On Body Verb-ing (1 Cor. 12) | The Sandhurst Podcast

All right.

Welcome to the Sandhurst Beyond Sunday podcast.

We want to actually equip the Saints to think biblically about God, life, and culture so that our faith goes beyond Sunday.

Amen.

That is the goal.

That is the point.

Nobody in our church, in the church, I think who really loves Jesus and wants to obey him, wants their faith to be a Sunday only thing.

Yeah, that kind of defeats the purpose because it really is a whole whole life thing.

And Sunday is like an event to mark the fact that it's our whole life, but it's not like it really is uh a chance to celebrate the rest of life.

So yeah, absolutely.

Beyond Sunday.

Beyond Sunday.

All right.

Uh speaking of Beyond Sunday, Saturday.

Yeah.

That was your birthday, yeah?

Yeah, man.

Dang, you're getting old.

Woohoo! Senior coffee.

Uh no, it's great.

Yeah.

How old are you?

Uh 55.

50.

Oh, so yeah, prime timers, maybe.

That's what I'm saying.

I I call the five.

You officially qualify for Prime Timers.

I'm getting mail about this, yes.

You've already been going to Prime Timers events, at least.

That's right.

Because when I stick my head in the door and they do their monthly lunch, I'd say you with a full plate.

I'm not ashamed to and usually that plate is full of four or five desserts.

Because it is the best dessert buffet in town on the day they meet.

Shout out to Bob Gray and team and prime timers.

Um their vision for prime timers is to get prime timers engaged.

Yeah.

Um this is not like uh kind of club kind of sit back and chill.

There they believe, we believe, that uh prime timers are uniquely situated to make a unique impact in the church.

Absolutely.

And it and it really is about capturing this season of life when you are absolutely poised to make a multi-generational uh impact on your family.

And so it is it is their hope and vision and plan and strategy to to seize that moment and help our prime timers to make that make that multi-generational impact.

So yeah, uh, if you if you're out there, man, go on a Tuesday, third Tuesday, and they have other things going on too, uh, lots of things, but that's a great that's a great wide hopper to start with.

Amen.

So uh yeah, it was your birthday.

Did you get something for your birthday that was maybe more than a hundred years old or so?

You don't usually do new things as gifts, but maybe you did this time, maybe maybe changed it up.

Um so what uh yes, actually.

So I got I got I got two things super cool.

Uh the main thing I got, and the main thing, you know, how you know you get all old and tappy, right?

So the main thing I wanted was time with the family, and they made this awesome, um, awesome brunch.

We had an amazing, you know, cheese grits, waffle, everything I offer, you know, probably not what most people would order, but like cheese grits, waffles, bacon, sausage, uh, and lots more.

I'm gonna forget.

I know, I know.

It was it was awesome.

And uh homemade bread, all the all the good stuff.

And then um uh yes, I got some, you know, by now my Jeep uh seats are kind of coming apart.

So I got some really nice kind of recover, full cover Jeep seat covers, and also got this iron cutout of the Fellowship of the Ring, which will actually be up in this um studio at some point.

So is it like the people in the Fellowship of the Ring?

Yeah, yeah.

So it's like a silhouette, iron cutout silhouette of the people of the fellowship with some kind of mountains in the background, and uh uh it's it's pretty epic.

So I like it.

It just reminds me that life is a journey and it's also dangerous.

Take your risks, stay on the journey, do the hard work, follow the good shepherd.

And way to go for getting something that isn't more than a hundred years ago.

Exactly, yeah, for one two.

All right.

Um hey, well, we are we're in 1 Corinthians 12.

We just finished 1 Corinthians 12.

And um if last week we we looked at 1 Corinthians 12 from the angle of a biblical theology of spiritual gifts, with the hope being that each of the the saints at Sandhurst would say, Man, I have a gift.

My gift matters.

I cannot not use my gift.

That was two weeks ago.

We we looked this week at 1 Corinthians 12 from sort of the perspective of the body, and wanted to get a biblical theology of the body, although it was pretty simple, um, a biblical theology of the body, uh, with the hope that uh that a biblical theology of the body would actually move us in a way that maybe we weren't moved, um, not just emotionally, but like moved to action the week before.

So uh that's first Corinthians 12.

Let's let's read it, and then I want to hear whatever thoughts you may have on uh biblical theology of the body.

Yep.

Uh the the metaphorical use of the body, I should say, not just like literal body, and um and then want to celebrate some of the uh the awesome response from from Sunday.

All right.

First Corinthians twelve.

Man, I love first Corinthians.

Uh we're just gonna read the three kind of the three, four verses that really helped me in terms of uh theology of the body and its metaphorical use.

All right.

Uh chapter twelve, verse twelve says, For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.

For by one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one spirit.

For the body is not one member, but many, and then skip down to verse twenty-seven.

Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it.

Okay, so um the he says more, I mean, he says a lot more about the body, but those verses in particular helped my theology of the metaphorical use of the body.

The body of Christ, he is our head, um, but what not but, but and to be one body started, as I started to think about it, it started to flesh out.

So the the scope and impact of the gospel that's bigger than what I tend to make it, and and bigger than what a lot of passages in the Bible um kind of narrow or focus in on.

So I think the scope and impact of the gospel usually is uh vertical, it's individual, it's eternal.

The vertical is what God has done to reconcile me.

Okay.

Uh individual, it's what God has done for me, to choose me, adopt me, redeem me, forgive me.

It's individual.

I am a saint.

A Christian is a person in whom God's spirit dwells.

Uh it's individual and it's eternal.

It's it's it's what God does by the work of Jesus and the Holy Spirit uh that secures my eternity and uh knowing him forever and spending forever with him.

Uh that is that is what we typically think of in terms of gospel impact, and and that's true in biblical, but a theology of the body shows uh and what helped me was to see that the the scope of gospel impact is bigger than that.

It's not just vertical, it's horizontal.

It's what God has done to member people together as one body, and so it's not just and so it's not hor just horizontal, and it's not just individual, it's it's corporate.

Like the the scope of the gospel is that now I'm not just I don't have a new father, I have new brothers, new sisters.

So it's corporate, and it's not just eternal, it's uh it's right now.

Uh that right now we get to be, as the metaphor would say, the hands and feet of Jesus here.

And so um, those were some of the things that really impacted me in terms of a theology of the body where the scope of gospel impact, not just vertical, it's also horizontal, not just individual, it's also uh corporate and not just eternal, it's also right now.

But what were some of your thoughts uh in uh theology of the body?

