Pastor Malachi Maillot| Our Homecoming Journey | March 21st, 2021

Well, welcome to our online service here at KCC.

We're so glad you're joining with us wherever you're watching from.

We want to welcome you.

My name is Malica.

I'm one of the pastors here at KCC, and we're so glad you're with us.

And uh over the last few months, we've been going through this series called The Journey Home.

We've been talking about this idea of sonship, uh, what it means to our identity, uh, what it means to be a son of God or a child of God, and what it means to have that benefit, the inheritance, and so on.

And there's been so many uh amazing messages coming out of this topic.

But today I want to talk about our position as sons or our position as children of God and what that means to be positioned as a child of God, positioned by grace.

Um, because when we understand our position as a child and our position in that, uh, we are able to actually then function properly in the purposes God has called us to.

And uh and I want to jump into a passage in John, and it's in John 21, and uh, and here we have Peter.

And so Peter is he's he's kind of going through a rough time right now.

He's kind of had a a rough few months.

Um, and he's dealing with a lot of emotions in this in this passage.

He's he's dealing with uh regret and shame of how he you know acted in the garden with with Jesus when he was being taken away by the Roman soldiers.

He's dealing with the guilt of denying Jesus, he's dealing with grief of losing his mentor and best friend.

And so Peter's gone back to basically what he knows, what's familiar, what he's comfortable with, and he's gone back to the very thing that Jesus actually called him out of was fishing.

In John 21, verses 2 to 17, it says that Simon Peter, Thomas, Nathaniel, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together.

John 21:2–17

Simon Peter says to them, I'm going out to fish.

And they said, Hey, we'll we'll go with you.

And so they got into the boat, they went out, they got into the boat, and that night it says they caught nothing.

Early in the morning Jesus stood on the shore, and and disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.

He called out to them, Friends, haven't you any fish?

Have you caught anything?

And they answered, No.

He said to them, Throw out your net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.

And when they did, it says that they were one they were unable to haul up the net because of how many fish there were.

Then the disciple, whom Jesus loved, says to Peter, It is the Lord, it is Jesus.

And as soon as Peter heard him say, It is the Lord, he wrapped his outer garment around him, for he had taken it off, and he jumped in to the water.

And and it says that the other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from the shore.

When they had landed, they saw a fire burning with coals, and there was fish and bread on it.

Jesus said to them, Bring the fish that you have caught.

So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore.

And Jesus said to them, Come and have breakfast.

Come and have breakfast.

And none of them, it says that none of them dared to ask, Who are you?

Because they knew it was Jesus.

Jesus came and he took the bread and he gave it to them and did the same with the fish.

And this was now the third time that Jesus had appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

Um and in verse 15 is kind of where I wanna I wanna land on today.

And it says this, it says, when they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?

Yes, Lord, he said, you know that I love you.

Jesus said, Feed my lambs.

And again in verse 16, Jesus said, Simon, son of John, do you love me?

He answered, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.

And Jesus said, Take care of my sheep.

And a third time he said to him, Simon, son of John, do you love me?

And and Peter, I think at this point, he had already been dealing with a lot of emotions.

And uh it says that he was hurt, he was probably a little bit confused, because Jesus asked him a third time, Do you do you love me?

And he said, Lord, you you know all things, you know that I love you.

And Jesus says to him a final time, feed my sheep.

Peter, you're not done.

I think this is what Jesus was saying in this moment.

He wasn't trying to, you know, make Peter feel bad.

I think he was trying to say something deeper to Peter.

Hey, you're not done.

I'm not done with you, and you still have a purpose.

And the title of this message uh is Positioned by Grace.

Positioned by Grace.

Let's pray together.

Father God, I just thank you so much for this time.

I thank you so much for uh this morning, God, as we we dive into your word and God, that you would just reveal to us and you would speak to us and you would soften our hearts to hear from you and that we would grow in relationship deeper and deeper with you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Have you ever um have you ever felt pressure to impress someone?

