Play the Hand God Gave You | Acts 22:22–29 | Alex Sands

Welcome to the Kingdom of Life Podcast.

What if the question is not whether you like the hand you were dealt, but whether you will faithfully play it for the kingdom of God.

In Acts 22, 22 through 29, Pat finds himself in a dangerous situation.

Instead of wasting what God has placed in his hand, he recognizes the moment.

And make sure you are not spending your life playing the wrong game.

Now let's open God's word together in Acts 22, 22 through 29.

And I just want to tell you today that today's message is a very important message.

And because it's so important in the history of Kingdom Life Church, I'm gonna give you everything I got today.

Every tool that's in my toolbox, I'm gonna give it to you.

We're gonna do things differently today.

Message is gonna flow a little bit differently.

I'm gonna talk about some things I haven't talked before, taught about before.

I got a whole lot in me.

It's been a spiritual battle for the last few weeks, and I feel the release.

And so today you're gonna hear some things you haven't heard before.

I'm gonna bring it in some ways you hadn't seen me, heard me bring it before, but it's all the Lord bringing it.

I need you guys to be focused and dial in.

And before I forget, after this is over, when it's done, if you're on YouTube or you do Facebook or you're on social media, whatever it is, like it and send it somebody.

I've always felt kind of uh I don't, that feels kind of cheesy to tell somebody about a sermon I preached to send it to a bunch of people.

This is different.

Today is different.

In January 2025, we started this series, Acts.

We we are going chapter by chapter, verse by verse, and uh and God started this.

He started this again, January 2025.

And so, you know, we've been moving along at a regular kind of clip and pace, and over the course of the last eight, nine years, God has impressed upon us that his word is always sufficient, so just preach my word.

And he's led us to go through books.

At one season of our of our uh our history as a church, we would do the topicals, but then God changed us and moved us in a different direction and just go through books so my people understand the context and understand that as the world was going into fracturing and everything else, you would know what would happen at Kingdom Life Church.

We're gonna pick up where we left off.

No soapboxes, the word.

We started in January 2025, and isn't it amazing how every time we come to a critical point, the Lord brings us to a word that is just what we need and is so in season, God never fails.

And he's done it, he does it every Sunday, but today it it's it almost takes so much, uh so much more so.

And and and I want us to all to be able to see it and appreciate it that God has brought us to this moment providentially, such a time as this.

You are not here by accident, you're not watching.

Whenever you're watching, by accident.

I may never preach another sermon again, but I will be satisfied I can get this one.

I'm gonna bring it to you, Pascal.

I'm coming.

He's the first person who saw God's gift in me and told me I needed to use it.

Back in 1998.

Thank you, thank you, Pascal.

I love you.

I did.

And the fact that you're still here means the world to me.

So as we as I shared, we have been in the book of Acts, and Acts as a theme.

Uh the theme for this series has been the unstoppable advance of the kingdom of God.

Oh, the QR codes there, you scan them, and it'll take you to that same microsite, the tap tab in front of you.

You can scan that QR code, you can unlock your phone, put it up right against it.

It's however it's gonna work, but it'll take you to the notes.

In the notes, you'll see there the unstoppable advance of the kingdom of God.

Kingdom of God came in, was ushered in, and the arrival of the king.

Jesus and the kingdom of God has continued to advance further, and Jesus himself, you know, this is the theme of Acts, Acts of the Apostles.

Jesus sent them out, and apostle means sent.

He sends out the apostles before he ascended, and he said this, gave them this word, this gospel of the kingdom.

This gospel of the kingdom will go forth.

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria to the end of the earth.

To the end of the earth.

And do you notice there the concentric circle?

Judea, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, uttermost part.

We're part of that uttermost part.

But it was the it spread outward, needing to grow out.

That's what we have been observing as we've gone through scripture, God using different people, different situations, and all of that.

He he elevated um and and uh some and and then some they just kind of drop off, but it's all Jesus.

Sometimes one person is doing lead, and then Peter hasn't been really prominent in Acts, and Acts is the only his purely historical book in the New Testament.

It's history.

30 years, first 30 some years of the church's existence.

So we've been moving along, and we've we've Apostle Paul has completed his his three missionary journeys, what we call it, where we've landed now in Acts 22, is he's you know, he's in Jerusalem, and many of his partners said, Don't go, but he said, The Holy Spirit is leading me here, and he's led me to collect this offering.

And some details are in the notes, but he gets there and you know that he's doing his thing and so on, and then he's got some adversaries that were from the a region called Asia, and he said, There is that Paul, he brought a Gentile into the temple area.

It was all lies, a mob of people, because it was Pentecost seasoning.

A mob of people were there and they believed him, and they all started beating him down.

Paul.

One called to go to the Gentiles with the gospel, called by Jesus, beaten, bloody, dirty.

But he was rescued by Roman soldiers.

Carried out by a commander called a tribune, the title.

It means a leader, commander of a thousand.

That's what it literally means.

He's like, I don't know what's happening here, but you everybody mad at you, so you must be at fault.

Remember the story?

Paul spoke to him in Greek, and it shocked him, took him by surprise.

Paul was so educated.

The Greek just flowed, and so he was stunned.

And aren't you that Egyptian?

No, I am a Jew.

He told him where he was from, and so on, and so forth.

And he's been from an educated location, all of that.

He is not like what I'm looking at.

The blood and the bruises and the dirt.

He he he's he's not like, he's not.

I I didn't think, and then Paul just says, Can I speak to the people?

And so the soldier thinks to himself, Wow, I wonder if they really know who this is.

He's one of them.

Maybe if he talks to them, they'll all go home.

It must be a case of mistaken identity.

So, yeah, go ahead, go ahead.

He gives them latitude.

Go ahead, and Paul addresses the people in Hebrew or Aramaic.

We're not sure, but it was his own language, their language.

Now the soldier doesn't understand what's being said.

He's speaking and he's reaching the people, and he's speaking right where they are.

And they listen.

You can almost hear a pin drop.

All the you know, ruckus that was going on earlier.

He's speaking again, their language.

And they lean in.

And the first thing he said to them is, I'm gonna prepare my defense.

All right, what's your defense?

Paul doesn't say a word about whether he brought a Gentile into the temple.

His testimony was his defense.

Life before Christ, meeting Christ, and then life after him.

All of us have that testimony.

Before Christ, Christ, and then the life after.

He laid it out.

And at the end, where we left off last week, at the end of as he's telling his testimony, he he talks about, you know, after Christ, after the encounter on the Damascus road and everything else.

He says, Later in Jerusalem, he was in the temple.

He didn't have a problem with the temple.

He wasn't trying to destroy the temple.

He's praying in the temple and had a vision.

Jesus said, Go out of Jerusalem, they're not gonna receive you.

Paul argued with the Lord.

Have you ever given the Lord your idea?

You ever tell the Lord, I have this plan.

They're gonna hear me, they know who I am.

