"Serving" || Holy Habits (Week 6)

Alright, alright.

How we doing, y'all?

Who's excited to be here at North Rock, young and go?

Oh, we're gonna try that one more time.

One more time.

Who's excited to be here at North Rock, Young and Go! Love it, love to see y'all's faces here in the room.

Praising the Lord.

We have an amazing night prepared for y'all, as you've already experienced.

What a great, great worship set.

But we're gonna go into our sermon, y'all.

And we have an amazing, amazing pastor coming in to speak on our sixth holy habit.

Okay, sixth one.

We've been going through holy habits all summer long, and we're talking about what it means for our lives to look a little more godly and what these disciplines, what these habits do for us, but also for our relationship with the Lord.

And so I encourage you to get your notes out, get your Bibles out if you have a physical one.

Praise the Lord.

If you don't, it's okay.

We have some out there, uh, but get yourself a physical Bible.

Get one.

But we have an amazing, amazing sermon coming up.

The Lord is going to speak to, I know, at least one of you, and it's going to be amazing.

We have a lot in store for y'all after this sermon as well.

But I want you to help me uh welcome up, not yet, an amazing pastor that's been here at North Rock for eight.

You don't even know.

He's been here a while.

He's been here a while, but he has led here at this church so well.

He's helped with our multi-side.

Where's Bring Brent?

Yeah, where's Midtown?

Where's Donop?

Yeah, he has helped so much with the development of a lot of the things that you get to see and experience.

But he also leads an amazing, amazing program, group, uh mentorship program called Lead Today.

If you want to follow it on Instagram, we have it on our North Rock Wyatt Instagram.

But I want you to help me welcome Pastor Tim Piper up to the stage.

I I miss you.

Oh wow, that's whoa.

I I miss you guys.

Uh it's it's been a while, but you all look great.

Um, I have a favor.

Can you guys like, can I take some of my years and dump them on you?

Can I and and gain back, man?

I wish I was young and strong and and handsome, and now I'm just, you know, in my house, I'm just Papa.

I'm just grandpa, and I'm having to having to deal with it, having to deal with it.

I I spent um a good part of the day in the swimming pool with three of my granddaughters.

That was totally awesome.

Um and uh it's great.

It got seven, I got seven grandkids.

Um my my son is uh too old to be here.

Uh he's 41 years old.

Um my daughter is too old to be here.

She is uh 38 years old.

Um and so I am super pumped to be with you guys because otherwise I have to hang around my old kids.

You know, they're just they're they're old.

Um when I come into this building, sometimes my nose starts sniffling, and I think it's the scent stuff that we use here.

It smells good in here, but sometimes it gets to me.

I am gonna talk about some things today that could get me emotional.

Um I'm I I have been known to cry, um, but you won't know tonight whether I'm sniffling because I'm crying or because the scent thing.

So I've got some tissues in my pocket, so I'll just kind of warn you um all about that.

Um I I know that we have prayed, I know that we have prayed through song, but would you mind if I pray again for the the message?

Uh, because I I take it pretty seriously, and those of you who know me, you know that.

Um, because I stink, so I need God's help.

All right.

Uh Holy Spirit, we do welcome you here.

We more than welcome you, we need you.

Um we talk about you, we talk to you, we talk to one another, and we pray that God, that you would inform our minds, that you would open up our hearts, and that God, that you would protect us from anything that I might say that is a distraction from you.

We pray that you would be King of Kings, Lord of Lords in this place, that you would not only be our creator, but we would allow you to be our redeemer and our God and our Lord.

And we desire so much to follow after you.

So help us to have empathy for one another as you have always had for us.

Your love and your grace is beyond words.

We don't have words to describe it.

Your grace is higher, it's lower, it's wider than anything that we could ever imagine.

And we believe and confess tonight that you are big enough to be small enough to care about whatever we're going through.

So we bring this before you in Jesus' name.

And everybody said, Amen.

All right, let's jump right into it.

I've titled the message today, You First, but not like that.

And you might say, What the heck does that mean?

Well, let me talk through it and I think it will become clearer.

Let's jump right into our text uh tonight.

It's Mark chapter 10, verses 42 through 45.

Mark 10:42–45

It's gonna be our focused text.

And, you know, we're probably not all reading from the same translation, but we already knew that, right?

So, but they're not usually that different that we can't follow along.

Jesus called them together and said he called his disciples together, his followers together.

I'm assuming that this group was not a big group, that it was a small, small group.