Have you ever felt that pressure or or the need to like uh perform in order for someone to like you?

You you know, where you cared so much about what someone thought of you, um, I think often we do this and we we we tend to like change little bits of who we are uh in order to impress.

We put on a show, and I think that um we do this because this is this is this is like ingrained in culture and society, the need to perfer to perform and the need to impress people, um, especially when it comes to relationships.

I think that this is really hard for us to to get away from, you know, especially when you meet that guy, that girl for the first time, we really want to make a good impression, right?

We wanna we wanna we wanna make sure that we're not like uh being too goofy or we want them to like us, right?

And and you know, the first time I met Rebecca, I didn't make a great impression.

Um But I, you know, I had an opportunity for, you know, we were in Bible school, so for the next two years, I was I was able to kind of make a better impression on her, and we actually ended up getting married.

So um it was a great impression, if you think about it.

So we, you know, when we meet someone, we try to think of like the best stories, right?

We try to we try to be funny, but we don't know we don't want to be too funny, or we wanna let them know that we're listening and we're good listeners, but we also want to be good at conversation, and so we um we try to, you know, we instinctively try to be on our best behavior for that person.

And uh and we, you know, we want to be ourselves, um, but we don't want to be all of ourselves because that would sometimes terrify them.

Um, and we want to showcase the best parts of us.

You know, in some spaces, performance or uh trying to make that good impression, it's required for success, right?

Like when in a job interview, we have to perform well.

We have to impress that boss or that interviewer uh in order to get the job.

And then we need to also perform and impress the boss further than that, not only to get the job, but to keep our jobs, right?

And uh and then even further than that, we have to impress and perform well in order to move up in that job and get a position, right?

I have to do good to get the spot.

We're taught this in our our school systems as you know, as kids, as we grow up.

Uh, the better you perform, the better grades you get, you know, the better job you're gonna get, right?

We're we're all taught this from a very young age and it just progresses through our life and then and then it kind of gets into material things to where it's like, man, I need that car, I need those shoes, I need to have these things in order to get something, I need to impress people with, you know, the fact that I, you know, have a uh a house or money or or some sort of success on the outside, right?

And we all are told by culture and society, if you do well, right, if you perform well, if you impress people, you you will be successful or you get a reward.

It's that exchange, right?

And uh, you know, we train our dog this way.

It's it's normal, it's kind of like the way the world works, in a sense of, you know, that that our dog does something good, he gets a treat, right?

The exchange.

Uh, our dog does something bad, no treat, right?

No, no exchange, no, no good things happen right there.

And and so it's not necessarily like a bad thing the way that this idea unfolds in our life, but it's it's kind of how everything works.

But where this becomes a problem, where this becomes a problem for us is is the fact that this is so ingrained, you know, obviously in culture and society that it becomes and it crosses into every aspect of our lives.

And and it becomes an issue because things just turn into a performance.

Everything is about performance, everything is about impressing people, and we can easily lose ourselves in that way of living or that mindset.

Some of us become very perfectionists and we're we're striving for perfection, and when we don't achieve perfection, it's like our world falls apart, right?

Or we think like because we do something good, that only good things will happen to us, right?

But it's not the case.

And I think that you know, this lifestyle or this mentality, um, this performance mentality, this impressing people mentality can really easily get uh you know translated into our relationship with God.

You know, it it gets translated into our relationships, but also more importantly, into our relationship with God.

We can easily get caught up in a performance-based relationship with God when we, you know, we think that if I do A, B, C, D, E, that I get, you know, all these other things happening to me, all these good things that I, you know, I get the favor and I get the blessing, right?

Or we we take that uh that verse out of context, you know, ask for anything in prayer, right?

And we think, oh, I can just ask for whatever I want, right?

And we we get it, and that's the way the thing, the world works, and we do something good and we get good things, but that's not always the case.

It's not always reality.

