People Are Frustrating, But...

All summer long, we have been in a series called People.

And we've just been talking about people.

This is not us taking a break from talking about God, because to us, God and people are not these disconnected issues.

In fact, you know, our belief is that God became a person named Jesus.

And the fact that our God became one of us shows us how interconnected the ideas of God and people actually are.

In fact, it's what we think about people that reveals what we actually think about God.

And so we've been spending our summer talking about what we really think as a church, what we believe about people.

And it's funny, yesterday I'm at home and Megan asked me, you know, what are you gonna say next?

I mean, how long are we gonna be talking about people?

What's left to cover?

And I said, wow, there's so much.

Like, how about how about this?

People are exhausting.

Let's just spend a Sunday talking about that.

Or people are confusing, right?

People confuse me, they probably confuse you, you probably confuse you.

I know I confuse me.

How about how about people are frustrating?

Let's just talk about that.

You know, so far, look, let's be honest, so far we've we've been talking about all these these awesome things that people are amazing and we believe in people and people are great, but people are hard.

They are.

Like I'm I'm I'm a difficult person to live with.

I've had to live with me all these years.

I know this, I'm a difficult person, and I I've experienced that with other people.

And so as we're talking about people and as we're talking about about what we believe about people, we can't turn a blind eye to the fact that it is actually difficult to live among people.

It is difficult to live at at peace with people.

And it's funny, I was talking to Megan about that, and she said, you know, you've been saying that what we think about people reveals what we actually think about God.

So does that mean that you think God is frustrating?

And I was like, Yeah, a lot of the time I do, actually.

And that's something I have to sort out with God.

That's why we wrestle with God, we have to deal with those things.

People can can be hard, even the people we love the most.

Like I love my kids.

My three children are so incredible to me, and I eat up every minute I get with them, and I look at them, and I'm so impressed by them, and I truly believe that they will grow into amazing, amazing people.

My love for them is intense, but there are still things they do that drive me insane.

Like Liam, our oldest, he is the perfect big brother for our family.

He is sweet, he is kind, he is serving, uh, he's so good to his siblings.

I'm so glad he's the oldest.

But but he does these things that drive me absolutely crazy.

Like Liam has a very enhanced sense of justice.

Which means that if you make any definitive statement, if you say the words, I will, or this is going to happen, whatever, to Liam, it better happen.

And it better happen exactly the way that you said it happens, it would happen, even if you have no control over that.

And so yesterday he he has this video game that he really likes to play, and it has an online component, and he can play with other people.

And and I read on a website that there was this thing that was gonna happen at 3 p.m.

in his video game, and I told him about it, and so he invited his friend over from the neighborhood, and they were in front of the TV at 3 o'clock, ready, and nothing was happening.

And he came to me and he's like, Dad, it's not working.

And I'm like, I don't work at the video game company.

It the website said three o'clock, so just wait, and he waited 10 minutes and he came to me, said, Dad, it's still not working, and I said, Okay, hold on.

I went to the website and it did say 3 p.m., but it said 3 p.m.

Pacific time.

And and like, I don't, I don't look, we're biased, but Eastern time is the standard.

Can we just agree on that?

Like, everybody else is supposed to adjust to us, not the other way around.

And why would you put Pacific time?

That's just crazy.

And so I said, son, I'm so sorry.

Um, it is three o'clock, it's not three o'clock our time, so it's gonna be six o'clock.

And Liam just burst out into what he does.

Anytime this happens, he went, You said three o'clock.

You said three o'clock, now you're saying six o'clock, that's a lie.

And I'm like, I'm not lying to you.

I made a mistake, and I have the permission from you to make mistakes.

Sometimes I just make mistakes when I say something and it doesn't happen.

I'm not doing it intentionally, you know, sometimes maybe a little bit, but for the most part, no.

And sometimes as a parent, I just change my mind.

I have that prerogative.

I can change my mind.

But but to Liam, no, you said, you said, and that sense of justice creates a pressure in our in our relationship that I don't enjoy.

It's frustrating.

My daughter Lily is incredible.

She is smart, she is funny, she is creative, she is she is bold, she is so many things.

One of the things she is is loud.

She is the loudest human being I have ever, ever interacted with.

