One Step to the Right // Pastor Drew Milliken

So, I one of one of the things that I

get to the the blessings I get to have

as a as a pastor is I get to walk people

through some

really key pivotal moments in their life

sometimes. And I get to walk people

through journeys, through loss of loved

ones, through uh painful transitions,

through hurt, uh through bad diagnosis,

things like that. and and even through

addictions. And and one of the things

I've learned in this is that really how

we prepare ourselves in a healthy season

determines how we're going to walk in a

hurting season, in a hard season.

I see that there's so many correlations

in this, including uh when we look at uh

one one of the things I've seen is that

there's there's

core truths that you'll find that really

are just amplified in the hard seasons.

Like once you once you get to know

people in these seasons, in seasons like

addiction, you find out and you get to

see

everybody has some of these same things

going

on. In fact, I would argue that

everybody has an addiction.

Everyone has an addiction that that

every and it's and it's actually

everyone has the same

addiction and everyone has this and and

addiction is defined by something that

we will make ex extreme decisions in

order and maybe even hurt ourselves in

order to maintain the receiving of this

thing. And that is the case that

everybody that I know has made

incredibly bold insane. I've seen people

move for for for this addiction. I've

seen people change their uh that that be

be hurt for addictions like this. And

here's the reality. Every single person

that you meet has an addiction to being

loved.

In

fact, what this does is this reveals to

us the greatest weapon in all of the

kingdom. For the sake of the lost, for

the sake of the world, Jesus says,

"Love it is the one thing that I cannot

I don't know if I can speak into every

area of your life.

You probably have endured things that I

hope and I pray I will never have to

endure. You probably have walked through

things that I've never had to walk

through. I've probably walked through

things that you've never had to walk

through. But I can tell you we have a

common denominator in that I desperately

have this cry in my heart to be and to

receive and to feel loved. And every

single one of you and every single

person that you will brush shoulders by

this week and you ever have carries this

same addiction that we will make stupid

decisions in order to

satisfy this addiction within our very

soul.

we will make sacrificial maybe even wise

decisions but sacrificial decisions in

order to satisfy this thing. I believe

it's one of the

seeds of salvation that every single

person has. And that's why I believe

that as

believers, we've got a weapon that is so

much greater because guess what? I can

love you with Drew's love and it's okay.

It's not

great. It's it's it's it meets it's

pretty conditional if I'm

honest. But here's the

reality. God has filled every believer

with his love to give out. And this is a

weapon to wield

ruthlessly. That's the whole point of

this

series. Love into the light. It's a

series all about being using this weapon

and just loving people so much and so

well and so extravagantly and that we go

I don't know what you may need but I do

know that love is part of it and I do

want you to experience experience that I

may have some truth to give you. I may

have some some wisdom to give you. I may

have some like, hey, I don't know if

this is will work for you, but man, this

church thing has really helped me out.

This Jesus thing has really changed my

life. I think you should give it a try.

I can't guarantee you everything, but I

can guarantee you that you are male or

female, however emotional or emotionless

you may feel. There is a desire inside

of you to be and to experience love,

true, genuine love. And when things

don't meet that, it just irks us,

right? You know what I'm talking about.

When you get like just ruthlessly fired

from a job and is like, uh, I thought

that there was a little bit more

compassion

here. Like, I didn't know that was even

like I could go to HR. We could have a

whole issue here. Here's the idea.

We are called to wield this great mighty

weapon of God's love to conquer the

attacks of the enemy of false love and

of death. This false love, this this

false treat, it's kind of like the

difference between nutritious

food and like sweets and sugars and like

all the the manufactured stuff, right?

It's like I will get

full but I will not be I I will not

actually be benefiting myself. I'll

actually be poisoning

myself. And so it's this same picture

that I can offer whatever kind of love

Satan wants to offer. all the other

kinds of love except for the

extravagant love of

Christ that has boundaries that has

restrictions as all love does that has

guidelines but here's the reality it is

greater than anything that you can ever

experience than you will ever know than

you will ever be able to give on your

own but his

love is the thing that I want for us to

wield ruthlessly

everywhere we go.

Amen. So, I want to challenge us this

whole series, love into the light. We've

been talking about finding a one. And

your one is defined by two things.