I don't know if it was the 12 or the 40, um, or, but it was more than the three.

It was more than Peter, James, and John.

Although Peter, although James and John is going to come into this topic today, and like I said, for me, this is a very emotional topic.

Uh, you'll find out why as we we go on and we'll see what God allows me to cover within the time that I've been given.

So Jesus called them together and said, You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them.

Let's pause for a minute.

Let's remember where this was being written.

It was being written in that um the what we would call today the Holy Land.

But the Holy Land, um, you know, uh Judah and Israel and all of that, that's that that really was kind of under the control of another government, the Roman Empire.

And you and I can't really relate because whether you realize it or not, we are so blessed being part of a sovereign nation.

Um, if we do stupid things, it's our fault.

Um we don't we don't have another government that is running us and telling us what to do.

We elect our government.

And so, whatever America is to you, and I hope that you are somebody who appreciates the the blessings that you have.

I have traveled all over the world, and let me tell you, America is not perfect, but America is amazing compared to most of this world.

And and the leaders around this world are really stinking scary.

And if you knew about all of the dirty, ugly things that were going, we have plenty of that in our nation.

But if you if you knew the stuff that was so that is illegal that it that is legal in some of the places that I have been.

Um, and it's sometimes it's difficult for us to believe in a place called hell because it's you know everlasting.

But if you've met some of the people that I have met, if you've seen some of the things that I have seen, you begin to go, well, maybe there is a place called hell, and it would be good.

Pause for effect.

So he's pointing out at the Roman government.

He doesn't say it, but that's what he's pointing out.

And he's he's drawing a uh differentiation.

He says, You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles, those guys, how they run things, they lord it over them.

We don't use that term, lord it over.

We'll get to that in a minute.

And their high officials exercise authority over them, not so with you.

Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant.

And whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.

Jesus had such easy teachings.

For even the son of man, the son of man.

This is kind of an odd title, isn't it?

Son of man.

It literally means a human being.

He's referring to himself, son of son of man.

And actually, this was Jesus' favorite title of himself.

It wasn't all the titles that we have thrown upon him or that they threw upon him.

This was Jesus.

I I don't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure somewhere around in our gospels or in the yeah, in our gospels, Jesus refers to himself, I think about 80 times, believe it or not.

Son of man.

You can do a study on that and see how close I am to that.

I I just recall that.

But notice in your Bible, or what's on the screen, I don't know if there is anything on the screen, but in your Bible, notice how Son of Man is spelt in the English.

It is uppercase S and uppercase M.

And if you know your Bible, you, and I would really encourage you to know your Bible because it's amazing.

In Daniel chapter 7, there is a story told about the Son of Man approaching the Ancient of Days.

Daniel 7 · chapter mention

The Ancient of Days, of course, is a picture of the Almighty One, the invisible God, the Godhead, the Father, we would call him.

And the Ancient of Days implores, employs, and sends the Son of Man as the agent of creation, and as the redeemer of creation, and as the Lord of creation.

Bible study is not boring.

If you all will become students of the Bible, I have so much faith in where our faith will be after I'm dead and gone.

It's God's word that will save your generation.

Because you guys don't put up with crap.

I've read about you.

You call things out, but you won't have the right to call things out if you aren't first a student of truth.

You've got to become people who worship truth above all things and go after it.

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.

And to give his life as a ransom for many.

I have a proposition statement for you.

If you're taking notes on your outline, then you'll feel good because you can fill in some blanks.

And I know that bugs some of you if you don't, so let me help you.

Here's my proposition statement for tonight.

Serving isn't something that happens to you, it's something Jesus forms in you.

And it starts the moment you stop waiting for someone to notice how great you are.

We'll get into Instagram later.

This is not in your notes, but you might ask, well, how does Jesus form serving in me?

Well, there's some practical things to answer that.

It's um raw material.

So what is the raw material that God has given to each one of us?

Okay, so uh just to try to pull out an example.

I remember when I was younger, um, I made a table for my family.

I was in wood shop.

We had wood shop when I was in high school, and that we had all the machines that you needed, and so I needed wood to create a table, and I needed tools, and I needed uh the ability to do it blueprints, instructions, whatever you want to call it.

But probably more important than that, I needed the want-to.

So you have been given abilities.

Every single one of you, all of us in this room, have been given abilities.

Ability meaning that you can walk, you can talk.

Um, you've got some of some of us have hands, some of us have legs, some of us have you know different heights.