I was legit, I was trying to exterminate the church.

Jesus doesn't get into any debates.

You can debate with Jesus, but it's gonna be one-sided thing, isn't it?

So, verse 20, again, Paul's explaining how what a wonderful candidate he would be if he hung around in Jerusalem.

He could lead the whole city to Jesus.

And so part of his argument is when the blood of Stephen, your witness was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving, watching over the garments.

I was right there.

I like given so much responsibility of this, I was there, but they'll know me.

And if I'm trained, if I've been changed, then this thing must be real.

Jesus said, Go, I will send you far away to the Gentiles.

Again, this is him giving Paul giving his testimony to thousands.

Picking up to this word.

What word?

I have it in pink.

What's the word?

Gentiles, ethnos, the world, people.

Remember, Jesus said the uttermost part?

Further, it's the world, all people.

I will send you far out to the Gentiles.

And at that word, the crowd said, we can't take no more of this.

They were good with Jesus raised from the dead and all that.

They were good with him having a vision.

They were good with all that.

But when he said that Jesus said, Go to the Gentiles, oh no, you done done it now.

Up until this word, they listened to him.

They listened to the gospel presentation.

They listened to that Jesus was a Messiah.

Well then, but just the word Gentiles.

Hey, don't tell me about my Messiah.

We're Jews.

He's our Messiah.

Don't say go off to the Jews.

Then they raised their voices and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth.

He shouldn't even be allowed to live.

And then he started shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust in the air.

Now that's for real.

Right now, they get mad.

They take off the cloaks, and some speculate that they were going ahead to get ready to stone him.

Now remember, you got the commander, the tribune.

He's seen all this.

He noticed that maybe, I don't know how long it's it, 10, 15 minutes, whatever.

He's this Paul has been given a message, and the people have calmed down.

Maybe they're gonna go home.

His number one job was to keep the peace.

You got one job.

Keep the peace.

So everything was cool, but he didn't understand what's being said.

But now he's finished.

This word, he I didn't even think Paul was done.

But these folk are off the chain.

They start taking off robes and flinging dust in the air.

Some speculate again, taking off the clothes to cloaks to prepare to stone.

That's one of the things they do.

Whoever's getting ready to stone, they get ready, lay down the garments, and get some stones.

Others say, look, they couldn't get any stones, so they started kicking up the dust and thinking, whatever I can fling that direction, but the Roman commander is there.

They are so mad they forgot where they were.

Just because they said, Jesus said, go to the Gentiles.

As they were shouting, verse 23, and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, the tribune ordered him to be brought into the barracks.

I don't know what you said.

I can't understand what you said, but look, everybody's mad at you.

You must have done something, saying that he should be examined by flogging.

Examined.

We gotta figure out what's wrong.

Nobody could give me a straight answer before you were talking.

And so now they're mad again, so we're gonna have to beat you, beat it out of you.

Now the Romans, they he had the authority to do that.

He had the authority to say this is one of the ways we're gonna get peace.

When there's somebody who's done wrong, we're gonna beat it out of them.

He has that authority.

So he's exercising it.

Because he wants to get peace.

Tribune ordered him to be brought into the barracks, saying he should be examined by flogging, find out why they're shouting against him like this.

But when they stretched him out for the whips, now let's go dial in here.

Paul said to the centurion.

Centurion means one who is over how many?

A hundred.

This is a soldier who's over a hundred.

The tribune, he's over a thousand.

So the centurion reports to the tribune.

Order chain of uh uh command.

Yeah, chain of command.

There we go.

They stretched him out, and so he's maybe around the trunk, tree trunk, or some kind of object.

He is stretched out, uh clothes removed from his bat, and he's stretched out, and they had whips.

Don't think about, you know, a little tap tap and look what flogging involved a whip, it like included a cat of nine tails at the end.

It could be rocks, could be stone, it could be something at the end of it.

So when they would beat the person, there were professional lictors, people who were professionally trained to flog people.

Many died while being flogged.

So, in essence, we're gonna beat it out of you and keep beating you until you explain to us what's going on, because there must be something you did.

At that point, you would think maybe that Paul would like, no, no, I'm in this, no, read me, no, I'm wrong, you've been wrong.

He doesn't do that.

He calmly says, Verse 25, is it lawful for you to flog a man who is a Roman citizen and uncondemned?

Is it is it right for you to flog a man who's a Roman citizen and I have you don't even know the charges.

How does that even work?

You want to beat the charges out of me, but I'm a Roman citizen.

Now that took them by surprise.

Now I want you to notice in the text how many times citizenship is referred here.

He said in verse 25, verse 26, when the centurion heard this, he went to the tribune and said to him, What are you about to do, boss?

This man is a Roman citizen.

Roman citizens, they would have a little wood like piece they'd carry along with them to prove that they were citizens, kind of like a citizenship card.

Now, being a Roman citizen, he was an ethnic Jew, speaking of Paul.

He was an ethnic Jew, but he was he he had Roman citizenship, which provided some legal protections and some other favor, all of that uh privilege.

He had that, and so no one would lie that they were a Roman citizen.

And I'm not saying he presented it to them, but the simple fact no one would lie about it because that would mean sure execution.

It's not something he would lie about.

What are you about to do?

This man is a Roman citizen.

So the tribune came to him and said, Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?

Paul said, Yes.

The tribune answered, I bought my citizenship for a large sum.

We're gonna find out the tribune's name later, but his first name is Claudius, and his name is Claudius because the emperor before was named Claudius, and he was super corrupt, super just all about money.

He he would allow people, and those who are, and then they would allow people to purchase citizenship.

You give me enough money, I'll give you, grant you Roman citizenship.

So it did cost this dude a lot of money.

He had to pay.

But you kind of he's a little proud of his citizenship, isn't he?

He was kind of proud of it.

I'm I paid a whole lot of money.

Paul is still cool, isn't he?

It's like he knows something others don't know.

Paul said, I am a citizen by birth.

So those who were about to examine him, all of them, lictor, centurion, tribune, every other Roman there who was there to beat him, they withdrew how slowly, immediately.

Listen, the one man, he's bloodied, he's dirty, he's he's he was considered the scum of the earth because he doesn't look like he's anything.

He didn't look like he's much, but now just like that, the tables have turned, they're afraid, and he's cool.

He's been cool this whole time.

He's been cool through all of this, ever since they they protected him, the Romans.

So he they got him, he was fine.

He was chill.

And in that moment, everyone else is afraid, and the one who should be afraid is calm, cool, and collected.

Because he knew he had this card in his back pocket.

He knew he could play this card, and now is the time to play it.

Now, if we just looked at this without reading all of Acts, that's why we go chapter by chapter, verse by verse.

If if you if you remember, we were in Acts chapter 16, and Paul and Silas were in Philippi, and in Philippi, you know, they they were both beaten.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

But Paul didn't mention anything about.

About citizenship.

It is almost the exact same scenario.