Number one, your one is defined by

someone who is far from God. Someone who

doesn't carry a relationship with God.

And number two, someone who is close to

you. Someone who's far from God and

close to you. that you can, and I'm not

saying this is this is not a uh a a

project. Here's the thing. If you don't

have a heart for that person, capture

that heart. That's why our first step,

our first challenge of the Love Into the

Light series is pray for your

one. Capture God's heart for your

one. You should find a love for them

that you never thought you could have

for them.

I'm hearing people talk about their one

and and and and even crying, coming to

tears, praying and just weeping over the

need of their one that they that of or

these people in their lives that are

lost, that are hopeless, that are like

sheep without a shepherd. And so our

first challenge for week one was pray

for your one. Our second challenge last

week was love your

one. Do something sacrificially

intentionally loving for your one. And

we've seen a lot of cool things happen.

Can we get the Can we get the challenges

up here? Love into the light challenges.

Pray for your one. Week two is love your

one. And And this has been really fun

because we've had a couple people uh

talk about making dinner for for the

person that they're praying for. for the

person that they are seeking and and

like man I want to see them come to know

the Lord and I'm going to invite them

over to dinner and just have a really

intentional conversation. I've heard of

uh of of another one of someone who said

listen my one I feel like it's really

pressed on my heart but we don't

necessarily have the best

relationship. It's been a little bit

tense and so it kind of sometimes feels

like we're walking on eggshells. And so

this week, what I'm going to do is I'm

not going to present all this stuff. I'm

not going to but I am going to just bake

him a loaf of

bread. I can do that. I can bake him a

loaf of bread. And then guess what

happened? A conversation just

started. And guess where that

conversation went? It it it it suddenly

had grace because grace had been offered

because gifts had been offered because

peace had been offered. And it's and and

it's it's this this gift that then opens

up like hey the past can be a little bit

in the

past and I want to I want to restore

relationship here and guess

what invite ended up with an invitation

to come to collective church on Easter

Sunday and I was talking to this person

they said I I texted them and I was just

like

send all right that's going to be

embarrassing, right? Like this may

totally ruin whatever conversation we

had with the whole bread thing. It's

probably done. And they're like, "Oh, I

see what you're" And I've never seen

them be like kind or cordial in in these

types of invitations. Uh and even in my

apologies. And instead, guess

what? I'd love to take you up on that

offer. Isn't that crazy? So, when we

love intentionally, who took the

challenge? who did some loving

intentional this loving intentionally

this week. Come on. I love it. I see

your hands. Come on. Go ahead and throw

your hands up. Let's go. I love it.

Let's go. I want to challenge us. Find

these opportunities. It's going to take

intentionality. Every single one of us.

If you find that the that the

opportunities aren't happening, just do

your part and pray even more. God, would

you open up doors? In fact, can we take

a moment right now and pray? Pray for

the ones if you saw when you walked in,

we saw had their names written on

keychains on the love into the light

board. And we're praying that their

names are going to be moved over when

they come to church. That their names

are going to move over and they're going

to experience and they're going to hear

the gospel message. And it's the

greatest thing. And they can do with

what they want. And listen, I'm going to

love regardless. But here's the thing. I

love you so much. I just want you to

hear it.

Can we pray that? Let's pray. Heavenly

Father, I just pray right now for every

single person that is within the sphere

of influence of those in this

room. God, may we not live a life of

faith that is just about

receiving, but a life that is built

on

giving, built with

purpose. And Father God, I pray for the

for each one, every person in this room

that has a one. Lord, I pray, God, that

you would challenge us, that you would

stoke in our hearts just this burning

desire, and we can't get them off of our

minds. They're they're brought up in our

prayers and and and they're they're

brought up in our in our thoughts all

week long. Lord, as we're going to bed,

as we're waking up, Lord, I pray that

you would call for us, that you would

stir our hearts to pray for our one. And

then, Lord, I pray for opportunities.

God, I pray for boldness and

opportunities from each person to say,

"I will do my part. I will take a bold

step of courage and I'm just going to

see what God does with it, Lord." And

then I pray that you would open up

doors. you would meet us there and we

would find that you were there all

along. God, I pray for each

person that is

named and written on that board. God, I

pray for each person that you are

putting on the hearts of those in here.