I mean, I'm at the height where, yes, I'm not so proud anymore that if I see Parker walk by, I'll say, Parker, I can't reach that.

Will you please hand me that?

And so Parker has the ability to reach to the top shelf where I'm just fine in the middle shelves and and below.

But more importantly than my abilities, you also have gifts that God has given you.

Um, and though and gifts are things that you do so easily that people look at you and go, how do you do that?

So it so you see, it's it's it's higher than ability.

You have a gift.

You have a gift.

Bible talks all about that, all about gifts.

But you also have something that's a nuance that I would call your uniqueness.

Every one of us is unique.

We have a God who has never made two people the same.

Have you ever thought about that?

I mean, it just kind of blows my mind.

And it's like, wow, that's crazy.

But more important than your abilities, your gifts, and your uniqueness is you gotta have the heart that wants to use these to benefit others.

Anyway, that's just a sidebar.

So, you know, you you sign up to serve at an event, and uh secretly you're like, uh, you know, somebody better notice this.

Um preferably I I need to do this so that a lot of people can see it.

Um so that people can go, wow, look look at me.

And and that's when serving becomes auditioning.

Am I the only one who's done that?

Yeah.

And sometimes I don't even know that I'm doing it.

You know, I I can I can be so selfish that it it comes to me later, like, man, you are weird, dude.

You got some serious deep problems.

Um but here's the thing in this passage Jesus had this conversation with his disciples in in Mark 10.

And what's funny, and this is painfully relatable, is that just before the verses that we read, um Jesus predicted that he was going to get arrested, beat up, crucified, die, and then come back to life.

But James and John didn't hear any of that because they had a fixed mindset.

Do you all know what a fixed mindset is?

I mean, um I I was at a uh if Pastor Matt was here, he would tell you because I it it happened live kind of in front of him.

Pastor Matt and I were in uh San Francisco about uh two or three months ago, and we were teaching leadership um in at for this company up there, and uh I was kind of running late.

I was in the hotel room and I was uh I was running late.

And I didn't I didn't put my readers on because I can't see a darn thing, you know, up close.

And I had my wife bought me one of those really fancy, you know, dress shirts.

Um I I've always liked the button-down collars.

I I don't know why.

I just hate that.

I hate it when collars are flapping, you know, they just they bug me.

I just it's it's it's kind of like polo shirts.

But what I don't like about polo shirts is the collars always get messed up.

And I so I'm always doing this, you know, I'm always putting them down.

So even when I play golf, I'm always fixing that collar.

It drives me nuts.

So I have an issue here, right?

And uh uh but then you got the fancy ones where the the button-down collar isn't seen on the outside, it's tucked underneath.

Have you seen those?

Well, you're not supposed to see them, so if you've seen them, that really messes me up.

But if you've if you've owned one, you know what I'm talking about.

But you send the shirt to the cleaner, and when it comes back, they they unbutton them.

So, you know, I'm trying to get ready, and now I got this stinky little button and hole that I'm that I'm trying to put together underneath the collar.

But I don't have my readers on.

And what I'm actually doing, because if you've ever had one of those shirts, those buttons are really, really small, so that you don't see them, and they go into a hole that's really, really small.

But if you have a fixed mindset, like I did, there is a button right here, right?

And it's a bigger button.

But in my mind, I was taking the collar with the little hole, and I was trying to put it in the big in the big button.

And my finger was almost bleeding, and I'm so frustrated, and I'm thinking, you take this shirt to the cleaners, and everything shrinks so bad that you can't even get this button in there.

And so instead of me turning the light on, putting my glasses on and looking at it, I have a fixed mindset.

The mindset is that this button will go into this hole.

Now here's the sad thing.

I got it in the hole.

After about 10, 15 minutes later, I got it in the hole.

So I don't have the shirt on yet, right?

Because I'm doing it on the bed.

Now I put the shirt on.

I don't know if you can imagine that, but now the collar is down here, and I mean, and I just thought to myself, because you know what I was teaching on that morning?

A fixed mindset versus a growth mindset.

And so I had to bring that in as the illustration.

Because here I is a dummy again.

A fixed mindset actually precedes behavior.

Uh, your mindset precedes your behavior.

When you believe something, you will not listen to anybody.

So, James and John, they had a fixed mindset that Jesus was going to be like a ruler with a sword.

He was going to turn over uh uh we were gonna take back over the Roman Empire.

