Move: Dance

Amen.

Well, last week we started a series called Move.

I was just praying about that.

And the idea behind this is very, very simple.

If you're just joining us, we're declaring war on boredom.

Because we have a boredom issue in this country.

We are the busiest people on earth.

And that's not just us saying that braggadociously.

That's that's truth.

Americans work more hours and take fewer days off than any other nation in the world.

We are so busy.

But at the end of the day, when someone asks us, hey, what'd you do today?

the most common answer is nothing.

And we don't mean that we didn't do anything.

We did a lot of things.

We we run around, we we get things done, but what we mean is that we didn't do much worth doing.

We didn't do anything that excited us, that fulfilled us.

See, boredom is not about having a lack of things to do.

Boredom is about having a lack of things worth doing.

And so we want to live differently.

In fact, God calls us constantly to just do one thing, live differently, live a different life.

He doesn't want us to settle for the monotony and the routine that defines most daily lives.

He wants us to live an adventure with him where we experience so much meaning and so much purpose behind what we do that it overpowers the monotony and the boredom day in and day out.

God wants your life to be an adventure.

And the truth is, the people who live the best adventures are the people who are most easily moved by God.

Because, see, there's a difference between motion and movement.

We talked about this last week.

Motion is the busyness.

That's just the chores and the errands and the bills and the job stuff.

It's the stuff that we just have to do to get it all done.

Life will give you plenty of motion.

You don't need more motion.

I went to Walmart three times within a two-hour period on Thursday.

Three times.

We went there, we got some stuff, I came back, and then my wife said, Oh, we forgot diapers and this other thing.

I was like, fine.

So I went back to Walmart, got diapers and the other thing.

The other thing came in a box, and I got home and I opened the box to realize Walmart sold me an empty box.

And so I had to go back to Walmart to explain to the person I didn't steal this.

I'm not trying to pull one over on you.

The box was empty three times in two hours.

That was my whole night driving back and forth to Walmart.

So glad there's Walmart.

And that's motion.

And we we find ourselves dealing with motion all the time.

We're just doing this and this and this, and none of it really has meaning to us, but it's keeping us busy.

And see, you can go through the motions and not actually go anywhere.

We don't want more motion.

We want to move.

We want to move forward.

We want to go places.

We want to go to a place in life we've never been before.

And God created us to move because God is always moving.

And so over the next several weeks, really, however God moves, we'll let that determine it.

We're just going to study how God moves.

Because I think what we really need is Jesus followers.

And if you're not at that place yet, if you're not ready to call yourself a Jesus follower, hey, that's totally fine.

Just take this in and think about it.

We need to learn how he moves.

We need to learn how to be sensitive, to understand, okay, God's moving here.

God is directing me.

God is stirring inside of me.

I know that, I recognize that.

Now I can respond.

We've got to learn how he moves and how we need to move with him.

Because there's kind of an art to it.

Okay?

I want to start by asking a very important question, though.

I love important questions.

Does anyone here have moves?

And I don't mean are you single and you have pickup lines.

I mean, I mean can you dance?

Okay?

Anyone here have have moves?

Like you will admit, I'm not gonna pull you up on stage, don't worry.

But you're willing to raise your hand and say, Yeah, I can dance.

I can dance.

Some people?

The first service had five people.

You guys are awesome.

This this is the dancing service.

This is good to know.

Um, dancing almost ruined my marriage before it started.

Okay?

It really did.

It really did.

See, Megan and I dated young.

We were in high school, high school sweethearts.

We went to college together, and we got engaged in college.

We actually got married in college too.

Not like in the college, but while we were still taking classes.

That was a good way to do it.

It was it was very hectic.

But, you know, we we took a ballroom dance class right after we got engaged.

Because colleges will actually give you college credit for taking classes like that.

And we did that.

And we thought it was gonna be this really fun experience.

We thought it we were gonna have like the time of our lives.

That was not the experience we had.

It was it was so frustrating.

And we it was like anger management class for the two of us in our relationship.

And there were a variety of factors that contributed to that.

Number one was this dude named Kenny, okay?

Kenny was the dance instructor, and and I'm gonna say Kenny and I'm gonna put his name in air quotes because it really is his name, but I just need you to understand that I don't really have great feelings for Kenny, okay?

Because every single class, this is how it began.