May we love them more. May we care for

them. In the mighty name of Jesus, we

pray.

Amen. Amen. Amen. All right. Today I

want to talk about if we can open up our

Bibles to Luke chap 10. Luke chapter 10

Luke 10:25

verse 25 is where we're starting. And

this is a popular story called a

parable. It's a story with a lesson.

Jesus would give these. This is the

story of the good Samaritan. Anybody

heard of it? We know the good Samaritan.

Okay. Joyce has heard of it. Great.

Joyce, you can go ahead and leave then.

Uh, anybody else? Anybody else heard of

the the Good Samaritan? Okay, we got a

couple of us. So, the good Samaritan,

this is a story. Here's the context. One

day, an expert in religious law stood up

to test Jesus by asking him this

question.

Teacher, what should I do to inherit

eternal life? That's a pretty dang good

question, right? It's one of those

questions that's just kind of innately

in every single person's heart, and he's

just asking it. He's just saying, "What

do I got to do? tell me what I got to

do. And Jesus

said, "What does the Bible

say? What does the law of Moses say? How

do you read it?" He asked him the

question and pushes it right back onto

him. And and he says, "Well," it says,

"You must love the Lord your God with

all your heart, with all your soul, with

all your strength, and with all your

mind." This comes from Deuteronomy 6:5,

Deuteronomy 6:5

which is known as the Shama. It's the

greatest law in the entire Old

Testament. The Jews had 613 laws or

something like that. Just was this

absurd all these laws and then they had

this other like how do you follow these

laws? These are all the boundaries and

all the rules and all the ways that you

got to do it and there's like so I don't

break Sabbath. Here's how many steps I

can take and how far away I can get from

my house and like all this crazy stuff

like all just insane amount of rules

that they had. And so it's like do I got

to do all of it? Do I got to do some of

it? Do I got to like hit an 80% mark?

What is it? This is the one that all of

them agreed in this culture. They all

agreed. This is the most important law.

Love God. Everything flows out of

this. My problem is not with sin is that

I don't love God

wholeheartedly

enough. My problem is not with the

person that offended me. It's that I'm

not loving God quite enough. My problem

isn't that the opportunities aren't

showing up. It's that I just am not

loving God enough. Lord, would you

increase our love for

you? All your heart, all your soul, all

your strength, all your mind. And then

he says this, love your neighbor as

yourself. This comes from Leviticus. And

this is what Jesus highlights as like

this this

secondary addition that you cannot

separate from the first. And this is a

little bit more unique to Jesus. This is

a little bit more. And so it tells me

that the teacher of the law has followed

Jesus, has been listening to Jesus,

knows what the answer is. And so

therefore Jesus said,

"Right, do that. You'll live." Great

work. All right. So, the man wanted to

justify his actions. Okay. I'm not an

idiot. So, hold on. Now, who is my

neighbor? Love your neighbor as

yourself. So, who's my neighbor? Is it

literally the person that lives next to

me?

Yeah. What about the person that when I

go to the synagogue and they are always

at the door and they stop me and they

talk my ear off and I'm like, I'm just

here to like, can I just get in? Can I

just like like when I What about the

person at the marketplace that I know

they cheat me out of the grain that I'm

supposed to be getting every single

time? What about what about that

neighbor a few doors

down? You remember what they did? You

remember who their parents are? You

remember

like how far does this love have to

extend? We all ask questions like this.

We don't always realize that we do, but

like how much how godly do I have to be?

How much do I have to love this person?

When do I get to stop? That's really the

question. And here's what Jesus says.

Jesus replied with a story. I love this.

He says, "All right, a Jewish man is

traveling from Jerusalem down to

Jericho. Pretty standard trip. And he

was attacked by bandits.

They stripped him of his clothes, beat

him up, and left him half dead beside

the

road. Now, by chance, a

priest came

along. But when he saw the man lying

there, he walked to the other side of

the road and passed him

by. And then a temple

assistant. Now, I don't love this

translation. The New Living Translation

says a temple assistant. The actual word

here used is Levite. one of the people

that would serve in the temple. This is

this is like someone who serves on a

team at church, right? This is like

someone who like really serves like

maybe in some level of leadership in the

church and they serve this is like our

setup tearown crew. Amen. Come on. There

you go.