Let me show you.

Let me just read a few verses, five verses here.

When her owner saw that her hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers.

And when they had brought him to the magistrates, they said, These men are Jews.

Oh, that's a slur.

These men are Jews.

Just Jews.

They're disturbing our city.

They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans.

The assumption of the crowd that of Paul and Silas, and again, it's all about finance, it's all about money.

They ruin their chance for money.

And they all are mad.

Their assumption is Paul and Silas, they're just Jews, and that's it.

And we can beat them without any consequence.

Do away with them.

And the rulers and the magistrates, you know what happened?

The crowd joined in and attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off of them and gave them orders to be beaten with rods.

Now that's not like flogging, but it's bad too.

And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into the prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely.

And he put them in the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.

Paul and Silas had their cards, if you will, in their back pocket and didn't play them.

Which tells us that when Paul exercised his Roman citizenship, his rights as a Roman citizen in Acts 22, he wasn't doing it to save his own skin.

Literally.

He wasn't doing it just to get out of a bad situation.

If he thought of his Roman citizenship as just a way to get out of a bad situation, he would have done it earlier.

If Silas thought it was all about getting himself out of a bad situation, he would have played the card and didn't matter what Paul did.

Well, I don't know about you, dude, but I'll be waiting for you because they're going to wear you out.

But I'm a Roman citizen.

But Paul, I mean, Paul and Silas, they took it.

Which again tells us it wasn't about just getting out of a bad situation.

They played the card when it was the right time.

It's like, you know, spades.

How many of you know how to play spades?

Oh, look, some of y'all took that as an undergrad class, didn't you?

It's like I took a class as spades.

Again, having a card in the back pocket.

Here, I gotta get to this kingdom truth.

Kingdom truth.

Today's kingdom truth.

Don't cover what we talk about.

God's providence determines our hand.

God's kingdom determines how we play it.

Providence determines our hand.

Providence.

God ordering and directing all things.

Everything.

Everything.

It determines our hand.

His kingdom determines how we play it.

Which brings us to this question.

How does a follower of Jesus decide when and how to use the things that God has placed into his or her hand?

Well, to help us understand that, why?

Why didn't he play it now?

Why did he I mean why did he play it at this time and not play it in Philippi?

Why?

Why?

We want to understand that.

Well, again, let's go ahead and play some cards.

And I got some volunteers that are going to help us all understand this, alright?

I want to welcome to the stage.

We've got uh three individuals that have come.

We're gonna play around the spades.

So we got uh we got the uh spell house team.

Come on, Kevin, from a graduate alumni of Morehouse College.

Go ahead, come on, bro.

You can give them to Dr.

Kevin Springle, Elder Dr.

Kevin Springle.

Go ahead and take a seat right over there.

That's good, right over there.

That's good.

And we also have Corey Hilson, graduate Spelman University, 1994.

Spellman College.

Spelman College, I'm sorry.

Getting me straight.

Thank you.

Now we have also representing North Carolina State University, Sadina McGee.

Come on, come on, Wolf Pack.

We don't have any other Wolfpack in the house.

Got one little kid, like I like Wolf Pack.

And C State.

I'm gonna take that one.

I'm gonna take, oh, you wore the sweatshirt too.

Oh, that's all right.

And also representing North Carolina State University, yours truly.

Now you know you gotta let the pastor win.

Pastor's rules, I'll throw you all off the stage.

We're done.

And I'm playing the game.

All right.

And because you know, sometimes when we play in spades, not everybody, you know, just not everybody is is has all the integrity.

Sometimes you just need, you know, uh a third, uh outside party to deal the cards, right?

Now I'm not saying there's any problem with with team spellhouse here, but today we're gonna have somebody to deal for us.

Jacob Smoke.

Come on, Jacob, you're gonna be the dealer today.

Let's welcome our student, Pastor Jacob Smoke.

And uh I want to give a quick tutorial about you know spades for those who aren't familiar with it.

Uh, how many of you uh are familiar with Uno?

Uno?

All right, more familiar with Uno.

Uno, you know, the principle of the game is you you could have eight people, five people, however, but everybody you know was there and you got the Uno cards.

Uno cards.

Come on, Pastor.

There we go.

Oh no, not yet.

Y'all getting all the Alex today, man.

We got the Uno cards.

And the Uno cards, you remember, they have their four colors, right?

What are the colors?

Red, green, yellow, and blue.

Red, green, yellow, and blue.

And and you know how the game is is is played?

How many other people you have in there?

There's everyone gets a throw, right?

So when all the cards have been distributed, let's say we're we're doing uh seven cards, everyone gets seven cards, right?

We all get seven cards, and someone is responsible for the throw.

Usually they're the ones who've been the dealer, they they dealt.

They lead.

If they lead with the uh red, the person, however, the road, it could be clockwise, counterclockwise, what does the next person have to play?

All right.

The objective of the game is to get down, you get down to one card, what do you got to do?

Uh no, you gotta announce to everybody I got one card left.

So I put down a red, person next to me puts down a red.

Then another person puts down red, right?

And so there you go, it goes around until someone doesn't have red.

If someone doesn't have red, but they have a blue number two, which this isn't, um, they can switch the num switch the colors, move around and such.

That's Uno.

The objective is to end up with no cards.

If you don't have the yellow and the card on the table is yellow, you gotta draw one.

And then, though, you have specialty cards that, regardless of what's been played, you can throw down these specialty cards.

Like this is a wild card.

You can do a wild card and just say, I don't have any more yellows, but I got this wild card.

Everybody didn't have a wild card.

There are only a few of them, but I'm gonna play the wild card.

Then you got the draw fours and all these are all specialty cards.

You put it down and you change the color.

Everything changes.

What these cards change the whole direction of the game.

So everybody remember Uno, right?

Spades is similar in a sense.

It is, trust me.

In a sense, deck of cards.

We got a deck of cards, they're 52 cards, and in spades, unlike Uno, you have four players.

Four players, 52 cards.

We have a hand, like Uno.

You go around until you know the end.

So we have uh 52 cards, four people, everyone gets 13 cards.

And they're random, you know, and there are four suits.

They're only two colors, but four suits hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades.

Now they all have different value.

You got you got you know, some three, you know, five, five is more than three, but and when you have the same suit and and so on.

And so everybody's gonna get Jacob, go ahead.

You can you can do it now.

He's gonna distribute.

Yeah, just go ahead and go.

Yeah, put me some right there, too.

Shuffle.

Yeah.

No.

Oh, yeah, shuffle.

Yeah, shuffle.

Yes, what's wrong with y'all don't trust me?

Play this.

I brought my cars.

Okay, yep, you're good.

All right, look at you, man.

Like, how old are you?

23.

23.

He's got like an expert.

Keddy, your man, then forever.

Talk right now about it.

I I told him about spades this morning.

I said, Do you know how to play spades?

Oh, yeah.