Yeah, I I think for uh me, the understanding of the fact that humans aren't just born, they're born into families.

And they the idea of the parts being a body, it's not just a fact.

That fact has consequences.

So the fact that your body has an arm means there's a purpose to the arm, and the arm needs to be used.

So that the fact that you're if you are born into a family, if you're if you are a part of a body, you don't get to decide.

Imagine that the hand decides, I'm not really, I don't really care about the body.

I'm not gonna help the body, I'm not gonna feed the body, I'm not gonna bathe the body, I'm not gonna um or my feet decide, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna walk this body around.

I wanna be me.

I wanna be a different, I want to be a hand, or I wanna be asleep all the time.

Or so those facts have consequences.

And I think for as I was looking through the chapter and thinking through 1 Corinthians 13, what Paul's trying to communicate is that um you don't just have gifts from God and you don't just have uniquenesses to celebrate for their own sake.

You have those things to celebrate, to use for the common good.

And and that is where the true fulfillment in them comes.

I think the world tells us the main way that you're fulfilled as a human is to understand what's in you and to celebrate it and be it.

Whereas God says the main thing is what does God put in you?

You draw it out, you discover it, you develop it, and you engage it to serve God and others.

And that's where happiness, if you will, joy, fulfillment, the literally the word fulfillment implies there's a purpose to it, and you are fulfilled in full in completing your purpose, which is universally understood except denied in modern culture.

Yeah.

Uh just facts have consequences.

Uh, I really like the way you put that.

We are one body, we are Christ's body.

That's a fact.

But there are consequences to that fact.

Um the let's talk about some of the I mean you just did, but flesh out a little bit more some of the consequences to the fact that we are one body, Christ's body, that the scope of gospel impact is bigger than just vertical, individual, and eternal.

Um so like a couple consequences of that fact that come to my mind.

Um the first Corinthians 12 consequence of that fact or implication of that gospel impact is well, I have a role in the body.

Yes.

If if if we're one body, Christ's body, and I'm a member of it, then I have a role in that body.

That's right.

Um, and not just a role, I have a gift to offer to the body.

And uh so I have a role, I have a gift, I have a I have a reason to commit to it.

Like I am part of it, but it there there is a good reason to commit to the body and no reason for competition within the body.

Though those those really have stood out to me.

I have a role, I have a gift, I have a reason to commit, and I have um I have no reason for competition.

And that was especially sort of uh on my mind as as I was thinking about okay, the Holy Spirit has membered us together, like composed the body just as he desired, is what he says.

And and I thought, okay, the word member, I need to, I need to check this, I need to confirm this, but I'm pretty sure that word member is used in 1 Corinthians 12 more than any other chapter in the Bible.

Member, member, member, member, member.

I looked it up, um, I can't remember how many times it is, but it's a lot of time.

Member, member, member, member, member.

And I thought, what a great chapter to teach for church membership.

Right.

Right.

And in fact, we do teach it in our church membership class, but I've never really made that connection.

And I thought, well, um, if the Holy Spirit has membered us together, then you could look at that and go, great, I don't need the membership process because the Holy Spirit has already done that.

Right.

He has membered us.

However, uh, my study in sort of theology of the body actually had the opposite effect in me.

That if if I were to say, well, if the Holy Spirit has already membered me into the body, then I can skip the whole membership process, I would say, well, that's going back to the vertical individual eternal implications of the gospel.

But if the body brings us to a horizontal corporate right now uh sort of implications of the gospel, then I actually have reason to commit to a body.

I have been membered by God into a body.

Now it's time for me to express some sort of level of I mean, I'm gonna commit here.

So the for me, the theology of the body, one body, Christ's body, has actually given me greater um sort of gusto for church membership, for for a saint to go, okay, I have been membered into Christ's body, I should commit to it, like really give myself to it.

Whatever process there is for that, like let's go, because the Holy Spirit did this, and it's time for me to go, I'm part of that one.

And I think there's a real value in the public and formal um recognition and sort of a sanctifying, if you will, of saying, we the community, we we recognize your faith, we recognize your gifts, and we recognize you're a part of us, and we want to uh formally uh uh to acknowledge it and empower it.

And so now there's a relationship.

It's not just you kind of showing up and being a part of things, like me, you know, sort of like growing an extra toe, like what's that happening?

You know, it's like it's like okay, there's a purpose and we recognize a mutual um responsibility that you to the the individual to the whole and the whole to the individual.

Yeah, so if you're not a a formal member, uh then we've got a class coming up, September somewhere another.

27.

27?

Yeah, okay.

Never never trust me with dates.

I should not even try it, which is I did good to not try.

I knew it was in September though.

Uh you should you should do it.

And as an expression of going, hey, the Holy Spirit has membered me in the body, and so I'm gonna commit to that which he has already done.

He's membered me.

Um so yeah, I have a role, it's part of the body, I have a gift, it's part of the body.

I have um a reason to commit, it's part of the body, and I have no reason for competition.

And I appreciate that about Sandhurst and about a lot of churches in our city that uh are led by pastors who really don't have a sense of competition at all.

And so we can we we can uh celebrate and even promote things that uh other churches are doing, like 21 days of prayer.

So we went on um Friday.

Was it Friday?

Yeah.

We went to prayer day, hosted it Trinity on Friday.

Yep.

It was good.

Yeah.

I loved it.

There's a lot of people there.

Like I what one thing I love that you walk in and you know that it's different from your typical cultural church environment.

Like you're you're walking into someone else, and you on the one hand, you're a guest there because you're not a member in that church, but you are family because you are a member in the church.

And and they receive you like that.

And you look around and you just see people from all the different congregations, won't say churches, all the different congregations, and you just realize we are one body, we are one family.

And it was so sweet and powerful.

And I appreciate and enjoyed uh, you know, imagine having an extended family, and every year you trade Thanksgivings, and one year you go to, you know, firstborn, secondborn, thirdborn, trade years, and everybody's got a little different way to do it.

But they're all different, they're all good in their own right.

And it felt like that.

You know, it's like, okay, that's not how we would do it, but it was really cool to be a part of this while y'all were doing it.

And so uh Church Sandhurst, uh that we've got prayer, it's from 6 to 7 a.m.

at New Spring this week, and then Strong Tower the week after.

And man, what a great opportunity to join in the one body of the congregations of the church in Florence and to pray together.

If if you go, I think just just a little bit of uh prep before you do, other churches are gonna do things differently, and that uh means that uh if you go to something that a different church is hosting, you're perhaps going to be stretched because different is stretching.

