Living Easy-Today

That song's beautiful.

What a great description of Jesus.

And the men's group on Wednesday nights.

What a cute little girl.

Jesus loves the little kids.

But anyway, on the men's group on uh Wednesday night, they're looking at uh a study with the book Beautiful Outlaw.

And to me, that's just such a great description, you know, because uh that's just what Jesus uh is.

You know, he's beautiful, yet he's still a rebel.

You know, and for us to get to follow him and uh and be with him, it's just an amazing thing.

Well, good morning, everyone.

It's uh great to be together.

If it's your first time here, we're sure glad you're here.

Hope you can tell that you can just relax and and be yourself.

You know, God's here and we're here, and so we're having a great morning together.

We've got kind of a big fall planned.

It's starting to feel like fall, and unless Jesus comes soon, um we got a lot coming up with the Telgate Party and baptisms and then Christmas Eve, we're already uh preparing for, and we're gonna shake that up a little bit this year, and it's gonna be exciting.

And I think just it's gonna launch us into a fantastic 2013 together.

So the the first up is the Telgate Party, which is uh two weeks from today, October 28th.

That's always uh a great time.

We uh can wear our jerseys or t-shirts or sweatshirts or whatever, support um support our team, hang out afterwards, have a regular kind of kind of Sunday here, but then we'll go out, we'll listen to tunes.

Uh you know, feel free to come early, uh set up grills or tents or whatever you want to do.

Um the Salisbury's are gonna be cooking.

If you don't want to bring food, they'll have uh uh food we can buy, but it's just really a lot of fun.

Uh uh face painting and games for the kids, uh games for the big kids, like a football toss and uh the chili cook-offs, one of my favorite favorite uh parts.

So if you haven't signed up for that, there's a uh traditional and a uh outside of the box contest.

And so if you sign up at the InfoDesk today, if you want to do that, but that's always great.

Last year I filled up pretty much on chili, but then still ate some of the Salisbury's food afterwards.

Um and then for those of us that want to, we got to come inside and watch the game.

It's the Falcons and the Eagles in uh high death on one of the biggest screens in the South, you know, and it's just everything's bigger.

The sound in here, you know, it makes the hits are louder, the commercials are even more embarrassing.

I mean, the whole thing is a big event.

So plan on that uh two weeks uh from today, and we'll just have a great, great time then.

Just wanted to uh remind you and thank you for uh for giving.

Obviously, it's just an important thing we do, it's what allows us to do what God has us doing uh together.

And then it's also just such a big step, I guess, or or or part of our life walking with God.

You know, it's one of the reasons Jesus talked about it as much as he did, is that if we can trust God with our money and learn to depend on him, and not, you know, we can have that relationship and we get to see him prove himself faithful to us.

And it's a hard thing to do, you know, and and so when we do it, God always comes through.

And so thank you for that.

Let's pray.

So, Father, we thank you for today.

Thank you for being such a great Father, our Abba, Father, and for loving us and adopting us as your children.

We thank you for all the things that we're we're planning.

And we especially thank you just for this time right now with each other and with you.

Holy Spirit, please uh help us this morning, speak to each of us, and uh Jesus, please teach us this morning.

We thank you and we love you.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

I saved one announcement until now, and that's that uh November 4th is really one of the biggest days of the year here.

It's Baptism Sunday.

And in some ways, it's a typical Sunday morning.

We worship together, and uh, we're gonna talk about one of the key things Jesus taught us about living lightly and living um easy.

But then afterwards, everyone's invited to to stay, to be part of really one of the great experiences that we can have.

Typically, there's 50 or more of us that get baptized uh every time, and it's you know, it's not one big event with with 50 people, it's really 50 huge events all rolled up together uh into one.

And to be baptized is unlike any experience you can possibly have.

You know, we want to follow Jesus, and so that's following what he uh teaches us, and it's also following what uh what he did.

And so in baptism, we get to literally do something exactly uh what Jesus did.

In Matthew 3 it says, Then Jesus went from Galilee to the Jordan River to be baptized by John.

But John tried to talk him out of it.

I am the one who needs to be baptized by you, he said, so why are you coming to me?

But Jesus said it should be done, for we must carry out all that God requires.

So John agreed to baptize him.

And after his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling and settling on him.

