Living with Purpose: Relationship Over Religion | April 27, 2025

Religion, there's a more

important R word that Jesus

offers us and that's relationship.

So much is made of this idea of being

religious, that we can check a bunch of

boxes and somehow get more qualified,

more connected, more impressive.

But Jesus, he came when

we were dead in our sin.

When we.

We're not impressive at all.

And in fact, when we look in the

mirror and think how impressive we are,

we're probably just fooling ourselves,

especially when we look at the heart.

But Jesus came knowing all that,

and he offered us relationship

to be in relationship.

No slaves to religion.

Sons, daughters invited into his family

to sit at the table, to love, like our dad

loves to serve, like our dad serves, that

his character would be reflected in us.

Not because we're checking religious

boxes, but because we've been

transformed in relationship with Jesus.

What an awesome picture.

Love that.

Hate that religion.

Word.

Sorry.

It's kinda like a bad word in our house.

Don't use the R word.

Use that relationship word 'cause.

See, at the end of the day, if

religion is what drives you, that

you can check some box and be okay.

It's, it's gonna fail, right?

It's not strong enough.

Your duty, your obedience isn't

strong enough without relationship.

'cause love is what drives it.

Love drives relationship.

When you want to quit, when

you want to give up, when your

marriage is hard and difficult.

Relationship man anchored in love,

that motivator is more powerful

than anything in this life.

You know why?

'cause God himself, he says, I am love.

His character is love.

And when we love what's happening to

the endless reservoir of who our God is,

sorry, just had to get

that outta my system.

Thanks Robin.

Appreciate that.

Here we go.

Easter's just the beginning.

It's just the launching pad,

right from when we go into all

the world and share the gospel.

See, God's not dead.

He's alive, and the Holy Spirit

is at work and car crashes.

He's work in hospital rooms.

He's at work in marriage.

He's at work at cubicles.

He's work at desks at school.

He's at work in the aisle

of the grocery store.

He's at work all around us and we're

invited into mission and invited

into impact for all eternity because

our God is alive and he's at work.

And sometimes we celebrate Easter and

we're like, whew, that was the pinnacle.

No, no, no.

That ought to just be sort of a, a fun

Sunday, remembering what it's about and

energizing us to go out into the world

and make disciples of all nations, right?

We have received the good news.

The great news, life from death,

relationship, freedom from religion, but

into relationship which is gonna drive

us even harder and clearer and be more

intense and all consuming because that

relationship is gonna affect every part

of our life and everything that we do.

But it's this amazing news

of life that we have, right?

And God's given to us.

Well, this morning I wanna take

you over to second Timothy,

chapter four, verse five.

And I wanna camp out here a

little bit together this morning.

And it's interesting, um, Renee, you said

some stuff about marriage and I was in

the back thinking about this and I'll

probably make some tie-ins to that too.

But this, this isn't a message necessarily

about marriage or even relationship.

It's really a message about God's

call to his people to engage

and to be on mission with him.

And I guess you could probably apply

that to marriage that God has us in a

mission field that's really important.

Right inside our home and how we're

leading and how we're engaging and how

we're enduring and how we're speaking.

Like it matters.

It matters.

Well, let's take a look at second

Timothy chapter four, verse five.

It's not complicated.

You'll read, you'll read this and

be like, okay, kind of makes sense.

Straightforward.

What are you gonna talk about?

Good news.

I'll be able to fill the space.

Don't stress it.

I got some stuff to say.

Here we go.

As for you, always be sober minded.

Endure suffering.

Do the work of an evangelist

and fulfill your ministry.

Now Paul is talking to Timothy,

who is a leader in the church.

And we do an awesome job in our

brilliant American Christianity

where we've learned so much that

we're quick to relegate this to.

Oh, these are instructions

to a preacher shoot.

Does not apply to me, Andy.

Just turn and face the screen and

talk to yourself this morning.

'cause the rest of us don't

have to pay attention right now.

Except that the principles that Paul

calls Timothy to are the same principles.

He calls all of the followers

of Jesus to throughout the

New Testament, the same stuff.

Peter calls people to the same stuff,

the disciples, and quite honestly the

same stuff Jesus called people to.

So before you chuck this into the exempt

bucket, it's, it's not, this is a message

for us, for those of us who are in this

relationship with our Heavenly Father, who

are engaged in trying to be his people.

Shine the light, be the people

at the car accidents and at the

hospitals, right, and at the

workplaces who are on mission for him.

And there isn't any one of us exempt

from that, just for the record.

But I wanna pack this together just a

little bit, see where we get to today.

Always be sober minded.

This phrase gets altered a little bit in

some modern translations to say things

like, keep your head in all situations.