And I would say that the differences then create difficulties that end up being part of the beauty of it.

And so um to the extent that that some of our people may go to these prayer times and you have to work at it a little bit, you have to get over some things that we're just not used to.

That's part of the good of it, and um, to engage my heart when uh it takes a little extra.

That's right.

Um so but it was super good.

Sweet D went with some friends to the prayer time at New Spring this morning, and uh I'll be going.

I'm not sure what days I'm gonna be going, but at least a couple days uh this week.

We think about like even with a physical body, that if you're if you're a runner and you swim right one morning or you bike, that that cross-training is actually really healthy to exercise in it, and your body's like, oh, that's different.

But if you do it the same way all the time your whole life, you're going to sort of naturally warp in certain ways.

And the cross-training uh to other types of sports keeps your body balanced and it reminds you that there's other ways to do it.

And I kind of like, I like having these experiences where we, in some ways, we cross-train spiritually and experience different environments to see how other people do it so we recognize it's not us and them, it's all us.

And our way isn't the right way, it's our way, but we can engage and and enjoy their uh pattern for worship, for prayer, for uh for for a brief season and come back enriched and and and rebalanced in some ways.

Yeah, so shout out to the other churches.

What we're saying here is we are one body, yeah.

We are Christ's body, and so yeah, we have a role to play and a reason to commit to the local congregation that we gather at, and we have a reason to celebrate other churches too.

So um it's good stuff.

The the theology of the body we hoped would move us to action and to respond because when we looked at what the body does, uh when it's functioning as it should, we saw all these different verbs in 1 Corinthians 12 to demonstrate God's care for one another, to suffer with each other's sufferings, to rejoice when another is honored.

Um when the body is functioning as it uh should, it is verbing.

It verbs.

Yeah, it does things.

Exactly.

And uh it I don't know, i it was compelling to me uh to think about the different kinds of verbs that we are called to you know, all the one-another's in the Bible.

Love one another, verb.

Encourage one another, verb.

Um, greet one another, verb.

We're called a verb, but then uh we have embraced verbs that the uh the New Testament never prescribes for us.

And uh the verb that I wanted to point out was uh recline.

Yeah.

W one body, Christ body.

Uh here's a verb that doesn't fit recline.

Sit and watch while other people work.

Yeah.

And that was pretty powerful with the image on stage with you sitting there reclining.

And yeah, I was curious, what what was how'd that land on you?

What was going through your mind when you're watching Taylor try to move this?

Man, yeah.

And that was especially disturbing.

Yeah.

I mean, in a good way.

To see, okay, you do that, I'm gonna sit here and you know, and sip my coffee and watch.

And, you know, the he's put you realize it needs to get moved from there to here.

And he's tugging and tugging and tugging and doing it alone, and you're able, but you're not engaged.

And that was really uncomfortable because you it the the obvious connection to real life is that how often do we just get caught up in ourselves and let other people bear the weight?

Yeah.

And so if you weren't uh if you didn't hear the sermon, uh in a nutshell, we filled the baptismal little feeding trough thing full of rocks and bricks and wood.

So it was very heavy and said, Taylor, move it.

And uh he represented the church members who were trying to move the mission of loving and obeying God, helping others do the same, and him working hard at what what was supposed to be immovable, which by the way, there's a risk when you bring someone like Taylor to move something heavy.

There's so if you don't know, there was 600 pounds of rocks in it.

Wow.

And I get in on Sunday morning.

We need like a blooper reel of Sunday mornings, because honestly, it'd be hilarious.

I get in on Sunday morning and and I'm like expecting it to be immovable with all these rocks, and then I yank it and it moves.

I'm like, oh shoot.

I'm like, if I can move this, I know Taylor can throw this.

Yeah, right.

This is not gonna work.

So I'm like looking for stuff.

I mean, you were helping me all over the church, just what is something heavy we can find to to throw in there to a point where uh it would be immovable, and then even still Taylor comes up on stage and it was like that moment in uh in Marvel when Oh yeah, when uh was it Captain America?

No, when Captain America budges the uh the hammer a little bit.

He budges it a little bit.

When Taylor budgeted, I was like, oh no.

Yeah, right.

He's got the dragon's thing across the stage.

But anyway, um, yeah.

So But I thought his ability to move it just a hair was actually perfect.

Because it's not when you do stuff, it doesn't do nothing.

It does something.

But he was he could just with all of his effort, he could barely do just a little.

Yeah.

And it felt just like real life.

And so you felt torn.

Yeah.

Um what were what were some of the things that you were thinking, like, okay.

Yeah.

It sounds like it crossed your mind.

Well, I could go help.

Yeah.

So I mean the immediate thing is I was expecting you to get up and go help him because you know you're the right there and are talking.

Part of the illustration.

You see what he's doing and you're you're near him and and can help and are choosing not to.

And so the first thing that's in my mind was go help.

And then the second thing was in my mind was like, he needs not just will, he needs a team.

And then the third thing was like, we have an entire congregation of saints out here do also sitting, right?

And so uh by the time I kind of got uncomfortable, I was just about to get up and and help and see if anybody else would sort of join me.

And right about then, the whole the the wave kind of hit.

It was a wave.

Yeah.

Just everybody just kind of got there, I think, at the same time and said, No, we can do this together.

Bro, it was inspiring to me.

I did not know how it was going to happen or what was gonna come out of it.

Um I did get asked if I like planted people in the church to be like, hey, just so you know, at one point come up.

That is not uh not at all.

I didn't do that at all.

Yeah.

Uh but I have seen this sort of illustration done before.

Actually, when I was in middle school, my dad, who is and is the pastor of the church I went to, uh, he had a big rock on stage, similar sort of thing.

And I was on the front row, and I was watching this guy um try to move this rock, and he it was immovable.

He was not budging it at all.

Yeah.

And I'm on the front row, and I remember feeling pity.

Yes.

I was like, oh man, what a bummer.

Like, and I remember feeling tense, but I don't think it ever crossed my mind I could go help.

Uh maybe I maybe it was that I thought, well, it's an illustration and I don't want to get to like ruin the illustration.

Or or maybe I just thought I don't know.

I don't know what I was thinking.

Well, no, I do I felt bad.

I know what I was feeling, I don't know what I was thinking.

Yeah.

I felt tense, I felt bad.

And I do think that as I've thought about that, there is a sense in which in the church we can if I was thinking in that moment, well, this is just kind of the way it's supposed to be.

