COMMUNITY: The Strength You Don’t Have // Summer Lean In series (part 4) // Pastor Drew

[music]

>> I want to say thank you. I want to say

something real quick to the fathers in

this room as well.

Did you know a study found that

that a fathers you may have heard I have

quoted this before

but if a father attends church and leads

his family spiritually

there's there's there's a study done a

while back that talks about if a father

attends but the mother doesn't

about 44% of the children will grow up

to be regular church goers themselves.

If the mother attends regularly but the

father does not that number at that time

dropped to 2%

men

your spiritual walk matters.

I thank you for the men in this room men

online chasing the Lord thank you for

doing this. It matters. Come on. Can we

praise the Lord?

>> [applause]

>> But I want to say this if both attend

the number jumps to 74%

that is what we're looking for. Come on.

Amen.

>> [applause]

>> So I want to do a real quick. I just

want to do a blessing over the fathers

in the room real quick. So if you are a

father would you just hold at least one

hand up maybe two and receive this

blessing Heavenly Father. I thank you so

much for you what you have done, how you

have filled, how you have equipped each

man in this room to uniquely give out

something that you have created for

everyone in this world to receive that

is supposed to uniquely come from men.

Father God, I pray a blessing over each

one. Would you fill the men in this room

with your spirit? Would you fill the men

in this room with a hunger for you? With

a humility to chase you, and would you

allow for these men to not only be

blessed, but to be a blessing. Father

God, we praise you. Your favor and your

blessing fall on each one. In Jesus'

mighty name we pray.

Amen. Amen. Uh we are doing a summer

lean in, and that means that we are

going to be doing a time to prepare our

hearts for the message, to prepare our

hearts for what God is doing. And as we

are going through a reading plan and

doing our summer challenge of coming

every single week for our summer lean

in. Uh if you're not able to make it

with vacations, join us online live.

Feel free. Uh but what we're going to do

is we're going to stand up and we're

going to do a commitment prayer

together. Okay? So,

uh I want to do this a little bit

differently.

I want to I want to repeat. I'll lead

it. That way you guys don't have to read

if you don't want to. You can close your

eyes and you can just repeat after me.

But I just want to encourage you guys to

allow for this to be a moment of prayer,

of commitment, and surrender to the

Lord. So, repeat after me. Here I am.

>> Here I am.

>> All of me.

>> I prepare my heart.

>> I prepare

my heart.

>> Ready to receive

>> what you have for me

>> and to give what I have for you.

>> I will worship you with my whole heart.

>> I will worship you with

my whole heart.

>> Seek you with my full attention.

>> Seek you

And follow you with my best effort.

I am leaning in.

Eagerly anticipating.

How you will shape my soul.

And send my life.

As your blessing.

To the world.

Amen. Amen. You can be seated. Thank you

guys.

Yes, this is

this is our commitment guys. And I I

really believe that getting your

spiritual walk in order.

Is the first brick that needs to be

laid. Of the foundation of a solid house

that you are building for your life.

It is the way that everything else will

be built off of that. Matthew 6:33 says

Matthew 6:33

seek first his kingdom and his

righteousness. And everything else all

your other worries all your other

concerns will be added. Well that will

that will follow through but I walk

through the doorway. I first lay the

foundation of my spiritual walk my

relationship with Jesus has to take

first has to be first and that's why

we're doing this summer leaning.

Because summer time is typically a time

that I drift that schedules move and

change and people start disappearing

from church.

People's walk starts fading and like why

why am I not where I was?

Why what's going on in my spirit? What's

going on? There's a lot of spiritual

attack that happens. If you're feeling

that in your life I want you to know you

are not alone.

The enemy attacks during this season.

This is what he's trying to do. He's

trying to pull you away. Thank you for

continuing to show up. In our summer

linen, we got two challenges. We are

doing a challenge for a Bible reading

plan. Please, please, please jump into

this. We got a QR code actually, you can

even scan to jump in and join us on

this. We are going through the first 50

chapters of Psalms. And so, it's

anywhere from like 5 to 20 verses a day,

sentences a day. And it's just

opportunity to be able to get that to

settle into your heart. There's so much

that we're getting out of this.

Psalm 16:11 actually was one that stood

Psalms 16:11

out to me from this last week. It says,

"You make known to me the path of life.

In your presence, there is fullness of

joy. At your right hand are pleasures

forevermore."

And it's the same concept that we're

talking about. When I step into his

presence,

all the chaos of the world just

falls away.

The anxiety within me

settles down.

The the the sadness, the depression, the

numbness starts to be wiped away. Your

presence is where I experience true joy.

I can be happy in a lot of different

situations, but I experience true joy,

true peace when I am seeking him, and

especially when I'm doing so with my

brothers and sisters in Christ. Amen.

