How to Live As A Child of God - Aaron McRae

So if we've not met yet or you've not been around Hillside, you're visiting today, I'm a words guy.

I love words.

And I'm sort of weird.

I love idioms.

So, like I did a deep dive on idioms around smell this week.

Like sayings like this.

Something smells off, or something smells fishy.

You know that one?

Like, what does that mean?

Something's suspicious.

Something's strange.

Or wake up and smell the coffee.

What does that mean?

You're shy.

You're a bunch of shy people.

Wake up and smell the coffee.

Stop living in a dream and face reality.

Or this one.

You sniff it out.

We're gonna sniff this out.

It's search, discover hidden clues, information, otherwise called stalking in 2026.

Stop and smell the roses.

What does that mean?

Take time.

I can't hear anybody, but I hear this.

That's great.

That's great.

Take time, slow down, and enjoy life.

Or when my wife at night asks, What did you eat today?

That's code for your breath stinks.

Garlic, probably.

Right?

It led me to ask strange questions.

That doesn't surprise some of you this week.

Um, I started wondering, what did Jesus smell like?

I don't mean like the dirt of the road that he walked down.

I mean like, did was there a fragrance?

And and is there a fragrance that we would have as a Christian who is trying to follow Jesus and if we're becoming like Jesus, would we have a distinct aroma ourselves?

I took these off of my trees in my backyard.

If I were to blindfold you and have you to do a little sniff test on this orange, I'm pretty certain that most of you would say, That's an orange.

I know what it is, I know where it came from by the smell of it.

Right?

A lemon off one of the trees in our backyard.

I'm pretty sure, again, if I blindfolded you, put this under your nose, and like, smell this and tell me what it is, you would say, I know what that is, I know where that came from, that's a lemon.

Do you know there are strange people in this world who don't like what an orange or a lemon smells like?

We call them angels fans.

I just made that one up.

I keep making up something different every time.

But but there's something unique about the aroma.

We we know it when we smell it.

We also know that's not a banana, that's not the trash.

We know it.

And so we what we want to do is talk today about the aroma of Jesus and what he does in our lives to make us smell like him.

We're in a series where we're going through our statement of faith.

We will end this series next week.

Uh, look at this slide, real quick.

Here's sort of an overview of the series.

In September and November of last year, we we were teaching through what do we believe about God?

What do we believe about creation, the Holy Spirit?

It these are all a part of our statement of faith that's on our website.

March, May, over Easter this year, even, we talked through what do we believe about Jesus?

What do we believe about eternity?

What do we believe about the church?

We just finished last week, three weeks on what do we believe about scripture, and I'm going to end the series today and tomorrow, next week, with what do we believe about the Christian life?

What does God call us to?

So if you were to go on our uh website, click on what do we believe, the the thing we'll cover today is the Christian life.

And this is the statement.

Look at the screen.

God graciously adopts us into his family and enables us to call him Father.

Isn't that good news?

We are led by the Spirit.

We grow in grace or grow in the knowledge of the Lord, freely keeping his commandments and endeavoring to live in the world so that people can see our good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven and smell him.

I added that part.

And get a whiff of what he smells like.

So if you have a Bible, if you have a smartphone, I would love for you to turn to Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

We're going to unpack a number of verses in Ephesians 4.

Out.

We'll eventually get to verse 17.

But I just want to give you a context real quick.

Ephesians is one of these letters the apostle Paul wrote.

He wrote them to people in churches in a specific place.

So in a place called Colossae, he wrote a letter called Colossians.

To people in Thessalonica, he wrote a letter called Thessalonians.

To the people in Ephesus, at a church in Ephesus, he wrote Ephesians.

Ephesians was a powerful, influential city of that day.

Economically, religiously, athletically, they had something like the Olympics, politically.

It had all of these ways that it was influencing the whole entire region, sort of like LA.

The city was powerful.

There was a temple to Artemis or Diana that people would travel from all over the world to see.

In fact, in the Bible days, the temple of Artemis was one of the seven wonders of the world.

And people would go there and see this.

But all of this created in that world a posture of being far from God, a posture of being sort of pushing away from God.