You know, it's the point of the illustration that we can get so used to the way things are in a church, this is the way this is the way it's supposed to be.

Uh, we're supposed to sit, somebody, some other people are supposed to work.

That's what we pay staff members for.

It's just the way it's supposed to be.

Yeah.

Um, and I think it's a compelling image to say that's actually not the way it's supposed to be.

In fact, it's kind of ugly when it's that way, and it doesn't have to be that way.

I was inspired when that wave just comes up and what was budgeable by Taylor just it was like yeah, it's daggum cool runnings.

Yeah, it w I mean all of a sudden.

Make a bob's land go and then go down.

And you just realize, dang, look what we can do together.

Yeah.

You know?

Yeah.

Um, so speaking of what we can do together, uh, I was I was just thankful.

Um I was thankful because of the response that there was.

I don't know.

Michaela, can we see this?

Uh these are all the cards that people submitted and just put on the um on the recliner as they left.

Super thankful for that.

Talked to Tammy this morning.

She's gotten more emails as well.

So now it's on the staff to make sure that uh the people who have said, hey, put me in the game, that they do.

They do.

Um but yeah, man, I was thankful.

Yeah.

Um there's a lot to be thankful for on Sunday.

And I think that right there, those cards, that is actually really important because you can give people the pep talk, but if there's no clear on-ramp, then what?

Yeah.

And and if you just expect them to say, okay, well, I'll go home and search up the website and figure out what's happening and find a way to kind of vote myself into the you know game, uh, I think that was a really important part of the the process was to say, okay, not only like are we one body and let's get all the members involved in the action, here's specifically and concretely how you can do this.

Yeah, yeah, 100%.

And that's that's what the cards served, and that's what I hope the one body teams that we talked about.

Um, I hope that's what that does too.

It's not trying to say, these are some things that haven't been happening and we need to do it.

It's right, here's some things that have been happening, and uh here's some on-ramps for it.

So will you explain kind of the one body teams?

What is that about if for those who weren't?

Yeah, so we rolled out these four teams, these uh one body teams where we where one body does these different things and we verb.

Yeah, we verb, right?

So there's these four verbs, right?

So one body uh serves or one body, you know, cooks, repairs.

Yeah, one body repairs, one body cooks, one body visits, and one body gives.

So these are the four.

So repairs, cooks, visits, and gives.

And and so there will be a staff member who's sort of who's not sort of who is over each of these teams, and they have the staff member will have a team leader or several team leaders who then recruit and invite people onto teams that do those things.

So there's teams, lay teams who are deployed for uh for particular types of repairs.

And so if someone writes in, you know, there's a process for us then to deploy a team to repair something or to cook something or to to give to a cause, you know, or to visit someone.

And visits may be someone who's a a church member at home, it may be a a guest who's got an inquiry, it may be someone even outside of our church body who's connected to us some way.

So we're trying to um we're and and and to to to to mainly get our people in the game, in action, in ways that make sense to them, in ways they are if if you know how to visit with someone, have a conversation, okay, we have a way to uh engage that in in God's ministry.

Yep.

So this is the one body teams.

I'm really, really excited about it.

I'm excited about all the teams, and I'm excited about the one body gives.

That fund, uh that's honestly another thing I kind of stole from the church I grew up at.

Um they they called it something different.

They call they call it um the Radiosity Uh Fund.

It's ready for generosity, radiosity.

And uh they have so many people who give to that.

And so I was just trying to put my learning hat on and talked to one of the staff members who's over it at Christmas Family Chapel in Jacksonville, Florida, where I grew up.

And she was talking about how much generosity has gone into that fund and then gone out of it.

She was like, um, she was like, Well, I don't I I don't want to say how much money there's a lot of money that is in the fund, and she was like, we just cannot spend it because people just keep on giving it.

She was like, uh yeah, we just wrote a uh a$20 something thousand dollar check to help somebody with a uh with a medical bill.

And she was like, that was that was a couple days ago.

Dude, my dream is that that would be at Sandhurst where we are we're such a generous church, we're just in the game that acts four.

There was not a needy person among them.

Yeah.

So man, I'm pumped.

Yeah, yeah.

Pumped about the response, pumped about where we're going, what we're doing.

Absolutely, and it you know, it just gets us in the game, you know, and in ways that are real and matter on the ground to people.

I think one of the things that was most compelling to me in terms of engagement, you know, one body, Christ's body, we verb.

The sort of the perspective behind that was really impactful to me.

It was you know, I shared the story of the guy at NASA.

Um but there's other versions of that story too.

Uh there's the story of the builders.

Um maybe you've heard this, I actually just heard this recently.

Um three guys building a brick wall, and you ask the guy number one says, I'm laying bricks, and the guy the next guy says, I'm building a building.

And the next guy says, I'm building a kingdom.

They're all doing the same thing, but the different perspective.

I'm laying bricks, I'm building a building, I'm building a kingdom.

Yeah.

All are true, but one is tied to um something way bigger than the activity itself.

And I think there's a responsibility on the on the church leadership, and there's a responsibility on the church members to be diligent to be able to connect the thing to the thing that's bigger than the thing itself.

Yeah.

To say, okay, I'm not just to be able to connect the laying the bricks to the building of the kingdom.

And uh to be so to be able to t uh connect nursery to I'm not just watching babies.

What am I doing?

I'm advancing the gospel, I'm building the kingdom, to be able to connect um greeting to uh I'm uh I'm not just saying hi to people, I'm building the kingdom.

And it is really man, I I I think it's on us as leadership to be able to help people connect those dots, not just doing a task and not just showing up to an event.

Uh I'm actually building the kingdom.

But once we do that, it's it's there's a responsibility that each church member has to uh um to remind themselves of that.

Um a good example was I was talking to one of our finance team members, so thankful.

So thankful for our finance team.

No doubt.

Dude, yeah.

I'm so thankful for our finance team.

They not every church has benefited from the uh the wise and principled leadership of a of a great finance team like our church has.

And by the way, when you say finance team, just to clarify, you're talking about lay people in our church who serve to help run things.

It's not like some corporate office in New York.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's people in our church who are using their gift.

Yeah, using their financial gifts, which not everybody has.

I don't.

And um, and just a reminder to go, man, when you're when you're trying to schedule meetings or going into a meeting, you know, uh whatever your team is, for in this case the finance team meeting, when you're going into that before work and you're just kind of in the trudge of numbers, it can be easy to forget that to it's gonna be easy to to to not connect.

What am I doing here?

I'm not just working numbers, I'm building the kingdom.