So the Levite, who's used to doing work

and helping out in however I can, walks

over and looks at him lying

there and then also passes by on the

other

side. Oh man, I'm going to be late for

my shift at the temple. I don't know if

I can do that. Like there's like the

priests going, I don't you people are

waiting for me to teach. People are

waiting for me to serve. and they're

they're coming with their sacrifices and

I got to come do my stuff like so I just

I can't right now. I feel he's basically

dead anyway. So I'm just going to have

to keep moving

on. And then a despised

Samaritan carries no religious or

cultural benefit. In fact, one of the

lowest on the totem pole like a half

step up from a tax collector that we

talked about last week, right? It is a

Samaritan is kind of like this half

breed and a very racially divided. We

don't know racism like they knew racism.

The you know extremely racially divided.

It was just accepted this color of

person does not talk to this color of

person. If you are if you if you are a

Jewish male you don't even look at a

Samaritan female. You just don't even do

it. And so a Samaritan they're so low.

They're so low. a Samaritan came along

and when he saw the man he felt

compassion for

him. Now we see that all these religious

rulers, all these high people that we

put on a

pedestal aren't living up. And what this

word compassion means is like this

gut-wrenching I feel sick to my stomach

thinking about what this guy is going

through that he's left on the side of

the road naked and

dying and it's this it's this deep

feeling inside of his soul and he says

so he goes over to him the Samaritan

soothes his wounds with olive oil and

wine and bandaged them. Then he put the

man on his own donkey, took him to an

inn where he took care of

him. Then verse 35 says, "Now which one

of these three would you say was a

neighbor to the man that was attacked by

the

bandits?" Man replied, "The one who

showed him

mercy." So Jesus says,

"Go and do

likewise." And he highlights this. This

is kind of a a little bit of a longer

story.

But what Jesus is doing is he's showing

what does it mean to love your neighbor.

This Samaritan loved his neighbor. And

these religious rulers, these these

pastors and people who serve in the

church. And you don't understand how

churchy they are. Like they go they

never miss a week, right? They serve on

every team. They serve on every team

plus one, right? Like they are doing

every every night of their week is a

church is a church night. like they are

so holy that type of person.

And he says, "You want to know who did

it? You want to know who looked most

like love? It was the

Samaritan." Jesus is showing that loving

your neighbor as yourself is an

extension of loving God. It's just part

of it.

But it's supposed to be a command that

highlights what God looks like to

everybody

else. So that other people can

experience God's love before they're

even ready to step foot into a church.

Before they're ready to talk to a

pastor, before they're ready to talk to

someone who may be that spiritual

churchy person, right? Before they're

ready for that, they need to experience

God's love. We need to wield this weapon

of love because guess what? You are the

same. You're in the same boat. You're in

the same

situation. Every single one of us was

loved into the kingdom of God. Every

single one of us is sitting right here

because of an invitation or maybe

because your parents brought started

were bringing you to church. Every

single one of us here was served into

the kingdom of God. Was prayed for to

come into the kingdom of God because

someone loved you enough to say, "I want

you to experience the same light and the

same love that I have been able to

experience. Would you come with

me?" That's

extraordinary. And here's the thing.

When we think about it, what what love

into the light is not. I think a lot of

times what we think of how we feel.

Usually, statistically speaking,

actually, people are more open to being

invited to church than we often give

them credit for. Usually, the biggest

barrier is within my own heart and

within my own mind. I don't want to

appear like a, hey, come to my club kind

of thing. Hey, you got to join my thing

and you got to do my things my way,

right? Like, and sometimes we feel like

that, but here's the reality. That's a

selfish motive. If I'm trying to recruit

you to my thing, then yeah, that's a

very selfish motive and I need to check

my

heart. If I want to give you a gift of

God's love that can only be experienced

in in a unique way within the context of

the whole body of

Christ, I want to give you that

gift and I'm going to try to be really,

really generous with it. But the second

that I make this about me and how and

and you come to my side of this thing,

then I be it's a selfish act and I lose

the very goal that I'm trying to achieve

and suddenly it's about me as opposed to

about God and therefore about them.