Kenny was about 28, 29, not that much older than us at the time.

And he would say, Hey guys, tonight we're gonna we're gonna salsa dance.

Who here has salsa danced?

I'm like, how many 18-year-olds have salsa danced, right?

No one.

And so he'd go, Oh, you guys have never salsa danced?

Okay, watch this.

And he'd go and he'd hit this this play button on a boom box, then he would like do this thing like real fast, like real fast.

And then he would always go, he'd flip his hair when he was done like that.

He'd be like, Do you guys get that?

Did you guys get that?

And we'd be like, No, we didn't get that.

You just move, you just we don't know what you're doing, man.

And then he would he would get super patronizing when we would just sit there and stare blankly, and he'd go, Oh, do you need me to do it again and maybe like slow it down for you guys?

You need me to slow it down for you?

And we would say, Yes, Kenny, we do need you to slow it down because we're not professional dancers, all right?

We're college students trying to get an easy class, and you're rooting, you're rooting this plan for us.

So Kenny was frustrating.

Kenny, man, I just ah, Kenny, like he made it hard.

But had it just been Kenny, we would have been fine.

We would have had a common enemy, Megan and I.

It would have bonded us together.

But pretty quickly we we found ourselves actually frustrated with one another, more so than than even Kenny.

And and it was for a variety of reasons.

Number one, we had very different mentalities going into the class.

Megan's mentality was, wouldn't it be romantic if we took ballroom dancing?

And my mentality was, wouldn't it be hilarious if we took ballroom dancing?

Like, wouldn't that be hysterical?

And so I actually had some guy friends that took the class with me.

A couple of them were taking it with their girlfriends, a couple of them were taking it hoping to find girlfriends.

And so we just kind of goofed off the whole time and made fun of Kenny.

That's like what we were doing.

And then the second week, Megan walks out mid-class.

She storms off.

And I followed her and I did that thing that all men have done if they've been in a relationship.

I just was like, What did I do?

Tell me.

I know, I recognize I have screwed up, I just don't know what I did.

So please inform me.

And Megan says, Justin, you're just you're just goofing off the whole time, and I want to take this seriously.

And I was like, Why?

It's ballroom dance class.

And she said, you know, we're gonna get married in a year.

And we're gonna have our first dance together.

And I want that first dance to be special, and I wanted our wedding, I want us to dance together, and I want it to be like romantic and sweet, and you know, and admittedly, I was more focused on a different kind of first dance that was gonna happen on our wedding day, you know, but whatever.

Um, so I all of a sudden said, Oh, yeah, yeah, no, I that's important to me too.

It's very important to me that we uh she's on maternity leave, so she has no idea I'm talking to her.

Um it's good.

Yeah.

Hey, we waited, so we can we can talk about that.

It was hard, but we uh I realized, I realized that, you know, okay, this is important to her.

I need to change my mentality.

I need to take this seriously because I I I did want her to have that romantic experience.

But once I decided to take it seriously, we ran into the biggest issue, the biggest frustration with the dance class is that I cannot dance at all.

No matter how seriously I take it, no matter how much I apply myself, I can't dance.

I don't have rhythm.

I have no rhythm.

So, you know, when we do worship songs and you guys will start clapping to the beat?

Like, I cannot do that.

The only way I manage is if I keep my eyes open, I just sort of watch people and I hand-eye coordination to it.

But if I close my eyes, I'm just like, you know, it's all over the place.

It's bad.

No rhythm.

And so we're sitting there and I'm trying, I'm trying to dance, and you know, the guy's supposed to lead.

That's how dancing works, right?

And so I'm like stepping and she'll just go, no.

And I'd be like, no, no, not at all.

Uh no, not even close.

And I'd be like, stop saying no every time I move my feet.

I can't focus.

And then she just started taking over.

She started to lead me.

And and granted, when she was leading me, we were actually kind of dancing because she knew what to do.

But then Kenny, Kenny would stop by and he would say, Justin, I don't know if you know this or not, but the man's supposed to lead.

I would say, Thank you, Kenny, very much for reminding me that.

And uh, and then I would tell Megan, let me lead.

And she would say, You don't know how, you don't know what you're doing, and it would just be frustration.

That was the entirety of that class.

It was so frustrating.

And suffice it to say, our first dance on our wedding night was not wowing anyone.