Like to understand how how Lily is, here's the only scenario I could give you.

And this is a unique scenario.

Picture you're going to buy a stereo system.

So it's like 1996 in this scenario.

You're gonna go buy a stereo system, and if you bought a stereo system yesterday, that was not intended to offend you.

I think some things, you know, are classic and just keep doing your thing.

But let's say you go by a stereo system and you find this very unique system.

And it's unique in a few ways.

Number one, the salesperson tells you once you turn it on, you can't turn it off.

It just has to run out of batteries.

So you you turn it on in the morning and then you just let it go till it dies, but once it's on, it's on.

Number two, the volume knob does not go from zero to ten, it goes from nine to fourteen.

And that's that's Lily.

From the moment she wakes up, it's just loud at all times.

And there's only so much volume you know, a human being can take when someone's two feet away from you and yet screaming at you as if they're a hundred yards away.

That's how Lily is.

Judah, he's one.

And so, you know, he should have a pretty low standard for Judah.

He's one, like he doesn't know a whole lot.

But even now, already he's doing things that drive us crazy.

Like he has this fascination with toothbrushes.

I don't know why.

He's passionate about oral hygiene, I guess.

I don't know.

Maybe it's he's gonna be a dentist, whatever.

But but what that means for us is that he climbs up onto our counters and he takes our toothbrushes and he hides them places.

And so I think this morning, I don't know where my toothbrush is.

It's giving me a new excuse with the dentist.

Have you been brushing?

I don't know where my toothbrush is.

My son took it, and I can't be expected to go buy a new one.

Those are they're like three dollars.

I can't do that.

So, like he just takes our toothbrushes, and it's so frustrating.

I did not brush my teeth this morning with my toothbrush.

I use Megan's, and Megan, if you're in here, I'm sorry, but we've kissed.

So it's like, what's the big deal?

Um like, because it's she he just takes my toothbrushes, and I love my children.

I love them with a passion I can't even put into words, but they're frustrating sometimes.

We all are people are, and yet we're called by God to love people, despite the frustrations.

We're not pretending that people don't have issues, we're not pretending that people are perfect, but but regardless of the frustrations caused by the people around us, we are called by God to love them.

In fact, Romans, Romans chapter 12, verse 18 says this do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.

Romans 12:18

Don't you love it when the Bible gives you something really easy to live up to?

Just do everything you possibly can to live at peace with everyone.

Live at peace with everyone.

And when we hear the word peace, we often think the absence of conflict, but that's not what biblical peace is.

Biblical peace is something far greater, far deeper than that.

Galatians 5, 22 and 23 say this is the kind of fruit that the Holy Spirit produces in our lives.

And the first three are love, joy, and peace.

And if you keep reading through these, all of these are connected.

This is not like a menu.

We don't we don't become a Jesus follower and go, you know, I'll take patience and some gentleness would be nice, self-control.

Yeah, no, thank you.

Um that's not how this works.

These are all interconnected, and so to live at peace with people means to actually love people, not to tolerate people, not to grin and bear it and just contain yourself and then go blow off steam some other time.

Sometimes we have to do that, but but in general, it's saying that we should love people, we should actually enjoy people.

That's how we we live at peace with everyone around us.

We love them and we enjoy them.

But people make it really hard to live at peace with people.

And so we have a dilemma.

We have a dilemma.

Because let's face it, how much of the frustration in your life right now is directly related to people?

To a person, to someone you live with, someone you work with, someone that you may be sitting next to.

And I'm just saying, don't look, don't nudge, don't do any of that.

Like, I'm just being honest, right?

But see, like how much of the frustration in your life is actually directly related to a person and the behaviors that they do, maybe it's intentional, maybe it's unintentional, maybe it's just their idiosyncrasies and the way that they're wired, and it drives you crazy.

How much of the frustration in your life is related to that?

And how amazing would it be if they changed?

Like, how amazing would it be if they completely and totally changed to behave in a way that is actually to your liking?

How much of the frustration in your life would dissipate?

Wouldn't that be amazing?

It is not going to happen.

It's not.

But more than that, how incredible would it be if all of a sudden that stuff didn't bother you as much as it does?

If it didn't frustrate you as much as it currently does.

