever you want to do, here's the

thing you're gonna You'll get the gear. You're gonna make it a plan,

and then you're gonna make time for it. You're gonna make it a party.

So as you said, all right, you know what I want to

grow, remember, relationship with God. All right, Well, you're probably

gonna download the Bible version at You're gonna get a prayer act to You're gonna

get a book I've an encourage imitation of Christ or mere Christianity. You're gonna

get a little journey so you can write down why God's showing you. You're

gonna take notes in church because you don't want to miss the truth that God

has talking to you about. You might get a worship playlist so you could

be in the presence of God during a week. You're gonna get a plan.

When you're training for righteousness, you're you're playing it to go to church

every week. If you're in town, you're in the House of God,

with the people of God hearing the word of God, they're strengthen you to

do the will of God. Everybody, get that, all right, because

it's the Lord's day, not your day. And so you get really serious

about it. And if you serve somewhere, why because you're you're just gonna

attend church, but you are the church and you're really praying. You got

your Bible study and and when you're trying, you give if it gets hard.

But when you're training, you don't act according to how you feel.

You act according to your commitment. I'm gonna say that again, and I'm

gonna do it again. And after I say it, be really cool if

there was an amen. All right, ready, ready, ready, ready

read Are you guys ready? Amen? Today? You can do it all

right. When you're training, you don't just act according to your feelings.

You act according to your commitment. Oh Lord help us. All right,

here we go. That's so let it, Paul say. He says,

that rum of a purpose in my step, God, direct me, God,

show me your will, show me how to love, show me where

to give. I got purpose and every step he says, I'm not just

shadow box and I discipline my body like an athlete training to do what it

should. He compares himself to an athlete. He compares us to an athlete

who takes something serious. Early Tuesday morning, I was talking to Dan Courtney.

He grew uped in this church, and this weekend he's doing the Beer

one hundred. I don't know if anybody's heard of the one hundred, but

the Beer one hundred is a one hundred mile race from Utah to Bear Lake.

And that's like four marathons, okay, And so it takes him about

eight months to train, and it's this crazy training regiment he goes in and

and he has been training for this for years. He's done three of these.

Last year he did it in thirty two hours. He's hoping to do

it in less time than that. And here's the thing. I talked to

him about his gear. He's prepared for everything. He's got warm weather clothes,

cold weather clothes. He's got a headlamp, he's got trekking poles for

halfway through it. He's got a bag, he's got water bottles, he's

got snassed, four pair of socks, six pair of shoes, And I

was really hoping that he would say. He say he had it all in

a fanny pack, but he uses a backpack. And then I asked him

about his training. He does ninety miles a week for the last eight months,

and then he takes a little rest and he does again. Here's an

interesting thing because Indiana's flat, and where he's going in Utah goes up and

down in elevation by tw two thousand feet. Indiana doesn't give him enough adversity.

So on the days during the summer when it was like ninety five one

hundred degrees with ninety percent humidity, you remember those days because we were all

like, God, why have you forsaken us? You know those days we

had during the summer, those are the days he got excited and he went

out and would run twenty miles. He says, Man, I gotta I

gotta run in adversity because it'll train me for when I go out in the

mountains. So I switched a conversation. I said, here's what I'm talking

about, Sunday. I'm talking about the difference between trying and training. And

so I kept asking him questions about how do you think all this would turn

out if you were just trying he didn't understand the question. I asked him

four different ways about trying, and there was a huge disconnect in our conversation,

and finally I got it. He doesn't understand what trying means. He's

like, no, no, you just make a plan and you worked the

plan and you just do it. Well yeah, yeah, but what if

you're just trying? What do you mean try? You just do it?

You know, just keep going on and on. You just do it.

That's why he runs one hundred miles. It's a difference in your attitude.

It's a difference in your attitude. So when it comes to our spiritual changes,

we get empowered by the Holy Spirit, but we gotta change our attitude.

We gotta say I'm not just trying, but I'm training. I'm wholeheartedly

committed to. So you're so, how does this play out? You might

say, all right, you know, we're we're gonna save our marriage.

We're gonna be a great marriage of training. So what do you do?

You go out and get the gear, you get some shirt to say I'm

hers, I'm his, I don't know, and then you go to counseling

and then you pray together, you do whatever it takes because you're training.

You go get the gear, you go get the planning and make it happen.

We end each week on a question based on who you want to become,

how are you going to train? Based on who God is calling you

to become? How are you going to train? And here's what we're gonna

do to close today. I'm going to ask everyone to get a sheet of

paper out pen or your phone, and I end it six minutes early.

It can happen. But I'm giving this time to you because I want you

to take spiritual change serious. And if you're serious about actually making spiritual change,

then you'll write down here's the gear I need to get, here's the

plan I need to have, and here's when I'm gonna do it. And

so we're going to enter into a holy time and we're gonna allow God to

speak to us. God to show us what we need to do to change

for God to lead us. And maybe for you, you need to jump

into a small group, you need to down in some Bible apps, whatever,

what do you need to do to make these changes? So God,

we just come to you right now and we trust that this is going to

be a holy play because what we're doing is we're actually training this morning.

We're being people of grit. We don't want to be passer bys in this

walk on this earth. We want to be people who are fully devoted followers

of Christ. And so right now, Lord, we're just going to ask

you to speak to us, help us come up with a plan, help

us to come up with the times, and help us actually just right out,

all right, what are we going to do? And then we're trusting

that your hopefully spirit's going to empower us and do a work. So we

got a few minutes. I would love to see everybody with your phone out.

Everybody would be to paper out and let's get serious about this. Let

me tell you something. Let's start written down, not gonna. Let's move

from trying to training. We have a couple of minutes. God, we

just come to you right now. We're just asking you to empower us.

Today's one of those days where we shift from just trying to all right,

hear the message, pray ask you to help us with Today we're shifting to

all right, we're only get serious about this, and we before serious about

wanting you to change our lives. So God, I just pray for those

who we've taken steps to say, God, I pray you're anointing your hand

and your power to be today from the person who just doesn't even have the

emotional spiritual strength even even get a pen out to write today. God,

they probably just need your grace and mercy right now. For those who feel

the feed it. For those who feel like their life is overwhelming, God

just rushed through hers and her love. Tray us on now the name of Jesus