Um, and as penance, I've had to watch every season of dancing with the stars since.

Like, that's my that's what I've had to do.

Or payback, because that's how marriage works.

So I say all of that.

I know that was a really long-winded story about dancing, and if you're wondering why you're even here anymore, I understand.

But uh, but but I want to make a suggestion to you.

I want to suggest a metaphor today.

As we're talking about moving with God, learning how to recognize when God is moving, how to have this adventure with God where He takes us to places we've never been before, I want to suggest that that kind of an adventure with God is very much like dancing.

Look at the words of Jesus in Matthew chapter 11.

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

Jesus says this Are you tired, worn out, burnt out on religion?

Come to me, get away with me, and you'll recover your life.

I'll show you how to take a real rest.

Walk with me and work with me.

Watch how I do it.

Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.

I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.

Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly.

Freely and lightly does not describe the way I dance.

But as I as I read that in those words, that that part especially that says the unforced rhythms of grace, it just reminds me of dancing.

That's that's kind of how God wants it to be with us.

He wants us to learn how to recognize when he's moving and for us just to follow his lead, to let him lead us.

I mean, look at what happens in Numbers 15.

We looked at this last week, talking about how much God likes to move, how he's always been on the move.

This is when God is appearing to the people of Israel like a cloud at the daytime and like this pillar of fire at night, he's leading them.

It says on the day the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered it.

But from evening until morning, the cloud over the tabernacle looked like a pillar of fire.

And this was the regular pattern.

At night, the cloud that covered the tabernacle had the appearance of fire.

Whenever the cloud lifted over the sacred tent, the people of Israel would break camp and follow it.

And wherever the cloud settled, the people of Israel would set up camp.

In this way, they traveled and they camped at the Lord's command, wherever he told them to go.

Very much like dancing.

God takes a step, they take a step.

God goes this way, they go this way.

They just follow God's lead.

And in this morning, I want to suggest to you that maybe, just maybe, if you want to learn how to move with God, you need to learn how to dance.

Now, ladies, I know that can sound really nice.

Like God, God is really saying, hey, will you dance with me?

And please understand that in religion, God is the dance instructor.

God is Kenny in religion, right?

He's the jerk that's saying, Hey, watch me do this.

Oh, you can't do this.

You need me to slow this down for you.

You can't handle, you can't keep up, you're not doing it right.

God is not Kenny.

Thank God.

Right?

God is the one reaching out his hand saying, Hey, will you dance with me?

Because I'd like to lead you in this dance.

And ladies, you hear that and you're like, oh wow, that's like, oh, that's awesome.

That's romantic, that's sweet.

Men are like, that's kind of weird.

Um, like, you know, those of those of us that have a hard time letting go of our masculinity, it's a little strange to think about God leading us in a dance, right?

And there are a lot of metaphors in scripture that make that hard for us as guys.

We have to sort of get over that.

Jesus says, hey, I'm the groom, you're the bride, and some of us guys are like, oh, can I be the groom?

But you know, it's not really how it works.

And so if you're one of those guys and this whole dance thing, you're like, nope, not going there.

Let's just, I'll give you a different metaphor that will hopefully preserve your apparently insecure masculinity.

Um, I'm a big college basketball fan, and the NCAA tournament is about to start, and you can the NCAA tournament is often called the big dance.

And so when teams make the tournament, it's it's often said that they're going dancing.

Ah, they're going dancing.

They punch their dance ticket, right?

Um, so just picture this.

Ladies, God is holding out his hand, he's saying, Please dance with me.

Men, God is a coach saying, I'm gonna take you to the final four.

All right, just there you go.

Masculinity preserved.

So God, God wants to he wants to lead us in that dance.

But I have a question for you this morning, and this is really our main question.

And it requires you to be honest with yourself and honest with God.

So it's kind of it's kind of a hard question.

In your life, if you're thinking about your life in this metaphor of dancing, the question is this who is really leading?

Like who who leads?

Does God truly lead you?

Do you let God lead you?

See, I I have a hard time with that in my own life.

I really do.

In fact, two weeks ago, I was praying, I was spending some time in prayer, which sometimes I hate.

I hate praying sometimes.

Because when you pray, you're you're opening up the door for God to actually speak to you.

And sometimes God tells you that you're not doing things the way you need to do things, and that's very frustrating for me.