And because of what our finance team has done and um and their stewardship and just real wisdom, Sandhurst has been able to to deploy so many resources to ministries and things that are happening at home across the street and around the world.

I mean, millions and millions and millions of dollars.

And that is uh that is uh goes back to conviction of the the guys who started the church, that goes to the generosity of the church, that goes to the the the leadership and the wisdom of our uh finance team, of our elders, and it will continue to happen as our church goes, man.

I'm not just I'm not just giving money, I'm building the kingdom, I'm advancing the gospel.

I'm not just part of the finance team, I'm building the kingdom, I'm advancing the gospel.

And because it really does go back to that childhood question, you know, children love to ask the question, why?

Why?

And we want to shut that down.

But Simon Sinek has built an industry on start with why.

Like that's his landmark book.

And it goes back to the to what's behind it.

What's the story behind what's what what's happening?

And uh so with with money, like why am I here?

Why do I have these gifts as opposed to other gifts?

The answer is to use them, to engage them for the building of the body, for uh for the unity of the body, for the glory of God, for your fulfillment as a person.

And and that's such a beautiful thing when it actually happens.

And so our hope is that these teams and these cards will serve to helping people fulfill their why in the body of Christ.

Amen.

And uh and it's not just a sort of in the church building thing, it helped me this morning.

So um we s we had some leftover dirty dishes in the sink from last night's dinner this morning.

And usually dishes are my job.

Not usually, dishes are my job, and sweetie will often bless me by doing them.

Anyway, yeah, um, I was like, okay, you know, like I said, Sweet D was at New Springs prayer thing this morning, so I'm at home with the girls getting them ready for school, and I'm seeing those dishes.

And it was a great perspective thing for me this morning to go, okay, I'm gonna wash the dishes, but what am I doing here?

I'm not just washing dishes.

I'm advancing the gospel.

And then I said, Am I really the am I advancing the gospel right now, or am I just loving my wife?

And then I was like, loving if if you're loving, if loving your wife is not advancing the gospel, then we have twisted or just kind of um mystified advancing the gospel so much, maybe not mystified, um what am I thinking right here?

Like, like made it seem abstractify.

So abstractified advancing the gospel.

If loving your wife isn't advancing the gospel, and then then our theology of marriage is weird and not right.

And by the way, so I mean, for those of you who are like, what is he talking about the gospel?

So the gospel essentially is the good news that Christ came to give himself for us, and that we believe that love is the steadfast sacrificial zeal that seeks the true good of another, and that's the core of the gospel, sacrificing self for the good of others.

And that's the great why for that um that's kind of behind a lot of what we do.

The gospel is that outworking.

And so loving your wife, or like, you know, connecting, advancing the gospel to loving your wife means that I am sacrificing, dying to this time when I could serve myself to serve another.

I'm giving that for another, like Christ gave himself for us.

So there's a very direct line between what Christ did in coming and giving himself for us.

Now we give ourselves for others.

And this morning, it was the dishes in the sink.

And that those minutes were a literal outworking of the gospel, the incarnation.

And so, like, that's the connection.

Yeah.

And and probably when we think about the words advancing the gospel, we probably think advancing the gospel is taking the message of the, yeah, we think evangelism.

We think taking the the message of Jesus to people who don't currently have it.

And that is advancing the gospel, but I'm so in agreement with what you just said that we advance the gospel, yeah, through evangelism, taking the gospel where it currently isn't, and by living the gospel, by demonstrating what God has done for us in the context of our wherever we are, our normal life environments.

And uh so doing the dishes, yeah, that's it's doing the dishes, but to be able to connect it to something bigger than itself.

And I can I just make a plug here for Christianity because this is why being a Christian is so awesome, because it actually does connect the daily routines to real core identity, which is um also connected to uh our uh place in the universe as the creator, a creation under the creator, and we are literally living out our God-given design.

And so as Christians, we believe that God gave us that design.

He has designed us to serve others, to use our power for the good of others.

So Hollywood even knows that superheroes are supposed to use their power for the good of others.

Stole that from God in the Bible.

That's not natural to humans.

Darwin says we use our power for ourselves to kill others and feed ourselves.

Whereas the gospel says we use our power to die to self that others may live.

And that is what we're doing when we wash the dishes.

We die to those minutes when we could serve ourselves to serve another.

And that is exactly consistent with the why that we exist, the gospel, the good news that we are advancing uh our identity in God and who He has made us, He's redeemed us, and will one day perfect us.

But until that day, we have to live out the gospel day to day and keep demonstrating it in a thousand ways.

Uh, let's let's talk about some of those thousand ways.

And I you don't always read things correctly in the room when you're teaching, but when I gave the example yesterday of like, we're not just serving in nurture nursery, we're advancing the gospel.

The read I got in the room was, nah, yeah, nice try.

The connection just seems too distant.

Nice try, but uh I I've just sounds nice.

I don't believe you.

I would love it if we got to the point where there was an easy connection, and I think this is part of what I'm saying, that it's on the leadership to to cast the vision to be able to help connect the dots, but then it's on each of us as Christians to continue to connect the dots.

So let let's let's plow up that ground just a little bit more and kind of can I say why I think the connection was not made?

Yeah.

So I think in as they listen to you, the they they're thinking, okay, what he's saying is that serving in the nursery is a church activity.

Church activities are God related.

God stuff is gospel stuff.

So just kind of like this draw this line, because it's church, because it's God related, it's gospel.

Like it's just kind of like this line across the surface.

All right.

Whereas I think it needs to be more like a V.

You gotta go down into the valley, gotta dig deeper to the source and then what's the core, and then bring it back up to the uh to the thing and reframe the thing in the the the the why behind it.

Okay, so tell us tell us about that V because I get the linear connection.

Tell us, tell us more about that.

Okay, so so connect that for me.

Yeah, yeah.

So, all right, so serving in the nursery is gospel advancement is the claim.

And the so but so he said, Okay, what is let's just kind of like what is it?

Let's define it.

What is serving in the nursery?

It's dying to myself so that others can live.

Some mom, some dad can be a part of hearing the truth, fellowshipping, developing relationships, you know, all the good stuff that God is doing when people gather as saints.

And so um, serving in the nursery is laying down my life that others may live.

So the the what the gospel looks like in this moment is that uh I am doing a lot of biblical things.

I'm serving the least of these.

I am dying to self, uh, I am uh being a part of the body because I know that when we all get together, these things must happen.

And so the core, when you're down at the core, what's happening is sacrifice, sacrificial love.