All right, so all of them are going out, they're they're random.

We got the four suits going out, and so we got those different colors, and you have within each suit, you have a ranking.

Ace is the highest ranking in a suit.

Then what's next?

Ace, king, queen, jack, ten, and then the numbers on down.

Right?

So each suit, again, has 13 cards, and that's how they, you know, they can kind of work down, and and so hearts is that way, clubs are that way, but there's one suit that trumps all of them spades.

Spades, you start with two, work up through kings, and there's an ace.

Now, this is where the the people play different rules and so on and so forth.

We know, but we're gonna play pastors' rules today.

So the way I I would always play is you had two specialty cards.

No, I know we short two cards.

These are my two cards.

Trust the pastor! How many cards are here?

I have twelve.

That's fine.

You got twelve?

No, we got two.

You got 13.

She got 13 out of 12.

Okay, you're good.

It's okay, it's alright.

I'm playing pastor's rules.

All right, there are two cards that are unique.

This is the way I would play it.

You got a, you got two jokers.

You got the big joker and the little joker.

And so the big joker is this one in front of this deck here.

Little Joker has a little smaller joker.

And so the big joker, little joker, then uh wait, we had uh ace, deuce, king, queen, uh, jack, ten on down.

Now everybody has different deuce, ace, king, queen, but but we had it all, right?

Okay, everybody's good.

Sean got a master's degree in spade.

So these are only two of them.

Only two.

When somebody throws down the big joker, that trumps every single card.

Every card.

If you're playing, if the person who's leading throws down a heart, the person next to them has to throw down a heart if they have one.

How many cards you got?

All right, all right.

No.

You got that one.

All right.

So let's say you're leading.

You lead with a, what you got?

You got a heart?

No, I mean, I'm just I'm the pastor.

Put a heart.

All right, so boom.

All right, so what Corey has led with the ace of hearts.

It's the highest ranking heart, right?

Right?

Good.

Now, Sedina has to play a heart.

She's coming behind.

Oh, it's Timmy.

Come on.

All right, go ahead now.

She plays next.

Y'all be too picky.

You got a heart?

All right, so all right, so play a heart, and Kevin plays a heart because he has a heart, and so everyone has played a heart that's in their hand.

If you have a heart, you have to play it.

If you don't have a heart, you get down and progress in the game, what can you play?

A spade.

When you play a spade and everyone else has one of these regular suits, you get the book.

So you got four cards that are always played for every throw.

And let's just imagine I don't have any hearts and I played the little joker.

Boom! I get the book.

There are 13 books in a hand.

Because they're you know 13 cards.

We have 13 different throws.

I won this book.

Boom.

Because I won, I played the little joker, and I won the book.

I have now, I can control the table.

Before we go further, Paul played the big joker, the big one, when he said his Roman citizenship.

That is the big joke.

He's had it in his back pocket.

It trumps everything else.

It's why he had no sweat, he wasn't worried about being set.

He wasn't worried because he knew what he had in his back pocket.

Somebody, you can have a peace when you got the big joker.

He's got peace.

He played it.

But here's the thing: watch this.

He's had the big joker his whole life.

He was born with the big joker.

Mama put the big joker on his forehead.

So he had it in his back pocket all the time.

So he played.

He played at that time.

Now, here's the key critical difference, or a couple, one critical differences between Uno and Spades.

We all go around, we have a throw, so on the.

But the one of the key parts of the that's different that makes this unique is spades, unlike Uno, you're part of a team.

So we have Team Wolfpack, Team Spellhouse.

We work together.

And so, unlike Uno, where it's every person for themselves, the objective of Uno is to burden everyone else, and I'm left with no cards.

Burden everyone else.

That's not how that's not how you do spades.

See, the the problem is you can't have that mentality, you can't bring a mentality of I'm going to win every book.

Because if you have the mentality, I'm always going to take my book, you can mess up your partner.

So because this is teamwork, you know, uh, we what we do first in spades before um, but what we do first is we look at the hand.

Jacob has distributed them, and we look at the hand.

Now we can't tell our partner what we have.

We sort them all out.

Somebody's gonna say, my pastor preached on spades.

The jokers?

So you know what we do, we sort them out, see what we got, and then after we look at them, I got a nice hand.

Imagine that.

I got an anointed hand today.

All right, so I'm looking and everything else, and then there comes a time to bid.

I'm looking at my hand, and I can look at my hand and I can say, wow, one, two, three, four.

Partner, I think I have maybe four and a half, five books.

Oh, no, I'm sorry.

Seven books.

All right, maybe not.

I don't have all of those.

How many do you have?

Sedina said, maybe one.

You have to have at least four, right?

Four is bored.

So we decide we're gonna go eight.

So we before anyone throws, we look at our own cards, we guess what we can get we will have based on what our cards look like, and then our partner, and we say, Together, we're going to bid eight.

We think we're gonna get eight.

Kevin and Corey do the same thing.

Now there are only 13 books.

They're not gonna go and say we're gonna get 12.

I mean, you could, I guess.

You can't do that.

That's not you.

You're looking, and so Corey and and and Kevin, what they said, how many you think you got?

What do you got?

Three?

And you got two.

They think five.

We say seven.

So we would write down seven and five.

And huh?

What'd I say?

I said eight, yeah, eight, huh?

Wait, I said eight?

All right.

So now it's time.

I'm going to lead.

So we have said we're going to get collectively like eight books.

I'm going to start off with the eight of diamonds.

I mean, ace of diamonds.

This is the highest of the diamonds.

There are uh 12 other diamonds floating around.

I put this down.

We should win that book, right?

Because there aren't any parts, and probably everybody, somebody, all of them have diamonds, probably, right?

You got a diamond?

You got it?

Okay, go ahead and play your diamond.

All right, we got a diamond, got a diamond?

Oh, so Sedina played a lowly three, but it's okay because I had the ace.

I'm her partner.

We're not playing solo.

So odds are we're gonna still win the book.

They got sorry hands anyway, so we won the book.

So I had the ace.

We win the book.

Now it's time for another throw.

All right.

Here is what she was now.

You can't do that in a real game.

I'm talking about, you never play with people who I mean we've I've played with some folks who really cheat.

I mean, they're looking at their hand, oh partner.

I don't know, I'm in love.

I mean, I'm so deep in love.

I said, really?

And then other people, they got, you know, little, you know, signs, you know, like this.

I mean, some I have someone ran a group ran a Boston on me.

I'll never get it.

I know.

They cheated.

I hadn't figured it out yet.

Boston means they got all 13 books.

Then get one.

Yeah, it happened.

Alright, so I got the book.

Now imagine that I play, because I have all these spades in my hand.

Alright, I won't do that.

Alright, so I'm gonna throw.

I throw out a jack, and we hadn't played.

Um let me dano that.

I know.

I look, I can do this now.

I can do this.

I play.

I play, in fact, let me go with another.

I'm gonna use another card.

Alright.