And so every once in a while I'll be praying, and God will just lovingly, you know, like an older brother, give me a little punch in the gut.

And I say that not like God's bringing me down.

He I need it.

I mean, I need it, and it's good.

It's good when it happens because it readjusts my life.

And this happened to me two weeks ago.

I'm praying.

And I'm praying about all these big things I want to see happen, all these great things I want to see happen in the church.

And I'm just like, God, oh, you know, do this, and God, if you'll move this way, and God, if you'll make this happen.

And God cuts me off.

Can you imagine that?

God, cut me off.

You know?

It's rude.

And God says, I mean, clear as day, he spoke to me.

And guys, I know when I say that, some of us like, God spoke to you, you know.

Uh, are you crazy?

Maybe, but um, if you've never heard God speak to you, he speaks.

Just pray a lot and then be quiet and listen.

And you will hear him speak.

You will hear him speak.

That's an experience you will have in life no matter what.

And so I'm praying, and God cuts me off.

And here's what he says He says, Justin, you spent so much time trying to get me to be involved with what you're doing instead of trying to get involved with what I'm doing.

And I was like, oh crap.

That's that's true.

Like that's so true, and it's so subtle, but but at the same time, it's huge, right?

I spend all this time trying to get God to be involved with what I'm doing.

When if I'd shift and I'd say, okay, God, how can I become involved with what you're doing?

It's very different.

Because one is is me leading and trying to invite God into my dance, and the other is God saying, Hey, I want you to dance with me.

See, I often I often approach prayer like I'm I'm on an episode of Shark Tank and I make my pitch to God.

I do that all the time.

I advise God, I suggest things to God.

You know, I do, I go in, I say, Hey God, here's my plan, here's what I've I've put together.

You know, you want to be involved?

You want to become an investor?

You want to back me?

But but the reality is this I do not need God to back me.

I need God to lead me.

That's what I need.

That's what I need.

And so if you go to this church, you need God to lead me too, trust me.

Um and so, you know, I I I want to see that shift happen in my life.

Where I stop spending so much energy trying to force God to do what I'm doing, and I start releasing and surrendering and allowing God to lead me.

And here's here's what you have to do for that to happen.

Here's what I have to do, what you have to do, what all of us have to do.

You got to give God permission to lead you.

And that seems strange, right?

As if God needs our permission.

But if you really want to experience the adventure that you're meant to live with God, if you want to know what it's like to dance with God, to let God lead you, you have to tell God, you have to have an attitude in your heart that says, God, you have permission to lead my life.

Because he will not force himself.

He will not force you to dance with him.

That's not how he works.

He could, but he doesn't.

See, there's two types of authority in the world, and this has been written about in business books and a lot of great, great leadership books as well.

There's positional authority, and then there's relational authority.

And all of us have experienced positional authority.

Positional authority is when someone reminds you that they're over you.

And you have to do what they say because if you don't, there will be negative consequences.

So as children, we become very used to positional authority.

Because let's be honest, as parents, sometimes we have to take that.

Sometimes we have to just say, I'm the parent, you're the child, shut up.

Like that just has to happen, right?

And and we don't say shut up because we live, you know, be quiet, use your inside voice, whatever.

Um, but my my my parents said shut up.

So um sometimes, sometimes we we have to to take that.

Because honestly, as parents, and and all jokes aside, sometimes for the benefit of our children, we just don't have time to have those conversations.

And we just have to say, look, you're gonna you're gonna do what I say, trust me.

And if you don't like it, deal with it because I'm your parent.

But when it comes to everyday life, that is not the authority I want to live with with my kids.

I don't want to spend every day of my life just telling my kids over and over, hey, I'm the parent, you're the child, do what I say.

Hey, I'm the parent, you're the child, do what I say.

I mean, think about your workplace.

Your boss has positional authority over you.

And if every single day, and many of us have had bosses like this, your boss reminds you that they're your boss, hey, I'm your boss, you work for me, so you'll do what I say.

Hey, I'm your boss, I can fire you, you'll do what I say.

Hey, if you want to raise, you'll do what I say.

Do you want to be led by that person?

No.

No, not at all.

See, positional authority, it's it's necessary at times, and at times, God uses it.

There are times where God will say, Look, I'm God, and I'm just gonna do my thing, and you're gonna have to adjust.