And sacrificial love is being expressed as service in the nursery.

And so if you kind of bring back up, so what's really happening, so what's what it looks like is happening is I'm caring for somebody else's children during a meeting.

But what's really happening is I am serving the body of Christ.

It's almost like the hand, you know, feeding the mouth or the feet running so the heart gets stronger.

So I'm the feet running in the moment, so the heart gets stronger.

And that's how that so that gospel core resurfaces as an action that is reframed as sacrificial love, not just uh uh a secular action that uh that anyone Christian or non could do.

So to the extent that what I'm doing is actually sacrificial love, then that is living the gospel.

And if I'm living the gospel, I'm advancing the gospel.

Exactly.

Okay.

That that I can see that.

I can connect to that.

And I would love for our church to be able to do that.

So let's let's apply that to a couple different things right now.

Let's just kind of want to practice this.

So uh you you're the equipping pastor, and you're over life groups, life group leaders, you're over core groups.

But if you're if you had your core groups, uh your core group, I mean your life group leaders in the room and you're trying to um acknowledge, okay, a lot of times life group leaders they're going into life group, and the present reality is this it was a long day, and I don't want to go to group.

I forgot to prep.

I don't know what we're talking about.

I didn't hear the sermon.

My laundry is on the couch.

Yeah.

Uh we're late.

That's kind of present reality, and you wanted to uh speak into them to to help them go, okay, we acknowledge that.

And while it is true that that is true, it is also true that you are advancing the gospel.

Help connect those those dots in this situation.

Oh my gosh, that's a softball.

All right, here we go.

Swing away, man.

All right.

So what's happening is uh so what you think is happening is I'm trying to throw the laundry in the back room and slam the door and make up with my wife enough to not look like, you know, we just had a fight when people walk in and, you know, uh I'm not sure if I should throw the dishes in the dishwasher or just throw a blanket over the sink.

You know, it's like, what do I do now?

And I'm and and get out, you know.

So how uh what you think is happening is you're opening your home and people are arriving, right?

This is what it looks like.

Um, but what's really happening is um I what I can tell you is you are you are demonstrating sacrificial love by hosting, receiving people who have many questions, fears, doubts, hurts, hopes, anxieties, and they are able.

Able in conversation and prayer together to find encouragement, strength, healing.

At the end of that two hours, your laundry may still be thrown all over the bedroom, but somebody's gonna leave that meeting, um, having shared their burden, which divides it, or shared their joy, which multiplies it, and uh walk out stronger, comforted, encouraged, and blessed.

Uh, can I keep going?

Uh especially uh coming up this fall, we got Financial Peace University, we got money coming up.

So many silent fears about money.

And some of my group leaders are like, ah, our go, our group's kind of torn.

I'm not sure if we want to do that.

And I'm like, I totally understand.

You know, people think, I got a budget, I'm I'm okay, I'm you know, whatever.

So, so many people though aren't okay, and they're it's not okay to say you're not okay with money.

And I can tell you as a pastor in this church, zillions of anxieties, fears, hurts, worries, and for that matter, breakups, yeah, divorces over money-related issues, but they but by the time we actually deal with it, it's too late.

And so I'm asking the group leaders to trust me, there are a zillion problems you don't know about.

There are couples, there are couples where the wife is praying, Adam, please God, help Adam to make our life group do this because uh my husband will not listen to me, and we're six years into this, and I don't know how this is gonna go.

And there's that couple, and I don't want that, those spouses who are afraid to have to outvote their spouses who don't care.

And I don't want the couples who are afraid to have to outvote the couples who don't care.

Let's just please all do this together because the this is the gospel, you know, this is the body helping one another heal and grow in an area that is so tender, but it's pushed down.

It's like it's like sex in the last generation.

Nobody can talk about money, but it impacts our lives every day.

And so this is something we've got to deal with and bring the gospel to it.

How does sacrificial, God's sacrificial love for us look like in our financial lives?

And the numbers are just the tip of the iceberg.

It goes to our hearts.

It's a real heart issue.

So, how can we train our hearts to respond to what God's provision and encourage and bless and strengthen one another as a body with money?

All right, I want to chase the FPU thing, financial peace university thing for a second, and then we'll come back to uh kind of connecting the dots uh in the the functional serving that if I'm demonstrating the gospel, I'm if I'm demonstrating love, I'm living the gospel, if I'm living the gospel, I'm advancing the gospel.

But if I can just kind of lend my support and my affirmation of everything you just said in terms of uh financial peace university, um here's let's let's just say there are some people in our church, maybe even some full groups, who they don't have fears or challenges related to money, and uh they uh they're basically good.

You know, feel like they have a biblical view, feel like things are things are well.

Uh I I do I would say there are people in your group who may appear that way.

And I think you and I are both hearing the stories, yeah, hearing the people on both sides.

Um so there are people in your group who may not be in that situation, but but let me just kind of throw this a little personal story.

Um the did I talk last week about uh how Dave Ramsey impacted me?

Okay, all right, so I haven't taken Financial Peace University yet.

Uh I'm looking forward to it in the fall.

But I have listened to a few Dave Ramsey things, and I don't think it was Financial Peace University.

Uh but there's what he said was uh he said, I want you to make a lot of money so that you can give a lot of money.

And I thought, no, you don't.

You want me to make a lot of money so that grows your brand and your business, and you make more money when I make more money.

Because I'm like, he works.

I was like, bro, you I just did not believe him.

Okay.

Uh and then he kept talking and kept talking, and I started to believe, kind of, kind of like when I said, you know, nurseries advance of the gospel.

I was like, uh well, you know, make a lot of money so you can give a lot of money.

I started to believe he believes that.

And he had actually like a biblical view of money.

Uh, and he started telling these stories that have impacted us.

Uh, so he started telling these stories about um some people who, when they were began to embrace a biblical view of money, and then then started to give themselves to a radical generosity, what that looked like for some people and what it looked like for some people.

And this one story he told in particular was uh taking this money, this excess money that they were able to acquire, and go to these restaurants, these kind of like middle of the road kind of chain restaurants, like a Waffle House, right, and go there and leave an outrageous, outrageous, like hundreds of dollars tip there to leave it on the table to go outside the window and to watch the person pick it up.

And so I heard this and he and and he uh and his teaching and the scripture was so compelling to me.

We weren't having like money problems, we weren't we weren't like kind of struggling, it wasn't producing conflict in our marriage.

And yet when I listened to that, what it did is it fueled and gave me a vision for a generosity that was exciting to me.