Keep a clear mind.

Be watchful in all things,

exercise, self-control.

And these phrases, they're not wrong.

I mean, they're, they're decent

applications of the principle that

here rooted in this core Greek word.

But the Greek word here

is really, really clear.

It literally means sober

and watch sober and watch.

And we can unpack that a lot of

different ways, but for me, when I

see, be sober and watch, this is what I

see, don't numb out and pay attention.

That's really the call to God's people.

And you guys know what I'm

talking about, numbing out.

You know what I'm talking about.

When we look for ways to just sort of

check out of our life and check out of

moments and withdraw in our own flesh, we

chase pleasure and we chase just escapism.

And we're looking for ways to not have

to deal and to get out from under.

And we end up being people who are very

quick to not be sober, but essentially

to be drunkards of whether it's

alcohol or substances, whether it's

pornography, whether it's entertainment,

whether it's vacations, whether it's

anything and everything we can possibly

do to try to escape our reality.

And I think it's a ploy of the enemy

that he wants us to just kind of

numb out to not feel 'cause feeling.

You know, if you feel you're gonna

experience something that's not

really cool, it's called pain, right?

But if you don't feel pain,

you can't feel joy, right?

If you don't allow yourself to

be engaged to where you could get

hurt, you can't ever experience the

exhilaration of amazing moments where

God shows up and does cool things, and

you get to feel some of that, right?

We can't just feel the

things we want to feel.

We either feel and engage or we don't.

And man, so many of us are quick

to just disengage, to numb out.

And we just don't want to feel,

and we don't want to be present

in the moments that God's got us.

Right?

And we're just zoned out,

checked out, numbed out.

Now, I hadn't really thought of it

until Renee tried to hijack my sermon,

but let me just be really honest.

I could see a scenario in marriage where

it might be tempting to check out, to

zone out, to numb out to the person

that you're doing life with, to just

go through the grind of life and just

become people who cohabitate in your

crazy business life of trying to afford

to live in Hamilton County and raise kids

and not kill each other in the process.

Right.

I get it.

It's tough, it's difficult.

And sometimes we don't want to feel from

the people's, you know, closest to us.

Right.

We want to just check out.

Scripture is pretty clear.

Sometimes we need to be sober minded,

so that's not what it says, right?

What does it say always?

Now, that does not mean

there's no rest or Sabbath.

It does not mean there's no

times where we get to catch

our breath and do some things.

But there's never a time

where God says, you know what?

Just numb out, check out, do whatever.

It doesn't matter.

God always has purpose in the rest.

He wants to replenish.

He wants to restore.

He wants to reconnect.

He wants to pour into us.

We go find rest to just have an expression

of our sensual pleasure to the nth degree.

And God says that's a

word called debauchery.

That's dangerous.

I wanna pour into you.

He says, in fact, come unto me.

All you who are weary and heavy laden,

he doesn't say, go on to Disneyland.

All you, I'm just kidding.

I wanna go to Disneyland.

I'm totally good with that.

He does say, come away to the

water, to the lake, just so you

know, that's in there somewhere.

But the reality is, is we fill in the

blank of how we want to experience rest.

But you know, the one who can really give

us rest from our, from our labor and the

intensity of weight that we carry in our

soul, man, it's our heavenly father who

says, come to me and I'll give you rest.

But we try to find us somewhere else.

We are a very adept generation and

culture at checking out and numbing out

and not feeling and avoiding all of it.

And God calls us to be people who are

not numbed out, who are clear, who are

engaged, and who are paying attention.

And it's not just here in Timothy, right?

One Peter says this.

Be alert and sober of sober mind.

Why?

Oh, I don't know.

Because your enemy, the devil,

prowls around like a lion seeking

someone to devour, to destroy,

to rip apart and annihilate.

We're like, ah, nah.

You mean the little tiny guy on

the pitchfork on my shoulder?

No, man.

The devil is at work to bring

destruction into your life.

Laying snares.

Do you know, like if you don't pay

attention, you can walk right into a pit.

You can walk right into a trap.

You can walk right into a snare

that the enemy's got for you.

I mean, pay attention.

And it's not because God like wants you

to not chill out and do your own thing.

He cares about you.

He's like, Hey, this path right

here leads to death, destruction.

Don't take it right?

Pay attention.

Scripture says over in one Thessalonians.

So then let us not sleep, but keep awake.

Right?

Some of you who have small children

understand that you're being very

biblical all night long, right?

When your kid won't go to sleep,

you're like, Hey, this should be

my life first, right here, right?

If you got a, if you got a baby

in a crib in your house, this

is what you're living, right?

So you'd be like, don't

talk to me, preacher.

I got this.