And Paul is writing to followers of Jesus.

He's writing to Christians to say, wait a minute, be careful in the place you live, culturally, watch out.

Entertainment, watch out.

Religiously, watch out.

You've got to beware, because if you're not careful, the culture will lead you astray.

And so in chapters 1, 2, and 3 of Ephesians, Paul is telling us how beautiful the gospel of Jesus is.

Isaiah 1:4

Chapter 1, verses 4 and 5, he talks about this idea.

We are adopted by God through Jesus into a new family.

That's crazy.

In chapter 2, famous verses 8 and 9, he says, It is by grace that you have been saved through faith.

It's not works that we do, it's the gift of God's grace.

We receive it through faith.

That's amazing news.

Ephesians 3, he talks about how high and deep and wide is the love of God.

It is amazing, and that our God is able to do immeasurably more than all that we could ask or imagine according to his power at work in us.

His power is at work in us.

Do you believe that?

So that's chapters 1, 2, and 3.

Then chapters 4, 5, and 6, Paul is saying, okay, in light of all that, here's how we live.

Here's what it means to live as a Christian.

Live out the gospel.

And so we'll start there in chapter 4, verse 17.

But before I read, I want you to look.

Look in your Bible.

Is there like a heading in there?

Just FYI.

These headings aren't part of the Bible.

There's their translators put them in there to help us understand it.

Does anybody have a heading?

What does it say?

Instructions for Christian living.

You're NIV like me.

What else?

Okay, living a holy life.

Look at this.

Here's four examples of different things.

NIV, instructions for Christian living.

ESV, the new life.

The CSB, it says living the new life.

The NLT, living as children of light.

Do you see what's in common?

It's all about the life we live in light of who Jesus is.

So what's that life like?

I'll start reading in verse 17.

Paul writes these words So I tell you this, and I insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, being those people in the city who don't follow God, don't even know Jesus, don't live like that in the futility of their thinking.

They are darkened in their understanding, and they're separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.

Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.

So Paul does this diagnosis of the culture of Ephesus.

And it's progressively getting worse.

And look at this, I just sort of broke them down for us.

He says, this is what life without Jesus is like.

Number one, it's it's futile in our thinking.

It means to be devoid of truth.

Or it means to be vain, completely self-centered.

Darkened understanding means that our minds are covered with misunderstanding, so we can't even know what is real and what is right.

He says they're separated from the life of God, meaning alienated by God.

Where Christ has come to bring us to God the Father, they're alienated, separated.

There's a hardening of hearts.

There's a loss of all sensitivity.

They're unable to even feel correctly.

They're calloused.

And because of their callousness, they're given over to sensuality, meaning like lust is unbridled, it's out of control.

They're indulging in every kind of impurity.

That word impurity can mean unclean.

It means that spiritually there's a stink.

There's an odor to be aware of, and they're full of greed.

I want, I need, I must have money, power, food, sex, desires raging out of control.

They're full of greed.

And Paul says, Be careful.

Be careful.

Look at verse 20.

He continues, that, however, is not the way of life.

You learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.

That's really important.

That's in Jesus.

You were taught with regard to your former way of life to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires, to be made new in the attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self created to.

Check this out.

This is wild.

Created to be like God, not to be a God, but to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

So what Paul is saying is to those who are following Jesus, he's like, You have learned this, you have heard this, you have been taught this, that there's a new attitude.

That's a good Patty LaBelle song for those of you who are old like me.

That there's a new attitude, a renewal that God wants to do in our lives to give us a new attitude, a new perspective.

There's a new self that God is creating.

We once were something that now we're a new version, and we're created to be like God.

This is the language of transformation.

God is wanting to transform us into something we uh were not before, but because of Jesus, we have become.

It's part of why our vision statement here is to see God's hope transform our cities one story at a time, one person at a time, one of you at a time, one of us at a time, coming to life in God's transformation.

And here's where it starts in this passage in Ephesians.

It starts with adoption, belonging to Jesus.

Adoption.

Chapter 1, verse 4 and 5, Paul writes that we have been adopted to sonship or daughtership through Jesus Christ.

