Avoiding People-Pleasing and Self-Righteousness

Oh, crossing family, I love you, but more importantly, God loves

you. And I want to welcome all of our

different locations, those of you watching online and those of

you who are part of the Crossing Inside family.

I don't know how many of you watched, but we had over 30 or

3000 people watch our election night coverage and choose to

watch and pray during the election.

And I had the time of my life. And if you are here for the

first time or the first time in a long time, you might be super

excited, don't applaud yet about who's in the White House.

And you might be super sad about who is not going to be in the

White House and this election frustrated you.

But I want to tell you about the most important election, and

that is the election of whether or not you are going to let

Jesus Christ reign over your life.

Our church exists to help people find an intimate personal

relationship with Jesus Christ. And we think that it is the best

thing that could ever happen to you.

And you might be going to Clayton.

You're the pastor. You get paid to say stuff like

that. Well, you don't have to listen

to this idiot. You can pay attention to the

idiots in your row. So at all of our locations, help

me out. If deciding to follow Jesus is

the greatest decision you ever make.

Can I get a whoop whoop with a hand raise?

And if your biggest regret is you didn't do it sooner, can I

get up? Bomp bomp, You get it.

So you don't have to listen to me.

Listen to the people in your row.

We are in a sermon series called Counterfeit Fruit Establishing

an Authentic Walk with Jesus. You see, when you begin an

intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ, the Bible

tells us that you receive the Holy Spirit.

He comes and dwells in your life and the Holy Spirit does a very

special thing. He produces fruit in the life of

a believer. What is this fruit you might

ask? Well, Galatians chapter 5 tells

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

us this is the fruit of the Spirit.

The fruit of the Spirit is Lovejoy, peace, patience,

kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and

self-control. How many of you, when you look

at that list of fruit are going, I could probably use a little

bit more of that in my life. If your spouse did not answer

that question appropriately, answer the question for him.

How many of you, your spouse could use more of that fruit in

their life? Yeah.

OK. How many of you have a teenager?

Right. So how does the fruit come about

in the life of a believer? Do we get it through a bunch of

hard work? Do we get it through US trying

to do more? Oh no, no, no.

It happens when we remain, when we abide in Christ.

The word I use for abide is wrinkly.

Just like when you get in. And I had a guy this week at our

church and he's still going to come this week, but I don't know

about next week because men shouldn't take baths.

But when you get in a hot bath or in a hot tub and you stay

there for a really, really long time, you get wrinkly.

You cannot make the wrinkles. You just stay in the water long

enough for the wrinkles to show up.

The same is true in your walk with Jesus.

When we remain, when we abide, we are getting a wrinkly faith.

And how do we abide? How do we get wrinkly?

When we spend time in God's Word, when we spend time in

prayer, when we spend time in biblical community, and when we

are obedient. Knowledge is not the goal,

obedience is. John 15 shows us what happens

when we abide in him. I am the true vine, and my

father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me

that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he

prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.

You are already clean because the word I've spoken to you

remain in me, as I also remain in you.

No branch can bear fruit by itself.

It must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit

unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the

branches. If you remain in me and I in

you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from Me you can do

nothing. 4 things to look at real quick.

One, God expects fruit out of your life because He has saved

you and His Spirit lives inside of you.

He expects there to be fruit in your life, and when he doesn't

find the fruit, you're cut off. Good branches bear good fruit,

and in order for them to keep bearing more good fruit, He

prunes them and you might be going.

But Clayton, how do I know if I'm being pruned?

You are being pruned when you feel a conviction over sin.

You are being pruned when you are find yourself being prodded

outside of your comfort zone to do a spirit LED activity that

requires spirit power. And the reason for that is, is

we only grow outside of our comfort zone.

We only produce fruit outside of our comfort zone.

The third thing is remaining and abiding is how we produce the

fruit. When we abide in Him, we become

more fruitful. This is not this is not

accomplished through human effort and #4 apart from Jesus

we can do nothing. Husbands, you will never be the

husband you were supposed to be apart from God.

Wives, you will never be the wife that you were created to be

apart from God. Parents, you will never be the

parent that God created you to be apart from God.

Apart from God, you can do nothing.

Sometimes though, it can look like we are producing fruit.

It can look like we are living by the Spirit when in reality,

what is being manufactured in our lives is counterfeit fruit.

In week one, we learned that love does not equal no

boundaries, that there are clear boundaries in Scripture about

how love behaves and what love does.