That was their mindset.

So it didn't really matter what Jesus said, it didn't matter.

They couldn't hear him because they had a fixed mindset.

And so you know what they said?

As soon as Jesus gets done talking about it, they said to them, uh to Jesus, they said, Well, hey, um, you know, like when you establish your kingdom, when you know, after the war's over and we we you know we kill everybody and we rule, um, you know, James and John and I were talking about, and you know, they were brothers, right?

And can one of us sit on your right and one of us sit on your left?

That's what set up the context of what we read today.

Jesus didn't just say, hey, you know, I think I'm today I'm gonna talk about serving.

No, James and John brought the topic to him, but they had a fixed mindset.

You guys are with me on that?

You understand?

Okay, all right.

All right, so just so just a few verses up, that's that's what we see.

They wanted to be recognized, they wanted the title, the cloud, the corner office, you know, with with a view of eternity.

And so what did Jesus say?

Now, this is the hinge.

Jesus said, and these are the four most important words of the night not so with you.

You guys want to say that with me?

Not so with you.

Okay, here's how the world does things.

This is what leadership looks like.

Uh, this is this, but say it with me.

Not so with you.

Followers of Jesus, we don't do leadership the way the world does leadership.

In fact, when I go and and teach in corporate America, I literally say that you you can go ahead and serve the way that you have seen it done, or you can consider the ancient of days.

And then I introduce the ancient of days.

I introduce servant leadership.

I introduce Jesus.

These these four words, the same again together, ready?

Not so with you.

Not so with you.

This is how it's normally done, but Jim, not so with you.

This is what Jesus is saying.

This is his message to you and me tonight.

Not so with you.

Hey, this is how you're treated at work?

This is how people treat people?

This is how the world thinks about it?

Jesus pauses, he looks at you, he says, What?

Not so with you.

These four words are the hinge on which everything turns, and in those four words, Jesus lays out a completely different kind of greatness.

One that your generation is uniquely positioned to become, to literally transform your world.

So there's three points I want you to consider tonight.

Point number one, serving is the upside down path to greatness.

That's the first point.

As Jesus is teaching, serving is the upside down path to greatness.

It is contrary to what it is counter-cultural.

It is not lording it over.

It is figuring out how to serve others.

Verse 43 says this.

We looked at this earlier.

Whoever wants to become great among you must be your what?

Servant.

The word servant comes from the Greek dialkonos, which means, in the Greek, which literally means the deacon.

If you've ever, if you guys have grown up in church, and those of you haven't, but if you have grown up in church, you've probably heard the word deacon.

You've probably read it in the book of Titus, in the book of Timothy.

You've read these.

And literally what deacon means is somebody who runs errands.

It describes the low level behind the scenes, nobody sees you, nobody thinks you, kind of work.

Jesus says, this is our work.

Oh, I'm just getting started.

I have to be honest, I like being served.

My wife and I have worked a long, long time, and so, you know, we we when we stay at hotels, we kind of get snooty about it.

We kind of go, well, you know, do you provide this?

Do you provide that?

Do I have to lift up my arm to do anything?

I don't know if I want to do that.

Jesus is saying, you want to be great?

Great.

Go run the errand.

Pick up the chairs, clean up after, fill in the gap that nobody else wants to.

In fact, that's what that's what leadership is.

Find the gaps that nobody else wants to touch and do that.

Do that.

Stop waiting for a promotion.

Be the promotion.

You guys, we we live in a world where everybody is building their personal brand, right?

No, no, granted, I just said earlier that you're all unique.

I did say that.

So, you know, we we post highlight reels on our IG, right?

Did I say that right?

I do have an account.

I don't get very many followers, but yeah.

Most of my friends are dead.

You think I'm kidding?

I'm not kidding.

Go back to Rim the World High School, 1978, see how many of us are still alive.

It was a rough time.

Lots of drugs.

And the ones that are alive, I don't know what they're saying.

Just telling the truth.

And they all, and they still haven't cut their hair.

I mean, I mean, you know, there's been like what, 15 different kinds of hairstyles since then, and they still got the same one, you know, Jesus' hairstyle goes all the way down.

You know what, there's nothing wrong with posting on IG fun stuff, right?

It's fun.

And it and it's fun watching you guys do your stuff and your crazy things and your dances and all that stuff.

Um until it becomes the only mode you know how to live in.

Okay, imagine if Jesus had an IG account.

All right.

I gotta stand up for this.