We've been brought into the family of God because of Jesus.

Paul says it another way in Romans 8.

He says, For those of you who are led by the Spirit of God, you are children of God.

If you're being led by the Spirit of God, you're a child of God.

The spirit you receive does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again.

If you're a child of God, you don't have to live in fear.

Rather, the spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship or daughtership.

And by him we cry, Abba Father.

We cry out to our Father.

We cry out to God because we've been welcomed into a new family.

Like, but here's us to be honest.

The Christian family, like any human family, is somewhat like our family's dysfunctional.

And I just want to say, welcome to a big dysfunctional family, the church, you will fit right in.

Because we've all got some measure of dysfunction in our lives.

But we're welcome, not because of the good we've done, we're welcome because what Jesus has done on our behalf.

We're we're adopted.

But just think about this for a moment.

What is adoption?

What does it even mean?

I I've never adopted someone into my home.

Now we've adopted dogs, but that doesn't not the same.

To be adopted means you are chosen and you are loved.

I have three kids.

I didn't choose any of them.

God just gave them to me.

If I had to choose, I'm not even going to talk about if I had to choose.

But I didn't choose them.

I was just given them.

I have to love them.

But if you're adopted, you're chosen and you're loved.

And to be chosen and to be loved by God, you're like, God, why would you choose me?

And I just last night I was laying in bed and I was like, I was just overwhelmed by this.

Thank you, God, for choosing me.

Anybody else?

Thank you, God, for loving me.

You know everything we've done, and you still love us.

So it's to be chosen, it's to be loved.

It's you belong here.

You belong in this family because you've been chosen.

It's you are an heir.

You are literally written into the will when you're adopted.

You're an heir.

It's you have a new beginning.

Even today in our society, when you're adopted, you get a brand new birth certificate.

You get a new beginning.

You have a new beginning in Christ because of what God has done for us, and God is wanting to welcome all of us to the family if we would choose to turn by faith and repentance to Jesus Christ.

Look real quick up at the screen.

He he gives, Paul gives examples of transformation.

In verses 22 and 23, he says, This is what it looks like in our life when we join in.

Put off the old self.

That's an idea of like an outer garment, a coat.

You're taking it off.

Put off the old self because why?

It's being corrupted.

And you're like, but it's a lot of fun.

He's like, it's being corrupted.

You don't know the ruin that's taking place.

And be made new in mind.

If you're taking notes, that's like Romans 12, 1 and 2.

Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

So put off your old self because it is leading to corruption and put on the new self, which is this is crazy, created to be like God.

You and I were created to live the kind of life that God would live if he was living our life that we're created to be like God.

But look at this, this is important.

In righteousness and holiness, it's a different kind of life.

And it's a different kind of life than what he's calling out is happening in Ephesus.

He's like, don't look to the culture and be like them.

Be careful, the models that you try to follow.

He's like, and lean into this God-centered life that you've been called to live.

Famously, Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians on this topic when he wrote, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come, the old has gone, the new is here.

God wants to do a new work in our lives.

When God saves us through Jesus, he adopts us into his family.

We belong there.

But maybe you have a painful family story.

And for you to imagine God being a loving, gracious heavenly father is really hard because there's wounds.

And God wants to reveal his love to heal those wounds, to bring comfort and love, to meet you in the places that are broken in your life.

Others of us, we come from a good, a strong, a comfortable, supportive family.

And there I think God wants to shake us out of our comfort zones of false security and call us to live with courage because our Heavenly Father loves us more than we could imagine.

And don't limit what God's love could be based off of our experience.

So I want you to do something, if you would.

Would you close your eyes?

It's the middle of the message.

Don't get any ideas.

Close your eyes and pray with me.

And I want you to just, if this applies to you, pray this.

Thank you, God, for choosing me.

Thank you, God, for loving me.

Or to be specific, thank you, God, for adopting me.

If you don't know his love, would you pray, God, help me to experience your love?

Help me to understand that you've chosen me.

And to experience the fullness of the love, God, that only you can give.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Verse 25, Paul continues, therefore, each of you must put off falsehood.

I was just reminded in the last service of something this week I thought about saying.