We also learned that joy does not equal toxic positivity.

In other words, when we feel like because we're in a

relationship with Jesus, we have to have an endless supply of

rainbows in our pockets. That is not true authentic

faith. The Bible calls God a God of all

comfort, which means that you and I will experience seasons

where we need to be comforted. We want to have an authentic, a

real, a genuine walk with Jesus, not a fake one.

The big take away in week 1 was that in an effort to live the

Christian life, you might be wearing yourself out trying to

do something that God never commanded you to do.

And if God never commanded you to do it, then He will not

empower you to carry it out. Last week we learned that peace

does not equal staying comfortable and patience does

not equal complacency. There is to be a movement in our

walk with Jesus. And if you've been following

Jesus for a long time but you haven't moved, you're not

following Him because God is always on the move trying to

bring His lost children home. The big take away is if you are

not sensing the power of the Holy Spirit in your life, it

might be because you are not doing anything that requires His

power. Parents, let me just play with

you for a little bit. If you're yelling and screaming

at your kids, that is not something that the Holy Spirit

empowers you to do. But when you decide to have

patience with your kids, be long-suffering with your kids,

have high standards for your kids, that is a Holy Spirit

empowered moment. And so if you are not doing

anything that requires his power, you might be going.

I don't feel him anymore and he's going.

Yeah, because you're not doing the thing that requires me.

Enemy love pretty hard. How many of you got an A+ an

enemy love? No, you liar.

That's a lie. OK, Nobody gets an A plus.

How do we do? How do we do enemy love through

the power of the Holy Spirit. Today we're going to look at two

more fruits of the Spirit, kindness and goodness, and the

devastating impact of their counterfeits.

I've told you guys this before that when I was growing up, my

parents were navigating some intense financial hardships.

We lived in a vet clinic in three rooms and I bathed in like

the elevated dog bath and I slept on the floor underneath

the business desk. And my mom one day in an effort

to keep costs low, she went to ALDI and bought fruity loopies

or whatever they call them. And I'm First off, let me pause

for a second when I use illustrations about things in my

life, This is you are not obligated to bring me those

things. I got I got Cologne this week.

Sometimes people bring me fruity pebbles.

Hear me, I'm not I love it. God bless you for it.

But I'm wait, I don't need it. So I don't want a bunch of Fruit

Loops at my house at the end of this sermon.

That's not the take away. There's a better one.

So I love Fruit Loops. And my mom went to ALDI, and

instead of buying Fruit Loops from Hyvee, she went to ALDI and

bought the fruity Loopies. Yeah, I grew up with a really

bad mom. Oh, you're going?

No, but wait till you hear what she did.

Did my mom sit us down as a family?

And, you know, Clayton, things are a little tight right now.

We're now a fruity, loopy family.

I know we used to be a Fruit Loops family, but now we're

fruity, loopy people. No, she didn't.

Did she say, hey, guys, I know you want this stuff.

We just can't afford it right now?

No, my mom is an evil, conniving person, and she's watching right

now at our Keokuk campus. And you didn't think that when

you did that, that you'd have to experience this?

She went to a Fruit Loops box that she had saved, you know.

You know, she took the fruity, loopy stuff out of the fruity

loopy box and put the plastic inside the Fruit Loops box and

then boxed it back up and just waited for her innocent,

wonderful, favorite child to be hungry.

And I sat down at the table and I poured myself a bowl of Froot

Loops and my mom waited in the distance seeing if I would

notice. And I took one bite and I knew

that something was way, way off and my mom was hoping that she

would slip something by me. The packaging was the same, but

the inside was a counterfeit. And that is what can happen very

easily with these two fruits of the Spirit.

We can have all of the right packaging, but not the right

ingredients. And the reason we don't have the

right ingredients is because we're using the wrong recipe.

Let's get into it. Kindness is not people pleasing.

If you find yourself being a decent, honorable, reliable

person, people are going to see you as kind.

They have such a kind disposition.

However, when you do these activities in an effort to

please people, your motives are all wrong and sometimes we are

doing things that should be directing people's attention

towards God. But when we are people pleasing,

we are self worshipping. And when you are self

worshipping, we are no longer trying to point people to Jesus,

we are pointing them to ourselves.

Our kindness is not actual kindness.

Our kindness is manipulation. I want people to see how good I

am. I don't want to step into this

conversation because they might perceive me poorly.