I lead with ace of diamonds.

I know, but play anyway.

Alright, so all right, so let's who has the king of diamonds?

Alright, give me the card.

Alright.

So imagine Sedina had a king.

I had an ace, she had the king.

The ace is the number one card.

What's the king?

Number two.

Number two.

If my partner, I played the ace, and my partner played king of diamonds.

Unless that was a win.

Now, that communicates something to me.

We can't talk about what's in our hand, but if she threw a king, she shouldn't have any other diamonds.

Unless she don't know how to play.

But she does.

But let's say, for example, that she has multiple diamonds.

But this is her highest diamond.

She plays her king.

Kevin throws out a diamond.

We win the book.

I think she doesn't have any more diamonds.

So we're partners.

She gave me a coup, right?

A clue.

So I don't know what she has, but I bet she doesn't have any diamonds.

I put on a nine.

Go ahead, play what diamond you got.

But I know she's got a spade.

And she plays a four of diamonds.

Kevin throws down a diamond.

Yeah, you don't have any?

Oh.

Give me a diamond.

All right.

Let's say Kevin throws out a diamond.

Sedina and I won the book.

However, we could have gotten two books.

That is what's called bumping heads.

I had the ace.

No, no, I'm saying in different hands.

I played the ace, but she and she played the king on the same hand.

She should have held this.

If she had other diamonds, she see, we and so I talked to my partner, and um not like I've had this conversation before, but partner, what are you doing?

What are we doing now?

Because we're supposed to be working together.

What if my partner said, I told you I had a book, and you took my book.

No, you didn't have a book.

Oh, I thought the king was high.

It is, but don't play it now.

The objective is as a team to get as many books as possible.

You're not going to succeed playing solo in spades.

Because we could have gotten two, but you played it at the wrong time.

If my partner led, I can wait.

Y'all getting the pieces, but it's coming together, isn't it?

Click, click, click, it's coming together.

So, you know what?

All right, we're gonna be alright.

We're gonna be alright.

I believe it.

Now, okay, we're gonna go here.

We're gonna go ahead.

Now imagine, here's here's a I remember the best hand I ever had in my life.

That one?

No, it was even better than this one.

I had Big Joker, Little Joker.

I had Deuce, Ace, King, Queen.

I didn't have the Jack, but I had a 10.

Now, let's say, Jacob has been distributing the cards.

I had seven spades.

And so he's dealing, and I'm starting to get these cards.

I'm like, what?

So they're getting so good.

I'm like, oh, I had to stand up.

You ever get such a good hand?

I said, oh.

And I said, partner, what you got?

He said, I don't want to.

I said, don't even worry about it.

I got you.

Said, I might have a book.

Don't worry.

I'll carry you.

So you know what I started with?

No, actually, I didn't have the lead throw.

Someone else threw, and guess what I put down?

I put down the big joke.

Let's go ahead now and get it over with.

So I'm standing with my cards and I look at it and I'm saying, this is how we do it.

This is how we do it.

This is how we do it.

I'm pulling everybody.

I mean, boom, I mean boom, sucker locker locker.

I mean, I did everything.

I'm I was in the now listen, I wasn't saved quite yet.

That's why I'm using Nile.

Lord is still doing the work in me.

So I did use some colorful language, but I carried my partner that day.

Alright?

That was one hand I had in my life.

Every other hand, I needed a partner.

I got 10 books.

The other team got three.

Thirteen.

They were set.

But you know something?

I pulled without any conversation with my partner.

And I acted like I could carry the day, right?

The only way I could carry the day is because I had all of those cards which I could not control.

They were random.

But that never happened again.

And so, in order to win, I had to listen to the random.

What did my partner get?

Her random cards, his random cards, and mine and mine.

We had to work that thing together.

You know, I got ten books that day, but I've played spades and I've got 11 books with a fraction of those good cards.

Because I learned how to work with my partner.

I've had hands where instead of seven diamonds, seven clubs, I had like seven diamonds.

So no, between the three other people, they had like six.

I'm like, I can't do anything with this.

I had a low five, I had a five spade, that's it.

It was a terrible hand.

I said, maybe I don't know what I can get.

I looked at, I don't know, maybe half of one, and my partner didn't have much good either.

The thing is, my partner didn't have any diamonds.

So I noticed that my partner cuts somebody that's playing diamonds, and I got a bunch of them.

I thought my hand was bad until I found out what my partner had.

And now it's this is how we do it.

Boom.

Go ahead, partner.

This is how I do it.

Oh, oh, oh, oh.

We start partnering together.

Come on, now you're with me.

You remember that?

We start going back and forth, and there's synergy because what happened?

I'm feeding my partner.

Individually, my card is trash.

I mean, my hand is trash.

But because I learned how to play with my partner and understand the cues and how the game is played.

Now I can feed my partner, and my partner's exhausting all these spades.

Now they're bad spades.

No big joker, little joker, but had some other face cars, but we, because we could feed each other, that's how you play spades.

An inexperienced person doesn't pay attention to the board.

If I'm a wise spade player, I'm watching what Corey throws, I'm watching what my partner throws, I'm watching what Kevin throws because I know how many cards are out there.

And based on what's happening, I have wisdom in what to play myself.

I want to help my partner, and my partner wants to help me.

I look at my our opponents, I want them to be set.

But I can't do it myself.

So I'm watching, and I want together to get 13.

So my hand, I can't evaluate the worth of my hand by looking at it myself.

Y'all are getting it, aren't you?

The big joker, though, it drumps everything.

It comes in and you it's just there is a right time to play it, but when you play it, you got control of the board.

Paul had control of that whole situation in one second.

Because of the big joker.

We gotta learn how to play together.

Alright, that's it.

That's cool.

Y'all got it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Spellhouse.

Thank you.

Sedina is going.

I didn't cheat.

Hey, I didn't cheat.

I did win that that hand, though.

All right.

Thank you, Jacob, too.

You did very well.

And it wasn't stacked.

I didn't tell because he works for me.

I didn't tell him how he was supposed to do distribute everything else.

I think you guys are it's starting to gel and it's starting to click.

Paul was a Roman citizen by birth.

He was given the big joker at birth.

But there are 13 cards.

He didn't have every face card, but he had that one.

He had some others.

All of us in life are being uh are dealt a hand.

Some people say I was dealt a bad hand in life.

I look in my hand and I don't see anything that's good.

It's all bad.

And it would be if you were playing Uno.

The world plays Uno, what the objective is only one person can win.

But the church is to play spades with the understanding that God is the dealer.

So my cards don't look like much.

They look random and they they are random to you.

But you have a combination of cards in your deck that are unique.

You've been given advantages.

You've been given high face cards and spades.

Not everyone starts life the same way.

There are advantages in life.

If you had a mother and father in your home, you grew up with a nuclear family, that was an advantage.

Statistically, children of a dual, you know, parents, both parents in a home, they do better than those with that that don't.