My love for people is not because I may

love them all that much. How many of

y'all have experienced someone that's

kind of hard to love, right? You y'all

know what I'm talking about. I got to

see every hand in this place up, right?

I know you know what I'm talking about.

One of those people that's like, I know

I should love them,

but that it's hard, right? There are

other people that are more deserving of

love than that person. There are other

people that I can love without the same

consequences. I'll let someone else do

the loving of them. Here's the reality.

The love of

God is not picking and choosing. There

is nothing that can separate you from

the love of

God. And so, I've got to give it out in

the same way. So, who is my

neighbor? It's kind of like who is my

one? Who is the person that I'm supposed

to love? And this is this is the idea

that that Jesus gives. He says, "Your

neighbor is the person that you're

walking by and just happen to cross

within the sphere of influence that I

have given to you." The priest and the

Levite were there to be the love of God

and were not.

I've given you opportunities to be the

love of God. Will you be the love of

God? So, this is when I think about

this, when I think about th this is this

is the phrase that I look at when I look

at this and I look at how Jesus says,

"Leave the 99 to go chase after the

one." What is this? Look, how do how do

I combine this? If it's everybody, is it

everybody? Is it one? Is it just one?

Come on, Pastor Drew. You're really

confusing me here. Here's the idea. Love

the

crowd. Chase the

few. Love the crowd. Every single

person, this is love your neighbor.

Every person that I come by better know

that I am trying my best, my imperfect

best to be the love of God to them.

They should experience more love through

me than they experience all the truth

and all the right and all the answers,

all the correction, all the discipline.

They should experience love

more. They got to get that

first. And then

there's someone that I'm like

intentional. I'm going out of my way for

this one.

It's not just someone who I've passed by

and it's an opportunity to love. But

here's the thing. As I pray for my I

don't know about you guys, as I pray for

my one, as I pray for this this this

person to come and know Christ and have

a lifegiving relationship with

him, I find my heart for everybody that

I walk by to also

increase. Anybody with me in that? Have

you started to see that? that your eyes

when you start to pray every single day,

even if it's just for one person, I

start to get a heart for every person

because I'm capturing God's

heart. A lot of times prayer is more

about changing what's inside of me than

changing what's outside of

me. And so, love the crowd, chase the

few. I may leave the 99 for the one, but

that doesn't mean that I'm gonna ignore

all the other ones. Because you may be

coming into contact with someone else's

one, and you are the love of God that

they would never receive from the person

who's been praying for them

relentlessly. All right, this is the

case. Parents who got kids that have run

away from the Lord, you know this. They

may hear the message from literally any

other person in the entire world except

for you. Right? We know what I'm talking

about. Like this the whole idea of

there's some people that we care about

the most, but we may not be the person

that can love them directly into the

light. And I'm going to pray for them.

and I'm going to pray and I'm going to

pray and I'm going to pray and I'm going

to ask for God to put put other people

into their life as I go into the lives

of other people and I get to love them

as

well. And so when we talk about when as

we talk about loving into the light

though, usually the biggest fear that

people have is how do I do this? It

feels really intimidating. I think you

want me to be like uh an ortor, right?

like, "You want me to be this

evangelist? I'm not an evangelist."

You're probably

right. Right. There are some who carry

the gift of evangelism and some who do

not. It doesn't mean that any of us are

exempt from giving out the gospel,

though. And so, here's here's the idea.

What do I do? How do I win? I don't feel

like I can take this person who just

hates Christians and has like a like a a

a a demonic tattoo on their forehead.

Like I don't know, right? Like how do I

get that person? You want me to bring

that person and present the gospel to

them so that they give their life to

Christ and the tattoo just disappears

and then they show up to church

perfectly clean, right? No. No. Here's

the idea. When we look at what is a win

in terms of loving people, in terms of

this the the one person that I just

happen to be walking by, in terms of the

people in our lives that may not be our

one, but it may be our one, but how do I

do it? My goal is one step to the

right. One step to the right. And here's

that makes no sense. I get it. You're

confused on purpose. Okay, here's the

here's the idea. one step to the right.