Me, me, me. Our kindness should direct

everybody's attention to God. We are to live our lives in

service to Him. Our goal as Jesus followers is

to please Him. And if you are constantly trying

to please people, you will make yourself into an image that you

believe other people want you to be.

And when you try to please God, you will mold yourself into an

image of who God wanted you to be.

In other words, when you are a people pleaser, you will never

become who God created and commanded you to be.

Paul points this out in Galatians chapter one, verse 10.

You don't have to take my words from it.

I'm taking it from the Bible. This is what he says.

Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings or of

God? Or am I still trying to please

people? Check out this last line.

If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant

of Christ. Here's what he's saying.

When you become a Christian, you no longer live.

Christ lives in you. That means that you belong to

him, and you and I are to serve him and His mission.

And when you are a people pleaser, you are serving

yourself. Being a follower of Jesus will

at times put you at odds with the world and the people in this

world. And what you may be called to do

as a Christian may be perceived as unkind by the world, but God

is the one who gets to determine what is and is not kind.

And more importantly, God gets to be the author of the motives

and fuel those motives. Associated deeply with the idea

of kindness is the word usefulness, that our kindness is

supposed to have a useful air about it.

The way it was presented in the scriptures was a kind house, was

an orderly and well kept house. A kind meal was both healthy and

tasty. It was useful.

A meal that is good for you, that doesn't taste good is not

kind. Can I get an Amen right?

A meal that is tasty but not good for you?

Can I get a McDonald's right? A kind yard was a yard that had

lush green grass and it was mowed and weed eaten and edged.

It was a taken care of property. So when a kind person is a

person who is doing something for a useful purpose, the useful

purpose of your kindness is to point people to Jesus.

And your kindness is not kindness.

If it points people to you, you might be go.

If your kindness is in the direction of you, it is not

kindness. Look at the usefulness of

kindness in Romans chapter 2, verse four.

Romans 2 · chapter mention

You're going to love this. Or do you show contempt for the

riches of his kindness? This is God forbearance and

patience, not realizing that God's kindness is intended to

lead you to repentance. Kindness is useful.

It moves people in repentance towards God so they can be

forgiven of their sins, receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, and

eternity in heaven placed in their hearts.

It is designed to lead people to repentance.

It is not intended to point people to you so they worship at

the glory of you. I know this was a tough one.

Let's make it tougher. Let's look at goodness.

Goodness is not self righteousness.

This too is a version of self worship.

Self righteousness shows up when we are doing good things for our

own glory, for how people will see you.

Oh, there goes Clayton. He's just so good.

You should go to the church where Clayton's at because he's

such a good guy. You should see how Clayton picks

up trash when he's walking places.

Oh my goodness. More people should pick up trash

the way Clayton picks up trash because Clayton's a trash pick

and fool. Look at Clayton helping that old

lady across the street. He's such a good guy.

Oh my goodness. He helps all the old ladies

across the street. And he saw this lady who was

getting ready to go off a curb at Keynes, and when she was

getting ready to go off the curb, he swept right in with his

strong right arm. I'll get you to your car, old

lady. He is such a good guy.

And you know what? When we do those things, you

know how it makes us feel all kinds of good inside.

I am a good boy. But kindness, kind actions with

the wrong motives is all kinds of wrong because it points

people to us. And the goal of our lives is

never to point people to us. It is to point people to him.

And if you start doing all these good things to be seen by other

people as a good person, self righteousness starts to show up.

We start to believe our own press.

And because we do these things and other people don't, we start

seeing ourselves as better than other people, right?

And then you start viewing yourself in a pretty unhealthy

way. No one can compare to you when

you put your highlight reel against their low points in

life. And you start thinking that

you're a pretty good person and everybody else isn't.

Isn't that where your marriage problems show up?

You're a pretty good husband. Your wife thinks of being a

wife. You're a fantastic mother.

Your kids are just rotten. You start looking at other

people differently because you start thinking that you are

really, really good and everybody else is really, really

bad. But you know who our measuring

stick has always supposed to be? Our measuring stick has never

been the failings of other people and the Because if I were

to look at myself and compare myself to some of you, I would

look pretty stinking awesome. And if some of you were to

compare yourself to me, you would look fantastic.

But our measuring stick was never supposed to be others.

Our measuring stick was supposed to be Jesus.

Now for those of you who are here for the first time or the

first time in a long time, you may have heard people talk about

hypocrites. Here's what a hypocrite is.