I decided not to say it, then I decided to say it, so I'll say it.

I just realized I lied at church last week.

Now, if this helps you, I wasn't preaching last week.

But I lied at church last week.

Actually, a few times.

Because a few times people said, Hey, how are you doing?

And you know what I said?

Good.

Fine.

And I wasn't good or fine.

So Paul says, Don't do that.

Each of you must speak, put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.

If we're members of one body, we should be able to handle each other's rough days, right?

We shouldn't have to put on a mask and pretend like we're something else when we're not even that in that moment.

In your anger, do not sin and do not let the sun go down while you are still angry and do not give the devil a foothold.

Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must get a job.

I added that, I'm sorry.

But must work, useful work, with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.

There's a purposefulness there.

It doesn't say, so you can earn a lot more money, so you can share.

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Again, Paul is giving us things to engage in, practices to engage in, so we can become more like Jesus.

Here's what I call it.

If the first one was adoption, at this point we're talking about imitation.

Imitation is becoming like Jesus.

It's becoming like Jesus.

Imitation is this powerful force in our life.

I think back to like when my son was in a mirror when I used to shave back in the day, and he was little and I was big and I was shaving, and he's over there mimicking.

Like you definitely have no hair, not even peach fuzz.

But he's imitating.

Then I thought yesterday about little tykes and fisherprice children's kitchen play sets.

Anybody you have one in those houses now?

You had one in your house growing up.

Anyone, do you are you with me?

A kids play set, kitchen.

Come on, anybody with me?

Raise your hand so I know we're in this together.

Okay.

Back in my day and when my kids were little, you had little types, Fisher Price kitchen sets for the kids, and they were obnoxious colors, plastic, and they you could tell that's not a real kitchen.

Nowadays, it looks like they went to IKEA and bought, like kids' kitchens are better than my kitchen in my house.

I'm like, where did this happen?

Back in the day, my kids loved to imitate, and they would bring us meals.

And for some reason, there was always corn on macabre.

Every meal, it's like bacon, eggs, and corn on macabre.

And I'm like, what?

And they're like, eat it, isn't it yummy?

And I'm I'm as I dig into the bacon, I'm like, this doesn't work.

You know, nowadays they have veggie burgers and avocado and they smell real.

I just made that part up.

But it was such a powerful force for me to see my kids long to make a meal and have me sit down and enjoy it because they were imitating what they saw us do.

For those of you with young children, and your children love to do that, they will get over that by 12 or 13 years old.

But to mimic and imitate begins to shape and form.

Again, Paul gives examples of transformation and progress here.

Look at these.

He says, put off falsehood, stop being deceitful or ignoring the truth.

Speak truthfully.

We are we are one, we're members of one body, we're the family of God.

We should be able to handle it.

Speak truthfully, do not sin in your anger.

Instead, address the conflict.

Don't avoid it.

Don't stuff it under.

No, no, no, no, I'm not offended.

You're like, oh, I'm so offended.

Address it.

Don't give the devil a foothold.

Don't steal anymore, but do useful work.

Again, with a purpose not just to make more and more and more and more money, but so you can share.

Don't speak unwholesome, but only what is helpful.

Only speak what is helpful.

And you're like, if I only speak what is helpful, I won't be talking anymore.

Well, there you go.

Build others up.

He says, speak so it's for the benefit of another person.

Speak words of life, encourage, don't discourage.

And there's something about Engaging in these practices.

They don't save us, they don't adopt us, but they help us become more like Jesus.

As we realize the things we need to stop doing, the things we would step into doing, we we start to be shaped when Paul says, Don't let any unwholesome talk that can mean corrupt, it can mean rotten, it can mean speech that stinks.

That's not the odor of Christ.

That's not the aroma that we want to be known for.

Last week, Pastor Woody wrapped up those three weeks on what do we believe about scripture?

One of the passages that he used was in Deuteronomy 17.

And Deuteronomy 17 talks about kings and when a new king comes into reigning, that they're to write down the words of the law.

Literally, what that means is like Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, the first five books, the Torah, the Pentateuch, write it down so you have a copy in your own handwriting.

Like, wow.