I ain't, I ain't slept in months.

So totally appreciate that.

Good work by you guys.

This isn't about don't

sleep, don't get rest.

Don't be healthy.

This is about checking out, not

caring, being asleep, man, when

it matters the most, right?

Be awake, be sober.

Even Jesus is like, Hey man, keep watch.

'cause you don't even

know when I'm coming.

Keep watch.

Pay attention your life.

Man's gonna be demanded of you at

some point in time and you don't even

know when that is, and you're gonna

be zoned out, numbed out, checked out.

Don't miss it.

This idea of being sober,

watchful, paying attention.

You can't be effective for

what God wants you to do.

You can't be effective in your marriages.

You can't maintain healthy

anything if you're not engaged.

And we're quick to go

the opposite direction.

Endure suffering.

This is an all time favorite.

Um, I, I think I, I like, I've had

this phrase this week with a student.

We were talking and, and

I made this statement.

I think it's legit.

You guys could tell me if you

don't like it, but following Jesus

is simple, but it's not easy.

See, one of the lies in our culture

is that once we come to Jesus, we

get to hold a lollipop and a puppy

dog and ride a rainbow and run and

frolic, and it's gonna be great.

And we won't have hard things or difficult

things or challenges or adversity

because following Jesus is fun and great.

It's gonna be the most

amazing time of your life.

And then people come to faith in Jesus

Christ and say, yeah, I want that.

And then things get hard, right?

Well, listen, following

Jesus is not complicated.

We love to overcomplicate things.

Let's throw in tons of big doctrinal

and theological terms to try to sound,

articulate and unpack every angle.

But listen, it's so simple.

Sin equals death.

Following Jesus equals life.

It's just so simple.

Sin living it, it follow

it to his destination.

Destruction.

Try to follow Jesus in this

relationship leads to life.

We don't need to

overcomplicate everything.

It's not complicated, but it is not easy.

It is difficult.

In fact, we have this

awesome promise, right?

As we think about enduring suffering.

Sorry, I'm gonna go to the Greek first.

Josiah, what's that word saying?

Kaha.

Say it fast.

Perfect.

Alright.

Just try to see if I got my money's

worth on this graduation yesterday.

Alright.

Endure suffering.

Endure affliction.

Suffer trouble.

This really is a picture

of anticipating resistance.

Expect it.

Can I ask you a dumb question?

How much do you go through

your day with the mindset?

You know, I bet you the devil's

kind of gunning for me today.

I'll bet you I'm gonna

experience some resistance.

You're the last thing the devil

wants you to think about as you

walk through your day, that he's

gonna show up and try to trap you in

something or throw something at you.

He wants you to just be oblivious, right?

The last thing he wants you to

do is think, Hey, you better be

prepared 'cause I'm prowling around

like a lion coming after you.

He doesn't want you to think like that.

Why?

Because if you anticipated

it, you'd be what?

Ready for it.

You'd be prepared.

Right?

I was thinking about this like on a,

on a trip, like if you go on a long

trip, you prepare, you take what you

need, you have enough stuff to get to

the end of your destination, right?

But we just randomly go through day and

life events with no, no anticipation of

resistance or expecting that it's gonna

be hard or difficult or challenging.

And then it shows up and we're like, what?

What?

Oh my gosh, what do I do?

And then we experience something

hard and we're like, whoa.

Hard, difficult.

Jesus isn't in that.

Oh, if it's hard, I must,

I must have misunderstood.

Jesus wanted me to go talk

to my neighbor, so I did.

And now my neighbor threw

something at me and hates me.

Well, obviously that was the

devil trying to get me to talk

to my neighbor about Jesus.

That's not how that works, right?

We think hard things are

evidence that God's not in it.

But listen, I think biblically,

if it's hard, it's probably more

of an indicator that God is in it.

If it's easy.

It might be that big, wide, easy

road that Jesus said leads to death.

Yeah, but the narrow road that

leads to life is hard and difficult.

And few find it.

Let me encourage your heart

with this promise from Jesus.

He said, in this world,

you will have trouble.

Just take a moment and

be like, thank you Lord.

It's so encouraging to have this promise.

This is a pro.

I'm gonna get this tattooed right here.

Gonna have trouble, bro.

Right?

That would be a great one, right?

We love Jesus' promises.

We love them.

Except this one.

This one is the, this is like, you

know the The Jesus promise we leave.

This is David out in the field.

We're like, no, these are all my sons.

These are all the promises of God.

I don't got no other ones.

What about that one out there?

Nah, nah, not that one.

Don't look, don't look over there.

Right?

The truth is, this is a promise.

It's a promise.

It's not gonna be easy.

It's gonna be difficult.