And and we get in this, this, we we get stuck in this cycle of trying to perform and impress God to get you know favor, status, blessing, position, uh, even love and attention.

And I don't think that this is necessarily um something that we try to do uh actively, like we're actively thinking like this is a good idea.

I think that this is just down to human nature.

It just boils down to it's instinctive to our human nature.

And and the problem is when we live this way, you know, failure happens.

And when failure happens, when life happens, when things go wrong, go when things go wrong, when we, you know, when we have to actually face an obstacle, it's really easy to attribute everything that we're facing, that obstacle you're facing, that that struggle you're facing, we tie it 100% to to things that you know to what you did or didn't do.

Right?

We we almost blame it on like, oh, I didn't do this, I didn't, you know, read my Bible enough this week, or I didn't, you know, I feel like I I've been missing out on my time with God, and that's why these things are happening, right?

Or or I feel like you know, I didn't fully, you know, invest this week, and I and I feel like I'm just slipping, and all these things are happening to be because God's trying to teach me a lesson.

But that's not that's not the case, that's not true.

And I and I don't want to speak for everyone on this, but I think that um it's probably safe to say that I think all of us have dealt with this uh struggle, this mindset, this this habit in in some aspect of our life.

Whether it's you know your entire relationship is based on performance with God.

Maybe it's maybe it is, and maybe this is this is a kind of a wake-up call for you, or maybe you're probably like most of us, and I would say that this is probably where most of us sit, where we forget or we get distracted, and we get um caught up in a moment, and we we have these moments and and we're we're almost being inauthentic with God, or we're we're just doing something out of religious obligation, and and it can easily become habitual, or it can easily become like that's you know, we forget why we do things and we're just like, you know, why do you go to church?

Well, I guess I I was just raised that way, right?

And it just becomes this thing that we do instead of something out of a a desire and a passion for for God.

And and when when this happens, you know, we we live this these moments and we we don't check them.

Um, you know, regardless of of where you sit on this and where you you struggle, um, you know, whether it's you know your your relationship with God is completely performance-based, or you just have moments, it can stop us from truly living out our purpose.

It can actually rob us of our calling.

Um, and it and it actually holds us back from moments that that God I think wants to, He wants us to be free in.

And so when I read the Bible, when I when I read the Bible, I I always find someone or something uh that happens that I really relate to.

And you know, I really relate to to King David, but I also, you know, I I often talk about Peter because I relate to Peter probably the most.

And uh, and I'm sure that probably most of us could probably relate to Peter because Peter he struggled with his performance.

He struggled with this performance mentality, this he was driven to impress.

He struggled with this in his identity.

Um, you know, I think he he was he was constantly trying to show Jesus how much he was for him, he was constantly trying to impress Jesus.

He he was constantly, you know, I think all the disciples did this, but they were they were fighting for a spot to be Jesus' favorite disciple, right?

And and Peter he was especially stuck in a cycle of trying to perform.

And and and to his goal was was to get a position with Jesus.

In Matthew, there's a there's a few uh uh examples I have in Matthew 14.

Peter, you know, the disciples are they're they're in a boat and there's a storm going on, and Jesus comes and he walks out on the water and they're scared and think it's a ghost and he says, Hey, don't be afraid.

And Peter, in this moment, he takes this opportunity, and I think that you know his intentions are good, but I think what it what I'm observing here in this moment, Peter is like, hey, Jesus, call me out under the water.

And I think that the reason that the he fails is because he he comes out, he wants to do it on his own strength.

He's like, hey, I can do this, Jesus.

Like, call me out under the water.

I can I can prove to you in this moment, right?

I want to prove to you in this moment that I can do this, that I I have the faith, right?

I I'm gonna impress you right now, Jesus.

And and and and Jesus uh calls him out onto the water, and and and Peter, of course, like takes a few steps, and it's this amazing moment.

Like all the disciples are back in the boat, and they're probably like, wow, like Peter's actually doing it.