A hypocrite is a Fruit Loops box with a fruity loopy center.

And here's here's what happens. Because even if you're a non

Christian you do this too. You look at Christians and you

make up your determination about God, and on some level that's a

very fair statement to make. I just want you to know you

don't do that in about any other area of your life.

Here's what you don't do. You don't go to a gas station

and have a bad interaction with another person who's getting gas

and go, I'm never getting gas again.

No, I've talked about this before.

When I go to the gas station, I'm at the gas station because

I, like everybody else, need gas.

Just because other people eat Fruit Loops and some of the

people who eat Fruit Loops are trash.

I haven't sworn off Fruit Loops. I eat Fruit Loops for the same

reason that everybody else eats Fruit Loops.

I'm hungry. And if you are looking at other

people and you're evaluating everything about the goodness of

our God, about the behavior of other people, you will never

find out that the sort. We were never trying to get you

to worship us. We were trying to get you to

worship the one that we worship. And if you want to use us as

your permission slip for how you behave, that's a really bad move

because when you die and you come to the judgment seat,

you're coming to the judgment seat no matter what.

And I'll tell you what you don't get to do when you're at the

judgment seat. You don't get to point your

finger at me or jacked up Joe who lives in your neighborhood.

You have to stand there on either your own righteousness or

the righteousness of Christ. Look what it says in Romans

Romans 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3. Tough truth for all of us,

Christian and non Christian. There is no one righteous, not

even one. There is no one who understands.

There is no one who seeks God, all who have turned away and

together become worthless. There is no one who does good,

not even one. And there's some of you right

now who you're going. You know what?

My life is pretty stinking good. I mean, when I look at it, it's

pretty fantastic. And I would tell you there are

nooks and crannies in your life that are dirtier than you can

possibly imagine. I have a pet peeve.

I like a clean vehicle. It's just kind of how I'm

hardwired. And I wish everybody, my family

also liked having a clean car. And here's what I do when I

clean my car, I wipe it down and I get the leather stuff out and

wipe it and vacuum it out. And I buy the expensive floor

mat so that way none of the stuff gets where it's not

supposed to go. I try to do a pretty easy job,

but when I clean up my car, I'm like, man, my car is pretty

clean. And then after I've cleaned out

the whole inside, there's this spot in every car that just, Oh

my goodness, it's the sill right where the, the and I'll have a

rag and I'll have cleaned my whole car and that rag looks

pretty stinking good. And if I look at the sill, the

sill looks pretty stinking decent.

But when I squirt some stuff on there and then I give it a wipe,

that thing becomes unusable. It becomes darker than you could

possibly imagine. Even when I wash it, the dirt

doesn't come out of it and it forever becomes the rag that you

use to wipe down the sill of all four of the your car doors.

And that is what's happening in your life.

Some of you are cleaning out the seats, and you're wiping off the

dasher. Maybe you're a person who just,

you know, gets all of the cups out of the floorboard of your

car. And you're going, man, my car's

pretty clean. But if you were to wipe in some

of the areas that you have never wiped, you'd find out a rough

truth about how dirty your car actually is.

And right now, if you were comparing your goodness to the

goodness of other people, all you're doing is getting all the

Starbucks cups out of your floorboard.

And if you're comparing yourself to some other people around you,

you might be wiping down the seats and wiping off the

steering wheel. But when you stand before a holy

and righteous God and nothing, nothing is hidden from His

sight, it will not take long before every part of you that

you think is righteous will become nothing more than a dirty

cleaning rag. And you can wash it as many

times as you want, and it will never become clean.

Because there is nothing that we can do to earn our salvation and

to right our heavenly wrongs, except for turn all of who we

are, the good, the bad and the ugly, over to the One who can

make us new. Watch what happens if you and I

spend way too much time trying to please people and too much

time trying to prove how good we are.

We will miss out on pleasing God, or worse yet, believe that

we don't need Him. So how do you and I do good?

How do you and I become kind? Look what it says in Philippians

Philippians 2:3

chapter 2, verses 3 and 4. Do nothing out of selfish

ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others

above yourselves, not looking to your own interests, but each of

you to the interests of others. What we end up doing if we want

to live in humility, if we want to be the kind of good and kind

that God requires, what we do is we put the mission of God and

other people ahead of ourselves. We are not hear me, please hear

me, please hear me, please hear me.

We are not thinking less of ourselves.

That is sometimes like that. That is one of the worst

Christian attributes, that somehow when we come to faith in

Christ, we have to devalue what Christ has redeemed.