How amazing would it be for you to actually see them as they are, to look at people and see them as they are, good, bad, all of it, and to see all those things that drive you crazy and frustrate you, but but to not actually experience that frustration in the same way, but instead to have love and joy and peace fill the gap that frustration is currently filling.

How transformative would that be for life?

One person is very excited, and I I woo with you.

No, seriously, a life lived in peace with other people is a life worth living.

It's how Jesus lived.

If there's one person that had an excuse to be constantly frustrated with people, is Jesus.

If I tried to hold people to a standard of perfection, I would be a hypocrite because I'm not perfect.

But if Jesus held people to a standard of perfection, he would not be a hypocrite at all because he's perfect.

And yet he doesn't do that.

Jesus did not live frustrated with people, he got frustrated with people.

That definitely happened.

You know, there's times in life where people just frustrate us, and that that happens.

It's okay.

It's not a sin to be frustrated by people.

So if you're here today and someone's frustrating you, you're okay.

Once Jesus uh was coming back down from this mountaintop experience with a few of his friends and the disciples, they were helping uh helping people that had come to seek healing from Jesus.

And Jesus had spent years training these people, teaching them, instructing them, and they were equipped because of their relationship with Jesus, they were equipped to do some incredible things.

But but they often found themselves in this situation where even though they knew what to do, they'd been told what to do, they'd been trained, they still needed Jesus to do it himself.

We've all had experiences like that.

And so Jesus comes down from the mountain and they're like, we don't know what to do, and he's like, What do you mean you don't know what to do?

I've told you what to do a hundred times.

And out of frustration, Jesus says this, you faithless and corrupt people, how long must I be with you?

How long must I put up with you?

And I think we can all give Jesus a break for saying that.

He's like, I'm looking forward to the cross right now because y'all are driving me nuts.

There's a difference between being frustrated and living frustrated.

And it is one thing to be frustrated, and it's another thing altogether to live frustrated.

And Jesus, he got frustrated from time to time.

But he did not live in constant frustration.

He didn't.

You know, if you're in traffic and you hear someone honk their horn at you and you turn around and they're just like raging out in their car, that would not have been Jesus.

Right?

Except in very specific situations, that would not have been Jesus.

He didn't live frustrated.

And it's not like he only experienced the good in humanity.

Jesus experienced the full spectrum of humanity.

He experienced the worst.

Jesus knows what it feels like to not only be annoyed by people, he knows what it feels like to be deeply hurt by people, to be wounded, to be betrayed.

Jesus knows what it feels like to be misunderstood, to be misquoted.

Jesus knows what it feels like to be stabbed in the back by a close friend.

He knows what it feels like to have someone make a promise to you and not keep it and break it and throw you under the bus and harm you.

He knows all of it, and yet his love for people, his joy in people, and the peace that he had toward people never diminished.

It's amazing.

It's truly amazing to think about the fact that Jesus on the cross, being tortured and killed by people, still had a heart for the same people.

It takes far less to frustrate me.

Minuscule things sometimes just drive me over the edge.

And yet Jesus could endure the worst that humanity could give.

And still love people, and still have hope for people.

In ancient times, if you sent an ambassador, the king sent an ambassador to a group of people, and those people killed the ambassador, that was a declaration of war.

And so when God sent his son to us and we killed his son, God could have perceived that as a declaration of war from humanity to him.

And we could have lived in enmity with God.

But Jesus worked on our behalf on the cross.

And he asked God to forgive us.

Even as we were killing Jesus, he was working on our behalf to bring peace between us and God.

I look at Jesus and I think about how much he endured and still he loved people and he enjoyed people and he delighted in people and he forgave them.

And I go, I go, how did how did he do that?

And how could I do that?

Could I actually live with that level of love for people?

Could I I live in such a way where the frustrations of the people around me don't penetrate?

Is that possible?

And I believe it is.

I believe it is because in Romans chapter 8, verse 11, the Bible says, the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you.

Romans 8:11

This is a big deal.

This is a big deal, and we don't have time to get into all the implications of this, but suffice it to say, Philippians chapter 2 tells us that when Jesus left heaven, came to earth, he laid aside his divinity.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

In other words, he didn't pack his power with him when he came to the earth.