So we took that exact thing and started doing it for sweet D and I and our dates, and then kind of made it our own and kind of grew it a little bit.

So uh we started giving, um, especially during COVID when the government was throwing a lot of money at us, uh, we were like, okay, how can we not just how can we steward this and steward it, especially in a direction of generosity?

And so uh we started giving these tips, and then we're like, okay, we want to give some tips, but we want to pair it with the gospel.

And so on our date nights or wherever, we'd we'd be uh talking about okay, how are we gonna share the gospel with our waiter or waitress?

And if it was a guy, I would do it, if it was a girl, she would do it.

And then uh she was nervous, I was nervous, and we'd like to practice on each other.

It became actually a fun thing, but we would do like a 60-second sort of gospel summary, kind of like what you did, and we'd say, Hey, we believe that uh there's a gift of forgiveness of all of our sin that's available only through Jesus, and it's nothing we can earn, it's a gift.

And uh so we want to give you a gift tonight.

And we would give the tip, trying to pair the gospel gift with the tangible gift.

It's kind of like this radical generosity with the gospel as something radically generous.

Yeah, but there may be opportunity like for to for something for God to do something to you, like he did something to me.

And Florence has been blessed uh because of that in ways that they wouldn't have had I not listened.

Absolutely.

So yeah, I mean that's a great story.

And I think a lot of people who go through FPU have a similar experience.

They're like, oh yeah, well, that like it just expands your vision in a way that you didn't think about.

And it's again, it's not about the numbers and making sure everything squares away at the end of the month.

That that's part of it, but that's really the tip of the iceberg.

It really is about a vision for generosity, uh, for um stability, for wisdom, and for being able to uh plan and think.

And uh it it it has so and and to create a common language for husbands and wives uh and families.

And it's something that we've used.

I use the envelope system with my kids because I I had on Sunday uh someone come up to me and say, Hey, Adam, I'm so glad y'all are doing this.

10 years ago, my family, me and my husband, had 30 credit cards and over$200,000 in consumer debt, and now we have zero because of Dave Ramsey and FPU.

And I'm so glad we did it because what we didn't know is a great tragedy was coming in that 10 years.

And when we got to it, we were ready for it financially.

And so the financial stress didn't add to the tragedy.

It actually helped us get through it, you know, and it was one of God's ways of helping them.

And so uh using the envelope system with my kids early on just gave them a vision for, you know, I'm gonna share some, I'm gonna save some, and then after I share, after I save, I spend the remainder.

Um, and then I also have to give to the government.

We had a tax envelope and I was the government.

Um, and so I said that you don't text your kids.

Yeah, I did.

I said, you don't get to spend everything you keep after sharing and saving.

You still have to give more away, you know.

And I said, so if you spend it all, then we're gonna come back for it and you have to pay for it.

And so uh it was interesting.

I had these different personalities, and two kids would always get a return at the end of the year when we did the tax returns, and one kid would always owe.

That's hilarious.

Yeah.

And uh and what's interesting is now they n they all have bank, they all have savings, you know, that nobody owes.

That's discipleship, baby.

I'm telling you, that's right.

Tax them.

That's it.

All right.

So yeah, I think all that to say, we're we're both on board with this and uh hope the church will be too.

Um so we we kind of chased chased the FPU thing for a minute and let's come back.

I would love to help our church easily and accurately connect the dots between the menial task and the the bigger picture.

Okay, so like when I think back to high school, my youth group met in a house and it was just a family.

I say just it was a family, husband, wife, three kids, just like you described, working all day, rushing home.

And but on Wednesday nights, over time, they let us park in their yard and they would always get out the Doritos and the Dr.

Pepper, and they weren't fussy about spills, and they were just glad to see.

I mean, it was a lot of us.

There was probably 30, 40 at times 50 kids meeting, you know, they would, they literally took out a wall, made sure that, you know, we had one grig space, they put a piano in there for music.

And uh, and when I think back about the impact of this family on me, what I learned from them is um things are not as important as people.

And I can barely talk about it.

It's just like that impacted me for life.

And I think it impacted a lot of us that that they didn't care about their yard.

They didn't because because they saw that we were gathering to to learn, to think, to grow, to struggle, to wrestle, to question.

And they're like, man, that is more important than our grass.

And I think I still have that value.

I know, you know, I have to respect, you know, certain things with HOA.

But um I think what I learned was you can't have something too nice to use for people, you know, and and I love being that way.

Yeah, that's sacrificial love because maybe they did care about the grass.

Maybe they did.

Maybe they did.

And they just cared more about us, yeah.

And and and I just I I've and there were just little things that they did just by being a family.

It wasn't like the dad was a a theologian.

It wasn't that the mom was this, you know, perfect homemaker or whatever, you know, in the 80s.

They were just a family and they opened the doors.

And to be able to see normal people, you know, I grew up in a broken home, and so I didn't see that at home.

I didn't know how that worked, but just to see a normal family, be a normal family, maybe they did have laundry over here.

Maybe they the husband was late and maybe different, and I could see it was okay.

They survived it, they did well, and they stayed together, and they are and to this day.

And I think what I when I saw that a normal family can be a normal family, have a job, serve God, and love people, that's not a model I had in my home.

And I thought, I can do this too.

Dang.

So if I'm demonstrating love, yeah, I am demonstrating the gospel.

If I'm demonstrating the gospel, I am advancing the kingdom.

I'm advancing the kingdom.

Absolutely.

So that that is really helpful.

I hope that's helpful for all of us.

And I would add to it that um as long as the gospel isn't just uh a calling and and what to do, it's a calling and how to do it by faith.

Then I just don't want to leave out the appeal to say to demonstrate the gospel in a way that that is just in my heart going, all right, Lord, help me.

Yeah.

Help me.

And uh and I'm so glad you said that because I do think there's a really core other part to this gospel connection that really matters.

So, you know, we've been talking about um the gospel as steadfast sacrificial love that seeks the true good or not that you die to yourself so others can live.

And that does feel like death.

And so I I want people to expect that when they do the dishes, you're not like, whoo, it's like the angels like singing, right?

You know, it's like I could be doing something else, you know?

And um, but you're doing that as an offering.

But, but um, the the other part and the critical other part about the gospel is that it didn't end on Good Friday in the cross.

There was a resurrection life that was later.

And if you sow, and and and and the New Testament even uses this example, if you bury a seed, it dies.

And later, there's new life that comes from that seed.

And so there's resurrection life that comes from it.

So it is my hope that the God, that there's there's both these parts of the gospel are I I die to myself so others can live.