We don't use hashtags anymore, do we?

Yeah, I didn't think so, but this is a little bit dated, so give me a chance.

So Jesus is I uh Instagram.

So there's there's uh there's uh let me look at my notes because I had some good ones here.

Oh yeah, yeah.

There's a picture of a wedding.

And Jesus has got a few people around him, and you know, he's smiling that's great, and it says, hashtag water into wine.

It's another picture of a family that that's smiling, and and he's got a picture of him and says, hashtag heal the sick.

Another one looks just like it, and it says, hashtag heal the sick again.

And then he's at Lazarus tomb, and he's like, hashtag raise the dead.

I yeah, I I I just I don't see that happening.

Do you?

That would be weird.

We just lost 300 IG accounts.

Everybody's getting rid of their accounts.

Uh serving, real serving, doesn't uh uh optimize for attention, it optimizes for the other person.

So here's a question I want to ask you guys.

Uh, where in your life right now?

So let's let's let's let's get at it.

Where in your life right now is there an opportunity for you to serve that no one will photograph?

I didn't say photographs are bad.

I'm just saying, where is there an opportunity?

Is there a roommate situation where you could go first?

Uh is there a coworker who could use help that won't end up on your review?

Is there a family member who needs your presence, your your personal presence?

You see, you see, it's an upside-down path, and it's the only path.

It's the only path.

Point number two serving starts with how you see people.

Jesus says in verse 42 that the rulers lord it over people.

That phrase, and specifically Lord in that phrase from the Greek, is this really long word that I don't even know how to pronounce, but I'll spell it for you.

It's K-A-T-A-K-U-R-I-E-U-O.

That's it.

And you know what it means?

It means to literally exercise dominion with force if necessary.

In other words, here's what it means: it's to use people as a means to your own end.

It's to use people.

So serving starts with how you see people.

You can't serve someone you're using.

You can only serve someone you see.

The difference between lording over and serving comes down to one question.

Do I see you as a resource or do I see you as a person?

Now I'm gonna tell you a couple stories, and I'm not telling you the stories because to make me look good.

I'm telling you the stories because um I didn't even know what God was doing in my life, but you're gonna relate to these stories because this is what God can do in your life.

Both of these stories happen around the time I was 25 years old, and I had a revival happen in my heart.

You know, you know what I mean by that?

I was raised in the church, and um from the time I was 18 to probably 22, 23, you know, I I I would I would still go to church occasionally.

You know, Pastor Jonathan, you know, he's just more perfect than I am.

I guess he just kept going to church all the time.

Not me.

When I turned 18, I went, man, there's a whole world out there.

And you know, I don't know that I did any really bad things.

I think I wanted to.

I wanted to be a bad guy, but you know, I think God protected me from being a bad guy.

I just, but you know, I got lazy, right?

And I just do fun stuff.

I'd go to the beach instead of church and those kinds of things.

But God, God got a hold of my life because I I saw some things, which I don't have time to go into tonight, but I saw some ugliness of the world and it and it changed my life.

Because I, because I did go to church, because I was part of a Christian family, I was sheltered.

I didn't realize how dark the world really was.

And then I got exposed to it.

So one thing happened is um there there was this, and I I don't remember how I found out about it, but there it and I think if you Google it today, uh you will still find it.

I just don't think it's as strong as it used to be.

But back in the day when a girl was a teenager and got pregnant uh out of wedlock, um, that was like really, really, really, really, really, really, really.

Rejected by the church, often rejected by their family.

That's the danger of religion.

You guys tracking with me?

You know, you should get pissed at religion because Jesus is in the people business.

So there is this there is this house called Concept Seven.

You can write it down and you can Google it.

You will find Concept Seven.

And it was a ministry that took in these girls because everybody kicked them out.

And I don't remember why, but I was told to go buy the house.

I don't remember why.

Um the church, well, the church sent me, but I don't know why.

And I was disgusted.

I get to I get to this house and it was it was all beat up.

The house was beat up, the the lawn was dead, the there looked like there was some kind of a volleyball court over there at one point in time.

I mean, the everything was overgrown, it was, it was, it was thrashed.

And it made me mad.

It made me angry.

And I asked the universe, if you will, I said, why is this like this?

If I was one of those girls who lived in here, I I I wouldn't want to come out.

It was worse, it was horrible.

And and all all I did is I said, you know what, we're gonna fix this up.

I didn't ask for permission.

I didn't I didn't know anything about permission in those days.