Because he is God, he has that authority.

But more often than not, God actually lays that aside and he waits for us to give him relational authority.

Relational authority is different.

That's where you actually say to someone, whether they're your boss or not, hey, I'm gonna follow your lead because I trust you, because I respect you, because I recognize that you have something I don't have and you can take me somewhere that I've never been.

I have people like that in my life, I hope you do too.

People that that cannot fire me.

Friends of mine that don't even, they're not even part of this place, friends of mine that live far away, but they have wisdom I don't have, they have experience I don't have, that they have, they've gotten to a place with God I'm not at yet.

And so I look at those people and I say, hey, will you lead me?

I'm gonna call you, I'm gonna ask you what to do, you tell me what to do, and I will I will submit to your authority, not because I have to, but because I want to.

Because I recognize and I trust and I respect that you can lead me somewhere that I cannot go otherwise.

See, God wants us to have that kind of a relationship with Him where we were led by Him because we give Him permission to lead us.

And you see that in Scripture all the time, by the way.

For example, in Judges chapter 21, the nation of Israel is not in a very good place in their history.

Judges 21 · chapter mention

And we find out why.

Verse 25 says, At that time there was no king in Israel, people did whatever they felt like doing.

Does that sound familiar?

People just did whatever they felt like doing.

The whole culture at that time was, hey, you know, this is what I believe is true, this is what I think is right, so I'm gonna do what I think is right.

And if you disagree with me, whatever, because everyone's opinion is valid and everyone's opinion is true, and then it just became this mess.

And see, God wanted to lead the people.

His way was really simple.

He would find a prophet, a man, a person that would be so open to him, and he would speak to that person, and that person would just directly speak to the people.

Hey, this is what God told me to tell you.

Very, very simple.

It's the way every second grader asks out of a person they want to date, right?

Go out with.

Like, hey, my friend said he likes you.

Do you like him?

Okay, great.

Very simple, very effective.

And so God just wanted to work that way, but the people decided, hey, you know what, this is a mess.

We're all doing what we feel like doing, it's not working.

So we've got a plan.

And the plan is not to start listening to God and letting God lead us, the plan is to find a king.

Let's find a king.

And let's make a man our boss.

Let's find some positional authority, and that'll make it all work.

And so they literally go to Samuel, who's this prophet at the time, and they say, hey, um, the whole prophet God leading us thing, yeah, we're kind of done with that.

Instead, we just want an earthly king, you know, like a very impressive guy with a crown on his head and someone that can lead us that way.

That's what we want.

So Samuel hears this and he's he's really dejected.

He goes to God in 1 Samuel 8:6.

1 Samuel 8:6

Samuel was displeased with their request, and he went to the Lord for guidance.

Do everything they say to you, the Lord replied, for they're rejecting me, not you.

They don't want me to be their king any longer.

Ever since I brought them from Egypt, they've continually abandoned me and they followed other gods.

Now they're giving you the same treatment.

Do as they ask, but solemnly warn them about the way a king will reign over them.

And so Samuel says, Hey, God says, You want a king?

Have a king.

But please understand what a king will do.

A king will tax you.

A king will take your sons and make them serve in the military.

Your sons will die for the wars that the king starts to further his kingdom.

So just know that what you think you want, you don't really want.

But because God is not going to force you to dance with him, to follow him, he's gonna let you kind of freestyle it, do your own thing.

He's gonna love you through it, he's even gonna bless you at times through it.

But God's gonna let you do what you want to do.

He's not going to overstep his bounds.

God does not often take positional authority when he can, he wants that relationship.

So God lets Israel do what Israel wants to do.

Later, we looked at this last week very briefly.

King David, one of the few good kings they ever got, he wanted to build God a temple.

Because it wasn't right in his eyes that these fake gods all over the world had these beautiful temples and the real God was worshipped in a tent.

That's how Israel did it at the time.

So he's like, hey, let's build a temple.

Let's build this beautiful structure.

And let's have it be gilded.

There's gold everywhere.

It's going to be this huge wow factor.

And everyone will be like, wow, look at the temple.

This temple is such a reflection of how great God is.

They're going to worship God because of how great this temple is.

That's what David kind of thinks.

That's what people think.

And God responded, we looked at this last week in 2 Samuel 7.6.