Like, this is incredible, this is amazing.

Peter's walking on water, but then of course, Peter he looks away from Jesus and it says that he starts to get distracted by everything that's going on around him.

And I think that's so often us, and there's so much in this that we could talk about, but Peter gets distracted and he's looking at the waves and the wind and the disaster that's happening around him, and he begins to sink, right?

And and Jesus, of course, reaches out, saves him, takes him to the boat, and he says to Peter, Hey Peter, like you've little faith.

And Peter's probably thinking to himself, like, ah, like, man, I can't believe I screwed that up.

Like I was walking on water, but I just need to have more faith.

I just need to try harder.

I just need to do better.

I just need to pray more, right?

Like that's his mentality.

And and and in in the book of John, chapter 13, Jesus is attempting, he's actually attempting to wash the feet of the disciples.

John 13 · chapter mention

And and it's really funny because Peter, he tries to out-humble Jesus by saying, Hey, hey, no, no, no, no, no, you can't wash my feet.

Like, I'm not worthy to be washed.

You not by you, like I I'm not worthy, I'm not qualified, please.

And he tries to out-humble Jesus, right?

And really, humility would be to let Jesus wash his feet and to know, yes, I'm not worthy, but I'm letting Jesus wash my feet in this moment.

That's what true humility looks like.

But he tries to have, in a sense, false humility.

He tries to impress Jesus by saying, I'm not worthy, and reject Jesus.

And Jesus responds to him really gently, but he says, Hey, unless I wash your feet, unless you let me serve you, you will have no part with me.

In the garden of uh Ghsemane, I'm not sure if I pronounced that right, but before Jesus is taken away, Jesus is praying, and uh and he tells his disciples, and Peter's one of them, he says, Hey, I need you to pray.

Don't fall asleep.

And they fall asleep, of course, and and the and the Roman guard comes and and and the disciples wake up, and and Peter, you know, passionate, wild, like outspoken Peter, he tries to show Jesus, hey, I'm for you, I'm gonna protect you.

And he actually attacks one of the guards, he cuts his ear off, and and he's saying, like, hey, I'm not gonna, I'm gonna fight for you, I'm not gonna let these men take you away, I'm gonna protect you, I can protect you, I'm for you, Jesus.

And he's trying to like, he's trying to like put himself out there, right, right intention, but the wrong way to do it.

And again, Jesus corrects Peter, and I think he actually says something along the lines of like, hey, Peter, if I wanted to get out of this situation, I would just call on the angels of heaven and they would come and save me.

And so Peter's at this point, he's feeling kind of dumb.

He's feeling like like a failure.

He's like, he's probably thinking to himself, like, I just can't get it right.

I just can't get this right.

Like, I'm not doing something correctly.

I'm I've I feel like I'm constantly failing, and I'm not, I'm not able to impress Jesus.

I'm every time I try, I'm I'm failing at it.

And it and it finally brings Peter to this point where he denies Jesus publicly.

And it's kind of the downfall of Peter, the lowest point for Peter.

Um, and he denies Jesus after being extremely vocal at the dinner table.

They were at the the last supper that um they were gonna have with Jesus, and they're all talking around the table, and Jesus brings up that someone's at this table at at around his his group of friends, these disciples, one of them is gonna betray Jesus.

And they all kind of gasp, right?

And and Peter, of course, speaks up first and he's like, I would never betray you, Jesus.

Like, I am for you, I am with you, I, I, I, I, I will never leave you.

I can't believe I don't know about these guys, I don't want to speak for all these guys.

I think that, you know, they might do it, but I would never betray you.

And Jesus takes a look at Peter and he turns to him and he says, You know, Peter, before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you're gonna deny me three times.

And it happened, and and Peter was probably just you know covered in shame and covered in guilt in those moments.

Um, and now in John 21, here we have Peter, right?

He's feeling really defeated.

He's he's emotional, he's he's feeling the shame, he's feeling the guilt.