Amen. So, uh what I want to do is I want

to talk about We've talked about uh

righteous rhythms. We've talked about

making sure that uh you you come back.

Pastor Morgan talked about coming back

to your first love. It was so powerful.

Last week, we talked about humility and

setting God first in every action, and

how humility is kind of this this

doorway to all other virtues. Uh and

then, today, what I want to talk about

is I want I'm going about community.

Community is the strength you don't

have.

When I don't have it within myself,

the reality is is that there may be

things that life hands to you

that is bigger than what you can handle.

That's greater than what you can process

on your own.

That's a mountain that you can't climb

without someone else. And that's where

community comes in. Ecclesiastes 4:12

Ecclesiastes 4:12

says, "Though one may be

may be overpowered, two can defend

themselves,

but three, a cord of three strands is

not quickly broken."

And what this is talking is talking

about on my own,

things are going to take me over.

If I get a community around me, I will

be much stronger.

But if I do this with I'm pursuing the

Lord and we involve this third party, it

is me, it is the Lord, and it is a

community of people around me, that is a

way that life will not easily be able to

overtake me. Amen.

Amen. And this is where I want for us to

lean in.

To lean into relationships, to lean into

community, cuz the right community is

essential

for a spiritual life set on fire.

And that's what that's what we're doing

with Summer Lean and we just want every

single one of us to be able to take a

step in, to be able to take a step up,

and go, "And man, my spiritual life is

more on fire than it's ever been." And

so we want to give you these tips, we

want to give you these resources for

being able to go, "Holy smokes, these

are some of the greatest ways you can

set your spiritual walk on fire." And I

promise you, a strong community is going

to be part of a spiritual life that is

set on fire.

And that is why we gather here on Sunday

mornings. That is why we gather for on

the first Tuesday of every month at our

our prayer services. And one of the

things we've been doing with our prayer

services over the last year, we've been

doing some tweaks and some shifts just

to be able to help make this the best

possible

uh service that we can have. And it it

is so powerful what God is doing here.

It is a time of worship. It's a time of

community. We have a little message, a

little encouragement, and then we have

opportunity for God to move in ways that

we may not be able to have an

opportunity on Sunday mornings. I love

it because prayer service is not

an expectation

that anybody is is like, oh, I'm a

Christian, so what should I do? I should

go to church on Sunday mornings.

There's never a first Tuesday of the

month like assumption that I put on

myself.

Yet for what we what we're doing is we

want to make sure that this

as we've made some of these changes, I

go, man, this is this is something more

than just what we've been describing it

as. And so we're we're changing this a

little bit. We're changing our prayer

service. We're renaming it to encounter

night.

As a night just to to seek the Lord, to

pursue him, to lean in. And this is

forever. This is we're we're changing

this, and I want to invite you. One of

our goals for our year as our our theme

for the year is lean in. One of our

goals that we have, how do we know if

Collective Church is leaning in?

We want to see us move from about 30 32

people, I think is about what our

average was last year of people at our

prayer service, and we want to see over

50 as our average for our encounter

nights. So, I want to invite you July

7th is our next encounter night. Would

you come? Put it on your calendar right

now. Set it on repeat for the first

Tuesday of every single month. It's over

at Kingsway Christian Church just a half

mile away from here. And well, I want to

invite you. I want to encourage you guys

to come. There is nothing like being in

a group of people who really truly want

to seek the Lord and encounter him. So,

would you guys be able to come to that?

Come on. Who wants to jump in on that?

Let's do that.

We're going to lean in.

So, uh one of the passages for this

series is Hebrews chapter 10. And I love

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

this passage because it it talks about

let's us hold unswervingly.

I love this this word of this idea of

how easy it is to find when you step

into your relationship with Jesus, it

feels like it swerves a lot.

Right? It's like a new driver.

Anybody behind been behind someone with

that bumper sticker on that says new

driver, please be patient? And you're

like, I'm going to increase my 2-second

distance. I'm going to go maybe 5

seconds cuz I see you hitting the line,

hitting the curb, and then line, and

then curb, and then like, okay, hold on.

I got to keep my There's a There's a lot

of swerving in the same way that happens

when I first start seeking Jesus.

I go, I've given my life TO HIM. WHY?

WHY AM I LIKE I STILL GOT SOME OF THESE

SAME SINS. I still got some of these

same habits. I I said I wanted to quit

this THING AND AND

AH, I DID IT AGAIN. I'M STUCK IN IT

AGAIN. WHAT'S HAPPENING? HOW do I get to

this unswervingly

moving forward? I feel like every day is

a step becoming more like him, and I'm

having fewer and fewer days where I go,

ah, I feel like I regressed in becoming

more like Christ today.

How do I do this?

Well, the author of Hebrews says it

here, "Let us hold unswervingly to the

hope we profess, for he who promised is

faithful.

And let us consider" How do we do this?