Anticipate resistance, right?

Endure suffering in hard things.

But this promise is not just

good luck sucker, right?

It says, but take heart.

Be encouraged, because I've

already overcome the world.

The adversary that you're facing

took care of that man already

took care of that, right?

Have you heard the new Mercy

me song about, oh, death.

There's a great lyric in there, right?

There's something about like, I'm

gonna dance on the dance on your

grave with the one who buried you.

It's a pretty good picture, right?

Of like, we don't have an enemy

that has any power over us

who has any victory over us.

Unless, of course, we just hand

him the keys and stand back

and let 'em take charge, right?

We're gonna have hard things,

we're gonna have difficult things.

It's all over.

Scripture blesses the man who

remains steadfast under trial,

right from when he stood the test.

He'll receive the crown of life, which

God has promised to those who love him.

Corinthians says, therefore, my beloved

brothers be steadfast, immovable, always

abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing

that what you're doing isn't in vain.

It's not pointless.

Right?

And, uh, Romans is real encouraging.

Not only that, but we

rejoice in sufferings.

That's, that's, that's nuts, right?

Like, hoo, hard stuff coming, let's go.

Nobody comes home and says,

Hey honey, guess what?

Had a terrible day.

I can't wait to tell you about it.

Yes, God is doing some stuff.

How crazy would that be if you started

Marriage de Detox coming back from work

every evening and saying, terrible day.

Oh, God's at work.

This is exciting, right?

I don't know anyone who does that.

I don't know anyone who does that.

What if we're the first, right?

We're the first church that

does a lot of dumb stuff.

Why don't we do that?

Right?

Let's try it.

See what happens.

Just be the people who

are like, hard, difficult.

Yes.

And listen, can I just

say this real quick?

All of you spouses in here.

I want to give you permission

for this next week.

Okay?

We got men's retreat coming up.

Obviously the enemy does not like that.

We got like 40 guys going

on this awesome adventure.

It's gonna be super cool what God's doing.

I'm so excited.

The Women's Retreat in

another couple weeks.

So many cool things God's at work doing.

Promise you, the devil is not

excited, he's not thrilled.

And you're probably gonna experience

some things this week to try to get you

not to go to bail, to quit all of it.

Your marriage is gonna feel

like it can't ever last.

Your kids are gonna be like, ha

ha, we went to the devil's side.

Yeah, let's go.

Whatever it looks like it's gonna

happen probably, but I want to

give permission to spouses this

week leading up to Men retreat.

And in two weeks for the

women's tree, try this.

When your spouse says,

I had a horrible day.

Or when your spouse says something

negative about what's going on,

this is the word, okay, turn to

your spouse and say, just this.

Yes, yes.

A, it's gonna increase a lot

of marriage counseling for me,

which is cool, but then also.

I just want to see if we can mess with

the enemy who loves to bring deception.

How about we flip that script, right?

And we're like, Hey, good news man.

God's at work.

Just try it.

Just try it.

Let me know.

I'll be busy fighting with my own wife.

You guys just let me know.

Alright?

We rejoice in sufferings.

Why do we rejoice and suffer?

Well, because we know.

What do we know?

That suffering produces endurance.

That the more we walk through

it, the stronger we get.

Right?

And that endurance produces

godly character in us to be able

to be strong and to stand and

to not crumble and fall apart.

And that character produces hope in us.

A hope that man, this isn't the end.

'cause we know the truth and we're

able to endure even the crazy

things that this world throws at us.

Right.

You know, I love this verse here.

Uh, John 10 10, Jesus says, the thief,

he's only showing up to bring destruction.

He wants to kill, destroy.

But for me, I've come that you may

have life and have it to the full.

It's where we get this idea

of abundant life, right?

Life that is full and

full can be overwhelming.

But check this out.

The opposite of a full and abundant

life is an empty life, A hollow life,

a life that's void of meaning, right?

Empty, huge voids.

And we're longing for meaning.

But the truth is, it's only

through Jesus that we get to

experience meaning full life, right?

That's a picture of what God offers us.

But that's not a life

of ease and simplicity.

It's, it's a life of purpose and meaning.

But usually a life like that, you

gotta endure some stuff, right?

So we recognize we can endure suffering

and hardships and difficulties because.

Because there's meaning and purpose

even to the hard things we walk through.

You're watching people suffer with

illness, watching people walk through

all kinds of hard things in this life.

It's difficult for us to watch, but

let me tell you, there is nothing

like watching somebody walk through

the valley of the shadow of death and

praising God in the midst of it and

helping people understand that this is

not the end, and this does not destroy

my spirit, but instead, man, what

really matters is coming to the surface.