He left that there.

So all the miracles that Jesus did, the insight that Jesus had, and the unique and incredible love that Jesus had for people, it was not in his own strength that he did any of that.

It was his reliance on the Holy Spirit.

That's what Jesus used to do everything he did.

And what the Bible teaches us is that that same spirit lives in us.

The same spirit that Jesus depended on to do everything he did lives in us, makes his home in us whenever we give our lives to Jesus.

It's crazy.

The Spirit of God joins with us to affirm that we are God's children.

And so, if the same Spirit is in me that Jesus relied on to love people the way he did and to overcome the frustration that people naturally put off, that means I can live that way.

That means I can have that same kind of peace with people that Jesus had through the power of the Holy Spirit.

And how amazing would it be to live like that for just a day.

Practically speaking, there's really three three things, three behaviors, three mindsets, whatever you want to use, to describe it, that we see this love and this peace that Jesus had with people manifested through.

There's three three ways this really shows up in his life.

Number one, expectation.

Jesus had appropriate expectations for people.

And how much of the frustration that we deal with regarding people or anything is every bit as much the fault of our expectations as the actual experience that we have.

Your expectations influence you more than your actual experiences.

When I was in high school, late high school, early college, the Lord of the Rings movies came out, and those were a really big deal, and I went to see them in the theater, every single one of them, and I loved them.

I had not read the Lord of the Rings books.

I don't have that kind of time.

And so, you know, I went in like a blank canvas, a blank slate.

And so I remember walking out of that first movie.

Has everyone here seen the Lord of the Rings movies, by the way?

Okay, wow, I thought it was a bigger movie than that.

Um so I walk out of this movie and I'm just like, that was great.

That was a good, that was worth$12 completely.

I was entertained, it was a little long, but you know, really good.

I had friends though that read the books and they were really passionate about it, and they walked out of there being like, that was completely wrong.

They got that one character all wrong, and there was another character that was in the book, not even in the movie.

I'm just, I can't believe they left that character out, and I'm sitting there going, like, apparently we didn't watch the same movie.

I thought it was fine, I thought it was great.

I'm not gonna like base my life off of it, but I thought it was really good.

And the only difference is that we had different expectations going in.

Your expectations influence your experience more than your actual experience does.

And Jesus had he had appropriate expectations for people.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Jesus had low expectations of people.

It wasn't like Jesus walked around saying, Look, I'm not expecting much from you.

Okay, so just No, no, he he believed in people.

Take Peter, for example, one of his best friends.

There's this amazing encounter between Jesus and Peter at a place called Caesarea Philippi in Matthew chapter 16.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

Then he asked them to the disciples at this place, Who do you say I am?

That is a question, by the way, that all of us at some point in life have to answer for ourselves.

Who do we say Jesus is?

And Simon Peter answered, You're the Messiah, the Son of the living God, and Jesus replied, You are blessed, Simon, son of John, because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you.

You did not learn this from any human being.

Now I say that you are Peter, which means rock, and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.

That's high praise.

Before this moment, he was called Simon.

Sometimes he's called Peter in the Bible, sometimes he's called Simon, sometimes he's called Simon Peter.

It's confusing.

But before this moment, he was just Simon and he was a fisherman.

Simon the fisherman.

And after this moment, after he makes this declaration about who Jesus is, he becomes Peter, the rock.

And it's the declaration that Peter made that Jesus is the Son of God, that the church is built on.

That's amazing.

I think we see the opinion that Jesus had of Peter in this encounter.

Jesus obviously thought highly of him, but Peter had this way of failing.

That's what people do sometimes.

And so Jesus believed in Peter, but Peter let Jesus down pretty frequently.

No other disciple had higher highs, and no other disciple had lower lows than Peter.

The night that Jesus ends up being arrested and taken, he's having supper with his friends, and he's talking about the fact that some things are about to go down, and Peter opens up his mouth, that's what Peter does, and Peter out loud in front of every single person in the room says, Even if everyone else deserts you, I will never desert you.

And that's a bold thing to say in front of your friends.

It's not like you pulled Jesus to the side and said, Hey, even if those idiots desert you, I'm in.

Like he says this, even if all of these guys fail you, not me.