I I just started calling friends.

I said, you guys, we we gotta do this.

And in one weekend, in one weekend, we ripped up that whole yard.

We replaced it, we replaced the volleyball, uh, so we put sprinklers in.

People had abilities and gifts, and within one weekend, it was amazing.

We just completely changed this.

And then we got to meet these girls.

And I'll tell you guys, it it was a it it was a life changer in my life.

The other thing that happened in my life about the time I was 25 is I went to a church that didn't really care too much.

They said they did, but they didn't really care too much about the youth.

That pissed me off.

So my wife and I, we just simply opened up our house on, I don't remember if it was Wednesday night or when we did, and we just started teaching the Bible.

We invited kids.

And uh, next thing you know, there was 10, then there was 20, and there was 30, there was 50.

And then the kids would come over earlier and they would take all the furniture out of the house because we didn't have enough room, so we had to create room for people.

And then we'd buy pizza, and one of the kids got saved and picked up a guitar and learned how to play because they heard me play and sing, and so they knew that needed to get fixed.

And so, you know, they did.

It changed the course of my life.

The the church never knighted me as youth pastor.

Him at California, I became the youth pastor, where hundreds and hundreds of kids came only because I found a space where nobody apparently wanted to step into it.

Let's skip to point three.

Point three is Jesus modeled the serving that he requires.

This is what I love about Jesus.

Some of you see Jesus as a friend, and that and that's that's good, because he is.

Some of you see him as merciful and gracious, and I see that too.

But one of the main reasons why I follow Jesus is because he's a warrior, he's a champion.

And I always struggled with worship when I was younger because it felt so feminine to me that one dude is worshiping another dude.

It just felt weird.

And if you're a guy here and you know you're not into this worship thing, I get it.

Until I met this Jesus.

And then I said, dude, I will follow you into war.

Verse 45 says this it's the landing place, for even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.

He taught me what masculinity is.

And I and ladies, I mean no disrespect.

I'm just kind of talking to the men for a minute.

If you're trying to figure out where Christianity fits in your life, man, we're talking about the son of man, the person who has changed the course.

We were all on a road to hell.

Highway to hell was one of my favorite songs, even as a younger uh man, even though I was a Christian, because I just loved it.

I'm on a highway to I thought, God, why am I singing that?

I don't want to go to so catchy.

So catchy.

And to give his life as a ransom for many.

The word ransom is luchron, and it means to pay the price to set a slave free.

I didn't know I was a prisoner of my own stuff, and I didn't realize that it was serving that set me free.

Those kids that came to my house in Hemmack, California, you know, they're 50 now.

They're grandparents.

But I own a little part of this world.

I own it.

Because I stepped into it.

What are you guys gonna do?

So here's what we said today.

Serving is the upside-down path to greatness, and Jesus designed it that way.

Serving starts with how you see people, not as a means to your end, but as people worth your presence.

And number three, Jesus modeled the serving he requires, and his example changes everything.

And those four words are say it with me, not so with you.

We're gonna be different.

We're gonna be different.

Would you bow your heads with me?

Life is really worth living once you get the heart, once you gain the heart of a servant, you become that servant.

It's powerful.

And God stands behind his servants.

Super, super, super powerful.

I'm just wondering if there's anybody in the room today who would say something like this man, that's what I want to do with the rest of my life.

I want to find out how God wants me to serve, and I want to go after it with all of my heart and my mind and my soul.

But to do that, you first got to give your life to him so that he can use it, so that he can direct you, so that you can hear him.

And so I would like to pray for anybody who identifies with what I just shared, with what I just explained.

And I would love to pray for you right now, but to do that, can I just see who I'm praying for?

Is there anybody who would say, Jim, would you pray for me?

Yeah, the hands are going up already.

Just hold them up so I can see them.

Hold them up real high.

Just hold them there for a minute, just so I can see, right?

Just give me a minute just to connect with you all.

It's emotional for me.

It's emotional for me.

All right, you can put your hands down.

I invite you all to pray this prayer.

What an amazing God you are.

Thank you for being willing to include me in what you are doing in this world today.

I ask you to come into my life.

I ask you, Lord, to help me get rid of my fixed mindset.

Teach me, grow me, help me.

And I want to live for you from this day forward.

Teach me to lead, to serve in the Jesus way, not in the earthly way.

And I pray this in Jesus' name.

And everybody said, Amen, amen.

Awesome, awesome.