That is a perspective our

world cannot even comprehend.

When you lose the ability to look

good and grow hair, when you lose the

ability to buy stuff and have stuff,

when you lose the ability to go here and

there, when you lose those abilities,

oh my gosh, it's, it's sadness and

desperation and discouragement and

hopelessness, but for those whose hope

is anchored in Christ, it ought to

be like, oh, I'm closer to real hope.

I'm moving the direction towards eternity.

Less here, more there.

That's not a bad place to be at all,

and it should look a lot different

than how the world embraces the hard

things and the difficult things.

When we endure suffering, we expect it.

We anticipate it, and we don't

shy away from it and run from.

Instead, we give God

glory in the midst of it.

Man, that is a bright shining light.

And speaking of a bright,

shining light, we're supposed

to do the work of an evangelist.

You go, Josiah, one more Cha ching.

Did you this?

Good job, Noah.

Do you get it?

Yep.

Good job.

Okay, perfect.

Good, good clarification.

An evangelist.

Well, you're like, man,

I'm not an evangelist.

This doesn't count, man.

I don't have that spiritual gift.

No, no, no.

Do the work of an evangelist.

What is an evangelist?

Evangelist is a bringer of good tings.

That's the, that's the phrase.

Good news, right?

Do you know any good news?

Have you heard any good news?

Are you aware of any good news?

We all know some good news.

That Jesus bought us back from death

gives us opportunity for life, right?

That's some great news.

And so God's called us to be people

who are bringers of good news.

Can I just challenge you with this one

idea, this one thought to insert into

your life, tell people about Jesus.

Just tell people about Jesus.

And if you're like, well, I'm not really

sure how or what that means, or kind of

how to contextualize that, lemme simplify.

Talk about Jesus.

Did you talk about the

NFL draft this week?

Did you talk about Formula One?

Race cars?

Did you talk about your job?

Did you talk about lunch?

I mean, if you can talk about what Long

John Silvers is running as a special, you

could probably talk about Jesus, right?

Come on, talk about Jesus.

We're scared to, we don't want

to, the enemy doesn't want

us to just talk about Jesus.

You know the worst thing

that's gonna happen?

You're gonna tell somebody the

name that is above every name.

A name that one day they'll have to answer

to and stand before and bow the knee to.

You're gonna tell 'em that

and they may hate you.

Well, man, good job.

At least letting 'em know the name

so they know who to address when

they're standing in eternity, right?

I mean, come on.

There's no lose in this unless, of course,

our hope, our joy, everything's tied

to what we have in this life and our

own experiences and our own pleasure,

our own possessions and all that stuff.

You can lose some of that stuff.

People lose it all over

the world all the time.

But see, all that stuff's temporary.

It doesn't matter unless you're

like, I can't endure hardship.

I can't endure suffering,

so I can't talk about Jesus.

Okay, well then just say,

I can't obey God's word.

That's just easier and cleaner

and they don't have to pay

attention to any of it, right?

Can't do this.

God, sorry, I'm out.

God has called us to be people

who spread the word, right?

We're supposed to be ambassadors

and messengers and lights in the

midst of the darkness, and we so

want to just stay silent, young.

Who else wants you to be silent?

The devil wants you to be silent.

We love to be like, no, the Holy

Spirit didn't want me to speak there.

Man, I have such a hard time with that.

I'll bet you the Holy Spirit

can work more with you.

Oops.

Talking about Jesus than you.

Oops.

Not talking about Jesus.

Right.

He's at work.

He's, he's engaged.

He's probably got all these people

already to hear something you're

supposed to say and you're like,

Jesus, me loves, oh, that was so bad.

God can work with that.

Right?

Lemme get a little follow up.

What's that now?

Oh, Jesus loves me.

That's what I meant to say.

Oh, okay.

Right.

God can work with that.

You know what?

He has a real hard time working with

silence as though your actions are

gonna be all anybody ever needs to see,

to know everything about Jesus that's

in your heart that you could share.

I'm not saying that scripture says,

you know where it says, make sure

that you know people see your life

right and, and it points 'em to Jesus.

That's great.

And it should be.

But that's the only verse we memorize

about evangelism and sharing our

faith is just do the right stuff in

front of people and see if it works.

I think that's a really crappy

interpretation of go and make disciples.

Tell people the good news, right?

Listen, Jesus wasn't ashamed of us.

We shouldn't be ashamed of him.

We gotta tell people about Jesus.

Do the work of an evangelist.

I'm not an evangelist.

I get it.

Few of us are talk about

Jesus, just talk about him.

See what God does in that space.

And then ultimately this picture

of, Hey, wait, can, well, nevermind.

I'll say that.