And a voice from heaven said, This is my dearly loved Son who brings me great joy.

You know, even Jesus felt uh God's love in a unique way when he was baptized.

You know, and the Holy Spirit did something special uh for Jesus when he was baptized.

And it's the same for us.

We get to experience God's love in a unique way.

And in Acts 2, uh verse 38, it says that when we're baptized, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

So something supernatural, something spiritually significant happens when we're baptized, something special that the Holy Spirit does.

And it might be that at that moment it's something we feel, you know, the presence of God, an unusual joy.

It could be anything because we're all different, and God uh um interacts differently with each of us.

Um it might be a few weeks later when you look back and you're like, wow, look how my life's changed.

Look how that part of my heart has changed.

But uh the Holy Spirit promises something special for each of us as we're baptized.

You know, it's one of the supernatural things God does as we're in this process, as He's changing us from the inside out.

In Romans 6, it says, That is what happened in baptism.

When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind.

When we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace, a new life and a new land.

That's what baptism into the life of Jesus means.

When we are Lord into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus.

When we're raised up out of the water, it's like the resurrection of Jesus.

Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we're going in our new grace sovereign country.

Some of us were baptized as uh babies or when we were uh small children, and uh that's certainly a uh a good thing.

It's a beautiful ceremony.

It's it's the heart of the parents wanting uh the child to be blessed and to dedicate our lives uh to God.

Um we do that here, but we we dedicate uh babies with prayer.

We kind of baptize them in prayer, and uh, but it it's it's the same uh heart.

When Jesus demonstrated baptism, um the one that he asked us to participate in is when we're older, when we can decide for ourselves, when we can kind of make a statement.

You know, I'm all in.

You know, I want all that Jesus has to offer.

And so for baptized as children, the Holy Spirit may uh let us know it's okay to be baptized again, you know, when we can make that statement and uh when it when it's coming from our hearts.

So that leads me to a question I get often, which is is it okay to be baptized more than once?

And uh I hope so, because I have.

Um but uh of course it is.

And that's the thing about a relationship with God and the difference between religion and Jesus is that this is not some rule that we check off to make God happy and and uh get that checked off our list.

It is uh it's submitting ourselves and our lives to Jesus.

You know, it's a statement to God, it's a statement to everybody else, and mostly it's a symbol of a of a whole new life.

And so there's times, there's a time in my life.

You know, I was baptized twice.

The second really is the one I think of when I when I think about about me being baptized, but it it's uh it's such a great experience.

And so if you're you know being transformed and and starting a whole new life with with Jesus, it's uh it's something you might want to uh experience.

You know, it's also fun and meaningful and exciting.

You know, if you haven't been here before on a baptism sundae, uh as each person is baptized, there's a lot of cheering.

You know, it's tremendous joy.

We celebrate what God's gonna do in each of these lives going forward, but we also celebrate what God's done and changed our lives so much uh to get to this point.

Um, one thing that's a little different than you might be used to if you're if you're new at his hands is we invite you to ask uh any believer uh that's significant in your life to baptize you.

You might know that Jesus didn't baptize his followers, that his followers baptized each other.

And so that is a great uh a great thing to do.

Whether you know every time we have parents and grandparents and spouses and friends and and whomever.

And so if there's someone in your life that you'd like to get to to share that with you, uh please feel free to ask them.

Then of course I or Susan or anyone here uh would uh would love to be part of that as well.

And so if you'd like to be baptized, um there's a sign-up table in the lobby.

There's some uh message CDs on the time when I talk more in depth about baptism if you'd like to know more uh about it.

And you can sign up today, and then November 4th will be a really big day.

You know, Jesus, this is kind of a good example of how Jesus is.

You know, he could have asked us to do something huge, you know, something to prove our love or prove our loyalty.

And kind of the two things is it's the baptism's one, but then it's what we did together this morning, the Lord's Supper.

You know, it's not a big thing, it it's a relationship thing, a meal, it's time with Jesus, you know, one-on-one.

Jesus just thinks different than religion does.

In John 6, they replied, We want to perform God's work works too.

What should we do?

Jesus told them, This is the only work God wants from you.

Believe in the one he has sent.

And in Matthew 11, 28, it says, Then Jesus said, Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your soul.

For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.

And so that's what we're doing here for for uh some weeks is really taking Jesus up on that offer.