But the beautiful thing about that is and the and the paradox of Christianity is that by dying you do live.

He who will come after me, let him deny himself, take a piss and cross, and follow me forever, who would lose his life for my sake will find it.

But it may not be in that moment that you're washing the dishes.

It's going to be later.

And so there's the resurrection life that we reap that's part of that gospel uh investment that comes later.

It feels like death, and it is like Jesus, you know, cross felt like death.

Um, but there was a resurrection life later, and we do get to experience that in God's way and God's timing, and that's a part of the beauty of the gospel.

Amen.

When we demonstrate love, we live the gospel, when we live the gospel, we advance the kingdom, we advance the gospel.

Um, that's just good.

All right, can I end with some good news?

Please.

Uh, some things that were just really encouraging to me.

Uh, you know, I gave some bad news on Sunday, or at least phrased as bad news, you know, percentage of the church that was actively serving 45%.

Um, here's part of the good news in that.

That number is true, but also meh.

And what I mean is uh that percentage is people who we have actively listed as serving on a team.

What that doesn't include is the million other things that are happening that don't that aren't on our lists.

Yeah, there's this, they're not listed in our system.

Yeah.

So I'm gonna I'm gonna talk about this on Sunday.

I just want to share some stories, but like uh right after, right after Sunday, four of our high school guys, uh Jude, Noah, uh Luke Weeby, Caleb Weeby, they come up to me and they say, Hey, literally, this is what they said.

They said, Hey, we know you got uh a thing, the the baptismal, yeah, full of heavy stuff.

Hundreds of pounds of it.

We know it needs to go away.

Tell us what to do.

No way.

That's what they did.

I said, All right, here's my keys.

I said, there's 700 pounds of rocks in the bottom.

The rocks need to go on my truck.

All the wood needs, yeah, the stomach's all they were not.

And uh in the next 15 minutes, boom, it was done.

Look, that doesn't uh fit on one of our lists.

Right.

It didn't make the percentage, it didn't make the percentage, but that kind of stuff keeps happening.

It still counts.

Does it count?

Yeah, absolutely it counts.

That kind of stuff is happening all the time.

So then I walk as I'm leaving, and one of our deacons is in the bathroom, Aaron Bunch, and he's cleaning the bathroom.

And I was like, what you doing?

Are you kidding me?

And and he was like, Well, I was just it was a little bit of a mess and didn't want to leave it that way.

Nobody's going to see that.

Uh, he's just doing it.

You know what?

That doesn't count as part of the percentage because you know we don't have a bathroom cleaning team.

Right.

But the stuff is happening.

And so I do think that the percentage is true, but it's also misleading because it doesn't account for all the million little things that happen throughout um the church where people are just seeing needs and meeting them.

And so, dude, we have a serving church.

Yeah, we really do.

And I I do believe that it is um it's a culture born out of uh a depth in the gospel.

Well, you know, when you even when you announced like these four teams, the we're not making this up.

We're really codifying what's already happening, and especially with visits, right?

So, like, you know, with with Bob Gray help leading the visit the visiting team, you know, he has he already has 20 people he's deploying, but they're not listed in the percent.

They may list serve in other ways, but right, but they're they're already doing it.

We're just codifying what's we've got a serving church.

Yeah.

And another thing that doesn't make the list is all the people who have identified and chosen a one that they want to pursue.

That's right.

Uh to to win to Jesus.

And uh that doesn't make the percentage either.

But church, man, this is this was not like a first Corinthians nine campaign that we did during missions month.

This is part of who we are, what we do.

Yep.

And uh when I was dropping the girls off at um at school this morning, uh one of my daughters goes, Dad, that's Lillian.

And she said it excitedly because she knew I would knew what that would mean.

I would know what that would mean.

Uh, because we've been praying for Lillian because Lillian is Hattie's one.

That's awesome.

And so we've been praying for her most nights, and um that's that's who we are, that's what we do.

That doesn't make the percentage.

Hattie doesn't count as part of the you know, the 55% not serving.

We didn't even count kids anyway.

But um But man, that's the body that's being going, I've got a role, I've got a gift, I've got a calling.

That's right.

And so let's go.

I'm advancing the kingdom.

And I'm advancing.

You know, uh you you know my go-to verse here.

I can't not say it in Revelation 21.

He is making all things.

That's right.

Yes, yes, Jesus is doing this.

He's promised that he is literally gonna make all things new, and we get to be a part of that.

So that's why I love this.

I like it.

All right, well, will you close this in prayer and maybe do a little bit of an abridged uh prayer for our ones?

Yes, let's pray.

Let's pray.

Father, we uh come to you because you are worthy of worship from every tribe and tongue and nation.

And I know that you wish that all would come to repentance.

So right now, Lord, we pray for our ones, Lord.

I pray for mine, for Eric, and uh, Lord, I know that for all those out there listening, you have yours, that they are dead in their trans uh trespasses and sins, and by nature a child of wrath, Lord.

They're separate from Christ and strangers to the promises.

I pray for him, Lord, asking for the eyes of his hearts to be opened, that he would know the hope of your calling and the riches of your inheritance, the surpassing greatness of your power for those who believe.

And that by your doing that he will become the righteousness and sanctification and redemption of God.

So that your boast would be so that his boast would be in you alone.

Lord, wash and sanctify him.

And Lord, may he not just may I not just pray this into the air and expect the universe to make this happen.

Lord, I know only you can do it, but you have chosen to send us.

And so, Lord, I pray that uh that he that you would send the people to him, and I'm praying, Lord, send me.

Here I am I send me.

And so Lord, help me to speak your truth to him, and help us all to go to those whom you put in front of us.

And so, Lord, may we do that out of the overflow of the joy, the wonder, the delight, the healing you have given to us.

Lord, help me to give me, give me as the witness, as the testifier, eyes to see and ears to hear what you're doing, courage to speak, a thought to go, a plan to go.

And Lord, may you bring uh may you bring your kingdom, and may you make all things new, including Eric, including all of our ones.

And we pray this, Lord, that you would do this by the power of your spirit and for the praise of your glory.

Through Christ we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's advance the gospel, baby.

And uh you're teaching this week, 1 Corinthians 13.

Yes.

I think this would be a great week to invite one of your ones to church.

And they will probably have already heard this at some wedding.

Yeah, yeah, and to get a biblical correct biblical gospel perspective on love beyond the ceremony.

It's just it's just a great week to invite your one.

Indeed.

All right, let's go.

Yep.