Fulfill your ministry.

It means to carry out your duty.

I was sitting on my couch this week

kind of meditating on these scriptures.

I. Right.

And I was just sitting there, a little

coffee table in our living room that's

trashed by all the college kids usually.

So it was like probably a Monday morning

and I was just looking around and

reading and talking to the Lord when

nobody else is awake, which is usually

healthy all the way around for all of us.

Um, I was thinking about this

question, why does God need a sober

minded, engaged, prepared to and do?

We're ready to speak.

Why does God need us?

Why does he need us like that?

Why, why can't he just like

fill our mouth with something?

Or why can't we just do life as

we want to and see what happens?

Why?

Well, because we're strategically

positioned for eternal impact.

He has got you where he's got you

for eternal impact and purpose.

And this came to me as I was sitting

on my couch reading, talking to the

Lord and I looked, and there on our

coffee table was this chessboard.

Not to be honest, I'm not

the biggest detail guy.

He might've been there for years.

I'm just kidding.

It wasn't there for years.

I know it wasn't there for years.

'cause I asked Jamie about it.

And my first question was,

has that been there for years?

So it wasn't their first year, right?

But I'm sitting there and all of

a sudden I see the chess board

and I'm like, huh, chess board.

Well, it turns out some kids came over,

hung out with Jamie, played, had some fun,

got ice cream, whatever Jamie does, you

know, when I'm trying to be responsible.

And she's on roller skates

goofing off her kids.

But they, they got out this chess

board and they set it up and

they didn't play it or anything.

They just thought it looked cool and

they left and then just sat there.

'cause that's what we do at our house.

Uh, so it was just sitting there.

But see, here's the thing, man.

God, well, our step are playing.

I'd like to say checkers, maybe

tic-tac toe, probably tiddlywinks, or

we just have our finger up our nose.

God is playing chess

and not just any chess.

He's playing eternal chess.

He is moving pieces on a chess board and

he is positioning people in relationships

and in moments and in crazy car accidents

to be able to be his mouthpiece.

To speak and to tell people

about Jesus, to talk to.

Just be a light in those moments, right?

And if we're not sober minded,

if we're not, if we're totally

numbed out, disengaged and we're

not paying attention, we miss it.

Right?

And if we're not willing to go through

hard things with perspective, we miss it.

And if we're not gonna

open our mouth, we miss it.

But God has positioned us and

he has orchestrated events like

we forget this all the time.

God has been working through the

power of the Holy Spirit on the person

that you're interacting with, right?

You didn't go in solo behind enemy

lines, dropped in covert, and

God's like, save the world, buddy.

You're on your own, right?

Heck no.

He's been at work in that person's life,

probably laying all the groundwork through

all these different angles to give you

opportunity to speak life in that moment.

And you got a choice to make.

What are you gonna do?

Do you even see it?

Do you even see it?

Are you sober minded?

Are you paying attention?

Or are you just numbed

out and checked out?

Are you so consumed with not having

to face hardships and difficulties,

that as soon as something tough shows

up, you're like, oh man, and you go

down this whole spiral of negativity

instead of gaining some perspective

that maybe God has some purpose in it.

What words are on your lips ready

to come out in those moments?

Some words of blessing or cursing,

but you're not gonna have both, right?

What does God want you to

say about him in that space?

And when you do those things, you

end up fulfilling your ministry,

what God has called you to and

placed you in in this moment.

Not some big, grandiose end of life

adventure that defines you, but maybe

just your ministry today, in this moment.

Can I throw this at you?

In a marriage setting, just real

fast, disengaged, not paying

attention, totally numbed out.

Every time something goes hard,

it goes difficult and it's hard.

You turn on each other, never talking

about Jesus and perspective on eternity,

just talking about your circumstances

and your finances and your mess.

You're never gonna fulfill

your ministry as a husband.

You're never gonna fulfill

your ministry as a wife.

You're never gonna fulfill your

ministry as a son or daughter.

God has called us to ministry, to

each other, to this world around us.

And we've gotta be people who lock in,

who are engaged, who are prepared, and

anticipate resistance, and who have the

words of Jesus on our lips ready to go.

And man, if we live in

that space, we'll look out.

'cause that is an impact that's

gonna last for all eternity.

And heaven's gonna be crowded in a

mess 'cause they're not gonna have

enough tickets and people are gonna

be shoving around trying to get in the

gates because just loved too well and

we're too on it as followers of Jesus.

That'd be a real fun mess to make.

Ever think about.

This is, this is in my mind

where I'm like, how could I

screw up the line in heaven?

Make it complicated for Jesus, right?

That's so messed up.

Lord Jesus, thank you

for putting up with me.

Thank you for your word.