He says, Let me teach you, and so uh I'm excited to be taught.

And so we're looking in mostly at what Jesus specifically said, the red letters, uh, if you if you will, and how to live a life that feels easy and feels light, how to actually find true rest for our souls.

And so the first thing Jesus taught, uh, and the specific context for Matthew 11, 28, uh, is just come to me.

Not religion, not the rules.

You know, people add burdens to everything.

You know, this is what you got to do to follow Jesus.

Jesus says, forget all that, because they'd been hassling him, I mean, every day.

And all Jesus had been doing for weeks was helping people, feeding people, healing people, um, loving people.

And no matter what he did, they were always upset about something.

It was who he did it for, what day he did it on, how he did it.

Um, and so Jesus says, just enough of that.

Just come to me.

You know, it's different with me in a relationship with me.

C.

S.

Lewis said, it's not so much the joy of the Lord we are seeking as the Lord of joy himself.

Come to me, he said.

So the second was just the Sabbath, you know, and that's kind of a practical thing, uh simple but profound, I guess, and hard to do.

But he talked about how the Sabbath is made for us, not us for the Sabbath.

And how creation was made to rest, God even rested, how we're made uh to rest.

So what he taught us that day really is that somehow, if we can ask God to show us uh how we can get real rest.

And then last week we noticed that Jesus saw God everywhere and in everything.

So Jesus never felt alone or detached.

He always had the strength and the comfort and the faith of knowing God was right there with him.

So this morning we're gonna look at something pretty specific.

It's another thing that's a little uh simple, but can be uh also profound and hard to do.

Like many things Jesus teaches us, it's really a way of thinking, how we think about things.

In Matthew 6, Jesus says, so don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries.

Today's trouble is enough for today.

Our culture has us really programmed to worry about tomorrow.

You know, we've kind of got a news and entertainment industry that is built on uh sensationalization and on fear.

And right now we're facing a fiscal cliff.

No one likes to go off a cliff.

Iran's getting uh a nuclear bomb, everyone's getting meningitis.

Lindsay Lohan is back driving cars.

It's a dangerous world.

And so yesterday I clicked on Fox News' website, you know, to see if there might be a new worry, and there's a big banner that said, the virus that causes shingles might already be inside you.

Like now, what am I gonna do?

Great.

I'm going off a cliff with the shingles virus already inside me.

And so there's plenty of things to worry about.

Jesus said, Don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries.

Today's trouble is enough for today.

Now, if we get almost any kind of uh self-help type of book, you know, about contentment or about being happy, they would borrow this principle that Jesus taught.

You know, it might be called living in the present or in the moment or staying in the now, might be carpadium.

Jesus says, live one day at a time.

It's the only way to live life.

One day at a time.

Now, a few moments earlier, when Jesus is saying this, uh, it's what we would call the Sermon on the Mount.

And he is sitting on the side of a hill talking to a large group of people, talking to them about God and talking to them about uh life.

And so he teaches them to pray.

He says, Pray like this.

Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy, may your kingdom come soon, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins as we have forgiven those who sin against us.

And don't let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.

So even in praying, you know, Jesus had just a certain simplicity and a certain focus.

Give us today today's bread.

And we can live introspectively, you know, processing and regretting the past, or we might live worrying or even dreaming too much about the future.

But either way, we miss the only thing that we actually have, uh, which is today.

Life can only be lived today.

If we want to have a good week, we've got to string together some good days.

If we want to have a good year, we've got to string together some good days.

And if we want to have a good life, you know, it happens one day at a time, stringing together some good days.

Ray Charles said, You should live every day like it's your last day, because one day you're gonna be right.

And in Isaiah 43, God says, Forget the former things, do not dwell on the past.

He goes on to say, Do you see it?

Can you not perceive it that I'm doing something new?

Well, we can't see it if we live in the past.

Either, you know, wishing things had been different in our past, or maybe wishing things now were the way they used to be in our past.

Either way, we're gonna miss the new.

We can only experience God's joy living each day.

Psalms 118 says, This is the day the Lord has made.

We will rejoice and be glad in it.

You know, the same's true for our future.

You know, it's good to plan, obviously, and it's good to have dreams.

Think about our future.

But it's not good to constantly worry about what's coming up or kind of stay mentally somewhere in the future.