And Jesus immediately responds, very next verse, I tell you the truth, Peter, this very night before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know me.

And Peter's like, Really?

I mean, I uh pretty sure that's not gonna happen.

And then that plays out.

Jesus gets arrested, Peter freaks out, someone associates Peter with Jesus, and he's like, I don't even know who Jesus is.

He actually even curses Jesus.

And then he abandons Jesus to die a horrible death out of fear, out of cowardice.

So much for the rock I will build my church on.

And so Peter goes back to doing what Peter did.

Peter went from being the rock to the fisherman again.

He's Simon once again.

And after Jesus is resurrected, he comes and he has a conversation with Simon, who's fishing, doing what he was called out of, and he tells Simon that he's still Peter, that he's not disqualified.

And see, it's interesting.

Some of us, by the way, need to hear that.

You're not disqualified.

It's interesting, though, because Peter fell short of Peter's own expectations.

Peter's the one who expected him to never deny Jesus.

That is not what Jesus expected.

So although Peter fell short of his own expectations, he did not fall short of Jesus' expectations.

Because Jesus did not expect Peter to be anything other than Peter.

Jesus does not have.

Unfair expectations for people, and he does not have unfair expectations for you.

He believes in you, he has a high opinion of you, he believes that you were created to do great things because he's the one who created you to do great things.

You were his idea.

But he does not expect perfection.

And so when you mess up, he is not angry and frustrated with you.

We fear that so often that God must be on his last, last, like just a bit of patience when it comes to us.

That's not the case.

He doesn't have unfair expectations.

And if we could learn to have appropriate expectations for the people around us, we would see frustration in our lives melt away.

And so if you have frustration right now toward people, what are you expecting?

I'm not saying to have no expectations.

Megan and I, we've married 12 years, I expect things, she expects things.

I don't agree with everything she expects, to be honest with you.

I don't.

Some of it I think is just unrealistic.

But but we have expectations.

I'm not saying don't have expectations, but but have fair expectations.

And you'll see frustration dissipate greatly.

Number two, compassion.

Jesus had a kind of compassion that is rare on this earth.

We see it play out so many different times.

Matthew chapter 9, for example.

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

Jesus traveled through all the towns and villages of that area teaching in the synagogues and announcing the good news about the kingdom, and he healed every kind of disease and illness.

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.

Matthew chapter 11, Jesus gets some really devastating news about a close friend of his.

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

It says, as soon as, uh, Matthew chapter 14, rather, as soon as he, as Jesus heard the news, he left in a boat to a remote area to be alone.

Matthew 14 · chapter mention

But the crowds heard where he was headed.

They followed on foot from many towns, and Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat.

He had compassion on them and he healed their sick.

The Greek word that we get compassion from in our language was the most intense word in the Greek language for pity.

There is no word in the Greek language, which is actually a very specific language.

There's no word more intense.

It's actually the same word that we get the word bowels from.

Same root word, Jesus' compassion, as the word bowels.

And what that means is it's a guttural compassion.

It's not just looking at someone and going, oh, you've had a hard day.

But it's actually feeling torn up by what they've been through.

When Jesus would look at people, he would often weep and cry because he saw their hurt.

And this is so powerful.

Jesus did not look at people through the lens of his perfection.

He looked at people through the lens of their hurt and their pain.

And that gave him a compassion that mitigated whatever frustration he might have felt towards them.

He saw them through the lens of their experience, not his own.

And if we could learn to do that, if we could learn to look at people, the people around us, and to see them through the lens of their experience, not just our own.

Actually feel what they have felt.

Actually allow ourselves, be vulnerable enough and open enough to feel the pain and the struggle that they feel.

Our frustration would be a thing of the past.

Jesus did that.

He also forgave.

That's the third way that we see this peace that Jesus lived with manifest.

Jesus had forgiveness for the people around him.

Like preemptive, aggressive forgiveness.

Jesus said a lot of things on the cross.

None more powerful than what we see in Luke chapter 23.

Luke 23 · chapter mention

Jesus says, Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing.

It's a powerful thing to think about.

Jesus on the cross, dying, beaten, tortured, humiliated, stripped naked, cursed, mocked, nails in his hands, in his feet, crown of thorns on his head, and he looks at these people and he says, Father, forgive them.