"Consider how we may spur one another

toward love and good deeds.

DO NOT GIVE UP meeting together as some

are in the habit of doing,

but encourage one another

all the more as you see the day

approaching." I'll tell you what, I

don't know when Jesus is coming back. I

pray it's so soon. I pray it is, but

here's the reality, I know that we're

closer to the day of Jesus' return

than when this was written.

Our encouragement for each other should

be infinitely stronger.

I want to encourage us today, no matter

how long you have been coming to

Collective, how long you've been a

believer, maybe this is your first

Sunday ever, and you're unsure about

this whole Jesus thing, and someone

dragged you in here, or you're just

curious about what's going on in Millard

North High School on Sunday mornings. I

don't know exactly what got you here

today, but I want to invite you into a

deeper sense of Christian community.

Did you know

we

need relationships,

accountability,

and community if we're ever going to

thrive in life and especially in your

spiritual life.

Here's just in the same way that a a

part of your body, if I remove my

finger,

it will die very quickly apart from my

body. In the same way, I was not

designed to follow Jesus as just two,

but the three-corded strand that is not

quickly broken. It's not just me and

him. It is me, him, and the body of

Christ. If I disconnect myself from the

body of Christ, I'm disconnecting myself

from life.

The reality is is we often underestimate

the impact that how and how much we are

impacted by the people we put ourselves

around.

There's been multiple studies on this

in in social psychology that's been

done. This is in in some of these

studies I found that the single biggest

predictor they looked at people at 50

and then people at 80. And what's the

single greatest predictor of someone's

health at 80 when they are 50 years old?

It was not cholesterol levels, it was

not their their wealth, it was not their

genetics. It was actually how satisfied

they were

in their healthy relationships.

Isn't that incredible?

The greatest indicator of health at 80.

In fact, low social connection

and isolation or isolation had a health

impact equivalent to smoking 15

cigarettes a day or being an alcoholic.

Social isolation showed to be twice as

lethal as a sedentary lifestyle and

clinical obesity.

Isn't that crazy? We were created our

very bodies were designed by God to be a

part of community. But here's the

craziest fact, it's not just about you.

The amazing thing is that it's not just

I get into relationships so that I'm

healthy because there's another study

that showed

that your habits don't just influence

you.

And they don't just influence your

friends.

And they don't just influence your

friends' friends.

Your habits influence your friends'

friends' friends.

Isn't that crazy?

Which means you are influenced by your

friends friends friends.

We see this everybody most people have

had a friend that you've hung out with

and you got a friend group and then

they're like hold on why why I've

noticed that you aren't hanging out with

Sally quite as much. Why not?

Well

I don't Sally's been hanging around with

some people. It's just

I'm I'm not sure about them.

I've noticed how it's changing her and I

notice how it's it then impacts me.

Right that's just like most people have

had that type of conversation been

involved in one way or then or another

in that type of conversation and we

already see the impact of a friend's

friend.

Yet the reality is is that we don't

always see how much that even even the

next layer truly impacts us but it's

crazy. It's not just negative. It's also

positive.

Positive health habits end up increasing

positive health habits in friends

friends

and it continues to influence throughout

those circles.

So your spiritual habits

your own personal pursuit of the Lord

just that no gospel presentation to

other people no standing up and

preaching a sermon no giving them a

verse of the day even without I want you

guys to do that but the reality is is

that just your spiritual habits will

change your friends lives your friends

friends lives and their friends lives as

well. Isn't that amazing?

Your life is impacted deeply by

community. In fact I I looked up on I

don't always use AI but I I asked AI I

said hey what are the benefits of

healthy give me a full list of benefits

of healthy Christian community looking

at these studies and looking at biblical

truth and it listed off 21

different things that it talks about

shared burden bearing, accelerated

spiritual growth, physical long

literally you live longer.

Natural accountability, everything all

the way to healthy friction for

character development.

Having people that are willing to love

me enough to say

I'm worried about you.

I think you need to fix some things. I

think you need to change some things.

And in love, I'm not going to let you

walk out into the busy street of the the

poor decisions that you're making. I'm

going to grab you and turn you around in

love.

That is it is it's incredible what gets

to happen when you are in a healthy

Christian community. We were created for

community, no matter how introverted you

may feel you are.

Often times,

this is not me speaking from me.

This isn't me speaking I'm I'm about as

extroverted as it gets. I took a test

before, I was 93% extroverted.

That's a lot of extroversion before I

need a little lone time, okay?

Uh so, I'm not speaking for me. I'm

talking from some of the most

introverted people that I know and from

my ability to be able to see what God is

what the truths that the Lord is

speaking, but the reality is is that a

lot of people use the I'm an introvert

excuse to isolate and it's actually not

healthy.

We need community. In fact, I would

argue an introvert needs community more

than an extrovert because an extrovert

is always just like trying to get there

and they need depth of community, right?