God says, I've never lived in a house from the day I brought the Israelites out of Egypt until this very day.

I've always moved from one place to another with a tent and a tabernacle as my dwelling.

Yet no matter where I have gone with the Israelites, I have never once complained to Israel's tribal leaders, the shepherds of my people, Israel.

I've never asked them, why haven't you built me a beautiful cedar house?

God's saying, look, I don't want a temple.

And truthfully, you don't really want me to have a temple anyway, because here's what's going to happen.

You're going to build this beautiful temple, and it's going to be amazing and gorgeous in your eyes, and you're going to start to worship it and not me.

You're going to start to worship the creation of your own hands.

And you're going to get so fixated on this temple that the temple is going to dominate your whole thought process and it's going to become a religion and it's going to distract you from me.

And that's exactly what happened.

I mean, literally, when Israel builds the temple, it's sort of like things immediately start going downhill.

And the temple gets demolished, and then they have to rebuild the temple, and then they have to get demolished again.

And I mean, it's just this crazy story because they're so fixated on something that God did not lead them into.

See, God will let you do your own thing.

He is not going to force you to dance with him, he's not going to force you to move with him.

But if you are willing, if you are willing to be the rare people, and a lot during this series, we're going to talk about being rare people.

If you're willing to be the rare people who just say this simple thing, God, I surrender, lead me.

I'm not going to try to get you to dance my dance.

Because only like 20 of you even raised your hands about being good dancers.

No, I'm going to I'm going to let you lead me.

I'm going to take your hand.

And I'm going to pay attention to the steps you take, and I'm going to move in step with you.

You, you lead me, God.

It's incredible how rare it is for people to do that.

I mean, it really is.

And guys, you know, in my role, I get to have really unique conversations with people.

I get to sort of hear grievances that people have with God sometimes or church.

And that's that's part of the role, and I'm happy to do it.

And this really only applies to Christians, the people who have said, hey, I'm a Christian, I'm a Jesus follower, because if you're not there, then no one is expecting you to let God reign in every area of your life.

But I'm amazed at how often I hear Christians come to me and complain about areas in their life that aren't working, but they refuse to do that area of their life God's way.

I mean, it happens all the time.

People are frustrated with their finances.

And they're so upset because financially it's not working out and they don't have enough and they're always stretched and they're always thin.

And then if I ask the question, well, do you I mean, do you do you do it the way God tells you to do it?

They're like, well, no.

I can't do it the way God tells me to do it because I don't have any money.

And I'm like, nah, you hold on.

I'm just saying you're not doing it God's way and you're mad that it's not working.

But you claim to follow God.

Or it might be relationships.

You know, I date this person and this person, and I've dated this guy, and I live with this guy for a long time, or this girl, and you know, our marriage isn't working out, and this isn't happening, and this isn't good, and I'll be like, well, are you doing it God's way?

You know, are you submitting to one another in marriage?

Or is it all about what you want?

Husbands, are you loving your wives with the kind of intensity that Jesus loves the church?

That's what we're called to do.

Wives, are you willing to respect your husband?

Even though, you know, he's an idiot sometimes.

And if we say, no, I'm not gonna do it God's way, but I'm mad when God doesn't bless it, that's that's strange, isn't it?

And the thing is, God is so loving and so good to us that He'll He'll still actually bless us, even when we're not doing it His way.

He'll still send us blessings.

I mean, He's so good, but but He cannot bless you the way He wants to if you're unwilling to be led by Him.

And so the question remains: who's leading your dance?

Is there any area of your life, one area of your life where essentially, without putting it into words, because it's not like we do this on purpose, it just sort of happens.

But is there one area of your life where you have essentially said to God, hey, um, this part of my life, I like the way I do it.

And so, you know, man, bless my career and give me a great family, give me health, obviously.

Um, but you know, I got this one part of life that I really enjoy the way I do it, and so I'm gonna keep doing my own thing.

I'd love for you to make it work.

If you want to be involved with it, great, but just so long as you don't actually determine how it's done.

If you want to live the adventure you're meant to live, you've got to be someone that lets God lead you.

Because, guys, he will lead you to places that you could never get to otherwise.

You cannot lead where you've never been, and there's no place that God's never been.

No place.

And so we're gonna we're gonna close today with with worship, like we always do, and we're gonna sing a song that's about surrender because that's really what this is.