Here's a line of faith is kind of where

everybody operates. Wherever you are in

your faith journey, you're somewhere on

this line. And the line is this like

this this staunchly against Christ,

right? It's like zero out of a hundred.

It's like how ready are they for how how

much do they love Christ? It's like it

might be negative, right? Like it is

just it is so far they they they can't

stand the Lord. The second I say, "Bless

you." When someone sneezes, I get eye

daggers from them, right? Like, no,

curse you, right? Like, oh, my bad. My

bad. Right? Like they are so far they

are they they and and then you have over

here this like Christlike legend, right?

This is like Jedi master of Jesus.

That's kind of the idea. It is this they

I don't know if they have sinned in the

last 50 years, right? Like I don't think

they have sinful thoughts anymore. Like

this person is like so Christlike. I'm

like, I I have not met Jesus, but I have

met them. And that's pretty dang close.

It's that kind of idea. And then you

have right in the middle salvation. And

that's the crossing over where I

actually, okay, I'm going to commit my

life. Okay, I'm going to I'm going to

say yes. And I don't have it all figured

out. I'm certainly not the Christlike

legend, but I'm kind of making this. I'm

making the decision. I'm making the

transition. And this is a heart posture

thing. It's not a level of sin thing.

Don't read it like that. This is not

like, oh, where am I? I kind of messed

up this week. I'm probably over here.

Like, that's this is a heart posture

thing. Salvation is not about how much

you've sinned or not. Salvation is

about, are you committed and surrendered

to Jesus as the Lord of your life.

That's

it. And and sometimes we think we got to

take someone from way over here and have

them cross the line of salvation. And

it's like, pastor, that's a ton. No,

here's the idea. Our goal is to love

people into the light one step to the

right at a

time. If I interact with someone, can we

keep that up there? Keep that up there.

If I interact with someone and I just I

I I leave them a clue that I'm a

believer. I just had this was so cool. I

just had an interaction. I don't know

how well I did this in high school, but

I just had someone from high school that

I don't know if I've ever had a

spiritual conversation with this dude in

my life. I graduated in 2008, and he

messages me just this last week and

says, "Hey, I'm trying to think about

how to apply like make my job more like

Christ so that I can see Jesus through

me in this place." And I didn't know who

to ask, so I figured I'd ask

you. And he didn't say these it exactly

like that, but like you're one of those

Jesus

guys. So like, help me out here. How do

I do

this? And that was not guys, I haven't

talked to him however many years that

is. Like I'm not ready to do the math.

I'm a pastor and not a mathematician.

So, but the whole idea of like I just I

want to leave evidence.

I want to leave evidence and I want to

be the person that like, hey, you you

like it's awkward, but you caught me

praying with our coworker in the hallway

in the middle of work one time and you

walked by and it's like, oh jeez, right?

Like or walked into the the the

lunchroom, right, when this prayer was h

like like I don't know like maybe I just

left you a little encouraging note and

it had a little verse reference at the

bottom. Maybe I don't know what it is,

but the whole idea is just like I want

to help you take one step to the right.

I just want to help you. And I stole

this this this idea from Pastor Mark

Ashton at Christ Community Church. Uh

and and he he has this whole method and

this whole but the idea is just reaching

one more one more person one more step

one more person one more step to the

right. And that's the

goal. Because as I look at as I look at

the story and the parable of the good

Samaritan, a lot of times we think of

ourselves as the good

Samaritan, but I think the point of it

is for us to see ourselves, he was

talking to religious leaders. So he was

talking to people who saying, "You know

which party you're in on this

story." and and he's saying, "I want

you to

stop trying to accomplish all the

churchy deeds, all the things while

totally missing the very heart of the

mission." I get that you had to go

there. Listen, if you're on our setup,

tear down team and you're late because

you're loving someone on the way. You

see someone with a flat tire and you got

to go change their tire and you're going

to pray with them and you're going to

invite them to church and they say screw

you. Heck no. Like take my tire back

off. Like I don't care. Like the whole

idea is I I you are fully excused. I

want you to experience I want you to

experience God loving someone through

you.