I like a lot of surface things. I love

the hellos. I love the goodbyes. I love

the high five, I love seeing everybody

in the lobby. And the reality is is that

I got to take intentionality and I got

to find me an introvert around me

that'll be able to ask the deeper

questions and be able to dive into like,

"Hey, this is what that person was

actually" you probably didn't notice it

because you were having so much fun,

Pastor Drew, but this is what that

person was actually probably feeling in

that moment. Oh, you're right you're

probably right. That might be right. So,

uh we need we need community. I promise

you if you deepen your Christian

community, you will increase your

spiritual health.

If you deepen your Christian community,

you will increase your spiritual health.

I promise you. I promise you. And this

is where uh we see this in Acts chapter

Acts 2 · chapter mention

2. You don't have this passage, don't

worry about it. In Acts chapter 2, it

Acts 2 · chapter mention

talks about this community that was

started in the first church and what

they were devoted to. And again and

again and again and again, it's all

about being together. They're the

teaching of the apostles. They're

receiving from each other. They are

giving to each other. They're hosting

each other in people's homes. They're

gathering every day in a big church

setting and every day in a small group

setting. They are doing this again and

again and again. Community is essential

for how we are created in our spiritual

walk.

So, I want to talk about wrote four

types of relationships.

Just as a quick tip, these are four

relationships that every single

Christian needs. To make sure you are

checking the box of every single one of

these relationships that you have in

your life. Number one, you need to have

some Christian friends.

Your core group of people that you hang

out with.

The people that you are closest to

need to have a sincere pursuit and walk

in the Lord.

I That may be That may feel

controversial to you. I promise you

that's not controversial when you step

into it, when you start practicing that.

Your core friends are the most

influential people in your life.

And you are lying to yourself if you do

not believe that they are influencing

you.

It doesn't mean kick out the unbelievers

in your life.

It means increase your proximity to the

people around you that are genuinely

pursuing the Lord.

Truly get involved in good, deep, godly

community with people that you also just

like and like to hang around and get.

And some of the things may be different

because you're used to different habits,

you're used to different uh things that

you're doing with your friends that you

may have done before you were saved and

now it's hard once you're saying I'm

trying to pursue Jesus, but I'm hanging

out with the same people that are doing

the same things and acting the same way

and I find it's really hard for me to

take a step forward in my spiritual walk

because you need to have Christian

friends. Your second relationship that

you need to have is mentors.

You need to have someone in your life or

people in your life

that you can go to

and you say, "You have permission

to speak over me to critique me, to give

me negative critical feedback, to

correct me, and to kick my butt in the

right direction."

You need people in your life

who have gone before you, who have

walked with the Lord longer than you, or

have different strengths in the spirit

than you do.

That can speak into your life, that can

encourage you, and to become a mentor

for who you are and how God is

developing you.

You only have the knowledge that you

have. You don't know what you don't

know. You don't carry what you don't

carry. Someone else will be able to

speak into that.

Have find a mentor, a someone who can

disciple you, someone who can encourage

you, someone who you can just shadow and

learn from and how they live that you

respect it and that you honor in that

way. Here's another one.

We you need to have if you've been

following Jesus for more than two to

three years,

I believe you need to have a disciple.

Someone that you are pouring into.

Someone that you are investing in.

Once I've been following the Lord, we

talk about this. If you've been to

discover, you know what I'm talking

about. You pursue the Lord or you're

pursuing your own ways, you're doing

your own thing. And then we go and we

turn and we do an about-face and I

repent and I change my ways, I change

what I'm pursuing, I look to him and

then I start walking in the right

direction. I grab the hand of someone

who's walked a few years ahead of me.

They have learned some things that I

have not learned. They've stepped on

some landmines that they can help me to

avoid and then they have avoided some

that they can say, "Trust me, I've

watched this happen, you want to avoid

this one." And they can help spur me on.

And then after a little while,

I may meet someone

who I go, "Holy smokes, actually, I've

been doing this a little bit. Let me

reach behind

and let me walk with you.

And let me help you as I've learned

about some landmines to avoid. Here's

areas where I've listened to wisdom,

here's areas where I ignored it and I

beg you, please pay attention." Right?

Like we get to speak into those. You

need to have a friend, you need to have

a mentor who will speak into you and

then find a disciple, someone that you

can just encourage. We've got a pathway

that that we that we have as a part of

Collective Church that we can actually

help you. If you go, "Man, I am so

hungry. I'm so ready to grow

spiritually. How do I become more like

Christ? Who do I get connected to? What

are the next steps?" We've got a pathway

to be able to help you out with this.

Let us know and we'd love to be able to

get you connected to that. But then here

is the fourth relationship.