For they do not know what they're doing.

He's having compassion for their ignorance, and he's asking God to forgive them.

We have this way of underestimating the intensity of God's forgiveness for both ourselves and for others.

Have you ever stopped to wonder whether or not God obliged that request of Jesus?

Because it's interesting, like when I think about the Pharisees who put Jesus on the cross dying, and then standing in front of God and Jesus, I think about, you know, them going, oh no.

And I'm not even really talking about this in a humorous sense.

Like it is kind of humorous to think about the Pharisees thinking they're gonna go up to God and God be like, you did awesome.

And then there's Jesus, and they're like, What's he doing?

Oh my goodness.

I have seriously miscalculated.

But that that's what they actually would feel is terror.

Because there is God in all his majesty and all his power.

And there is the Son of God, there is Jesus, who the Bible says has been given all authority in heaven and on earth.

He is at the right hand of God.

He is He is the name above all names, He is the King of kings, and to stand in front of that, having, I mean, I don't even want to think about it.

I get chills just even thinking about it.

And when I picture that, I just it's hard for me to actually picture God saying, I forgive you for killing my son.

But Jesus asked God to forgive him.

So just picture a scenario where the Pharisee stands there in front of God and he's like, What have I done?

And God looks at him and says, I forgive you, and he's like, Why?

And the father just says, Because Jesus asked me to.

Now, I'm not saying that's how it plays out.

I'm not God, I don't know, and this is important.

There's a difference between a cool thought and theology.

There's a difference between, like, that's an interesting thing to think about and something that we can actually build an idea about God from.

I'm just saying it's an interesting thought that God the Father actually agreed to forgive because Jesus asked.

What I definitely know is that my inability to actually picture God forgiving these men shows how vastly I underestimate the forgiveness of God.

Once Peter, Jesus' friend, we've talked about Peter a good bit, came to him, this is Matthew 18, and said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?

Up to seven times?

And just so you know, the tradition at that time was like three.

Like you were supposed to forgive someone three times.

So Peter saying seven, he's kind of bragging.

He's like, seven.

And Jesus does something really annoying.

He makes Peter do math in his head.

And Jesus said to him, I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.

Everyone think about what seventy times seven is in your head.

You carry the this and that, and you just go, it's a big number.

What Jesus is saying to Peter is, hey, whatever degree you think forgiveness is extravagant.

Crank it up big time.

To whatever degree you as a person think that forgiveness is enough, go way further.

And then you begin to get into the realm of God's forgiveness.

It is hard to forgive.

It is hard to forgive when people have hurt us and wounded us.

It is hard to forgive the frustrations of the people in our lives.

But but if we stop and consider the fact that whether we forgive them or not, God has forgiven them, it changes the way we think a little bit.

I mean, there have been people who have who have wronged me.

And I might struggle with forgiving them.

God does not.

God does not sit there and go, man, I want to forgive them, but I just, oh, uh, uh, that's not how it is.

God has already done it.

He's already forgiven them.

Whether they accept that forgiveness or not is another thing, but God has already forgiven every sin, every mistake, and every single atrocity in human history.

He has forgiven it.

It's just a question of whether or not we accept the forgiveness that's been given.

He's forgiven it all.

And if I if I can learn how to forgive just a little bit like Jesus, it would change my life.

Do you understand this morning that you're forgiven?

Like truly forgiven.

That you were not defined by the worst thing you've ever done.

That no matter what happens when you walk out of here today, the question of your forgiveness has already been decided by Jesus.

That he gave you that forgiveness, knowing that you might reject it completely, reject him completely.

That is the extent of the forgiveness of Jesus.

If you want to live at peace with people and actually learn to love people and enjoy people, regardless of how frustrating they are, regardless of what they do, practice forgiveness like that.

Forgive them 70 times seven.

Figure out what that number is when you leave here, and then do that, and then when you get past that number, then talk to God and be like, all right, I'm done.

You know, you gotta step in from here.

Expectations, compassion and forgiveness.

You master those things, you master life.

You live with joy, you live with peace for the people around you, you live with peace for the person that you are.

And worship team, you guys can come up and we're gonna finish up.

People are a lot of things.