And what he was talking about, how long that would take.

Well, one of the people getting baptized today is a young mom who met Jesus, is following in baptism, and some time ago just had this conviction I need the word of God in my life, and I've got a newborn daughter.

I want her to know the word of God from a young age.

So she got, it's called a blank Bible.

I don't know about this.

Some of us want a blank Bible so we can write it to make it sound good to ourselves.

This is a blank Bible, and she's made a commitment.

I'm going to write this Bible into the blank Bible, every verse, every book.

She calculated if she writes one page a day, it will take her four years of writing the Bible to write through the whole Bible.

Because she said, I need to get the word in me, and I need to get in the word, and I need to get the word in my daughter, and my daughter needs to get in the word.

Because by imitation, by practice, we start becoming something new.

We start becoming who God wants us to be.

So you don't have to close your eyes, but would you whisper a prayer?

Maybe it's something like this Jesus, help me to do more of the things that you would want me to do, so I can become like you.

Maybe whisper this prayer, Jesus, strengthen me to stop doing the things that cause me to not be like you.

Paul continues in verse 31.

Here's some examples.

Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

How did God forgive us in Christ?

Graciously, completely?

He didn't say you better earn it sacrificially.

And then chapter 5, verse 1.

Follow God's example, therefore, as dearly loved children, since you're in the family, since you've been adopted, since you're dearly loved children.

Follow God's example.

Follow God's example means to imitate Him, to join in the activities and the actions, the purposes and the plans that God would have you be a part of, of what God is doing.

And so we talked about adoption, we talked about imitation.

Now let's talk about participation.

Participation, behaving like Jesus.

Now let me be clear: by behaving like Jesus, I'm not talking about being a good moral person.

That was sort of the imitation.

By behaving like Jesus, I'm saying this.

We need to be people who are joining God's kingdom work in this world.

God is at work all around us.

The question is, are we attuned and are we participating in his work?

In two chapters before this, Ephesians 2, Paul writes this we are God's, what's the word?

Handiwork.

Handiwork.

That word means masterpiece.

A masterpiece of God's creation.

And maybe you're here like, I don't feel like much of a masterpiece today.

But let me just tell you, God's word said, This is true of you.

You've been created in the image of God.

It's not about what you or I feel like.

This is a truth that we're invited to participate in.

We're God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus.

If you've been made new in Jesus, you have been created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared for us in advance to do.

God has prepared works for you and I to step in, to walk in his kingdom purposes in this world, not to be selfish or arrogant or building our own kingdom, not to be have selfish ambition, but a kingdom ambition to participate.

Not to sit on the sidelines to but to participate.

Last week, um my my wife and daughter were gone for a family thing in Iowa, and so I was a bachelor for like a week, and a friend here from church says, Hey, do you want to go golf?

And I'm like, No, not really, but I'd love to hang out with you.

And he's like, Well, let's play golf, and it'll just be about hanging out together.

I'm like, I haven't played golf in forever.

And he's like, That's okay.

I I won't I won't judge you, just come on.

Good news is I got home and golf uh was on TV and I watched Scotty Scheffler, and I thought, it doesn't look that hard.

It doesn't look that hard.

And so I'm like, I don't need to go in the backyard and practice, I just watched it on TV.

I saw what he did.

I'm just gonna go do what he did.

And so I went out there, first T and it went straight and pretty far.

And I was like, see?

And then there was the second hit, and the rest of them.

I was like, you know, just watching it on TV wasn't quite enough, I guess.

And so uh got up for a few more.

This time I got an iron out and I was going to swing an iron, and my friend was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, before you do that, and I was like, Yes.

He's like, Why don't you move forward in your stance?

And I just said, I have to be honest with you right now, I don't know which way forward is.

Like this?

I'm like, that seems weird.

I'm hitting the ball, but he's like, No, no, no, no, forward.

Like, I had to have somebody close to me who was with me, watching me, helping me, guiding me step by step, who knew more than I knew.

And it wasn't enough to sit at home and watch it on the TV and think, I'm going to be a golfer.

Can you smell the grass?

No, no, I couldn't actually through the TV.