He probably feels like he's failed as a disciple of Jesus.

He he so so that's drawn him to go back to you know what he knows.

He's failing at at what he you know, failing at following Jesus, so he goes back to what he knows he's good at.

And to make matters worse, he's actually failing at fishing because they haven't caught anything yet, right?

Like this was their profession, and now he's failing at what he thought he was good at.

So he's at this ultimate like low spot in his life.

But of course, Jesus shows up.

Jesus shows up and he says, Hey, have you caught anything?

And obviously Jesus knows, but they reply, Yeah, no, we haven't, we haven't caught anything.

Um, and Jesus says, Hey, try throwing your nets to the other side, throw it on the right side of the boat.

And I'm sure at this point, Peter probably would he he perked up a little bit because for him, this this was a very familiar scene.

This is actually how Jesus came to Peter the first time when Peter was out fishing, and this is how Peter, you know, experienced Jesus for the first time, right?

He comes back to this familiar spot for him, and uh, and it didn't take long for Peter to realize who was talking to them.

It says that you know, one of the disciples that Jesus loved the most says, it is it is Jesus, it's it's Jesus talking to us.

Jesus is right here, he's on the shore.

And Peter's like, he, he, he recognizes it, he gets excited, and he jumps out of the boat fully clothed, right?

And he begins swimming towards his friend.

And uh, and there's so many things that I think Jesus could have said to Peter in this moment.

There were so many like we call them like teachable moments, right?

That we we we sometimes as humans like to say like that I told you so, right?

We like to have that I told you so moment.

Um and Jesus could have done this.

Jesus could have had this I told you so moment with Peter.

Like he could have said, like, remember, hey, remember that time when you said you wouldn't betray me, Peter?

Do you remember that?

Do you remember what happened?

Hey, Peter, do you remember when you remember when you tried to walk on water?

Do you remember that?

When I called you out of the boat and you were doing great, but then like, do you remember when you got distracted?

Like, you started to sink.

What did you learn from that, Peter?

But none of that happened, right?

Instead, Jesus is silent, he's and he he he's serving them breakfast.

And it's this really cool moment, it's a solemn moment, and you can kind of just like you can you can feel the the emotion in this moment, just a bunch of good friends having breakfast together on a shore and just kind of enjoying each other's company.

But but what Jesus says to Peter after breakfast is what I want to land on.

And of course, we read it at the beginning, but I'm just gonna recap it again.

He says, Peter, do you love me?

And of course, Peter says, Lord, you you know that I love you.

You know this.

And and Jesus replies, Feed my sheep.

And he goes on to say the Same question two more times with the same answer.

And what's really happening here is Jesus isn't being cheeky or trying to confuse Peter or trying to make Peter feel bad about himself even worse than he was.

But what he's saying is, Peter, you're not done.

Peter, like I have a job for you.

Peter, I trust you.

Like, feed my sheep, Peter.

I'm trusting you with a big responsibility here.

And and you haven't lost the position.

You haven't lost your purpose.

You haven't failed on your calling.

Like you failed, but this this doesn't define your purpose.

This doesn't define who you are.

This doesn't define your calling, Peter.

Feed my sheep.

Peter, do you love me?

Because if you keep me at the center, I will guide you.

You don't need to worry about all these things.

You don't need to worry about impressing me.

You don't need to worry about the performance.

Do you love me, Peter?

Feed my sheep.

Failure can't take you out of the position that I've placed you in, Peter.

You were a son.

You will never not be a son because it's where I've placed you.

And see, the the strength of Peter wasn't enough.

Right?

The willpower of Peter wasn't enough.

The impressive persistence of Peter wasn't enough.

The passion of Peter wasn't enough to get him into position.

Only Jesus could place him in position.

And so what does this mean for us today?

And what am I getting at here?

And I think that we can probably all relate to Peter to some degree.