You don't need to think less of like less of yourself.

You need to think of yourself less like where you didn't even

enter into your brain. You were thinking about God and

his mission. You were thinking about Jesus

and his sacrifice. You were thinking of the needs

of others. You weren't even thinking about

you because you no longer live, but Christ lives in you.

It is time for people all across this region to experience people

who have a godly ambition instead of a selfish one.

It's time for them to run into people who are out to please God

instead of trying to please them.

And when you and I do these things, when we step into these

areas, God shows up. You see God in his or Jesus in

his goodness. He went into the temple and he

cleansed the temple, kicked everybody out.

And Jesus was known for being the perfect nature of goodness.

He was also incredibly kind. He stepped into a situation that

was not good and he made it good.

And that is a useful and kind thing to do in his goodness.

He would have hard conversations with people.

He would correct people, He would rebuke people.

He would do a good thing in a kind way.

If Jesus was trying to people please, he would have not had

hard conversations. He would have not stepped into

difficult moments. He would have gloried in the

fact that all the glory was for him.

And Jesus came to give all the glory to His heavenly Father,

and He did it for the good of the people around him.

Tough question. How many of you don't raise your

hands? Please don't raise your hands.

You have been doing good things for your own glory instead of

God's. I wonder how many of us have

avoided doing the good thing that God called us to do because

it was going to cost us too much.

How come we keep showing up in an equation that we were never

supposed to be in? And when we are not the good

that we are supposed to be and calling people to the good that

God calls them to, we are not being kind or useful to their

spiritual development on their pathway to find the one that we

have found. Our lack of godly goodness keeps

us from doing the good that He has in store for us to do.

Our lack of kindness keeps us from being useful to the

advancement of the Kingdom. In other words, our ambition

should be to point people to Jesus, not to make ourselves

look better, but to show them how much better Jesus is.

And when we abide in him, we will end up doing what Jesus

says His followers are supposed to do.

You all know this verse. It's from one of his most famous

sermons, Matthew chapter 5, verse 16.

Matthew 5:16

Look what it says in the same way.

Let your light shine before others that they may see your

good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Not you, God is. God has like this much cares to

give about how good you come across, how much glory you get.

Here's what God wants. He wants you to do good things

and give God all the glory so people are drawn to Him, not

you. How many of you died on the

cross for anybody's sins? I think none of you.

So how much glory do you think you should get?

I would say close to 0, maybe a little less.

Do you know who deserves all the glory He does?

We want God to get all of the glory.

Furthermore, when you and I abide in Him and we go about

doing the good that He calls us to do, First Corinthians Chapter

1 Corinthians 9:8

9 verse 8 promises that He will bless you abundantly so that at

all or in all things at all times, you and I will have

everything we need to abound in every good work.

What He's saying is when you and I start practicing goodness and

kindness, we can step into every single situation, being

empowered not by our flesh, but by His Spirit.

We will have abundantly more than we could possibly need to

accomplish any task at any time so that God would get the glory.

And for too long, some of us, myself included, have been

guilty of doing things that have the appearance of godliness and

none of the substance. We are simply fruity loopies in

a fruit loop box. And when the world takes just

one bite, they know. And I think they deserve better.

And I think he does too. So let's do something about it.

We're moving to a time of decision.

To those of you who are in this room and to those of you who are

watching online, you might be thinking, man, I would love to

start this relationship with Jesus, but you're like, I just

don't measure up. And I just want you to know you

are 100% accurate. Coming to faith in Jesus is not

about you being good. It's about you finding your

goodness in him. God in his goodness and His

kindness sent Jesus to step in and settle the debt that you

owed that you could never pay. If you're sitting there going, I

don't deserve the goodness and kindness of God.

You are 100% right. You don't deserve it.

In fact, the Bible tells us that this is a really cool picture of

God because I don't know what kind of picture of God other

people have painted for you, but this is a really good picture

about God speaking about himself.

This is what he says that in Romans chapter 5, verse 8, while

Romans 5:8

we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Do you know when we forgive people, we forgive people.

Uh oh, this is going to drive me nuts, boys.

You know when we forgive people after they say I'm sorry?

Do you know when we're nice to people after they start being,

we do everything after. And isn't that why you have

marital problems? You're going to start being a

good husband after your wife starts being a Good Wife after

everything is after. I'm going to let my kids have

something nice after they start behaving after.