1 Corinthians 5 talks about

talks about how we need to have

relationships with in the church and

outside of the church. And Paul's

saying, "Do not allow for people who are

trying to live like the world

but still claim to be to to be part of

the church, don't let them when they're

following all the things that the world

is doing."

Do not allow do not let that happen.

HE SAYS, "JUDGE THEM.

Speak to them about their actions.

But what I'm not talking about is doing

that with people who don't have a

relationship with Jesus."

Now I've got a whole different

situation. People come to me all the

time and they're like, "You don't

understand. I got this neighbor. I got

this friend. You want to know what they

did? You want to know how they

responded? YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW THEY

RETALIATED to me parking my car in on

the curb in front of their house? Like,

DO YOU KNOW WHAT'S GOING AND I GO,

"DUH.

What else would I expect

from someone who doesn't have a

relationship with Jesus?

There's no conviction in their soul

saying, 'I need to learn how to love

someone even if what they just did

frustrated me.'

Right? Like, of course. Do not carry do

not hold an expectation of the word of

God over SOMEONE WHO SAYS, 'YEAH, I MEAN

I I GUESS I probably would say I'm a

Christian. I went to church My grandma

took me to church a couple times.' And

so, yeah. Yeah, that's where I'd be.

Right? Like, that's totally different

than someone who's actively following

the Lord and I got to treat that

differently. And so, that fourth

relationship we need to have.

If you've been following the Lord for

two to three years, you need to have an

evangelistic relationship.

Who are the lost people in your life

that you love?

That you are praying for. We have a

board called love into the light outside

in the lobby and it's all about finding

people that are that we desperately want

to see come into the light of the hope

of the name of Jesus and that is where

we want to make sure we're praying and

intentionally living out together. So,

these are four relationships. I want to

encourage you look at one of these

relationships and figure out how do I

where do I need to take a step?

What type of relationship do I need to

make sure that I maybe I need to pull

back from some friends that are negative

influences on me. And that may require

some awkward conversations. Hey, we hang

out three times a week and I know that

you I I told you I'm done smoking what

we're what you're smoking, I'm done

drinking what you're drinking, I'm done

I'm done talking the way but you know

what? I actually need to separate that I

need to I I need to do that every week

once once every other week

because

if I I notice if you walk away and you

go ooh, I feel

lost, I feel darkness, I feel sickness,

[music] I feel dirty on my soul. You've

been influenced instead of stepping into

those relationships as an evangelist, as

a person who is on mission. I remember

the first time when Morgan and I were

dating early on, she said I got invited

to a friend's house and they're having a

house party and we know all the things

they're going to be involved there. We

know all the drugs and all the alcohol

and all the relationships and all the

chaos. We know all this stuff that's

going on. So, we gathered we got

together we got with my parents, we

prayed [music]

God would you send us? Would you use us?

Would you make this an evangelistic

opportunity, not just an opportunity for

fun. And we went in and we began to

minister and we began to love and some

of the relationships that I met, some of

her friends that I met there have now

started [music] following the Lord since

then and and have recommitted their

life, have turned their life around. But

we did not go to say, "I don't know.

We'll We'll see what happens."

Or even just go, "I'm going to I'm going

to party, but I'm not going to do the

bad stuff."

Right? I went as the influencer.

Not the one being influenced. And as

soon as I start to look at that stuff

and if it starts to become attractive to

me, I get out.

As soon as I I I go, "Oh, now I'm the

one starting to be influenced." I got to

I got to separate. I got to create some

space. And we were probably only there

for like an hour and a half, 2 hours,

something like that max. So,

here's what I want to do.

>> [music]

>> I want to I want to highlight a a

relationship that's not on here and a

type of relationship within here. Number

one, the relationship that's not on

here.

Every mature Christian does not need a

romantic relationship.

It's not listed anywhere in scripture.

In fact, there's a lot of passages in

scripture that make you go, "Man,

actually it might be better to be single

my whole life."

Right? The reality is is I look to

scripture and I know we're called to be

fruitful and multiply. Right? We're

called like we were created for a

relationship. We talked about that. But

some may be called to live a life of

devout commitment to the Lord and not

and and and and singleness is part of

that. That's okay. [music] That's great.

And so it's not required. And so what I

want to do but we get this wrong so many

times. And I want to say,

please

I hate speaking into people's romantic

relationships

because they're like, "Oh, yes, Pastor,

you I would felt a conviction about that

[music] thing about that thing about

that thing. Every topic, yes, amen,

hallelujah. You can't tell me who I can

date and not.

Who do you THINK YOU ARE?

WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING? AND

SUDDENLY there's this offense, right?

Cuz it gets deep to our heart.

And there's a it's it's really hard

because it's the closest person to you.

2 Corinthians [music] 6:14 says, "Do not

be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For

what partnership has righteousness with

[music] lawlessness? Or what fellowship

has light with darkness?"