Lord, thank you for Easter and

the celebration that we have of

life and hope and all the, the

amazing things from last week.

But Lord, let that light of fire in us to

to be engaged and paying attention, to be

prepared, to endure hard things, to have

a whole lot to say about somebody that

we claim to be in a relationship with.

That's the most important

relationship we have.

Lord.

Let us be people who step up to

the moment and fulfill the moment.

Whether that's in a crazy unforeseen

accident or whether that's in the everyday

grind of doing dishes at our house with

our family and everything in between.

Use us Lord to change all eternity.

Let us join you where you're at work

'cause you're at work everywhere.

Thank you for your love for us.

Help us to live out this passage,

this call, and be with us.

And encourage us.

And strengthen us as we do.

Ask all this in the

powerful name of Jesus.

Amen.

Amen.

Hey, speaking of ministry and fulfilling

your ministry, Jackie Allen is gonna sneak

up here and take a mic and take control.

You can hold it.

All righty.

Um, I'm going to invite anyone,

anyone, everyone who is involved in

our second care community to come

up stage right now, including Maria.

Um, a couple of our people are

next door, Jamie and Julie.

And I think Abby is enjoying

the Caribbean is what I heard.

So she's missing out this

morning, that mission trip.

Uh, yeah, that's something like that.

Um, so, uh, I wanted to share real fast.

So we did this a couple weeks ago for

our other care community, but um, if

you weren't here, um, basically Maria

and Abby and I help lead our foster

care and adoptive ministry here.

And we, um, have recently had the

opportunity to launch two local care

communities, which means that there's

a couple foster and adoptive families

in our community that are not part

of our church that we felt led to

reach out and start serving them.

Um, so I wanted to share a couple verses

real fast that kind of pertains to this.

Andy, I love that you, uh, just went

on that rant at the beginning about

religion, because I'm gonna read James

1 27 that says religion that our God and

Father accepts is pure and faultless is

this to look after orphans and widows

in their distress and to keep oneself

from being polluted by the world.

So I think that still goes in hand, in

hand with what Andy was saying, but that.

The work that we're doing is because of

our relationship with God, not because

we're trying to get to God, but because

it's the ministry that we are fulfilling.

Um, and then Psalms 68, verses

five and six says, God is a father

to the fatherless, a defender of

widows as God and his holy dwelling.

God sets the lonely and families he lean,

leads forth the prisoners with singing.

So, um, it was really important to

me that, number one, I appreciate and

acknowledge our volunteers who are being

such an awesome part of this ministry,

that this is a week to week thing, that

every week we are taking meals, that we

are getting updates on our families, that

we are supporting and praying for them.

Um, and also that we take some

time to pray for you guys and

commission you in this ministry.

So I'm just gonna have Andy, uh, lead

us in some prayer this morning for that.

Let's do that.

Would you join me as we

pray over this group?

You guys met?

Just touch each other.

Then we'll do like this telephone prayer.

There we go.

We got it.

All right.

All right.

Well, join me in praying

over this team as their.

This is something we've never done before.

Trying to reach a family that's unchurched

with some crazy cool foster care, love.

Super awesome.

It kind of ties into some stuff we

just talked about fairly recently.

Okay, father, thank you so much

for these men and women in their

faithfulness and their heart to love.

Lord, I pray that you would use them, help

them to be able to be locked in and seeing

what's going on and engaged well and

the moments you give them to, to serve.

I pray, Lord, that every drop of

sweat, every act of love would be

received, and Lord, that it would

change the perspective and the heart

of the family that's receiving it.

Lord, I pray that you give them

strength and energy and just

tremendous favor as they work.

And Lord, that you would use their acts

of love of even a cup of cold water

given in your name, to be something that

transforms all eternity for this family.

Bless them and use them.

I pray, and Lord, for all

of us, use us in the care

communities that you've got us in.

Whether official or unofficial or

yet to be determined, help us to be

people who follow this example and,

and love well, our neighbor as ourself.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Hey, speaking of uh, care communities that

you may or not get to be a part of, you

didn't get invited on the platform and

I'm sorry for that, but Dax and Jackie are

gonna tell you about some other ways you

might plug in to also experience some fun.

You go,

all right, ba bam, tonight,

6:00 PM Yeah, that's right.

And then College H, small group.

They're gonna have some fun

at Morse Park and Beach.

So, woo.

Wish I was there.

So then this Wednesday night, we

normally have men's group, but it's

the fifth Wednesday, so we're not,

but also we're not gonna be having

it because we got men's retreat.

Yay.

Uh, so we're technically full.

But if you've been thinking that you

really want to go and you've been

on the fence about it, we can maybe

still sit in one or two people.