You have to get out there and be a participant, and God is calling faithful followers of Jesus to get out of their green chairs.

Would you look down at your seat real quick?

And get in his kingdom work, participate in his work in this world to behave like him because adoption leads to imitation, that leads to participation.

You can't behave right if you're not becoming, and you can't become if you don't belong.

Starts by turning to Jesus in repentance, I can't save myself, and faith, I believe in you.

It's adoption that leads to participation with God's work, not on Sunday mornings alone, but participating with God's kingdom work where you live in your home, where you work, where you study, where you play, even on a golf course, and God knows how much spiritual help I need on a golf course.

Adoption into the family of God means that God calls you to be the kind of people at a certain place.

Guess what?

Not just where you live, where you work, where you study, where you play, but also where you go to church to dig roots, to be committed.

My wife and daughter, when they're gone, I'm at home watching some dogs, and if there's a mess, there's nobody else to blame but me.

And I didn't call anybody else and say, Can you come and clean up my mess?

Nor has anybody ever asked me to come to their house and clean up the mess there.

We we deal with the responsibilities in our own home.

And so God plants us in a family, first of all, his family, but second of all, the local church.

That's why there's Ephesians and Colossians and I can't even say it, Thessalonians, and hillside.

God calls you to be a part of his local family, it's to participate, not to sit in a chair and say, somebody else will do it.

Because God wants you to be a part.

Back in Ephesians 5, verse 1, Paul again says, follow God's example, therefore his dearly loved children.

Ephesians 5:1

Here we go, and walk in the way of love.

That means live it out, live a loving lifestyle.

Here we go.

Just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a, here it is, fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

A fragrant offering and a sacrifice, a sweet smelling thing.

There is a smell that Christ has.

Maybe not a physical thing.

There's a smell, it's the smell of offering, it's a smell of sacrifice, it's it's the smell of what God is desiring to do.

2 Corinthians chapter 2, Paul speaks about this, and I'll just be honest, it's a it's a tough passage.

2 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

It's a convicting passage.

Paul is writing there to the church in Corinth, and he says, Thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ's triumphal procession.

That's a whole other sermon.

And but look, and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere.

Not only does Jesus have a smell, but he wants us to smell like him so others can get a whiff of the knowledge and the goodness of God.

Look at verse 15.

For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.

To the one, here are an aroma that brings death.

To the other, an aroma that brings life.

To somebody who doesn't like what a lemon smells like, I would drive them crazy right now.

Angels fans.

But for somebody who thinks this is a pleasing aroma, they're like, can I get another whiff?

Oh, that smells so good.

For somebody who does not value Jesus or the things of God, if you're and I are trying to live for Jesus, they may think we stink.

Keep talking about service and sacrifice and love and humility and gentleness.

But to those who are being saved, it's like the aroma of Christ.

So when Paul comes around in Galatians 5 and talks about the fruit of the Spirit, it's like he's saying, You want to know what fruit smells like?

Here's the fruit of love.

It smells like the way that Jesus loves.

Here's the fruit of joy.

Smells like the joy that only Jesus can provide.

Smells like the fruit of patience.

You're like, can we skip that one and go to another one?

It's a work that only God can accomplish.

It smells like the fruit of gentleness.

Because we're living in a way that Jesus is rubbing off on us for the sake of others in this world.

Because we're adopted into the family of God.

We have a new family, we have a new identity, because we're imitating, becoming like Jesus, He's shaping and forming us.

And because we're participating, we're like, I'm not living for myself, I'm living for the purposes of God.

And God moves in powerful ways beyond our own ability to accomplish his purposes.

Don't you want to be a part of that?

Would you pray with me?

God, would you help us to understand your love?

God, would you help us to understand your grace that you've loved us and you've chosen us?

God, would you give us a vision of maybe the ways we are living in our own strength and our own ways, and we desperately need your strength and your ways, your purposes.

And God, would you reveal to us that you have invited us to more than we can imagine in this world and your purposes, your kingdom?

You tell us, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and then all these things will be added.

Give us a vision for you.

And Jesus, would you move as only you can move in our lives?

We love you.

It's in your name, Jesus, we pray all these things.

Amen.