And you know, whether we know, whether we don't know what our position is, whether we're in a place where we have no idea what our position in Christ is, whether we we've forgotten or we've been distracted, or you feel completely disqualified from that position, or you feel like unworthy of that position, or you feel like I just don't know if I could ever get to that place with God.

But the truth is when we decide to follow Jesus, when we essentially drop our proverbial fishing rods and our fishing nets and we follow Jesus and we give our life to him, what happens is we are then positioned in Christ.

We are positioned in Christ.

It says in Galatians 3.26, for in Christ, for in Christ, you are all sons of God through faith.

We are taken from a position of a slave to a son.

We are adopted into the family of God.

Galatians 4.7 says this, you are, so you are no longer a slave.

You are taken from one position to God's child.

It says you are no longer a slave, but God's child.

Since you are his child, God has also made you an heir.

That's what it means to be a son of God.

We we benefit in the inheritance of being a son.

2 Corinthians 5, 21 says this, for our sake, he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him, in Christ, there's that in Christ again we might become the righteousness of God.

And so what this means is when Jesus went to the cross, he exchanged our sin.

He took our sin and he gave us something much better, something that we could never attain on ourselves, on our own strength, on our passion, on our persistence, on our performance, on our impressiveness, right?

We can never attain it.

He exchanged our sin, our mess, our grunge, our dirt, like nothing.

He exchanged it for his righteousness.

He was made sin, it says.

He took on the world's sin onto himself.

He gave up his sonship in this moment.

He gave up his inheritance so that we could have that with God, so that we could become his righteousness.

We could become heirs, we could become the children of God adopted in through Christ.

Isn't that amazing?

And we were taken from this position where we would, you know, we would never match up.

We were in the slavery to sin, to a position of his righteousness.

That is, this is the most foundational, like, this is what we need to understand.

This is this is how we need to operate.

Meaning, righteousness means we stand in perfect position.

Meaning we no longer have to strive for that position.

We no longer have to try and fight for that position.

We no longer have to try and perform to get to that position.

We no longer have to impress everyone around us to get to that position.

Jesus placed us in that position.

We have now right relationship with God.

Think about that for a second.

We have right relationship.

Righteousness means right standing with God.

You don't need to strive for it anymore.

We have that access to Him.

We don't have to impress God.

We don't have to perform for His approval because He sees you and He sees us.

When He sees you and He sees me, He sees His Son Jesus, because we are now in Christ.

We are hidden in Christ.

And nothing, not hell, no angel, nor demon, no time, no past mistake, no man, no woman, no governmental decision can ever move you from that position because they didn't place you there.

Nothing that you did placed you there.

God placed you there.

When we give up our life to Jesus and we we follow him, when we follow him, we are given that position.

We are placed in that position.

And it's amazing.

And from that position, knowing this, when when we understand our position in Christ, then we can operate in the purpose that God called us to.

We can operate from a position of victory.

It's like in war, positioning is everything, having the high ground, right?

Having the high ground is the best position to have, right?

It's the position of a victory, or in sports, you know, in sports games, and in order to win games, you need to be in the right position and you need to understand your position.

And so when we understand our position, we s we we fight from a place of victory, right?

And and it's it's because you know we're really at war.

We're there's a spiritual battle going on.

It hasn't stopped.

It hasn't just stopped because you know, church is closed.

It's actually going on, and it and it doesn't necessarily mean that it's like the church versus the government, right?

We fight a spiritual warfare and we have to know our position in order to be able to fight right, right?

We have to be in the right spot.

We have to understand because when we be when we start following God, when we start following Jesus, it life doesn't get any easier, right?

We actually get a target painted on our back.

As soon as we start following Jesus, we have a target on our back.

And and just because we're in a position of righteousness and right standing with God doesn't mean there won't be opposition.

Actually, there's there's gonna be more opposition coming against us.

And if you don't understand your position, you're not gonna be able to fight and and and be able to stand properly, right?

And and the the enemy's main way of attacking us, his main way that he tries to disqualify us is to, he tries to convince us to get out of position.