That's an advantage.

If you had access to uh good public schooling, it wasn't your choice, like you were born and told mom and dad, we need to move.

If you had access to good education, you didn't have control over, but you got it.

That was a good high card.

Everyone has a mix.

And the world tries to tell us the worth of our hand.

But God is the one who dealt it.

And so even if my hand doesn't look good to me or by the world standard, I got a partner.

Somebody in the body of Christ or a church where I'm weak, they're strong.

They got assets I don't have.

And so, because of that, even though my card might look a certain way, my hand might look a certain way, I know who the dealer was.

And I know that he's gonna work everything together for good.

So the world may label me oppressed, but I am more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus.

Everything might be taken away from me, but when I got saved, I got mama, I got a daddy, I got a house, thousands of houses because I got a family now, a network.

Now my experiences are unique than anyone else's experiences.

So I bring something unique.

My hand is different than everyone else's hand.

Everything in your life, everything, everything has been has been shaped by the hand of God.

In ways we can't understand.

Our choices fulfilled God's choices, his plan.

He has a master plan and he shaped us uniquely, even down to the DNA level.

Isn't he sovereign?

Everything about you, all orchestrated.

You've been dealt a hand.

Maybe instead of judging the hand, play the hand you're given.

Paul understood his advantages, his strengths.

And there was a worldly system that said Paul was advantaged.

And he was by worldly standards.

But he knew he was a kingdom citizen before he was a Roman citizen.

So he always talked about his kingdom citizenship.

But he used his earthly citizenship only when it advanced the kingdom.

He played the spades when it was advantageous for the kingdom, but when it wasn't, and someone else was going to win the book, he'd pass and throw off another card.

He wouldn't play that, he didn't have any of those of that suit anymore, but my partner wanted, I can pass.

Therefore, people may look at my hand and say, Man, you got a terrible hand because they've just seen what I've thrown out, but I've thrown it out because I know I've got a partner and I'm just throwing off, but I still got the big joker.

We've all been dealt a hand with some advantages and disadvantages.

Because and we all experience the fallenness of the world in a different way.

So here's the thing about it the way that the Lord has orchestrated the body of Christ, that we all have individually experiences, we're wired a certain way, you know, even things genetics like height, whatever, we all have a certain hand, and then you add on the spiritual gifts.

But the spiritual gifts coupled with everything else make me totally unique.

My experiences were to bring me to this time.

You too, all of us.

The world wants to tell us we need to play Uno to succeed.

I just need to play the hand God gave me, and I'll be successful.

I don't want to play another game and then get before God and say, hey, I got Uno, and the Lord said, the game was spades.

You spent your whole life trying to burden everyone else so you could get an advantage, to take and to steal, and to burden and to push out so you could have.

You made it in your career, but it was because you lied, you cheated, you pushed out, and then went to church on Sunday.

And the Lord may tell you, I never knew you.

Now for others, they knew him, but you know, they'll just come in, and what they thought was all kinds of advantages was hay, stubble, straw, nothing to build with.

I'm bringing home.

Everything, everything about us, everything.

My complexion, the amount of melanin in my skin was God's design.

Yours too.

Where you came from, the state you were born in, the country you were born in, determined by God.

You had nothing to do with it.

He gave you that hand for his glory and not yours.

He gave you these advantages to use them.

Don't look around and say, Why was I given so much?

I'm not going to use what God gave me.

He gave you so much.

If you are you are a citizen of the United States, you can use that.

Take advantage of the opportunities for the kingdom, though.

Which means, if I have that understanding, if my partner has that understanding, the best thing for us to do is to sit down and talk about the experiences we have, because we're all different, what we are learning.

I can sit down.

If I sit down and Sedina is my partner, it it does me good to sit and listen.

You know, um, all right, so I think I have X number of things going on.

Good, but tell me about what's happening with you.

Well, I'm experiencing certain things because, well, I'm a minority in a certain work environment.

I'm HR.

And I hear all of these things.

But Sedina is my fellow church member.

And before anything else, she's my sister.

And as my sister in Christ, I want, and we're part of it, I want to see, and she wants to see the kingdom advance.

And if we're working together and I'm HR, I should help make things better.

I wouldn't have known what she tells me because I'm a man.

I'm a man.

I was a gender that was assigned at birth.

God determined it for a purpose.

But I need to listen to those who don't have advantages, don't have certain advantages, and I may not even know I have advantages that are advantages in this culture.

I have advanced, my name is Charles Alexander Sands.

Alexander, my grandfather on my father's side was Alexander Sands.

He was uh you know, over a hundred years ago.

My hand is different than his hand.

It's naive to think everyone has the same advantages.

No culture's like that because every culture is sinful.

And so you have certain groups in power and those who don't have it, certain who have who have finances, everything's, and others who don't.

And I have so many more advantages than Popop did.

And I'm the same, I have the same name.

But the card, the hands that he was dealt, it's still God dealing.

So there's grace to handle what the card, the cards he gave you, include the grace to handle what comes from the sinful world because of it.

There's certain things I would love to change.

I would love to say, I wish this was different.

But so many things that weren't in my control.

So guess what?

God, what do you want me to do?

First thing I need to do is get it in my mind that this is God, and I can play this hand well, even though I don't think it's good.

But in order to play it well, I need to sit down with my brothers and sisters in Christ and tell them some things I got, and you tell me, well, I may find out I got some spades I didn't know of, but I'm gonna play them to help you too.

In a setting I wouldn't have thought I need to throw down a spade.

Well, you know what?

Because you don't have a spade, I'm gonna play it.

I haven't been placed at this job and HR to things be the same when I leave.

I have a stewardship.

Every advantage, every card you have, everything is a stewardship.

I can't look at my hand and compare my hand to other people's hand and get haughty about it.

I can't think they're beneath me or above me.

That's wrong.

I don't look at them, I look at God, and I say, how can we partner together?

Issue with the church.

Because we're playing Uno and the game is spades.

So many in the body of Christ, instead of partnering, connecting, talking and fellowship breaking and learning from each other.

So many times, people assume, well, I got seven spades.

You just get, I'm gonna carry the day.

No, you can do so much better if you partnered.

He didn't design us to go solo.

Yeah, maybe some, there are a handful of people who may have all those spades, but guess what?

The rest of us, we can't maximize our books by ourselves.

If we sit down and listen, especially now, watch this.

Here's what's so key.

If you play somebody with spades that has the same level of understanding as you, and they can't add, they don't know really what they're doing, and you don't know what you're doing, you're just ignorantly throwing things, and they're so you don't get hardly any advantage.

But when you sit down and you communicate with somebody who has a whole different perspective, then we play a better hand together, right?

So many times we just look for people who are like us, even within church.

Who's like me?

Who graduated from the same school as me?

Who who also is uh uh middle class and live in such and such neighborhood?

Who else does it?

Well, I can go to the church because I can look in the parking lot and they have the same cars that I do.