I want this to be something. There is

nothing quite as incredible at it. And a

lot of times our fear is that we can't

move someone further enough or I don't

want it to be awkward. I don't want it

to be

weird. Can I be honest? One of the

biggest changes that happens in my heart

when I begin to pray for the lost is the

awkwardness is just not important

because I get to balance it with the

question with with with the fear of I

don't want them to go to

hell. That becomes a much more real fear

and

suddenly I don't want it to be awkward.

It's just it doesn't it doesn't hold any

weight at all.

So today and as we stand up, here's the

challenge. Week one was pray for your

one. Week two is love your one. And

we're still doing that. We're still

doing that. Especially if you have not

taken an intentional time to really like

intentionally love your one. I tried

this week and I'm like I I'm like, "Oh,

shoot. I got the wrong shirt size size

for him and I gotta I gotta make sure

that I get the right shirt size and I

want to give him uh the the shirt that

that Jerry's wearing right there, the

perfect shirt for people who aren't

right. Like I I want to I I want to give

him one of these shirts that he helped

to design. And I just want to have it to

be a conversation and I'm going to say,

"Hey, I got it for you. sitting on my

table whenever you get a break so that

you don't have to hold it over your

shoulder while you're working like I

want you to I I just I just care and

then start a conversation. Like the

whole idea is just I

just guys I just we just got to love

him. I just got to capture God's heart

for

him. And do you feel the same compassion

when you see when you walk by someone

who is lost, who is literally dying,

their soul is dying. Even though they

may have a smile on their face, but you

go, "Ah, I don't want it to be awkward.

Ah, I kind of got this job to do. I

don't know. I got to I got to hurry up

and make dinner. I got to make sure I

got all my groceries and like they're in

my car and I'm not sure. I I got to I

got to go check out." And it's it's that

time. I know what I had a plan and I'm

kind of I got to stick to the

plan. And how much am I missing God's

heart in

this? So, this is my goal. Week one,

pray for your one. Week two, challenge

number two. Can we get the week two

challenge up here as well? Love your

one. Week

three,

listen.

Listen. Here's something amazing. I got

the stats right here. Jesus recorded in

the Gospels, he preached five

sermons. We see 12 specific

deliverances, 37

miracles, and 46 parables, including the

Good

Samaritan. But beyond any of these,

Jesus is recorded to have asked

97 questions.

He asked way more questions than he does

everything else. I can't do the

miracles. I can't do this stuff. Good.

You can ask a question. So this week, I

just want people are going to experience

love because the very best thing that

they want to talk about is themselves.

Ask them. Ask them again and again. And

maybe the conversation start asking

questions that have to do with like

Easter coming up, right? What do you

think? What does Easter mean to

you? Do you celebrate Easter? Are you

doing

Lent? Oh, yeah. You're you're only

you're not you're only doing fish. Tell

me about that. Like what? Like what is

it? What's the story? Tell me about your

story. Tell me about what you think

about this whole Lent thing. Tell me

what you think about church. Tell me

what like I just And and if your goal in

the conversation is to make zero

statements and only ask

questions, you're going to win.

And if you love them

extraordinarily, extravagantly, just by

the way you listen, it'll absolutely

change your

relationship.

Ask

questions. Listen. What's your story?

How did you get

here? The question I just asked this

week is, why do you why are you working

here? What's your goal? What are you

trying to do?

You just want to get by and make rent

this month or do you got something that

you're trying to achieve? What's your

dream? I love asking that one. What's

your

[Music]

dream? Ask questions to your one that

cause them to

contemplate just the good news about

Jesus.

And for some of you, if we can get the

line of faith back up

here, when I talk about taking a step to

the

right, this is for every single one of

us. Until you're basically Jesus, this

is for every single one of us. So, what

I want to do is I want to challenge us

to take one step to the right. And one

step to the right, usually once you pass

salvation, it starts to look like being

on mission. I'm refining the sin out of

my life and I'm living on mission for

Christ. That's like what what what

sanctification is all about. It's

becoming more like Christ in the in the

way that I've refined my heart and the

way that I live for him. And so I want

to challenge all of us, but some of you

I believe in this room, God is saying

that middle line is you right now. And

he's making that offer to say, will you

change the posture of your heart right

now? Would you change the posture of

your heart and just go, "All right, I

commit to you and I'm going to take this

seriously and I'm going to actually say

yes and tomorrow I'm going to do my very

best to say yes again. And when I fail

and when I fall and I when I mess up,

I'm going to I'm going to do my best to

say yes again."