Or he tries to convince us that we're not worthy of that position.

He tries to convince us that we're disqualified from that position.

He tries to convince us that we we're not supposed to be in that position, or that we'll never get to that position, or that we're not in that position because of this, this, this, and this, right?

He comes after our thoughts, or he comes after the people around you, the people that you love.

He tries to turn people against you, uh, and he tries to just throw you off your game.

But really, you know, he has no power.

He can't take you out of that position because he didn't put you there.

He just tries to get you to convince yourself that you don't belong there.

And, you know, your past might come and try and tempt you.

Uh, you know, old habits might try to cling to you.

Um, an old way of thinking might try to attack you, but really, you have to, you have to fight it.

You have to fight it with the word of God.

That's how we, that's how we know our position, that's how we remind ourselves of our position.

We have to read the word of God.

And and I actually want to do something right now together.

And I want to, you know, wherever you're watching from, whatever time you're watching this at, I want you to repeat our 2 Corinthians 5.17 after me.

I want you to repeat this.

I want you to speak it out over your life right now, and and this is what we're gonna do.

I'm gonna say it, and you're just gonna repeat it.

So I'm gonna say, therefore, and this is where you say, therefore.

So therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old has passed away.

And behold, the new has come.

And whenever you feel that old life, that old habit coming back, you speak this over your life.

You say it out loud, you write it on your fridge or something.

But I want you to remember that and and remind yourself, man, I am in position.

That old way of thinking is dead, that old way of living is dead.

Those habits are dead, along with all its mistakes, and the new is here, and I'm a new creation in Christ Jesus.

So, do you feel like this season you've been striving?

Do you feel overlooked?

Do you feel like giving up?

Do you do you feel that need to perform to get the attention or the do you need like do you feel like you need to impress God in order to feel loved?

You don't need that anymore because God has already placed you.

That's what you have to understand.

God has already placed you in the spot that you need to be.

There is no need to be worried or anxious about the future.

There is no need to try and fight for your spot.

There's no need to try and impress to be seen because you already have a spot at the table.

Because we're positioned by his grace, and we're positioned into his righteousness.

You're a son and a daughter of the Most High God.

Can I pray with you?

Why don't you just close your eyes right now, wherever you are?

Father God, I just thank you so much for this truth, this message, God, that we are positioned by your grace.

We are positioned by your son Jesus, that through him, that in him, we are the righteousness of God.

We have right standing relationship with you, and that you love us no matter what.

And God, that you see us and we're not overlooked, and you you care for us, you value us, God, and and when we understand the position that we that we were placed in, that we can fight from that place, God, we can stand in victory over whatever comes at us.

And God, that life happens and things happen and and things that we can't control, but God, as we understand our position, we'll be able to take on those things, God.

We'll be able to stand.

We won't be flattened, we won't be pulled out of position because we understand what you've given us and what you've done for us.

And if there's any of you who have never um, you know, made that decision to follow Christ, I want to just lead you in a quick prayer right now.

And and and and obviously we've talked about the benefit of that.

Maybe you're in a spot where you just feel like you you don't know God and and you want that.

And I'm just gonna pray a quick prayer that you can repeat after me right now.

So, Lord Jesus, just repeat after me, Lord Jesus, come into my heart.

Forgive me of my sin.

Make me new, make me whole.

God, I I want to live for you.

I want to follow you for the rest of my life.

Lord, forgive me for my past mistakes and guide me to the future that you want me to be in.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, thank you so much for joining us uh on our online service.

We hope that you can we can see you soon in person.

I'm sure that's uh hopefully happening in our in our government, and there's a few updates coming out um this week, but um, we hope that you have a good Sunday and bless you.

We hope you enjoyed the service today, and we just wanted to take a few moments to remind you of the ways that you can give.

You can give online through the app, or you can text KCC now to 77977.

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We hope you see you next week as we continue our homecoming journey.