James 4 says, How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow?

Your life is like the morning fog, it's here a little while, then it's gone.

See, all we have for sure is today.

You know, it's a shame to waste it worrying about tomorrow.

It doesn't have to be worry, it can be longing for the future, planning for the future.

It kind of depends on how we're wired.

Susan and I are in some ways very much the same.

Uh in different, you know, in other ways we're wired very differently.

I was thinking about this yesterday, and I was thinking about Susan, because honestly, she's great at this.

And uh, I mean, she pretty much wakes up every day, she enjoys that day, she does what she needs to do uh that day, tries to listen to God that day.

Um, and it's just a real transformation.

It's just something that God has really done in her life because it didn't used to be that way.

She was angry and she was depressed most days.

And for her, it was because she was living in her past, you know, the the wounds and things that that happened to her when she was younger and and as a child.

So there's a time to process through that stuff, which which she has, but then there's a time to embrace each day, which which she does.

I'm wired uh differently.

I mean, I tend to live in the future, you know, where I'm constantly thinking about what's next, you know, strategizing or or what.

Too much of that, and you know, I miss life itself.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said we're always getting to getting ready to live, but never living.

And we can do it as parents.

You know, I worked so hard trying to make a life for my family that I actually miss part of my life with my family.

You know, and sometimes we can kind of live in the future looking forward to the next thing.

You have a beautiful baby, and you just can't wait till you know they can crawl, and you can't wait till they walk, and you can't wait till they can talk, and they you can't wait till they say your name, and then ride a bike and catch a ball, and we get too far ahead sometimes, and we just don't uh savor the day.

And you ask any grandparent who's talking to a new parent, and they're gonna say the same thing savor each day, enjoy each stage, each moment.

We got great high school students here, you know, and it is so easy in high school to uh miss today by living in the future.

I did that.

It was it was always, you know, I can't wait until I graduate.

I can't wait until I uh get a great job, you know, then I'll really be happy.

I can't wait to move out of my parents' house was a huge thing uh for me.

I can't wait to meet the right person, all those things.

Del Carnegie said, see, we're mostly looking at red letters, but uh Del Carnegie said, one of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living.

We're all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.

You know, and that can be so true with people in our lives.

Jesus said you can kind of kind of boil it down to this if we really love God and we really love people, then we're gonna mostly live the life that God has for us.

And so whatever He's teaching us really has to start with people, and when it's people, it always is the hardest and closest.

You know, our our family, our closest friends.

Before Susan and I got married, I I can remember thinking, man, I can't believe I'm gonna get to spend every single day with her.

You know, wake up with her.

I just couldn't I couldn't believe it.

And now we can go, I mean, we're both can get so busy, we'll go days without having a meaningful interaction.

But hey, how are you doing?

How was your day?

What's going on?

What's your schedule like tomorrow?

That type of thing.

Every morning I get up and I've got six things, um, they're kind of like goals, they're really reminders.

And there's six things that are important um parts of how I want to be and how I want my life to be.

And so it gives me a chance to remind myself every day and uh also to pray about all of them.

And one of those is just my relationship with Susan.

And so I've kind of got it broken down into three or four things.

And one of those is to make sure that we do something fun together every week.

And so that's you know, pretty common, having a date night or lunch, or just something fun that we're doing and enjoying each other.

And uh and so I was thinking that in light of this, what Jesus taught, you know, because that's good.

But uh what I really need to do is plan some meaningful time with Susan every single day.

You know, because that's all we have is is today, to somehow just shift things around enough, to slow down, and so we can spend meaningful time together every single day.

You know, it's true in so many areas of our life.

Uh, in addiction recovery, I mean, living one day at a time is how you have to live.

Um, making the next, not worrying about the past, making the next good choice.

Forget the former things, do not dwell on the past.

This is the day the Lord has made.

Rejoice and be glad in it.

You know, today's the day in a lot of ways.

Proverbs 3, it says, if you can help your neighbor now, don't say, come back tomorrow, and then I'll help you.

You know, if we see someone who needs help, there's really one time to do it, and uh, and that is today.

Jesus says today can have its own troubles.

You know, one way to live lighter and easier is to take care of those troubles that day.

One of my favorite business quotes, it's actually a war quote.

So guys tend to like war quotes or sports quotes when it comes to business.