They are definitely people, and I don't think people are gonna stop being people anytime soon.

And there is definitely a close tie in our lives to the people around us, the people in our lives, and the frustration that we feel, the frustration that we deal with.

Sometimes people are frustrating.

Sometimes people are hard.

But we have to remember that even though people will continue being people, God will continue being God.

And God is good.

And today, today is not about us walking out of here going, all right, I'm gonna try better, I'm gonna try harder, I'm gonna strive, I'm gonna walk out of here, I'm gonna do a better job to have compassion, I'm gonna do a better job to have realistic expectations, I'm gonna work really hard to forgive.

That's impossible.

This is not about us going out of here and trying harder.

This is not about us walking out of here with a burden of like, oh man, life's hard enough.

Now I've got to go have compassion for people.

If you try to do it, that's religion.

That fails.

It just does.

If you let God do it in you and through you, that's a different story.

And what we're talking about, the compassion, the forgiveness, the ability to have realistic and healthy expectations for people, this is something that only God can birth in us.

This is something that only God can create in us.

That's what Galatians said, right?

This is the kind of things that the Spirit of God produces in us.

This is God's work in our hearts.

The more we live interconnected to God, the more we we spend time with him, the more we fall in love with him, the more we just stop and go, have I thought today about who he is?

I mean, have I stopped today, not waiting for Sunday to sit and think and wonder and awe about who my God actually is?

Have I spent time in his presence today and have I asked him to fill me with what I am lacking?

Because I lack so much, but he lacks nothing.

And he is generous and he is good.

And Jesus himself said that if good parents, if normal parents in this world, who are sinful people, give good gifts to their children, how much more will our Heavenly Father give the gift of the Holy Spirit to those who ask?

What Jesus is saying is that God is looking for every opportunity to fill us with what we need.

And we need compassion, we need healthy expectations, we need forgiveness, we need it to live and to breathe and to have life.

We need it ourselves and we need to give it to the people around us.

When you do that, you live free, and God wants to do that in you.

So let him.

Just let him.

Ask him.

You say, God, I'm out.

You ever have those moments?

God, I'm done.

I got nothing left in the tank.

I have no forgiveness left, I have no grace left, I have no patience left, I'm I am out.

You have got to put more in.

But if you do that, there's never a moment where God says, I'm out too.

That doesn't happen.

So ask him.

And by the way, if you're here this morning and you don't know him, which just means you've never had that moment where you've said, I'm yours.

It's our conviction and belief that you cannot do this on your own.

You cannot live this way on your own.

And don't try.

That's a burden that no one wants to carry.

But if if you if you in your heart just say, God, I'm yours, I believe, I'm yours, He is faithful.

And if you're ready to do that today, we're not gonna put you on the spot, we're not gonna make you stand up or anything like that.

Although, if you're excited about it, why not stand up right now if you want to?

But but if you want to have him in your life, just tell him.

And if you'd like to share that with someone, by the way, which I really recommend, go to the prayer room in the back on your way out and just peek your head in and say, I want to pray with somebody.

Someone awesome will pray with you and will help you and walk with you through that.

Expectation, compassion, forgiveness, peace.

That's what we need.

Pray with me.

Jesus, thank you so much for being exactly who you are.

If I actually stop and think about the degree of compassion that you've had for me, it's uh it's unbelievable, Lord.

You have so much more compassion for me than I have for myself.

Lord, my expectations for my own life, I've already fallen so short.

But to know that I have not fallen short of your expectations is the most freeing thing I can think of, Lord.

To understand the immense depth of your forgiveness is incredible, God.

And I just pray right now, Father, that every one of us here would experience that.

That there's anybody in this room right now that's never tasted your forgiveness, that's never had that in their life, that's that's ever been able to walk around with the freedom and just the absolute joy that comes from knowing that everything we've ever done has been forgiven and taken care of by you.

I pray that that happens in this moment.

And I pray that all of us walk out of here, Father, able to admit that yes, people are frustrating, yes, people are hard, but people are the point, that people are our purpose, that people are our mission, and that people are the favorite part of your creation.

So give us the ability to love people like that, Lord.

Change our lives and help us be changed in the lives of people around us, Lord.

We ask this all in your name Jesus as we worship you.

Amen.