The reality is [music]

is that if we're partnering with someone

in romantic relationship or in pursuit

of that

that is not following the Lord, that is

not in more in love with him than they

are with us, [music] we're setting

ourselves up for failure.

We're setting ourselves up for trouble.

If you're in an unequally yoked

relationship, please fix it.

Please, I promise you the sacrifice

it'll be so hard, but it'll be worth it.

If you're not, [music] determine this

before it becomes a problem that my

number one goal in the type of person

that I'm going to date, the type of

person that I'm going to look for to

marry is going to be a follower of

Jesus.

The other things come under that.

They may be the most attractive person

I've seen. We may have some powerful

chemistry. [music] There may be like

some of wow, how did this connection

happen? That's so cool. All of that may

be cool and make you feel all

butterflies inside, but that doesn't

matter. I promise you it will end in

destruction for both of you if you

aren't united on [music] pursuing Christ

first. I promise you. Please listen to

that. In fact,

there is a lady here at Collective

who has taken a bold stance on this in

ways that I never had to, that I don't

know if I would be able to.

Mariel had a seven-year

relationship

that over a period of time,

it was very clear

that unfortunately this could not

continue on. And this is just [music] a

few weeks ago. I I said I'd keep it

anonymous, and she says,

"Please share. I want to be an

encouragement to other people."

She seeks the Lord. She comes to church.

She says, "We're We're living together.

We're going to separate."

>> [music]

>> Immediately. Right away. Tries the

relation- tries to keep the relationship

going. It's not working. It's not

happening. Pretty soon, there's a clear

It's It's me or the Lord.

I know my decision.

I don't

Guys, that takes some strength. I don't

know if I have. I've never had to make

that decision. I've never had to do That

is a long time. That is some serious

commitment to say, "No, I will choose

the Lord." But she says, "I will get

this right, and I will seek first His

kingdom, and all the things that I need,

whether it's a man or not, all the

things will be added unto me." Myriel, I

praise you. I thank you for the courage

you have stepped into.

For the bravery that you have taken.

I don't know. I know so few people who

would do that. It is such a deep tie

that that takes. I applaud you. Can we

give a second to honor Myriel in what

she has done?

>> [applause]

>> If you are in this, and you go, "I don't

know how to do this."

This is a woman who carries her strength

in the Lord, not in herself.

Would you find her? Let her encourage

you in that.

And it has set her relationship on fire.

Guys, the conversations we've been able

to have, it blows me away. It blows me

away what God is doing in her heart,

>> [music]

>> and I celebrate I celebrate that.

And so, [snorts] that's the that's the

relationship that's not on the four.

Here's the other one. There's a type of

a mentor

that scripture I believe highlights

>> [music]

>> is a special type of mentor.

In 1 Corinthians 4:15-17,

1 Corinthians 4:15–17

it says, "For though you have countless

guides, you have many mentors, [music]

you have a lot of podcasts you listen

to, a lot of sermons that you listen to,

you got a you got a group host, you got

a pastor, you got spiritual leaders

around you, you've got all these you got

this this church that you watch online

and the church that you go to in person.

Like you got all that stuff.

You don't have many fathers.

Here's the reality. We're in the same

boat 2,000 years later.

The fathers still

seem to be less [music] frequent

as good,

present, Christ-pointing [music]

fathers.

And then he writes this. He says, "I

became your father in Christ." This is

Apostle Paul. "Through the gospel I urge

you then be imitators of me." Remember,

I'm grabbing the hand of someone behind

me. "The imitators of me. That is why I

sent you Timothy.

Cuz he is my beloved, faithful child in

the Lord." Paul didn't have children.

Timothy, he regularly calls my son in

the faith, my child in the Lord, to

remind you of my ways in Christ as I

teach them everywhere in every church.

So what this is is is there's a there's

a unique type of mentor, a father.

And dads dads are that dads are known

for a few a few different things, right?

I want to be in charge of the

thermostat. Amen. [music]

There you go.

I want to make like there dad jokes,

we're known for having cheesy,

occasionally funny, most of the time not

jokes, right? Dad jokes are a thing.

What I want to do is what I've got here

is we've got not dad [music] jokes,

we've got dad quotes. Cuz dads are also

known for making a lesson out of pretty

much everything.

>> [music]

>> My kids will start rolling their eyes

when I'll be like, "OH MY GOSH, THAT

REMINDS ME OF THIS THING." And like,

"You got to pay attention here. Watch

out. Look at this." But, here's it's so

sad [music]

that that is so much less common than

the dad jokes that we all are familiar

with.

And so, what I've got here

is

uh

we've we've got a whole bunch of

statements on a key ring

that are statements and I've gone to

some of the most solid fathers that I

know.

I said, "What are the things that you

speak over your children?

What are the statements that you want

them to hear? That is not it's it's not

every ordinary statement. It's like, "I

want this to take root in your heart.