But it's uh from General George Patton.

A good plan, violent a good plan violently executed today is better than a great plan executed tomorrow.

And sometimes, and me especially, one thing I've always fought, and it's gotten better, I guess, as God changes me, but is procrastination, procrastinating to things that I don't want to do.

And so those things build up, and so there's such a weight.

I mean, you can't live life easy that way when you have these things that build up to be bigger and bigger issues.

They can get overwhelming, but we can take one step today.

I mean, even this day we can take one step.

It could be that our marriage is to a point, that that it it's it's almost a crisis, or we just know we need some help.

You know, we can take a step today.

We can get a a counseling recommendation card at the info desk.

Maybe, maybe just decide to do it today.

Make a phone call, get it scheduled, take some step today.

You know, there's things like you can get years behind on taxes, and then it's just overwhelming.

I mean, there's no way really to do it except just taking one step each day.

You know, so maybe it's today going and finding receipts or 1099s or whatever it is, just taking one step today.

You know, when Jesus uh says don't worry about tomorrow, he's finishing a broader thought.

And that broader thought really is don't worry at all.

It says, that is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life, whether you have enough food and drink or enough clothes to wear, isn't life more than food and your body more than clothing?

Look at the birds.

They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly father feeds them.

And aren't you far more valuable to him than they are?

Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?

So there's one thing Jesus says not to worry about, and this is a big one for most people.

Jesus says, don't worry about our retirement.

You know, we should plan, of course, and we should try to be wise.

But we all make mistakes, there's things that we don't control.

And what do we call savings for retirement?

A nest egg.

What's Jesus say birds don't have, ironically enough?

Nest eggs.

They don't plant, harvest, or store up.

Yeah, but God takes care of them.

They don't check their 401k every week.

You know, they get up each day and God provides for them.

Our Father will take care of us.

He will take care of us.

What will that look like?

I don't know.

But Jesus says we don't need to worry about it.

I told a story once uh about William Young, who some of you know, uh, and his big deal was worrying about his finances.

And the one thing that he and his family owned to their name, kind of their pride and joy, and so important to him was their house.

And he got behind, they got behind on their payments.

And he was so stressed about that.

And he prayed to God, God, if you just do one thing for me, just let me keep this house.

God, if you're real, please just let me keep the house.

And so he lost the house.

And they moved to uh he lived in Portland, Oregon.

I grew up in Salem, so I can kind of envision the area.

But they found a house they could rent, and it was outside of town, down this uh kind of town of the road in a small house, and they rented that.

And there was something about that house that got him thinking, and he sat down and he wrote a story for his kids trying to explain uh the nature of God, and the story was called The Shack.

You know, a friend read it and said, wow, you should really let other people read this, and then they self-published it, and it became a phenomenon and one of the best-selling books in the last 10 years.

But God didn't provide for him the way he thought, or the way he wanted to be provided for at the moment.

But today he's not worried about a house.

You know, God had a different plan.

He didn't need to worry.

And that's the way God is with all of us.

We have an Abba Father, we have a daddy father who loves us.

It is going to be okay.

Jesus goes on, and why worry about your clothing?

Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow.

They don't work or make their clothing.

Yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are.

And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you.

Why do you have so little faith?

So don't worry about these things, saying, What will we eat?

What will we drink?

What will we wear?

These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers.

But your heavenly Father already knows all your needs.

Seek the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously.

He will give you everything you need.

So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries.

Today's trouble is enough for today.

In Matthew 16, there's a pretty comical interaction.

In Matthew 15, Jesus had been talking to a large group of people that followed him for a couple days and they were getting done.

And Jesus felt bad because he knew the people were hungry and he didn't want them to have to leave and go home hungry.

And so there wasn't enough food, and uh he got uh seven loaves and a few fishes, and he and there was about 10,000 people there, 4,000 guys, plus spouses, friends, and kids.

And so with that, he blessed the food, broke it off, his followers, his disciples handed it out, and he fed the whole crowd of 10,000 people.

And at the end, there was so much left over.

Um, and this is something interesting Jesus always does, but he has them make sure and gather up to not waste any of the more, how he provided for them more.

And so they get seven huge baskets of food.

It doesn't say what they did with them, but I'm sure they took them somewhere where people were hungry.

Okay, so this is in Matthew 15.