I have that car like I can go there because that is the whatever church, fill in the blank.

That is so wrong.

We miss it and play the wrong game when we do that.

When we understand I'm better when I can sit across the table and and look at someone who's different and understand, not put them down, not think I'm better, not think they're better, but we just got different hands.

So, how can I learn?

How can I learn from you?

How can I learn how my hand is better than I think or worse than I think?

I gotta humble myself and say I need that person and they need me, and we're gonna play this thing together.

That's how God has designed the body of Christ.

Now, I've told you a number of years, my passion about Kingdom Life Church is that we would resemble Walmart.

Because everybody goes to Walmart.

Everybody goes to Walmart, and so I'd love for this place to be like Neapolitan, not black, not chocolate, not a little vanilla, not on a strawberry, not Neapolitan.

I mean just everything.

You know, I don't want just this, I want just chocolate.

I want it all, like Walmart.

Except everybody orders now online, right?

But I want the the diversity is healthy.

I've prayed for that.

I have fasted for that.

And I haven't just put it out on a big bulletin board and we're not gonna have like minority day or bring your white friend to church day, or we're not doing that.

I believe if I if we, myself, our your elders, our teachers, if we consistently preach the word, there's a transformation that happens on the inside of you, and you begin to see people differently, and you begin to understand that they've had different experiences, so maybe something that's important to them, and they want to advocate and they want to push, it's valid as much as you're.

I have experienced the world differently.

Alex 20 years ago views things, I view things differently than Alex because I've experienced different things.

I've raised two sons.

Now we're 24, 22, so pseudo-grown.

I funeralized my parents.

They were mad.

I've experienced, I have, I sat across the table and had the uh home say it'll be$9,000 a month for your father for memory care.

I didn't know it cost that much.

I didn't know.

I didn't know daycare was so expensive.

It is incredible how much it is now to get good daycare for your children, like$800,$900 a month.

If you have two, you might as well stay home.

It's break-even.

And listen, I'm looking at you guys.

If you have a young adult in their 20s, man, I don't know how y'all are gonna make it.

I mean, really, you got it, because it's so the dark the deck, it's that, but I wouldn't have known that if I just watched the news.

Because the news, everything that I get, I can tailor all of the information I'm getting and to make it like what I want.

So I can make small groups that end up being an echo chamber.

We need small groups.

We need environments where we can just sit down and break bread and with somebody that's different from us and make a covenant with each other that we're gonna stay through this, not because we're just trying to do this ebony and ivory thing or this thing, or you know, no, because I'm better with you.

So many kinds we just look again, look for somebody just like us know we got a covenant together and make it up in our minds that this is good, even if I'm offended at first.

Because maybe from time I may say something, I didn't even know it was wrong, but I need you to tell me.

I don't need you to just bless everything, I need you to tell me when I'm off, and then I'm better and I'm not offending anybody in the world.

We're growing in that way, I can see it, but I can see it's fragile.

Because I've seen it happen in other churches where, oh, they had all this diversity and then COVID hit.

And all those small groups have met for 30 years.

People have developed all these relationships, fractured over a piece of cloth over their face.

Don't tell me I gotta wear cloth.

No, I'm not doing that.

Can't you just put on the mask for one hour a week so you can have fellowship with your brother and sister in Christ until this past, even if it's just a point point oh a point oh oh oh oh one percent chance, it might still put the mask on.

I don't understand why we, but I got my rights.

Kingdom agenda trumps every other agenda.

Every other agenda.

So we have to have a kingdom mindset so we can accurately view our hand and play the game.

Here's what I've learned people can have understanding of Christ, understanding of doctrine and teaching, everything else, and understand it, but not know how to play the game.

Kingdom life, may we be a church that knows we're playing spades and not Uno.

And we be a church understanding we're better together, and no one's better than that.

We just need to partner more.

We need to talk, communicate.

Even other churches outside, hey, we're gonna work together for the sake of the kingdom.

So maybe you support a different uh political platform.

Now I'm talking politics, yes, I am.

I I look as a little shade, like Barack Obama people have said, and that is affording me access in places that honestly, I I just because I look familiar, I end up being in spaces.

Just because I look comfortable.

Because they're used to seeing, hey, yeah, okay, cool.

I have certain access in certain places and others don't.

But I have certain perspectives and views on things because of what I have experienced.

I understand my hand better.

I expect you to think differently about policies than you did before.

You have a grandbaby that has special needs and all of that, and you realize, man, this is really important.

So you have a ranking of things that are important to you, and that all of a sudden rockets right up to the top.

Maybe it's a situation I don't know about, but I'm listening to you in my small group.

And I'm understanding better why you're supporting a candidate, not because of the candidate, it's legislation.

So when you sit down and think about it, you're like you talk to someone in a party, like, uh no, I understand the politicians work for us.

So I want to tell you this is really important to me, and therefore, what are you gonna do to help this come to pass, make this happen?

And I have to appreciate that you may see a different.

I can't tell you how to vote.

Because I'm not, I don't have your hand.

I just want to know why.

And don't let it be because mama voted that way.

That's not a kingdom reason.

The kingdom agenda says we're trying to pursue things that this area look like Jesus Christ, and no one accurately portrays the kingdom outside of the kingdom.

There are different elements you see the kingdom advancing in different ways, and you can come along and support it, but together we're gonna work together for advancement of the kingdom.

Is that making sense?

But the thing is, the world is so divided.

We hit 9-11 this past week, 25th anniversary of 9-11.

I remember 9-11.

I was 31 years old.

That to me was when America was great.

Billy Graham preached, and ABC covered it.

NBC covered it, CBS covered it.

Churches were full.

They had services during the week.

Churches fell.

It didn't matter Democrat or Republican.

No one was mad at Condoleezza Rice or wearing Colin Powell or the President Bush.

We were all praying and fasting.

That was the best week I could ever remember as a citizen of the United States.

And Jacob wasn't around then.

He's never seen that unity.

We haven't hit that pinnacle.

It's now we're 2026, it's been 25 years.

Have we ever been at that point in terms of having the nation's ear for the gospel?

Billy Graham preached, and everybody carried it.

Arguably, the the most effective evangelist by numbers that ever walked the planet, and he got an invitation to preach to the nation, and eyeballs were watching because there was no flights going anywhere.

I remember that.

That was when we were great.

Maybe as a church, we can rekindle some of that.

Because if you were able to vote like I was back then, and then you look at where things were then, and then look at where things are now, you and I have all contributed to some in some kind of way to things being in the condition they are.

Maybe by a sidebar conversation, maybe by doing this or that, not having a kingdom agenda, and things are all broken now, but you know what?

God gives us grace, we still have a hand to play.

Some things that we need to do different as a church.

If you've been uh with us for a short while and you've been interested in new members' class, we're retooling our new members process.

So please hang with us, be patient.

We are speaking of uh of us as elders, we're retooling because one of the things we notice is people can understand, they can have Christian ease, but not be saved.