I want to capture this moment and let

you know that though what your friend

said to you at school, I need you to

know that's not who you are. You are my

child. You are loved." And then, what we

did is we I I I took statements that

that the Lord has spoken as father

[music] to his children.

And we have we have verses that are tied

to these

>> [music]

>> these dad statements and we have

passages from the Lord speaking to you,

to us as the perfect heavenly [music]

father.

And so, what I want to do is I want to I

we got we got a few of these up here at

the altar and I want to offer these as a

couple different things. First of all, I

want to make it available to fathers

and for men

to receive and to give.

That you take this, you keep this,

and you allow for this to be something

that you allow to be spoken over you. I

don't know if you had a great father

and you need to learn how to be a good

father.

I'm blown away at the dads who did not

have a dad that was present.

It blows me away. I find it incredibly,

incredibly honoring

to become a great dad when you did not

have that. These are the types of

statements that then you can receive and

then give out. And I look [music] to

these fathers, look to these

and be able to go, "Hey, I want to find

an opportunity to tell my child or the

spiritual children in my life, you are

not a mistake. You are carefully and

wonderfully made."

I want you to know,

"The world is better cuz you are [music]

in it."

You know, these are statements that're

rooted in scripture. We see that you can

look up the verses yourself.

"I'm with you.

So, you already have what it takes."

Statements that are

that are powerful,

but something extra is added when they

come from a father figure.

And so, I want to I want to ask men to

take these. I'll encourage you to speak

them over the children, whether they're

biological,

relational, or spiritual children in

your life. For others who take these,

some are questions, even conversation

starters.

Right? The the tell me something you

would normally never say out loud that

lets me know how you're really feeling

or doing [music] right now.

Use this as a conversation starter with

a father figure in your life, a

spiritual, Christian father figure, or

use it as an opportunity to like be a a

conversation starter with the Lord.

Just a prayer time.

Okay? So, we've got we've got these up

here. And uh and and I want to

I've seen one of the most powerful

prayers within scripture

is actually

uh the father's blessing over their

child.

And a father's blessing is seen [music]

as this this

turning point prayer in a child's

[music] life.

Where he gives and he declares the

identity of the child over them. And he

declares and he [music] prophesize a

future for them. A future of blessing, a

future of favor, a future of grace.

And what I've asked is I've asked for

a few of

the men, the fathers, specifically

fathers

in this church who have followed the

Lord

who have fathered children, who have

spoken life into them, to come and to

stand up.

>> [music]

>> If If I messaged you, if you know, if I

If I've talked to you about this, would

you stand up and would you spread around

the aisles, the edges, in the altar

of the room.

And what I want to do is we're just

going to take some time.

I want I want to ask

uh

I want to ask if you want a father's

blessing

would you find one of these men?

Would you find one of them and they just

want to pray a blessing over you.

They just want to pray This isn't This

isn't a father's discipline. This isn't

a father's correction. This is a

father's blessing.

And I want uh and and I want to ask

they're just going to take a couple

minutes to do that. [music] It won't be

long and I want to ask for for you

fathers up here

would you make sure you prioritize your

children as well that are in the room?

And then I want to ask all the fathers

in the room

>> [music]

>> if you would be so bold and courageous.

We're going to take some time. If you

don't have anyone to pray for, if you

don't if if [music] you're not coming up

to get prayed with and to get a blessing

prayed over you, then we just got a song

we're going to worship to. You can stay

there, you can pray, but fathers I ask

if you got a kid in the room

would you pray a blessing over them?

30 seconds.

60 seconds. [music] It doesn't have to

be long. Just pray a blessing.

What you hope that they will become.

In fact if you've got a child that's not

in the room

but is over in kids ministry, our kids

ministry are ready for that.

And fathers, if you want to go pick up

your child,

check him out. We've got a section

[music] ready over by the Mustang Center

where you can go. There's some worship

music on, and you can just pray a

blessing over your child in an

environment that's a little more private

that allows for you to speak to them.

>> [music]

>> And all I say is go to them and say,

"Hey, for Father's Day,

could I give something to you?

And I'd like to pray for you. Can you

come with me?"

It may be a little awkward to get

through,

especially if that's not something

that's [music] common that you do.

But, please take that step. We can stand

up in here.

And what I'm going to do

is I'm going to invite every single

person [music]

uh I want to I want to make sure men

men receive a father's blessing.

>> [music]

>> If you are a man every man in here, I

ask for you find We got nine of these

guys around here. I'm coming down. I'll

be available for this as well. Please

find someone, receive a father's

blessing. Go to them. [music] Go to

them. Go find them right now. And we're

going to have a time Ladies, women,

girls, please receive a father's

blessing. Line [music] up behind these

people. Allow for them to speak the the

heart of the father over you. And we're

going to sing [music] a song. We're just

going to worship here, and we're going

to allow for a little bit of a holy

moment to happen here as we declare

father's blessings over those in this

room.