This is why God is so much better than us.

And This is why, hear me, This is why you should never point

people to you. You should keep pointing them to

God because we are an after people and God is a wild God.

While you were still sinning is when he sent Jesus on your

behalf. We can't comprehend love like

that. When you were at your worst, God

was at his best on your behalf. He didn't wait until you said

the right things, sang the right song, prayed the right prayer,

worshipped at the right song, attended to church.

He pre decided in advance that he loved you, would make a path

for you, send his Son Jesus to die on the cross for you while

you were at your worst. How good is our God?

How kind is our God? And the most unkind and ungood

thing that you could do is say no to him to the offer of

salvation that He is pre purchased on your behalf.

And if you're here today, I'm sorry if I'm coming across too

strong. I just believe it too much.

You saw the testimony of the other people in the room.

It's the greatest decision we ever made, and our biggest

regret is we didn't do it sooner.

And I want you to have that story.

I want you to have that testimony.

I want you to find what we have found in him.

And you might be going with Clayton.

I'm pretty sure that after I find Jesus, I'm going to screw

up. You know what I'll tell you?

Welcome to the club. But I can tell you, every time

I've failed, he has always caught me.

I have never outpaced His grace. I have never outran His mercy.

I've never found myself in a spot where His love wasn't

already waiting on me. When are you going to have that

story? If you're watching the line, I'm

encourage you to type something in the chat or click on that

link that just showed up. Or somebody will take you to a

private spot online where you can just talk to them.

And you don't have to air what's going on in your life in front

of everybody, but with somebody who cares for you and wants to

pray with you and talk with you. If you're in this room, Oh my

goodness, we're so glad you're here and you've never started a

relationship with Jesus. I'm going to encourage you to

take a walk that is long overdue.

In just a few moments, the people around you are going to

stand and sing, and some of them are going to come to the steps

and pray. And I want to encourage you to

walk right over there underneath that screen next to the

baptistry, and somebody would talk to you about how to start a

relationship with Jesus Christ. You might be going.

I don't have all my questions answered, so I'm not ready to

start them. Great.

Are you at a spot where you'll at least start asking the

questions to the rest of you in the room?

To those of you who would qualify yourself as a Jesus

follower, it is time for us to be the good, kind people that

God created us to be. Is there an area of your life

where kindness has been lacking? Is there an area of your life

where you have not been doing the good that God has called you

to do? I'm going to ask you to do

something that you may not want to do, but that will be good for

you. Repent.

Own it. Get down on your knees and say,

God, this is an area in my life where I have been unkind and I

have not been good. Repent for being a people

pleaser instead of being a God pleaser and saying God after all

you've done for me, why do I keep making an idol out of me

and an idol out of other people I know I'm supposed to worship

you. Help me use your spirit God to

redirect me. Is there a conversation you need

to have with a spouse, a kid, a Co worker where you own the fact

that you haven't been the good you're supposed to be or kind in

the way you're supposed to be kind?

Can I give you a cool verse In Matthew Chapter 11, verse 30,

Matthew 11:30

Jesus is talking to his followers and he says when you

follow me, he invites the weary to come to him and he says for

my yoke is kind. It is kind to the shoulders.

It is a kindness that you can put on and you can carry a heavy

load and it won't hurt the soul shoulders because it is useful.

God is calling you to a useful, productive life in Him.

And if you can't see the fruit, it's probably because there's

something wrong with us. So let's fix it and you might be

going. I see people come to the steps

every week and pray, and I bet that's kind of embarrassing and

humbling to walk all the way up to the steps.

And you know why you might not come to the steps?

Because you're thinking that other people will see you.

And I want you to know they're not supposed to be thinking

about you. And you know what?

You're not supposed to be thinking about them.

You know what? Yours.

This is the math in your head. I want to do something to get

right with God right now, and whether you come to the steps or

you pull a Tim Tebow in your seat or you find some spot

around the room, don't waste this moment to get right with

Him. Would you stand with me?

It is impossible to get over how good and kind and patient and

long-suffering you have been with us, and by Your grace and

mercy, you have given us another chance to chase after you and

follow after you and repent in all the ways that we haven't.

God, I am begging your Holy Spirit to reign in this church,

not just at this location, but at all of our locations.

And not just at our locations, but at every church where Jesus,

people gather, gather. Your Spirit would move us and

change us and empower us to do things that only you can do in

ways that only you can do it. In your name I pray.

Amen.