They get in the boat, they go back across the sea, they get out, and an argument breaks out.

And the disciples start arguing with each other.

It says that this they began to argue with each other because they hadn't brought any bread.

Think about that.

The last thing Jesus had done had just fed 10,000 people.

And what are the disciples worried about right now?

Bread.

Jesus knew what they were saying, so he said, You have so little faith.

Why are you arguing with each other about having no bread?

Don't you understand even yet?

Don't you remember the 5,000 I fed with five loaves and the baskets of leftovers you picked up, or the 4,000 I fed with seven loaves and the large baskets of leftovers you picked up?

These disciples were right next to Jesus on the Sermon on the Mount.

These verses we're looking at today, they were standing right there looking them in the eye as he taught them what he's teaching us today.

You know, they were part of Jesus feeding these large crowds of people.

Yet for some reason they didn't understand it yet.

So he's gonna have some grace for us if we have trouble getting it.

I'll say that this every one of us today, each of us is alive and breathing.

And that means two things.

One is he still has a great plan and purpose for you.

And two, he's provided for us.

Somehow, some way, we've been provided for it.

He might say, Steve, provided for you.

He might say, Steve, do you not get it?

Not even now.

You know that our Father will take care of us, that we don't need to worry about tomorrow.

Tomorrow we can take care of tomorrow, and God will be there with us.

Now the reason that's true is also so simple.

And it's that God loves us.

We've got an Abba Father, a daddy father that loves us.

He's not mad at us.

He's not looking to punish us, he's not giving up on us.

He loves us.

And you know one thing that doesn't make God mad?

That we worry.

It doesn't make him mad.

You know, it takes time and we're in a process.

And he teaches us to have more faith.

He's not mad that we worry.

In Romans 8, it says this.

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love.

Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today, nor our worries about tomorrow.

Not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love.

No power in the sky above or in the earth below.

Indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

He loves us.

He is gonna take care of us.

We don't need to spend our days thinking about the past or waste our days living in the future.

You know, there might be something we can do today.

You know, look in somebody's eyes, tell 'em we love them.

Maybe there's a phone call we've been meaning to make.

Maybe there's an apology that we've been wanting to make.

You know, a hug or uh maybe it's taking a couple minutes and looking around at this beautiful fall day and realizing what a great father we have in heaven.

But we don't need to worry about yesterday.

We don't worry need to worry about tomorrow.

Jesus says, I want to teach you to live easy and lightly, and the way we do that is today.

The one day today.

And so that's where we'll stop this morning if the worship team wants to come up.

Let's uh stand, we'll get ready to sing one more song together.

Jesus had three kind of interesting interactions.

Twice people said they wanted to follow him, but they had something else they needed to do first.

And Jesus said, You know, you're making a mistake because this is more important.

Once Jesus is talking to Nicodemus, it's a conversation, they're talking about being born again and all that.

And at the end of the conversation, Jesus says, Nicodemus, you know, you are procrastinating with all of your questions.

You know, and if there ever was a time to connect with Jesus, if we haven't, that time would be today.

Not to wait.

You know, it's so easy.

We just turn to him.

I mean, we all need him.

We just turn to him and say, I need you, I want to follow you.

Help me.

I'm gonna try and trust in you.

You know, and and we're born in God's image, so we're creating God's image with the Spirit, and that Spirit comes alive and it connects with God's Spirit.

And he does all those things.

He loves us, he helps us, he teaches us.

And slowly and gently, he transforms us from the inside out.

So eventually our outside life changes.

So much different than it is.

So if you haven't done that, I mean, there would be no time like today.

Today is the only day that we have.

So I hope we have a great week.

You know, we'll do that if we can just string together some great days.

Not that we won't have troubles and not that we won't have trials.

You know, and this one of the greatest opportunities I've had kind of in this role with us together is to see people in really hard times, you know, like Bill Patterson or like Dan Bailey or Nate Snow and his family and so many others that have tough times yet still they have joy and embrace and appreciate that day.

I know we can all do that too.

So let's pray.

Father, we thank you for being such a great God and for loving us in Jesus.

Thank you for teaching us today.

Please supernaturally work inside of us.

Give us more faith.

Help us not to worry, help us to slow down or not to even stop and experience today.

Father, we thank you and we love you.

It's in your name we pray.

Amen.