>> You're a good, good father. [singing]

It's who you are.

It's who you are,

and [singing] I'm loved by you.

It's who I am.

You're a good, good [music and singing]

father. It's who you are.

It's who you are.

It's who you are,

>> [singing]

>> and I'm loved by

you. It's who I am.

It's who I am.

>> [singing]

>> You're a good, good [music] father. It's

who you [singing] are.

It's who you are.

It's who you are,

and [singing] I'm

loved by you.

It's who I am.

>> [singing]

>> You're a good, good father.

It's who you are.

It's who you are,

and I'm loved [singing] by you.

It's who I am.

It's who [singing] I am.

>> [music]

>> You are perfect in all

>> [singing]

>> of your ways.

You are perfect in all

of your ways.

You are perfect in all

of your ways

to us.

You are

perfect in all

of your ways.

You are perfect in all

of your ways.

You are perfect in all

of your ways

to us.

You are You [singing] are You are

perfect in all

of your ways.

You are perfect in

of your ways. of your ways. [singing]

You

are perfect in all

of your ways

to

>> [music]

>> us.

You are perfect in all

of your ways.

You [music] are perfect in all

>> [singing]

>> of your ways.

You are

perfect in all

>> [singing]

>> of your ways

>> [music]

>> to us.

You're a good, good father.

It's who you are. [singing]

It's who you are.

It's who you are

and I'm

loved by you.

It's who I am.

>> [singing]

>> It's who I am.

It's who I am.

You're a

>> [music]

>> good,

good father.

It's who you are.

It's who you are

and I'm

loved by you.

It's who I am.

It's who [singing] I am.

>> [music]

>> One of the statements here

comes from Psalm 27:10 [music] and I

Psalms 27:10

want to read this here.

Psalm 27 written by David [music]

says, "Though my father and mother

forsake me, the Lord will receive me."

And here's the statement. "Even if

[music] every earthly father fails you,

I will not.

I am your heavenly father."

And what I want to do is I want to I

want to take a second. Maybe maybe you

would haven't had a great father

experience. [music] Maybe it's even hard

for you to call God a heavenly father.

I want to I I I believe that that

conviction, that pain in your heart

actually [music] points you to him.

That there's Hold on, there's something

not right about this. There's something

not right about what I've experienced.

There's something not right about about

this this father experience [music] that

I've had. And I want to invite you, if

you have not If you've not committed

your life and surrendered [music] to the

good good heavenly eternal father, we

want to make sure you can connect with

one of these fathers around the room. We

also want to encourage We have a couple

ladies. Maybe you are going, "I I want

this. I want a blessing. I want some

prayer. But man, receiving that from a

male right now is a little hard for me."

[music] That's totally fine. Or maybe

you just want to be able to talk about

salvation or something totally

different. We got a couple people over

here by the prayer banner. If you

[music] guys can wave your hands. We got

and they are more than willing to be

able to pray with you, to speak with

you, to speak life over you. And and and

feel free, men, fathers, would you stay

around the room? Would you stay around

the room? Fathers

in sitting around here, please

don't let today leave.

If you're anything like me and most of

the men that I talk to, it's probably

[music] a little bit easier to give than

to receive.

Take a moment for Father's Day. Give a

blessing to your children.

To your biological children,

stepchildren,

it doesn't matter,

spiritual children, people [music] that

you have just spoken life over.

Make sure you take time to give a

father's blessing to them today. [music]

Thank you guys. Father, I pray a

blessing over this time. I pray a

blessing over these words. Would you

cement [music]

the words of your spirit as prayers

continue at the altar here. Would you

cement [music] the words that your

spirit is speaking over each person.

Lord, I pray that they would not just be

words that my [music] ears hear, but

they would settle into the hearts of

each one of us here. Mighty God,

>> [music]

>> May we know your blessing, your favor,

your heart for us because of the

Father's blessings in [music] this room.

Lord, I pray that these dad quotes

would be a blessing.

I pray that each [music] person

would be able to take this and multiply

this

in their world to those

who may need it most. [music]

In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray.

>> Hey, thanks so much for watching today's

message. Our prayer is more than the

words that were spoken [music] in the

message, that you would remember the

things that God spoke to your heart.

>> Yeah, and no matter what it was that God

spoke to you,

>> [music]

>> I know that part of your journey is

other people, being in a community,

because we are better [music] together.

So, if you made a decision to follow

Jesus today, would you click the link

[music] below and fill out the form?

This is going to help us so that we can

celebrate with you and equip you with

some tools so that your next steps are

[music] great steps.

>> Yeah, thanks so much for watching. We're

praying for you. We're cheering you

[music] on. We believe that the best

days are ahead of you.

>> [music]