Sometimes people go are familiar with church and know what you want to hear and give it to you.

But we want to make sure people understand.

So it's gonna be a longer process.

We're gonna do some theology, we're gonna have understanding of what sin is, who God is, the Bible, why we trust the Bible, and we're gonna take a process and make sure, even if you decide kingdom life is not your church, because you need to know how to play the game.

You may have all the right answers and play the wrong game.

Not as enough that you're just saved.

We want you to play the right game and understand what the church is about, and we can be that.

We can be that church that the Lord, when you look early in Acts, that's what the early church was.

They had it right.

Those who had excess would sell it, so the poor would have it.

We can be all of that.

We can do that.

I can see it.

Think God is putting pieces together.

I love how the Holy Spirit is moving in different classes and amongst the elders, we're thirsty for this.

We're thirsty for this to go deeper.

Yeah, it's gonna raise the bar, but the bar needs to be raised.

Because we're about a kingdom agenda and not the world's agenda.

So it's gonna take more time, it's gonna take some cultivation and everything else, and it's gonna take being vulnerable, if you will, just being open and transparent about how the sinfulness of the world affects you.

I told you about accessing some spaces I had.

I've had access to spaces.

I realized my presidency in a lot of cases was about making sure certain conversations didn't happen.

Because if everybody in the room has been through the same thing, then stereotypes can just start to develop.

But when Alex showed up, all of that stopped.

Maybe that was a cool thing.

And you know, with all that was happening in the country, maybe that was a good thing.

Maybe just being there is a good thing.

And adding perspective.

But I I had to tell folks, driving while black is real.

Because they'd heard it wasn't.

What is DWB?

Driving while black.

You can get pulled over just for being a black man.

That's real.

That's the fallenness of the world.

You wouldn't know if you're part of the majority culture.

But I'm telling you, I was pulled over four times.

And I had a I was Dean's list.

It doesn't matter to some people.

Now that's the fallenness of the world.

I need you to understand and say, yeah, I can understand.

I can see that.

I can see that because the world is fallen.

And how can I help you?

And I can understand.

I've never been part of majority culture.

Let's talk about it.

Break it down.

I can talk with people in other countries and see, well, what's happening there?

Oh my Lord, I didn't even know that.

That's not making the news.

You can edit the news just by what you don't show.

You can you can change and control and the direction of people are going just by what you don't talk about.

But once we sit down with the body of Christ, we'll see the hands are diverse.

And God has called us to push and advance the kingdom, not our own kingdom.

And so we need to listen and act for each other and with each other.

So you're gonna see some changes happening.

I'm excited because God's moving, and I don't know all the changes that are gonna be, but I know he's doing it.

I'm gonna tell you to encourage you that for many of us, you know, hey, if you are a United, a citizen of the United States.

I would encourage you to take advantage of what that means.

Use it.

Vote.

We'll have a but in some cases you don't know that you can't vote if you've moved and your driver's license is within a certain number of days, they won't let you vote.

We want to help you make sure you're ready.

We got you know information outside today that you can take.

I'm not trying to tell you how to vote.

That's why I didn't want to talk about it.

I didn't want to talk about it leading up to advance, right, Bernard?

We didn't want to say, look, let me do the context that we've seen citizenship all of those times in scripture.

You see all of that because the context now, God will bring us to the scripture that we need when we need it.

And make sure that in this political system, we got two months away.

Church, don't get caught up in it, don't get in the spin cycle.

You can work in the system, outside of the system, just make sure you're pursuing a kingdom agenda.

And you know why, and it's the reason why you're standing, is because who the Lord is and what you want to see happen.

Bring your experiences to the table.

And I'll support that.

You will all support that.

For the glory of the Lord.

Real fast, kingdom life principles.

Number one, stop comparing your hand, steward the one God gave you.

It's all in the notes there, and I have some scriptures in the notes, 1 Peter 4.10.

As each receive a gift, use it.

Serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace.

Romans 12, 3 and 6, by the grace of given to me, I say to every one of you, think don't think of himself more highly than he ought to think, with but with sober judgment.

We are one body with many members.

We learn that we don't all have to do things the same way.

Paul was getting everything about Paul was preparing for this to be an apostle.

Where he grew up, who he was trained by, everything was God's, even how his physical composition.

Man, he was nothing impressive.

That made the gospel more impressive.

Jeff and I were talking about it this week.

And ladies and Titus, you talked about what historians say he was a little bow-legged dude with a unibrow.

And some say he was hunched back over.

He was nothing spectacular to look at.

And that was exactly God's point.

Somewhere in this grandfather or father did something for Rome and they got Roman citizenship and he benefited from it.

So with all of those maybe physical disadvantages, or he had a big joker, and he played it when it was appropriate, everybody's got a mix.

Man, what if he had said, I don't look like Brad Pitt?

Maybe God hadn't called me.

Okay, I know Brad Pitt wouldn't alive back then, but you know my point.

The first century one.

I mean, but we do that stuff.

I don't have any value because I don't look a certain way.

Yeah, well, okay.

We all look different, we all got genes differently and all that, but hey, use it for God's glory.

1 Corinthians 12, you see, the passage will be in there as all of these, all the different members of the church, Ephesians 4, 15 and 16, speaking the truth in love.

We are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head.

The body joined and held together by every joint.

Principle 3.

Know when to play your cards.

Use every advantage you have for the kingdom.

Never say about the hand that you're dealt.

That is a totally bad hand.

Bad things may have happened to you.

I'm sure that then they did, and it wasn't right.

But God will work all things together for good.

And there's somebody who can come alongside and partner and burden, take the burden to help you alongside because they've been given spades.

Just be open and say, I have a need.

And lastly, of course, in all of this that are in the sermon notes, don't spend your life playing the wrong game.

Listen, I don't get up to heaven.

Think we were doing great.

And understand God would have wanted we could have done so much more if we had done it together.

We're interdependent.

But we live in a culture that wants to divide.

Don't take debate.

Don't play Uno.

We're together.

We're a team.

Kingdom life.

We're called to advance the kingdom together.

Let's be all about that.

Now 9-11.

Let's roll.

Amen.

Alright, thank you guys so much for your time.

Praise God.

Lord, we thank you so much for your grace, your love, your mercy.

Thank you.

Lord, help us to become all that you called us to be.

Help us not to look down.

I have been so guilty of that, Lord.

I've been so discouraged at times because I was looking at somebody else's hand.

Forgive me for that.

Forgive us.

We've all done it in some way, form, or fashion.

Thank you for bringing it to our attention.

And Lord, we pray.

Help us to grow.

So as a church, we can be an example of what it looks like.

We can be different.

Oh Lord, help us to be different.

And so different from the world, it draws people attention.

They say, What meaneth this?

We can share it all about Jesus.

Thank you, Lord.

We love you.

In the name of Jesus, let us all say again.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you.