So come see me.

Don't go see Andy.

Come see me.

If you're interested in

that, come talk to me.

Okay?

But also while the men are doing

cool things, women's Retreat.

Woo woo.

Couple more weekends, girls, if you have

not signed up yet, here's your link.

Give everybody a second to get

their com, get their phones

out, make sure you sign up.

Um, there is a $50 deposit and

then it's $175 for a full weekend.

It's so relaxing.

It's fun, it's joyful.

It's time for sisters to encourage each

other and pray for each other and cry

together and love each other and have fun.

So it's great.

So please come if you're

available, it's gonna be great.

And speaking of retreat for you also

have Youth Retreat coming up in drum.

Yes.

Super excited.

I know what you're thinking.

Well, where's the QR code for that?

Uh.

Josh has, yeah, Josh has the QR code.

Go go up to Josh and say,

Hey, I need that QR code.

So yeah.

And then we also have VBS, uh,

coming up in the summer and

that's gonna be super exciting.

Uh, there's a q Yeah.

Woo.

Uh, so there is a QR code for registering

your child to be part of VBS, and

then there's a separate QR code, and

that is for if you want to volunteer.

Um, it's always great to have all

hands on deck and you can, we need

to get your shirt size and, and

everything for your shirts and it's

gonna be super cool to have Awesome.

Um, and awesome themed.

Nights, right?

We get to be nights.

So that's gonna be really fun, alright?

And trust me, you wanna volunteer

at VBS because you have never

had so much fun in your life.

So you wanna be there.

All righty.

So speaking of kids stuff,

we are going, guys so excited

that it's almost summertime.

It's crazy they're

stepping into this season.

So this is gonna be our new, uh, kids

summer program, passport through summer.

And we are excited about our next

new adventure and we need your help.

So we are looking to add some

volunteers to our already

awesome existing team of people.

Um, so we would just love your help

even if you're like, I don't really

know that many Bible verses, or I

don't really have that much to offer.

If you are a grownup and you can

hang out and play with kids, we love

you and we would love you to come.

Um, so we've got nursery, we've got

Sunday school, we've got pre-teens,

we've got lots of opportunities.

So, uh, please scan that QR code or

come and chat with any of us on staff.

We'd love to plug you in.

Okay, awesome.

Um, also another fun thing

for kids this summer.

So Debbie Bush, our wonderful lady in

the back right there, um, she is gonna be

leading this really awesome summer study.

I got Petra signed up for it.

It's gonna be super great.

Um, it is from June 9th to August 15th.

If your child is five through 18 years

of age, this is just like a really

awesome way for them to get together

and have fun in the summer, keep their

brains occupied, and mainly to learn more

about God and learn about the Bible and

memorize some verses and have some fun.

So, uh, if you have questions, ask Debbie.

Otherwise, registration is now open.

So click on that link and

that is for ages five to 18.

Now, if you're over 18, you're

like, I wanna memorize Bible verses.

You know what?

Memorize Bible verses.

Find Noah Blake.

He wants to hear him.

Tell him you're no.

Yeah,

so we had our clothing

giveaway this weekend.

I just want to say a huge, huge thank

you to all the people who came on

Saturday and Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,

the days before setting up in here.

We had,

we had like the biggest clothing giveaway

that I've seen since I've been here.

And I was overwhelmed, like, oh my

gosh, we're gonna have so much stuff.

And we took out most of it.

Uh, it was phenomenal.

So thank you for everyone and thank

you for everyone who, who, uh, gave

us stuff to give away to people.

'cause there's so many people

that, that was a huge blessing too.

Uh, it was just so great to see

all these kids excited and playing

with these toys and parents taking

home trash bags of clothes that

they were desperately in need for.

So, and filling up their cars and

shoving stuff in their cars and slamming

the door to make sure it all fit in.

So, super.

Thank you church.

That's awesome.

And we're so glad for all you do.

And, and so speaking of that.

All of these things, all these events

that we're talking about, these are

all things that we get to be part of

this chess game that God has us in.

Right?

All of these are strategy,

they're, they're strategic.

So it's important as we look through

Men's Retreat, women's retreat, youth

Retreat, uh, all these different

ministries that our church is involved

in, and you're ever on the fence

of like, I should be doing that.

Yeah, you should because this is strategy.

This is us playing part of the game that

God has us in and not stepping aside.

So as we continue on our summer,

uh, our spring into ministry, I want

you guys remember, all of us are

doing the work of an evangelist.

I don't care whether you're on staff

or this is your first time here.

That's what God has

called all of us to do.

So please keep that in mind as

you go out throughout your week.

Go out and blessing.

You're dismissed.

Amen.