And and as a guy, like I don't like that word sometimes, surrender, because I want to I want to win.

And so I just think about it this way I surrender to Jesus and then I never surrender to anyone else.

You know, and so you you surrender to him, this is what you're doing.

You're saying, hey, God lead me.

You lead the dance.

I'm just gonna follow your steps.

I'm gonna go where you go.

I'm giving you permission to lead me.

I have a two-year-old daughter who is so amazing.

And and I'll just share this real quick.

We had our son, Judah, he's three weeks old today, and uh, yeah, he's awesome.

He's so cool.

And uh, you know, Megan has to give a lot of attention to Judah right now.

That's just necessary.

And so Lily, before Judah was born, was really mommy's girl.

And now all of a sudden, like she just I think she just understood, okay, mommy has to be sort of fixated there, and and she's like, I'll just become daddy's girl.

And I I love it.

I mean, I love it, guys.

I don't love it when she screams my name at the top of her lungs at like five in the morning.

Um, I don't love that part, but everything else I love.

And Lily and I have this really funny relationship, and I just I'm it's it's amazing.

I love it.

I can't wait to grow older and and be there for her.

But there's things that we do now that I hope we kind of always do, even if it changes and evolves.

Um, one of those things is butting heads.

Lily's Lily's second favorite thing to do is if I pick her up, she actually headbuts me.

Um she calls it bonking heads.

She'll go, daddy, bonk, boom, and she headbuts me.

And if you know my daughter's personality, if you've happened to spend time with Lily, I do believe that we will continue to butt heads for a long, long time.

Um so I hope I hope that stays, because actually that's a part of our relationship that I like.

I like that there's there's a little bit of that.

You know, it's it's she's feisty.

I like that.

Um but my favorite thing to do with her, and her favorite thing to do with me is dance.

And so she will come up to me, you know, and and she's she's two, so she'll run up to me a lot of times, and she runs like two-year-olds run, you know, it's very strange.

You know, she doesn't like move her arms, she sort of does this and tries not to fall, and she'll stop and she'll go, Daddy, dance.

And here's what she means this is what she thinks dancing is.

She means I want you to lift me up, and then I just want you to like swing me around and spin me around and throw me in the air and flip me in the air, and we do that, and she loves it, and she trusts me because I've never dropped her, not yet, anyway.

And uh, and she has the time of her life.

And see, if she came to me being bigger than her, and said, Daddy, dance, and she's like, No, I'm gonna lead it.

Well, I gotta bend over.

And and if she's leading it, there's not much we can do.

I mean, we can kind of like do this.

That's really it, because she's just small, but if she will let me lead her, I can I can take her places, I can take her to heights she can't reach.

And if if if we will do that with God, I mean, if we will walk up to him and say, Daddy, dance, and we'll stop trying to make him do our dance, and we'll just say, Hey, you lead.

He will he will do the same thing, he will pick you up, he will carry you, he will, uh, he will give you an adventure.

But you've got to let him lead.

You've got to give him permission.

So please pray with me.

Jesus, we love you for giving us a restored relationship with our Father.

Holy Spirit, we love you for empowering us to live the life that you've created us to live.

But Daddy God, we love the fact that you want to lead us in a dance.

That you, the God of this universe, the most powerful being that ever has existed or ever will exist, desires to dance with us.

Lord, you know our nature, you know how hard it is for us to surrender.

You know that that's not that's not our norm, that's not our MO, but it needs to be.

And God, I know there's people in this room right now that have never actually surrendered to you in any way.

And that's okay.

I mean, we're we're all at different places.

But Lord, if there's one person here today that has never surrendered and just said, okay, God, I'm yours.

My life is yours now.

I pray that that happens this moment.

That that person says, Jesus, I belong to you.

I pray that person doesn't and goes and signs up to get baptized so that they just go all in fast.

There's no reason to wait.

God, for the rest of us, those of us that have made that decision before, we've already said, Hey, yeah, I'm yours, Jesus, but maybe we've gotten so used to doing things our way that we've we've forgotten, maybe we've never even realized that we're not actually letting you lead us.

We're trying to lead you.

It doesn't work that way.

Give us hearts that surrender.

Give us a passion for being led by you.

Teach us to dance.

We love you, Jesus.

We ask all this in your name.

Amen.