And if that's you, would I just want to

see your hand real quick so I can be I

can pray for you. Come on. I see you. I

see you guys. Come on. I see you in the

back. Let's go. I'm so proud of you

guys. Let's go. Let's go. This is a step

of going. I'm committed. I'm crossing

that line and I'm saying I'm all

yours. I see you.

I'm so grateful for what God's doing in

your guys'

hearts. What I want to do is I want to

offer uh I I want to offer an

opportunity for for us to respond to

this. And if we can get our prayer a

couple couple of our leaders, our point

people to come up and and come up right

to the altar here, maybe even head over

a little bit towards the prayer baron.

Can we get some of our prayer team to

come on up? And that is if you're a

point person, if you're a team lead, if

you're an elder, come on up. We want to

have you guys help out here. And we got

some people that want to pray with you.

And so if you raised your hand, would

you just come on up and find one of

these people to pray and just say, "Hey,

I just I want to make a decision. I want

to make a decision and I just I I want

to be committed to Christ." Would you

find one of these people? Come on up

right now. Go ahead. You can if you put

your hand up. Come on up. Thank you. I

see you. Good. Go ahead. Go ahead. Yep.

Come on up. Come on up. We need a couple

people with some courage to get that

started. Thank you. So, can we give a

hand for that? Come on. If you're making

that decision, this is a huge

deal. The reason I say this is you never

do this alone. Never do this alone. You

can't do it alone. It's not going to

happen alone. It's impossible alone. So,

if you want to see the hand raise move

to something different on Monday, come

on up and I want to pray. you can come

up during the prayer. Every single one

of us, if we can pray as well, heavenly

father, just begin praying to him and

ask for him to help you take one step to

the right and to help you lead other

people to take one step to the right.

Father God, I pray right now, Lord, we

want to be more like you. And we want to

see your kingdom come and your will be

done here on earth as it is in heaven.

Would you transform our hearts? Would

you cause a repentant spirit within us

to change our ways to run from sin, to

hate darkness? And Lord, I pray that you

would use us to so be a light in the

world that needs you to people that need

you. God, I pray would you break our

hearts for the lost around us.

Would you transform us God to we are

not giving out our own love but people

would experience your love through us.

We are not just communicating our words

but God I believe that you are going to

give your words and you're going to

speak to their heart. Lord I pray would

you use us Lord I pray would you send

us and Lord I pray would you receive us?

We are yours. We are all yours. We

commit to you. And we pray these things.

We ask these things in the mighty name

of Jesus. All God's people said, "Come

on. Come on. If you got that prayer, let

me hear it." Amen. Amen. Let's give a

hand for the word of the

[Music]

Lord. I just want to share something

real quick. this this past week. Um, one

of my ones is my neighbor and she's from

Morocco and I we've lived there for 7

years and her this last I don't know

Monday her mail was in my mailbox. Never

happened before, right? Well, the

disappointing thing is that I was like,

"Oh, weird. Her mail's in my mailbox."

And I went in my

house and I did nothing. And that night

I was taking a bath and the Lord was

like, "Her mail was in your

mailbox and you didn't take it." And it

just felt like God did that. Like he put

it there and I missed it. And so the

snowstorm happened, whatever day that

was. So, I was like, I'm going to take

the mail uh to her and I'm going to

start a conversation. I'm going to bring

an Easter invite. Well, guess what? I

went to my mailbox and the mail was

gone. So, she had taken it that we have

like multiple boxes. It was a package

and she must have taken the package and

found it. And I tell you that to say,

listen to what the Lord is doing that

he's going to give you opportunities. I

missed it this week. So last week, so

guess what? This week I'm gonna bake

something and I'm going to bring it over

to her and I'm going to start a

conversation um because I missed it last

week. So I just wanted to encourage you.

Don't miss those moments. Be looking for

what God's going to do and how he's

going to provide a moment for you.

[Music]